In pain...

Pain is a good word to describe how I'm feeling on this rainy day during sunny season in Costa Rica. :) Here is the semi-entertaining story:

Last week was insane. Tons of meetings, late nights, buying tickets and getting ready for a trip over the weekend and then this coming weekend's trip to Panama, Bible study, basketball practice, etc. By Friday I was absolutely exhausted. I was fine all day until after lunch when I started coming down with flu-like symptoms. Yuck. It was like I had food poisoning or something. Whatever it was did me pretty dirty and I spent a good amount of time in the baño. The only problem was that Kate and I were supposed to leave at 2:30 to go visit our friends who live out on a Pacific side surfer beach called Dominical. Not willing to give up my weekend at the beach for a lame stomach issue, I set out between trips to the toilet to the pharmacy here. They sell pills individually, so I bought my three immodium pills and went on my way. I packed some barf bags, downed the pills and told Kate that we were leaving. LOL it definitely could have went worse for me. I didn't get sick the whole trip. I was glad...and I'm pretty sure the whole bus was as well. I was so exhausted that I slept the whole time. We arrived and went to bed and I awoke feeling much better in the morning.

On Saturday, I was still feeling pretty odd...but decided to partake in the festivities with our friends. Now these guys are pretty nuts. They do ministry with the surfers there and pretty much do crazy stuff all the time. Our day consisted of riding on a jet ski...being pulled on an tube by the jetski at 100 mph, swimming through caves and surfing. The tubing was so fun. I did a couple of serious face plants straight into the water. I got thrown into the air by the waves several times and did quite a few belly smacks into the ocean. Once that was over we went through some caves and went body surfing through them as the tide came in a rushed through. lol its all fun and games until you run into a cave wall....however, extremely funny. After that we took a break and ate...only to return to the ocean afterwards to surf for a couple of hours. I learned how to at least get up on the board but I'm still not good (which is driving me nuts), but I did stand up once (of course before getting absolutely trashed by the tide afterwards). I was getting thrown all over the place and the tide was pretty intense. It was great. We ate again and went home and I passed out. On Sunday morning....I couldn't move. Here is my full body assessment: cuts all over my hands and feet from running into cave walls, bruises on my legs from banging them against the surfboard and other people's bodies as I was thrown off the tube, both elbows black and blue from all activities, bruised and ropeburned chin from hitting it on the rope while tubing, back pain from getting knocked on the ocean floor while surfing, bruises on my hips and chest from surfing without a rash guard, unable to turn my neck or lift my arms from doing face plants into the water after getting thrown, weak arms from holding on for dear life during all activities, and still a weird stomach. Outrageous. We drug ourselves back into school today absolutely physically exhausted. Then we find out we have to go to a funeral because a teacher's sister had died. I have never been to a CR funeral before...but it pretty similar to what we have. After that, we were emotionally exhausted as well. I'm sure you can imagine that I most definitely passed out on the car ride back to school and I was completely unproductive for the rest of the day. lol but I feel like this weekend was well lived :)

Ch ch ch changes....

Sooooo.....God brought some more unexpected my way. My heart is a little torn as I write this blog, even though I've known about these changes for about a month now. I have just started tell people what is going on...so here it goes.

In November and December, I really started feeling a stirring in my heart from the Lord. I started praying about whether God wanted me to stay in CR for another year or if it was time to move on. Through a lot of prayer, deliberation, and seeking counsel, I had peace about an opportunity called the World Race that was put in front of me. The opportunity came up and my heart immediately focused in on that. I wasn't going to apply, but I received a series of confirmations from the Lord that I needed to apply. So on a Tuesday night I applied. I had my telephone interview on Wednesday less than 24 hours later. I told the lady that interviewed me that if she had any doubts about me to please reject my application. I wanted to be REALLY sure. She told me I would probably find out in a week because they still had to do a background check, check my application and possibly my sources, and pray about it. 24 hours later I got a message on Skype. I returned the call the next day and found out I was accepted. If I had answered the phone the first time...this would have all transpired in less than 48 hours. How cool is that? I was so surprised and so excited. Soooo...after all that and surrendering it all to Christ for more confirmation, I am positive that this is what God has for me. It's all pretty crazy. Basically, I will live in 11 countries (India, Nepal, Cambodia, Thailand, Kenya, Uganda, Romania, Ukraine, and three countries we don't know about until we pray for God's leading), in 11 months, doing 11 different ministries. I leave September 1, 2010.

I'm so excited and thrilled to be able to do this. I can't wait to serve in other countries and know other cultures. I can't wait to only live with 40 pounds of belongings (including my bedding and tent) in a backpack for 11 months. I'm so excited to work with ministries that deal with sex trafficking, orphans, teaching English, and much more. I can't wait to grow closer to God and see what He is doing around the world. I'm sad too though. I'm sad to leave friends here that I have grown to love. I'm sad to leave a country I've fallen in with. I'm sad that the countries I'm going to aren't Spanish speaking countries. I'm nervous about culture shock 11 times over. I'm nervous about raising the $14, 300 of support in such little time. There are so many different emotions I have, but I know God is with me, He is my provider and He is my peace.

Well this is getting long...but there it is. Once again, life is going to change. I didn't expect it, but I love this adventure I'm on with my Creator. The blog will definitely continue here as well as another blog I will be required to keep on my homepage on the World Race Website (I will pretty much be posting the same things on both blogs so that you can just check one (if you want). There you can find more information about my trip, about how the support is coming and more information about how you can help me with support. I really appreciate your prayers right now as I finish up my last 3 1/2 months here, raise support, and prepare for transition. Thanks for reading!

My job :)

This week has been great. I honestly can't believe that it is already March 7. I feel like life is just flying by. One of the most exciting things about this week was working with one of my students. Without giving too many details about him...just know that he struggles with interacting with people and doesn't communicate. I've been working so hard with him and on Friday we broke out a camera and a video camera and he totally started interacting with us (Eden and I). It was wonderful. I've included some of the pictures. Other highlights of the week....we had a party here at our apartment. Here is a picture of me and some of our Tico friends. I'm not sure what Albin is doing :) It's just been a good weekend with friends. We had a 4.4 earthquake that night too. Thankfully there it was short and not very strong...so no damage was done. I did spend some time on the phone yesterday trying to figure out why we haven't been able to connect to the internet. What they do here is throw a bill into your mailbox or in our case, they just roll it up and throw it as far through our barred garage as they can. So we got our internet bill and it said it had been paid. You must take your bill to the bank or grocery store to pay it. I went just in case to see if I needed to pay it. The bill wasn't in the system, so I didn't pay it. Anyway, so the internet goes out and I call. I explain to the lady all that happened and she just matter-of-factly says, "you didn't pay." I know this, and I try to explain. She says, "But still you didn't pay. How do you figure to have internet if you don't pay your bills?" Ugh. I tried to blame it on the grocery store. Apparently that doesn't work. Now she probably thinks I'm a dumb gringa that doesn't pay her bills. Fail. And the last thing, I just thought this was cute. Today in church we sang a song about a buffalo. LOL Kate wasn't there...so I didn't have anyone to laugh about it with. To Costa Ricans a buffalo signifies strength and power...so they use that illustration a lot. I don't even think there are buffalo here. Anyway the whole song was like "You will make me like the buufffalllloo" (obviously in Spanish). It was really dramatic and drawn out and I was laughing hysterically. My Tico friend just kept looking at me but I couldn't explain how I couldn't imagine singing about how I want to be like a buffalo at my church at home (mostly because I don't want to be compared to a large, hairy animal). hehe I'm going to recommend it though when I get home. Thanks for reading :)

Eating habits...

So I don't have anything super exciting to write about this weekend...so I thought I would describe some of our eating habits...because well they can be funny. Plus, that is a top ten question whenever people ask about me living in Costa Rica. No I do not eat monkey or alligator on a regular basis...so don't get to excited, but there are some interesting things. We mainly eat beans, rice, fruits and vegetables. Of course we alway import peanut butter. No we don't eat Mexican food. Whenever I go back to the States everyone is always so surprised that I want to eat Mexican...thinking we eat that everyday, but we don't (given, the general consensus that Costa Rica is an island and that we speak Mexican here too- lol Costa Rica is not Puerto Rico, we're in Central America and we speak Spanish...no Mexican). Costa Rican food is much more bland. Mostly vegetables, rice and beans. They don't even eat salsa really. I'm sure I eat at least 10 tortillas with refried beans in them a week. We do buy some meat...but we ration it out. We try to only eat meat every other day since it is so expensive. Anyway, in the rich area of San Jose (where any American business men or diplomats live), there are a few chain restaurants. Big news-we just got an Applebee's. Anyway, there is a TGI Fridays, which is by far one of my fav. restuarants in the U.S. We've never been there here because it is expensive, but last night Kate and I went...celebrating our belated Valentine's Day and well...it counted for every other holiday that we'll ever spend together once we realized how much a cheeseburger was. It seriously almost took up my whole food budget for the week. But seriously, the best cheeseburger I've ever had in my life. Since we don't eat much meat and probably honestly don't always eat the way we should because we are cheap...it was amazing. Given, my body protested today and my stomach is sickish for having that foreign food in there...but it was so worth it. Changed my life :) But today we're back to eating bean tortillas and guacamole. yummm...

Ps. Yuck...just found out. Please pray for the Chileans as they just experienced an 8.8 earthquake. That is amazingly strong. Earthquakes scare me lot especially since CR has many of them.

Preaching :)

This weekend was really great and I am so excited to blog about it. Well let me back up...on Tuesday night, I started doing a Bible study with some in my church about the names of God in Spanish. It went really well and I learned some great things about God and what some of His names signify. I learned specifically that the first name God uses in the Bible is Elohim (which means all-powerful) and that this name is plural (meaning the trinity was present). Well on Saturday, two Jehova's witnesses came knocking at our door. I went out not really knowing what to expect but feeling ready to go. The young girl in training started off showing me some verses and I listened politely until it was my turn to share. I went right to the fact that I believe Jesus is God (which Jehova's witnesses do not believe). The young girl stopped talking and the teacher took over. We had an all out discussion about the doctrine and differences between Christianity and their beliefs. What was awesome was that I was able to use what I had learned from my Bible study to back up what I was saying. We went around in circles for a bit, me preaching the gospel and the lady leading me to verses that helped her explain her reasoning. It was really interesting. At one point she said that she just doesn't believe that Jesus is God, to which I responded politely that I thought this was blasphemy (evidence that God is giving me the words to say in Spanish because I have no idea how I knew the word for blasphemy in Spanish). But God just kept providing the verses and the Spanish. They finally said that they had to leave because they had lost their group (lol they had lost their group 20 minutes before that) so I asked them to pray with us. They quickly changed the subject and I asked again. She said no because they had already prayed before they started going house to house, to which I asked why she couldn't pray again. Apparently they're not allowed to pray with other religions. I asked her if we were serving the same God, why we couldn't pray together but she had no answer. It was really interesting. How great it was to be able to use my notes from Bible study!

Then, if you remember the guy I talked to at the pool about Jesus whom I invited to church...he came to church on Sunday again, this time with his niece. The sermon was great and at the end, he went forward and prayed! I just had tears rolling down my cheeks. He said that he has accepted Christ and that he is just thanking God for saving his life and protecting him. It was amazing. It was so wonderful to see God blessing the learning He has provided me with. I'm so thankful to be able to converse in Spanish now. As I sat in Bible study tonight, sharing my story and learning more, it hit me hard that I understand Spanish, and that I speak well enough to have discussions about doctrine and its differences in different beliefs. I just started praising God because it is all because of Him. It is so hard to explain what a blessing it is to finally feel decently competent in a language after working so hard and praying so hard. God has blessed me beyond words and for that I am thankful. I also appreciate those of you that have been praying for me along the way. Thanks :)

Snow days...

Me, Chrissy, Kate, and Carolina at the beach last weekend
This week as the U.S. is pretty much covered in snow, I sent up a request for some snow days. I was slightly envious of everyone being off of school. Anyways, I got my own "snow days" in the form of another round of bronchitis. I had to miss school on Thursay and Friday. I was pretty sick and I still sound like a man when I talk, but I'm feeling a lot better. It was great to have some days off though because I had a lot that needed to get done...so while laying on the couch, I did all my stuff. I never had bronchitis in the U.S., but I've had it three times in two years here. I think its because of the mold and dampness. I had to go through the whole going to the free clinic three times in one day and I finally came out with two injections in the bum and four perscriptions lol. Today has been great. Kate is in the States taking a test so I got up and went with Eddie to the market. I got $20 worth of fruits and vegetables, came home, made a big veggie omelet and a mango, banana, strawberry smootie, and watched Tarzan in Spanish. I suppose you could say that I'm living the life today :) Tonight we're going to watch the Blindside and our church "youth group" and then to a party in the mountains. Oh how I love the weekend. Pray for Kate and her test today...she'll get the results in a month! And also for safe travels. Thanks for reading!

History made and beach trip

This weekend I was able to go to the beach with three friends for free :). My basketball team and director got together money to go to the beach to thank me for doing basketball. It was me, Kate and two other teacher friends. We went to this beautiful quiet beach on the Pacific side in a beautiful house. We were even given money to eat out on. It was such a blessing. We just relaxed and talked and ate. The weather was absolutely beautiful and the company was even better. I'm so thankful. It was just what we needed.
The other funny thing about this weekend (besides the Saints winning the superbowl-yes we were able to watch it) was that it was election weekend here in CR. There were three main candidates and they each have a specific color. It was so random here because people were out all day on Sunday, just driving around, beeping and waving their flags. lol for hours. All day. Driving around and beeping. It was so funny. I mean, people were seriously so intense. People hanging on overpasses and standing in the middle of the road just waving their flags. Everyone was decked out in their colors and shouting names. I also loved that the candidates go by their first names. Latinos all have two last names and they are usually long like "Gutierrez Rodriguez" or something...lol can you imagine screaming that over and over while driving down the street? Anyway, the president chosen, Laura, is the first woman president of Costa Rica...so history was made yesterday. Pretty cool...for what is always thought of as such a male dominated culture, I am pretty impressed by their choice :)