Long time, no see!

Hello all! (Whoever you are)

I apologize for not posting in so long! However, I created this blog for my mission trips and it has been several months now since I got back from Costa Rica. I got back from my Honduras trip 3 days ago and I flew out for El Salvador this morning! I wasn't able to post online during the Honduras trip, but I did journal, so I will put up daily updates from that trip today and tomorrow. For my El Salvador trip, I will be posting online daily to keep all of you informed, and for my grade :)

If you are new to my blog, please PLEASE take the time to read my first post: What Do Beautiful Feet Have To Do With Unconditional Love? This post explains why I started this blog. The next post, Here's the Gist, gives an overview of each of the three mission trips that I have been on this year. Thank you, THANK YOU, to all of you who have supported me through prayer, finances, encouragement, and even by just reading this blog! I appreciate your support more than you know!

Peace.

This is the devotion that was in my Jesus Calling book for today. It fit perfectly with where my heart and mind have been since Costa Rica. So, I thought I would share.

"Understanding will never bring you Peace. That's why I have instructed you to trust in Me, not in your understanding. Human beings have a voracious appetite for trying to figure things out, in order to gain a sense of mastery over their lives. But the world presents you with an endless series of problems. As soon as you master one set, another pops up to challenge you. The relief you had anticipated is short-lived. Soon your mind is gearing up again: searching for understanding (mastery), instead of seeking Me (your Master).

The wisest of all men, Solomon, could never think his way through to Peace. His vast understanding resulted in feelings of futility, rather than in fulfillment. Finally, he lost his way and succumbed to the will of his wives by worshiping idols.

My Peace is not an elusive goal, hidden at the center of some complicated maze. Actually, you are always enveloped in Peace, which is inherent in My Presence. As you look to Me, you gain awareness of this precious Peace."

"Trust in the Lord and lean not on your own understanding. 

In all of your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight." 

Proverbs 3:5-6

"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, 

we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." 

Romans 5:1

"Now may the Lord of peace, Himself, give you peace at all times and in every way. 

The Lord be with all of you." 

2 Thessalonians 3:16

 

*from Jesus Calling by Sarah Young

Homesick at "home"

I am homesick.

I am at my "home".

And I am homesick.

I don't know how to explain it. I just know that I am meant for more than this. God has more purpose for my life than this. Today I had this overwhelming sense of "I don't belong here." 

When I come "home" I always tend to do nothing. I am not productive.

Something I learned while in Costa Rica was that it is so important to have time to relax and reflect. But there is no need for that when I have done nothing to relax from or reflect on.

Yes, my family is here and I love them, my parents, my brother and his wife and my beautiful baby niece. But even when I am sitting in their living room holding my niece, I still feel homesick.

My heart is missing something, someone, somewhere.

Even when I leave this house that I sometimes call "home", 

I do not believe that I am going to feel anymore at home in LaGrange.

In Costa Rica, I experienced the feeling of knowing that I was walking perfectly in God's will. I was in constant communication with Him. I was working in His Name, and I was relaxing in His presence. That is not to say that I couldn't experience that in LaGrange or Moultrie, my "homes", but that has yet to happen. I am too comfortable and confident in myself in these places. 

It wasn't until I was completely out of my comfort zone that I found myself fully relying on God. I have never been less stressed-out or less worried in my life. I have never been so trusting, with even the little things. And now that I am back in my comfort-zone, I feel disconnected. I feel homesick, because my home is in the presence of the Lord. My home is in His will, wherever that takes me.

I don't know where the Lord is going to take me next. I think I know, and I have plans, but His plans are much greater than my plans. I look at pictures of Costa Rica and get emotional when I see the faces of my friends and the beautiful children and people that I met there. I miss it so much. I do not know if the Lord will take me back there. I do not know if that will be my "home" one day. 

But I do know that right now I am homesick. 

I miss the place I was at physically, spiritually, and emotionally in Costa Rica. 

I want to feel at home again.

After some rest and a baby...

Sorry it has been a few days since I have posted. I made this blog for people supporting me on my trips, so I don't know how often I will post when I am not traveling. 

I will probably only post every now and then just to keep you updated on my life 

(because I'm sure so many people care...haha yeah right!)

As far as Costa Rica goes....I'm back :( I have been home 3 days and I miss it sooooooo much! 

But before I say anything else, I must tell you my airport story.

So Monday morning before I left, our whole team went out to get pastries and smoothies for my last breakfast in Costa Rica. [My pastry was DELICIOUS. I could live off of pastries.] We got back, I wrote my last post from CR and then Laura, Megan, and I got a taxi and headed off to the airport...VERY SLOWLY. Apparently there was a strike on taxi's in San Jose, so everyone was having to drive their own vehicles. Let's just keep in mind that traffic in San Jose is insane, on a NORMAL day. So multiply that times 100 and you get traffic in San Jose during a strike. So the ride that was supposed to take half an hour to get to the airport, took us half an hour to get halfway to the airport. We were at a complete standstill so our driver decided to turn around and go back to get on the interstate, go completely around the city and go the airport that way. Good call. We got to the airport at 11:30 my flight left at 1:00, so Laura says "Thanks for coming! Bye, we love you! BOOK IT!" haha :) So that was my goal, just get to the gate on time. Unfortunately that wasn't what happened. I walked inside and went to go pay the exit fee. [Why Costa Rica charges you to leave the country? Who knows.] I get up to the teller, hand her my credit card, and it doesn't work. NOOOOOOOOOOO. My card doesn't work, it's credit so I can't get cash out of an ATM, and I have $8 in cash left to pay a $28 fee. Awesome. So the lady [that doesn't speak much English] tells me to step to the side and hope that some nice passengers with help me. So I put my head down, took in a deep breath, said a quick prayer, turned around, and started asking anyone that looked like they spoke English if they could help me out with any cash. PRAISE THE LORD that everyone in line spoke English and most of them had extra cash. I finally got my exit fee payed, desperately thanked the people that gave me money and booked it through customs, check-in, and security. Took a quick break to get a bumper sticker and shot glass [I collect them, don't judge] and got to my gate as they were boarding and doing secondary screening. Thankfully everything went smooth from there and I got to Atlanta to see my besties, my roommate Kelsey and neighbor Brittany, with a sign waiting to pick me up! I stayed with my roommate at her house that night and then drove to Moultrie the next morning. So I am now home! [And yes, I now have a beautiful baby niece but she deserves a full post dedicated to her so just be patient on that :) ]

I haven't posted pictures the whole trip because I didn't bring my camera. 

But Megan and Gabrielle gave me some pictures that they took so I will share some of those.

For more posts and pictures from Costa Rica, visit Gabrielle's blog http://livingadreamersdream.blogspot.com/ 

and Brooke's blog http://brookehelsabeck.blogspot.com/

I will end this post with some pictures of what I love and miss most in Costa Rica.

These beautiful girls: Gabrielle, Brooke, Patti, and Megan :)

Our gorgeous view from the roof of the apartment...

Our incredibly talented soccer friends in Jairo's ministry!

These precious children at the Casa Agape ministry <3

My little Spiderman buddy :)

My roomies and our cute little apartment!

The beautiful beach and beautiful Brooke :)

The woman who started it all..Anna!

And of course, my Coronado friends!! :)

 All I can say right now as I look back at these memories of my trip is, THANK YOU! 

Thank you for your prayers. Thank you for your support. Thank you for your encouragement. 

Thank you for caring about my trip. THANK YOU!

 

Costa Rica Day #7

Domingo! My last full day here :(

Sunday was another long and busy day. Brooke, Megan, and I got up early to catch the bus to Coronado to go to church. Unfortunately, we got to the bus stop right as the Coronado bus had left, so we had to wait another 30 minutes before the next one came. When we got to the Coronado bus station, we needed to either walk up that horrible hill again, or wait another 20 minutes on another bus to get there to take us to the church. So, we started walking and we end up meeting Oscar, one of our friends from church, walking towards the bus station to wait on the bus. So we took that as a sign that God didn't want us walking and we went and waited with him. (Thanks God! That hill is torture!) We got to the "10:00" service at about 10:40. There was lots of worship, lots of talking in Spanish, and a lot less Pentecostal stuff than the night before, and over 3 hours later, we are done around 1:45. Although that is a super long service to us in the States, it is a nice feeling to know that the worship service is led by the Spirit and not by a planned out by the minute schedule.

Since I couldn't understand anything that was being said in the service. I spent that time praying, listening to the Lord, and reflecting on my week here. All I could think about was how I did not want to leave :( I found family here, my brothers and sisters in Christ! I look around the room and see so many faces that, although I have only known for a few days, I am going to miss.

After service, Brooke, Megan, and I walked down the hill to the bus station and rode the bus back to San Jose. As soon as we get back to our apartment and eat, we have to go downstairs and prepare for the Casa Agape service that LightForce and YWAM do every Sunday afternoon. Anna and Laura were in a meeting  so we started sweeping and mopping the downstairs. We had been told the day before that there would be some kids coming, so we needed to find something for them to do in the classroom. Little did we know that they would come way early and that there would be 20 of them! So we quickly pulled out our crafts supplies and just went for it. The kids were having a blast drawing on the chalkboard wall, coloring, and letting me paint their faces. There were 5 boys that were about 10 years old that were writing their names on the board. When I tried to say one of their names I though the K at the beginning was an R, so I said it completely wrong. The boys thought it was the funniest thing they had ever heard. (To protect the boys I can't tell you the name.) But the rest of the night the boys would say my made-up name over and over. Before they left, we were playing monkey in the middle with bean bags, and every single time they threw the bag, they would yell the name. They were having so much fun and there was so much joy on their faces. And I loved begin a part of that. After they all left, I found a paper that the boy had written his actual name on. It is in my book right now and I don't imagine ever throwing it away.

While we were inside the classroom with the kids, the YWAM and LightForce staff were in the main room worshipping with people from the streets. Everytime they go out on the streets, they invite the prostitutes to this church service. The service is specifically for them. We bring them into our environment, love them, worship with them, pray over them, feed them, and love them some more.

The kids that were there with us were either church of the prostitutes and had come with them, or were in dangerous situations and had come with the YWAM ministry. One of the girls there was fourteen and was being trafficked. I didn't realize that until after everyone had left and our team was debriefing. And then all I could thing was: I painted her face. I held her hand. I laughed with here. She was FOURTEEN and being TRAFFICKED. WHY?

I knew that underage trafficking happened. It is very prevalent here in Costa Rica. But it wasn't until I realized that I had looked into the eyes of a girl that was in that situation, that I really felt impact of it on my heart. I still haven't processed that experience yet. I am just writing my thoughts as they come. But ask that you be in prayer for this young girl. Because of this abuse at such an early age, she acts as if she is a 10 year old girl, such a child at heart. I can not give a name or any details, but just PRAY FOR HER. And for all of the many boys and girls that are just like her. Young boys and girls being trafficked for sex through the brothels and streets of Costa Rica and all around the world.

PS. I posted this right before leaving for the airport on Monday morning so please be in prayer for my flight to LaGrange and drive home to Moultrie on Tuesday to be with family and hopefully the new baby soon!

Costa Rica Day #6

Sabado! 

Saturday was such a fun day here in Costa Rica, possibly my favorite day actually...

We started off the day by getting up early and all going as a team (Anna, Laura, Brooke, Megan, Gabrielle, and me) to a mostly boys soccer ministry. A man named Jairo ran this ministry in a very poor community outside of San Jose. Our group of 6 girls walked up and quickly saw that we were outnumbered. There were only 2 girls there. This was the first time that anyone from LightForce had worked with this ministry so we really had no idea what Jairo was going to have us do. Laura, Brooke, Megan, and I jumped in and started kicking around the soccer ball with some of the kids. Because I was deprived from playing soccer as a child, I have absolutely no skill at this game whatsoever. So the kids had a fun time showing off at girls who were twice their age and ten times worse than they were.

After kicking the soccer ball around for a while, Jairo pulled us and all of the younger kids (7-16) off of the field and on to a basketball court below. I got excited because I thought we were about to change it up and play some horse! But, no, not at all. We then proceeded to go through a full soccer warm-up/workout with the kids. I felt like I was doing Insanity again. We did stretches, agility drills, push-ups and even crawled on the ground. And we ran, a lot. Even though all of those things sound like torture to me, we were having such a good time doing them with the kids. Jairo and the other men helping were having a fun time joking around with the kids, while Anna and Gabrielle were laughing at the rest of us from the side and getting some "quality" footage!

So after getting all warmed up, we split up into teams and played soccer on the basketball court. By this time, the rain was really coming down, but it didn't stop anyone from playing. The environment and relationships that Jairo had created with these kids was so incredible to watch. They all had so much respect for him like a father figure, but at the same time would take advantage of every chance to splash him in the face with some water, just like brothers. We were all so thankful to be a part of that ministry that morning. We spent 4 hours hanging out and loving on those kids in their environment. And we were so blessed by it. I almost took one the kids with me to put in my suitcase...he was SUPER cute and I swear he will be in the World Cup one day!

We got back to the house, showered and settled down for a little while before I had my next adventure. Some of our friends from the Coronado Bible study had invited us girls to come to a surprise birthday party for one of the guys, so Brooke and I decided to go. We started the trek to the church in Coronado to go to their youth service and meet up with our friends there. We get to the bus station in Coronado and as we start walking to the church, the rain starts coming down harder. We walked for 25 minutes, uphill, in the rain until we got to the church. We were drenched and exhausted. We get to the service there at 5:35 and the service that was supposed to start at 5 still hasn't started yet, so atleast we didn't miss anything. Several of our friends from Bible study are on the praise team and they started the service soon after we got there with worship. After lots of worship, lots of speaking in Spanish, and LOTS of Pentecostal things going on, the service ended at 8:30. We stayed at the church chatting with people, like church folks do, for about half an hour before we actually left. 

Then we went to a guy's house for our friend Louis' surprise birthday party! Except, sometime between planning the party and when the party actually happened, Louis found out. So...so much for the surprise! The fiesta was a very small get-together with only about 10-15 people there (don't know how we got on the A-list for that one...) Brooke and I shared a few firsts here: playing FIFA and playing Spanish charades, neither of which are easy! Thankfully two of our friends, Nacho and Marcella spoke good English so they helped us through FIFA and charades. Next thing we know it is 1:30AM and now we are celebrating our friend Jeff's birthday! All in all it was a very fun night with some very fun friends/brothers&sisters in Christ.

Although Brooke has been friends with this group for almost 2 months, she is still "new" to their group and this culture. However they accepted us into their group and into their lives without hesitation. Even though I have only been here less than a week, I feel so comfortable here, with my roommates, with my new friends, in this foreign city. I am going to miss these new friends when I leave :(  I am going to be so overwhelmed when I get back to the States and can actually understand everything that is written or is being said!

Costa Rica Day #5

Friday! My trip is halfway over at this point :(

Friday was a LONG day! (Hence not getting day #4's post up...)

Brooke, Megan, Gabrielle, and I got up super early to get ready and go to the beach. We left our apartment around 7 or so, walked all the way past downtown to the bus station, took a 2 hour bus to Jaco, walked into town and took a taxi to Playa Hermosa. So we finally got to the beach around 11:30 or so. The beach was really cool looking because it was a black sand beach (I got some sand, don't worry). After we ate our packed lunches, Brooke and I got up and walked a while down the beach and climbed up some rocks. By the time we got to the top we were really wishing we had 2 things: shoes and a camera! Although Playa Hermosa isn't known for being the most beautiful beach in Costa Rica, God definitely didn't slack off on his handiwork there. It was a beautiful atmosphere, the water felt great, and instead of looking at the beach and seeing buildings everywhere, there was jungle behind us.

While Brooke and Gabrielle were out walking, Megan and I were with laying out with out stuff. I looked out at the ocean and saw the tail of a whale! I got Megan's attention because I wanted to make sure I wasn't crazy, and sure enough, it flashed its tail again. The whale kept showing its tail for a good 10-15 minutes before it finally went back under. It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. Such a huge creature looking like it was having a good 'ole time just swimming around! So after the whale went away, we had an encounter with another creature. One of the families that I think had a house on the beach were out and apparently had dogs. This dog that looks like Wishbone walks up to me with a stick in its mouth and just sits right in front of me, like we had been playing fetch all afternoon. So, without thinking, I grabbed the stick and threw it. Next thing I know, TWO dogs come back with the stick. I realize I am about to create a monster so I try to get the dogs away and walk over to the family next to us to return their dogs. But just a few minutes later 'ole Wishbone comes trotting back with the stick. So I gave in and played fetch with the dog for a while until Brooke and Gabrielle came back.

So after an eventful afternoon with black sand, giant rocks, a whale's tail, and Wishbone, we decided to pack up, catch a taxi and head back. The waiter at the restaurant by the road called a taxi for us and we were a little surprised when it arrived. It was a yellow car (most taxis here are red), with no light on the top, and no meter inside. But, whatever, the waiter called a taxi for the team last week when they were there and they survived. So we got in, got back to Jaco alive, and payed the same price as we did to get to the beach. So, who knows whether the guy is actually a taxi driver or not, but that's not our problem anymore. We get on the 5 o'clock bus back to San Jose and about halfway through the trip when it gets dark, this creepy tico comes up and stands not behind my seat, not just in the aisle next to my seat, but literally right beside my seat, leaning over and holding on the cubby above my seat. Just a little inside my personal bubble. So this man stands there, hovering like a major creeper, for a good 10 minutes while me and Gabrielle are exchanging looks and both praying to ourselves that the Lord would move this man away from us. So finally, the man moves, but just up one seat to where Megan and Brooke are sitting. He does the same creepy hover thing for several minutes while we are all, again, exchanging looks, and praying to ourselves that the Lord would again move this creepy man away from us. So then, the man walks up to the front of the bus, grabs a bookbag from the overhead cubby, pulls the cord to get off and goes to the back of the bus to exit. So while we are thankful that the Lord moved this man away from us, he happened to steal someone's backpack in the process. On a bus that is mostly full of ticos and ticas that don't speak English, coming from Jaco, a sketchy town known for sex tourism, we do not want to attract attention to ourselves, so we do not say anything about the man stealing the bag. When we get to the bus station, however, we see a gringa and a tico at the front of the bus looking for a bag. So when we got off, we told them that it had gotten stolen. Thankfully, since she was gringa, she understood us not saying anything at the time and was thankful for us telling her. The tico had his bag and they had money so we left to go catch a cab back to our apartment, thankfully, with all of our belongings.

We got back, ate dinner, said goodbye to Patty since she was leaving the next morning for the weekend, and then went to bed exhausted. The rest of my trip looks like this: Sat AM sports ministry, Sat PM birthday party, Sun AM Coronado church, Sun PM Casa Agape church, Mon AM breakfast with team, Mon PM fly home!