By Roy Soto, Pastor of CSS Church in Fraijanes, Costa Rica

As a pastor, father, husband, and community member who was victim to the devastating earthquake that shook our region of Costa Rica just one year ago (Jan. 8th 2009), I know the feelings and emotions that come to my Haitian brothers and sisters now in the aftermath of the natural disaster of January 12th.

We suffer as we see our children and neighbors cry out in fear, pain, sadness, desperation, and impotency and weep from their wounds and losses.  How do we respond to our wives as they ask “and now where will we live?”

In that desperation I found that I had one of two choices. Either I could give up and fall into hopelessness or see the crisis, with all its pain and suffering, as an opportunity to see God and experience His love and presence in the midst of the storm.

I chose to see Him in the suffering. By choosing that, God used me, broken and suffering as I was, to serve, cloth, feed and bring comfort and hope to my neighbors.

The circumstances of pain and suffering in our community didn’t disappear magically, but His presence and love broke through the darkness that surrounded us in beautiful and mysterious ways. His presence and love for us who suffered loss and destruction broke through in the lives of our RdC network family, churches that came and served us and brought us relief and aid, walked with us and cried with us and felt our pain; friends and servants from all over the world that prayed for us, sent offerings of love to help us rebuild and restore lives. (more…)