Buenos Tardes!

This is going to be a extremely busy weekend for me. Tonight my group is having a "fall fest", then I am leaving early tomorrow (6 o'clock!) for church.

There have been some miscommunications with my original church, so my church group (there are 4 of us) are being placed in a new church every other weekend. I will have two churches now, one where I will be doing a lot of outreach with and be living with, and with the other (my original church) we will focus on growing. The GAP program used the new church I will be going to in past years but it is about 2 hours away, so they tried a different, closer church this year instead. Unfortuently, this church is very small and is not very intent on growing. This has been very discouraging for my church group, so we're very thankful that we are able to go to another church every other week.

I will be spending all day Saturday working with the new church doing outreach in the community, then I will be staying with a family from the church overnight and attending church with them Sunday morning. Then I will return to the Villa with my church group around 4. We then have worship here in the evening for an hour or two. Monday I am up bright and early again for a trip to a famous Catholic Cathedral for the day.

November 13 we are hosting a Jesus video for our community. I am working on translating my testimony to Spanish so I can share it with some of the people who come. We now have learned enough spanish that we are starting to go out into the community to share the Word of God! It's so exciting to finally be using what I've learned.

Thank you for all your prayers and support!
God bless!

Hola!
First off, my computer has crashed, so my posts will not be every week. I will try to keep them updated as often as I can.

I feel completely submerged into life here. It feels like I have been here for much longer than one month.
The primary focus these first three months is Spanish and basic training of the Bible. I have three Bible classes right now, one on Theology, one on how to study the Bible, and one on learning how to evangelize to the Costa Ricans.
A typical day for me is 4 hours of Spanish, lunch, then 1 1/2 of Bible, followed by free time. Weekends we do ministry with our churches. We are really consentrating on the language right now so that when we come back after Christmas break, we are fluent and can really dive into more ministry.
I have started working with the youth group in my church. In November, my church group will be helping with a youth conference. Right now, we're brainstorming ways to really reach out into the community and grow the youth group.
Spainsh is very frustrating at times, but it is coming along. I've learned so much in just one month.
Thank you all for your support and prayers!

Settled In

It has been quite a while since I have last updated. I am in my second week of classes. Every morning I have 4 hours of Spanish, then I have about an hour or two of Bible classes in the afternoon. Late afternoon is time to catch up on sleep, homework, or run errands. I now have a home church here, which I will attend until I leave in June. It's pretty small with an even smaller youth group, but one of my group's goals is to bring in more people, especially youth.

I think I have gotten over the shock of sharing my life, literally, with 33 other people. It has made for a good growing experience. The hardest part, which I am still adjusting to, is never having the oppurtunity to be alone. I feel like I am always surrounded by others.

The most awesome experience I have had thus far was this past Monday. Most of my group hiked up and down one of the nearby mountians. It took us about 1 1/2 hours to climb up the mountain, most of which was straight uphill. After lunch, we started our journey down the other side, in search of a river that was nearby. The first mile was quite a pleasent little stroll, then we happened upon a grassy...um hill, thought the word cliff would be a more accurate descprition. It was the only way to the creek, and being the crazies that we are, we decided we must go down.
It took about an hour to climb down the hill and I have never felt more like a moutian goat in my life. About 10 min after I reached the bottom, the dark clouds rolled in and all of the excess water in Heaven's watering system started pouring down. We started the trek towards our bus, which we thought was just ahead throught the trees. Oh how wrong we were! We walked throught the jungle in a downpour that only Costa Rica could provide for about 2 hours. Becuase we were in a valley, our path quickly became a rushing stream. When we finally reached the road, we realized we were in a different providence. After reaching this conclusion, we tossed a coin and went up the road to the right (the best decision of the day, btw). We climbed and climbed some more (we we literally in the clouds!) and when we thought we made it to the end, we discovered there was a gate across the road. (It was still raining, just so you know). The only way to go was to climb straight up a mini waterfall type path made of red clay and mud. Life lesson: red clay and mud does not make for good traction. It was the only part of the day I really almost thought I could die (hi Mom and Dad!) We all made up to the top and shortly after, the bus. Unfortuently, we were 2 hours late and the bus driver was about to call the police to say that he had lost 30 "gringos" somewhere in the wilderness.

Compared to that, all other things I have done this week have been child's play. :)

Thank you for all your prayers!

Hola Costa Rica!

I am finally here and settled in. I have been so busy these last few days and time for Internet has been spotty. So far we have been doing many, many group building activites. Yesterday, tonight, and probably tomorrow, everyone has/ will be sharing their testimonies. It's so great to get to know everyone on such a deep level so soon. It's hard for me to believe that this time last week I didn't know anyone here (with the excpetion of the three from Pequea.) I feel like I have known them forever.

Costa Rica really is as beautiful as people say. Every morning it is bright and sunny, then without fail, every afternoon it rains. Nights are clear and cool. I can see the mountains from the front porch. It is the best view in the world.

We have been busy getting aquainted with San Jose. We've been to a futball game, downtown, the grocery store, and the University. I love either walking or taking public transportation!!

One thing that is taking a little while to get adjusted to is the schedule. The people in Costa Rica are so laid back, we often don't know what we will be doing until an hour or so before. Being flexible is a must. Tomorrow we are visiting on of the churches. Soon we will be able to pick the ministry we would like to work with, such as poor or middle class, or teens or children.

I am getting over a bad cold, so please pray for my health and please continue to pray for the safety of my team.

Flying

Here I go. Tomorrow this time I will have been on a plane, off a plane, driven to a humugo church, met the 30 other people I am living with in quite close quarters for the next 9 months, commitioned, and suppered.

I a bit distracted tonight so this will be very short.

I am nervous, excited, anxious, and trying to remember to breath. One, two, three. Breath.
Because tomorrow I fly.

Before I Go, a Little Background

Well, this is it. It's getting down to the wire. In two weeks I will be Costa Rica, trying to sort all my belongings for the next three months into three small white cubbies, adjusting to three roommates, and learning the names of 33 other people,(whew, 3 must be the magic number), all the while muttering under my breath, "this is God's plan, this is God's plan, this is God's plan." You see, while I am excited about going to Costa Rica and studying the Bible and Spanish in depth, I am also terrified.

I love home. I love everything about it. My house and family, my friends, Lancaster County, my job, my very comfortable bed....I could go on. But I realized that though, at this point, I am not running towards this with arms wide open, it is necessary. I do not want to get to Heaven, look at Jesus and say "I'm sorry. I would have done more for your Kingdom, but I formed an unhealthy attachment to the comforts of my own bed." No. That would be an awful excuse. I want to be stretched and molded. And for me, the way to do that is going to Costa Rica.

And so, soon I'll be off to Chapter 2 of my life. For a total of nine months, (it's split into two semesters with Christmas break in between) I will be living in a villa with 33 other teens and young adults. We will spend our mornings studying Spanish and our afternoons and some evenings studying the Bible. On weekends, we will do outreach in the community and help local churches, while living with a host family.

For those of you who know me well, this is a huge stretch for me. Please keep me and my team in your prayers as we travel first to Georgia for a brief orientation, then to San Jose. We will all be adjusting to our new living enviroment and each other. Please pray that God blesses our relationships and for our health as we adjust to a new country and climate.