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BY MELISSA LAUBER
UMConnection Staff

In April 2003, Robyn Wilbur of Covenant UMC in Gaithersburg, closed her eyes and took a leap of faith, becoming a self-appointed volunteer missionary in Costa Rica. She never dreamed where that leap would land her.

Recently, on a visit to her parent?s home at Asbury Village in Gaithersburg, Wilbur reflected back on the past three years, which have brought her a husband, a daughter, a battle with thyroid cancer that is still not won, 30,000 strawberry plants and a renewed sense that surrendering everything to God is 'the best way to live.'

It was a desire to serve God that led Wilbur, the child of a director of Christian education, to become an avid fan of the Volunteers in Mission program, which took her around the globe on short-term mission projects.

After receiving her master?s degree in industrial organizational psychology, Wilbur even structured her job so that she could work three-quarter?s time and take months off to be in ministry.

Working as a VIM volunteer, she became convinced that God intended for her to serve. With no formal denominational backing, no insurance nor paycheck, she set out for Costa Rica, working for retired United Methodist pastors at a camp facility that hosted at least 40 VIM teams a year.

At the camp, where she thought she might stay for six months, Wilbur was introduced to her future husband, Eduardo Bustos, who was visiting for the day from his home more than two hours away.

For Bustos, who said he had been 'praying for a wife who loved the Lord and could love me,' Wilbur appeared like a godsend, almost as if she had a large arrow over her head announcing, 'this is the one.'

The two overcame a number of cultural differences, including Wilbur?s beginning stabs at Spanish, in which the words for lunch and pillow easily found themselves confused. When she didn?t know words, she just made them up, Bustos said. They quickly fell in love.

This December the couple celebrated their second wedding anniversary, but the love and faith they shared found itself continually tested as he overcame a kidney infection, they both struggled to make ends meet in a nation where the average monthly salary is $50 and gasoline is $2.50 a gallon, and as she discovered she was pregnant.

The day their daughter Kaleena Camile was born, Bustos was overseeing the planting of his 30,000 strawberry plants, from which he intended to make the family?s living.

Medical complications arose, and Bustos called in all his friends and family who planted 10,000 plants in just three hours to enable him to get to the hospital to greet his new daughter.

Medical conditions associated with the birth led doctors to further examine Wilbur and she was soon diagnosed with thyroid cancer.

Living with friends in a tiny apartment with a new baby was difficult. At one point during the radiation treatment in the hospital, paid for through public socialized medicine, Wilbur had to leave her child for 15 days.

Bustos abandoned caring for his strawberry plants, which were a lengthy car drive away, to be with his daughter. They quickly ran through all of their savings.

'We were just so tired, we still are tired,' said Wilbur through tears.

However, it was during this period that Wilbur discovered her true home, in Costa Rica - serving God with her husband, daughter and friends.

Her own pregnancy led her to feel compassion for the other women around her whose choices were more limited. 'I began to feel called to work with pregnant women, the children of families who are without options and with people in squatter communities,' she said.

She and Bustos traded their car for a home of their own.

She is reaching out to women in the community who are mostly Roman Catholic, by offering handicraft classes. With the assistance of United Methodist Women groups, the women learn crafts, which they enjoy and can often sell.

The experience builds relationships and sometimes leads to discussions of faith.

Sometimes, like on her trip home to Gaithersburg, Wilbur believes that affluence taints people?s views of the world.

'Serving in mission takes the blinders off,' she said. 'It?s like a horse with blinders. That horse doesn?t know that there is a whole world around him he can?t see. The world is really so much bigger than we imagine.'

As the new year begins, Wilbur is working to find churches and individuals who will support her ministry and her lifestyle of serving those who are 'helpless and hopeless.'

Donations for her ministry should be made out to 'Catonsville UMYF' and sent to her mother, Betty Wilbur at 403 Russell Ave., Apt. 216, Gaithersburg, MD 20877.

Contributions to Wilbur and her family, which are not tax-deductible, can also be sent to her mother Betty Wilbur.

She, her husband and family will soon return home to Costa Rica, where they anticipate many more leaps of faith.

'What I have, I give to the Lord,' Wilbur said. 'It?s easier that way. You don?t have to worry about anything. God takes care of it all.'

SIDEBAR:
The fabric of giving

As part of an ongoing outreach to women in Costa Rica, Wilbur and the United Methodist Women in the church there are seeking sewing supplies, fabrics and patterns for handicraft classes. Especially needed are quilting patterns and material, and instructions and materials for cross-stitch projects, pillowcases and doll-making.

For more information, e-mail Wilbur at

SIDEBAR:
Living the story

There?s a story that has inspired Robyn Wilbur since she was a girl growing up. One day she stumbled across a devotional of her father?s.

The writer of the devotional posed the question 'Who is our neighbor,' and then went on to answer that neighbors are not people we choose. Rather, neighbors are people that God places in our lives who have a need we can fill.

'Who is our neighbor?' It?s a question to build a life around, notes Wilbur as she prepares to return to her work as a volunteer missionary in Costa Rica.