Costa Rica – Part 2 – Meeting Cello

by Payton Oakes |  Guest Blogger

One of my favorite stories during the time in Costa Rica was when the day that I met my friend Cello.

See, I was still getting used to talking with people in public about Jesus along with trying to figure out ways how to approach people in public about the topic. I never saw it very effective to tell people where they were going to go, even if it may be downstairs or up.

God really opened up my eyes that we are who he created us to be and when we love those for who they are, walls come down naturally. Even though sometimes I may not fully see, understand, or accept what someone believes, they are still an image bearer of the Most High.

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

(Mark 12:30-31 ESV)

I sat next to Cello in a Spanish speaking church. Thinking to myself, well God, do I say something to him or am I going to spin my thumbs through the whole service? So in my broken Spanish I asked how he was.  He said good and awkwardly looked forward. I was racking my brain for questions that I could ask him and not look stupid because I barely knew Spanish. Looking down I saw that his shoes were pretty ripped up, they were a pair of skateboarding shoes.

Finally I got the courage to ask him if he spoke english.  He laughed trying to say yes.  I asked if he skates. He said yes again along with an expression that he was not very interested in the environment of the church. We started to talked about skateboarding which led to talking about Jesus’s love and how it was unconditional. I told Cello it was my first time being overseas and I realized how through skateboarding I could share the love of Jesus through a passion of mine. He looked at me weird at first and I explained my self.

At first I always thought that becoming a Christian, I had to let go of my whole way of living and transform it so that I would be good in the eyes of Jesus. What I learned was that as I laid down my life for Jesus, He saw my passions such as skateboarding and used it to glorify God.

Yeah there were things I let go of because I knew that they were holding me back from my relationship with Jesus.  In doing so the relationship went grew deeper every day.

That day I will never forget when I saw that same thing click for Cello. He said that he had said to God that morning,  if someone did not ask him the question I did or talk with him as I did, basically break it down, he was done with the whole church and following Jesus.

That day God intervened and as a willing vessel spoke through me to reach Cello. How amazing was it to see a brother come back realizing that God cared about him, cared about what he was thinking, cared about every breath that he breathed!

When we come to the point of saying, okay I will go where you want me to go — it is amazing the people we come to meet in the journey that God has paved the way.

Sometimes we might think, how can this even be possible? Its God, anything is possible for Him. We must stop and be still knowing that He is God.

On that day I learned God’s heart for his creation in how he wants to speak to them and them with Him. It opened up my eyes to his heart to reach those who label them selves unloved or are frustrated and don’t get it. He loves them more than I can explain.