The Glory of Baby Jesus

Creepy medieval renderings of baby Jesus showed Him as a mini man because they thought it was disrespectful to paint Him as a baby. "If my baby looked like that, I'd sleep with one eye open" --Marc Driscoll

I seriously considered not writing anything about my thoughts about Christmas. In fact, until about an hour ago, I had no intention of writing about it at all. For several reasons. Mostly because it’s cliché and typical, and I don’t like to be either. Also because the incarnation is so far beyond me I can’t imagine being able to put forth any thoughts that are significant enough for you to take the time to read. And finally, because I haven’t posted letting you all know what I’ve been up to (but that’s a lame reason and I’ve stopped worrying about it. I’ll get to that in due time).

I ended up deciding to write because something seemed to poke at me this Christmas season that has never bothered me before. (And I’m not talking about the old lady who was a little too close behind me in line yesterday at my church’s Christmas dinner program and kept shuffling back up behind me every time I tried to shuffle forward). I can sometimes be a fairly easily irritable person so I didn’t give it much thought, but it poked at me over and over again. I still don’t know that my thoughts are significant enough to be shared. And really they’re a collection of thoughts that have mostly been stolen from others (and they’ll know it when they read this) culminating into one big thought. Either way, bare with me. It’s kind of a jumble. (Well, you don’t have to if you don’t want to, it’s just an idea).

The most constant focus I pick up on in protestant churches on Christmas is that we worship baby Jesus because we are moved by God, that He so humbled Himself to become the most helpless creature in such squalor conditions. Really, I agree, such a humble God amazes me. But what’s been poking at me is the line we use saying that in doing so He laid His glory aside.

To be clear, I should say that I use a definition of glory borrowed from my college pastor that means ‘to reveal something for what it is in it’s truest form’. So when we say that we are glorifying God, we’re saying that what we’re doing is revealing God for Who He truly is in our actions. When we say “Glory to God”, we’re saying “God, we see You for Who You are and it is awesome!!”

I guess what I want to say is that I don’t think that the Word laid His glory aside when He took up the form of a baby. I see the exact opposite when I read the story in the Bible. When Jesus was born, angels sang “glory” in the sky. Angels sang “this is Who God is in His truest form and it is awesome.” God is not two-faced. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says that in Jesus we see God for Who He really is, with “unveiled face”, meaning we don’t have to make educated guesses at Who He is by just looking at His actions towards us and what the prophets say like Moses had to in the Old Testament. We get to see Him in all His glory, revealed for Who He is in His truest form, by looking at Jesus. Jesus is not just showing one side of God. He is the truest image of Who God is. So when we see Him as a baby, I don’t think it’s that He laid aside His glory to come be a man, live here, die here, be resurrected and then go back to the Father to be all shiny and glorious again. I think that the humility we see in Jesus is the beginning of His life as the clearest representation of the Father.

Bahaha.... this is just funny.

God is love. And not our skewed perception of love, but the type of love described in 1 Corinthians 13, the type that is humble and self-sacrificing. His act of coming as a baby is, therefore, one of His most glorious moments. This is Him excitedly and willingly and joyfully putting into action the plan of adoption that Father, Son and Spirit had planned since the beginning of time. This is not Jesus coming, dragging His feet and mumbling, “If that dang Adam hadn’t gone and screwed it all up… guess I have to give up the sweet sparkly spoiled life in heaven to save their butts now.” He’s not like me coming to Costa Rica–giving up a lot of the “finer things” of life that I can have at any moment in the US  to come and serve and love and be all humble and stuff in Costa Rica for a little while, throughout which, if I’m honest, I’m quite looking forward to returning to the spoiled things of the US. That was not Jesus’ attitude when He came. (And why did I always used to picture Jesus in heaven surrounded by mountains of gold?)

Before Adam ever sinned Jesus was the plan–adoption through Him becoming one of us so we could be included in the perfect love relationship of Father, Son, Spirit was always the plan. Jesus’ coming was the pinnacle moment for which all of creation was on the edge of its seat. God was so pleased for this moment and the form of His coming couldn’t have been more characteristic of Him. Humble.

We tend to read Philippians 2:6 as saying that “in spite of the fact that Jesus is God, He took the form of a servant”. But if we go back to the original Greek, a more accurate translation through a different hermeneutic reads that “precisely because Jesus is God, He did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped and made Himself nothing and came in the form of a servant.”

This is the “image of His Son” God is using the events in our lives to conform us to–that of His humble, self-sacrificing Son, the firstborn of many Who are to be adopted into the union of Father, Son & Spirit (Romans 8:29).

To sum it all up, I don’t think Jesus laid His glory aside when He came as a baby. I think it was the glorious beginning of His glorious life, death, resurrection, and ascension–the final Word. All of which glorifies God by giving us the clearest image of God in His truest form as a God Who is love, full of humility and sacrifice for the sake of His longing for relationship with creation.

Visa Renewal trip to Nicaragua!

This is a view over Granada and Mombacho Volcano in the distance from the bell tower of the Merced.

So last week, on Wednesday, December seventh, I hopped on a bus to head up to Nicaragua for three days. The Costa Rican government only gives 90 day visas, so I had to hop into another country for at least three days during my time here. It was a requirement and it was deLIGHTful! I went with Melissa and Ros, which worked out well because Melissa has already been several times and didn’t care to do the sight-seeing over again but since Ros came along I had someone to do the touristy stuff with.

On Thursday Ros and I walked around the town to see all of the famous sites, which mostly consists of old churches and keep sort of things. Granada, in the 1500s and 1600s, was constantly attacked by pirates. It’s been burnt to the ground and rebuilt three times. It’s got some super cool history, but a lot of it’s been, well, burnt up. We went to the oldest church in town, Iglesia San Fransisco, we went to the old broken down hospital on the edge of town, we went to the old fort–La Casa Almacen–and then went to the old Merced, this church that’ll let you tour it’s clock tower for $1. The heights got to me a little but I did alright. You could see for miles in the clock tower, which allowed us to see everywere we’d been so far, plus the adorable Spanish-style layout of the city blocks (square buildings with lovely tiled rooves and a garden in the middle), and also the Lake Nicaragua and the Isletas that dot it.

This is a view facing east from the bell tower. You can see the central church in Nicaragua and the lake behind that. You can also see the very Spanish look and layout of the town and the blocks.

We parted ways for a while to do some shopping on our own and I was in a more “local” area of town for a while. It was hot and humid and I was sweating like I’d just run a marathon. I couldn’t help but notice how many people there were begging, but I’d been told by several people and the tour guide book I was using said not to give money to them because you’re not offering a solution, only creating an industry. But I was relieved, when I sat down to lunch and shared a table with some people on their lunch break because there were no other tables left, that the extremely old and thin lady who I had seen begging at least five times so far was sitting at the next table over and the lady I was sitting with was buying her lunch.

I spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool of our hotel and that night us ladies went out to dinner. We found a place that made a decent hamburger–a tough thing to come by down here!–and then went back home to relax.

This is me feeding Lola the Monkey!

On Friday I relaxed the first part of the day. I went to a cafe and then did a little souvenir shopping. But that evening Ros and I went on a beautiful boat tour of the Isletas through a great bang-for-your-buck company suggested by the Lonely Planet, the book we were using. It was still very hot, but the shade of the boat cover and the breeze from the movement and the lake felt great! The Isletas are a ton of little islands on Lake Nicaragua that were created long ago by the explosion of Mombacho Volcano, a large volcano on the age of the lake and at whose base Granada lies. Some of them are tiny but some of them have homes built on them by rich Nicaraguans. My favorite one had an old fort on it that the Nicaraguans used as a lookout to watch for pirates that came up the river and then up the lake in the 16th and 17th centuries. One of the most famous islands has monkeys! Even though the monkeys aren’t native, they were brought in as a tourist trap, they were a ton of fun! One of the monkeys, Lola, was very friendly, and hopped right on the boat and ate smooshy cookies out of my hand. The tour was also full of lots of bird seeing as well and at the end we got to watch the sunset behind Volcano Mombacho. We went back to the hotel and relaxed the rest of the evening and the next day we got back on the bus to go home!

The whole trip was a great balance of activity and relaxation, and it was all very rejuvenating. I’ve been super productive since I got home and I don’t think I realized how much I needed the little “descanso” (rest).

A quick prayer request: I’m really processing through some thoughts and concerns I have about the office I work in and, honestly, worldwide missions as a whole. Please pray that I would respond to the Spirit’s nudges as He guides me through this and that I would respond through it all with love and grace and wisdom. Thanks

Fiestas Navideñas

Coffee, gallo pinto (on the left side of the plate), tortilla with sour cream, eggs, and a chunk of cheese.

This last week has kicked off the week of Christmas parties. Both Chicas and

This is a Tamale. The green it's wrapped in is a banana leaf and inside is the mixture of flour, cream, and veggies I described in my post.

Discipulas, the two Bible studies I attend, have had their parties in the last week, and we’re having our ITeams party next week. They’ve included lots of yummy traditional Costa Rican food. One of the most famous is gallo pinto (ga-yo peen-toe), which is rice, black beans, onion, cilantro, and sometimes some other veggies, but always with salsa Lizano, a salsa they put on everything here. Another is tamales, a traditional Christmas food here and kind of  difficult to explain because it’s unlike anything we have in the US. It’s a mixture of flour, whipping cream, salt, tobasco sauce, vegetables like onion, garlic, peppers, carrots, and celery, and sometimes meat mixed into a sort of a brick patty and then wrapped in big banana leaves. Both are super delicious.

My white elephant gift from Chicas Fiesta Navideña

The parties have also included presentations about the birth of Jesus and a white elephant gift exchange. I got fuzzy socks and a  makeup bag at the Chicas party (which I loved because my toes get cold at night!) and a coffee cup with chocolates at the Discipulas party (which I loved because I love coffee). They were also full of laughter and fellowship, which is always great.

My abuela adoptada here (Davíd's mom)

Then I also go to go to a birthday party of one of Davíd’s nieces, which I really enjoyed. Sometimes I feel like if Latin America, as a whole, took a personality test, they’d be ESFP–the party people. They love celebrations, and they love to be loud, and to dance, and to laugh, and to eat. It is so much fun, but sometimes a little overwhelming.

I also went to Jacó this last weekend to be a babysitter for a marriage retreat for the church my host parents attend, Hijos del Rey. It was a lot of fun to get out of Heredia and spend a few days in a pool in the sun and getting to serve the community by caring for their kids so they could enjoy the teaching sessions. I also got to work alongside a girl named Laura (Lala) who spoke about as much English as I spoke Spanish, so that was fun. We discovered, via the famous Justin Bieber interview by David Letterman, that we had learned two different things about continents. She

Everyone in the pool at the weekend marriage retreat.

learned that there were six continents: America, Asia, Europe, Africa, Oceania, and Antarctica, where as I learned about seven: North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Australia (incl Oceania) and Antarctica. It took a few minutes of discussion to realize that we weren’t misunderstanding each other, we were just taught two different things! We had a good weekend taking care of kids together and made a good team.

I also got to babysit John and Evie (Eric and Caroline’s kids) a few more times! Which I always enjoy. They’re super easygoing and fun kids. They’re the type that go to sleep the moment you lay them down without crying. Seriously.

Roadside stands like this are very common along the highway in Costa Rica.

There’s no hot water in the house right now, so I have to walk over to Davíd’s sister’s house to take a shower, but even there, they only have “agua tibia”, which is tepid water. It’s luke… cold. I tried to say, “I don’t think the hot water’s working,” and they put their hand in the water and say, “What do you mean? that’s hot.” But it’s not hot.

The widowmaker hot water heater.

It’s cold bordering lukewarm instead of freezing cold. Although sometimes you can trick it by using the water on the slowest speed possible, but even then it is, at best, lukewarm. The hot water heaters here aren’t 300 gallon tanks of pre-heated water, like what we have. They’re small, maybe 5 or 10 gallon tanks, but the water heats as it passes through. Less safe, but you never run out of hot water. Some of the tanks are in a separate rooms, like in my house, and they have pretty hot water, but often they’re attached directly to the shower head, and this type doesn’t hold any water, they just heat the water as it passes through and they’re the ones with the “lukecold” water unless you put the water on super low speed. These are called “widowmakers” (to the left); very reassuring. Big sigh. I’m fine with the coldish lukewarm showers; In fact, I’m very thankful I get to take a shower at all and that it’s not freezing cold, but… I know I sound like a spoiled Gringa, but I’m looking forward to a nice warm shower, haha.

Your prayers on continuing to build deeper relationships, spiritual conversation and language learning are so appreciated! Also, I’m going to Nicaragua this weekend so that I can renew my visa. Please pray for safety and that Ros, Melissa, and I would have a fun and restful time together. Thanks so much!

Día de Acción de Gracias en Costa Rica

This is a photo Ros snuck of me working on the porch.

Life in CR has been pretty typical the last few weeks, spending most days in the office and most evening and weekends hanging out with Davíd and Loania at home or with China and other girls out and about. I’ve continued enjoying and growing in those relationships. We also have a new girl in the office these days. Her name is Rosalyn (Ros) and she’s from England, so we have a good time poking fun at her and she does the same to us. She and I do the same type of job in the office so we work together often. I’m enjoying spending time with her and her British humor, hehe. We both like to sit on the patio and work. The weather is nice–about 70°–but it is damp, rainy, and windy most of the time. CR is currently transitioning from winter (rainy) season to summer (dry) season, which starts in January, so right now is like their version of spring. But we bundle up and sit under the overhang and enjoy it nonetheless.

My Spanish is improving in leaps and bounds, especially my vocabulary. I didn’t realize it until I spent some time with a girl that I hadn’t seen since I got here two months ago and she was generally impressed with how much I’d improved. I think the biggest thing is my confidence level with it all. I definitely still have a long ways to go, but I have three more months here still, so I have a lot of time to continue to practice and improve!

This last week we celebrated Thanksgiving. I was in charge of making green bean casserole, but I we don’t have

Melissa, Caroline, me, and Susan at Thanksgiving (and little Evie on the couch on the background, hehe)

the onion crisps that go on top here so I had to make my own, which I’m quite proud of! Just some onions, milk, flour, salt and oil. Super easy and super delicious. We got to have a turkey, which is never a guarantee here, so I was very thankful for that. Everything was delicious and I really enjoyed my time with the missionaries I was with–Caroline and Eric, their two kids, and Melissa and Susan. I also enjoyed getting to watch the Packers win!

On Saturday I went to a Té (Spanish for Tea), which is theoretically supposed to be like the Latin American equivalent of a bridal shower… It was nothing like a bridal shower. It was a full out fiesta, complete with a DJ, games, mariachi band, street dance, strange traditional dancing giant-head costume guys, karaoke and lots and lots of food. I learned to salsa… a little… I think… I’m actually really not sure. Whatever I learned was like country western swing with a Latin American twist. I’m a horrible dancer and kept stepping on the poor guys feet, but he was very patient. I was sitting with the bridal party because the friend I went with, Silvya, Davíd’s niece, is the maid of honor, and Silvya let it slip that I can sing so I was pushed up front for karaoke and laughed out loud at the lack

These are the giant costume head people [photo attributed to http://www.acm.edu/features/photo-detail/291?&programid=3&program=slacs

of English music he had to choose from. I ended up picking “Unchained Melody” which they seemed to like. The ladies shoved me up another time and, by their request, I sang “These Boots Are Made For Walking”, which I sang to a chorus of Latin American ladies chanting “yes! yes! yes!” in English, hahaha. Nope, nothing like a bridal shower. But it was definitely a cultural experience and I was glad I got to go!

One thing I’ve been praying for a lot down here lately is to have more spiritual conversations. I enjoy the work I do the office and I enjoy the relationships that I have here and I believe that God is using me in the midst of them, but outside of the Bible study, which is pretty heavily directed and not a lot of room for discussion, there’s little to no spiritual conversation–at least none that I’ve been a part of. I make the most of the opportunities to relate to them in Chicas and what not, but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of independent thought. This has been difficult for me, because I am so full of thoughts and ideas and God has been speaking so much truth into my heart and I’m a verbal processor who LOOVES to share what she’s learning. I’ve also been blessed with a great group at home in Lincoln, NE, where spiritual conversations are more common than non-spiritual conversations, so it’s been a pretty shocking change for me. I am going to start being more intentional about sharing what I’m learning by writing about it here on my blog, which I sort of started by posting my last post (look below or read it here). And it’s been a good opportunity to process through it all with the Lord again and again, but I’m really hoping for more to occur with the people around me, whether it be the people on the team in the office or my friends from Chicas or my host family.Would you pray for me that way?

Also, while I’m really very comfortable here and not as homesick, there is a lot of super fun stuff going on at home that I’m pretty bummed to be missing. Whether it’s super awesome fun stuff, like one of my best friends getting engaged and wishing so badly I was there to help her plan her wedding, or friends going through rough times that I wish I could be there to help them through and instead have to be satisfied with lots of facebook messaging, it’s really tough not to be there for those bigger events. Would you pray for me in that way, as well?

Miss you all! Hope you had a happy and thankful day last Thursday and are enjoying the Christmas season. I know I have officially and full on whipped out the Christmas music and I’m loving it (although it is a little strange in 70° weather). Thanks so much for your thoughts and prayers and for keeping up to date with me down here

PS I trapped another tarantula. I had hoped to keep him as a pet, but Davíd and Loania said no Ended up having to kill him. He was a little bigger than the palm of my hand. I figured if he’d gotten that big he deserved to live, but they seemed to think otherwise. Bummer.

Me with my tarantula!

This is the tarantula... you can kind of see him through the tupperware container.

Seeing God

A constant prayer I’ve had for the last year is the prayer to know God for Who He really is. Not for Who I want Him to be or have created Him to be in my imagination for my benefit and not to be afraid to break out of  any of my preconceived notions of Him, but to dig for truth to know Who He is, solely because I want to know Him.  Everything else in my life flows out of knowing Him more and more fully.

My favorite place to sit and do my devotions on the ITeams campus. You can't see it well in this picture, but it has a great view of hte mountains.

I think as Christians sometimes we feel like a used car salesman, like we’re selling a product whose outcomes are unpredictable. Like we’re selling something that we carry a lot of doubt about ourselves. I know when I used to think that to be a good Christian I was supposed to be walking people through the Romans road every chance I got and asking them to pray the “sinner’s prayer”, the biggest inhibitor for me was that I didn’t really feel that God was as great as I was supposed to think He was. I didn’t really like the God that I’d learned about. It wasn’t any one person’s fault.  But the picture that was painted of Him throughout all of my various life experiences, everything from daily life to church to Bible camp to Christian conferences and so on, led me to see Him through a lens that, I’m learning, had a pretty erred prescription. It would be like trying to get to know a new friend I met if I immediately assumed certain thoughts about them that weren’t true and I refused to let go of them.

“…Failure to revise our mental baggage inerrantly means that we are imposing our own alien ideas upon the world and the people around us, thereby dooming ourselves to live in a world generated by our own imagination… In Christian faith, [the price is] the loss of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Forcing our own ideas upon Jesus is a singular disaster, for it is only in knowing the staggering truth about Jesus–Who He is and what He has done for and with and to the human race–that we are set free from the bondage of our profound and debilitating anxiety into the freedom to live. The hope and joy we so desperately desire, the passion and courage, the dignity and freedom, the wholeness and fullness for which we long, are the fruit of knowing Jesus Christ. It is as we come to know Him–the real Jesus, as He is in Himself as the Father’s beloved Son and the Lord and Savior of the human race–that we are quickened with a hope and a freedom and inspired with a life and joy that are not our own.” –C. Baxter Kruger

My constant prayer for the last year has been one for truth. I am so deeply comforted by the fact that there IS absolute truth, there are right and wrong ideas about God and life and the world, and that truth is fully available to me and even dwells in me via the Holy Spirit. In John 14:15-31, Jesus explains that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth sent to teach us. In 1st Corinthians 2:6-16 Paul explains that the Spirit understands God perfectly because “He searches everything, including the depths of God”. He says that nothing understands a person completely except for the spirit is within him, and it’s the same way with the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, who understands God competely.

“We may sometimes feel inclined to be impatient with ourselves because we do not make more rapid progress, but we have to learn to trust the Lord with our spiritual education. If our eyes are upon Him, and we follow with simple hearts as He leads us, we shall find that He leads us by a right way and brings us through all the exercises we need to form our souls in the appreciation of Himself, and of all those blessed things which are brought to pass in Him.” –C.A. Coates

I so desperately want to see God for Who He really is. I am so hungry to dig deeper into Jesus, His final Word made flesh through Whom we see God the most clearly. I am so anxious to continue to be taught by the Teacher sent here for us. Because when I see God for Who He really is, I gain closeness, intimacy and relationship with Him. And the more clearly I see Him, the more clearly I understand Who I Am. I knew that

One of the sidewalks going through the ITeams campus. I love the vine covered tree.

to heal my insecurities I had to find my security in my acceptance in God, but with the understanding of God I had in the past, I didn’t feel very accepted. But when I see God correctly through the lens of Christ, I see His infinite love for me, and just how completely accepted I am by Him, and I am naturally moved to security. I don’t have to remind myself to place my security in God, it’s a natural result of seeing Him for Who He is as a God Who loves me and will go to any lengths to save me from my darkness. I couldn’t stop it if I tried.

A great example I heard explained that when Jesus walked on water and saved Peter from drowning, no one had to tell the disciples to worship Him. They simply saw Him, in that moment, for Who He is as a Savior full of grace and love, and their natural response was to worship Him.

I believe that our willingness to risk and to consider looking at Him through a new lens, as scary as it might be, can bring us into deeper intimacy with Him, the real Him. There is no self-help book in the world that can help us if we have an unhealthy or incorrect view of God. My prayer for myself and for all of you is to see God for Who He really is, and to continually allow your mind and thoughts towards Him to be changed. Because I fully and completely and entirely with all of my being believe that such an experience is the solution to every problem in the world.

“…we cannot know Jesus–and thus experience the sheer life and freedom that only such knowing produces–if we are projecting our preconceptions upon Him… to call a halt to the process and leave our habits of mind unexamined, is to run the risk of missing Jesus Christ altogether and dooming ourselves to a life, a kingdom, a salvation of our own making.” –C. Baxter Kruger

Christmas time is here in Costa Rica

Veronica, myself, and Loania decorating the Christmas tree!

As you know, they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving here in Costa Rica, so they don’t have a defined “decorate for Christmas” start point like we have in the US.  So they just start decorating whenever they feel like it! Some homes have had their decorations up since before I got here in September. But most start decorating anytime after November 1st. So last Friday night Loania, Veronica (a girl from our church), and Davíd and I all decorated the house for Christmas. Even though I’m usually a pretty strict post-Thanksgiving Christmas music listener, I whipped it out early this year for effect, and it gave me the tickles in my stomach! I love Christmas. We put up the tree and decorated it, which is probably my favorite part about Christmas, so that really warmed my heart. It was a fake tree, and my family is a devoted “real tree” crew,  but I still enjoyed it a ton We hung some wreaths around the house and Davíd had someone put the lights up outside.

Another night I went with China and another friend, Ericka, to a sports bar in Son José, which I really loved. All of the restaurants here are wide open to the outdoors because it’s never too cool or too hot to need to have a building enclosed (it stays between 70 and 80 all year long), so sitting there, watching soccer, laughing and giggling and sharing stories with girls was thrilling for me.

The Christmas lights outside

China came over last night, as well, to eat dinner and watch the Packers-Vikings game with me. My sweet friend is 28 and has spent her whole life watching soccer (which they call fútbol here) and had several misconceptions about North American football. Explaining to her that you stopped the game and started with a new play every time someone “fell”and that you put in a completely different group of people depending on where you were defense or offense or special teams was very strange for her. She also thought that the point of the game was to get the ball down the field as fast as possible and get the ball between the “two poles”. I had to explain that a touchdown is worth six points (which seemed like a lot to her, since professional soccer games never go over three or four points for each team) and that the field goal is one extra point, and that you have to kick the ball between the poles, not throw it. She also thought that in order to get a touchdown, you had to cross the last line and then throw the ball at the ground really hard. I thought that football was easy to understand, but by the end of the night I realized I knew more than I thought I did, and I kind of felt like I was explaining “whack bat” from “Fantastic Mr. Fox”.

Me putting up the star on the Christmas tree!! I was honored

It’s so weird to see everyone preparing for the Christmas here when it’s so warm outside, averaging about 70°F . For me, cold and snow are inseparable from the holidays. It’s so strange to get excited for Christmas and not bundle up before walking out the door. Whereas for me it goes winter, start school, autumn, Christmas/winter. For them it goes rainy season (“invierno”), windy, Christmas, and in January summer (“verano”) starts. Right now it’s windy out, and they say the wind smells like “café and tomales”, because Christmas is full of them. The wind is damp and chilly, but nothing to the snow and slush my midwest family and friends are experiencing. I’ve been enjoying the whether and falling more in love with God’s creation every day. He’s been so sweet to reveal Himself to me in new and precious ways lately.

Loania left today for Miami to visit a friend and take advantage of our holiday sales Missing her already! Would you be praying for her safety?

And thanks for continued prayer for health, sleep, language, and relationships! Abrazos y besos!

Internet-less campus and other stuff

Last weekend ended up being fun! I started a new book (“Pillars of the Earth” by Ken Follett) to add to what I’m already reading–I’m one of those 3-books-at-once people. Still chewing through “Mere Christianity” by CS Lewis and “The Green Letters – Principles for Spiritual Growth” by Miles Stanford. I’m quite positive that if Christian Life were a class, the latter would be a required reading. I’m still processing what I’m learning and will probably end up posting 1 or 2 (or 8) blog posts about it because it’s given me so much great stuff to think about. If you’re looking for a great book to read, I highly suggest it.

Relaxing on campus one day

On Saturday evening I went over to my friend Cinthia’s (China’s) house (I’ve taken to calling her Cinthia, because it’s what her mom calls her) and we ended up chatting for quite a while so I ended up spending the night at her place. On Sunday morning we went to another church in Heredia. For now I’ve decided to continue exploring and visiting churches because I’d like to get a broader idea of what church is like here. So far I’ve concluded that you have about the same wide range of selection as you might find in the US, with their own cultural, relational twists. Some are three hour services with a 10 minute break in between where they do worship, announcements, celebrate birthdays, give financial updates, etc, and finish with the sermon. Others are more North-Americanized, with a very timely, orderly, no-nonsense service. And there’s a whole range in between. One other thing I’ve noticed is that, true to Latin American style, people come wandering in, not looking at all concerned or embarrassed about the time, all hours of the service. At the beginning it may look fairly sparse and by the end there’s hardly a chair left.

That afternoon I babysit while Davíd and Loania had a meeting with another couple about the couples ministry at the

Jorgito and I

church–we watched the Packers game and I taught the little guy to be a Packers fan. I’m not sure he understood, seeing as he’s grown up completely surrounded by soccer, where everyone yells “gooooooooooooooooooal!” (they seriously hold it out for like a minute. it’s hilarious), and when the Pack got one of the touchdowns, sweet little 2 year old Jorgito stared at me blankly as I cheered and said, “We got a touchdown.” When I realized he didn’t understand I said, “We got a goal!” and he immediately threw a fist in the air and hollered, “Gooooooal!” at the top of his sweet little voice. I loved it. [But his dad, Jorge, who spent a year studying in Denver and is therefore a Broncos fan, was less than thrilled (mwahaha).]

Monday morning I went to “Discípulas”, but shortly after we discovered the internet went out on the ITeams campus. When we called the company they informed us that we’ve been getting spammed or there’s some sort of worm in our internet system and we have to get it taken care of before they’ll turn it back on. We haven’t had any luck getting it back on so we’ve all been working from our homes while the IT guys go at it.

I took advantage of that time away from the office to explore Heredia a little more and today I got my haircut! I was a little nervous about it, but she did a great job. I also ate lunch and got a smoothie and sat in the central park and watched the pigeons. Pigeon watching was a riot. The biologist in me quickly emerged, and within a minute I figured out which

This is where the relaxing afternoon of pigeon watching took place.

were the males and which were the females and started to journal about the techniques used by the males to attract the females. But the females would run away, heads bobbing all the way, and the males would be close behind, in hot pursuit, head-a-bobbing. It kept me entertained for some time, and I couldn’t help but giggle out loud once or twice, which I’m sure attracted strange looks. One poor guy who was hopping on one leg had settled for going for a fairly thin, scraggly looking little lady… He chased her for at least 5 minutes. I was rooting for him, but I’m afraid natural selection will not be kind to him. At the end of it all, I couldn’t help but praise God for His creative creation and also thank Him for not subjecting me to pigeon porn.

And now I’m back home for the afternoon, working again. Right now I’m working on some displays for different countries where we send workers to for people who are interested in joining to learn more information about each. Right now I’m working on Bosnia. I confess to being easily distracted by the endless Wikipedia articles. I’m shocked by my lack of knowledge on southern European history and it’s become so very fascinating to me. And who know they had such interesting geography!?

Pretty flower!

I’d also like to begin going to a few different businesses in Heredia, like a cafe and a clothing shop, on a regular basis to start building more new relationships in the community. If you would pray for direction with that, that’d be wonderful.

Continue to pray for relationships here–within the team, with my host family, and with people I’m meeting in the community. With that, pray for continued language growth. Also for continued physical health, as my stomach continues to acclimate to the new diet here and for sleeping at night.

Overall I’m feeling more and more comfortable. There’s still frustrations once in a while, like having to go way too long without showering because there was no water pressure for a while, but I really am enjoying myself

Ever so thankful for you!

Salud, Dinero & Amor

This last week or so has been… eventful. I’ve gotten food poisoning twice since last Wednesday, on Wednesday night last week, and Tuesday night this week, so I’ve missed a lot of work in the office. However, my illness was conveniently timed

Flowers my boyfriend, Blake, sent me when I was sick with food poisoning Sweet man.

around the times I had planned to hang out with friends, so that was handy. One thing that they do here that I think is funny is when you sneeze, the first time, they say “salud!” (health), the second time, “dinero!” (money) and the third time, “amor!” (love). It’s cute. Oh! I have friends. My friend, China (her real name is Cinthia, but she goes by China, pronounced “chee-nuh”) invited me to her house on Saturday for a surprise birthday for her younger sister, Chinita. I spent the night at her place after the party and we went to church together in the morning, exhausted because we talked until 3 a.m. It was so fun. And on Wednesday I went to a movie with a couple friends. We saw “Real Steel” (in Spanish, “Gigantes de Acero”) at the “cine” because it was “2 for 1″ deal night, which makes it about $2.50 to get in and a little over $2 for popcorn. The movie is in English, but has subtitles, which is actually great for Spanish learning, because I get to read how they say certain phrases.

I went to “Chicas” last night, which I really enjoyed, and tomorrow night I’m going to China’s again to hang out and practice speaking  because she wants to learn to speak English. She and I are going to start meeting on Monday nights at a coffee shop and spend an hour speaking English and an hour speaking Spanish and talk about God. I’m really looking forward to that! My Spanish learning is coming along well!

I also got to babysit on Tuesday night. One of the things I’m doing while I’m here is offering free babysitting to all of the missionaries to let them go on some dates, get a break once in a while, run errands, etc. It’s also a treat for me because all of the missionary’s kids are adorable and tons of fun, especially the ones I babysat this week!

I’ve had some really good encouraging days, and some that are more difficult. Today was a more difficult day, which is okay. It’s a part of the process. Around 7 I found myself wandering on a sort of exploratory walk. It was good to wander

The mountains to the east of the valley looked like they were floating on a cool Tuesday evening.

the neighborhood, find a few “super-mini”s (corner stores) I didn’t know about, and a tiny restaurant that sells nachos for $1, which I thoroughly intend to try sometime (although you have to remember to remind them not to put ketchup and mayo on it, otherwise they will–they put it on everything). But I found myself wanting to look out over the city. Costa Rica is covered in mountains and volcanoes. It’s only about 19,650 square miles in size but packs in about 4.6 million people, which is pretty packed compared to Nebraska, which is about 77,400 square miles in size and only has about 1.8 million people. 1.5 million of the citizens live in the Central Valley, which is where the capital, San Jose, is located. At night the city lights look like a blanket laid over the valley, the surrounding metro climbing into the mountains. I live in San Pablo, in the province of Heredia, to the northeast of San Jose, which is just a little ways up the mountains, so if I find the right opening between houses, I can see the valley lit up below and the houses climbing into the mountains on the other side of the valley.

After wandering for a bit I found myself in front of the house of Davíd’s mom. She has a second floor–which is rare–and a porch, so I went and knocked on her door and asked if it was okay if I sat on her porch to look out over the city. She’s a sweet 75-year old Costa Rican who has lived in the same 10 mile vicinity her whole life and is difficult to understand, but I gathered that she was okay with me sitting on her porch. After about 10 minutes she came out to ask if everything was okay and found me crying. I told her I missed my home and she teared up with understanding and gave me a big hug. It might sound silly, but I haven’t hugged anyone since I left the US, because all they do here is “besos” (kisses on the cheek)

These were some super cool mushrooms I spotted growing out of the side of a log last week. That's neat

to greet and say goodbye, and her hug was an answer to prayer (“God, can you just send someone to give me a big comfy hug?!”). Who’s a better hugger than a mother of five and grandmother of six? Thanks, God.

She invited me inside and made me “agua dulce”, which is hot water with some type of sweet flavoring and milk–to me it tastes really similar to a “steamer”–and a soft pineapple and raisin dessert bread. We traded stories about our families and she told me about what the neighborhood was like when she was a little girl. She told me the surroundings have changed a lot but the attitude is still as “tranquilo” as ever. When I felt better she let me sit in her comfy chair and watch a movie and covered me with a blanket, saying I could stay as long as I wanted. After about a half hour I wandered home, but before I left she hugged me again and said, in Spanish, “I will hug you from now on.”

I don’t mean to paint a negative image of how I’m doing–tonight may end up being one of my favorite memories! I know these difficulties are unavoidable and are all a part of God transforming my heart and making me more like His Son. I knew beforehand, with my personality, I would have nights like this. Please know that in the middle of it all, God is such a comforter of my heart. There are difficult nights, but I can sense God moving in my heart. Some days are lonelier than others, but my Father loves me and I am more than okay. He sends me sweet “abuelos” to give me hugs and “agua dulce”, friends to hang out with, and more than that, His Spirit is within me, listening, understanding, interceding, transforming, and comforting.

Loania was so excited I was making mac'n'cheese with hot dogs.

I am so very excited about the friends I’ve made and my progress in speaking Spanish! Praise God, he’s been so wonderful with how swiftly he’s answered these prayers!

Would you pray for continued relationships with the friends I’ve made and to make even more and continued progress in speaking Spanish?

Would you pray for health and SLEEP? (I’m not falling asleep until 2 or 3 AM each night, and when I’m tired it’s very difficult to speak Spanish and makes me more vulnerable to get sick!)

Thanks, friends

The trantula in another huge spider's web.

PS My friend, the tarantula that we chased down down during dinner last week was, of course, swept outside. The next week, we found him in this other spiders web, somehow pulled up the wall, and this other huge spider trying to eat him or something… So gross! I took this picture, and when I went outside to look again three minutes later, the alive brown spider was gone. Who knows where. Very unsettling. But I still got this sweet pic!

Thankful List

It can be hard not to get negative while I’m here. So here is a list of things I’m thankful for. I’ve divided it into different lists: 1) things in Costa Rica that I love and will miss when I’m gone 2) things I’m thankful for in the US that I will never take for granted again and 3) events or people in general that have been answers to prayer. The lists might get muddled or criss-crossed once in a while, but that’s okay. We’ll all get the idea. This will be an ongoing list–I’ll update it once in a while when with more things I come across something. I have a feeling this could get very long. Right now the American one is really long, but I have a feeling that the longer I’m here, the longer the Costa Rican list will get.

[This may be something that is more for me to read later, I won't feel bad if y'all don't enjoy it as much as me, hehe. It will be fun to read this when I've been home for a while.]

Praise and answers to prayer

• Being fully funded. Obviously, important and something I’m so very very thankful for.
• Support. you’ve all been so great. Reaching financial goals was amazing, but the ongoing support I’ve received from everyone has been priceless. I can’t tell you how much it means to me down here.
• Safe travels. I got here safely. That’s pretty cool. AND my luggage wasn’t overweight! (49.5 lb and 50 lb! haha) I got here without any problems.
• A great and restful orientation to CR life.
• A wonderful host family. Seriously, it couldn’t have been a better match. They’re fun and very patient with me and their hearts are precious–they looove the Father. The friendship I’ve formed with them will be one I maintain for the rest of my life.
• My cell phone works! I bought it off e-bay and was a little concerned it wouldn’t work down here, and had no way of testing it in the US. But it worked! What a hassle it would have been if it hadn’t.
• Improving Spanish. Progress comes and goes, but I definitely am improving and am thankful for the opportunity to do so and looking forward to improving more in the future!
• The opportunity to be refined and have the Christ life inside of me be appropriated into my daily life more and more.
• The 20-somethings community at my church and the friends I’ve made.

Costa Rica things

• Accents. I LOVE it when people here try to speak English. Not because it’s entertaining (although it definitely is), but because for how hard I’m working to learn their language, it makes my heart soar when they’re trying to speak mine! Especially when I’ve had a long day and speaking Spanish is a lot of work!
• Insecticide. ‘Nuff said.
• Facebook to keep connected with general news on my friends at home.
• Video chatting/audio chatting over the internet. It’s free and, when it works, can make my day!
• Cocanas–these delicious coconut-based cookies they have here. I love them.
• I can use my normal plugs here. So thankful I didn’t have to worry about any voltage changes!
• Glaxo–Davíd and Loania’s cute dog. I love having a pet to love on and he is SO cute. Except when he gets out and goes in the streets and gets “sucio” (dirty/muddy).
• The satisfaction of killing cockroaches, haha, morbid, I know. It always leaves me feeling empowered.
• Loania’s delicious food.
• Savoring every bite of things that I don’t usually get to have here (chocolate, chocolate chip cookies, brownies, mac’n'cheese, peanut butter, cheese, etc) because it’s an expensive and rare treat!! I’ll never appreciate those things as much as I do here, no matter how hard I try!
• Chicas. I love my Bible Study girls. and the community of people my age at my church in general. They’re all great and I’m starting to make some good friends. Specifically my friend China! She’s been so good to invite me to things and make me feel welcome and I love her heart!
• Videochatting! it’s so good to get to see my parent’s face, my boyfriend’s face, my sister’s face, my apartment that I miss so much, my dogs at home that I miss so much.
• My friend Lori, in the office. She’s been a specifically sweet blessing to me. She’s a Packers fan AND a documentary fan, and she has “Planet Earth” and “Life” and all the goodies, AND she knows all the good restaurants She’s also been on the field for a long time, so she’s so patient and understanding to listen to me and give me good, practical advice on how to manage.
• The mountains surrounding me!! They’re sooo beautiful.
• The flowers. So different and unique from the US. I love it.
• The open markets and open store fronts. They often don’t have doors/front walls to their stores. Because they don’t have heating or air conditioning because it doesn’t get hot or cold enough to make it necessary. It’s just open to the air. The just have a gate they close over the whole store front at the end of the day. It’s a very… fresh and free feeling.
• Fruit. I mean, seriously. How delicious is the fruit here? So good.
• Besos. I like the way they greet, with a kiss on one cheek. I still blush every time, but there’s something very… friendly and innocent and wall-breaking with it.
• COFFEE. They have THE best coffee here. And it’s cheap. I want to bring home bags and bags…
• “Monedas” (coins). Their coins here make me feel like I’m a conquistador with a satchel of gold. Everytime I pay a bus driver my usual 225 “colones” (the name of the currency here), I feel like a rich old explorer giving money to the poor. They’re just really thick and weighty and their smallest coin is the size of a quarter. I like it.
• Stores being in walking distance. I love walking to the “Palí” down the road to pick up some groceries and maybe stop at the Panadería on the way home for some fresh caramel bread. Or hopping down to the tiny corner restaurant for some nachos when I want a snack (but I have to remember to ask for no ketchup & mayo!)
• The Central Valley. San José and 1.5 million of Costa Rica’s population lives in the Central Valley. I live up the side of a mountain overlooking it. It always reminds me of Castle Rock, CO and I love it.
• A family of missionaries to love and be loved by. So very thankful for people to spend American holidays with, hehe.
• Stores like AutoMercado and PriceSmart, that carry a lot of US foods that I miss so much. Sometimes you have to pay for it, but it’s so nice to have a taste of home sometimes.

United States things (this list makes me feel snoody and spoiled, haha, but I can’t help it!)

• Cheaper prices. Things here are SO expensive, especially imports. A normal bag of chocolate chips here costs $5. A big thing of Jif peanut butter: $16. Special K cereal with strawberries: $5. A crappy Compaq computer here that would cost $350 in the US is $900 here. Clothes are also super expensive. I’m so glad I came with as much as I possible could so I wouldn’t have to buy much here.
• Technology. You just never know what will and won’t work in CR. My internet connection is always the mystery of the day.
• Downloading/Streaming music. I can’t use my Amazon Prime account here With my account I have access to thousands of great movies and TV shows I’d love to watch, especially when I have a headache and culture shock and am dying to watch something that is not dubbed into Spanish, but Amazon won’t let you watch them outside the US. Neither will Hulu. That was a depressing discovery.
• Having connections. I don’t know where to go for things I need here–everything from things I need to buy to computer repairs to good restaurants. Thankfully this is something that will improve with time.
• Feeling comfortable. This is also something that improves with time, but this whole experience has been entirely outside of my comfort zone and God has been good to me in the middle of it, but it is emotionally exhausting.
• Face to face conversations in my own language with my family/boyfriend/friends. Choppy internet video chatting just doesn’t cut it sometimes.
• Hugs. They do “besos” (kisses to the side of your cheek) here as a greeting, but I would give anything to be wrapped up and held tight in a big hug by my little brother, Lance, or my boyfriend, Blake, or my friends Alli or Kelsey, or my daddy…
• Transportation. I miss having a car and being independent. Here, I am dependent on buses and taxis and rides from other people. It’s frustrating sometimes.
• Knowing how to get somewhere and not constantly losing my bearings. Here, it takes conscious effort to remember which direction is north because the roads are not at all straight or organized. They are twisty and turny and I lose myself all of the time.
• Velveeta cheese. They don’t have it here, except for in expensive slices.
• Books in English. I love and am SO thankful for my Kindle (a pre-CR gift from my awesome-licious sister, Annie), but once in a while there’s a book I really want that isn’t available on my Kindle and I can’t find it here in English.
• My bed. They use hospital mattresses here. Some use real ones, but hospital mattresses are more common. I miss my normal mattress.
• Washer and dryers. They have a different version of a wash machine here where you put the clothes in one part, let it swirl and wash your stuff, then you move it to the other part and spin it for however long you set it for. And they don’t have dryers, they hang dry, which normally I don’t care about except that 1) my jeans don’t shrink so they fit funny and 2) it’s humid right now because it’s wet season so it takes like two weeks for things to dry.

“Vista Previa”

This is me speaking during the Latin American portion of the "Vista Preview" weekend.

This last weekend we had “Vista Preview” (Preview) weekend. It was an opportunity for people who have an interest in missions from our area to come and learn more about what “Equipos Internacionales” does and what types of opportunities are available and, most importantly, to talk about God as the focus and ultimate organizer of any and all ministry that is done. We had about 10 people participate, which is a good-sized group. It was a great opportunity to get to know a lot of people and to learn a little bit more myself (I’m always learning!). I actually had to speak (very briefly–don’t be impressed) about the prayer requests of the Latin American teams. I was complemented by a few Costa Ricans on having lovely pronunciation (“buena pronunciación, Lydia… muy lindo”).

However, I cannot believe how much it took out of me! It was all day Saturday and half of Sunday and I wanted to sleep for a million hours. To be honest, I’m still recovering. I think learning a new language is the absolute most exhausting thing I’ve done in my life. Also, Vista Previa has been the thing I’ve been helping prepare for the most since coming here, and it really was quite a bit of work. Kari Roland was the main organizer and executor and she did such a great job, even with dealing with last minute changes of plans and things like that that are bound to happen. It was great to observe her and learn from her.

But I also think this weekend was a little bit of a turning point for me. I felt more comfortable with speaking Spanish than ever before, which was a very small, but encouraging sort of realization. On Sunday night, after a post-Vista-Previa nap

Davíd caught me journaling in my office during a break time at Vista Previa

and cleaning-my-room-fiesta, I walked to Davíd’s mom’s home a few blocks away to join them for her birthday celebration. I sat there with them eating some sort of delicious Costa Rican “queque” (cake, pronounced “cay-kay”), watching and cheering Costa Rican soccer playing Brazil in the Panamerican games, playing the “family game”–a cross between Phase 10 and Rummy–while chatting and laughing with Davíd’s family, poking fun at Tío Rafa, and listening to stories. In the middle of it all, while listening to Davíd’s mom tell a story, I realized I understood her–which seemed like an impossible feat three weeks ago–and a very warm and comfortable feeling overcame me.

I thought it through as I walked home and realized I’m really beginning to feel at home here. The fact that I know my way around enough to walk home, that I had an umbrella over my head and clean clothes and a warm bed at what I now call home made a very snuggly feeling fill in. It was a very small sort of independence, but those are the sort of things you miss when the rug is pulled out from under your feet, when you show up in a country in rainy season with no umbrella or insecticide.

On Sunday night I realized my laptop has been converted into a “nido de hormigas”–ant nest. On Monday during dinner Davíd spotted a baby tarantula (still larger than any spider I’ve ever seen, including garden spiders) and we had to pause dinner to find and kill the poor poisonous thing. That night I sat and used a blow dryer to blow as many ants as possible out of my computer. I’d blow in a vent or opening on one end and thousands would come pouring out of the other openings. After they stopped coming out I lifted and shook my computer to find thousands more that were fried by the heat of the blow dryer come pouring out. That night in the shower I looked up to find a good sized cockroach directly above me on the ceiling, so I calmly put my robe in, grabbed my insecticide, took care of it, and went back to my shower.

Two weeks ago I wouldn’t have slept and would’ve ended up crying to someone for hours, whether I wanted to or not. But I’m slowly figuring out some of those basics!

Tonight I’m getting coffee with a couple girls from my Bible study and tomorrow night I have Bible study. I’m so excited for the girls I’m getting to know here. I don’t think they know how encouraging it is for me to walk into a room and have them excitedly say my name and scratch my back affectionately when I sit down (they’re way more touch-feely here than in the US, which I’m slowly becoming accustomed to). I get a ride with a girl to and from study and she and I are talking about going on a road trip to Monta Verde or to hike a volcano one of the next couple of weekends. It would be so much fun and such a great opportunity to get to know her more!

Thank you so much for your prayers. Honestly, I’ve seen every one of them answered in at least some small way over the last couple of weeks and I can’t tell you how much it means to me.

• My Spanish has improved greatly, especially with past and present tense, but your continued prayers as I press forward to get better at subjunctive, future, and conditional are much appreciated.
• I’m really starting to get to know the girls here, but I really want to become a part of their lives, so pray that I would continue to be bold and continue to get to know them better.
• Pray for the team dynamics. The longer I’m here and more comfortable I get the possibility of conflicts naturally increase. Pray for patience and understanding (Eph 4:1-6).
• Pray for energy. Along with this also comes with the need to be disciplined in getting to bed at a decent time, but I live with night owls, so it makes it even more difficult.
• I’m feeling much more at home here than ever before, but nothing can replace my sweet friends and family back home. I long to see them all so much, but pray for my heart, as God continues to sweetly minister to me and remind me that no matter where I am, He is with me, and He is the best friend I’ve ever had.

Thanks Love you all.