I'm back!....for a night :)!

Well. The past couple of weeks have been pretty... overwhelming, and they are only going to get more so! We leave for the Dominican Republic tomorrow for 8 days. We are all being translators for a group of 300 students from Johnson's Ferry Baptist Church. I'm pumped. Pumped. So please please pray for all of us, because (unless these kids speak fluent spanish) these students are really going to be dependent on us. So this will be a big test! Dominican Republic spanish is different from Costa Rican spanish. Costa Rican spanish is a lot more formal, so I'm excited to hear the Dominicans. (our teachers have told us that it is very sloppy)

Here's another recap of the last couple of weeks..

About three weeks ago, a group of people from the Chapel, a church in New York, came down for a missions trip. I think three of the members got baptized in the Villa pool (same place as me! wooh!). The New Yorkans :) came to Villa Church one of the sunday nights. It was so awesome having a bunch of Americans there. That service was full of testimonies... God is moving. He is real, and testimonies are the Bomb. 

We ALSO had the privilege of having the mentor of John (pastor, mentor, teacher, house dad, ...guy that's baptizing me in the picture down there. awesome.) speak at church. He (Micah), his wife (Meredith) and their two sons stayed with us for a whole week. This family is awesome. And God has definitely given Micah a special gift for teaching. 

Probably one of the most amazing elements of learning this year (from class, church, mentoring, discipleship) has been the teachers backing their points up Biblically. Yes, most pastors use scripture in their sermons... but this is different. Scripture is the sermon. Awesome right?? We just get to read a big Love Letter all of the time. 

Up until this year, I really would not have been able to tell you why I believe what I believe, aside from "well my Mom/Dad said..." or "Andy Stanley said something like this at church on Sunday." So! This year has been pretty dang important. I need to know the Word of God, and I've got a long way to go. 

The next weekend all of the GAP students and New Yorkans helped out at a Costa Rican Christian Women's conference. Most of us helped out with the mother's children: teaching Bible classes, running games, crafts, singing etc. The most challenging part of the day was when I had to guide a little girl, who didn’t know how to read, through a Bible worksheet. (in spanish) 

....and thennnnn... I left my bilingual Bible at the school. I was very sad. John and Rebecca Lovell let me have an extra one of theirs though, so I am good. I definitely am so much more appreciative to have a copy of the Word of God. The Word of God is Divine, and I probably have about 6 copies at home just for myself... while there are over 340 million people that do not have a translation in their own language. (Wycliffe Bible Translators) I would love to help Wycliffe one day. 

Anyways! The next week there was a football clinic through Score International about 10 minutes away from the Villa (where we live). There were some professionals and some college students from the States, retired coaches, professional Costa Rican players, and a ton of Tican boys attending the clinic. It was so cool. One of the professionals.. I think his name was Adam Hayward? He plays for Tampa Bucks I think. Anyways, after the clinic, he gave his testimony, and that was so cool. It just cool to see how huge the Body of Christ really is. Jesus has people from all over the world. The Body of Christ has famous football players, singers, actors, authors, homeless people, construction workers, principals, CEOs, artists... so many people. We are NOT small. And we are NOT weak. But really.... those are pretty sweet connections right? I think one of the other professional player's name was Corey something. He did something really special for App State... blocked some kick or something. 

That following Saturday was the concert for my church, which came right after a carnival that the GAP students put on for my room mate's church. ...very busy Saturday. The carnival was awesome. My brother Nathan and I worked a water balloon station for about 20 minutes, and then suddenly all of the balloons disappeared. We probably created about 5 new games on the spot with all of the little kids. 

All of the students involved with the concert left a little early for a practice that started at 2. Practice was a funny experience, but the concert made up for it. God totally showed up. One girl accepted Christ. We probably sang 12 songs in the concert (half spanish/ half english). There were 7 students from GAP that either sang or played an instrument in the concert. I will just go ahead and say that the practice right beforehand was pretty scary. God taught me a lot though because I really started to rely on my own strength and started worrying more about how I sounded than actually worshiping God. So God broke that junk. It was comforting during the concert knowing that I was just worshiping. I had no one else to please but my Papa. 

BUT A GIRL ACCEPTED CHRIST!!! hahahaha!! It wasn't even an alter call, too. Totally Holy Spirit. (it was during Cuanto Nos Ama/How He Loves... which we played in spanish and english for about 15 minutes)

The next week I got to go meet some of my old high school friends and teachers... which was AWESOME!!!!!!!! They were working with a ministry called Project Abraham. I won't explain everything they do, but it's really awesome and I'm thinking about interning there one year, but not this upcoming one. It was so cool seeing people from my own home town in a different country. It took me and 3 other students here about 2 hours to make a 20 minute trek, but we made it. That was awesome. I am so thankful for friends. 

The NEXT weekend on friday my church group and I got to go spend the night in one of our church members mountain cabin! That was definitely something I never thought I would do in Costa Rica. Saturday we got to go to the opening game at the new Costa Rica Soccer Stadium. If I know anything about buildings it is that Costa Rica definitely did not build that stadium. China donated it to Costa Rica. And if a stadium can be THAT big... I just wonder how big God is. 

Sorry that was a rough summary! I've had an awesome past couple of weeks... and God is really really really good. really good. 

I'll tell y'all about DR when I get back! 

Quick Update

Hey everybody :)

We just got out of a meeting about colleges/next steps... after about 3 1/2 hours of Bible, and so the leaders turned on the internet. John, one of the leaders (pastor), has his mentor and his family staying here this week. They're awesome.

My little sister Annie and my mom came to visit two weekends ago. It was awesome having them here, kind of crazy putting Costa Rica world and home into one, but awesome. I know my mom is feeling a lot more comforted having seen this place with her own eyes.        ....and I got to see my mom and sister!
-and mom brought awesome snacks :) I am thankful for you mom! ... and not just because you bring me good food :)

The last couple weeks have been crazy. We have a concert coming up at our church in a two weeks. We're going to be singing songs in spanish and in english, and I'm super excited. That's something you could really praying for, whoever you are. I really want Holy Spirit to ROCK this place with His love.

He loves us so much.. gah. It's crazy guys.
so much

Okay internet is going off! bye!

Hot Springs!

We just got back from the Los Lagos Hot Springs! It was so cool sitting in a hot pool of water, in the middle of the rain forest, under a big, fake mushroom, while it was raining.

They had water slides at the pools, and we did "rapid fire" with anywhere from 5-14 people (sliding down the water slide right after another). We made quite a ruckus, an entertaining ruckus. 

There were plenty of really amazing things to do at this resort:

-Look at a Waterfall:$8

-Zipline:$40

-Ride horses: $45

-Walk Up a Mountain:$45

-To Have Mud Spread All Over Your Body: $100 (or more) 

...

-To Look at Crocodiles, Butterflies, Frogs and Ants: $0

-To walk in on couples PDA-ing in private cubicles in the Hot Springs: FREE!

It was definitely a relaxing two days.. and I'm even more excited for Heaven. If there are still places on earth as beautiful as Los Lagos, while sin is still reigning, how much more beautiful will Heaven be when there is no sin?

So, God is good, and if you go to the Los Lagos resort in C.R. for a vacation... 

take a lot of money. 

Hello!!!!

Just wanted to say hello and that God is really really good. mmhm. It's true. My roomie got baptized the other night right after she accepted Christ. It was such a big deal... that we skipped youth group and celebrated with ice cream, worshiped (danced in our room because dancing is not allowed where we live... dancing is frowned upon for many believers here because of the profane presence of dancing in culture) and then she was baptized that night. My roommates and I have all been baptized in the pool here at the Villa, so that's pretty special. 

My host family, the Garcia family, is awesome. Emily is the other girl in my church group, and about every other Sunday, we go to eat at the Garcia's house after church. Usually Emily and I ask if there is something we can help with, and since then.. we have been the "designated lettuce cutters". Our host dad says he is preparing us to be good wives. We-need-know-make-good-food-for-husband. Sometimes Emily and I even cut tomatoes, mango and onions. Maybe one day we will move up the food chain to a carbohydrate or something. 

So God is awesome, and He changes hearts. fo sho. There are so many people here (including me) that have had so much junk in their lives, and seeing them really HUNGER for Jesus and truth is one of the most encouraging things. We are all changing so much. So thank you for all of your prayers, guys. God hears them. 

Oh and real quick! So surfing... I went to the beach again this past Monday, and the waves were bigger in the afternoon than they were last week. Last year when I went to Puerto Rico for spring break, there were waves very similar to these in the sense that they were huge right by shore, and they were one-after-the-other.  So... when you slipped into the tossing of one wave, it usually meant you were going to stay for a couple more. Anyways back at Jaco (the beach we went to hear in C.R.) it was probably about 4 o'clock, and all of the really good surfers were out. So Andy (guy in GAP, awesome) and I stood there watching, and he definitely wanted to go, but not without me. I went in for about 10 minutes, and by the grace of God did not die (or get thrown under), but I was SO scared. Oh my goodness I was so scared. I was having playbacks in my head from Puerto Rico where I could not even catch a breath because of the waves I got thrown in.... and I definitely did not want to have that happen again... with a surfboard attached to my ankle.

So I was done for the day, and while it probably was the wise thing to do, the next morning during worship I was singing to this song "You're Love Never Fails" by Jesus Culture. In the song, there is a lyric that says, "and when the oceans rage, I don't have to be afraid, because I know that You love me." I've always taken that line figuratively for when there are bad things happening to me in my life, Jesus still loves me. While that interpretation is totally legit, God definitely spoke to me Tuesday morning. 

But, don't worry I am not going to be too stupid. I know pretty close to nothing about how to defend myself from waves, so I'm going to try and learn some tactics on "how not to drown" before I throw myself into anything too scary, hopefully.

Love you guys. Hope everything is going well back in the U.S.A. 

Franco Fail

We didn't end up finding Franco tonight, but we took a different man to dinner. His name is Rigo (um.. yes, Rigo I believe) It was an awesome night. He had a really humble, honest spirit. He's not saved either, so pray for him, but we're planning on eating lunch with him on sunday.

My spanish has definitely gotten a lot better, but it is so hard sometimes. We could kind of understand what Rigo was expressing in his beliefs tonight, but 1. we weren't sure if we were translating correctly, 2. we didn't know how to translate everything we would liked to have said.

We are all learning, and the comforting thing is that it's not us that changes hearts or really does any work. ... but man! It'd sure be nice to fully understand someone in spanish!

Thanks for reading guys.. God's good.

paz (peace in spanish)

swimming with the stingrays, surfing with the sharks and playing volleyball with the jellyfish

So, our Sabbaths here are on Mondays, and this past Monday about a third of the group went to the beach. We got to the beach around nine o'clock in the morning and stayed there until six. The day consisted of playing volleyball (in the water while jellyfish stung us), swimming.. (with stingrays) and surfing (with sharks... okay just one shark, a baby shark.. but still! I'm from Georgia!). 

The waves at this beach (Jaco) were really, really big. As we walked on the beach there was a sign that read, "Beware of Rip Tide Currents." That beach is known for having them.. so I guess you could say we were pretty desperate to play in some waves! Anyways, a little under an hour after we got there two of our boys came walking down the beach with a surfboard.       I was very, very excited. 

I've never surfed before, and I definitely have wanted to for a long time. After a couple of people took their turn, I got to go. I got up my first try (but definitely not every single time), so at that point, I discovered what I would be doing with most of my remaining free days. 

The most expensive part of the entire trip was eating lunch there. Renting a board is 10 bucks for the whole day, the bus ride there and back is about 8 dollars. So we're planning on taking our own lunch and splitting the cost for a board. 

One of my buddies here, Andy, and I spent about 4 hours surfing. We failed, a lot, and mentally prepared for Heaven because of the freakish size of some of these waves (I'm sure they were baby size for pro surfers).... and for the one time we legitimately thought we were being pulled out in a rip tide, but even the risks made the trip so much more exciting. It's really an adventure when you have NO idea what you are doing. 

I had been talking to my buddy on the bus about how I didn't feel like I really made much of God at the beach and he said, "Grace, don't you think one of the most glorifying things to God is enjoying His creation?" 

fact. 

When people really ENJOY gifts you give them, it sure makes you feel good.

oh! so this is really cool.. 

Coconuts are so awesome. I don't know detailed health benefits of a coconut, but all I know is that every REALLY, REALLY hot beach I have been to has always been surrounded by coconut trees. It's easy to stay in the waves all day and not realize how dehydrated you are, and back in the day when they were no hotels or drink stands right on the coast, I'm sure coconuts were lifesavers. After surfing for a couple of hours we picked and drank some coconuts from the trees right on the beach. Fresh coconut juice is one of the top natural sources containing electrolytes, and after being in the sun for 3-4 hours, I physically could feel the effect of the nutrients I was intaking from the juice.  I just think it's so awesome how well God has taken care of us. 

We're doing a study on the book, Radical by David Platt (definitely recommend reading to anyone who loves Jesus) ...(maybe everyone else too) and in it, the book talks about how in the American culture "we can do anything we set our minds to accomplish," and so then he points out John 15:5 where Jesus says "I am the vine, you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."

woah. nothing?? nothing. 

I had to lead a discipleship group of boys and girls with a couple of other students on the 2nd and 3rd chapter of Radical, and we talked a little bit about this verse. The FACT that we can do nothing apart from Christ begs the question... could we love God... without Him helping us? And finally,  did we seek God out on our own, or did He draw us to Himself? Did He choose us?

So, that question raises a very controversial topic, and I never cared much to discuss it... until I really studied that verse. Either way Jesus is really awesome, and we're pretty awful without Him. No. We ARE awful without Him.

Last Sunday on the way back from Church, my group and I took this man out to lunch named Franco. He was really awesome, homeless and dirty, but awesome. He wasn't very talkative at first, but finally he started asking us questions. Again, I have realized how much more spanish I need to learn. Please pray for my spanish. 

Anyways, on the way back we told him we were going to find him Friday night of the coming week. So, tonight, my church group and I are going to go looking for him in San Jose. We're hoping we can find him. He was joking around with us after an hour with him and when men in San Jose would say inappropriate things to me and my friend Emily, he would stick up for us and tell them to get away. He's not saved, so we're hoping we build a relationship strong enough that we can present the Gospel. So, please just pray for our wisdom and love in what we say and do.  God's going to work. 

And I got baptized!

John on left (ex-ranger... on fire for Jesus)

Jesus. Jesus is good

HELLLLLOOOOOO WORLD! 

You were probably expecting a really late post, so I won't apologize... ;)  Love you Mom! 

To start off, it does not seem that I ever went home for Christmas break. All of our schedule started right off the bat when I arrived: class, discipleship, mentoring, Church. My spanish has improved A LOT... well I think so. I still haven't understood a sermon yet, but that day will come! God's been helping me a lot. 

The second week we were here they sent a bunch of us away to work at Costa Rican, Christian summer camps. I went to the Word of Life camp in Guanacaste. Guanacaste is where the really beautiful beaches are... not that we went, but it was definitely HOT. The kind of hot..where you take a shower and don't ever really feel like you dry off. But it was awesome, beautiful. I worked in the kitchen, so I had the chance to practice a lot of spanish. On the way to camp I sat next to this girl named Vanessa. She's 12 and was VERY patient with my little understanding the entire trip. A little boy asked her to a banquet at the end of camp (on stage in front of everybody) She was so excited... until the night before the banquet when she told me her date decided that he wanted to go with another girl. So then came the rambling in spanish and crying on my shoulder...

This is the time where I wish I knew a little more spanish. 

I finally convinced one of our GAP boys to ask her. (Cameron you're awesome) So needless to say.. she had an awesome time with the tall, white boy with muscles. 

Please pray for my spanish! I am burdened to communicate with these people. Thanks everybody, y'all are really awesome. 

God has been teaching me so much already. I continue to feel wimpier and wimpier as I read the Old Testament. God punished people for complaining, not trusting in Him, working on the Sabbath... things I do ALL of the time. All I have to say is that I really really like You Jesus. 

a lot

I can't go into much detail, but there is someone here who needs a lot of prayer. I love this person very much, (VERY) and they have almost no desire to be here... or know God, so if you're reading this... please pray for God to give this person a hunger to know Him. 

But Jesus is so good... way too good for people not to know about and love. 

The Dad of Hannah (my room mate who left last semester) is here this week teaching us from a book called contagious Christianity. I think it might be a movement or something.. not really sure, but the study we're doing is all about evangelism. Evangelism has an awful name because of its inauthenticity. The best people to tell about Jesus are the people you're closest to... the people that love you. 

In the video for Contagious Christianity, there was an atheist that, after a very real conversation with a believer commented on this man's genuine goodness. And then the killer statement... he said "I mean... if these people actually believe what's in that Book they read...how much do they have to HATE people not to tell them about their God." 

Yikes.

So I definitely have been having to keep in mind that heart changes are up to God... but this guy definitely motivated me. 

Have I ever even explained the Gospel??

...yikes! 

I love you guys. I don't know who all is reading this, but I love you. 

...and I don't know if this is what a blog is supposed to look like, so if you want to know specific things, tell me. 

que tenga buen noche!