Another week has passed, and it’s officially September tomorrow! I can’t get over the rate at which time passes here…crazy. We found out our schedule for the next few months—here’s what it will tentatively look like:

On September 20th we will drive down to Talamanca, which is south of San Jose in the Costa Rican jungle. Here we will experience NIKO, which is nicknamed “survival camp.” No one who has ever taken part in NIKO is supposed to tell anyone about it, so all I know are very basic details. We live in the jungle, can’t bring any toiletries such as toothpaste or deodorant, and have to complete a series of physically strenuous tasks. From what I’m gathering (in bits and pieces), I think it will also involve finding our own food, crossing large bodies of water with all of our stuff, and competing with another team for something-maybe finding our way somewhere the fastest? I’m not totally sure, but it sounds pretty cool, and I’m excited to go.

After NIKO, we will return to San Jose on Sept 26th and have two days to get ready for outreach. We leave for Pachuca, Mexico, on Sept 29th and stay in the city for one week. The following three weeks we’ll be in Mexico City, and the following three weeks after that we’ll be in Uruapan, Mexico. We will be doing a variety of things during the outreach, including physical work, working with children and prostitutes living on the streets, and assisting churches with whatever they need.

Not much else to report for now…I was on the weekend work duty team here this weekend, and we decided to spice it up a little:

Yes, what you see above is our 80’s theme for Saturday…imagine rolling out of bed and sleepily walking to the dining room to get your gallo pinto for breakfast, and seeing the work duty staff decked out in side pony tails, stretchy pants, and pink eyeshadow with Pat Benetar playing for all to hear. I think we made everyone’s Saturday morning a little bit better.

Another busy week here in San Jose…I’m at the mall taking advantage of free wi-fi, since we have to pay for it back at the base. Whenever I’ve told people there’s a mall here, a lot are surprised. I was too at first, because the city of San Jose is pretty run down and poor, and so the mall seems out of place. But it’s actually a really nice indoor mall with some big name stores, like Apple, Nike, as well as a movie theater. We come here on weekends a lot to hang out, see movies and get online at the coffee shops. It’s a nice change of atmosphere from the base and our neighborhood, and it’s about a 30 minute walk, which feels nice to get out and do.

Speaking of walking, my foot is doing much better. I’m about 80% back to normal, I’d estimate. The swelling is almost completely gone, and I can walk normally again. (Yay!) But I am refraining from getting involved in the Rugby and Soccer games that happen often, which stinks because I really want to play. But I’m just thankful it’s finally healing and I’m back to normal activity.

This week was called “Destiny By Design.” Our speaker is living in Costa Rica currently, with his family, but is originally from the states. We talked about how we were designed and what our strengths/passions/dreams are. It was helpful because most of us are at a point where we are wondering what to do next…so it was perfect timing for this class. We did a lot of tests determining our personalities, our gifts, and our potential…and then tried to tie them all together at the end of our week to determine what our next steps should be. It was a really fun week and I’ll be using a lot of what I learned in the future, I’m sure.

Our class with our speaker this week

Thursday we went to La Paz park again, to pick up trash. It started raining though, about 45 minutes into our time, and when it rains here, it POURS. If you can envision a large grassy area with a huge steep hill overlooking the city in the center of the park, that’s basically the layout of La Paz. So as the time passed and we were all soaking wet, some of us started playing in the muddy puddles forming…and then about half the group slid down the hill when we left. (It reminded me of the scene from Princess Bride when they’re rolling down the hill, that’s about how big the hill was.) We were all pretty wet and some of us muddy as we walked home.

Yesterday we went to the Heredia YWAM base, which is about 30 minutes away from San Jose. It’s up in the mountains and a lot different from our surroundings. The base has a great amount of property and they have goats, horses, chickens, gardens, and more. There was probably around 50 people including our students and staff, and we relaxed all day with each other. We had a BBQ, played volleyball, wandered around the property, listened to a few of the musicians in our group as they played for us, and got to know each other better.

We’re nearing the end of our time here in San Jose, which means outreach is coming up! We started learning dramas for children’s ministry and our outreach prep will be getting more and more involved in the next four weeks before we leave. It will be bittersweet though, because I’ve loved living in this beautiful community the past couple months.

It’s been awhile since I’ve blogged…here’s what’s been going on this past week:
Our speaker was a director from the YWAM base in Heredia, which is about 25 minutes from San Jose. He grew up in the Amazon of Peru, has been a firefighter chief in the States, and has lived with indigenous tribes in Africa, to name a few of his life experiences. To sum it up, he had some pretty incredible stories to share with us this week.

On Thursday we had local outreach and headed over to a community center to help with cleaning. We sanded the walls inside, cleaned up the backyard, and worked in the children’s play area, making it more accessible for use. From what I gathered, we’ll be heading back there in the near future to do more work on the property.

As far as Mexico, our outreach plans are starting to develop. We are still figuring out logistics such as cost, locations, and specific ministries we will be involved in. But this week, in the meantime, we all researched and came together with information and thoughts about Mexico. We talked a little about the country’s needs and status at this point in time, as well as some historical information. A few of the students talked about the different cults and rituals practiced in Mexico, like the Light Of The World cult, and the Day of the Dead (which is a holiday we will be there for). All the information was definitely interesting and is going to help us prepare for the eight weeks we’ll be there.

One animal we see often around and inside the house is the gecko—here is a short video of one we found on Thursday night:

A concept was brought up in class a few weeks ago that I can’t stop thinking about…so I figured maybe I should write about it.

There is an obvious difference between our gifts/talents and our character, right? Gifts or talents are things that we have or do, like being financially successful or having athletic ability. And character has more to do with who we are, and how we respond to situations. With this in mind, one of our speakers pointed out that many times, there is a discrepancy between the level of gifts and character in a person-their level of character is lower than the value of the gift. For example, someone who has grown up in a wealthy family by circumstance (gift) can be irresponsible with money, and waste it on foolish things (lack of character). Or someone could be gifted with good looks, and use it to manipulate situations and people.

This started to get me thinking about the gifts I’ve been given and if I have the character to match them. For instance, coming to Costa Rica to do this DTS is an opportunity, a gift. And if my character doesn’t match the value of this gift, I could miss out on a lot that is being offered right now. If I don’t take advantage of every opportunity to learn, serve, love, and experience during this time, that would reflect a disappointing gap between this great gift and my character. (I’m not saying this is happening, I just realize it’s a possibility with every gift.)

So this idea has been spiraling in my mind and posing questions about what other gifts are in my life that I might not have enough character for- like are there any relationships I’ve been blessed with that I don’t treat well enough? Or how about finances-does my character reflect responsibility as far as money goes? What about my lifestyle/circumstances back home-do I take for granted and abuse the gifts God has put in my life, or do I treat them with care, as a person of great character would? It’s pretty cool to start thinking about this stuff, at least for me, because I realize how much of a blessing everything in my life is, and that I WANT to have the character to match those blessings….and in some areas I have a lot of growing to do. Anyhow, this is just something that’s been constantly on my mind the last few weeks, and I wanted to share it.

Oh-and in case you’re wondering, I went to the doctor and found out I pulled several tendons in my foot, but other than that it’s ok. I’m on a couple medications for inflammation and I’m supposed to use crutches for one more week. Thanks for your prayers!

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.