| VIM missionary takes leap of faith to Costa Rica By Melissa Lauber UMConnection Staff  It was just a few days before Easter when Robyn Wilbur boarded an airplane and surrendered to God.
A member of Covenant UMC in Montgomery Village, Wilbur is The United Methodist Churchs newest missionary to Costa Rica. In the days before her departure, she acknowledged that striking out on her own for a year to serve at El Centro Rural Metodista, a retreat center in Ciudad Quesado, with no salary or definite plans, might be foolhardy. However, after taking one or two Volunteers in Mission trips a year for 13 years, Wilbur was convinced that God honors, and often expects, dramatic leaps of faith in service to the poor. She decided to put herself in Gods hands. Wilbur took her first VIM trip to Costa Rica in 1989. In addition to returning to Costa Rica several times, she has volunteered in Russia, Bosnia, Israel and Zimbabwe. A few years ago, she even changed jobs so that she could work three-quarters time, devoting several months a year to mission work. Last September, Wilbur returned from Russia and was becoming increasingly disenchanted with the materialism of North American culture and the lack of joy that abundance seemed to bring. She began to experience the familiar stirrings of wanting to be a missionary. God said, Enough. Get off your toches and do it, she remembered. God places opportunities in front of us every single day. We choose whether to acknowledge them or not. Wilbur began to open herself up to options that seemed to be presenting themselves. Her experiences in Costa Rica led her to speak to Marion and Mary Woods, two United Methodist missionaries working at the Methodist Rural Center. The pair told her they were in need of someone to help organize the more than 18 Volunteers in Mission teams that use the center each year as a home base while doing ministry in Costa Rica. Wilbur believed she was the ideal candidate. She holds a masters degree in industrial and organizational psychology. If you need someone to organize you, Im your answer, she said. Arrangements were made. Catonsville UMC became her financial sponsor. The General Board of Global Ministries is providing health insurance for 45 cents a day, and plans were made for the furniture ministry she began as co-chairperson of the missions committee at her church. Shortly after Easter, Wilbur was bound for Costa Rica. In the days leading up to her departure, she remembered an old devotional book of her fathers. The book asked the question, Who is our neighbor? It then went on to answer, Neighbors are not people we choose. Our neighbors are people that God places in our lives who have a need we can fill, said Wilbur. My neighborhood just got a little bigger. | 
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