Easter, Lizard friends and Las Fuentes

Hey all!

Sorry I haven't been doing as well keeping up with the blogging- usually I either feel like there's not much worth writing about or there's so much to tell that I don't know how to sit down and write it all out so that people actually kinda like reading it. Sooooo, that's what's been up. Any-who, let's see....Easter!

I experienced my first Easter and Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Costa Rica. It's very interesting because the Catholic church has a ton of processions and things going on at this time, and because of this the Evangelical Church (at least those in our area) try to stay as separate from the Catholic church as possible. So, while we got to watch some of the processions and events put on by the Catholic church, we heard only a few words about Easter from the Evangelical church. Because of their desire to not be affiliated with the Catholic church, they have swung to the opposite extreme, not really mentioning Easter at all. I can see, to some degree, the steps they've taken to be separate from the Catholic church, but I don't think its quite right to do away with it all together. I don't have the answers for how they should do it or what would be the right way to handle it, but its definitely got me thinking...

In other life stuff, we have pretty much officially named and been assigned to ministry sites! These will be the sites where we'll be hosting teams at least for the summer and probably into the fall, in which time we'll take a qualitative kind of inventory to see how these sites are working out and seek God to see if He wants us to continue pursuing these same sites, or if He opens up other opportunities or what all will happen. It's hard because the sites are still very much in the baby stages--like newborns, we're just learning how to adjust to them and all. I'll be working with a church in a community called Las Fuentes. The pastor of this church is very open to our help in a number of areas, including working with his daughter in helping to lead a youth group of about 50 youth, from ages 12-25. Its not exactly clear quite yet all that I may be doing or involved in there, but I'm very excited for this partnership and working along side the pastor and his daughter. I should be getting more details fairly soon, so I'll be sure to keep you all updated when I find things out =) The other sites will consist of construction projects, being lead by Jeremy Janzen. Krysta will be in charge of a site that will look like a tutoring center and library, as well as, leading a kids club at a church. And Tracey Dixon will be heading up a site at the guarderia (day care center), looking to implement some kind of program for the wee ones there.

It's an exciting time for us as we begin to flesh out each of our ministry sites and get to the heart of working with the people. But please continue to keep us in your prayers- that we would have discernment in finding our place in all of these partnerships and just for working out all the little kinks and everything. And also for each of the sites as we begin to prepare for the summer teams to come- it'll be a whole different ball game! But I'm really excited for it! Well, thank you for your continued prayers, support and care. And for now, I'll leave you with some pictures from our team Easter eating extravaganza and our most recent discovery in our apartment. God bless =)




Easter dining preparation- Cardamon cross bread and lamb-shaped cake




My first lamb-shaped cake---following in the steps of Krysta's family tradition




The best of the best Easter spread




Right in the middle of the picture, you can see the new addition to our home...that we actually shooed out not too long after

the happenings

Since coming back from our trip to the jungle, Krysta and I have had the opportunity to begin working in a guarderia (day care). We've been volunteering there to see if it has potential to be a solid SI site. This guarderia has been open for about a month. It can have up to 30 kids at one time, of which there is one lady in charge of keeping track of them all. So, we've been going to help with some crowd control, feeding the kids, and playing with them in non-destructive ways. It's been a fun time of getting to know the kids and getting a feel for working in this type of setting. We've also had opportunities to meet with a number of other people that we're looking to maybe partner with, such as a pastor who would like help with the youth program in his church, or another organization that wants to open up a tutoring center and library for kids in their area. It's pretty relieving and amazing to see how God is putting into place each of these sites and I'm excited to see how He's going to work it all out!

Some other exciting news....my parents came to visit! About a week after we got back from the jungle (I guess that would be about 2 weeks ago now) my parents arrived in Costa Rica. My dad headed out to the jungle with the men's team, while my mom headed to the urban jungle setting of our apartment. It was fun to have my mom staying with us for the week. She even made a few trips with us to the guarderia and seemed to like the kind of controlled chaos of it all. When the men's trip was over, instead of returning back to the states with the other men, my dad and Dave Hansen (SI president) stayed here a few more days to check out our sites and get an idea of where we are heading as SI Costa Rica. It was a good time of being able to show my parents what my life down here looks like, as well as, giving them a more solid idea of what I'll be doing....and just hanging out with them was fun too =) I feel incredibly blessed to have been able to have them come and visit and I feel refreshed from it.

In these last few days, we've gotten a little bit of rain, but overall it's been pretty blazing hot. Depending on who you talk to here, this is normal weather for now and apparently Semana Santa (Holy Week- the week before Easter) is supposed to be one of the hottest. There also tend to be a lot of activities that go on during this time, due to the large part of Catholics in the population here. So, I will be writing again soon to let you know about all of the goings on in this time. Until then, have a good one and God bless! =)

Jungle Journey!

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

Guate-great!

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 =)





In Antigua. Where's Waldo- can you find Krysta and I?????




The only picture I could currently find of my mom and I in Guatemala---sorry, Mom and self...




Aiyla and I LOVE the bus!




Team Costa Rica super great ladies! (l-r): Erin Janzen, Tracey Dixon, Krysta Williams, Yours Truly, Aiyla Shockency

Costa Rica, Guatemala, Costa Rica

Hey Everyone-

Sorry I haven't written anything in a while, but things have been a little all over the place. We have officially moved into our new apartment! Meaning that we have obtained a refrigerator, oven, washer and dryer (about half of which are fully functioning at the moment). We've had a few set backs/complications with our appliances, but we're getting them all figured out.

Tomorrow, all 5 of us SI Costa Rica women head to Guatemala to meet up with a women's outreach that will be taking place there over the course of the next week. We're going to get a better idea of how a fully functioning base looks and hopefully to learn from how they've done things and what the role of full time staff really looks like. We'll be meeting up with 20 or so other women, many of whom are coming from the Central Valley of CA and are known to us.....like my mom! So, we are very excited for this and anxious to see what God has to teach us in this time, reaping from others' wisdom.

Hopefully, by the time we get back from Guatemala our phone line and internet will be set up and COMING SOON: a video tour of the new apartment!

Please continue to be praying as we begin to make decisions of where and who we'll be working with. We've been presented with a lot of opportunities and we're seeking God's guidance and leading to place us in the right places. I look forward to sharing what we will have experienced in Guatemala and other ministry opportunities that are coming up soon! As for now, I'll leave you with a picture that Krysta and I took with our amazing language teachers!

The thrill of the hunt

These last 2 weeks or so have been a little crazy, as Krysta and I have been on a house hunt. We also just finished up language school this last week. While we are sad to leave our teachers at the language school, its also been a little bit of a relief to be done with that phase of the process.

Along the way of searching for our more permanent dwelling place, we had some interesting and good learning experiences. For instance, when you are getting directions to a place over the phone, it's a good idea to confirm that the house is actually located where the newspaper said it was....and not 45 minutes away from where you'd thought it was. No worries- we found that out before the taxi driver took us all the way out there. We also learned that the taxi drivers here (at least the ones we came in contact with) are super patient and helpful when we have no idea of how to get where we wanted to go. Addresses here in Costa Rica consist of telling how many meters to whichever direction the place is from the nearest big land mark. For example, the address of our current place is 200 meters east of Plaza Cristal. The houses don't have numbers, but they do usually have vivid or recognizably outstanding colors. So, finding somewhere that you've never been before may prove to be quite the challenge. We had at least 2 incidences in which the directions weren't quite clear enough, so the taxi drivers would pull over multiple times to ask people on the street for directions. This resulted, pretty much every time in either the taxi driver or the person on the street using their cell phone (as we have none) to call the place we were attempting to find in order to get better directions. They were all very sweet and helpful and it probably didn't hurt that by us not knowing exactly how to get there, having to drive around a lot, they were raking in the dough. Anyways, we always ended up finding where we needed to go, some way or another.

So, after making over 50 calls about renting places, facing many-a-rejection and visiting 9 or so places in person, we finally found what seems to be just about the perfect place! We checked out a few other places after seeing this one and doing so just seemed to confirm that the apartment we'd seen before was the place for us. We've felt really blessed in the ways that God has provided for us, especially in the housing department. This apartment we'll be moving into (that we actually just signed the papers for today) is new, has a beautiful view of the mountains and is within what we had budgeted for rent. It's about a 20 minute walk to the Dixons and downtown, 10 minute walk from a bus stop where we can find and catch a bus that will take us directly to where we'll be working and downtown San Jose- without having to switch buses. We are also only a 5 minute walk from a smaller store where all the basic necessities are sold, in case we forgot something or needed to get something in a hurry. For those of you who may be concerned with safety, the apartment is built up, terraced on a hill with wallish type fence things around it, so it's well-protected. AND the man who lives above us runs a security company, or something to that effect, and apparently (according to the landlord) he's pretty safety conscious/protective.

As to the next step in the process, we now have a set of keys, so we can begin moving in whenever we want. However, before doing so, we need, well, to clean, but also to purchase the necessities for living- such as, a refrigerator, a stove, I kinda need a bed, so that we can actually reside there, with food and all. But as soon as we can get our hands on these things for good price, we'll start to transfer everything else over and begin to make it home! Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we search for these items- we've already been blessed in that one of our language teachers said that she had an older, yet well-working washing machine that she would give us- for free! God just continues to prove His faithfulness to us- please pray that we'll do our part in searching out, as well. Thanks for reading and God bless!

Below are some links to pictures of the new apartment and a get-together we had with the Dixons and Janzens to decorate cookies for Valentine's Day. Enjoy!


Apartment pictures

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/ugyekCeSYH61ZP-FQSYlHQ?authkey=10uoQ7qtTOo&feat=directlink


Cookie pictures

http://picasaweb.google.com/krystaleanne9/Cookies?authkey=REbsE3qhpDQ&feat=directlink

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 =)