A Wedding, a Birthday and Fun-loving Delights!

In mid-September I was very blessed to be able to spend a few weeks in California. In this time I was able to be a part of my older brother, David's wedding, my Mom's birthday, my friend, Heather's baby shower and lots of quality time with family and friends. I hadn't been back to California since January- a good 8 months! Not quite my favorite amount of time.
It was especially great to be able to be a part of David and Noelle's wedding, as a bridesmaid. It was a beautiful ceremony and an amazing celebration at the reception. And now, I'm very happy to have a sister in the family!
Also, when home, I got to share in the celebration of my mom's birthday, September 24th. We surprised her with going to see Bye-Bye Birdie at Roger Rocka's Dinner Theater in Fresno---my two younger brothers, Jonathan and Isaac even came along (I didn't give them any details about that night for as long as possible so they wouldn't try to get out of it- they were good sports, though ; ) David and Noelle couldn't make it because of some honeymoon thing =) It was a lot of fun!
While at home I was also able to attend my friend, Heather Roeber's baby shower for her soon-to-be-born little girl, Elise, who I'm very excited to meet at Christmas!
In addition to all that, I also had a few opportunities to talk to people and groups about what all it is that I'm doing down here in Costa Rica. I got to speak to a women's group at my church and they offered a lot of encouragement. My friend, Rebekah Milhon and I were asked to speak to our church's high school Sunday school class on the topic of missions. We each talked about our experiences and encouraged the students to get involved where they're at. They actually seemed to listen pretty well and asked some good questions. I seem to be continually reminded, in those types of situations, of my love for youth and their involvement in such things beyond themselves and their own little bubbles.
Being a quality time person, I was incredibly blessed to be able to spend the face to face time that I did with people I love. In some ways, it seemed like it was way too short of a time to get in all the quality face time that I'd have liked to. But also, upon returning to Costa Rica, I felt that I'd been gone for way longer than I actually was. It's weird- all those feelings and trying to juggle them, but I'm feeling a little more balanced now and allowing myself to rest in the arms of Him who has it all under control in His timing and His balance.

Because I feel that my words don't do my experience justice, here are some pictures for you to enjoy of my time in CA:




David and Noelle at their rehearsal dinner.



Richard and Granny (my Mom's Mom) at the rehearsal dinner.



My Mom and Dad. At the rehearsal dinner. Still.



The bride and her maids---some of us look like we're sleep standing.



David and Noelle's pups- Grace and Charlie.



Noelle and her dad making their way down the aisle.



Noelle and David during the ceremony.



Noelle, her parents and her sister, Monique. David (with the help of some friends, my Dad and brothers) made that white arch behind them for Noelle.



My brothers and some of my Mom's side of the family, left to right- Aunt Kathy, Jonathan, Granny, Richard, Aunt Cary, Isaac and myself.



Siblings! Jonathan, myself, David and Isaac.



The wedding party.



David and Noelle Pritchard's first dance at their splenderific reception---that's the dessert spread on the right!



My parents at Roger Rocka's for my Mom's birthday celebration extravaganza!



Me, Isaac and Jonathan watching Bye Bye Birdie. They were clearly thrilled........that there was food there.



My super duper friend, Aiyla and myself.



My splendiferous friend, Courtney and I at her sister, Heather's baby shower.



Heather at the shower for her baby, Elise.



Me and my greatastic friend, Rebekah!

Thanks for watching. =)

Lice, Tires, and Sinuses, oh my!

I don't even know how long it's been since I've written, so I'll start from now and work kind of backwards. =) So these last few weeks have been a little crazy. We had our last team for the summer leave. It was a packed summer, full of eager students ready to help with all the varying activities. The same weekend that the last team left, I had to flee the country with the Janzens to renew our visas in Panama. Hopefully, soon we'll be able to get special visas that will keep us from having to leave the country every three months. After our weekend in Panama, I returned back to Las Fuentes. Upon my return there, kids came running up to me, "Cailah, when's (insert name of anyone that came to Las Fuentes this last summer) coming back?" They continue to ask about them, although my answer has yet to change, "I'm sure they would love to be here, but they had to go back home." And they continue to ask.....

Not too long after being back, I started to notice a crazy itching on my head. Come to find out, I'd gotten lice. It wasn't super surprising, considering some of the cases we've seen in Las Fuentes. Between numerous shampoos, olive oil treatments, comb-throughs and nit-picking (literally), my head seems to be lice free! After the whole lice ordeal, then came the issues with the tires. Three flat tires in three days. The first one, I don't know what it was caused by. But we got the the spare tire put on and before I got a chance to take it in, I drove it up to Las Fuentes. Kids started coming and some of them came in saying, "Cailah, there's air coming out of the tire in your car." And I was like, ummm, no, that's a spare. So, I went and checked it out and sure enough, before long, another tire was flat. I think this one may have been due to really bad roads because of some construction. So, I ended up having to call a tow truck, seeing as how the spare tire was already being used. So, they took me into a shop and we got the tires patched up, aligned and rotated, all for relatively cheap. Great! Not two days later, I was in Las Fuentes again, walking to aerobics, when I noticed another tire (not any of the ones that had had problems before) looked a little flat. By the time I got done with aerobics, it was significantly flatter. So some of the guys from the church helped me change the tire to the spare and once again I headed back to the shop to get the tire repaired. This time it was a nail. Needless to say, I think I'm getting the whole how to deal with a flat tire bit down pretty good. The next morning, I woke up feeling kind of sinus-y. This began a five, or so, day stretch of dealing with sinus pains, feelings of my head swimming and just being out of it in general. But it's mostly cleared up now, so thank you, Lord, for no sinus infection and for a pretty quick recovery. So, things have been a little crazy over the last month or so, but there's also a lot of good crazy to tell!

We now have some new staff members to add to SI Costa Rica and our first Tico staff, to boot! Luis Diego, Cindy and their daughter Hannuka have jumped on board with us! Cindy will be starting a micro finance site with Maria (who is from Nicaragua and was an intern this last summer and has yet to be officially on staff, but is well on her way). They'll be working in each of the communities where we currently are, Los Guido, La Capri and Las Fuentes. They'll be working with women involved in small businesses in each of the communities, helping to tie the ministry focus places together, as well. Diego will be starting up a kind of sports/recreation site, that will also spend some time at each of the working ministry locations. In Las Fuentes, we're going to team up to present a more thorough and unified front in the sports department, as well as, providing a boy/girl scouts kind of alternative, incorporating Christian values in the teachings. I'm really excited for this new program in Las Fuentes. The times I've mentioned it to the kids there, they freaked out with excitement, so I'm pretty sure it'll do well. Well, we at least know that if it's of God, it'll prosper in how He'd have it do so.


So many new and exciting things going on here. With those things come challenges. One of those that hasn't seemed to give me much of a break, especially looking at last month, is that of finances. I am in dire need of more support. Would you PLEASE pray and consider how God would have you respond to such a need. I know that kind of giving may not be for everyone, but that doesn't mean that you have no part to play. Thank you for your continued prayers and support! God Bless! =)

Teamerizing!

Things have been busy as of late, real busy. Our summer has gotten off to a great start. After the Grove City College team, from Pennsylvania, we had a two week slot with no teams. It was a good time to really get involved with our summer interns and prepare together for the teams to come. After those 2 vacant weeks, we had a team come from The Well Church, in Fresno. I had a great group of ladies who were really fun to have at the site and to see them using specific gifts and talents they had with the kids and older ladies we visited. They even survived the infamous aerobics class! After a jam-packed 2 weeks, the Well team headed back to CA a week ago. And last Monday, our next group arrived: highschoolers and young adults from Savior's Church in Visalia and Heritage Church in Bakersfield. With one week down in their two weeks here, they've done great! My group at the Social Services site in Las Fuentes has been really good about diving in (sometimes literally) with the kids. Yesterday, for example, we had aerobics in the morning, in which their enthusiasm has lead me to have more difficult workouts, as I find my self laughing. at them. a lot. it's pretty great! After aerobics, we planned some activities for the following week (as the kiddos at our site have their 15 days of vacation from school). Then, as we were finishing lunch, it began to rain a little bit. The students got super excited to play in the rain with the kiddos---good thing! So, we headed back to the church and rounded up a bunch of kids, in a pied piper kind of fashion (which i love, by the way). We divided into teams when we arrived to the play (the big field area where we play with the kids). Not long after we arrived, it started raining pretty good. Soon, the field was transformed into a giant slippery sliding mud bath! The kids of the Fuent made it their personal goal to take each of us down in the ginormous puddle that we basically had to tread water and swim to get out of. The team fully embraced every part of this, not holding back at all and I know that the kids of Las Fuented LOVED it! It was also pretty hilarious to see everyone running around completely drenched in the muddy mess: the little kiddos and team members alike with mud beards, mustaches and uni-brows. It was beautiful! I truly believe that investing quality time in these kids in Las Fuentes is key. And being willing to be ridiculous and maybe look foolish for them and with them speaks volumes into their lives, in showing them that they are loved and have worth. I don't know all of the stories of the home lives of these kids, but I do know that something draws them to our activities and they keep coming back and wanting more. Sooooo, I don't know all the details of hows or whys, but I do know that we will continue to be obedient to what God's called us to do in Las Fuentes, as nebulous as it may seem to me or others at times. =)

Just a few pictures of the Fuent with the Well team:



Sam and Courtney with some kiddos at the Play Azul




Annalee (who's been the amazing intern at my site) with Raul playing a more difficult version of jenga?



Sam turning the jump rope for Angie and Tatiana



Megan and Tatiana <3

Dive bomb vs. Diving in

These last few weeks have been a little busier than most. We had our first set of interns arrive for the summer: Ally, Katie and Annalee. And they are pretty much amazing! We also just had our first team for the summer. It was a group from Grove City College in Pennsylvania and one individual from North Dakota. It was a great team- very genuine and excited to really dig in. We had about 5 ladies that came with Annalee and myself to what's been deemed the social services site in Las Fuentes. It was really encouraging to have more people around to give more individualized attention to a greater amount of kids. During these two weeks with this team, I also felt a lot of confirmation for how much I really do like SI and how they go about things. One of the times that this was especially confirmed was when another team from the states (not SI affiliated), came into Las Fuentes to give a soccer clinic/camp for a few hours one afternoon. And this is not to say that short term missions doesn't have its place, because it has definitely had a significant role in my life and plays a large part in SI. However, I've grown to appreciate even more the way SI does things because of the short term teams they bring to work alongside those who have an established place in such communities. With this team that came to do the soccer camp, we SI-ers were there, as well, so that we could help out if needed. During the camp, one of the kids thats been part of some of our programming before, Julio, fell and hurt his arm. In this case, I was happy to have had a previous relationship with this kid, because the people running the soccer camp didn't really know what to do in this situation, especially since Julio was so upset and afraid to tell his parents. So, the other SI ladies and I were able to walk him to his house and explain all of what had happened to his parents. Upon getting there, Julio just burst into tears and I explained to his mom and aunts what had happened. They told me that the problem was that they didn't have any insurance, but his mom was going to make some calls to figure some stuff out. The next day, we saw Julio. He had a cast on his arm and a smile on his face. Everything with the doctor had worked out fine. I, and the other ladies, were happy to be able to follow through in this situation and prove to Julio and his family that we really to want to be a diving in presence in their lives, rather than a dive bomb type of "relationship." I think what makes SI legitimate is the fact that we do have the in-country staff that are working in the communities day-in and day-out, so that when short term teams come through SI, they have that built-in trust because they come in and are associated with the already present relationship in that community. And this is what I love. =)

Below are some pictures from this last group and all of our various activities:




Erika, Olga and Hannah working on bracelets that materials had been donated for.



Post-aerobicizing!



At the Play with the kiddos! Flipping a coin to see who's up to bat first.



It can prove to be a very stretching experience, as Annalee is demonstrating so well!



Angie and Ariel survived the famous "tower hike!"

Overdue. Waaaaay overdue. Revoke my library card, that's how overdue this blog post is.

I'm pretty sure I'd said before that I would try to do better at writing more regularly. In this I have failed. But I am writing now. =)
And the subject of this writing is a team! Yep! We had our first team of the year back in early March. It was a team comprised of a group from the Intervarsity chapter at James Madison University in Virginia, a group from Jupiter Christian High school in Jupiter, Florida and one individual. It was quite a mix, but a good one at that! I had a group of 5 amazing girls at my site (2 from Jupiter and 3 from JMU). They all did amazingly at jumping in with all the various activities we did: they not only braved my aerobics class, but were a fun and encouraging addition, in helping to count down and providing more "models/examples" for the others to follow. They quickly befriended kids and took initiative in helping them with homework or activities. They enthusiastically helped pick up a bunch of nasty trash in a field where we play sports with the kids and then proceeded to put forth their best efforts in a soccer game against kids probably half most of our ages and twice as good---with a few exceptions to some star athletes* They helped herd kids as we hiked up a mountain to the kids' favorite cell tower destination. And they didn't even complain. Not when we had to take just about every form of transportation, sometimes resulting in a 1 1/2-2 hour bus ride, because our car was in the shop (such is life here). They didn't complain when they got pretty lobster fried after playing in the blazing sun with the kids or when the families we visited went on long speaking bouts without pausing for a chance to translate. Basically, they were amazing and an incredible support and encouragement to me. They just did really well over all =)


So, also, just to give you a little update on Las Fuentes, things have been going pretty well. Kids aren't super consistent in coming to tutoring/after school activities, but there have been quite a variety of kids that have come. Having teams come seems to help the kids become more aware of the continual activities we provide there on a weekly basis, though.
There is a core group of women that have been faithful participants in the aerobics class, which is exciting! With the exception of one class, in which we had around 25 participants, these 4 or so women have been super enthusiastic in their attendance. We are currently working on perfecting our grapevine, while raising the arms up and down and throwing a knee lift in there. Along with some other pretty amazing moves and resistance band exercises. They seem to love it. =)

Below are some pictures from when the team was here. please enjoy:


This is the field, or the "Play Azul" where we picked up trash and then played sports and provide some outdoor fun time with the kids.



The girls from Jupiter and JMU with the kids on our hike up to the cell tower.



Me with the amazing girls of the social services site.
l-r: Laura, Lacy, myself, Renee, Francesca and Amber

Fear not....freak out not....

Fear stems from some lack of trust, whether it be trusting others, ourselves, or God. My form of fear tends to manifest in a freak out kind of way. I get freaked out when I'm put in charge of managing a work site and making decisions for such a site on my own. I freak out when I'm responsible for managing some kind of spiritually guided environment, in which the services I offer or the niche I am to fill is nebulous. I freak out when I realize how far I am from most all of my family and friends. I freak out when I have to try to break up shouting matches and sometimes physical fights when kids don't like how someone else plays soccer. And I kinda freak out when 25 people unexpectedly show up to an aerobics class I'm teaching, when most of my aerobic experience has taken place in front of a computer screen playing a dvd guided session for me to follow in the privacy of my own room. I think it's safe to say that I kinda freak out a lot (this is nothing new to those who have lived and shared things with me ; ).
Why all the freaking out? This is my question to myself. This freaking out or form of fear shows some level that I've not fully entrusted to God. When has He been unfaithful to me? When has He ever let me down? Surely not when He provided an AMAZING blessing of a house and a way of moving into it within a period of 48 hours. Not when our car's brakes went out when we were coming down a mountain and there were any number of ways that we could have barreled off some cliff. Not in all the ways that He's protected me that I'm not even aware of. And definitely not in all the undeserved blessings that I SO EASILY take for granted. He is faithful.

It may be good to have those moments of freaking out---but just for a moment. Just enough to remind you (me) that it's God who's doing it, not me. Then, move forward, step up to the plate, dive in, let loose, charge!
Trusting that He'll guide me through it.

"For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline." -2 Timothy 1:7

give me a brake! no....literally, we need brakes- we don't have any!

The adventures here in Costa Rica never seem to stop! Which can be a good thing and a bad thing- I guess it mostly depends on your perspective. Either way, in this particular adventure, God DEFINITELY had His hand over, under and just all around us. Let me preface this story by saying that we are all completely fine- everyone miraculously escaped virtually unscathed!

We all decided that a trip to the beach would be nice, especially since the majority of us had just arrived from significantly colder climates. This particular "we" included Krysta, Leah and myself, the Janzen family and Dustin. The Janzens took their car and Dustin rode with them, while Krysta, Leah and I took our car and followed behind them. We'd stopped once because the Janzen's dog, Bosco, had gotten a little car sick and a little cleaning needed to take place. We were soon back on our way, beach-bound and pretty stinkin' stoked about it! We were driving through a mountainous area on pretty curvy roads, with steep drop-offs and one lane bridges around just about every bend. Alright....now, about 10 minutes after we'd stopped for Bosco, Krysta was driving and we were behind the Janzens on a down hill slope. We were needing to slow down, so naturally, Krysta went to step on the brakes, but nothing happened. She let up and tried again. Still no braking or slowing type of response. Right about then, some kinds of panic/survival mode set in. Now, I can't be sure if I can recollect the following events with the exact details, or even with some kind of semi-accurate time frame, but here's how I remember it. The Janzens were ahead of us and we weren't able to stop. There were cars in the other lane coming from the other direction, so that wasn't an option. Krysta's driving at this point, I'm convinced, was inspired and we were for sure being protected. With no other option, we braced ourselves and rear-ended the Janzens. They told us afterwards that because of the speed that we were both going, they didn't really feel us hit them too bad. After we hit them and the cars in the other lane had passed, Krysta maneuvered us over to the left lane and over to where there happen to be a little shoulder on the side of the road. Krysta had pulled the emergency brake at some point earlier, but maybe not quite hard enough because it wasn't pulled up at this time. We had slowed down quite a bit by this time, so we pulled the emergency brake one more time, while riding the shoulder. Then , we hit a kind of cement drainage pipe, with a little ditch on either side of it. This finally brought us to a stop. We were tilted with the driver side up and teetered for a little bit, but nothing else happened. Jeremy had pulled their car over up ahead of us and he and Dustin got out and ran over to our car. They made sure we were all okay and helped us exit the perched vehicle. Within minutes a policeman appeared on the scene. And then a newspaperman came for pictures and interviews- of which he was disappointed to learn that we were all friends and not going to have a rumble or something. Then an ambulance came and we assured them that we were all fine. The place where we ended up was quite the perfect setting for rubberneckers, as we were right near one of the single lane bridges so cars often had to stop and yield to the other lane, giving them plenty of time to stare at us, point and take pictures with their cell phones. In Costa Rica, after an accident, you're not allowed to move the vehicles until the insurance person comes and takes pictures and checks it all out. So, the insurance person showed up after a couple hours and we put the call in for a tow truck to get the car back home. The accident occurred around 9:30am and the tow truck didn't come till about 1:30pm. At one point it started to rain pretty hard, so Jeremy and Dustin used a tarp (that was meant for shade at the beach) and made a shelter using the Janzen's car and a fence, so that we could avoid the rain. We were also all getting pretty hungry, so Jeremy whipped out their little bbq and grilled up the hot dogs that were meant for our lunch. So, we had a little camp set up, complete with a bbq lunch and everything- it was pretty amazing! Finally, the tow truck showed up and brought our smashed little car all the way back home. whew! I had to take quite a few deep breaths while writing/ remembering all that had happened. But we are all safe and fine!

It's pretty amazing, though, as we've remembered these events and thought about how pretty perfectly it all happened, well, after the failure of the brakes. If we hadn't stopped for Bosco, who knows how that would have changed the location of where the brakes went out. Or the fact that our car almost went ahead to get gas, but didn't. If we had, the Janzens and Dustin wouldn't have been there to stop us with their car and keep us from driving off some edge. That's another thing- the place where our brakes failed was kinda perfect also. There were no crazy curves that we had to attempt and the shoulder was in the perfect place- we probably would have gone off the single lane bridge if that space hadn't been there. And the fact that there were no cars in the other lane coming at us when we needed to get over there. Also the big cement drainage cylinder and the ditch around it was perfect for stopping us. Really.....the fact that all those things so perfectly lined up for us to walk away, unharmed, from a brakeless runaway car on a much travelled, curvy, mountain highway can be no coincidence. God definitely spared us from an event that could have been really tragic and we are incredibly grateful.

Below are some pictures that were taken, post-accident, while we waited on the side of the road.




This is just minutes after the accident occurred- you can see our car over on the right, the ambulance and the reporter's car behind it.




You can kind of see in this picture how the car was sort of teetering.




Our car actually didn't get smashed up too badly- it could have been a lot worse.




The Janzens' car didn't get too badly damaged either.




This happened for pretty much 4 hours straight- I'm sure we provided many cars with a topic for conversation.




Our little make-shift, out of the rain, bbq-ing camp site. pretty amazing!




One last shot- you can kinda see where the front passenger side wheel is in the drainage cylinder ditch thing.

California, there I came....

So, it's been a while since I've written and quite a bit has transpired in that time. I had the amazing blessing of being able to go home for about a month over the holidays. I was able to spend some good time with family and friends, as well as, see some supporters and share with people face to face. I was also able to speak to the missions committee and a sunday school class at my home church. It was just overall good being able to share my life with those that have had such a big role in it, past and present. It was also refreshing to hear peoples' words of encouragement and assurance that they have been and will continue to be in prayer for me. Below are some pictures from my trip.





It's a rare occasion these days when my entire family is together. So, we decided to commemorate such an event with a family picture, of course. (left-right: top row- David and Isaac, middle row- Dad (holding Oscar) and Mom, bottom row- Jonathan and myself)




Together with my parents and brother, David, there are 7 dogs. And my dad and I took all of them on a walk. At once. It was quite the hilarious challenge =)




It was REALLY nice going home over the holidays because I saw a number of people who had also come home or to the area for the holidays that normally wouldn't have been there----like my friend, Rebekah!!!




aaaaaaaand my friends, Courtney and Caitlin!!!!




My dad and I drove down to the San Diego area to visit my brother, Jonathan, and check out where he lives and all. While down there, we went bowling and I had to document the one time when I was actually ahead of both of them. Of course, it was only the first frame and my dad still had one turn left......but still. ; )




I even got Superior Dairy with Aiyla and Derek!!!!




We also made a little trip out to the Pismo/Arroyo Grande area to visit my brother, David. Pretty fantastic!