what we do...

I don't have too much to blog about...just normal stuff. A lot of people ask what we do for fun around here...so I included some everyday life pics. The following pictures are of one of my best friends here, Albin, and I taking tango lessons at an international festival downtown...no one else with us would do it...so we rocked it :)

We're basically just doing school and hanging out with friends, with about 1,000 other commitments scattered in throughout the week :). 49 days left of school. I can't believe it. I only have around 2 1/2 months left in Costa Rica...oh how I have mixed feelings on that one. Here is us eating family dinner on Easter...we were supposed to have more people...but some couldn't come...so we were left over with tons of corn casserole. This was a new food experience for the Ticos considering corn casserole doesn't frequently make in on their menu :) I told them its not Easter without corn casserole in the Wegman family.

I've almost completed our discipleship class with my Spanish church. We've been studying the names of God and it has been fascinating. This week is the last week and we're supposed to have our final exam...except they did it as a surprise last week. Do you know how hard it is to have a pop exam studying Hebrew names of God in your second language? lol ugh. actually...it wasn't that bad, I only forgot one thing- but afterwards I was like drained :). This week we will have a party instead so I guess that makes it okay! Let's see...what else...I hit the $2,000 mark on raising my support for the World Race!! Only $12,000 more to go :) Thank you so much to all who have donated thus far!!! The student I mentor, Eden, is an amazing photographer and she does photo shoots of us :) This one is in from of the National museum in CR.Here is Chrissy and me with our students on pajama day...my personal favorite :)

Birthday party for Eddie :) All gluten free...even the cake!!!

Crossing the Jordan

I don't know if you've ever thought about this, but I always question how the Israelites doubted God so much. I mean, how could they doubt God's sovereignty and provision after all of the miraculous signs He did and all the ways He always provided for them? I mean...they pretty much had face to face interaction with him through Moses. And then it hits me, I am the same way. I may not have face to face interaction...but I have a personal relationship with Christ and He lives within me. That's a pretty big deal. Plus, I too have seen God's work through the ages...in the Bible, in the lives of others, and especially His faithfulness in my life...yet I still doubt. I always say to myself that next time I will be sure to take God at His word and just surrender what is going on immediately...but that just doesn't work out for me. All that to say, God's been throwing me some curveballs...things that I just don't expect and things that are different than what I would have planned in my timing. It finally hit me again last night that I wasn't doing the immediate surrender that I had promised myself I would do last time I didn't trust God to provide. I started reading the Bible and I was brought to Joshua 3 (titled "Crossing the Jordan"). It says "When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests, who are Levites, carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it. Then you will know which was to go, since you have never been this way before...Then Joshua told the people, 'Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you.'" It was one of those times that just profoundly spoke to me. God's like, "if I'm moving- then go! All you have to do is follow me. Leave your position and follow!" It's not about me knowing the way, but about me just following and knowing the way because God is guiding me on a path I've never been on before. It even goes as far to say that along the way we must consecrate ourselves because God is going to do something amazing! I was reading in Spanish and I just love the translation: it's almost like... leave your place...leave where you've been just hanging out and follow me. Spanish has more verb forms than English and they have many tenses that express uncertainty in sentences like this....but in this particular verse...there is no tense that expresses uncertainty. It just says "YOU WILL KNOW which way to go." I love that. There is no uncertainty in God's way and He will guide us and do amazing things. I thought that was an amazing reminder :)

Panamá

We're back from Panamá! Last week was Semana Santa and we went down to Panama because we've never been there. I only spent less than $250 for a week in another foreign country...how great is that?? Rather than give you a long boring post...I'll give you the main highlights, rather, the missions that we went on.

Day 1: Surviving the 17 hour bus ride to Panama City. I took a carsickness pill and passed out. I slept for 15 of the 17 hours. Kate got food poisoning and threw up for half of the trip.

Day 2: Kate getting better. I go to church with the family we're staying with. I have to get up and speak in church in Spanish. I give a shout out to those from Ohio...apparently no one is from Ohio :) Then some lady comes and prays/screams 10 minutes of blessings over me. It's 100 degrees and she is all up on me. Her lips keep touching my ears and I'm drenched in sweat. I can't help but laugh. She prays that I am strong like the buffalo (see a previous blog)...I die laughing.

Day 3: We all go to Casco Viejo )the old part of Panama city...it's absolutely beautiful. The new city is beautiful and super advanced...I can't believe how different it is. The roads even have names and people follow them (what???). Then we go to some Artisans markets and Albrook mall. It's huge. Bigger than anything we even have in Ohio. Everything is much cheaper in Panama. I eat Dairy Queen!!!!

Here are some locals swimming in the fountain in their underwear :)

Day 4: We went to the Panama Canal. So cool. The history was so interesting. I think the reason that Panama is so advanced is because the Americans were there for so long. We saw a boat pass through the locks. For those of you from Cincinnati...it's kinda like driving down River Road down on I50 and getting a few glimpses of the river and instead of seeing a barge, seeing a huge cruise ship or ocean tanker. It's pretty crazy. Then we went to the mall again and I ate Dairy Queen!!! Then we left on a random bus to Bocas del Toro which are islands on the Carribbean. We watch Marley and Me in Spanish on the ghetto bus and cry our eyes out while flying through the backcountry of Panama.

Day 5: We arrive 10 hours later at the islands really early in the morning. We take a land taxi and a water taxi and arrive at a hostel that has given away our reservations. So we sit and fall asleep on their couch because we're exhausted. We get another water taxi to another island to another hostel. They have a place but need to clean the twelve person room. 12 hours later, the room is cleaned. It was disgusting. The guys in before us were drunks and absolutely trashed the place. It was awful, but we were stuck on the island. Soooo we sucked it up and made it through.

Day 6: We're feeling more rested and the room is cleaned a little more. We meet some cool people from all over the world and go to the beach. The sun still hasn't shown...it's been raining. We hike to some random beautiful beach. I almost get sucked up in quick sand as I search the forest for a good place to go to the bathroom LOL

Day 7: The new friends we made invited us to go snorkeling with them. It was beautiful. Clear water, cool fish and corral. We saw dolphins! It's still rainy and gross out. I touch some fire corral on accident and get corral poisoning (who even knew that this was possible). My arm was burning and red and puffy. I survived :). We got back to the hostel and the sun came out for 2 hours...yesss!!! We got burnt lol.

Day 8: We leave in the morning. We didn't have return tickets so we were just going to beg for rides, try to catch a bus...hitch hike if needed (not really...well...). We take two water taxis and one taxi. Thankfully the land taxi guy was super helpful and got us a place a bus going back to CR. lol standing room only on this 6 hour busride, but some how we got a seat. We get the super ghetto border crossing. Walk our own butts across this awful bridge into Costa Rica. They didn't check our bags or anything, just gave us a stamp lol. 5 hours later, gracias a Dios, we got back to San Jose. God was definitely taking care of us :).
So basically, it was great...but probably the weirdest, longest trip ever. We're home safe and really thankful. I'm glad we made it. Thanks for your prayers.

Panama...

Just a quick note. I'm going to Panama this week so my next blog won't be until next weekend or so. Please pray for safe travels 17 hour bus ride today...10 hour bus ride Tuesday....8 hour bus ride at the end of the week. Please also pray for protection of our apartment. There have been many robberies this week and we just want to pray for a special covering. Finally...that we would get the rest that we need. I'm convinced that we are going to sleep the whole 17 hours due to all the craziness. So....that is all! I hope everyone has a fabulous Semana Santa (holy week)!

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 :)