Day 11: Agradecido

Today was really quite lovely. I slept in a little, we woke up to go to the baptism party, I got to talk to Alexis on the camera phone, and I got to go to church. 

I woke up and read Psalm 139 a few more times. I'm starting to work on memorizing it. Let's see how we do:

Oh Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up. You perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down and are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, you, oh Lord, know it completely. 

Señor, tu me examines, tu me conoces. Sabes cuando me siento y cuando me levanto. Aun a la distancia me lees el pensamiento. um.... going out and lying down ... boo. Well, we'll keep trying on the Spanish one. 

Memorizing scripture is kinda fantastic. I like individual verses, but big chunks are really, really good for my understanding of passages. If you've never memorized a chapter or passage, it's well worth the time. I recommend Philippians 4 if you want somewhere to start!

Anyway, that's not meant as some kind of spiritual flex. I need something like this to motivate me to dig into scripture. Otherwise, it's too easy to get distracted by the Doing.

All but one of the Ohio gringos are leaving tomorrow. Today they hosted a baptism party at their Airbnb, which is very exciting. It ended up lasting all day, actually. A chavo named Diego got baptized while we were there, and I think some other(s) may have come later (they kept hanging out after we left to head to church). I feel so excited about their team and what God has been doing through them! I really believe something new and powerful is building on the UNA campus. Please be praying. 

I got to spend some time in the kitchen, washing dishes after lunch (which was amazing). I was there while Lagos and Trevor were prepping with Diego. It was so refreshing. They talked to him about the cost of following Jesus, about scripture and discipleship, about what baptism is and is not. They checked his gospel understanding and he told them about how different he felt since praying to accept Jesus. I spent the whole time eavesdropping and praying, lol. Please pray for Diego, that God would protect him, walk with him, empower him, and bless him deeply.

After the baptism, we chilled and hung out and played games and sang karaoke. It was fun to sit and watch the Ohio team interact with the H@ngout students, and to see relationships growing between our students and the H@ngout friends. The H@ngout students have given "nombres latinos" to all the Ohio gringos. They started trying to give one to Matthew, after telling him Mateo didn't count. It didn't stick, but we'll see. 

After a while, we left to come home to get ready for church (Matthew is leading worship while we're here). I got to call Alexis and tell her about the day to that point. We talked briefly about how different this year feels than last year (distance-wise). Last year was hard because we didn't really have any real patterns of communication or connection as a couple (because we were so newww), so we had to figure out a lot whilst in different places. This year is hard because we've spent the last year dating and now being engaged and we've gotten pretty darn spoiled getting to see each other quite frequently (respect to my long-term, long-distance dating (and engaged) friends). We've only got like 34 days left though, so, compared to last year it feels pretty doable.

Church tonight was really good. I got to talk to a man in the church, Don Franklin (remember, Don is a title, not a name...like "mr." (actually, we learned at the baptism party today that sometimes Google is referred to here as Don Google or, even better, San Google. That's so funny to me)). Don Franklin shared part of his story with me. His wife passed away recently (I think 3 months ago), after 38 years and 4 months of marriage. He told me some of their story and, upon learning that I'm going to get married soon, he lit up and told me it was the best thing ever. He said it's not easy, it's hard work, but it's the best gift from God. 

He said he met his wife becauce he was living in the street (presumably with some manner of addiction), and ended up in the hospital related to....something I didn't quite understand... and she was the nurse that took care of him. I don't know what happened between then and now, but now he believes in God and is in the church and has a family (grown up kids). He told me, "yo conozco y conocia muchas mujeres buenas, pero supe que ella era el regalo de Dios solo para mi." That almost got me crying, but I was focused on understanding and then we started church. "I know and I knew a lot of good women, but I knew that she was God's gift just for me." 

Gomez' teaching was good, a quote for y'all is this: "si no estamos intencional, nuestras vidas serian llenas de cosas mundanas" or something similar. If we aren't intentional, our lives will be filled with mundane things. Worship was lovely, of course, and we had an end-of-month birthday party afterwards.

We've had lots of conversations this week about how to maximize our time here. How to do the CDI and H@ngout and all that well. There's lots of ideas, but no decisions yet. Hopefully tomorrow and Sunday we'll finalize some things.

Izzy went to party with Esther, and the rest of us came home. I chilled and tried to watch some Mysterious Benedict Society, but it's not available here, and my computer has figured out I'm in Costa Rica. So I watches the last of The Mandalorian and did some Duolingo and am heading to bed.

PRAYERS PORFA

-for the Ohio team's travel

-for Diego

-for H@ngout

-for our planning

-for the church here

-for Don Franklin

Trevor explaining how to get dunked in a kiddie pool

Matthew leading worship