Safe Arrivals and First Impressions

I have now been in Costa Rica four full days. We are starting to adjust to the schedule and discovering what we will be doing.  The weather is very hot and humid and of these four days, including our arrival day, it has rained three of them, although not all day.

On plane from Newark to Liberia

My last Dunkin Donuts Hazelnut Iced Coffee for a while and my Devotional

Beautiful Islands from the plane

Arriving in Costa Rica

Proof I am here!

I arrived at the airport in Liberia, Guanacaste, Costa Rica on Tuesday, October 9, about an hour after Sydnie and Emily had arrived. At the airport, they were given 90 day visas. It is unclear to me what purpose the Lord may have in that I only got a 60 day visa, but I am sure that the Lord will make it clear.  Betty was already here and when we arrived, the meeting was such a sweet blessing! It is awesome to be together as a whole team, although Betty will be leaving in two weeks to return to Montana and, ultimately Uganda, where she lives and serves.  She will be sorely missed come that time.

We are in Villa Real and our closest town is Tamarindo. We are living in two of a set of three apartments, with a fellow missionary working with the local Calvary Chapel in the third one.  The apartments have one room, bath, kitchen and a dining/living room. They are very quaint and nice.  We share a roofed porch with rocking chairs to sit out in cooler breeze.  The owner's house is right across the lawn and we have two dogs that guard the property.

The primary ministry involves the Potter's Field Kids or "Manos del Alfarero" (literally Hands of the Potter) and the Bible Club. The PFK program is an after school program where kids register to come for the year. They are provided with Bible Classes, help with their homework, games, sometimes ballet for girls and wrestling for boys, art class and a hot meal for dinner.  The PFK program is Monday-Wednesday. The Bible Club is Thursday nights and it is open for all the kids in the community. We have songs, games, skits to share the gospel, Bible Study, help with homework and snacks. I will be teaching the Bible Study for the kids club in Spanish. I am also anticipating translating the Children's Bible Curriculum from English to Spanish.  All of these take place at the Calvary Chapel Villa Real facility, so during the day, we also help with cleaning, organizing and preparations for the program.

The Church Entrance

Introducing us the first PFK day!

Helping some kids with Studying for a Test

Kids in PFK (Potter's Field Kids) Program

A sign outside of the church.  A quote from Isaiah 45:22

Other areas to minister in include calling and visiting the kids in the program, babysitting for Pastor Phil and Rebecca or Matt and Brooke, translating for fellow interns that don't speak Spanish (and potentially visitors, as it is a tourist area) and communicating with Potter's Field Ministries staff about how things are going with the kids program.  Sydnie and I are learning some songs and practicing with the worship team and in about 3 weeks, we might be doing worship for the church services.

The apartments are on the same dirt road as the church at about a 5 minute walk.
About 5 more minutes is the plaza where we have a "feria" or market with fresh fruits and vegetables to buy at great prices twice a week. We went today and got great vegetables (and greens, Pastor Donathan) for a couple of days! We already have some fruit! The pineapples and avocados are the best!  Yesterday, with the plantain we bought, I made "tostones" (twice-fried plantain crisps) with chicken Sydnie made. It was a hit!

Our first meal ... we had salad the next meal, Pastor Donathan!!!

Saturday, we went to the beach... Yeah, I know, suffering for Christ ... Ha ha ha ha. It was really nice. I was blessed to buy a really cool Jesus fishy hat that says "Dios es fiel" (God is faithful) on the bill. At the same shop where I bought it, the owner was a believer and after talking about what we are doing in Costa Rica, the after school program and the Bible Club, she expressed interest in sending her granddaughter to the Bible Club! She lives in the same town and knows the church! Lord willing, she will be there next Thursday!

We could definitely use prayer for our involvement with the kids and getting to know them. We want to establish good relationships with them to most effectively minister to them.

For more photos see:
Goggle Costa Rica Album

Pictures

This is our class, PFM Ignite Class III:

These are the Country Teams ...

Team Costa Rica 

Team El Salvador/Guatemala

Team Kenya

Team USA

Team Uganda

For more pictures, check out the full album at:
Potter's Field Photos

Video Assignments

During our time at Potter's Field, we had multiple classes that would help us with our responsibilities in the field.  One of these classes was the Media Class, where we would have an assigned video topic to create a video from.

The topic for this one was a promotional video on the program.

New Travels

Hi All Again!

I wanted to let you know that I will be flying to Rochester, NY and spending a bit over a week to then continue on to Costa Rica for 6 months.  I have my tickets, so it's now official.

September 29 -  Fly to Rochester
October 9 - Fly to Costa Rica

A man’s heart plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.

Proverbs 16:9

For those in Rochester, I would love to see all of you, although I am sure it won't be possible for all of you, so I would ask that we at least stay in communication and please keep praying!  I definitely feel the prayers and I appreciate them more than you know.

Meeting Family

I started a draft of what happened during my trip about a week after returning, but time has again gotten away from me. It has three weeks since my last update and it feels like a lot more and a few days at the same time. The three days in Puerto Rico and two travel days felt like two weeks. It was such intense time. I was blessed beyond measure to have been able to finally meet my brother and sister. There is always stress associated with memorial services, which in this case was compounded by the excited and apprehension of meeting grown siblings for the first time!

I would like to express my gratitude to all of you for your prayers and expressions of love and kindness. I have felt the prayers and the closeness of the presence of the Lord in the midst of all of this.

I arrived in PR on Wednesday August 29 in the evening. I had exchanged Facebook messages with my brother and I was able to call him on Thursday, when I arrived in PR, but he was working, so I wouldn't be able to see him until the service on Saturday. I was able to talk with my sister, Emil Carla, for the first time and then we were able to meet for the first time! I was a bit nervous, but the time was a sweet blessing. I was overjoyed to learn that we share a common faith in Jesus Christ. The time flew by and we were able to have a lot of awesome conversations just getting to know one another. I learned that I have a nephew, Shawn William! It is hard to believe how surprisingly amazing it was to pick things up when there had been nothing there. My sister posted a photo of us when we had seen each other when I was 9 and she was 6 months old, the only photo I believe we have. I am so thankful for the time we could spend together and get to know each other.

My Sister Emil (6 months old) and I (9 yrs old)

My Sister and I now

Shawn William - My Nephew!!

On Saturday was the memorial service. I went with my mom and I met for the first time in more years than I can remember my uncle Hector, my dad's brother, one of his sons, Hectorcito and his daughter, Evyan. I remember them from our childhood, but too many years have gone by. I also met Evyan's husband, Hectorcito's wife and kids. 

At the memorial service, I also met my brother Omar. It had been way too long. He was about two when I met him and now here he stood at 21. We have so much to catch up on!!!  How strange is it to be an adult and barely be meeting so many family members!  This was the first time together!

 Evyan, Hectorcito, myself, Omar, Emil

Hectorcito and Shawn William

There were far more impressions and things that touched my heart deeply, but I am still processing some and  I am out of time for the blog today.  I will communicate more soon.

Emmanuel!

Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. (Matthew 1:23 KJV)

Emmanuel ... God With Us. Why is it that I relegate a name with so much meaning to the confines of Christmas and the manger scene? Not that the Nativity is not a miraculous moment and time to be appreciated deeply, but there is so much more. What an amazing failure to limit the meaning to that!

Today, I find myself learning the meaning in a whole new way. I again find myself on a plane going back to Puerto Rico unexpectedly. This time, leaving behind a whole new group of friends that have become as family in the Potter's Field Ranch in Montana. As I leave them, I go to Puerto Rico to the funeral of the father I barely knew and to meet my siblings.

My comfort is that God is with me, He is my Emmanuel! Not only at Christmas, not on a picture or in a movie scene, but here, now, alive, real, and with me, going through the intense moment.

My time at PFR is two thirds complete before commissioning and going to Costa Rica for 6 months. I have about 4 more weeks left. Everything that is going on was the furthest thing from my mind when I began this time. I didn't think I would need to step away from the classes and training before completing, but the Lord is not surprised.  He knew it before I came. He also knew that He would be coming with me.

I am missing going to Habitat for Humanity with my team and I am sure I will miss many other things, yet I have very few days to accomplish the mission the Lord is sending me on now. I will be returning to Montana on Sunday and I know I must stay focused on what is at hand.

For many years, I have longed to meet my brother and sister, with no real knowledge of how I could accomplish it. The only contact I knew was a phone number that is no longer in service and the names are not as unique as mine. Now, with excitement and some nervousness, I anticipate meeting them in the coming days. I have been in communication with my uncle Hector, my dad's brother. I have exchanged messages with my brother Omar and I briefly talked to him and we will be talking tomorrow.

Please keep us in your prayers.

More than Half Way!

Many busy days have gone by faster than I could have imagined. The days are full, the hours go by at lightning speed and the weeks blend together. I can't believe we are more than half way through the time here.  So sorry for the delayed communication.

I am so blessed. I am stretched. I am dying to self. My heart is at peace.

We have had many great teachers and many wonderful lessons. We continue going through the book of Acts. So many aspects that have proven essential on the field are being taught in practical ways. We live in close proximity, four to five girls to the same room. We are a large team of 18 interns and we have been further divided up into three sub teams. I am very blessed and stretched to serve as leader in one of the sub teams. I need to lean on the Lord constantly to know what He desires. I would love to say that I have it figured out, but I don't really. Unity has been a central topic. We have team building activities and we work together trying to help us to go from our natural tendencies of seeking self benefit, to esteeming each other higher than oneself.  We are learning to be a choir with one voice. We work as teams and share responsibilities as teams.

We had a cultural meal where we learned and ate as many different countries in the world. It is so convicting to think how much we take for granted ... How much I have taken for granted!

I am enjoying the beauty of the Montana scenery. These mountains are breathtaking!! It's amazing how each morning the mountains look so spectacular speaking of the majesty of God and every evening the stars are so bright that speak of His glory.

We went on a midnight float on a number of rafts on the river in Glacier National Park a few weeks ago. It was a full moon and the trees and canyon were lit up by the brilliant moon. We left around 11:00pm, stopped for a campfire and baptism in the frigid waters, to then come out around 6:00am. I was freezing, but it was glorious! There is no real way to explain how amazing it is.

We went to a lake close by that has a 35-40 foot cliff overlooking the beautiful view of trees, rock and water. The highlight of the hike is to plunge into the lake and overcome the natural fears that precede the jump. It was my second time to hike there, but it was my first time jumping in. The first time, I had just arrived, barely knew anyone and I was sick. This time, I was surrounded by my team, precious brothers and sisters that I have grown to love and appreciate, and I wasn't sick, so I took the plunge myself and jumped in. The fall felt longer than I anticipated, but the water was more refreshing than I thought. As usual, I did hurt myself a bit, but I am better.

The countries and destinations have now been selected and announced. I will be going to Costa Rica with three other sisters, one of which will return back to her home in Uganda after a month. The rest of us will be in Costa Rica for 6 months.

We are also practicing a mime skit with our new country teams to take to our respective locations.

Thank you all for your prayers and I will try to update more soon. I have many pictures which I will need to upload on my next time connecting.