Costa Rica STT

Most things in life seem to, after intense machinations and complicated thought and analysis, boil down to fairly simple conclusions. Sitting on the floor in a room in my parents' house, after a day of napping and playing with my niece, I think I may have some from my time in Costa Rica. The whole time I was in Costa Rica, something felt weird. I touched on it a few times in previous posts, but summarizing it: Playing with kids and teaching them simple tasks felt like I wasn't doing enough . These kids have so much happening in their lives. So we played Uno. And the college students we spent time with have been isolated from the world around them for almost a year. So we played telephone pictionary. And the whole time, I'm spending time in 1 John 4, reading over and over about God's love. And the whole time, we're reading and acting stories from Jesus' life. And the whole time, we're watching the portrayal of Jesus' life in The Chosen.  I've said bef...

Shortest version: We're home! We woke up his morning and cleaned and packed. Lagos and Ana came by to hang out and see us off, which was really nice. I enjoyed just chilling with them for a bit. We Uber'd to the airport, got all checked in (they wanted to charge us $30/person to check bags, but when I pushed back a little (because our flight included bags), they didn't charge us. That's weird because the same thing happened to the three people we sent back home 4 weeks ago), then said bye to Tania and family (well, Matthew did). We made it through security, almost no problem. They confiscated the webbing to Sheryl's slackline, which was weird, but let her keep the carabiners.  We hung out in the airport, had lunch, then got on our plane. I read and napped the whole time. It was nice. They gave me a Dr. Pepper. We got to Dallas, went through immigration and customs (I got a US stamp in my passport! Apparently, you just have to ask), re-checked our bags, went back thr...

Today started out pretty normal. We had breakfast and worshiped in the park (for probs the last time). We hopped on the bus to the CDI (for probs the last time), grabbed some lunch at the AM/PM, got stuff set up for the kids. We had all the kids again today, which is good because we got to say goodbye to almost all of them. The CDI is a 25-person capacity during COVID and we had 24 today. It was pretty wild. We played a lot, danced, did a Bible Story (Prodigal Son), and worked on our memory verses. The kids have done really well with memory verses. We had them learn John 3:16, Matthew 22:37, Romans 10:9, and started them on Matthew 28:19-20. Hopefully they'll stick in there somewhere.  Today was so many kids and people in one place that it was a lot of zone defense; you just kinda manage the kids around you until they move into someone else's sphere. We had a good music lesson, but decided to have more time than usual to just play with the kids, since we were on our way out. It...

Well, I just spent the last several minutes trying to fix my day count. You see, keeping track of two numbers at the same time proved to be too much of a strain, so I did it wrong. But it's fixed now, because I noticed the count wasn't adding up. Anyway. We got COVID tested today. You have to get that negative test to get back into the States. We had some breakfast, had some conversation, got ready, got an Uber, and went to the lab. The nice lady stuck a swab up our noses (it was different swabs, not just one) and sent us on our way. My credit card didn't work at the lab, which was concerning, but we used Katie's.  To reward ourselves for our nostril swabification, we stopped at Starbucks on our way to the CDI. We walked the rest of the way, because, why not? It had been raining really hard, but it stopped just in time for us. My card worked at Starbucks, so we're gucci. I almost got something there, but decided I didn't want to talk in Spanish right then, so I ...

Sorry I skipped yesterday! I was super tired so I just went to bed. We had a really good day though! We went to Heredia and had lunch with the Diaz family. They fed us chifrijol , which is a meat ( chicharron ) and bean ( frijole ) dish. There was a lot of it. It was really, really good. I played Uno and Dominos with Carlitos , who is probably like 10. It was really nice, because interacting with adults is harder than interacting with kids. I stole a lot of his dominos, but he stole them all back, so....it worked out. Yesterday, after lunch, we went to the mall and hung out with the students from H@ngout. Thank you so much for praying for the students to come and our schedules to work out! I thought we'd probably have just 1 or 2 students come, but we had 13 people there. There were, like, 5 or 6 students, which was amazing. I think they were there mainly to see Grace and Isaac (visiting newlywed couple from Indiana), but this was, for some of them, the first time they'd been i...

Unexpectedly busy today, but a really good day. We woke up and had breakfast and headed to the CDI. Today we were meeting up with Georgen and her family there to go check out the market downtown. We walked around and joked around with her and Reychel and Derek; it was a lot of fun and a good chance to connect with them. We grabbed lunch from McDonalds, fed some pigeons, got rained on, and walked around the market (but in opposite order of that). We got back to the CDI right before the Lagos got there, so we finished our lunch and then walked over to the slum in Barrio Mexico, which is where our kids live.  We got to hang out and play with them in their home all afternoon; it was amazing. A bunch of other kids showed up as well, which is really good. Hopefully some of them will start coming to the CDI. Hopefully they won't come expecting us to just play all day like we did today though, lol.  I gave approximately 2 million piggy-back rides. We also got to play a little bit of s...

Have you ever used a keyboard that's set to Spanish mode, but not a Spanish-language keyboard? It's really hard.  I logged into Google today on a computer. It really wasn't a big deal, but it took so long to find the colon. By "find," I actually mean, "ask Lagos to show me." Maybe I shouldn't have shared that. My skin is falling off and it's gross. I shoulda used better sunscreen. Maybe this post should have been called, "Information About Sam That You Neither Want Nor Qualifies as Vulnerable." Ok, that's enough of that. Today was pretty solid. Matthew and I were cooking team, so he made these delicious fried plantain things and I made eggs. We're at 183. Worship was good; I peeled off some peeling paint from the table, then felt bad for being destructive. I wonder if the table feels like me when it's peely paint gets peeled off (we said "enough..."). We got ready and almost left on time and hopped on the bus and w...

Howdy and hola and pura vida :) Today was really good. I don't fully remember why, but it feels like it was, so I'll kinda externally process here (though filtered external processing, which may be my favorite kind) and we'll figure it out together. Um... I was on the breakfast team today. Katie and I made pancakes. I only burned one, so feeling pretty good about that. My phone didn't really charge last night due to a faulty electricity thing. Our wiring here is hit or miss, you plug things in and then have to jiggle them sometimes. I forgot to jiggle. But, I had time to charge it before we left, so that's good. Worship was lovely. We went to the park. Matthew led on his guitalele. I think if I ever decide to commit to an instrument, that would be it. Very useful, very portable. We had some really good and honest prayer, and we sang my current favoritest song that I don't know the words to, Christ is Mine Forevermore . It's quite fantastic, I'm listeni...

Today was our last day as a 4-person team, in a way.  Tomorrow, we'll be joined by a small team from a Great Commission church in Bloomington, Minnesota. They seem super equipped for what we've been doing here, and I'm a little nervous, tbh. But, I'm excited they'll be here and we can make a smooth transition, then they can make a smooth transition to everything being run by the folks here. Today was also good. We were all back in the game (if not all feeling 100%) and had the younger kids at the CDI. Only Saul and Sharon came today, but it was really sweet to be able to give them a good amount of one-on-one attention. Saul wore my shoes on top of his shoes. His feet are so small. My feet are so much bigger than a 6-year-old's.  We studied the story of Jesus clearing the temple. While it might not work to get into the intricacy of Jesus kicking people out because the place where they were selling their wares was the only place where non-Jews could worship God an...

a.k.a. "Wait! What happened to yesterday!" Wow. Well, it happened. We knew it would. I missed a day. So, what happened yesterday? We started our yesterday in the hotel, I sat in the pool, hiding in the shade from the sun. We had some food poisoning happen. We drove home still. Traffic was really bad because everybody was also driving home and the roads were all under construction. That + food poisoning made for a very terrible ride for our person. But, they handled it like a champ. I'm super seriously super impressed. We made it home. We couldn't get into our house for a little bit. I felt a little sick, but not bad.  "Wow, why can't all your posts be that concise?"  Because that's not how my brain works. It's not offensive to just scroll to the end to look at pictures and get the prayer requests. You do you. Ok, so today. I slept really weirdly. Lots of weird dreams, lots of talking (actually whispering, apparently, sorry Matthew) in my sleep. W...

We have 11 days left. That's kind of crazy, right? Especially since 11 days is more days then most of our trips have been up to this point. And yet, things feel like they are winding down. Maybe it's because our primary goal with this next week is transitioning things away from us. Maybe it's because we did fun things this weekend. Maybe the excellent BBQ we had on Thursday has us thinking of home. Idk. I'll circle back. Today was fun! We woke up early to see the sunrise, but it was stormy and already very bright, so we went back to bed. Well, I think Sheryl got up still. She said it was lovely. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow. We had breakfast in the hotel restaurant, which casually overlooks the ocean. I made friends with a bird. It landed on the rail and started making bird noises, so I started making noises back. It seemed to like it, so I made other noises too, and. It copied them and let me walk up to it. Sheryl also had a conversation with the bird; she seemed ...

Today has been a ton of fun! For breakfast, we had leftover ribs and mac & cheese... as you do. That means no eggs today, alas. Then Lagos and Ana picked us up and we began our roadtrip. We drove for 4 hours (with a stop for lunch at Taco Bell), with a rotating playlist. The countryside is just beautiful. So much green, beautiful hills and trees. And a bunch of those cows that have weird camel humps on their necks. Brahma?  I think this is my first time being in the pacific ocean. The sand is black, which is cool, but confusing. The water is insanely clear. There's lots of crabs. None of them want to be my friend. We watched the sunset, which was lovely. I ate a fish. It was like the whole fish on the plate. It was delicious; absolutely fantastic. Then we just hung out and talked. It was really relaxing. I really like the Lagos; I like how they see the world, I like how they do life. Tomorrow we're planning to get up to see the sunrise at like 5AM... We'll see how that ...

140 eggs For worship today, we sat and listened to God and then shared what we heard and prayed together. I feel like I heard God bring to mind the verses where he says, "I desire mercy, not sacrifice." I spent the rest of the time thinking about that. What does that mean? In Hosea, the second half of the verse is "and acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings." In Matthew 9, it's right after Jesus calls Matthew and people are upset that he hangs out with sinners. In Matthew 12, it's when Jesus is telling the Pharisees that their version of rest and Sabbath laws isn't the same as God's. So, it seems like the context of understanding is: following God is less about keeping all the rules and earning his favor, and more about living relationship with God. So, that's a good word for me. And now I'm wondering what Matthew 12:5 means. We had the little kids at the CDI today. Before they arrived, Georgen shared some really beautiful and hon...

Today was different.  Breakfast wasn't though; we had eggs! And bacon. It was muy rico . I've taken to just putting random things into the eggs when my cooking partner isn't looking and seeing if it makes it better. Today I also put lime on the bacon after it was done, but you couldn't tell. My sister is, like, a master chef or whatever, but I have absorbed nothing of this skill. Except! I have learned how to take care of knives, which is pretty complex. Turns out, you don't store them pointy-side down and you don't put them in a dishwasher. There's other stuff, but that's my real big takeaways (love you, Anne). Worship this morning was also good. I usually think about worship as a God-and-I thing or a God-and-us thing. This morning, however, I felt keenly aware of the fact that we have possibly done more live, group worship in that park in the last 24 days than has ever happened there. And I wonder what kind of spiritual impact it can have on a place ju...

Today marks halfway through our time here as a 4-person team. Crazy. Today was a day again. I planned to get up to run since I wasn't on breakfast crew, but when I woke up, I said, "that's silly," and went back to bed. Breakfast had bacon, which was dope. And eggs! We're at like, 122 or something now. I don't think we'll make 300, but definitely over 200.  Worship! Was good. I think. As mentioned, my heart continues to be very still before God. It's not an abnormal feeling for me, and I'm ok with it because God reminds me he's in there, but I don't think it's the ideal situation.  We got planned and organized and packed and made lunch (PB&J, let's gooo. The strawberry jelly is missing, so I used Guava jelly, which was nice) and headed to the bus. We got to the CDI and got everything set up and waited for the kids. It rained basically all day today, so the kids came almost a full hour late. We still had a fantastic time though. I...

Yes, that is a Black Eyed Peas reference. But it's also what's happening right now. Breakfast was lovely today, as was our worship time. I'm still just camping out in 1 John 4 in my times with God. I really do recommend memorizing passages of scripture like that. It pulls you in to examining each word and thinking about the passage and its context differently.  1 John 4 is the chapter that's all about love and stuff, but it interestingly starts with a warning against false prophets and denial of the incarnation. It most recently stands out to me that in verse 12, it says that when we love one another, God's love is made complete in us. Nice-sounding verse, right? But is that implying that God's love is incomplete? I think so. I think the fullness and completion of God's love is when his children love one another. It's like a triangle. If a parent has two kids and the parent loves them both, but they don't love each other...it feels like something is ...

a.k.a. Almost Nothing About Costa Rica in This Post a.k.a. Rest Leads to Overthinking a.k.a. Is It Oversharing If It's Your Blog? a.k.a. I Almost Deleted All of This The title I landed on probably is counter-productive. Ran today! It was ok. I should probably drink some more water, I feel a little dehydrated still. But that is ok. So, if you're here for Costa Rica updates, this post isn't worth reading. We rested and watched some movies and prayed and worshiped and bonded today. This post will probably come across like a bunch of word vomit, but will give some insight into my brain and heart, I guess. People seem to be into that sometimes, though I don't usually like what I find when I look. As I mentioned, I've been thinking more about the idea of team and team dynamics recently. Some of that comes from watching the Lagos and the church here, some comes from being on our little team, some comes from watching Jesus pick the disciples in The Chosen, lol, and some jus...