This week started out a little differently from the past weeks. I had weekend work duty, which means I helped out with meals and cleaning on Saturday and Sunday. Well, on Sunday morning, as we were preparing breakfast, I had a small accident- I tripped down a broken stair in the kitchen and rolled my left foot. Here is what it looked like later that day:

It’s much better, even a few days later, and I’m using crutches to get around. The worst part is that to get to class, we have about a 7 minute walk on broken, uneven, and often slimy sidewalks, so the crutches actually feel more risky than walking on my sprained foot. But sometimes my leader comes to pick me up in his van, and sometimes I get a piggy back ride, so it’s not so bad.

Other things going on here right now: We had a team of 27 arrive from San Diego on Monday morning, and it’s been nice to meet them. We also had two girls leave this morning who have been with us since the beginning of DTS, and so we had a goodbye/dance party for them last night. (Don’t worry, I just watched. But I was sooo tempted to join in and show them how to REALLY do the Robot.) I’ll try and post a dance video on here soon; we break out into dances quite often, and let me tell you: they are super interesting.

This week has been kind of slower, but here's a couple things happening:

We decided on an outreach location for our last part of DTS- MEXICO! We aren't sure of any details yet, but we are looking into buying plane tickets and starting to make contacts.

Our local outreach today was at a park in San Jose. We split up and covered the park, picking up any trash we could find...which was a ton! A small way to help, but we got several looks from people passing by, taken back by our willingness to pitch in. One homeless man even stopped and told us that it was a beautiful thing we were doing, and a great example of taking care of our land.

One last thing: I typed up my notes from the past few weeks of classes, and if you're interested more specifically in what I'm learning during lectures, email me and I'll send them to you. There's been so much great information!

This week was very busy with classes and other events. Our teacher wanted as much time with us as possible, so we had morning, afternoon, and evening class time. It was great, but we’re all exhausted this weekend! Another contributing factor to our weariness is the team of 36 people (mostly high schoolers) staying on base. They arrived on Tuesday from Wisconsin, and are here for around ten days. During the day, they have outreach trips, but at every meal, there are about 65 people at our house, lined up for food. And I thought it was chaotic before… It’s fun though, and it’s interesting to see their reactions to their new/temporary surroundings. (Like when one of them was amazed that we can’t flush any paper down the toilet, or when they stare confusedly at the food, wondering what is in it- okay I admit, I still do that sometimes.) Teams come in quite often to stay here, although this group is larger than normal.

On Thursday, half of our class went to Las Tablas again, for outreach. They did the same as last week, digging more sand to help build a dam for the church. Those of us who stayed back worked at the base house, in the backyard. There were a few projects to work on, like putting up a wall in one of the storage areas, and taking down a tree that was weighing down the patio covering. Here are a few pictures from Thursday:

Annabelle and Ashley working on the wall

Alex using the machete to chop up the branches of the tree

Me, measuring wood for the door of the laundry area

Will, working on the door for the laundry area

The YWAM base here in San Jose is only a few years old, and so there are always projects going on as it continues to grow. It’s amazing to me that all the staff here are volunteers and such hard workers. It’s evident that each staff member and student care deeply about the community here and are happy to contribute all they can.

Some of what I'm learning...

This week in class we discussed The Father Heart of God. Our teacher, Jack, flew in from North Carolina and stayed the week with us. He was a great speaker and very passionate about the topic. His main emphasis was for us to see God as our Father, and not a rule maker/punisher/stranger/or distant relative, as many of us see him. The first day we did an exercise where Jack gave us a scenario: If, on a typical evening God himself were to pull up to our house in a car, get out and walk to our door, how would we respond? It’s kind of hard to think of what our reaction might be, but it’s worth taking the time to do it.

After we wrote down our responses, Jack explained to us that this response portrays our image of God. Some of us shared and said if he came to see us, we would panic, and hide. Some said they would invite him in and bring him coffee, sit down and talk. And a couple said they would throw the door open and embrace him, feeling so thankful that he came. It’s interesting to note how some of us see Him as a punisher (response 1), as a stranger (response 2), and Dad (response 3). Jack pointed out that our image of God determines how we think about Him, how we pray, how we read the bible, and how we treat others. So very true… if you have the time, consider how you would respond, honestly, if this situation were to happen today. It’s pretty interesting to think about. Anyways, here are a couple pictures from the day Jack left- we all formed a line to give him a hug, since he was such an impacting speaker and a great example of a Father. (Oh, and one night this week he took all of us, DTS leaders and students- so like 24 people- out to a movie and also treated everyone to drinks and popcorn. He told us he wanted to do something a Father would do, to put into action the words he was speaking. How cool is that!)

It’s hard to believe I’ve already been here for over two weeks- time is really going by fast! This week we had our first outreach in Las Tablas, a small part of town about 10 minutes driving distance from our house. The area has been taken over by drug users and sales, both in plain sight as soon as we arrived. We walked right past people with bags of marijuana waiting to make deals, and also past people using crystal meth- they don’t bother concealing it. While there, we witnessed several drug deals and saw so many teenagers and adults roaming around, obviously high. The most heartbreaking part of being there was seeing the kids playing only a few feet away from the deals being made. We only got a small glimpse at what they see every single day. Such a different life…

We met up with the pastor of a church and they explained to us what they needed help with: the houses and church in this area are right next to a small but rushing river about 15 feet across, and often in the rainy season (which is right now), the water will rise over the bank, flooding the front of the church. Our job was to shovel and haul sand from the river’s edge up to the church so that they can start building a dam. There were about 16 of us helping out, and we were able to move quite a bit of sand for them. Hopefully we will return sometime in the next couple of months to help them out some more. I would have loved to share this experience in photos, but we were advised against bringing any valuables along to Las Tablas. So here’s a random picture from the week instead: Our weeks are so packed with early mornings, classes, small groups, prayer times and work duties that it’s nice to have free time on the weekends to process all that happened and unwind. This Saturday we drove to the beach (about 2.5 hrs away). The drive was windy, bumpy, and even more exciting because of the car we were using (which was at least 25 yrs old, had a broken gas gauge, and was making horrendous noises- each mile driven was a miracle from God). BUT, the drive was also green and beautiful! The water at the beach was at least 80 degrees and it was fun to play in the waves and bodysurf in the midst of thunder and rain.

Oh, and I can’t forget our stop on the way to the beach…we encountered some friendly natives from Costa Rica and I thought I’d take a short video to show you. They were about 20 feet away from us and it’s hard to tell how big they are, but trust me, they were HUGE.

Here is part of the group I'm living with:

This week has been full of “firsts” that will become the norm for me within the next five months. Sunday night was the first church service I attended in Costa Rica. It was small (but then again I guess any church is, in comparison to Bayside) and informal- I wore a t-shirt and jeans. The music and message were both in Espanol, of course, but I actually understood quite a bit of it, which was a nice surprise. It was just five of us girls from DTS and Estevan, a friend of one of the girls (who is from Costa Rica). Estevan picked us up in an old, red VW bus without seatbelts and we went barreling through busy downtown San Jose, mid-rainstorm, dodging potholes and traffic. It was a fun ride and we got to see the heart of downtown SJ after service when we went to a pizza place for dinner.

(Our street)

Monday was the first of many classes we will have the next three months. We have a new speaker each week and our time during M-F is broken up by worship (music), prayer, teaching, small groups, and outreach preparation. It will be exciting when we find out our outreach locations for the last two months and start preparing for those weeks. While we’re in San Jose however, Thursdays are local outreach days at a new location every time. And every weekday from 4-6 is Work Duty- I was chosen to be on the hospitality team, which means I help prepare the 2nd house for guests, speakers, visiting teams etc. This involves cleaning the house, making welcome packages, and attending to any other needs of the visitor. So if you come to visit me while I’m here, I will be preparing your room and making sure you are comfortable!

(Girls Room)

One interesting thing over the last week has been problems with the water…there hasn’t been any during the last few days. This makes certain things harder, like cooking, brushing your teeth, washing clothes, flushing the toilet, and showering- so as you can imagine, the 20 of us that live in this house aren’t smelling too great right now…so I picked up some baby wipes at the market a little while ago. Little did I know that the baby wipe showers I took in Mexicali a few months ago would only be the beginning…

(My bunk)

Since it’s the weekend and we’re all pretty exhausted from a busy first week, a lot of people are just hanging out around the base. Personally, I think it’s time for a nap. :)