'Giving her a hug set her free!'
Benthe, our project leader in Costa Rica, shares how she is sharing God's love with women in very poor communities and how this is bringing fresh hope to many families
I love to do visits one-on-one with women in the villages because I notice that they really enjoy this contact and helps them to open up. When we show interest in them it gives us opportunities to share truth with them.
Lost everything
One woman I visited told me how, a year and a half year ago, she lost everything in a fire. She explained that God helped her to start over again and showed her that He was with her. She has never been married but has four children with two different men.
After that she told me that she is asking God if the man who lives with her now is to be her husband. If the answer is yes then she says they will get married. If no, she believes that they should separate. What a big decision! But that’s what God wants. It’s great to hear that she wants to be obedient to Him and wants to live more for Him.
God can change him!
Later, I visit another woman and her husband came and joined us. He is known as the alcoholic of the town. She cannot read but he can. I got to know them and I shared God’s truth and love with them. I prayed with them and invited them to church that evening. For the first time in a long time, he came to church. How great it was to see him there! God can change this alcoholic man into a big man of God.
We recently went to visit a village we’d not been to before. All of a sudden one of our volunteers gave her testimony; she shared how she had been abused and that she had never shared this with anybody in 58 years.
Let them feel God's love
After we got back to our base, I had a good conversation with her. I prayed for her and gave her a big hug, which is something I do a lot with the women in Talamanca! Let them feel the love that God has for them. Later she shared with the group that the hug had given her such a good feeling – it had set her free. It was very special! God wants us to share and show His love in this way.