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