Love Life - SHINE

I was driving home from town today, and the song "More" by Matthew West came on the radio. Now I've heard this song before and didn't think much of it, but as I listened it hit me: God has blessed me more than I can even fathom or imagine. The song talks about just looking around to see the love God has for me. Well, last night the sky was more clear than I have seen in a long time. I felt like I could see every star in the universe. Now if you know anything about me, the night sky is my absolute favorite part of creation. I think it's breathtakingly beautiful and I could stare at it all night long. Because of the frigid weather here in Indiana, however, I didn't stay out very long last night. But it was enough time for God to take my breath away and cause me to praise him. Then this morning I woke up to find a little over two more inches of fresh, sparkling, white snow on the ground. God is so powerful and cool! And he loves me more than all that beautiful creation of his?! Wow. But not only his creation has blown me away, I can just look at my life and see how much he has shown his love to me even just in the past months. Taking a glance behind me - he sent me to Costa Rica, placed incredibly wise and caring leadership over me, placed me in a room with three of the most awesome girls I could as for as sisters, provided more than the comfort I was expecting, threw opportunities my way countless times, and surrounded me with so many best friends I don't even know where to start in counting them!! Ok now looking around in the present - I'm back with my incredible family, my friends all love me and I have already gotten to see a few of my best friends (even one who lives in NC), I just hung up the phone with a close friend who has a crazy awesome blessing straight from the hand of God, and it's the Christmas season when I can remember the gift of his Son that he gave for us. And even taking a peek into the future I can see how much he loves me - I'm preparing to head back down to paradise to learn more and more, and I have college already set up for next year. Yeah. God has blessed me. And this is proof that he loves me so much. But I have to do something about that. I can't just take God's love and leave it at that. The song says “shine for me.” I need to use the love that God has for me, let it fill me up, and allow it to overflow in my life so that no matter what's going on, no matter where I am, no matter who I'm with, I shine like God's love. I want to emanate the love inside me so that no one is left with any doubt in their mind who I serve. The love God has shown me is powerful, I need to let it affect everything I am and shine for him. 

Wrapping Up and Ready For Christmas

These past few weeks have been really cool. Everything has started to come to a close, and preparation has begun for going home for the holidays. I'll try to organize this into paragraphs in regard to relevance. 


Coronado wrapped up and the kids began practicing for their Christmas program that they're performing on the 11th for all the parents. Last Saturday we all got to help them remember where they needed to go. I worked with the main character, a crippled lamb, who is played by a boy named Keylor. He is precious. He's about 7 years old and has grown so much over the course of the Coronado kids club. He loves coming and brings his Bible and absolutely loves memorizing the verses. Plus, he gave me a flower this past week. I was inside helping set up, and he poked his head in the door, looked around shyly, grinned at me, walked over, and handed me a flower. My heart melted. It was adorable. I'm going to miss those kids. 


Youth group at El Alto finished up with a Christmas party. This was a pretty exciting night because one of my GAP friends, JR, was going to give the message. Our pastor has called him "Pastorcito" since pretty much the first day we got here, and finally he asked him to give the message. But the catch is, JR doesn't speak Spanish yet. So guess who got to translate? Yep. Me. YIKES!! It was awesome. I was so nervous, but I spent pretty much the entire day of praying for God to give me the words to say. Some of the times when he was talking, I couldn't think of what to say, but when I opened my mouth the words just came out. God is so incredible!! And another awesome thing, our pastor liked it so much he asked us to do it again on Sunday morning. Wow. Even scarier!! But it all went well, and everyone was very gracious with my mistakes. We left the church that Sunday with many tears, and warm goodbyes.. but we'll see them again in January. 


For our Villa Church that we have on Sunday nights, we did things a little differently this week. Since it was going to be the last time together, we did what I like to call a Prayer Walk. There were about 7 stations of different things to pray about. Such as: a bowl of water on a sheet where you could confess your sins, wash your hands, and leave them there; a cross where you could write something you adore about God on a sticky note and post it up; a box of sand where you could write out someone you were thankful for, who had left a footprint on your life, and thank God for them; a wall with everyone's name written up to encourage them; a white board to write your goals and pray for God to help you achieve them; and a worship station. It was super cool! We all did this prayer walk for about 45 minutes, and then John preached about how to tell the 'wheat' from the 'tares.' It was perfect for getting ready to go home. We learned how to live like a real New Creation in Christ, and witness to others who need him. It was a powerful message. Thanks John. 


In coming back to the Villa, it was about 10 in the evening. This was the start of a 24-hour Battle Cry that we planned the week before. We set it up to start at 10pm Sunday and continue until 10pm Monday. Each of us signed up for a 2 hour shift, and had a specific room set aside for us to pray in during our shift. That way we would all be trying to focus on praying all day, but the real deal was being held in a room with people together praying hard-core for 2 hours. It was so awesome. The main things on our hearts to pray for were: breaking strongholds back home, staying faithful in the Word away from our encouraging family here, living out the changes God has made in our lives the past 3 months, and witnessing to those back home that really need Jesus Christ. Just praying for each other as we go back to our old lives in the States, back to the temptations, habits, and just the different culture, was a really powerful thing to do. It's going to be so different. But at the same time I can't wait. 


This week has been filled with finals and packing. It's been super chill though. I've loved it. Even though we've had to study a lot, we've just hung out a ton because our finals are usually finished for the day by 9:30 or so. It's been super awesome. I've spent a few afternoons laying out by the pool in the sun.. needless to say I'm not that excited about going back to Indiana sub-freezing degree weather. Buut I am excited for snow!! And of course to see everyone that I love. Thank you so much for all of your faithful prayers. I could not have done any of this without the help of my All-Powerful God. Give him praise for all he's done this year. 


I will be home from December 12th-January 7th. Email me! hannah@roxsoftware.com

A Sacrifice of Praise

Wow, God, I am so blown away. I can't even express how thankful I am for all you've done in my life in this past week. First of all, your hand is so apparent in Coronado. The people are so open to your Word, and there is such a hunger and thirst for sound teaching. Thank you for the leaders we have there, and the way that they are working. Bless them in their efforts, and continue to give them strength and encouragement in the work that they do for you. Second of all, I thank you with my whole heart for the family that you've blessed me with here. They come around me and encourage me, keep me accountable, pray for me, love me, work with me, laugh with me, and just simply are my family. I love them all so much. Especially during Thanksgiving when I missed my family they became my family, and we shared in giving thanks to you all the way from a different country. They mean so much to me, and I couldn't make it here without them. Thank you so much for each one of them. My roommates in particular have been incredible. You have blessed me immensely with the perfect three girls to help me grow and become who you want me to be. Help me to bless them as much as they bless me. Make me into the loving roommate, friend, and sister that I need to be to them. Third of all, God, I thank you for the teaching I've been given. You have placed a mighty spokesman here to guide us in truth, and you have blessed him with exactly what we need to hear. You are a great and sovereign God who is in control of all that happens. Everything that I have been learning has been perfect for your plan for my life. I have been challenged in my worship, mastery and change over my old self, service to your name, and preparation for my Christian life in the future. I pray now that you would teach me to lose myself in you. I cannot do anything apart from your strength, and only a miracle can save me from myself. Please take my life and form it into an on fire life used to further your kingdom. And fourth of all, God, you worked a wonder right before my eyes tonight. I went to youth group knowing that I was going to translate a message. I thought I was ready, and yet at the same time I knew that I couldn't do it. But I completely gave it over to you. I begged you for words and the strength to think on the spot. And I was amazed at what happened. I sat there not knowing what to say and all of a sudden words began coming out of my mouth. You are all powerful and worked through me and JR in a miraculous way. He was able to bring an important message to people who were so ready and excited to hear it, and all only by your Spirit speaking through your Word in him and Spanish words in me. I am still amazed that we were able to convey a beautiful and powerful message. You amaze me. Thank you so much for that blessing. I'm speechless when I think about it. You rock. I love you, God.  

Paradise Twice

Since coming to Costa Rica, I've been able to be involved in some pretty awesome ministries. I'm involved in a church, planting a church, a kid's club, a youth group, leading worship amoung the GAP students, and other random opportunities into which I'm able to get involved. But as you can imagine, with plugging into so much ministry comes fatigue. I get tired. I get tired of helping, serving, ministering, studying, working, planning, and everything else. This is the reason we all get Monday's off. We study in class for 6 hours a day during the week, and jam-pack our weekends with ministry. By the time Monday morning hits, there is no longer any way our minds, spirits, or bodies can keep going without a break. We desperately need a chill day to relax, unwind, hang out with God, and do nothing planned. However, going hand in hand with the busyness of the week comes the desire to do things other than school and ministry. Things such as Ultimate Frisbee, shopping in the San Jose market, cleaning at Coronado, going out to eat, or just leaving the Villa fill Mondays almost instantaneously. Because we want so badly to get out when we don't have school, our free day in a sense is no longer free. After compiling close to 3 months now of this routine, I along with the rest of my group, seriously needed an extended break from everything. Therefore.... this weekend we went to the beach for 2 days!!! Oh my goodness. How fantastic does that sound?! Yeah, it pretty much was. From start to finish.. I was finally experiencing the perks of living in CR ;) 


After already thinking I lived in paradise with merely slight degree changes from perfect weather, overpoweringly gorgeous scenery, people speaking a beautiful language, and the coolest ever team, I found myself in paradise twice. Moving from the mountains to the ocean I climbed out of the bus, looked as far as my eye could see, and saw nothing but horizon. I dropped my bags and ran to the beach.. across the sand and directly into the pacific. WAHOO!! Oh man.. not only in Costa Rica but at the beach. This is the life. God is so beautiful. So after swimming out to "Isla Tomar El Sol", walking the coastline, eating sandwiches and juice boxes for lunch, I ventured inland for the first time all day, only to find a sand volleyball court. I got pumped and ended up playing for a few hours straight. The sun was awesomely bright and hot, making me sticky and tired. Yet so happy. I love playing beach volleyball... When I got tired I jumped into the pool expecting to cool off. But as soon as I got in, a bunch of guys were talking about water polo. I got curious and very soon the lifeguard showed up with 2 nets and a ball. Looked like I was playing some water polo :) It was so fun.. I had never played before, but it wasn't that hard and it was super fun! By the end of the game though I was doubly pooped. Luckily it was time to check into our rooms so we got to go crash in our rooms. I drug my bags all the way up the mountainous climb (no joke) to room 206. My roommates and I took showers and collapsed on the beds for about an hour. Then Club Lucas decided to take adorable roomie pictures on the beach. We donned our black and jean and posed and smiled and captured all our love ;) It was awesome. Then we headed to dinner.. but not only dinner.. buffet dinner. Now if you know anything about Villa food you'll know how deeply we all appreciated and got very excited for this buffet dinner. We had options, we had GOOD food, and we had multiple servings. We didn't have corncob/banana soup, hot dog casserole, broccoli bacon pasta, cheese soup, or hot dog spaghetti. Living the good life. So after stuffing ourselves we were extremely full and content. During the after dinner hours those of us from Indiana figured the best way to digest was to not move from the dinner table. So we pulled out a handy deck of cards and dealt up some Euchre. Finally. We had been talking about playing ever since we found out there were 4 of us from Indiana all who know how to play and love the game, but we had never actually played. It was a blast. So for the next 2 hours we played some Euchre and chatted it up. Then close to 9 we walked back to our neighborhood since our rooms were right next to each other so I could grab my guitar and head down for some worship on the beach. I had never played my guitar on the beach before, and in my head it was pretty cool. So I decided to make an announcement that 9 pm on the beach there would be a worship service. It was far better than I had ever imagined. I played for close to an hour straight and we just sang in the dark listening to the waves and knowing and seeing and feeling how awesome God is. We stared out at the ocean, knowing that it's one of the most vast things man can come close to viewing, and yet tiny is not even a small enough word to describe how small it is in comparison to our great God. After some heartfelt, passionate, loving worship and prayer, we dispersed and had the rest of the evening to chill. I took my guitar back to the room and then walked back to the beach to pray with some friends about our group. Then I proceeded to wander nearly the entire camp twice looking for my roommate who turned 19 at the strike of midnight. My plan was to knock on her door at midnight and sing to her, but I couldn't find her until about midnight o five. But it was alright. I still sang obnoxiously and she enjoyed it ;) Bedtime was next.. sorta. We went back to our rooms, but I ended up staying awake talking until close to 3. Oops. Oh well. We got up to another beautiful day on the beach. More incredible buffet for breakfast, only this time accompanied by monkeys. They were everywhere. And I mean everywhere. They would hop down on tables and steal food, take food from your hands, and crawl all over the roofs waiting for someone unaware. It was hilarious. I fed one with a baby on its back a banana and it didn't even share with the baby... pig. After breakfast we headed out to the sand courts for a hardcore 2 on 2 tournament. One boy one girl, best 2 out of 3, play to 15 with a 2 point cap, 3rd game to 10, single elimination. Oh yeah, in the scorching sun with lots of sand to stick to your sweat every time you dove. It was awesome. What a way to spend the morning. I played for about 4 hours, probably 6 games straight, and was undefeated. Derick and I were a team and we beat everyone in 2 games. It was so much fun. Between games we had some rest time and we fueled up on coconut milk, which we learned afterwards has about twice the electrolytes as gatorade. So we really were juiced and ready. We were both completely covered in sand, soaked in sweat, dominating the court, slowly tiring out, and having tons of fun!! After we won (*grin*) we showered most of the sand off and jumped into the pool. It was pretty refreshing, but we just got out and walked to the ocean which was cooler and even more refreshing. After our short swim, we dried off and headed up to lunch. Yep. More buffet ;) By this time my body was screaming at me to sleep. So I headed to the beach with the plan to fall asleep in the sun. However, this plan was quickly thwarted with one look at the overcast sky. So instead of getting my tan on, I hung out by the pool and watched some of our guys be pretty retarded. It was really fun. After another hour or so it was time to go home. Happy, dry, tired, and yet rested, I loaded the bus for a gorgeous drive home. On the way to the beach I slept the whole way so I had missed all the scenery, which was absolutely incredible. So this direction I decided to stay awake and check out God's awesome creation in another country. During the drive it hit that magical hour of about 5 o'clock, and it got dark. But the cool thing was we got to watch a full moon rise and hang out over the mountains. It was so bright and gorgeous.. I love the moon :) God is cool. When we got back to the Villa, there was no food waiting for us so some people decided to make some pancakes. I grabbed some in between unpacking and just sitting around. Then my roommates and I showed Madison her CL birthday power point that I made for her. She loved it. I was so glad that it was an awesome birthday for her, even away from home, she had fun and friends and a great 19th. For the rest of the night we just hung out in Club Lucas. It was quite the weekend. I loved just being in some gorgeous creation, in which the mighty hand of an incredible powerful God was consistently apparent :)

Gracias A Dios

Hey! Yes, I'm still alive, and yes, I'm still in Costa Rica. Sorry I haven't gotten around to posting in a long time. It often gets pretty crazy busy around here. Many things are much the same: classes, ministry, Bible study, church, and daily life at the Villa are all still rocking and rolling. God's hand is so visible everywhere and yet every time it still amazes me. Instead of trying to tell you all that's happened recently I'm just going to mention some pretty awesome praises that I have.


First, I've had some crazy cool opportunities to speak Spanish. Our class has changed a little in respect to the fact that we have quit doing just random busy work and have started practicing giving our testimonies and sharing the Gospel in Spanish. Each day my teacher will start one of our hours and say "Ok, today *insert name* is going to witness to *insert other name*." Yeah. Relevant practical practice in another language. Cool!! And we do a lot more translating too. When one of us gives a testimony, another of us translates. It's perfect. Also we started reading a book in Spanish - a chapter or so every day. It's really good for learning vocabulary, plus we have to listen hard and practice our pronunciation when it's our turn to read. I love it. And I'm getting better!! Yay!! Then this past Saturday, I went to Coronado in the morning like always and then to a friend from church's house for lunch, then youth group. All day in Spanish :) But it didn't end there. As we were leaving youth group JR and I were talking with our pastor and he's always said that JR is going to be a good pastor someday. He even calls him "Pastorcito." Anyway he asked him to preach on a Saturday night sometime soon. So not this coming Saturday, but the one after that, JR is preaching and I'm translating... INTO Spanish. YIKES!!!! I have been praying to be stretched in my Spanish in order to improve.. I guess I have to be careful what I pray for! It's going to be a real challenge for sure. Right now I can translate into English from Spanish with pretty much no problem. But going the other way is a whole different animal. I'm really really excited, but also very nervous! But I'm most definitely thanking God for this crazy cool opportunity. 


Second, the ministry in Coronado is blooming. It's soo cool!! We have an average of about 40 kids every Saturday, and they are always so excited to be there and learn more. Then there are a bunch of women that come to the Bible study on Saturday afternoons and are being mentored by Bethany and Valeria (my Spanish teacher who lives at Coronado as the SCORE missionary there). One of these ladies is the mom of two adorable little boys, Gary and Keylor, who come every Saturday. She has told Bethany recently that Keylor used to have a HUGE problem with getting up for school. He would hate getting up in the morning and would cry and throw a major fit. But then on Saturday mornings he would get up by 6 am and be begging his mom to leave for "camp." So she began to tell him that if he wanted to be able to go on Saturdays he would have to learn to get up for school in the morning too. She has seen such a major change in him, and says that it's incredible to watch God change his life from the inside. Praise the Lord!! THEN... this past Tuesday 3 boys that come every week showed up on the property and just hung out with Bethany for a while. They told her that they wanted some help growing in God. She has some material for new believers and is going to, with the help of a few of our guys, disciple them. Wow!! So pray that the desire they have stays and grows, and that we can help them learn more about living for Christ even despite their strict "religious life" catholic background. But it's been amazing to see all of that this week because it means we're making a difference. We're touching lives with the love of God!! Glory be to his name :) But the Coronado ministry doesn't stop there. We had the first Sunday church service there today. There were close to 30 people total there. It was incredible!! The pure message of the Gospel was preached from John 14. Jesus is the only way to Heaven, not by works, not by someone else, not by anything other than faith in his blood. I can't wait to see this part of the ministry grow. God is big and he is good. Keep the prayers rolling in!! 


Third, I get another vacation-like take-advantage-of-being-in-another-country experience this weekend. We get to spend two days at the beautiful beach, Punta Leona. Two days of no classes, no work, just relaxing in the water in the sun on the sand with all my friends :) I'm so excited. It's going to be a perfect break before we hit the books hardcore as finals are coming quicker than we realize. I love everyone here and can't wait to just chill out with them all for a weekend. Costa Rica to the max ;)


Fourth, a prayer request. One of our sisters had to leave yesterday because of health problems. Her name is Devin and she had brain surgery over the summer because of an aneurysm. She recovered well, but recently has been having pretty terrible headaches again. She went to the hospital to get checked out, and they found that it was her medicine causing the problem. Although this is a good thing because it wasn't her brain, it's still a pretty serious situation and she needed to go to her own doctor and be with her mom to get it figured out. It's been hard for us to loose another girl, but we know that she's going to be coming back with us in January all fixed up. It's only a short time before she can join us again. Please be praying for her as she deals with missing out on our last month, healing up, and staying up enough on the language that she's not completely lost by the time January comes around.


Fifth, I got to skype my sister for her birthday!! I got to talk with ALL of my family (including Lucas over skype/speaker phone). It was so fun :) They did eat delicious Mama Starrett desserts in front of me though.. that was painful... but all in all it was really cool to see the fam and watch my little teenage sister open gifts. I love them all :) God has truly blessed me with an incredible family not only here but at home behind me as well. 


Alright. This post is long enough. Thanks for all your prayers they are much appreciated! Keep them coming as we have one month to stay kicked in high gear before we head back for the holidays. Praise God for what he's doing down here, I thank him so much for the opportunities and growth that I've personally gone through and am still going through. Join me in praising him as well for the blessings and success in all our ministries here. He is sovereign and reigns with a perfect plan. God rocks! I love you all :)

Deja Vu

Following two days of fantastic ministry, church going, and incredible worship Sunday night, I rose early this morning on the floor of my awesome mentor's room in the midst of the aftermath of a girls slumber party. The night consisted of a buffet of candy and snack food, laughing, movies, and a unifying activity. Needless to say the weekend rocked, but it's today that really iced the cake. Starting with a bus ride we headed out toward San Francisco to hike a very tall mountain up to the cross. From the bus window I could see the mountain looming in front of us all with a tiny speck of what slightly resembled a cross on the top. My mind flashed back to riding the top of a rickety pick up truck, surrounded by luggage, and staring up to the top of Mt Grenier to a tiny speck of blue that was pointed out as the church. The same thought kept repeating itself in my mind, “I'm supposed to WALK all the way up there?!” Yeah. And just like it was in Haiti the hike was rough. I sweat like crazy, my muscles were burning, I lost my breath often, and occasionally took a break to allow myself to be amazed at the view spread out before me in every direction. On one side was mountainous terrain, the other was open out to the city of San Jose, and ahead of me, just up up and more up. Eventually I arrived at the first cross. Holy cow was the view cool from up there. You could see all of San Jose and the surrounding areas. I could see downtown with all the tall buildings, the national futbol stadium, and more city as far as the eye could reach. Then I would look to the other side and see the other mountain with squares of field and different patches of color surrounding tiny houses. It brought back memories of standing on Grenier and looking over to Gremoth.. totally cool. And looking up to the cross was amazing in itself. It was tall and covered in lights in order to be seen from the city when night fell. It was breathtaking just to stand up and look out, and then turn around and look up to the cross remembering all that Christ has done since the beginning of the world: created all this beauty, humbled himself to join us in our humanity, died on a cross, so that we could have life – full, abundant, eternal – life through him. Praise be to the name of our Lord and Saviour! But the hike didn't stop there. We weren't done yet. We took about a million pictures at that cross and enjoyed a break, but soon were continuing up once again. This part of the hike was way more rocky and covered by trees. It was shaded and somewhat wet from some water source above most of the way to the second cross. This portion was shorter so I was soon finding myself emerging into a clearing where I could see a cross about four times as big as the first one. This one didn't have quite the view as the first as it was set into the woods more. But what was super cool about this one, was that it was in the clouds. Another flashback to Haiti. I watched the clouds roll over and encompass us in whiteish gray mist. I could see my breath when I huffed, and as the cloud passed over I could see less and less of the scenery and then more and more as it disappeared once more. This cross was where we stopped for lunch. Taking a seat and pulling out my sandwich was a wonderful feeling after hiking for so long. But just as I swallowed my last bite, someone yelled from down the other side a little ways that the best view he had ever seen in his life was a mere 300 yards down the other side. So over I went. Hiking down felt nice and suddenly I found myself on a sort of land bridge between two mountains. Wow was he right. On the right was a valley between mountains that had a river at the bottom. I couldn't see it, but I could hear the water, including a waterfall at one end. Then on the left was out over the city just like at the first cross, but there was a wider view from this vantage point. It was absolutely breathtaking. Derick, one of my fellow Indiana gappers, fittingly commented, “So I just had a crazy thought, if this is what earth is like, what's heaven gonna be like!?” After more photo ops the hike back started. Back up to the second cross, to go back down to the second cross, to go back down all the way to the bottom. The whole day worship songs were playing over in my mind.. I know, who would have thought Hannah Starrett would have music in her head.. ;) God is mighty and powerful and so crazy cool. I loved everything about being in his creation today and praising him for it as I hiked up to a cross where I was reminded all that he did for me. Incredible. Words can't even describe it all.. my continuous prayer is still that God would take me and use me for his work and glory. In Haiti I saw his hand and was changed, now in Costa Rica I see his hand and beg him to change me.

Humans Flying Is No Myth

We, as students in Costa Rica, get to occasionally reap the benefits of living in another country. This past Monday we were able to go zip-lining through the mountain rain forest of CR, and it was incredible!! We got up early and headed out on a bus that was "coach," but was more like an airplane set up than bus seats.. I slept most of the way. When we got there, all the guides were waiting for us and one was dressed up like a chicken. We had to do the chicken dance as our initiation and it was NOT the chicken dance I'm used to. It was in Spanish of course and very.. different. Then we signed our waivers and got helmets and headed up the mountain. On the way up we had to do some team challenge type things, do an Indian dance around a teepee, and sit in the river as punishment for losing. Needless to say, wet jeans plus tight equipment wasn't the most comfortable way to hike the rest of the way up. There were 5 lines and they were all a blast!! The first one was pretty normal, but it went over a gorge between the two mountains.. super cool!! And you could see an amazing view of San Jose from where we were flying. Pretty cool. There was one line where they allowed us to go upside down. We got hooked up to the line, grabbed our gear with our hands, and held the cable with our feet. Then once we were past the platform we could let go and hang our hands down so we were flying upside down across a huge mountain gorge... what a rush!!! That was my favorite part by far. It was sooo cool!!! Then the last one was the highest and fastest, and we got to jump off a platform as our speed start which was really cool. Little did we know that those who went in front of us would be waiting at the end with water bottles ready to soak us.. That was quite the surprise, and my whole right side was completely soaked.. they had mercy on some people, but I was toast. It was still awesome and I then got to enjoy watching everyone else get the same loving treatment :) Then at the very end there was a free-fall swing type deal that was offered to us for ten bucks.. yeah I did it. Too cool. They hooked me up with a bunch of ropes and cams and the like and said, “Ok jump!” … so I jumped.. I flew through the air and then swung back and flew again.. it was awesome! It's crazy what we do for adrenaline rushes ;) We had brought sandwiches for lunch and were given some water and time to just chill, then I slept on the bus ride home as we headed back to the villa for the rest of our free day. It was a good one to be sure :)

This Place I Call Home

So I haven't been able to blog much lately, not only because we don't have internet as much as before, but also because there is so much going on down here that I can barely find time to sleep. But unlike what some people may think, this is not even a good thing it's a great thing. Classes have been keeping me busy studying, learning, improving in the language, and remaining disciplined in school work as I am not quite done with my career as a student.. maybe in 5 years I'll be able to say "No more homework!!" However, as of right now, I live homework in the evenings - projects, pages of busy work that more or less burns the concept into your brain, conversations, Bible reading, study topics, and lots of extra reading. I love it all. This is the best year of school I've had so far.


Then outside of class of course comes ministry. This is not merely talking about Coronado, which is a huge part of my ministry, or even my church El Alto, but includes a discipleship group that I have been leading. We are studying the book "Calm My Anxious Heart" which is a study on finding contentment in God through every situation specifically for women. It's been eye-opening, hard-core challenging, and really encouraging at the same time. I love what I have been learning and with every chapter I find more reason to thank my God for exactly where he put me and what he has called me to do. But as you praise God with me because of this study, please also remember me in your prayers. It is difficult sometimes to lead a group like this because it takes time to prepare for it, sometimes it's difficult to lead discussion, and contentment will always be a major challenge for especially girls. So please pray for me.


In other areas of ministry a little update.. Coronado has been awesome. We handed out the kids' books last Saturday (just in case I haven't mentioned it yet we're starting an AWANA like club for the kids in Coronado every Saturday) so those who could recite John 3:16 got to start their first lesson in the book. They will be memorizing Scriptures and getting points for bringing their Bible (which we provided last week as well), their hats, friends, and of course for just coming. It's really cool to see how excited the kids are. However, it has been smaller the past few weeks, so we are going to arrive a little early and go out into the neighborhoods and invite the kids. Hopefully this will draw a bigger crowd. Overall it's really exciting :) And for those of you at home Bethany is a wonder-woman when it comes to running and planning for this every week. Keep praying for her!!


El Alto, the church I attend, does not have a youth group which means it's up to us to start one. As of right now there are two youth other than us GAPpers who show up for the Saturday "youth group." So this week, we're having a cook-out at the Gordly's house to try to draw in more young people. JR, one of my classmates, is giving his testimony, and I am bringing my guitar to provide some relief from the CD recording of an organ played every Sunday ;) I'm pretty excited about it and we should have a good turnout. Yet another area of prayer. 


On the fun side of life, our leadership came up with an idea to kind of off-set the lack of internet with time to have group unity by playing group games or some crazy youth group-like activity. I am one of the two students in charge of planning these activities for every other Friday night or so. We've thought of games that are super fun in the dark (since it gets dark at like 6 here) like Capture the Flag and such. I'm pretty excited about it. This week we're making a scavenger hunt, and it's going to be unlike any scavenger hunt anyone has ever played before. It's already crazy cool and we're not even done. And on Mondays we have our weekly game of Ultimate Frisbee, or depending on amount of rain, Uliti-Mud Frisbee ;) We have tons of fun here.. especially in Club Lucas (my room)!! We have by far the most laughs late at night, deep chats, roomie jokes, random fun, and everything that comes with living together. Oh and the lady that cleans here tells us every week that we have by far the cleanest room. Every week. Yeah. 


So that's a quick update of what has been going on here in San Jose. Keep the prayers coming, you guys are the best!! Shoot me an email anytime to let me know what you're up to in the States. God is moving here in Costa Rica, and I'm so blessed to be a part of it. Praise his majestic name! 

The Radical Call of a Radical God

Wow. This post has been the hardest to write by far. I don't even know why, because it's definitely been the one that I'm most excited about. It did turn out very long, so bear with me :)


Starting off I'll just summarize the week a little. We had class like usual, lots of it, and learned a bunch. For our Bible class we're doing two different studies: Chronology of the Bible with Andy, and Ephesians with Noel. Both are phenomenal! I'm really looking forward to learning some crazy cool stuff from both of these very wise men who desire nothing more than to teach us all they know from God's Word. It's amazing how much God has blessed this group with leadership. I'm really humbled and challenged every day by just their example of living. I'm even in Spanish class with 3 of our leaders, and just watching them work hard and study just as much as I do while simultaneously balancing all their responsibilities AND families.. wow. They rock! 


Ministry this week was awesome. This week at Coronado I was able to teach some English in Spanish which was really cool. Challenging in some ways, but definitely cool! Then I went to be with the kids :) I'm in charge of ten older kids (12-14 year olds) and this week we were helping them memorize John 3:16. They have to recite it next week in order to be officially initiated into the Coronado Bible Club. My kids learned it pretty fast. I was very proud. We had the verse written out on a big poster paper and we would read it together, then I would cover a couple words, we'd read it again, cover more, and so on. Eventually they all knew the whole thing. It was an awesome day. I believe that two more kids responded to the message and decided to live for Christ as an heir of the Kingdom!! Praise the Lord!! Please keep praying for the ministry in Coronado. Then later I got to lead some songs at my church's youth group Saturday night. There was also a missionary speaker who gave the message. He instantly became one of my heroes. He translated for himself. Yes. English-Spanish/Spanish-English. And never lost his train of thought. INCREDIBLE!!! He just started preaching and would occasionally start a thought in English and then when he finished translate into Spanish, but then continue to the next thought in Spanish and translate later into English. Holy cow. What brain power!!?!?! That's what I want to be able to do. Be so fluent that I don't even have to work, it just comes naturally either way. Then Sunday I got to visit Bethany's church and see her house. From there we skyped home and got to be on the big screen at BGBC. That was too cool!! It's amazing to be in a different country and be able to talk to your family who is behind you in prayer and love and be able to tell them how amazing God is and what he is doing here. 


Ok this is the part that I really wanted to focus on, even though it's slightly out of chronological order. On Thursday we watched the End of the Spear as our Bible class, which is a missionary movie about Jim Elliot's son Steve and his follow up with the tribe his father contacted. It's incredibly moving and wonderfully made. It makes me cry. But even though I've seen it before, for a certain reason it particularly touched me this time. I've felt that God's desire for my life is going to be outside the United States. (I mentioned this in part of my Haiti blog) I feel so passionate and driven when I get to work in other countries. But I have never specifically felt like I would do missions work. For some reason the picture in my head was always LIVE in a different country, but just have a normal job there. Nothing through a missions organization or anything just living location and missions through my work or something. But as I was watching this movie, the part when the natives are begging Steve to live with them and he pleads that he can't because he has a life and family in the States.. but then he decides that he can give that up and he moves to live with the tribe, it hit me hard. It was like "Hannah, could you do that? Could you move away and rely completely on God to provide everything? Could you really trust him with your life and well-being?" And for the first time in good faith I could say yes. I could. And I feel strongly that I will. It's what I want to do! When we were skyping, Pastor Kenny pointed out that our church's goal is to raise up missionaries from our very own congregation. Well, Pastor, I want to be one. I want to be a missionary raised in the care of Battle Ground Bible Church, and with them behind me and my Lord Jesus before me, dedicate my life fully to his service with no turning back! What that exactly looks like or where I'll end up who knows but God. But here I am telling him to send me. It's a radical decision to follow God, but I've always loved doing the radical.. I mean, I'm in Costa Rica!! So I say bring it on. I'm still going to study linguistics next year and be a language master so that I can reach as many people as possible :) and, yes Pastor Kenny, I might even get to translate the Bible!! So I'm super excited to see where he sends me and what he gives me to do.. I'm banking on the promise that he has a plan to prosper me and not to harm me, to give me a hope and a future. Starting now, this is my life in reaction to the radical call of God. 

The Weak-End

Once upon a time there was a girl who had a dream. This dream was of depth with God, knowledge, opportunity, and a life far away. Of course this dream was filled with pictures and plans of what the future would bring. And like most dreams, when matched with reality one of the pictures paled. Expectations would say reality always pales in comparison to the dream. Yet in the case that I bring before you, the opposite is beyond true. My dream has quickly paled in comparison to my reality. I sit here in the evening cool of San Jose, surrounded by the coolest people on earth, preparing for a Bible study tonight, and knowing that the language I have a strong passion for is slowly becoming second nature in my mind. What more could I ask for? How blessed am I to even be here! God is good, all the time. 

Alright, now to dive into the craziness I call life here in CR. This week we began our regular schedule of Spanish classes: 4 hours every morning. But instead of having our regular schedule of Bible classes in the afternoon, we went to the Timothy and Barnabas conference that SCORE puts on every year. Which means instead of having 2 hours of Bible, we had close to 8. Wow. Talk about brain dead by the time it hits 10 o'clock. But no, the fun doesn't stop there. In the evening I would still read the daily Bible reading with my friends and THEN I would head to my room at lock-up. As I drag myself into my bed and grab my journal, before I let my head flop down on the pillow I decide that I'm not crazy enough yet.. so I set my alarm for 5:45 am. WHAT?!? Yes. I get up to run at 6 in the morning. True Starrett flows through my veins. Although the morning is early and painful, it's definitely my favorite part of the day. The reason I get up so early is to be absolutely sure I have as much time as I want with the First Love of my heart before the day actually starts. By running, I'm awake. By eating breakfast, I'm not distracted. Which leaves my heart and mind in the perfect state to come before the Lord of the universe, fall at his feet, and enjoy his presence while requesting his help in a week as physically, mentally, and spiritually straining as this one. 

The message that made the most impact on my life this week was from Joshua 1:1-9. Four times in this passage the Lord tells Joshua to “be strong and courageous.” And when God repeats himself, I'm pretty sure he means business. Be strong and courageous. In this passage 'strong' means the power to resist temptation, and 'courageous' means in temptation having the ability to serve, or complete God's task. Because if we've been given a task by God, there will be opposition, in which case strength and courage are necessary. But don't worry it doesn't stop there. We are also promised that strength and courage are possible through knowing the promises of God. He gives us provision, protection, and prosperity. Banking on these promises we are able to face any task he assigns us with strength and courage. He also promises his presence wherever and whenever we are faced with anything. We have an overwhelming task, but an overpowering God!! This is just a summation of the message, you'll have to go read Joshua 1 to get the full story. But it really stuck out to me that I need to be fully relying on God for my strength in every situation because it is so necessary for effective ministry. I can't just halfheartedly serve because I'm scared of opposition or failure. Joshua was left with the entire Israelite nation following him, young, inexperienced, and not ready at all for what was coming. But God didn't tell him, “Don't worry it'll be easy” or “You don't have to do it if you don't want to.” No way! God gave him a task and told him to be strong and courageous. He made sure to make it clear that he would never be alone in the task, but he also required Joshua to give his all. That's what he requires of me too. Not just the part of me that's not scared, or the part of me that's sure I can be successful, but all of me. Every last terrified, unsure, wandering piece of my heart. I'm giving it all to God. No more of this weak minded partially committed because I don't know what will happen. It's all up to the One who's in control. So now as Saturday morning dawns, it's not only the weekend, it's the weak-end. Through my Savior, I am strong and courageous.  

Un Sabor de Mi Pais

I'm in school again. Back to the books, the homework, the projects, the late nights, the early mornings, the classmates, the teachers, and the endless compilation of new memories in the process of learning. This past week we were taught from the book of James 2-3 hours every day by Dr. George Theis. He did a phenomenal job. I loved every second of it, and can't even begin to divulge how much I learned. In order to share some of it I'll just give the chapter titles that we used in covering each portion of the book. Chapter 1: Trials Can Be Fun. Chapter 2: Dead Faith and Partiality - No Can Do. Chapter 3: The Wrong Use of the Tongue is Ugly. Chapter 4: The Beginning of War. Chapter 5: Prayer Will Keep You Alive. It was so cool to be lead nearly verse by verse through this extremely practical letter written to fellow Christians all over the world. And as I'm studying currently far away from my hometown, in a foreign environment, with discomforts, schedule changes, random problems, and all the tiny things that remind me how far from home I really am, it was an incredible challenge for me to "count it all joy." Quickly it became my motto to "count it all joy" and to not complain or grumble when I had a cold shower in the morning or I couldn't connect to the internet. I have like a whole new list of things that I really need to work on now.. like I didn't have enough already. It's awesome though. I love seeing how great God is through how imperfect I am and how much I rely on his strength to survive. He is my all. 


Then of course we've been having Spanish for 3-4 hours a day. And it's been crazy. By the time I leave class I'm involuntarily thinking in Spanish. It's so cool to see how I can't help it, it just comes out!! I'm learning!! My class isn't challenging for me yet, because I had an incredible high school Spanish teacher who covered pretty much everything there is to know about the Spanish language. (I love you Mrs Peacock!!) But it's been really really good for me to practice talking to everyone in Spanish. I talk to the kitchen ladies all the time and I talk to Adolpho, the security/upkeeper of the villa. It's been good practice, and that's what challenges me. Plus my Spanish teacher here doesn't speak very good English at all. So occasionally in class I'll have to translate for her, which is also perfect practice because that's what we'll be doing second semester. I love how everything is working out and we're getting into a routine down here. It's my new home and it's finally feeling like that. I don't feel like I'm visiting anymore. I'm living. And I can't say enough how amazing my group is. The friends I've already made are incredible and my leaders don't want anything more than to pour their all into us and teach us how to become more like Christ. It's so cool :) 


Other than chill at the villa, have class, go to church, and sleep, I've been running every morning, occasionally going to the store or San Jose to shop, or playing basketball up the road. It's been super cool just hanging out, being able to do whatever when we're not in class, and enjoy the atmosphere of another country. Another thing that's super cool is our leaders have laid out a plan for us to be able to read the whole Bible by the time we graduate. I'm really excited because I've only read through the whole Bible one other time and it was by myself. This time I've been reading it with two other girls, Lauren and Katelyn, every night. It's so awesome because we meet and we read, but we also mention everything that stands out to us and usually get into some pretty cool discussions. It's WAY more beneficial to read big chunks of Scripture together with someone because when I read it alone I tend to get distracted and just read words. But when I'm with other people I'm not only digging myself for something cool, I'm also getting to hear what's touching their hearts at the same time. I love it. And I love them!!


Anyway just to give you a flavor of Costa Rica here are 10 things you need to know before you live here:
1. You can't flush the toilet paper. That's what the trash cans are for.
2. It's a 50-50 chance getting a warm shower in the morning.
3. Dead animals, such as dogs, lying in rigamortis on the side of the road could be there for days. 
4. When they say it's gonna rain every day, it's gonna rain every day. 
5. Running on sidewalks is hazardous to your health, but walking on the street is suicidal.
6. Lizards are friends found on your pillow, and slugs are your shower buddies. 
7. Right as you skype dial your mother, the internet will crash.. because it's raining.
8. When people whistle, honk, or yell, don't wave. You're just a gringo. 
9. Don't stand in the door of the bus while paying. A sensor is counting you and an alarm will go off.
10. Rice and beans rice and beans rice and beans.... 


Hope you all got a flavor of mi vida loca!! God bless, I miss you all!! :)

From Sunday to Monday

The first week of experiencing church in Costa Rica was amazing as expected. God is so great, and even far from home I can gather together to praise his name! I went to El Alto which is a church only up the street from the villa making it really nice - no travel expenses or time to get there. We walked in and mingled for a little bit, then the service started. Of course music was first. It was mostly traditional hymns that I recognized from knowing them in English, but they gave me a song book so it was really easy to join in singing in Spanish. It was awesome! The sermon was actually given by a guest speaker and he was super cool!! He had a booming voice and spoke really clearly making it wonderful for me to translate in my mind. He preached on the story of Jesus calming the sea. And focused on the fact that Jesus is with us wherever we go. Even though the disciples doubted and there was a huge storm, he was still there, he even invited the disciples to go with him. So when in life we get hung up on doubts or fears or storms come, we need to remember that Jesus invited us to walk with him and he'll always be there with us. No matter what God is always by our side. So we need to live like it. Shine the light like Christ is right there with us, fearlessly. Anyway after the sermon, the pastor of the church gave a kind of history lesson about the independence of Central America. (see previous post about independence day) So we listened to the national anthems of all the different countries and learned about a few of the battles and such. It was interesting. Then we got to eat lunch at the church. They provided food from all the different countries, and we brought hot dogs to represent the US just because we were there. It was really interesting but all very good, and of course we got to mingle a ton which was great; I love the people.


After church we just hung out all afternoon and then had a birthday party for the September birthdays. We had a million noise makers and they were going off constantly for literally 20 minutes. It was CRAZY to say the least. Then we had a knock-your-socks-off worship service. It was totally unplanned. John (our slc - student life counselor - basically the group dad) gathered us together and said "Hey we're gonna praise God tonight so if you have any Scripture that speaks to you read it, if you have anything you'd like to say to God go for it. We'll just praise his name together for 30 minutes or 3 hours or whatever." So he said a short prayer and I kicked it off with Lord I Lift Your Name On High and it just rolled from there. Between every song someone read some Bible verses and prayed, and a few times we got into a time of prayer that lasted a while, and every time it died down I would start another song. Eventually John said one last prayer and we dispersed. But it was absolutely incredible!! We were all just feeding off of each other's passion and lifting the name of Jesus up. Wow, our God is AMAZING!!


The rest of the night was just chill out and relax. Mondays are our day off so we all stayed up kinda late just talking and hanging out. Then the morning came. Free day. What to do... I slept in til 8 which was super nice. Did my devos in the morning and then went out for a run. It was a perfect day to run.. there was a breeze, the sun was shining, and the temperature was heavenly. When I got back to the villa I rested on the front porch eating fresh fruit for breakfast, and talked God with Lauren and John. It was a wonderful beginning to the day. Then a bunch of us walked up to the courts for some ballin. Now I'm not a basketball player, but I stood my ground and had a ton of fun! By the time we got back I was dripping in sweat and stunk like crazy. So I took a shower and got ready for the day. Lunch came next. After lunch we had an excursion planned for San Jose. We took the bus and then walked around the marketplace for a while. It was the first time going without a leader so we felt very independent walking around the capital city of another country alone. We're so grown up ;) While we were in town it rained. Now Costa Rican rain is not just rain. It's a downpour. We had rain jackets and umbrellas, and still got soaked! But we took our refuge in Pops, which is an ice cream place that I'm already addicted to. It's so good! The rain died down some and we walked back to the bus stop and rode/walked back to the villa. I changed into dry clothes and skyped Emily for her birthday!! Yay!! Then it was dinner time and after dinner it was time to chillax. They have a daily reading set up to be able to read the Bible by the time we go home, so I did that with two other girls and we discussed it as we went. It was so cool. Reading the Bible with other people and being able to discuss it is wonderful.. God is good. Now I'm just blogging enjoying the rest of the night. It's been a great day! 

Los Chicos Que Tiene Mi Corazon

The morning dawned early, as it does here daily, and we rose with the challenge of ministry on the mind. Today would be my first day experiencing Spanish missions in CR. What my team and I got to do for today was a kids club thing on the newest of SCORE's property where they are currently working on a church plant. Bethany Drew is the person in charge of the whole ministry so I went into it really excited to be able to work with her! Waking up was pretty hard, but it wasn't quite as early as I had been getting up. The whole week I got up every day at 6 to go running. So although I had to wake up at 7, it was a lot nicer than 6. I got ready, did my devos, ate breakfast with my roomies, and then grabbed my bus money to head out. We walked up to the bus stop, waited like 10 minutes and got on to ride all the way to Coronada. It's nice because most of the buses to ride all the way from start to finish is only about 50 cents. On the ride a couple of us struck up a conversation with a guy named Rafael who was headed home from work.. crazy. It's so cool to be able to practice my Spanish everywhere we go, even on the go! When we got to the last bus stop, we had about a 25 minute walk to the SCORE building. I was talking with my friend Lauren who was here in the summer of 09 and she said this building hadn't been built yet so it was brand spankin new. It was really nice too! It's going to be the place where they host all the short term teams so that the villa (where I'm staying) can be reserved only for GAP year students. Pretty cool. So anyway we get there and get the run-down of how the day's gonna work out. Bethany explains what we need to do to set up, what to do when the kids arrive, and the overall schedule for the program. Then we dive straight into the work. Some people stayed to set up the games in the field while a couple other people and I went out to the gate to set up balloons as a welcoming sign. While we were still out there a bunch of kids showed up... but it was about an hour before they were supposed to be there. So on the fly we quit the decorating, led them into the field, and started handing out name tags and stickers. Since I could communicate with them fairly well I got to hand out the stickers while we waited for more kids to show up. It was really fun to see their faces and watch them cover themselves in the stickers. I also asked what their favorite colors were and how old they were and small stuff like that to keep them talking and not just staring at me. After a while we just started even though kids were trickling in for a long time after that. The first thing we did was sing songs. Jose's (the director of SCORE in CR) oldest daughter led the music and did a wonderful job. She is a fireball of energy and knows how to really rope the kids in! Then her mother gave a message using a painting story telling the wordless book. It was simple, powerful, and very direct. The kids enjoyed it and they all prayed with her at the end.. and although we don't know how many were genuine, they heard it, prayed, and walked away with seeds in their hearts. So we're trusting God with the rest! Then we were off to crafts. The kids all gathered around tables and got to color hats using markers. It was awesome. Then eventually the older kids got to play sharks and minnows for a short time before the rain came. I know I should be used to this from Haiti, but rain every single day at the same time is still kinda weird and sometimes frustrating when you have plans... sigh.. but we gave them a small snack, took a group picture, and sent them home. Afterwards we had a short debrief and prayed just thanking God for all he had done today. This was the kickoff day for this kids club that will be happening every Saturday. I was really excited because I'm going to be attending the church that's starting this program and doing the plant, so I get to be part of it all year.. and after seeing the very beginning I'll be able to see all the growth. Which is way cool! Theeennnn we got to clean up... it didn't take very long because there were a lot of us working together. We were then dropped off at the bus stop and rode back to the villa. Because it's Saturday we didn't have anything on the agenda. Wow. A day to relax? It was sooo nice. I got to skype some people and just chill out in the villa.


So after some hours of pure holy relaxation I decided to go to the Saturday night thing at the church I'll be going to until this church plant in Coronada is actually planted. It was really neat. There were like 3 youth age kids there and everyone else was over the age of 75. But we sat on benches around a ping pong table, drank coffee, and studied the Bible.. what more could you ask for? We read Acts 27 and talked about how Paul trusted God even through the storm and based all his trust on God's promise to take care of everyone on the ship. The pastor even compared it to our year here. We will go through so many storms and will have to trust God to get us through them and save us even when we feel like we're drowning. I really liked it! Then he asked Andy (our GAP director) what we were all going to be doing this year, and when he found out we were going to be studying the Bible, not only Spanish, he decided to quiz us. So he started asking us all these Bible trivia questions. It was super cool!! For like the next hour we just answered Bible questions (all in Spanish of course). Then he finally ended the study and most people left. But like I mentioned before we were using a ping pong table as our table. So obviously some of the guys wanted to play. We ended up staying at least another half hour.. It was really fun though. And the whole time I was only speaking Spanish just to practice getting in my Spanish brain and forcing myself to stay there. It was pretty hard.. but good for me. I can't wait for classes to start Tuesday! Tomorrow is church, and I absolutely LOVE church in other countries. So I'll definitely be blogging about it sometime tomorrow. Thanks so much for all your prayers!! Send me emails :) love you all!!

Dia De Independencia

Bienvenidos a Costa Rica!! I was met with the sounds of greeting from all the staff as I walked into the SCORE Villa. Wow. I was home. Yeah... home, for nine months. First things first, we unloaded all the luggage from the truck that brought it over from the airport, and then ate. We had sandwiches prepared for us and then we got to settle in. Aaahhhh.. after living out of bins in my guest room at home and then a suitcase for a few days, I was so relieved to be able to settle into a room that would be mine for a significant amount of time. Especially because I had to maneuver weight around in my suitcases making my backpack incredibly stuffed!! I was glad to unload that heavy burden. So my room is super cool! Number one its room Lucas and with a brother like mine, it's pretty much already the best. Also we have two bunk-beds, a bathroom in our room, and TWO showers!! Yes, two. So with four girls and two showers we're gonna be ok. I love my roommates too. Maddison from Alabama, Holly from Georgia, and Tamara from Alabama. I'm so excited to get to know them better and enjoy living with them! We have all our decorations and pictures and stuff out and hanging, and our place looks so homey. The rest of the day was totally chill. We had dinner and relaxed. I played my guitar.. of course. But our bodies were two hours ahead of actual time, plus travel, so we were really tired anyway.

The next morning I got up at six and went running at six thirty. I know, I'm crazy like my parents. But I really want to get into the routine before classes start so that I'm in the groove and can adjust better when it does get busy around here. So I went around the city and then up to the gym around the track once. It felt really nice. Then I took a shower, did my devos in the perfect weather that we have down here (a common nickname for Costa Rica is the Garden of Eden because of the incredible weather, yeah, be jealous), and then went up for breakfast. After breakfast we met up and walked about a half hour into the main part of town for Independence Day. In Costa Rica their Independence Day is the same for all Central America. And one tradition is that they carry a torch, by way of runners in schools in relay fashion, from Nicaragua all the way down to Costa Rica. It's really neat. So they have big parades and such. The parade part was canceled this year, but there was still a high time and fancy to do. There was a big circle that everyone was decorating with chalk, there was a mariachi band, there were girls dancing with super big white dresses and colored sashes, there were stands of food,.. it was really neat to just see all the culture and soak it in. I got to talk to a couple ladies too.

After getting back from our outing, we had lunch, free time, testimonies, dinner, and more testimonies. It was really neat to hear the stories behind the people we'll be living with for nine months. It's a super fast way to get to know them. We'll be giving them the next two days also, until we get through everyone. I can't wait to hear how God has molded, grown, and led all these people here. It's so cool to see how his hand has been through everything in putting this team of students together. We're all hand-picked by a sovereign God, and we're here together to serve and learn and grow, and then go shake the world!! Thank you so much for all the prayers. They're much needed, but also are being answered. Praise the Lord for his marvelous work in Costa Rica!! I love and miss you all. 

Page Turning Into A New Chapter

Yesterday morning I was an 18 year old recent graduate, living at home, waiting for what was coming next. Tomorrow I will still be an 18 year old recent graduate, but I will be walking into my new home in a new country with new people, a new culture, and a brand new way of life. My routine will completely shift, no more mom making sure I'm awake, packing my lunch, or asking if I remembered everything before I walk out the door. Today was our full day of orientation in Atlanta, GA. All day long we listened to every aspect of CR and everything we're going to experience. The day kicked off with a memory game of names, which was interesting but really fun. Now that I know all about my teammates and how they like elephants and hot dogs, I'm even more excited to be living the next nine months with them. Then we heard about all the rules, dress code, how the internet would work, and everything we'd be expected to do. That was a pretty boring part of the day. But what came next was my favorite. Five GAP alumni came in to do a sort of panel discussion about CR and all that came with being a global year student. It was so cool!! They told stories of learning Spanish, meeting people, serving in the churches, living in the villa, and everything in between. Every time I hear someone talk about their experiences, it just fires me up even more to get down there and be a part of it myself. The host family that I'm staying with here has a daughter who went down two years ago, so I've gotten to hear millions of stories and see pictures and ask questions. I'm more than crazy excited to board that plane tomorrow morning!! We heard about how to deal with health issues, culture shock, and homesickness later in the day. As a shout-out to all my Haiti team members reading this, I laughed when we got to this part because the number one thing they kept saying over and over was "use hand sanitizer and drink water!" Oh how I miss our days with Levi and Jesse as our Sanitation/Hydration experts.. ;) So I'll be once again carrying my trusty orange water bottle and germ-x everywhere! Another thing that we talked about today was our Bible classes. One of our two student life counselors (a married couple who are like our mentors, or group parents) gave his promo for all the Bible stuff he gets to teach us. He's basically going to pump sound doctrine, apologetics, systematic theology, and the entire Bible into us, so that we all come out on fire, white hot, crazy dangerous Christians. Which makes me so super excited!! He warned us that our brains would explode and our beliefs would be challenged in such a way that we would be forced to defend them and make them our own. No more "because that's the way my church does it" or "that's what my pastor tells me." This year it will turn into "I believe this because -insert Scripture and strong defense here- and I couldn't be more fired up to be fired up for my Lord. This year is going to be so amazing, and sitting on the very edge of experiencing it is making me so giddy I can't sit still. We meet at the church tomorrow at 4:30am, and after that there's no turning back. I'm bound for Costa Rica, the Spanish language, and serving my God. Pray for me as I allow him to completely break down what I call my life and rebuild me into a bright shining tool for promoting his Kingdom!!

What I Learned from a Boy Tiger

Once upon a time there was a boy tiger. He was the mightiest in the whole forest, could attack and beat any predator, and even had magical disappearing powers. Sometimes the other animals would think he was a lion.. and sometimes he was.. either that or a leopard, cheetah, bear, or wolf. But all the same he was untouchable. No deer, antelope, giraffe, or zebra could stand up to him. Even the gorillas were scared. He would roam around protecting his family and finding food. And when he got injured, he would ask for some lovings and heal up in no time. 


This story is played out between me and an adorable 5 year-old. Adventures come and go, change or repeat, get worse or more exciting. But we never stop the game. He smirks and talks out of the side of his mouth making me work hard to hold in the laughter as he whispers something serious. Then one night he blurts out of the blue, "I love you, Hannah!" Touched straight to the core I tell him I love him too and fluff his head as we chase after a blanket to do 'hot dog' one more time. But as I think about it, it really is that simple. He has no worries because he knows his family will be there to take care of him. His animal character, the boy tiger, has no worries because even when he gets injured he knows he can always come back to his family for healing. As I thought more about it, I realized that even when I'm far from home and may get injured or scared, I have my family to count on. My immediate family as well as my Christian family. Those that are telling me goodbye and promising to pray for me will always be there for me when I'm scared or hurting no matter how far I travel. So as I stared into the bright blue eyes of this playing child, I was infinitely reminded how thankful I am for my many friends that have supported me and promise to continue in that support. I love you all so very much and cannot even begin to describe how blessed I am to know you. As I take off in a very short 36 hours, I lean on all of you to be my support. God is my stronghold, and you are his strength manifested in human form just the way I need it. I love you all, and thanks for teaching me to rely on the family God has given me, Ashton!!

Perspective God from 4 to 14

There's only one difference between being 4 and 14. When you're 4 you have all the questions, and when you're 14 you have all the answers. This is such a true representation of growing up. Kids begin with a mind of wonder; their most frequent word is "why?" But with the coming of age comes the gaining of knowledge along with the false sense of their knowledge being all-inclusive. I say false sense because mere lack of experience proves lack of knowledge in a variety of areas, proving that though they think they know all, they really know very little. The natural tendency of humans is to reject the advice of those in authority, or those older and more versed in life, because of confidence in self. Where many times in retrospect the regret springs up from time-discovered ignorance. Why is it then that we don't listen the next time? The same is true when it comes to God. At first when we're baby Christians we ask all the questions. We're curious and want to know how it all works. But once we gain some confidence we somehow have all the answers. Nothing can touch us, and we don't need God as much anymore. He's there, but we can take care of ourselves. Buzz. God knows everything, and we know nothing. Life experiences can prove how ignorant of God's plan we are. When things don't go our way or they happen and we can't understand why, sometimes we flip and ask "Why me, God? What are you doing? How did I come to deserve this?" Then on the other side of life, we're blessed abundantly and we barely take the time to turn around and say "Thanks, God." Yet the same Lord is behind it all. So how come we only give him control when we want to? And how is it "fair" that we can blame him for all the trials he allowed, and yet never thank him for the million blessings we hardly notice? The Bible tells us to trust God with all our heart (Proverbs 3:5-6), and it even says he'll work everything out for our good and his glory if we are his (Romans 8:28). Why then do we act like 14 year-olds and try to take control? Even at 18 I'm graduated, leaving the country, and in charge of my own life. I know what's up. But throw a wrench in MY plans and everything is terrible all of a sudden, and life sucks. So why don't I just trust God in the first place and not have to worry when things may change? It's because I'm acting 14. I have all the answers. I need to be 4 again. Jesus told his disciples to view the Kingdom of Heaven through the eyes of a child because the least of these would inherit the Kingdom of God (Matthew 19:14). So 4 years old, here I come. God, make me 4 again, take control so that even when I don't understand and ask why, you can say, "Because you're my child and I love you, it's going to be good."

Tongue Check

"Oops" "I didn't really mean it.." "No offense.." "I was just joking" "Lighten up.." "Come on you know it was funny" How many times have you heard or used excuses like these in a conversation with someone who you just insulted but are trying to back out? Yeah, me too. Too often things slip out that we instantly wish we could pull back into our mouths and swallow forever, but it's too late. Spoken words are said and last forever. Even under forgiveness the scars remain. More than likely the most common times you let hurtful words slip out are when you're tired and frustrated. People push your buttons and you just snap at them by insulting them, becoming sarcastic (yes, I'm professional at that one), or just not being patient. Yesterday at work, I got several comments about friendly service or my smile, but today I had so many people ask if I was tired or having a bad day... What was the difference? Maybe I was tired.. but should that change the way I speak to people? Should my feelings affect my influence on those around me? God forbid I let it happen again. The Bible has a lot to say about words and how permanently beneficial or damaging they can be. Proverbs 18:21 says "the tongue has the power of life and death." Holy cow, we hold some mega power just in our tiny mouths. And Proverbs 12:18 says "reckless words pierce like a sword." So the Bible is pretty serious when God tells us to be careful what we say. A good way to be either a light for the Lord or a terrible rep to his name is by how we talk. A friend of mine told me to let my character speak louder than my words so that I could win unbelievers to Christ "without a word." When you hear a teenager on the street cussing up a storm with his buddies, we don't naturally think he's a Bible-believing Christian. But how often do we as claimed God-fearing Christians slack in the guarding of our tongues in order to fit in? I can confess I've done it myself before. But when I sit back and think about it, instead of being cool for ten minutes with my non-Christian friends by talking like them, what if I spent those ten minutes witnessing so that I can spend eternity with them later? That sounds like a better use of my time.. So why don't I have the guts?? I need to pray daily for God to let his Holy Spirit help me overcome the people-pleasing urge to talk like everyone around me. Even the small words that aren't really bad, if we let them become too comfortable slipping off our tongues, do we sound different enough to outsiders that God will be represented well? Sometimes looking at our life, we have a totally different vocabulary around different people. James 3 addresses this as salt water and fresh water coming from the same spring. It shouldn't be happening. We need to keep our mouths in check and never have to pull the "oops" card out again. Even under stress or fatigue or attack from someone else we cannot attack back. Philippians 4:5 says "let your gentleness be known to all." This is the perfect description of a calm, clean-talking, patient under stress, Christian person who will win their friends over "without a word." And that's how I want to be known. I want to put on the fruit of the Spirit and be changed from the inside so that my words will pour out with love and gentleness demonstrating the character of the Saviour I represent!! 

Last Words

8/3/10

I don't really have anything left to say, but I still feel like I need to write because more happened today. So the Miami airport was great, we got to eat!! American food is so gross, but it's all we wanted. We stuffed our faces, said goodbye to the Roos family, and are now in mid-flight to Chicago. It's getting close to Haiti bedtime so I'll probably sleep the whole flight.. If anything exciting happens I'll jot it down, but otherwise just a night of travel ahead and my shower calling my name!

Epilogue: For those of you reading this log, it's merely my journal that I kept in Haiti typed up. I hope you enjoyed the stories and got to share in the absolutely amazing experience that our team had. God really worked and I hope you continue to pray for the Haitian people on the mountain of Grenier. From now on my blog will be more present day happenings as I prepare, leave, arrive, and live in San Jose for the next year. I'd appreciate your continued prayers, I know I'll need them! Bondye beni ou!!

Until We Meet Again

8/3/10

This was the earliest morning yet - maybe because of the energy about leaving, maybe because we slept in the church - but either way we were up between 3 and 4am. Making sure everything was all packed was sorta crazy, but we got it all done and ready. This morning we had a stew for breakfast. Nice and hearty food for our downward trek. It was more like a soup and had potatoes, carrots, beans, goat meat, bananas, and these dough things that looked like fingers. It was very good. Other than packing the morning was spent just sitting and talking. I’m going to miss these people so much. It’s crazy how close you get to people in just a week. Before we started our hike down, we circled up, held hands, and prayed. I cried.. of course. I’m so thankful for everyone and all God has done this week, not only through our own group that became my dearly loved family, but also through the Haitians who also became my dearly loved family. Saying goodbye to Closiane, Madame Simon, Madame Thoma, and Samantha come next, how it was even possible I don’t know. Then the journey down began. Loaded with my guitar I started to say farewell to my mountain home. I love hiking so the walk down was extremely pleasant even though it was very hot. We had a lot of helpers who carried many of our bags for us. We waited at Kesnel’s house at the bottom of the mountain for the truck to take our bags to the airport. This was like a two hour wait since we had come down so early. But sitting in the shade for a while just chatting and chilling and playing my guitar was nice. The hard walk came with the truck, because we had to walk up to Thomassin. This was the crazy cliff-like hike that we partially rode down on the way to Grenier when I feared for my life on top of a loaded truck. Going up was much less scary, and yet a lot more difficult. But I really enjoyed it because I walked with Joe, Ivener, Austin and Hannah and we just chatted about Haiti the whole way up. When we made it up we waited for a bus to take us the rest of the way to the airport. It was packed again like the ride in, but not nearly as long. We followed the truck for part of the way then a gas run split us up, but we met at the airport and regrouped with all our stuff. Being in the city again reminded me of how extreme Haiti is. There are tent cities on one side of the street, and hotels that beat out 5-star hotels in the US on the other side. The rich and poor is separated by a mind blowing gap. The poverty in the city, and the filth because of it everywhere is so overpowering I can’t describe it. I’m just so thankful we were on the mountain all week with, though poor, hardworking, loving, hospitable, wonderful people, not these viciously greedy, cutthroat, desperate people living here. Finally we made it to the airport where we met up with Miami and he helped us get all our bags checked and through quickly again. But we had to say goodbye. Kesnel, Naime, Jeto, Ivener, Joe, and Josie all gave me a hug and we said goodbye for real. We all thanked Kesnel for all his hard work arranging everything for us and helping us and making our stay on his mountain wonderful. Then we waved as we entered the airport and that was the last goodbye. It only took us about a half hour to be boarded and headed home. I’m sitting here crying as I stare down from a tiny plane window at my beautiful Caribbean Island. I decided that I won’t say goodbye, but instead “until we meet again.” Because if God wills I’ll go back someday, and if he doesn’t I’ll see my Haitian friends someday in Heaven. It’s so sad right now but it’s reality and life is taking us different directions to minister in different ways until someday we minister together once more. This is what makes me hate traveling. I meet people, I fall in love, and I never want to leave. Every time I go out of the country I cry when I get on the plane going home because I just want to stay. My heart truly is not in the United States. Yes, I love it, and it’s my home, but I know God has given me a love for other countries. It’s when I’m out there that I feel most alive and most at home. It’s comforting because once again it reminds me that Costa Rica is where God wants me to be this year. I’m ok with moving on and leaving this place to adventure to new, because my Haitian friends will never be gone from my heart and someday we’ll meet again.