What God Did in CR

 

February 23, 2026

    I wanted to tell you about our recent 10 day trip to Costa Rica and what God did while we were there. I had two main concerns that I needed addressed. I had prayed about both leading up to the trip and really needed to hear from God about it. I don’t know how this sounds but I was concerned about Costa Rica. All I knew, other than coffee, was that it was a vacation spot and people moved there to retire, people with money. You know how you drive into Canada and the only thing different that you notice is the money and they use the metric system.  I did not want to go there and find I moved to south Florida. I wanted it to feel different, to be different. I wanted to struggle to adapt to a different culture, a different language. Another concern I had was, did I really know anything about coffee? I feared that my reputation about being a “coffee-czar” may have been blown out of proportion. I did not want the team to make a mistake on hiring me under false pretenses. 

    Well we arrived at night and being exhausted, I could not look for and observe differences. I just wanted to eat and go to sleep. The next morning, our plan was to meet a team at a coffee shop they wanted to show me. The apartment and building we were in was modern. The view out the balcony was wonderful with distant full green mountains. The weather was warm but not hot, with a wonderfully cool almost cold breeze. I immediately noticed the swaying palm branches and leaves that were not at all common in Indiana. The parking lot below was shaded and adequately sized with a gate at the entrance. There was no honking to be heard. So far, fairly normal. 

Nacho, Osiris, Jean and I, boarded a Toyota passenger van they lovingly call “the Busetta” and I attempted to buckle myself. Nacho chuckled and said that one was hard to get. He pulled out and we passed through the gate and left the parking lot. Immediately it became apparent that we were not in America. The blocks were packed with tiny businesses from one end to the other with business signs of various states of new to broken with words I did not immediately understand but could read and make a decent guess based on context. Traffic was aggressive but polite with waves and smiles as you wedged yourself into lanes of vehicles. Cars seemed to move faster than what should be legal, but I wasn’t concerned. The roads were paved and cracked with some potholes but no worse than Muncie. We turned a corner and entered a huge round-about which was filled with slow moving cars and did not seem to alleviate traffic at all. While traveling the slow circle, I noticed the amount of bikes (bicycles) that were also in the round-about and ahead of us. I remarked to Nacho about the number of bikes and he said a lot of people bike here. These bikers were wearing the spandex, helmets and biking bags that you saw with serious long distance bikers. 

We left the round-about and entered a four lane highway. There were guard rails down the center and the ditches were filled with overgrown grass and thick plants. There were billboards of things in Spanish that I did not try to discern. Along the way, I did recognize KFC, Denny’s, Walmart  and Hooters. After exiting the highway and making several turns onto much smaller roads. Nacho pulled over and parked. I had to walk along the road until I came to a small concrete bridge that connected the road to a sidewalk over a surprisingly deep cement gully that a small dog or child would have difficulty getting out of. The coffee shop was not yet open, so we walked to the park that was a block away. We met with more of our team, Jake and Jenn and Ayla, an intern. After waiting 20 minutes, it was open and we left the park. In the middle of the block was what I would call a wide kiosk. It looked like it had been built out of shipping containers. Over a striped awning was a sign that ran the full length, Aromas de Cafe. There was a wooden counter that you stepped up to. Immediately I tracked the coffee roaster in the far back left corner. There were glass cabinets with pastries and shelves of coffee bags for sale. The barista did not speak English so everything was translated for me. She was the roaster and barista, unfortunately I have forgotten her name. 

I was introduced and we discussed coffee culture in Costa Rica. She pulled three shots of three different espressos. We discussed their different notes. I asked about roasting profiles, origins of the different coffees, and what most people want and expect from their coffee. She gave me a business card with her number and I purchased a bag of coffee that was grown about a mile from where we were, the Tres Rios region. The following day, we went to another coffee shop that was higher-end, Angelina Cafe. The cafe was beautiful, perched on a hill overlooking a green jungle hillside. The restaurant was made up of three black shipping containers, 2 on one side and one on the other with a high ceiling roof of a nearly transparent material that connected them. There were no walls so a constant breeze made the plants and trees inside sway as the wind flowed through the cafe. Again we arrived just as they opened. I asked the barista for a shot of espresso. She said she had not yet dialed in the machine. I said okay. She split the first shot between us. We both tasted. She looked at me and with an expression asked, well? I told her it was sour. She should adjust the dial on the grinder to make it finer so the water can stay a bit longer in the grounds. She agreed. 

There are more examples I can look to, but what I wrote has sufficiently answered my concerns as whether I was a fraud regarding coffee and whether there would be sufficient struggle in Costa Rica. However, something else occurred that I had not considered but was blessed by. The team recognized that when I am asked a question, or presented a situation, there is a possibility that I may need time to respond. This quirk was acknowledged and accepted by the team. This made me feel seen and loved by the team. Something I had not felt at church or the other mission field. I felt comfortable in trusting and loving them in return. All doubt has been squashed. I praise God for seeing me and responding to my concerns.