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