Shake 'n Break

Sooooo...wow. This last week or so has taken me for quite the ride- literally and figuratively. Since I've been back in Costa Rica, going on 2 weeks now, God has been working on me and teaching me things, not always in the easiest fashion. So, I tend to be afraid, kind of a lot and I've been struggling and dealing with some fears that I have, of which I've been really convicted of the need to give them over to God. So, in this time, I've really been working on that, but you know like when you pray for patience, God gives you opportunities to practice that? Well, I feel like in these past 2 weeks, God's given me many opportunities, no matter how small they may be, to practice giving/surrendering all, especially my fears over to Him.

The first opportunity that presented itself was the idea and now the fact that I've been living on my own (granted the Dixons and Janzens are here) in my and Krysta's apartment- minus Krysta- for about 2 weeks now. And while I'm not the most outgoing person, I do like to have others around, especially in a place and time where I don't feel super comfortable. So, God's been working on me in this time to really just rely on Him and to draw my strength from Him, not my feeble self- to give all my fears and reservations up to Him, to obey and live for Him. That may sound cliche, but it makes sense in my head and the concept feels fresh to me.

Another such opportunity came about when a pretty big earthquake hit not too far from here last Thursday, of about 6.2 magnitude. I was by myself in our apartment, and I'll admit I was doing Zumba (latin dancing workout dvds) at the time when it hit. I went and stood in the doorway as I felt the building kind of shake-sway (we're on the second floor). When it stopped, I wasn't sure what to do, so I went and finished the Zumba workout. Ha! Yes, I did. When the workout was done, I turned on the news and got the details about the earthquake. They were saying a bunch of stuff about red alerts in our area and something about evacuating. Upon hearing this, I went into a slight panic mode, so I called the Dixons and they invited me to stay at their house that night. And so I did and I was thankful to not be by myself in case anything more did happen, which it did not. The next day, I returned to the apartment, still a little nervous- but working on giving that over to God.

And the opportunities have yet to cease! Yesterday I got to go with some people from Food for the Hungry to bring food and donated supplies to victims from the earthquake, who had lost family and homes. We met up at 6 o'clock in the a.m. I rode in a truck with 2 women and 2 men- one of which is the director for Food for the Hungry (FHICR- Fundacion para el Habriento) in Costa Rica. Another man, with his son drove another big truck. We met up with a number of other volunteers at a radio station headquarters (?) where there were plenty more trucks to load up with the abundance of donations. After we loaded them all up we headed out in giant caravan of at least 10 cars. We stopped a few times on the drive out, which ended up being about 1 1/2 hours, to meet up with some others to add to our caravan and do some radio interviews. We ended up parading up to Sarapiqui (a location near where the center of the earthquake hit, which was as close as we could get because any farther was considered a dangerous area) with somewhere around 20 cars and trucks full of donations, 3 or so Christian radio stations in tow, all broadcasting on location, I think maybe one television station and a few newspaper guys. It turned out to be quite the event. Upon arriving to the church where all of the donations would be stored and distributed, we had a short service of prayer and praise. About 35 earthquake victims were staying at the church, so they had them come forward for prayer. Some of them had lost family members that they saw taken right before their eyes, and many had lost homes. It was good to be able to pray for them and see their joy in receiving what we had to offer. After the service, we did all the heavy lifting and unloading of the MANY donations (I don't have pictures right now, but I'm going to try to get some from the people I was with). When that was all over, we headed out for what would be a long trip back to San Jose.

This last one's a lil bit of a doozy! For me, at least, it was. Alright, on our way back to San Jose, after handing out donations in Sarapiqui, we stopped for lunch and then went on our way. Along the way, maybe 45 min. into what would or should have been a 1 1/2-2 hour drive back, we realized one of the tires was a little flat, so we stopped at a gas station to check it and to fill up. Well, while opening the gas cap thing on the car with the key that unlocked it, the key broke in half and the bottom part was stuck jammed into the gas cap. The worst part was that it was the same key that was used to start the car....and we had no spare key with us. Some guys tried helping us to find a key or something that would work in its place, but to no avail. So, we found a mechanic, who was thankfully still at his shop and willing to help us out, as his work day was probably coming to a close. He ended up hot-wiring the car so that we could start and even stop it if we wanted: ghetto-rigging #1. He didn't even charge us anything! So, we thanked him and happily got back into the car, singing songs of victory. We started to pull away, when the guy who was driving suddenly stopped. As it turns out, the car had some kind of security mechanism and when there was no key in the ignition, the steering wheel locked up. So, we ran and called the mechanic guy before he got to far away and told him the situation. He worked on it some more and some how got a key into the ignition to unlock the steering wheel: ghetto-rigging #2. So we had the car hot-wired to be able to start and keep going and we had some key in the ignition to keep the steering wheel from locking up. It was getting dark now, as we started to head up the semi-winding road up the mountain. We were going along fine, when we hit some bumps and the key that was in the ignition fell out, so the steering wheel locked up. We were able to move off to the side of the road, but there wasn't much of a shoulder and it had started raining. So, the two guys, who had watched the mechanic do everything, started working to get the key back into the ignition and unlock the steering wheel. It was a little scary when it happened and even sitting on the side of the road, not only because of it being dark and rainy, but also because Costa Rican drivers tend to not be very mild or timid. So, after a while, they got the key back in the ignition and the steering wheel was good to go once again. So, we headed out once more. We went along fine for a while again when we hit some more bumps and the key in the ignition fell out again. So, we made it to the side of the road safely again. It didn't take very long this time for Juan Carlos (the director of FHI) to get the key back in, but when he did, he asked if anyone had any chewing gum. I had some, so I gave it to him and he chewed it up and used it to hold the key in the ignition: triple ghetto-rigged, MacGyver style. So, we took off one more time, praying the whole way (giving it to God). On our way up the mountain, after encountering some more rain, we ran into some fog, which also was a little nerve-racking, but we just kept on praying. After we made it through that craziness, we didn't have any more problems- the gum held and the key stayed in. After many stops and a semi-stressful 3 1/2 hour car ride back, we finally arrived in San Jose! It was a loooooooong day and I was exhausted, but it was pretty amazing and I'm thankful for the experiences, all of them! I feel like God has used them in a big way to continue showing me His faithfulness when I surrender to Him.

Wow- that was probably the longest, and hopefully not the most boring, blog I've written yet. I'm sorry for that. I usually like to keep them shorter, sweeter and with pictures, but wanted to share what God's been doing in my life and I figured it would be worth reading for those who really wanted to. Which is probably you, if you got all the way to the end and are reading this now ; ) So, thank you for reading and God bless!

Con cariño,

Cailah =)