Harvest Bible Chapel Bloomington

Harvest Bible Chapel Bloomington made this impact on me in the 2 weeks I've been a part of it.. :)


Teaching from the Word of God
Hands on service for the Body
Always encouraging company
Never dropping our eyes from the cross
Kingdom focused
Saved by grace and living like it


Together as the bride of Christ
Open hearts in worship


God centered
Obedient to the calling of our Lord
Disciples making disciples

Why - 9/11

Why is it permissible to sing songs about the Lord Almighty holding the whole world in his hands, and his amazing grace that saved us all, and invoke his blessing upon this country on a day such as this; but on all other days said things are, best case scenario, merely left unspoken? Why is it that God comes into play in such a major way on a day of tragedy, and the days of remembrance following, but is blotted out of society and politics and even the american life on any other day? In days of major decision making, new faces of America inaugurated, public celebration of a holiday, even just in literature posted on or around governmental buildings, God has been taken out. He is ignored, thrown into a pile with all other religious figure heads, hushed, and even replaced. Yet when tragedy strikes, when our nation is brought to its knees, upon whom do Americans nation-wide call? God. We cry out for help from God. The same God we push to the side and cover up when we "don't need him." How would a father feel if his children ignored him, told him he didn't matter, wasn't needed, and in fact just a name among many equal; and then later when they were hurting come calling on his name for help, blessing, and rescue? Would not that father feel unappreciated, used, and even as far as insulted by this behavior? This is how we are treating our Father God. Our nation places his great name in our pledge and on our currency, and we use a Bible for inauguration ceremonies, but these simple gestures are being placed into jeopardy because of the insistence that it is not proper to support one religion more than another. However when the rubber meets the road and a tragic situation arises, the name of the Lord God Almighty is invoked. Why? Why can we not remember his name always? Why can we not cry out to him even in the daily labors of life? Why is he in such a tiny box pulled out only when the last direction left to look is up? Our God should be bigger than that. He should reign from our hearts and lives and nation, not from a tiny box we keep locked in storage for days like today. May the hearts of America be broken open to the truth, and may the Lord God once again take his rightful place, front and center. God bless America.

Interview with Hannah Starrett

Intro: I haven't posted in a VERY long time due to not having a computer to work with for the last few months in Costa Rica. So in order to catch up all my followers in a manner other than just writing paragraph after paragraph of "out-dated" information, I decided to try to make it a little more interesting and less time-consuming. Hopefully you feel the same as this way you can skip to the questions/answers that interest you :)


1) What were the highlights of the second semester in GAP Costa Rica?
        First of all, I'd say just having probably triple the Spanish use as first semester was a huge plus. I did a whole lot more translating second semester for both missions groups that came from the states, as well as students in GAP giving devotionals or testimonies in various churches around our area. I also spent every Wednesday night with my friend Andrea, a member of the SCORE staff at the Villa. I would leave work (the Villa) with her and head to her church, enjoy a dinner with her family, and spend the night at her house (sleepover!!), all the while speaking only Spanish. She doesn't speak English at all so it was the perfect push and practice that I needed to work on perfecting the language I love. It was incredible.
       Second highlight I'd say was our trip to the Dominican Republic in the beginning of April. It was absolutely amazing. We (GAP students) were the translators for 320 freshmen-junior students from a church in Atalnta, GA. They divided up into 40 groups of 8 people, and one of us went with each group. There were 20 buses with 2 groups each that headed out once in the morning and again in the afternoon. The groups would rotate through and we translators would stay with the bus. We did things from VBS, construction, and giving food, to visiting orphanages, shopping at the market, and street evangelism. God used us in a powerful way and we saw so much growth not only in the DR, but also inward change from the impact of being leading missionaries ourselves and influencing these high school students with the love of God and love for missions. It was one of my favorite experiences for sure!! 
        And of course the third highlight would be meeting my now boyfriend, Esteban Mora. If you want to hear that story message me on facebook or shoot me an email :) The whole second semester was filled with activities, growth, and lots of fun!! We went more places, used our Spanish outside the classroom, and were way busier. But it was great. I loved the time and learned more than I could ever explain in words. God is amazing and he surely did a work on my heart. 


2) What did you do over the summer?
       Over the summer my schedule was pretty much just work. I worked full time at the Klien Brot Hous Bakery in Brookston where I've been employed since '08. I love it there - the people, the work, everything - so it was great to be able to spend my summer there and try to fill the hole Costa Rica made in my bank account ;) I did spend some time with my friends of course, one of which is now ENGAGED!!! :) I also took some time to go skiing. But most days were just hanging with the fam. I'm so blessed to have awesome parents and the best of siblings to hang out with. I love em. 
       I continued to go to Primera Iglesia Bautista de Lafayette, the church in Spanish I attended over winter break, every Wednesday night. It helps me keep up my speaking/listening skills, as well as stay involved in Hispanic ministry, which I love. The people there are great and of course I love the language. It was awesome. Hopefully I'll be able to find a Hispanic church here in Bloomington... 
       I also became an official member of my church, Battle Ground Bible Church, this summer. You might be thinking why become a member right before leaving to go to school, which is a great question. I'll try to explain my thinking. I believe that church membership is incredibly important in every Christian's life. To have that support and accountability behind you from a church family as well as the authority of a group of elders is not only biblical, but I believe essential to spiritual health. So even though I am now living at IU, 2 hours from my church, I need that in my life even from a distance. I have accountability set up with some people from home, and I have a church family to speak of while I begin to get connected with a local body here in Bloomington. 


3) What next? What are you up to now? 
       Right now I'm moved into my dorm at Indiana University, Bloomington awaiting classes to start tomorrow. I'm majoring in Linguistics hoping to be able to do translation work in the future on the mission field. My dream is to be a missionary, and my method is to use translation to reach people with the Gospel. I'm a total language nerd so I'm pumped for all my classes to start and hit the books again. 


4) What can people be praying for in your life?
       The biggest thing I need prayer for is faithfulness and consistency in my spiritual growth. I currently am seeking a community of believers that I can get connected with, make some friends, and have that group to hang out with during the week. I'm looking into Harvest Bible Chapel with Josh Knipp as the pastor. It's only a plant getting started right now which is both exciting and a lot of work. So I'll get involved there, but just on campus I have to stay faithful in my own time with God in order to stay strong in the midst of the world's influence. 
       I would also appreciate prayers for my roommate. Her name is Ashley and to me she seems very open and even seeking, but in all the wrong places. Pray for her to be open to my influence and also that I would be the testimony of Christ I should be.
       Pray also for my relationship with Esteban. Long distance is hard. It's been a great time for us learning how to work together to keep our relationship healthy and growing, but that doesn't mean it's been easy. God is so faithful and good to us, and we thank him with all our heart, but please be praying that things continue to head in the right direction and work out first for the glory of God as well as our good in our relationship. 
       And of course just college. Pray that I study hard and get things done. I need to practice/learn discipline and prioritizing. I'll have to find the balance of time between everything I do... including resting right (something I learned from the Lovells, thanks Bekah!!).


That's all for now, thanks for reading!! I'll try to update this thing regularly again as I have my computer and am settling into a new stage in life. God is good, vive la vida!! :)

El Fin de Semana con Familia

I had an INCREDIBLE time with my family :) It was a blast to be able to show them around here and let them meet people and just see where I live and what I do. They got in Thursday night and I was at a Saprissa game so I didn't get them from the airport.. I know I'm a terrible daughter ;) But Saprissa won so it was all worth it!! Anyway so I showed them around the villa and then took them to the CAM house where they were going to stay and let them sleep. Then Friday I took them on the hike up the mountain to the crosses. We did it last semester and it was awesome. It's a crazy hard hike but it's totally worth it and GORGEOUS at the top!! So we did that and were dead tired by the end ;) So I took them to Pops on the way home (which is the super popular ice cream store around here) haha. We went out for pizza that night after showering and letting them take a nap. It was really good. Then Saturday I took them to my ministries. So Coronado in the morning (where I actually got to teach the message, so they saw me teach in Spanish.. pretty cool), then youth group in the evening. In the afternoon I took them around Guadalupe a little bit. I showed them the University where we run, Mas por Menos, and other places where we hang out just around the villa area. Then for youth group we got a guard who is stationed on our street to come and preached the gospel really really clearly to him. It was so awesome. He was absorbed the whole time and said he would come back. So pray for him cuz it rocked!!! Then we went to Pops again that night with my church group. And then Sunday they got to experience church at El Alto :) It was great. I played a special in Spanish and they sang with me because it was one that they knew, so we did a Starrett family special at church. The congregation all loved it. Then after a long message we got to go to lunch in San Jose. We went to the Chinese place right across from the open air market. It was really really good. Then of course went to the open air market to let them haggle some prices and get some souvenirs for people back home. My sister, mom, and I got hair wraps together so that was really fun. Then we went to Pops again (haha my family loved it) and headed back for evening church with the other GAPpers. It went really well and my family liked listening to a rockin message in English!! Then we hung out with some people Sunday night just chilling out. And then Monday we went to Jaco beach for the day. My little brother was amazing at surfing!!! He's a skateboarder so I knew he'd pick it up quick.. and he did. He was pretty much on the board all day ;) He loved it. And the rest of us chilled and enjoyed being on the beach. They all got SUPER toasted.. I felt so bad for them. Cuz they haven't been out in the sun in so long they just got fried. I'm way tanner than all of them right now which was a treat for me because I'm usually the whitest of the family. I didn't get any of the Persian blood thanks to my dad :P So yeah I got to gloat about that one all weekend ;) Then Tuesday morning they sat in on the first hour of my Spanish class before heading to the airport. It was an awesome weekend and I had so much fun just being with my family in my country :)

La Obra de Dios en Rio Grande

Wow. The trip I just took was more than amazing!! We left the villa at 4:30am on Friday morning (ugh that's early) and headed up to El Alto to meet the couple going with us. Then we headed to Rio Grande in Paquera (I mentioned earlier the trip we took the first time, just 2 of us, to check it out.. anyway it's a ferry ride across the ocean to a small town). When we got there we settled into the building where we were going to be staying and had lunch. Then we walked down to the beach to check out where we were going to have the bonfire that we planned for Saturday night. Then we went to the field in the middle of the town to play soccer with the kids. After playing for about 2 hours or so the guy from my church basically handed me the opportunity to give the gospel. So I grabbed the wordless book colored soccer ball we had just been playing with and spouted out the gospel in Spanish! It was awesome. Then we face painted for a little bit, had dinner, and chilaxed together until bed time... which ended up being late since there was only one tiny bathroom for all 11 of us. And after 4 people showered we had to wait at least half an hour for the thing to drain enough to stand in it without flooding the floor... yeah it was quite the experience :P Then we got up at 5am sharp to get breakfast and everything ready to meet the kids in the field at 6:30 to take them down to the beach. We bought a ton of trash bags and cleaned up the beach while setting up the wood for the fire. So we spent a few hours cleaning up trash, but we also saw some pretty sweet things. We saw a devil ray swimming close to the shore and it was soo awesome!!! Then because it was getting to that really really hot part of the day we took the kids back to the town and had lunch. A few of the boys followed us to the place we were staying so we just kicked a ball around with them. Then the rest of my church showed up in the bus and joined us. Now numbering 36 we piled into the building forming a giant slumber party like setup on the concrete floor of this building.. still sharing only one tiny bathroom. While the new arrivals rested a little a few of us went down to the river to cool off in the afternoon. It was really cool. We brought the volleyball so we hit that around and played “monito” which is kinda like monkey in the middle. Then we grabbed some mangos on the way back and ate them while getting ready to go to the field for a second afternoon. At 3:30 we grabbed all our sports stuff, face paint, and snacks and headed to the field. I taught a bunch of boys how to throw an american football correctly and they LOVED it. Then we played soccer for a good 2 hours. This time we brought a bunch of little snacks and some juice to give to them. And we face painted again. By this time it was about time to head down to the beach for the bonfire. So we gathered everything and got ready. When we got there the fire was started and we sat around on logs. Four of the people in our group gave a testimony, three were short and the last one was more of a message about the love of God intertwined with a testimony. It was soo good!! He did an incredible job. And he had a gospel invitation at the end which rocked. And in between all of these I played some Spanish songs :) That was fun. Then after all that we lined the kids up and gave them a final gift: box of crayons, tract, snack, and a toothbrush. And we got all the adults together and gave them a ton of clothes that a bunch of us from the villa had gathered to give away. Then most of the people went back, but about ten of us chilled on the beach for about another hour enjoying the AMAZING night. There was a full moon, bonfire, beach, perfectly clear sky... yeah. It was amazing. I just sat on the beach for a while wondering why God chose me for this amazing opportunity to be in Costa Rica serving like I get to. Then we headed back and began the long shower process :P After another wonderful night on the concrete, we woke up to a Spanish song playing from the phone of my pastor's son.. at 5am. We all got up, packed, cleaned the whole building, picked up the trash, ate some breakfast, and headed to the other beach (a privately owned beach that we had access to for our last day just to enjoy). The bus ride was pretty crazy but we made it. This was Sunday so we just got to hang out all day on the beach. We played some volleyball in the waves, soccer on the sand (I scored a goal against ticos by the way!!), and some people got to go fishing. They went shrimping for bait, then out to catch fish. They got about 40 I think so it was a pretty successful day. The rest of us got to go on just a boat ride. The driver took us out around a few islands and stopped a couple times for us to jump out and cool off. It was sooo nice!! I stood on the front like Titanic :) Then we cleaned up and got everything on the bus to head back home. The bus almost died going up the hill to get back on the road and then hung the whole back off a cliff trying to turn around.. yeah I thought we were gone... but we survived again and made it to the ferry. We had lunch at the ferry station, enjoyed the ride back, and then had about a 3 hour ride back to the villa from the ferry. I got to sleep on the bus which was really nice and that was the end of our missions trip. OH! And I totally forgot to mention the fact that one of our guys had to go to the hospital in the middle of the trip! He had an ear infection that got really bad Friday morning. But by afternoon he had gotten two injections and antibiotics. So by mid-day Saturday he was ok. Thanks to our Healer!! :) It was soo amazing and God did some super cool things!! I loved it :) Then I spent yesterday sleeping in, relaxing, reading a LOT, and playing ultimate frisbee to unwind from such a busy week followed by a crazy weekend.

Living in the Country

Although I have class for six hours a day four days a week, there are some times where I have some incredible opportunities that come as perks to living in Costa Rica. Two weekends ago I went with a small group of people from my church to a place called Rio Grande Paquera, a TINY town located on the peninsula of the south-western part of Costa Rica. It was an all day trip (we left at 4:30am and got back at 10:30pm), and we just went to check it out because we're going back with the whole church on the 18th-20th. So our job was to see who was there, where we would stay, talk to the pastor, make a plan, and get ready to go back. It was so cool. We even had to take a ferry to get there! I'm really excited now because this Sunday is our planning day. We'll take the Sunday School hour and just lay down some plans as a church how we're going to evangelize in small ways. This town is full of Catholics, and there are even some Jehovah's Witnesses there. My pastor's son, the guy heading up the trip, told me that because there is such division on beliefs there, the people are so insincere. Our job is to love them. That's it. He even said that he would rather us go show the sincere love of God for three days than try to preach to every person we talked to!! We're planning on having games for the kids, clothes for everyone, snacks during the day, and a few other small projects over the weekend we're there. Also we'll have a bonfire with the youth group on the beach Saturday night followed by a Sunday service with everyone in the morning. So we will at least share the Gospel twice!! I'm stoked. If you would be praying for these people as well as those of us going.


THEN recently on a free Monday I went to the beach about 2 hours away (the Pacific), and just spent the day there. We played Volleyball, lay in the sun, jumped waves, and... SURFED!!!!!! My childhood dream came true... I finally learned how to surf!!! :) I absolutely LOVED it!!!! I got up on my knees first try, then stood up a ton after that. I even sat on my board way out with all the other surfers waiting for a big one.. and then rode a prime wave all the way into shore.. YEAH!!! We had the boards all day so we went a lot ;) AND we saw a small shark, a bunch of stingrays, and a few jellyfish. It was an incredible day in Costa Rica. Oh yeah. And it was like 98 degrees... while y'all had a blizzard!! Haha weird.... ;) It's been really cool to experience the country some.


Looking forward we're going to Los Lagos (hot springs by a volcano) this coming Monday and Tuesday, then the church trip next Friday!! I'm pumped. Keep the prayers rolling upward!! Love to all from Costa Rica :)

Vamos a Palabra de Vida

Last week a bunch of us students had the opportunity to go to different summer camps around our area in San Jose (the kids here have summer break until the end of February). I was a part of the group that went to a Word of Life camp in Guanacaste, about 4 hours away from where we live. It's about 5 times hotter there than it is here, and it's not cold here!! We got to experience constant Spanish, heat, no sleep, tons of middle schoolers, crazy games (and I mean CrAzY!), and of course sun by the pool. I was part of the group of teen staff called Programa. Our job was the kids. We served their meals, planned/organized/ran the games, lifeguarded the pool, sat with them in session time, and just interacted with them. It was super cool. But we had NO free time. Although we barely got sleep, were exhausted by the heat and concentrating in Spanish all the time, as well as entertaining kids constantly, it was an INCREDIBLE experience!! I loved it. Plus I got tan... YES LUCAS for real.. :) 


Another super cool thing that has happened lately is last night we started some workshops that we'll have from now on every Wednesday night. I'm leading one on worship. Because I'm the worship leader here I get the privilege of not only working with a great team, but I get to teach them how to prepare and actually lead worship. In the workshop (which doubles as a practice for Sunday so that Sunday afternoons aren't as chaotic) we talked about what worship is and why we do it. Then I walked through some thoughts on how to prepare a corporate worship service that encourages spontaneity and sincerity while maintaining a sense of structure. I loved it. Because a perk of having a practice/preparation session of worship is.. you have to worship.. haha HAVE to.. bummer right? ;) Then another one that we have is a doctrinal workshop. Justin, one of my fellow students, is actually heading this one up. The leaders will be there occasionally, but really only to help him out if he gets stuck. He's the discussion instigator and those of us attending are the ones who carry it. Yesterday we talked about "who is God?" Pretty impossible to answer I know. So we just looked at passage after passage in the Bible and discussed different aspects of God. It was sooo cool!! My mind was blown. I'm so excited to be able to get together and just ask questions, dig deep, and learn a lot. 


Oh and Costa Rican weather is beautiful as always. Sun and warm almost constantly. I fell asleep by the pool between lunch and class the other day (for less than an hour), and got burnt. BUT after camp even though I got burnt, it turned into a tan overnight believe it or not family.. :) Thanks so much for your prayers. God is really working! 

Con Familia y Fuerza

Hey!! I'm back home in Costa Rica and absolutely LOVING being with my GAP family again!! I got here on Friday night with only two other students, and after I hugged my incredible leaders I literally walked around the Villa grinning for the entire night. I couldn't believe I was actually home again, and that I was once again with my family and friends, and that I have a whole five more months to serve and grow closer to God here in my tropical country. Wow. I am so blessed!! Now it's Tuesday and classes have started again. It's definitely hard to sit for four straight hours speaking Spanish after having a month off in the states... but I know I'll get back into the swing of things very quickly and practice more and more. For the past two nights now we've had just open nights of spontaneous worship. It has been the best welcome home we could have ever planned. My friends - my family - gathered around together in our little living room praying, reading Scripture, sharing both failures and praises of the break, singing, loving on each other in the presence of God, and giving him all the glory for it. Getting to hear all the awesome things God has done over break is so refreshing. My friends rock! Now it's time to buckle down again and get to work! I'm so excited for over TWICE the ministry opportunities that I get to participate in this semester. Next week I'm going to help with a teen camp, I'll soon be translating another youth group message into Spanish, and in a month or so groups will begin coming down who will need translators! I can't wait. God is so good. And in the meantime I get to be in small group again and work with other girls as well as on my own to get deep with God. I'm so ready for a radical semester that shines with sacrificial love for my Lord and his people. I'm back with my family and with power. Let's GO!! :) 

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!