Saca Tus Máscaras

A couple of weeks ago, I helped my friend Kathy at La Carpio with the Saturday group of teenage girls. I taught the lesson.

The afternoon started off a little rough. I had put in my brand new pair of contacts from my brand new boxes, but one was bothering me and I thought it would settle down after a few. So I left and caught my two different buses to head to La Carpio.

By this time it has been 2 hours and my contact was still bothering me. When I got to the building it was locked but I had to get the contact out of my eye and clean it. So I thought for some reason, it was a good idea to do it right there outside. Everything went fine until I was holding it up making sure it was clean and then the wind came. My contact took off like a feather and fell somewhere behind me in the tall grass. The two ticos who were there wouldn't give up trying to find it, though I had. This now meant I was unable to read my notes or even the Bible. But as always God had His plans.

I got to talk to a girl who was 15 and taking care of her 5 year old sister. She had very sad eyes and a heaviness about her that a 15 year old should not have. She told me that she has been living in La Carpio for about a year now. Before that she was living in Nicaragua with her grandparents. Her mother left her in Nicaragua when she was less than two years old and moved to Costa Rica.

This young lady knew only her grandparents as her parents. She never had contact with her mother until her grandparents died and she had to move to Costa Rica and meet her mother for the first time that she can remember. It's a very hard situation for her as her mother's boyfriend isn't the nicest; her mother has 4 other kids; and she is living with "complete strangers". Her fragile heart was breaking before me. This sweet girl helped me out with a lot that day.

The girls played some games for a while and then I began teaching "Saca Tus Máscaras" meaning "Take Off Your Masks." God directed me to talk about how I have worn different masks in my life and what they were and why; and the ones I still struggle with. Then I shared about how they get in our way of living a true life and shared with them what God tells us about them. I then shared that God wants us to put something on every day to protect us but it's not our masks, it's His armor and so we briefly talked about the armor. After the lesson we made masks.

The girls were great to work with and it was fun and I was surprised at how well it went, even without being able to read my notes. God is great to always show up when His Truth is being taught and a person is willing to allow Him to speak through them.

Thank you so much to those of you who were praying. Your prayers helped make this possible. Thank you for being a part of this ministry of changing ashes into beauty of the Lord.

I Cut My Hair Off

So I have been needing a change for a while. Perhaps it's a last 6 months of being in my 20's crisis or something like that. Nonetheless my hair was cut off for some mental break down but I really like it a lot! Here's a few pictures of it.

Sharing in Church

I have been attending a church called Mision Cristiana Enmanuel Siloh for about 2 months now and have fallen in love with it. It's a small church with about 50 people. Besides myself there are only two other gringo families. Last Sunday during service Pastor Alex was talking about us, the gringos, and how we're a blessing to them and how they want to be a blessing to us. Then Pastor Alex asked the church if they would like us to do the next Sunday's service; and so it was we were doing the next service.

Today was that next Sunday's service. I got the pleasure to sing with their praise team along with my friend who played guitar and sung. Our theme was that everyone is a missionary, not just us who left our countries. So each of shared with them a little about how God has called us to missions.

I always love looking back at how God has called me because there's a lot of times that I allow satan's lies to get into my head and heart and I really start questioning if I'm really suppose to be here. But God is amazing and always knows when I need to look back at how He has undoubtedly called me and has opened the doors for me to be here. Then I got to share that great joy with others and even in another language.

The pastor has a tendency to call people out to pray for a certain thing or a person or group. I was up in front with the praise team and he was talking about the family. Yet I must confess I was half listening and half off somewhere else. He was looking at me and I was looking at him and he said something about praying for the families of the church. Then he bowed his head but didn't begin to pray out loud. Then he looked at me and I was like "Oh you mean me." Of course I even said it in Engligh. Silly me. So then I was frazzled and totally butchered it. But thankfully God knows our hearts adn He knows what the prayer was.

It was a great time worshiping God and allowing Him to speak words in another language through each of us. I'm truly blessed.

Urgent

Yesterday I posted the blog below about the safety here. I'm asking once again with great urgency for prayer. It's is rapidly becoming worse and all of the things I have heard of are within a 1/2 mile or less from my house. And where I have to, among many others, walk through.

Today a gringo, who isn't from my school, was shot in the foot and leg just a few blocks away from my home. This is going to sound a little weird but I think you will understand. Thankfully it was because the gringo was being "stupid" and that the robber didn't shoot him "without his idea of cause". Meaning the gringo was out in the park with his computer and had been warned many times that that was a bad idea. Then he tried to fight the armed robber and run away from him instead of just giving him the computer. But God is good and allowed several students to be over in that area this morning to see it all and one of the students was a doctor. So that student was able to attend to the gringo.

Nonetheless it's getting worse rapidly. As mentioned in the post below, please pray for safety, "street smartness", and a spirit of peace, not one of fear. Thank you again.

Prayer For Safety

Please pray for safety for us here. In the past few weeks the number of armed robberies has increased and over the past 4 days or so there's been at least three people robbed at gunpoint walking down the main, very busy road here in broad daylight. This main road and the park is one I go by and use every day.

I'm trying to not live in fear and trust God. At the same time I'm trying to be smart and take only the bare minium with me, I'm even thinking about not carrying my bag for awhile.

Pray for protection and safety if a robbery does happen. Pray for the poilce to begin heavier patrols of the area. Pray that we will all be wise and also not live in fear of our surroundings. Thank you for your immediate prayers in this.

And So It Began To Rain

Costa Rica consists of two seasons; the middle of December thru April is summer or the dry season and May thru the middle of December is winter or the rainy season. During winter, the rainy season, it rains every afternoon for at least 3 or 4 hours. By October it's common to have rain all day and for several days straight.

As it likes to happen the torrential rain starts just a few minutes before it's time for me to leave school and head home. Today's rain was literally coming in sideways. This is always bad because it's impossible to stay dry due to the angle your umbrella has to be. (Trust me, I am at the low-advance level of a professional umbrella user - It's tricky.)

As I walk my 8 minutes home, my mesh tennis shoes begin to fill up with water and my rolled-up pant legs are filling up with water as well, in the cuffs! I was wishing that I didn't have my books so I could just forego the umbrella all together. I finally got home dripping of water.

BUT the fun doesn't stop there (otherwise it wouldn't be a true Costa Rican story.) Due to home my apartment is made and how it sits in the carport of a tico family; it's prone to rain problems. If it's a torrential downpour (like today) and if the rain is angled in the perfect direction (like today) then the rain likes to visit me through the 1/2 inch to 1 inch gap under my front door. (I found this out last week!)

So today it was unavoidable, my friend the flood was coming over for lunch. Thankfully the tiny semi-automatic washer I have comes in handy. It has it's own little part to put clothes in to spin dry. So it becomes very useful when I only have four towels to dry up the flood. Oh wait that's not all to this story.

My laundry room has given me much grief with rain and now it's much better until all the ingredients come together so perfectly, like today. Because it is a laundry room and ticos aren't fans of dryers (they are so expensive to run) there is a hole in the wall where air and sunlight can come in to dry the clothes. So once again one of my towels had to soak up the minor flooding in the back.

Let's go back to the kitchen where the front door is. My apartment is not the best constructed place, and there are several cracks in the wall and it so happens that in two other places the rain decided to enter in through these cracks and through the molding of the corners of the ceiling; which took up the other two towels.

At least the mopping in the kitchen area will be taken care of today! I'm just a tad worried about how my apartment will fair while I'm back in the states for 6 1/2 weeks...The joys of living in Costa Rica. One can't help but laugh. Otherwise you'll be a pretty unhappy person throughout winter here!

I NEED YOUR HELP! ASAP!

(I know this is a long one but it’s one of the most important ones you can read. So please take the time to read this.)

As you might know I am returning to the Missouri Ozarks on 15 August to 1 October. I’m very excited about this opportunity to be home, attend a beloved friend’s wedding, see the new baby of another beloved friend (once he is born in September), to worship with the people of LifePoint, and to see all my friends who I have missed so much.

Besides loving on friends, I am also home to raise support for the next year (August ‘09-August ‘10). I would like to do two big fundraisers while I am there. My goal is to raise my entire year of support which is $24,000 through fundraisers and individual support. I know God is able to provide all of this and more. So this is where I need your help.

GOLF TOURNAMENT I need to find several people who would be willing to put on a golf tournament for a fundraiser in September. Some tasks to be done: costs, find course, adverstise to find golfers and I’m sure other things. I will work alongside of them from Costa Rica until I return home. Obviously, the more people who can help the better it can be. I have a friend, who has a friend, who had a fundraiser tournament and raised their entire support for an entire year (for a family of 4). This is an immediate thing that we need to start working on.

DINNER/DESSERT THING I would also like to do some type of dinner, maybe a spaghetti dinner or something, in September. I have several ideas for this and would like to work alongside with several people who would be willing to help bring this all together. I would love to begin working on this no latter than the beginning of August.

“CAFECITAS” (This is a Costa Rican favorite daily custom. Around 3-4pm the ticas will fill their coffee cups and have pastries called empanadas.) What I would like to do with this idea is set up as many “cafecitas” as possible. I would like to take about 45 minutes to share with each small group about what God has done in me and is doing in me during my first year here in Costa Rica. I would like to share about the ministry that I will be working in and have a time of prayer. I would like to then extend the opportunity to those there to be a part of this ministry in several ways; being a prayer partner, being a financial support partner, and/or holding their own “cafecita” to help spread the news about what God is doing here with the teenage girls of Costa Rica. My goal is to have at least 25 of these small groups. (Now I can’t promise that many bags of Costa Rican coffee…sorry.) I would like to get started now setting up dates for these.

ARE YOU INTERESTED? First, pray to see how God wants to use you. Then, I need you to email me at sunshineloveland@gmail.com with how you are interested in helping, as soon as possible. PLEASE do not think “I would love to help but I’m sure she already has enough people.” If everyone thinks this then I will not have any of these fundraisers. There is always a place for you to be used.

THANK YOU! Thank you for being a part of working with God as He changes the ashes of the teenage girls to incredible beauty, as only He can, by helping me raise support, by supporting me, and by praying for me. I would not be here without the incredible team that God has provided me and continues to grow for me. Thank you.

PS. 2010 CALENDARS I am currently working on putting together a 2010 calendar of my photos from Costa Rica to sell as another fundraiser. More info to come…