Curbing the curiosity: March 2009

Hey Everyone----
So, we just got back from the the jungle in Shiroles, the Talamanca region, in the south of Costa Rica. Krysta, Aiyla and myself led a group of 22 college students from James Madison University in Virginia there for a week long trip. Overall, the trip went very smoothly and the team was amazing! We had great times of sharing in the morning devotions and evening meetings. And we got a lot of work done during the day. We mixed a TON of cement to help lay brick and a sidewalk. We also had quite a few people painting, helping with sanding and varnishing, as well as digging ditches and moving rocks for drainage ditches, as well as various other odd jobs. Even the Sharps (the missionaries down there that we work with) and the Costa Ricans we worked alongside commented on how much we got done and how well the team worked. In the afternoons, after we'd finished working for the day, we didn't have a VBS program but kids from the community would come to the compound to play soccer and other games with the team.

Although I've helped to lead trips like this a number of times, I still get a little nervous and anxious in the beginning and various times throughout the trip, BUT even more than that it confirms my heart for this exact thing. I LOVE being a part of facilitating these kinds of trips- taking away all of the things we worry about at home, such as technology, worrying about makeup, freaking out about wearing the same thing 3 days in a row, maybe not smelling the best all the time, either due to the massive amounts of sweat we produce in this time, clothes/towels not drying all the way because of the humidity or basically bathing in deet everyday. I love the stripping away of all of these things, and seeing people turn their attention away from themselves and learning what God is doing and wants to do in their lives. I LOVE being someone who can kind of host and help to guide people through this kind of experience and time, and then seeing them open up and allow God to work and mold them. And even as a leader and having done this kind of trip 8+ times now, its amazing to see how God still works in me, giving me fresh perspectives and new lessons to learn every time. I love it!

So, we saw the team off at the airport on Sunday and then headed back to our apartment. This, for me, has proved to be one of the more difficult parts. Its very different to finish a trip like that and not return home to family and friends and my home church and English speakers, but instead to just go back to our little apartment in Desamparados, minus the 22 others that we had just spent 24/7 with. Although, I may not seem like it, I like to be around other people, even if I'm not doing a lot of the talking, so saying goodbye to teams like this can be pretty rough. This is a huge factor in short-term missions, though- the teams have to leave and go back home and all- so, it's something I've dealt with in the past and will continue to have to deal with, so I just keep looking to God for the know-how on how to correctly maneuver my way through these kinds of feelings. So, please keep me in your prayers in regards to this. Thanks =)

In other news......my parents come this weekend! My dad will be part of the men's team heading out to the jungle for about a week, during which time my mom with be staying with us women folk! And after the men's trip, my dad and Dave Hansen will be staying a few extra days to hang out with me! Wellllll, and everyone else here too, i guess ; ) So, that is very exciting and I will let you all know how it goes. Also, tomorrow, we are going to meet with a pastor, who I may very likely be working with in programs with/through his church. Sooooo, I will also let you all know how that goes, as well!

After that entire novel that I basically wrote you, I will leave you with this- a video tour of our new apartment and a group picture of our amazing JMU jungle team! I hope you enjoy them! God bless!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHYhiVd9aTs

So, I'm starting to lag in the blog area a little bit- sorry about that. I'll try to do better =) Let's see----last week we were in Guatemala where we met up with I think 30 something women coming from the states, the Dominican Republic and even those who live in Guatemala for the first ever SI women's outreach. It was awesome to see so many women from so many different walks of life and places to come together under a common cause. And, I have to admit, that a women's outreach is something that I've been vying for for a while now....or at least since the men's trips have been up and running! =)

For me, personally, this trip presented sooooo many differing aspects, it was exciting and challenging for me. First of all, my mom came on the outreach, so getting to spend time with her was a HUGE plus! Also, it was fun to have all of us women who are a part of SI Costa Rica be there together. There were also a number of women on the trip that I already knew, from the Central Valley or from our training that we did in Colorado back in September, so it was kinda like a little taste of home...in Guatemala. It felt even more like home because about a year and a half ago, I was a summer intern in Guatemala for SI and lived there for about 2 months helping out with the summer teams, so it was really fun to get to see my old host family and people that I hadn't seen since then. It was great!

Having been there before also presented some challenges in this trip. When I was an intern, I had my responsibilities and knew what I had to do and how to do it---after the first outreach or so. But coming back and being part of an outreach, rather than the one facilitating the group, and being at a different site than I'd been before created a slight identity crisis in my thinking. I wasn't sure what I was doing or how to do it, which is how I've felt in Costa Rica these last few months. But I think it hit me harder in Guatemala because of my previous experiences there. This trip I was a part of the Health Care site, which at this time, involved us going into a small community, El Gorrion, and to survey every home with questions as to their living conditions, health and the community as a whole. This would provide a basis for future work in this community, revealing the real needs, as seen by the people who actually live there. An amazing idea! We split into 3 groups and took separate sections. I was the translator for my group. I was glad to be able to serve in this way and I loved being able to talk to these people and hear what they had to say.

However, I know that this was only a small outreach, but in this and in these last few years of my life, I feel like God keeps stripping me of what I think to be my titles or "what I should do," and places me in situations where I feel pretty useless because I have no medical background....or being at an agriculture site, never having built chicken coops before.....or not really knowing how to run a kid's program or VBS and being put in charge of it....or working at a plant nursery, having very very VERY little knowledge of anything green. And I know that all that knowledge comes with experience and you can't expect to get it exactly right the first time, or second. And part of me loves having that variety of opportunities and changing it up and whatnot. But the other part has a strong desire to find something more specific that I can really excel at and really pour myself into that. BUT I also know that in our weakness, God is strong and that He will use me as long as I make myself available and in doing such things as these, where I feel super inadequate, I'm forced to lean and rely totally on God...which is where I should be all the time.....so, this is my current struggle. And I realized that in Guatemala and see that it continues now that I'm back in Costa Rica. In this realization, I know that I have to choose to have the right attitude/response, no matter what the situation. So, I'm working on that.

Even now, being back in Costa Rica, I feel this pressure (probably self-inflicted) of choosing a direction or focus---especially when people inquire as to my potential site, which is a legitimate and good question. However, I feel I always draw a blank when it comes to answering. I want to serve God where He would have me be and I know that He wants me in Costa Rica, but beyond that......we will see. I'm excited, a little anxious, but mostly excited to see how it all unfolds!

Sorry if that all kind of jumped around, but it was all to say that Guatemala was great and thought-provoking. And now, after having been home not even a full week, Krysta, Aiyla and myself are off in a few hours to meet a team at the airport to take them to the jungle for a week. And this I love!!! It's exciting, but I am a little nervous, because Krysta and I have been on plenty of jungle trips, but we've never lead one completely on our own before, so please keep us in your prayers! I'll let you know how it went when we get back =)

Oh, I almost forgot! We got a P.O. Box here in Costa Rica = a more secure way for you to send things, if you want!!! We're pretty stoked about it. So, here's the address:

Cailah Pritchard
Apartado 946-2400
Desamparados, Costa Rica
America Central

Hey- thanks for reading! And for now, I'll leave you with some pictures from Guatemala (courtesy of Erin Janzen =)