Post-trip Musings

It's funny looking at the clock on my computer and it actually being accurate. Time zones. 

It's good to be home. I miss Costa Rica, but the million small things that remind me I'm home are nice.

Home tastes like Chick-fil-a and Dr. Pepper on the way home from the airport.

Home feels like Alexis' hand in mine.

Home sounds like unintentionally eavesdropping on all the conversations around me because I can't tune out English like Spanish.

Home feels like the frustration of mis-typed words on my flip phone.

Home feels like the bochorno heat of Texas summer.

Home feels like knowing how to get around without a map or a Matthew to guide me.

Home sounds like the throaty rumble of my bike when I go places.

Home also feels like an unrelenting awareness of a million things that need done and a million people that I want to interact with.

But, somehow, at the same time:

Home feels like crossing the Rta Ncl 2 in Paseo Colon 

Home feels like kneeling down to unlock the candados on the CDI

Home feels like running around Parque La Sabana

Home tastes like tacos de trompo from a street vendor in Monterrey

Home looks like the Cerro de la Silla behind a bunch of skyscrapers

Home feels like merging from Mopac onto 183 

And, ultimately, none of the places here are quite home. There's always something not quite fulfilled. Something to worry about, something to fear, something missing. 2 Corinthians 5:1-10.

I enjoyed this year's trip to Costa Rica. I enjoyed this year's team. I am curious and excited to see what the future of this partnership looks like, especially as I attempt to transition my role with partnerships to focus more on bigger-picture things. My hope is to successfully hand this off, while still remaining connected and involved. 

I think that leadership turnover is crucial in most organizational structures. Sometimes, a plurality of leadership can forestall the problems that come with lack of turnover, but apart from that, I think it's important. I feel like 5 years/6 trips of Costa Rica involvement have been really beautiful, and I feel like God has used me (and many, many others) to lay a foundation for something good. I also believe, however, that if I try to keep it as mine for too long, it will begin to reflect my weaknesses as well as my strengths. 

That's a key danger of keeping too tight a grip on something: it can't grow beyond you. Other influence, especially influence that is very different (while having similar foundational paradigms), is needed for something to become healthy. So, my hope is that either this next year or the one after, I will step more into an administrative/planning/advising role for the Costa Rica partnership and that I can get some other hands involved in trip leadership. We'll see. 

I'm also hoping to be involved in starting up some new partnerships in Fellowship, so we'll see. 

PRAYER PLEASE
-for healthy debrief from the Costa Rica trip for Matthew and I
-for Izzy's remaining time there
-for Wright State's remaining time there
-for any other teams that come in (i'm sure there's some)
-for the church in Costa Rica to thrive

-for future leadership and direction of the CR Partnership
-for other future partnerships in FC

Alexis' family's fishing tournament. 
Yes, I do sweat in a heart-shaped pattern on my chest
I caught a turtle, which I don't think was the goal