A group of five nursing students ranging from freshman to juniors planned a medical mission trip to serve alongside Hope Ministries in Costa Rica. We began to meet a few months before traveling to Costa Rica to begin planning, team bonding, and time in prayer. Other members of the team from Georgia would Zoom with us to discuss the five communities we would be visiting to provide both medical and spiritual care.
While we prepared, we studied the book of James, which encouraged us to care well for the marginalized and avoid partiality. Moreover, the study instructed us to remain strong in Christ and reminded us of the significance of praying for endurance, healing, and for the lost.
What Our Team Did
The team arrived late in San Diego, Costa Rica, on Saturday, May 10. After welcoming us, the missionaries gave us a tour of the base where we would spend the week with our host family. Before the church service on Sunday morning, we began preparing the first medical clinic’s medications. We had the privilege to attend the church service at Hope Ministries, where we sang praise songs, heard Pastor José share the Gospel with the congregation, and took the Lord’s Supper together as the body of Christ. After church, our group attended a pregnancy center event where the ministry gives mothers and expectant mothers small gift bags full of diapers, wipes, etc. and educates them about birth and postpartum care.
Following the pregnancy presentation, we held our first on-site medical clinic at Hope Ministries. The team was able to offer basic medical services like blood pressure checks, a consultation with a physician, and some medications. It was such a blessing to be able to use my nursing vocation as a means of sharing the Gospel with the individuals who came to the clinic. The entire team and the volunteers had the opportunity to visit five different communities in Costa Rica and run medical clinics at each location. While in the villages, we treated about 400 people, reaching underprivileged populations without access to healthcare. In addition, the team had the opportunity to listen to the community pastors’ testimony, take part in a Bible study at a church plant, support local women by appreciating and purchasing their designs, and console and uplift a local family during a trying period in their lives.
The team’s most important mission was to pray with every patient we encountered and spread the Gospel to the unreached members of the villages. It reminds me of some verses from Galatians 5 that we studied during our time in Costa Rica. Verses 13–14 say, “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” As Christians, we are commanded to become selfless like Christ by using our freedom to serve others in love.
What We Learned
The team was able to learn so much from the mission trip to Costa Rica. We learned to work as a team, be flexible, and adapt to unfamiliar environments. We strove to adopt attitudes of service, taking our eyes off of ourselves and looking to the needs of others. The team developed a soul of compassion after seeing the hurt and horrible challenges that the people in the communities face each day. This mission trip taught me the importance of prayer as a means of depending on God in the face of great need. The journey also showed us how to observe the world through the eyes of Christ, embracing the position of a servant and growing in the desire to love others as Christ first loved them.
Major: Nursing
Class of 2026
Tags: #globaloutreach, #GO, #missions, #testimony
Posted in: Global Outreach