New Normalcy

Hello everyone! Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve posted. It’s not that I haven’t been thinking about my blog, its just that I haven’t really had anything to blog about. As I started thinking about it more and more I realized that not having anything to blog about is kind of a blessing. I don’t have any huge news, and I am learning that that is ok. It means that life here is normal. Normalcy is something good for missionaries. It means I am past the “tourist” stage here. When I was at training with The Mission Society, we learned about the several stages of culture shock. The first stage is the “tourist” stage where everything is new and exciting. After that comes the rough patch, or the crisis period. When things start to become frustrating, fears arise, and feelings of loneliness replace the newness of it all. I don’t know if I am 100% in this stage, but there are definitely moments when these feelings come to mind. After the rough patch comes the adjustment stage. I don’t know if I am quite here yet because the fears and frustrations still linger, but I can say that I each day I am feeling more and more comfortable with life here. My room feels like my room and not just some place I am staying. I am more and more comfortable with the family I live with. My schedule has become a routine. And honestly I look forward to eating beans and rice everyday. Of course there are things I miss at home, and nothing here can replace those things, but everything here is becoming the new normal for me. Some of you have asked what my schedule is like so here is an overview of what normal is for me now:

Sunday: I teach Sunday school to the younger youth every other week and I also help with alter prayer every Sunday morning. I also usually spend time walking and talking with one of the youth who faces A LOT of challenges in life. This girl needs lots of pray for strength (you can call her Diane). I also get to “see” my family back home thanks to the wonders of technology.

Monday: I teach a beginner level English class in the church. This is one of my favorite things to do every week.

Tuesday: This is my “off” day. At night I go stay at the mission house (which is basically a house that is the center of operations) with Carlos and Karla (the pastors), Maria (church administrator), and Norma (a youth who leads the children’s ministry).

Wednesday: This is a day for prayer, meditation, relaxation, and planning. I also cook an “American” dessert every week to share with them.

Thursday: I teach an advanced English class in the church. This is a fun class because all the students are youth from the church.

Friday: This is probably the most challenging day for me. Every Friday night we go out in the streets to evangelize. We also spend time in the church praying for people we know to come to Christ.

Saturday: I start the day by going to the feria to buy the fruits and veggies for the week. Then in the afternoon I have a meeting with the youth leadership team. Then at night we have youth group.

Extra: Since I have free time during the day, I spend my time preparing for English classes and any lessons I teach. Something new is that I have come to love running here. I also help with any translation needs and random things in the church. One thing I have had to learn here is that idle time is not a sin, which is hard for a North American to learn.

I hope this gives you a better idea of what my normal life is like here. Each day frustrations become more minute and things that were so different when I first came are now ordinary. That’s not to say that I don’t have new challenges to face, but I know that which each new challenge comes new growth and new normals.

Finally pictures...

Sorry this post is very scatter-brained but since it is my first time to post pictures I am still learning how to organize them! You've all heard the cliche saying that a picture is worth a thousand words, well I hope these pictures tell you a little bit more about what I have been doing here. Sorry they are not in order! Enjoy... This first picture is from Easter with Karla Cunningham (Pastor's wife for those of you who don't know).

 The Youth surprised me with a cake for my birthday...

 then proceeded to smash my face in it!

 Carlos and Karla took me to Pizza Hut for my birthday. This is their daughter Faith

 That was supposed to say "feliz cumpleaños". I guess they should stick to making pizzas.

 Our team was commissioned before we went on our trip to Jacó.

 One of the youth praying with a guy on the beach during our evangelism trip.

 The youth did the Lifehouse "Everything" skit on the streets.

 We did an activity in the park with the kids in the community.

 They loved their temporary tatoos!

 More beach evangelism

 Skits in the park with the kids

 Like always, playing soccer

 This girl sure did love the bracelets

 Group photo

 Skits on the beach

 Group photo

 Youth playing with the kids in the park. These guys were so great with them!

 Farmers market! Its mango season... my favorite

 fresh lettuce

 its so incredibly busy!

 Yucca, the funniest looking vegetable

 buying avocados

 Pipas = fresh coconuts

 delicious and healthy coconut water!

 Good to the last bite!

 Fresh cut mango!

that is fresh spinach behind the broccoli!

Spiritual Splits

Last week during Holy Week, I had the opportunity to go with several of the youth to a beach here called Jacó to do beach evangelism. I felt very bitter sweet about going A) because the beach is my favorite place in the world, and B) because it would mean I would have to walk up to random people and talk to them. Being an introvert, it’s hard for me to just walk up to people and introduce myself, nonetheless share something so important and personal about me. If I’ve learned anything about evangelism over the years, it’s that if you don’t share how the Good News has changed your life, and share your personal testimony, it makes it a lot harder for the people to see that it’s the real deal. Our personal testimonies are a huge part in evangelizing, and here I was about to share my personal life with random strangers. I was nervous and way out of my comfort zone, but of course God is sovereign and was at work. Just to give you a little bit of background information, here during Holy Week since it is a Catholic nation, all of the schools close, and so do a lot of businesses. What that means for the locals is that its time to head to the beach. A trip that would normally take 2 hours, took us twice as long due to the masses of people heading to the beach. It reminded me a lot of Spring Break in Alabama when college and high school students flock to Destin, Gulf Shores, etc. During this week, Jacó turns into a Panama City Beach scene; people are spilling out of bars every where, prostitute are found on every corner, drunk people share the streets with crazy drivers, etc. So you can image what we were up against. As we approached people I would get a lump in my throat, a lot like Moses did. But as soon as I spoke the first word God gave me peace and excitement to share something so wonderful. As I started speaking the words came so easily, and I even prayed in Spanish with every person I talked to. Its one thing to speak Spanish to people, but to speak it to the Heavenly Father is tough stuff! In the end God taught me that to truly show our obedience to His calling in our lives, we may have to do uncomfortable things, but if we follow His will we will be richly blessed.

At the end of the trip I was completely exhausted. Try spending three days with 10 youth at a beach that is 100 degrees. When I got back all I wanted to do was crawl into the cave that is my room and not talk to anybody for 2 days! However, to celebrate Easter, the church has a breakfast service. That meant I had to be at the church at 6 AM the next day. To be honest I was dreading it, but when I woke up God gave me a burst of energy so I could celebrate the resurrection of His son.

Over all these past 2 weeks, God has taught me a lot about obedience and what it means to truly follow him. When we submit to His will, we find out that he loves to richly bless His obedient children. During the trip I got to now several of the youth a lot better and God has really blessed my relationships with them. I also got to lead a prayer of salvation in Spanish with one of the women we talked to in Jacó! Then I got to celebrate Easter in a new way, without all the commercialism that is Easter bunnies, and candy eggs, and truly focus on what the day means. I know that my time here isn’t only how I can help the church. I know that it is also a growing time for myself. I’ve only been here for about 7 weeks and God has already stretched me in so many different directions. But like our body, stretching may make you sore for a day, but in the end you become a more flexible person. I pray that by the end of this trip I will be able to do spiritual splits from all the stretching I do J.

P.S. Stick around for another post that is purely pictures!

Familiarizing with Food

When I was at training at The Mission Society last summer, they kept talking to us about how important it is to become involved in the everyday culture wherever we go. The way I have done that is through food. This should come as no surprise to you, because I love to cook and I love to eat. Before I came I joked about eating rice and beans everyday. I knew to expect it, but what I didn’t realize is that is literally what I eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday here. The first week I was praying “Lord, please don’t let me get tired of eating beans and rice”. And he sure answered my prayers. When the team from Asbury was here I was talking to a lady about how I felt like I was missing something or craving something, but I couldn’t figure out what it was. A day later I realized I had gone 4 meals without eating beans and rice, and then it hit me… I was missing eating beans and rice. So I thanked God for His provision.

To raise money for the youth group, every once in a while they sell food in the church. Last week we sold empanadas and I was asked to help in the kitchen. Of course I jumped at the opportunity to learn something new. By the end of the process, they handed the kitchen over to me and I was making the empanadas all by myself. I was so proud of those empanadas. I also learned how to make fresh fruit juice Costa Rican style, which is one of my favorite drinks here. We also sold snacks at the youth movie night. They asked me if I could bring something so I volunteered to make cupcakes of course. Cupcakes are an unknown dessert here in Costa Rica so all week everyone was asking me about them. I decided to take advantage of the local flavors as my inspiration for the cupcakes. I made a vanilla cupcake with guava filling, and a chocolate banana cupcake. I made 50 cupcakes and every single one of them sold. I have a feeling we will be selling cupcakes again in the future.

Another thing that I have grown to love here in Costa Rica is going to the “feria” (the local farmers market) every Saturday morning. I love walking through the rows and rows of farmers yelling “watermelon, papaya, squash, onion”. The first week was very intimidating because I went the son of the women I am living with. He handled the money, but I had to pick everything. But each time I go I get better and better at dealing with the workers. I absolutely love the feria. Unfortunately this Saturday I won’t be able to go because we are taking some of the youth to the beach on an evangelism trip (more to come on this next week).

Overall, I have loved learning about all the different foods and flavors here, and I can’t wait to keep adding more and more recipes to my repertoire. Also sorry for the lack of pictures. My goal this week is to take more pictures. And by more I mean take pictures period since I haven’t taken a single picture yet.

P.S. Happy Holy Week!