Dead cockroaches, tropical depressions, and Jacó Beach!

The misty mountains on other side of the bay at Jacó beach.

The week since last Sunday/Monday (the epic cockroaches experience, read about it here) has offered a continually more positive experience down here.  After going all Dianne Johnson (that’s my mom–she’s a solution finder and executor) on the cockroach situation, I have killed approximately 15 cockroaches (1 extremely large, about 8 medium sized, and 6 or 7 babies). The “casas de muerte”–my name for the Raid poisonous bait houses for cockroaches–make the cockroaches suicidally stupid and the insecticide spray makes them go crazy like a chicken with its head cut off until they roll over and twitch til they die. It’s all very satisfying. Especially after a 2 AM Mission-Impossible-esque experience on Wednesday night–where I used the Johnson method of feeling better by making myself laugh by humming the MI theme song as I faced off 3 or 4 cockroaches with insecticide spray in the kitchen when I was in need of water to take melatonin–I feel much better 🙂

The most difficult thing about this last week was the lack of sleep. I’m a pretty sensitive sleeper, as several of you know. I usually have to wear ear plugs and I use super sun-blocking curtains at home. Since the whole cockroach event, I’ve really struggled with not sleeping out of subconscious fear. Several nights this last week, regardless of being extremely exhausted and trying to convince myself over and over that there’s nothing to be afraid of, I laid awake for hours or would jerk myself awake without wanting to if I did fall asleep. I got an average of about 4 hours of sleep per night. It really effected my personality, my ability to do my job well and relate to people, and my ability to speak Spanish. It was pretty discouraging, but it was also very humbling and God certainly upheld me and met me fully in the middle of it. It also got

Que Lluvia! Rain rain rain outside of Melissa and Kari's house

better as the week went on, which I’m confident will continue!

This last week has also been so full of rain! Apparently I arrived just in time for a “tropical depression”, which is just below a tropical storm, which is just below a hurricane. To say it’s rained a lot this week is a grave understatement. I’m someone who tends to get the winter blues, but I’m thinking I’m getting a tropical version of the rainy season blues! I’m told this is the worst it’ll ever get and that it never usually gets like this, so I’m looking forward to it clearing up! It can only go up from here!

During the week, I carpool to the office with Melissa at 9 AM and come back at 4 PM. In the office I help with a ton of “administrative assistant” type stuff. I share an office with Kari Roland, Woody and Su’s daughter. She is a really smart, choleric girl and I feel like we get along well. She’s always good about keeping me busy in the office as well, which I appreciate. Right now we’re preparing for “Vista Previa”, aka preview weekend. It’s a time for people from the community who are interested in being a part of the ITeams ministry, whether here in Costa Rica or being a missionary to other parts of the world, to come and learn more about what types of opportunities are available! The document creating and design has been super enjoyable for me 😀

Glaxo watching Loania make yummy "cena" (dinner)

When I get home, Loania is just ready to have mid-afternoon coffee, which is fun and usually a good time to chat with David and Loania and often some friends or family of theirs and practice language stuff. In the evening I read and listen to music a lot AND eat Loania’s delicious dinners, but the more involved I get here the more things I have going on in the evening.

I’ve started to go to a Bible study on Thursday nights called “Chicas”, which consists of about 10 girls from 18 to 28 who meet at a church in Heredia central through SonLife ministries (a division of ITeams ministries). I absolutely love the girls there. We have different views and experiences and difficulties because of where we’ve been raised, but at the end of day, women’s hearts are women’s hearts and we connect! It’s so beautiful and I’m looking forward to getting to know these great women more. And imagine how overjoyed my homesick heart was when one of them, who can barely speak English, gave me a ride home one night and said (in Spanish) “This is one of my favorite songs!” and started playing “Tears of the Saints” by Leeland (click on the title to listen on YouTube), one of my favorite songs. She sang along with every word. I’ll never forget that precious moment.

 

Yesterday I went with David and Loania to Jacó, a beach here in Costa Rica. The main goal was actually to find a

 

David and Loania and I on the Pier at Jacó beach.

hotel/cabin/hostel for their Church’s couples group to go to in December for a couples weekend, which the two of them lead. It was about a 3 hour drive through the mountains to get there. In CR the speed limit on the highway is 60 to 80 km/hr (about 40 to 50 miles/hr). The roads are pretty iffy in some places, especially going through the mountains. On the way home there was actually a pretty massive landslide ahead of us that had us stuck for about an hour and a half until they had it cleaned up enough that at least one lane of traffic was open and cars could take turns going through. Definitely a little scary! I also passed over a bridge that went over a crocodile infested river. Crocodiles are a lot scarier when they’re not in a zoo.

 

The Jurassic-Park-esque mountains in Jacó 🙂

The mountains were positively beautiful! Because of the rainy season they’re naturally decoratively strung with mist. I’m told they shot parts of “Jurassic Park” here, and I definitely recognize it! It’s very… Jurassic looking 🙂 I enjoyed the whole outting (we went there and back in one day) because it was good to have a change of scenery, great to enjoy God’s creation, especially the sun!, and I got to read a TON. Right now I’m reading “Mere Christianity” by CS Lewis, which is so appealing to my intellectual/logical side, and “Pride and Prejudice”… Gah! so good.  I started on Wednesday and I’m at 75% on my Kindle. It appeals to my girly side, hehe.

Today I visited another church. I really enjoyed it! I’m enjoying visiting churches here. There’s a wide variety of experiences, for sure! Afterwards I went to a wood-oven-baked pizza place with Lori, another of the missionaries in the office here. After that we went back to her place and caught the end of the Packers game today (sometimes they’ll show bits and pieces here). Not having gotten our fill of the Packers, we then re-watched the Super Bowl from last year, which Lori still had saved on her DVR. Woohoo! A good treatment for homesickness 🙂

A few prayer requests… 

…choosing a church to settle down in, once I’ve visited a few more.

…sleep!!!

…language skills to continue to be developed.

…the deepening of relationships and for more women to form them with–that I wouldn’t suddenly become a shy person!

…my heart, with homesickness and culture adjustments–I want to FULLY here, body and heart!

Honestly, so many of them are intertwined! Without sleep, my language skills go way down, and without the language and a steady church home and a heart that’s fully here, it’s tough to build deep relationships! Thanks so much for partnering with me and praying with me. I’m praying for you, too!

“Just Do Something” by Kevin DeYoung

       I love to read and I love to talk about what I read. I just finished the book “Epic of Eden” by Sandra Richter. If you’ve ever struggled to understand the Old Testament, her book is a must-read. She does a great job of helping you to organize and understand the OT in simple language (yet you feel like a grad student in Old Testament culture when you’re finished, haha).

       I also just finished the book “Just Do Something”, by Kevin DeYoung. The actual title is “Just Do Something–A Liberating Approach to Finding God’s Will–OR How to make a decision without dreams, visions, fleeces, impressions, open doors, random Bible verses, casting lots, liver shivers, writing in the sky, etc.” The title alone let me know that DeYoung’s sense of humor was right up my alley, so regardless of how I felt about his opinion I would be able to giggle a little. And I was right 🙂 I giggled a lot and appreciated his opinion a lot, as well. In fact, if life was a class, I think that everyone should have this book assigned, especially anyone between the age of 18-35.

       He talks about about how too often we over-spiritualize non-moral decisions (job/school decisions, relationship decisions,etc). In a very short book (120 pages… and it’s one of those small, square shaped books… took me a day and a half to read) he outlines that too often we look for signs in the sky (open/closed doors, “wet/dry fleece”, impressions/visions/revelations, random bible verses) for what decisions we should make and it often leaves us overspiritualizing our decisions and handicapping us from making any decision at all.

       DeYoung says we tend to think of God’s will as a corn maze, bulls eye, or “choose-your-own-ending” book and that if we step out of line we’re going to end of either failing completely or end up with a life that is less fulfilling than it could have been. He makes the case that this method focuses almost all of our attention on nonmoral decisions, implies that we have a sneaky God (who leaves you in a maze with the lights off and says “okay, get out!”), leaves us with a preoccupation with the future, undermines personal responsibility, accountability and initiative (for example, when college girls turn down guys because they’re “dating Jesus” or “I’d really like to date you, but the Holy Spirit said no”… when really, they just don’t want to date the guy), and is very subjective.

       I know, more than once, I’ve used God as a cop out in a tough decision. How rude of me. And I know I’ve obsessed and stalled on making a decision because I didn’t feel like He’d made the right decision obvious enough, even though I was just not wanting to make the wise decision and was hoping a miraculous vision would appear so I could justify my poor decision. I know I’ve also been crippled by fear of “stepping outside the bulls eye” of God’s will and so I’ve just made no decisions at all and let some good opportunities go by.

       The solution he leaves you with (I won’t go into too much detail because I think you should just read the book) is to “walk the way of wisdom” through scripture, counsel, and prayer. 

1. Emerse yourself in scripture (at all times, not just when you need to make a decisions) because the more you absorb the word of God, the more you know His ways.
2. Get wise counsel from a trusted source. In this part he emphasized the importance of living in community with other believers so you have people to get wise counsel from. He also emphasized that this is often the way that God does communicate with us.
3. Pray for understanding of scripture and how to apply it to our lives, pray for wisdom, pray for things that you know are already God’s will (good motives in your decision making, an attitude of trust, faith and obedience, for humility and teachability, for His gospel to spread).

“Study the Scriptures, listen to others, and pray continually–that’s the best course of action, not just at the moment of crisis, but as a way of life. And as you engage in these practices, don’t forget to make a decision–always with wisdom, always with freedom, and sometimes even with speed,” says DeYoung.

       As long as you are doing these things and that you remember that our call is to seek first the kingdom, feel free to make decisions within that because as long as you’re doing those things, you’re doing God’s will. Trust that He’ll take care of the rest.

       He finishes his book with this:

“So the end of the matter is this: Live for God. Obey the Scriptures. Think of others before yourself. Be holy. Love Jesus. And as you do these things, do whatever else you like, with whomever you like, wherever you like, and you’ll be walking in the will of God.”

       How liberating 🙂