Earthquake!

On 18 November, I went to bed a little earlier than normal out of my pure exaustion of learning spanish. As I tried to fall alseep, my mind began wondering about weird things (as normal). I thought about how strange it is that I have not felt an earthquake yet. Especially when Costa Rica has at least 200 every month and our counrty is the size of New Jersey. I remembered how people said that if you don´t know how to feel one then you might just think it´s a large truck going by (which normally does shake your house some.)

Finally I fell asleep. All of a sudden at 12:10 am on the 19th I awoken to my bed swinging back and forth and slightly jumping up and down. I didn´t exactly know what to think or do. I was wondering "What is going on? What do I do? Do I get up and go downstairs? Is this for real? When is it ever going to stop!?" Finally my bed quit swinging and all was quiet once again. As I layed there motionless I began hearing "¿Todos está bien?" (Is everyone alright?). My family was checking on everyone.

Come to find out in the morning we had a 6.2 earthquake with the epicenter about 130 miles south of us on the Costa Rica-Panama border. There was also another good aftershock, but that one I missed somehow. Thankfully there were no major reports of damage or injuiries! Thank you Jesus.

I always had thought that it would be cool to experiance an earthquake. When I was in Nicaruaga some years back I experianced a very little one. I guess that didn´t do it for me. But now that I have experianced one, I don´t ever want to do that again! There´s somthing very scary about knowing the ground that you think is so sturdy actually moves beneath you. Also the locals say this one was different because normally they are much shorter but harder and more of an intense shaking back and forth instead of the swaying movement that we had.

I have checked "to feel an earthquake" off my list and am not ready to re-experiance that again. But I do live in Costa Rica and there are at least 200 of them a month...so we´ll see what happens. I have also learned not to think about earthquakes before going to bed! :)

Lesson of the Waves

The distance appears calms but all around me is churning. The vast blue ocean rolls towards me. It no longer can withstand the force; it swells mightily. For an instant I can see through the agua, sunlit wave – the awe of it. The dark sand becomes swept up and overtakes the aqua. Just then the water topples over and crashes with a thunderous roar. The surface water displaced and thrust forward by such shear force that it takes out all in its path.

Over and over this happens. Sometimes the waves are so close together that they close in on each other and become even grander. Then the cycle through to a calmer pattern. Each wave has its distinction and can never be duplicated. Each one brings its own force; at times a gentle sweep past my legs while at other times I’m thrown down like a rag doll doing somersaults in the water.

Saturday I stood for a countless minutes in the Pacific Ocean at Jaco watching these waves crash towards me. I was in awe of them. These words and even if I had pictures could not do them justice. As I thought about the waves, God began to teach me. This ocean in my life and at times it’s going to easy and beautiful. Yet a lot of the time I’m going to have waves roaring towards me and there will be nothing I can do about it.

There’s different ways that I can respond to them. I could keep my back to the waves and pay no attention to them. As long as the waves are gentle this isn’t a problem. But it doesn’t take a very big wave to smack you from behind, knock you down and take your breath away. And frankly that hurts! (I had a headache for an entire day from one wave smacking me in the back of my head.)

God showed me that this is me living totally on my own, thinking oh things are good right now I don’t need to spend as much time with God. I’ve got this all on my own. Which I hate to admit, I do more often than I ever want.

If I am watching the waves my second option is to be terrified by them. I can try to prepare myself by digging my feet into the sand, bend my knees, and look away (to keep the salt out of my eyes). This works for the not so hard ones but then again I get thrust forward, pushed further down shore, and on some occasion thrown down. I get cut by the rocks or shells, I end up not where I wanted and at times can be pulled out by the rip tides if I’m in the right place. Even every now and then I try to ride on a wave with my body but 9 out of 10 times it’s unsuccessful and I end up with lungs full of salt water!

God showed me that this is how I am when I am living on my own. I am focused too much on the waves of life and the past. When I get tired and just don’t want to try anymore. This is when I try to do things in my strength and without Him. When I don’t trust Him to provide for me and be my refuge. When I just plainly speaking am being stupid and not doing what I know I need to be doing…trusting MY GOD!

Then the last scenario is that I get on my surfboard (which I have only been on one once with no success) and ride into the waves. Not allowing the waves to take me into shore but swimming into and under the waves to get the best vantage point. To sit patiently on my surfboard and pick just the right wave then ride it in. Now there’s some big challenges with this. First you have to learn how to surf, then learn how to read the waves, then pick the right wave and time, and then actually ride the wave.

I asked God how does this work out to be best for me? He told me that He is the surfboard and the instructor. He is the one who makes me able to ride the wave in. And yes, I will wipe out, I will not be able to catch every wave perfectly, I will get hurt at times. But I can ALWAYS know that He is the One who is getting me through the waves. All I have to do is when I get knocked off get back on the surfboard, swim through the waves, take my seat and watch how He will take me through the waves of life. One at a time. I can’t focus on when the next big one will come for then I will never learn how to live through the little ones.

So His question to me “Are you going to ride the waves or be crushed by them? You get to decide what will happen. I have shown you what your options are and how the will turn out. Now will you choose Me and ride these waves without fear or your selfish ways and be scared of these waves?”

On Sunday morning, the big wave came at me and I heard Him repeat the question He asked me not even 24 hours earlier. I’m choosing to ride the wave as hard as it may be but I want to learn how to ride these waves and not die.

As we were standing at the bus stop to head home God gave me a beautiful rainbow that lasted for awhile. He has been great at giving me rainbows to confirm His love and that He is with me. They always show up when I am struggling with something and He wants to confirm His truth in me. How awesome is He!

Sweet Women

I wanted to share with you some of the beautiful faces that I have fallen in love with. Please pray for these ladies as they need to find their worth and strength in Christ. Please pray for me as I prepare my testimony in spanish to share with the women on 13 November. Thank you.

A Rain Forest Symphony

It was as if I was walking into a dream due to the misty haze the cloud produces. The freshness, the newness, every shade of green that one could make their own full crayon box. It was beautiful. Nature’s symphony played so gently but ever so beautiful.

Last night rain clinks onto each leaf as is travels through the canopy and crescendos at it taps the ground or my face. A bird begins to sing her love song to God with beautiful soprano notes, while another sings tenor. In the distant I hear a squeaky song as if the bird had a sore throat but it wouldn’t stop him from singing his part. A little further into the rain forest I hear an old rickety swing set. This bird was just happy he could sing so he sung his swing tune.

As we walked through the dream world the sun’s rays slowly melted away the cloudy mist. The diamonds of the forest began to sparkle on every leaf, on the moss, and on the spider webs. Hummingbirds raced by me as I could almost feel the wind from the low hum of their wings.

In the distant the soft rushing water could be heard. As I walked further down into the forest it crescendos and the beating of rapids exploded through the softness but decrescendo just as rapidly as it had come. Over and over the stream would make it’s beautiful song known. The shy ribbit of a frog quietly sung for his solo.

The exotic pinks, purples, oranges, yellows, and blues were pleasant surprises awaking my sight. Though they made no sound they produced an awe within me. The clouds gently pushed the sun back and all around became a dream world once again.