Merry Christmas from Costa Rica!

Hey y'all...

Merry Christmas! Only two days until the big day! Again, time just seems to fly here, and we officially finished lecture phase on December 14th, which is crazy to think. Twelve weeks gone by in the blink of an eye.

Since I last blogged we had two weeks with a well known pioneer YWAM-er, Donna Jordan. She was with Loren Cunningham (founder of YWAM) since the beginning days in Kona, Hawaii, so it was super cool to hear her stories of how it all started. Donna is such an incredible example of a disciple of Christ, she walks what she talks about, no questions asked! She definitely startled us all in the DTS the first week she taught and I think we were shocked at the way she challenged us all in ways no speaker had thus far! So Donna arrived for week #1(November 26th-30th), and taught on hearing God's voice, as well as the Kingdom of God. The way that she includes Jesus in EVERYTHING she does and every decision she makes is insane! I think a lot of us in the DTS were startled that we could hear from God and that He wanted to speak to us, and that's definitely a big revelation that I got. I'd often thought that hearing from God was reserved for Elders in the church or 'special' people, but Donna definitely broke that assumption. My relationship with God definitely changed that week, so it was a really special few days.

The next week (December 3rd-7th), Donna continued challenging us to listen to what God was speaking to us, but she also spoke a lot about spiritual gifts and the Holy Spirit. Many of us had a lot of questions about tongues and prophecy, and she answered many of those but also encouraged us to go to God with them and always check back with scripture, because that's the only place to find truth. Donna prophesied over a few of us, and it was interesting to hear what God spoke to us through her. All in all, the two weeks Donna was here were my best weeks so far, and I can see that a huge chunk of my growth came from there. She was definitely a huge blessing to all of us!

The weekend after our second week with Donna, basically the whole San Jose YWAM base took off for another province in Costa Rica called Guanacaste. There's another YWAM base there in a place called Nicoya, and every year all three YWAM bases in Costa Rica get together for a weekend of relaxation and fun. Nicoya is in the northwestern part of Costa Rica, along the Pacific Ocean. It borders Nicaragua to the North. Basically...it was HOT! We're used to moderate temperatures here in San Jose because we're in between valleys, so we definitely felt the temperature change. We had so much car trouble on the way there though...
First, one of the vans didn't want to shift gears, so we had to head back to the base and switch vans. After that, the van got a flat tire in a town called Punta Arenas. God was definitely watching over us there though because we almost got robbed at gun point. A man on a bicycle drove by to tell us that a few men across the street were planning to rob us, but they had just gone to get a gun! Most of us hopped in the van that was working and drove to get the police. We were definitely praying the whole time and thanking God for sending us the man on the bicycle. Luckily nothing happened and the guys were able to change the tire. Unfortunately, the battery had died while the tire was being changed though and we were wondering who could jump start the van...just then Giacomo and Mar (the San Jose base leaders) drove by and were able to help us out! BUT again, trouble. Their car didn't want to start after they helped us out, so we waited around for a few hours for their car to get fixed. We were eventually able to continue our journey and we arrived hours later than planned in Nicoya, safe and sound. The base has such a different landscape than San Jose, and it felt so awesome to be out in nature with no cars around! It ended up being a great weekend of meeting new people, going to the beach, hiking, and seeing a new base.

At the YWAM base in Nicoya, Guanacaste

The beach we went to about an hour from the Nicoya YWAM base

My friend Alex and I enjoying the sun in Nicoya

On Sunday of that weekend, fourteen students in our DTS had to re-new our visas (they expire after 90 days), so we headed north to Nicaragua! We definitely had an adventure...I'd never crossed a border in the way that we did. It was definitely a stereotypical latin american border! It was really confusing, dark, so many people, and of course they only wanted us to pay in American dollars! We managed to get through though and we stayed over night at a YWAM-er's home, then took off the next morning to catch a bus back to the San Jose base. Now I can add one more stamp to my passport!

My friend Hannah, DTS leader Dave, and I in Nicaragua eating dinner...yum!

A few of us from the DTS, plus our leader, Dave in Nicaragua

Our last week of classes was on 'Spiritual Warfare' with the leader, Terry, from the third YWAM base in Heredia, Costa Rica. It was a great way to end lecture phase and we learned a lot about how real the enemy is, and how much we miss out on the goes on in the spiritual realm.

On Sunday (December 16th), our whole DTS and four DTS staff members left for another part of Costa Rica, called Cartago for a five days in the Costa Rican wilderness. Many YWAM bases include what's called 'NIKO' as part of the DTS program. I can say much about it because they try to keep the element of surprise for people who will be doing a NIKO in the future (we all had to sign a 'secrecy' paper at the end), but basically it's all about learning to work in a team, learning what your strengths and weaknesses are, and growing in those with God. Most of the activities were really challenging, and all of us felt really accomplished at the end of the five days. All of us were stretched in ways we didn't think possible (literally) and we came away with new perspective and respect for one another. If you don't ever plan on doing a NIKO and want to hear all the cool, crazy things we got to do, let me know...I'd be more than happy to fill you in! I've got some great stories!

The day after we got back from NIKO was a day of rest, while we got our stuff back in order. The girls had to move out of the bedroom we were in because there are teams coming through from different places on outreach. This time of year is super crazy because we get a lot of teams wanting to come help out around the holiday season, and this means limited space, plus a lot of the staff have left to go home for Christmas, so it's slightly insane.

Today was the first official day of outreach for our DTS, and we're doing a week here in San Jose to start things off. In the afternoon, we headed down town to one of the main squares to do some evangelism. A few of us we're doing worship and singing some Christmas carols, while others we're doing a cool evangelism activity we learned. We set out many cards with different images on them and asked people passing by to pick three that represented their life right now. We would talk with them about that, and then ask them to pick three cards that represented what they wanted their life to look like in the future. Again, we talked, and finally we asked people to pick three cards that represented what their relationship with God looked like. It was an incredible time of talking, getting to know people, and praying for them. People were so open, and a lot of the people stood around and ended up joining in on the songs we were singing. It was a great way to start outreach :).

This Friday we leave for another part of Costa Rica, Talamanca, to do outreach for one week, and then the following week will be spent in another part of Costa Rica, Puerto Viejo, doing kids camps as part of our outreach. We're all really excited to be starting outreach officially, and we know God has a lot of amazing things planned!

On January 12th, my DTS divides into our two separate outreach groups, and my group heads to Brazil! It's incredible how God has provided for people to be able to pay for outreach and I want to thank my home church for supporting me to go on outreach! I was in shock when I got the email saying  they wanted to support me, and I can't thank them enough! I'm really excited and pumped to see what God's going to do through us!

On December 21st, the base had an official Costa Rican Christmas dinner which was really fun. We all got dressed up, ate tons of food, sang, and hung out. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, but the DTS is still going to be helping out in the morning. We're heading out to help serve breakfast at a soup kitchen for 6 am. It'll be an early morning, but I'm excited to serve and bring people some Christmas cheer. Later on in the afternoon, our DTS is having some fun Christmas activities that we've planned out, and on Christmas day we'll be doing a Secret Santa within the DTS and staff. It'll be a different Christmas than I'm used to, but new experiences are all part of life! I've definitely missed home the past few days, just because it's so close to Christmas, and I miss all the traditions our family has. It's been a bit difficult, but all of us in the DTS are in the same boat, so we've been comforting each other...the girls have been baking Christmas goodies/listening to Christmas music/crying together and the boys...have been watching movies?? I don't know...boys clearly aren't affected in the same way the girls are. Strange.

My friend Alex and I at the Christmas dinner

Anyways, it's bound to be a great Christmas and a great three weeks of local outreach. We appreciate any prayer if you feel so inclined to do so :). Have a Safe and Merry Christmas, thanks for taking the time to read.

-Matthew 2:10

Nearing the end of lecture phase

So it’s been a little awhile, and I’m behind… however, my lovely sister encouraged me to write another post so I’ll do my best to not miss anything important. We're nearing the end of lecture phase (scary to to think!) but it's been a blast so far. 

John Ray and my friend Hannah Doak

Praying during the baptism

The week of November 5^th-9^th was the topic of our Identity in Christ, and our speaker was John Ray, who is a truly amazing man of God and a great speaker. It was definitely one of my favorite weeks. I received so much revelation, got severely challenged by John, and received a new list of books to read! It was also super special because on Wednesday we drove an hour and a half away to a tiny beach town called Jaco, on the Pacific Coast. We had class at the beach, communion, and then six of us (me included!) got baptized in the ocean. It was a beautiful day of much needed sun, hanging out, talking, swimming, major sunburn and a lesson of boogie boarding for me! 

The six of us who got baptized

The next week, November 12^th-16^th, was on the topic of Godly Relationships (not just dating, but with friends, parents as well). Our speaker was Elaine Allegretto, who comes from Texas. It was also a good week for learning new concepts, and to have some teaching on a subject that doesn’t get taught on much. It opened my eyes to how much value we have as humans, and how we need to respect the opposite gender and honor our differences.

For our local outreach on Thursday of that week, we headed to the University of Costa Rica to talk with students and get a feel for the spiritual situation they were in. It was intimidating at first to walk up to somebody we didn’t know, and to try and talk in a different language, but it was so cool too! Students are really open to talking and meeting new people. It’s such a different culture than North America, where students are fairly closed off, and you’re considered strange if you talk to somebody you don’t know. On top of everything, I have multiple friends who attend UCR who did an exchange program to Canada this past summer in July for two weeks, so I got to meet up with them which was fun.

At my friend Gabi's house with Grace, Esteban and Hannah

The next week was Biblical Worldview (November 19^th-23^rd) taught by Giacomo Coghi, who happened to pioneer this base with his wife, Mar. They’re still the leaders of this base, so we see them around a bit but we hadn’t gotten to know Giacomo much until that week. Every week is good, and this one was no exception. The biggest thing I got out of that week was that with God it is possible to plan for the future! God has put desires and dreams in our hearts and if we plan alongside God, we can know what we want to do in ten years. We can’t know exactly what we’ll be doing, down to the little details, but He can give you a vision and confirmation. That was comforting for me because it’s hard for me to live literally day by day (which God does ask us to do), but He also wants us to ask Him about our future!

Besides classes, a lot has been going around here! We’re now in full preparation mode for outreach. I made the decision to go to Brazil for my outreach two weeks ago. It was quite the lengthy process of prayer for me! I felt called to both locations really (Brazil and Central America), and in the end God told me He wanted me to choose. So I did! I’ll get to experience another new culture, which will be awesome! Our plan is to be in Rio de Jeniero for five weeks doing ministry in the favelas (Brazilian slums), helping out at local churches, doing street ministry, and doing whatever we’re called to do to serve God! We’re doing a lot of prayer and intercession for the big things God wants us to do while we’re there, but a big part of prayer is for finances. Our team needs $50 000 for the trip, and right now we have around $20 000. So we still have fundraising to do! We’re totally trusting in God for the money to come through, and we’ve all decided that any ‘what ifs’ or doubts are not allowed! We’ve all been called to Brazil and that’s where we’re going!

Other things that have been going on around the base…we had American Thanksgiving last week which was a blast! Four girls from my DTS (me included) volunteered to help cook the feast for 130 people. Some staff started prepping the day before, and then at 1pm the day of, the cooking began! In the end, it was an amazing time of food, friends, and conversation. It really helped a lot of us from North America feel like we were at home, and it gave the locals a new meal to try.

Alex (Portland, Oregon), Kayla (Alberta, Canada), and I

The other weekend we also had a base soccer tournament on Sunday after church. It cost 1000 colones (two dollars) to enter, and different teams played against each other and were eliminated until eventually one team won. It was another good day of hanging out with everybody on base.

Some serious soccer playing going on!

A huge surprise I got this past weekend was a visit from my parents! My dad had to go to Lima, Peru for business so my mom and him thought they’d stop over. I had a wonderful weekend of visiting different parts of Costa Rica; the mountains and the beach, eating amazing food, and spending some quality time with my parents. They are incredible and I feel so blessed to have them in my life!

Anyways, that’s about the gist of what’s been going on around here. If you could just pray for the two outreach teams; for finances, and for unity that would be much appreciated! Thanks for reading!

My DTS all together 

Philippians 4:4-9

Shouldn't there be snow?

I’m going to admit it: I started playing Christmas music last night already… I couldn’t help it! One of my roommates strung up Christmas lights around her bed, and so I pulled out the Michael Buble Christmas tunes! It was great, but also slightly weird/sad because there’s no snow outside, so it feels like summer. The nights are actually fairly fresh these days though because we’re in the rainy season, so that makes it nice to sleep.

So I feel like I have a fair amount to share because I haven’t blogged in a bit. Two weeks ago we had a speaker, Jack Kody, who spoke on the topic of the Father Heart of God. This was an amazing week because Jack demonstrated so clearly what the Father’s love for us is like. I feel so blessed because I have an amazing earthly dad, who sets a great example for me and for what a father figure should be like. So for me, seeing God as a Father wasn’t a huge struggle for me, but of course I still learned so much. For others though, that week was a life changing experience because many didn’t have good father figures, or even fathers at all. Jack definitely started a healing process for their hearts which is awesome!

Last week was a highly anticipated week among the DTS and staff because it was Inner Healing Week. That basically means that all of the issues in your life that you are holding onto or haven’t forgiven yourself/others for, you get out in the open and receive healing from God! It was definitely an emotional week for a lot of people, and God did amazing work in everyone’s heart. The first three days of the week we had teaching on what causes roots of different issues such as: rejection, shame, rebellion, unbelief (etc). With these issues one thing leads to another which leads to another…but the basis of all of them is a deficit of love. As humans, our biggest desire is to be loved. When that isn’t fulfilled, roots start to grow in our hearts which lead to big problems if we don’t deal with them.

The last two days of the week were reserved for sharing with one another, breaking soul ties, forgiving people in our lives, and most importantly forgiving ourselves. It was such a powerful time because many people had never told anyone about the things that had happened in their life, so we prayed for courage and boldness. I’m proud of everyone, and it’s amazing to see how getting issues out in the open can help a person begin to heal, and also to help unite a group. It was also a time for me to give up my chocolate addiction, so for the whole week I went without chocolate and sweets. Looking back, it was poor timing because that was probably the week I could have used chocolate the most!

Besides classes though, there’s been a lot going on at the base. I’ve decided I love Sundays because it’s a day where everybody on base is literally just hanging out together. We have church in the morning (which is in Spanish so it really tests your language abilities), and then after that the day is free to hang out, do homework, or play sports. You will literally watch at least one soccer game on Sunday if not more! A lot of the time someone is making tacos or BBQ-ing, so I like to steal some and go chat with someone. It’s such a great time of building community, which I love.

On Saturdays we have local outreach sometimes, and last Saturday we did something really cool! We went around to different womens’ homes who are apart of a women’s group at one of our DTS leader’s (Vanessa) church. We went in groups of two, one English speaker and one Spanish speaker and just talked with them and prayed for them. Most of them come from really poor areas of San Jose, so going to their homes was a shock for a lot of us. For me, the woman whose house I visited, lives with fourteen other people in a tiny little shack. It was heart breaking, but so awesome too because she was so hopeful and on fire for God and ready for change. We prayed a lot for her and her family, and it was such a blessing to spend the afternoon with her.

Saturdays are often free though, and one weekend I went down town with a local Costa Rican and got shown around! It was cool because I saw the Central Market with all the neat food, clothes, and knick knacks and then we walked to a beautiful park. It was a blessing because I feel like I haven’t seen that much nature in awhile, plus it was a sunny day! Basically weekends are an awesome time for exploring and doing new things!

The most exciting thing around the base right now though is the announcement of outreach locations for the last two months of DTS. This morning the staff let us know we would be split into two teams, one is going to two Central American countries (Guatemala and El Salvador) and the other team is going to Brazil. They’re both really exciting locations and we’re all praying about where God wants us to go. The Brazil location is double the cost of the Central American one, which is hard to swallow but we’re trying to not worry about cost because God can provide for us in any situation if that’s where He wants us! Prayer for decision making would be appreciated!

This week we have a speaker in from Arkansaw, John Ray. He’s speaking on the topic of finding our identity in Christ. He is such an incredible speaker and is really challenging us! Class is a mixture of him speaking and us discussing as a group which is perfect because it keeps you engaged which is essential for absorbing ideas. I’m excited for the rest of the week, and what he has to teach us. He’s an outdoorsy, crazy, adrenaline- seeking guy, so for tomorrow’s class we’re going to the beach for class which I’m stoked about! Enjoy your week!

-Luke 11: 1-13

Our DTS group plus staff above

To Know God And To Make Him Known!

Just a few of the amazing people I've met!

A part view of the main building

The fun starts!

It’s hard to believe I’ve almost been in Costa Rica for a month! I’ve really settled in, and I’m loving it so far. The culture here is really warm, welcoming, and loves to make you feel welcome into their family.

This week, our topic of the week was ‘The Nature and Character of God’, which was a pretty heavy topic. Our speaker, Carlos Penning was really knowledgeable, and on fire for God! We covered a lot of ground in five days, my head is spinning from everything and I’m still processing!

One of the biggest things I’ve been processing is that God doesn’t make ‘bad things’ happen to people. He’s not passing judgment on people when terrible things happen. Since we’re made in the image of God, we can assume that God is capable of feeling everything we are, but multiply that by infinity! That means He loves us with a ferocious love that we can’t even comprehend! We assume that God is in charge of everything, good AND evil. We quickly forget that our world is full of sin and pretty messed up already. God isn’t someone who forces Himself on us, which means He let’s us make our own decisions, which ALWAYS have consequences. People always ask, why does bad stuff happen in this world? Why don’t we ever ask ourselves why so much good stuff happens that we don’t deserve?

Enough about classes though…that’s literally just a tiny snapshot of what I learned. This week flew by, on Sunday, I did end up going bungee jumping, and I’m so glad I did! The rush of jumping 420 feet with some cords attached to your feet is intense! I conquered my fear (with a video to prove it!) and would do it again for sure!

On Monday we had a dance party for a staff member who was leaving to go back to Canada. We all got to learn some Salsa, Meringue, and we even pulled out some North American dance moves. Someone was so excited that he jumped so high he broke a light! Since it was a Latino dance party though, we quickly cleaned up and carried on with the dancing!

Wednesday night we had an awesome night of base worship and I got to pull out my bass, which was so exciting! I played with the base worship team here and had a blast! I’ve really missed playing, and it’s great to get back into it.  We’re having a twenty-four hour worship/prayer night starting at 7:30 on Friday night and I’ll get to pull out my bass again for that which will be great.

On Thursday we had local outreach, so we headed to an orphanage that will be opening soon, just to help them paint, landscape, and clean the building. It’s exciting to be a part of something so important and something that they need so desperately here. The people who are running the orphanage were so grateful for our help and kept saying thanks, but we really just want to bless them and help them create an awesome home for the kids who need one!

Tomorrow I’m going out with a ministry on base called ‘Metro Ministry’. I’ll be going out into a poor neighborhood close by, just to hang out and play with kids! I’ve gone once before and had a great time. The kids are so excited to play with us even if some of us don’t speak Spanish fluently (I’m working on it!). Before I do that though, I’m playing from 5am-7am as part of the twenty-four hours of worship and prayer so I’ll be getting up pretty early. On weekdays I usually get up at 5:30 am to run, then I start making breakfast at 6:00, so it shouldn’t be too much of a stretch to get up a bit earlier.

I’m also planning on checking out the market in downtown San Jose tomorrow (Saturday), which is filled with super awesome stuff. Bags, shoes, food, clothes, jewelry, all that fun stuff that ‘gringos’ like me like! So my day will be pretty full!

One thing that God also put on the hearts of two staff members and a few students, is the need for dance while worshiping. Even though I’m no ballerina, I love dancing so I’m super stoked that we’ll be meeting as a group to start incorporating this! My DTS is full of people who have an incredible heart for worship, apparently staff here haven’t seen a DTS here with this ever. So that’s super exciting too!

All in all, I’m loving it. I’m learning to love the ‘family life’, it’s still hard having limited personal space, but it’s worth it for what I’m learning here!

-John 17:24

Settling in...

Hey guys!

So I'm not much for blogging usually (although I love to read other blogs), but I think this is just the easiest way to update everyone on the happenings of my Costa Rican adventures. I guess I'll just jump right in!

I suppose I'll begin with why I'm here...I'm here in San Jose, Costa Rica to do a DTS (Discipleship Training School) with YWAM (Youth With A Mission), which is a Christian Organization with the purpose of knowing God, and making Him known. I had thought about doing a DTS right out of high school, but decided to start my degree in music instead. In August, three weeks before I was set to go back to school, I made the leap and decided to come here!

So basically I'm staying on the YWAM base in San Jose, which used to be an old coffee factory that they converted into a huge, open concept 'house' for us to live in! It has four big bedrooms (I'm staying in one with 9 other girls), an eating area, kitchen, bathroom and showers, a few offices, a hang out area,  and worship area. The property that the coffee factory is on has space for a lot more though. There are quite a few big shipping containers outside that they turned into bedrooms for staff...so they definitely get used to cockroaches. There are also apartments that they added on to the main building for staff who have families.

The topic for the first week of classes was 'Intimacy with God'. We learned about God's character, and how he's a personal, caring, and loving God who wants to get to know us. He waits for us to seek Him and really delights in spending time with us. This past week's topic was 'Hearing God's Voice', which I think a lot of people struggle with. I think that a lot of the time we're waiting for a thunderbolt or a loud booming voice to tell us what to do. But most of the time God is quite the opposite. He loves speaking to us in whispers, and I've been discovering the personal ways that He loves to speak to me. I've been learning to not doubt His voice, and just wait on Him with expectancy that He'll speak to me. It's been great, but challenging so far.
Yesterday we had a full day of going to the park and just sitting and waiting on Him. It was so difficult! I'm so used to allotting specific amounts of time to spend with God, that when a whole day of silence (and no interaction with other people!) stretched before me...I didn't know what I was going to do! As it turns out, He spoke to me, and I just enjoyed spending the day with Him.

Our schedule every day is fairly regular. We have breakfast, quite time with God. base worship (or intercession), classes in the morning, lunch, then sometime more classes (or whatever else is planned...it varies), then work duties (chores), then dinner, and either free time to do homework, hang out, or we have base worship or intercession often too. We're a flexible bunch :). I get up at 5:30 every morning because my work duty is making breakfast for the entire base! I do this with two other girls from my DTS: Kayla (from Alberta!) and Nina (from Chicaaaago...note the accent). I really love my chore, we cook breakfast, listen to music, and dance around. I'm definitely a morning person and love being up when the sun is coming up. Luckily it's easy here because the sun comes up early! God has definitely been challenging me though because living with the amount of people here is difficult! But fun too :). All the girls in my room (and the other room) are so great, and I'm loving getting to know them. We have 23 students in the DTS, 6 guys, and the rest are girls. Everybody here is so ready to be challenged and ready to accept everybody...it's amazing.

So this weekend I'm taking a leap of faith...literally! I'm heading out to go bungee jumping with a bunch of other crazy DTS students. I'm normally terrified of heights, but for some reason I feel the need to conquer this! Maybe it's because of all the teachings we're getting on faith and overcoming fear?? So I'll try and post some pictures of my scared little face before I jump.

Another thing that's new is earthquakes! We had one just a few minutes ago while I was blogging! It's such a cool but weird feeling! I just pray that we don't get any major ones :).

This post has been pretty long so far since it's my first one, so I apologize. I could post a lot more, but I won't. If you have any burning questions or just want to say hi, feel free to leave a comment or Facebook message me. I'd love to hear from you! I'll also try and post some pictures on Facebook, or my next blog post.

-"For God gave us a spirit, not of timidity, but of power, love and self-discipline."

2 Timothy 1:7