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!!