Day 23 (16): Still Here!

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 really wish my Spanish brain would finally hit that breakthrough point into degrees of fluency instead of degrees of proficiency, but I think it'd take more than 5 weeks of semi-immersion to get it. I really do love these kids, but the connection ability is limited. I think that's good though; their connection needs to be with this church, not with the Americans who came for a month. I think it's easy, and dangerous, for us as people to get too caught up in the desire to be the one who is "the main person" or gets to "harvest" (Bible's plant/water/harvest metaphor), or however you want to say it. Whether in ministry, or friendship, or parenting, or anything... it's not about us. It isn't. It's about Jesus and about the other person's heart. So, that to say, I'm glad we'll leave before there's too much connection; I just hope the pass happens smoothly so the kids are ok and taken care of well. Pray for that please. It's hard for adults to understand, it's harder for kids. 

We made paper fish again, just less skillfully and with more help (it was the little kids). I got to help with some homework and color a little bit and play a bunch of Uno, so... good day today.

Afterwards, we cleaned up and locked up and braced ourselves emotionally to walk to the bus stop (raining). We were running late because one of the kid's parent was running late. As we locked the last lock, we saw our bus drive by, so we  r a n  to the bus stop and caught it just in time. He tried to drive away before we were all on, but I was uncooperative, so we all made it on board. 

We order dinner tonight from Smashburger (lol, yea. there's one .58 miles from my house in Bryan) because we were tired and didn't have time to cook before H@ngout. Sheryl went to spend time with Ana (have dinner and make cupcakes for a kid's birthday tomorrow), so we made do with our ability to understand what was going on during H@ngout. It was fun though; it seems like every week someone we haven't met logs in and we get to make another friend connected to this little, but deeply invested college ministry. I wish I could see them in action in person. I can't wait for the day when they get to be together again. I hope it's a time of deep joy and celebration. 

After H@ngout, we watched a movie and chilled until Sheryl came back, and now it's bedtime...

PRAYER:
- for our transition out, that the kids would feel the same love and connection and care when we're gone. And eventually understand that it comes from Christ, not human beings
- for H@ngout. That God would bless this church and their connections to students.
- for Costa Rica to open back up soon and be protected from any more COVID booms
- for the university to re-open soon
- for the economy here to survive
- for the Lagos and all the families in this church to be blessed and protected by God

Pictures: 
um......about that. yea, I didn't take any again. Here's a cute picture of a sloth though (that I found online):