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.