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!