Laughs and Prayers

I had my first "OH MY GOSH I WISH I KNEW THE LANGUAGE, AHHHH" moment on Saturday. After we had registration for the class (I have 4 students that I know of, more may have signed up on Sunday) I went to a birthday party for a little girl named Juliana. She goes to the church and turned 7 years old. The birthday party took place at a theme park (slightly smaller then Wild Adventures, but a similar idea) and the first part was in a large room with a clown in charge of the festivities.

For the first half of the party I just observed. I had no idea what the clown was saying, except for a few words (applause, keys, shoes, kids), but I still enjoyed laughing at the kids running around and laughing with Ana that I recognized a few words. At one point I noticed that several women (a few of them women I know from the church) were in the middle of the room about to participate in a game. Suddenly I found myself being dragged into the middle by Tamara (my 9 year old "little sister"). So there I was, with about 50 people watching me, about to play a game and I had NO idea what I was supposed to do. Then I realized that I would have to go first, doing whatever it was that we were doing. I made eye contact with Rebekah (Ana's sister-in-law) and mouthed "no entiendo!! (I don't understand!!)" She quickly came to my rescue and pantomimed dancing and made a circle motion. I soon figured out that we were about to play musical hula hoops (similar to musical chairs except that you jump into a hula hoop instead of sitting in a chair.)

I looked at my table and I saw Ana, Christian, Orlando, Ligia, and about 5 other friends of mine just pointing and laughing at me. It was great fun. I was able to laugh at myself too, my only other option was freaking out and I prefer to laugh. For those of you who want to know: I came in 4th out of 6, fairly pitiful I know but I put up a good fight!

After that we went to the park. It was a lot of fun. I didn't have a wristband or tickets, so I didn't think that I would be able to ride any of the rides. Chino and Rebekah (Orlando's oldest son and his wife) and a few others were going to walk around and ride a few rides. Christian gave me 3 tickets and Rebekah grabbed my hand and we went off (I had no idea what was going on, I was just given tickets and the pulled away, no one told me what we were doing). We ended up going to the roller coaster. It was fun. Then we walked around some more and they were able to talk the workers into letting me ride another ride without tickets, that was amusing. It ended up being a really fun night. I didn't know what was being said, but some how everyone made me feel very included. The love that these people have for each other is quite extraordinary, they really, genuinely care about one another. It's awesome!

Nothing very exciting has happened this week. I miss my church a lot. It's hard sitting in church for an hour long sermon and having no clue what's going on. Christian did his best to translate but Orlando preaches so quickly he could only translate about half of it (which created some interesting theological points haha). The worshis is very cool. I can follow pretty easily because the words are projected and it tends to be pretty easy to translate. I love that we sing for 45 minutes!

On Wednesday I had a neat experience. There is a prophet in the Church who only knows a few words in English (hello, how are you? fine thanks... that's about it). While he was praying over people he came to me. At first he said a few things in Spanish that I didn't understand, but then he started speaking to me in perfect English. He told me that I needed to realize that God hadn't really brought me to Costa Rica to teach English. Yes, that's what I would be doing but there were other opportunities for people to learn English. God had really brought me here to learn about the Holy Spirit. To really feel the Holy Spirit in my heart and not just think it in my head. At the time I didn't know that he spoke very little English. Christian told me that later. I thought it was very cool.

When I told my dad about this he asked me if it connected with my heart. This is what I told him: "I know that I believe in the Holy Spirit in my heart, or else I don't think I'd be here, but I know that there is always more to learn and honestly out of the 3 parts of the trinity I think that the Holy Spirit is probably the least focused on." It will be interesting and cool to watch this prophecy manifest itself!

I did my second load of laundry this week. It did not go as well as the first week because I tried to do it when no one else was home and did not realize that you had to punch the top of the washer to get it to start (a key detail I missed in the directions). Now I know and next time will be better.

A few neat things in the future:

1. My visa issues have been worked out and I will be going to Nicaragua in January. When I was in Kenya I met a man named Max. He was this very funny man from Orlando's church who was a missionary in Pakistan. I didn't realize that he was back in Costa Rica and it was a very pleasant surprise to re-meet him at Church on Sunday. He has a supporter who lives in Nicaragua and so I will be traveling with Max, Deborah (his wife), and their new baby girl (she's only 8 days old now!) to visit his supporters. This will get me out of the country for the needed amount of days to renew my visa.

2. Fernando a man from the church has been kind enough to agree to teach me the bus roots and San Jose. He is going to make sure I know how to get around and also be someone else I can practice my Spanish with, he speaks English.

3. I start teaching on Saturday. I'm not sure how many kids I have currently but I know it's less then 10 total. This is good because I'll be able to teach them more English and they will have a more 1 on 1 setting.

Books I've read/ finished reading/ am currently reading here:

1. I finally left the shire in "The Fellowship of the Ring" and finished that one. *Spoiler Alert* I am now at Isengard talking to Treebeard and the Hobbits finally reconnected with Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn (YAY) in "The Two Towers." I'm hoping to finish the series by the end of the month.

2. I started and finished the book "Captivating." A very well written book about what it means to be a women of God. It's pretty fantastic and I would recommend it for women (and men too if they want any insight into women and how we tick).

3. I'm currently reading "The Book of God." The man who wrote it has taken the Bible and written it as a novel. It's very interesting and so far pretty accurate. It by no means replaces the Bible, but it's interesting to see this man's interpretation of the emotions of the Old Testament. Jericho just fell.

4. I finished "The Great Divorce" by C. S. Lewis. And I highly highly highly recommend it!

I'd be interested in hearing what good books you've read lately, I think there are a few bookstores that have English books as well (which is good since I will be needing more soon). It's been neat to have so much time to read! Or, I would be interested in hearing your opinions of the above books!

Prayer Requests:

1. I'm pretty exhausted emotionally even though I'm well rested physically. I think this has been more trying then I've let myself believe thus far. My mom helped me realize that.

2. I'm a little bit nervous about teaching. I've never done anything like this before!

3. Please pray that I would pick up Spanish! I'm picking it up pretty quickly I think, but I still get embarrassed when I try to use it.

4. My extended family is going through quite a bit right now and could use all the prayer support we can get.

A few things I'm remembering:

1. I'm remembering to take my vitamins. (You can be so proud)

2. I'm remembering to drink lots of water. (Not from the tap, although it's actually relatively safe here)

3. I'm remembering not to flush toilet paper down the toilet, it goes in the trash can.

4. I'm remembering that "preguntar" means "to ask" not "pregnant". and that "embarazada" means "pregnant" not "embarrassed."

5. I'm remembering to tell the kids "cuidado" anytime they look like they are doing something dangerous (they don't understand it when I say "careful")

6. Most importantly (and the cheesiest) I'm remembering you! :) Everyone back home is in my thoughts and prayers. I miss you all and I love you all very much!

And with this I leave you to go take my dry clothes from off the line:

"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all evermore." Amen.

2 Corinthians 13:14