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!

Recent events as told through pictures....

Jeremy came and taught the kids to do a wood working project. They made bird houses and loved it! Pictured here is Jeremy and Anthony.



Jeff's helping some of the boys in their cutting and measuring.



We had a team from Wasco come over Thanksgiving. I had two amazing girls at my site, Emily and Lauren!




Tests were done for the year, so we did leaf rubbings and various art projects with the kids.



We played soccer in the rain and it was pretty fantastic!



Teaching some of the kids all important skills, such as whistling.



We had 14 kids show up at our Christmas party. Jeff and Olivia came to help out. In this picture, the kids are decorating bags.



The kids still working on their bags, which went incredibly smoothly.



We also decorated sugar cookies with the kids. I'm pretty sure it was their first time doing so, seeing as they didn't know what frosting was. In this picture are: Luis, Kairo, Angel and Andres





We also played, pin the tail on the donkey that Mary rode into Bethlehem. The kids tended to help each other and use their free hand to feel where they should pin the tail, thus the reason for all the tails to be in basically the right spot.



Me and all the kids from our Christmas party.




And, of course, it got a little crazy- frosting began to fly!

Discouragement and then some Dislodging

So, for a while I'd had this blog idea brewing in my head. It had to do with all of the discouragements that encompass my life at this time---mine, as well as, those of others who surround me. However, before I got a chance to indulge myself in such a pity fiesta, God began to convict me through an array of people and situations. Pretty much what it comes down to is that I'm having to learn to dislodge myself from the center position in my life. /Dislodge: remove from an established or fixed position/ It seems so easy to think, 'Duh- when your whole world revolves around you, things are going to be discouraging at best, because the rest of the world is ignorant to the fact that they should be orbiting around you.' But it's also amazing how easy it is to slip into that mindset and then start putting down some roots there. Thus, the need for such a dislodging in my own life. When we look to ourselves as the center of our lives, all we see is what's wrong and why we're not happy. But in removing myself from that position, my focus is no longer on what I do or don't have. And in putting Jesus in that rightful position, that incredible obsession with self begins to dissolve, because the focus has changed. I think "dislodging" is also a good term for it because it implies just the right amount of force in having to uproot what was being established in order to replant in an appropriate place. It's amazing when your focus goes from serving yourself to how you can serve others how many of the things you formerly thought of as problems tend to fade from view. As with so many other things, it's easier said than done. But having left it unsaid or unacknowledged would seem to make the 'doing' process nowhere even close to easy. So, with the saying said, the doing has begun to be done. Not by my strength, but in my surrender. Thanks for your continued prayers and support! =)




This is a picture of me on a visa renewal trip to Panama being not in the center. Uncentered, if you will. ; )

Happy Anniversary!!!!

Today, October 18th, marks my first full year of being here in Costa Rica! Crazy! In some ways, I can't believe it's been a whole year, while in other ways, it's felt more like a life time. But things are finally in full swing here in that we have sites up and running to some degree. There have been quite a few adjustments and changes that we've had to make, but all with the intentions of fine tuning the sites to fit the needs and desires of the community as well as the gifts and passions we have. With all this in mind, we have been making some adjustments and new developments at my site in Las Fuentes. In these last two weeks, I have begun leading kids in the community in various outdoor activities, in addition to the after school and tutoring programs that we already have established.

The week before last, Erin Janzen, Aiyla Shockency and I lead a group of about 20 kids on a hike up a hill behind the community to a cell tower that has an amazing panoramic view of the San Jose area. This last week, we had a couple days where we went to an open field that the kids call the "Play Azul." The first day we played soccer (of course) and had probably around 30-40 kids total that showed up, probably from ages 5-14. The next time we went, there were about 7 kids that we played baseball, or some kind of versions of baseball- basically it turned into the kids finding anything they could use as a bat and hitting the balls as I ran back and forth, retrieving the balls and pitching them to the kids. They seemed to like it- and I got a good workout! =) (A reason for the large difference in the number of kids that showed up is that kids switch off every other day having school either in the mornings or the afternoons. So when we have our field day on Tuesday afternoons, the kids that can come then generally can't come Friday afternoons, because they have class then). It's been fun to hang out with the kids in a different environment and it's even brought about kids that I haven't seen before, so I'm excited to be involved with the kids in this new way!

A while back, some ladies from the church asked me if I knew anything about aerobics or exercising. As it would so happen, I do. So, we've been looking at using the community center there in Las Fuentes and trying to figure out what days and times would work best. So, we talked to Pastor Gilberth about it and apparently he is the one who could arrange for us to use the building, free of charge. That same day, we talked to some of the women who would be interested in participating and we decided right then and there on the times and days that would work best. So, pretty much all is left is for me to figure out some music and learn some routines----of which I know my mom will be more than delighted to help me out with (she teaches a variety of aerobic type exercises). The women seem especially excited to get a jump, a hop and a kick on this ; )

Along with the after school program/tutoring, the home visits and the English course, I'm excited to see how these new projects go. Please pray for my organizational skills in being able to balance each of these projects, as well as coming up with creative ways of engaging people. Thank you very much for your prayers and I'll be sure to keep you up to date. =) Below are some pictures I took from the hike with the kids.



A little bit of controlled chaos, as we head out.




Erin and some of the kids on the way up.




We hiked up through a coffee plantation- those little plants in the background are baby coffee plants.




Two of the boys, checking out the view.




Some of us paused for a little break.



The kids picked some fruit along the way.




We made it to the top! Me, Aiyla and Erin sitting back and enjoying it.




No worries- we didn't let them get too high, but we couldn't exactly keep them completely grounded =)