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!