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