Up Up and Away!

     We have arrived in Costa Rica!! Praise God for getting us all here safely!! 

    Today has been a day filled with travel, laughter, food, and great conversations not only as a team but with new people that we met! 😊

Here's a play-by-play of my day:

    My day started out at my sister's house in Round Rock because I had just moved out of my dorm on Friday and needed someone to drive me to the airport the next day. It was sweet to see family for a bit before I headed out. Around 11:45 I headed to the airport to meet up with the rest of my team coming from College Station. I got there a wee bit too early, but that was okay because I chilled, ate a snack, and played some games on my phone. During that period I met a couple people one of which was headed to Phoenix, Arizona and the other was headed to France! The airport is so cool, everyone is just living there life going to different parts of the world for many different reasons. I was just mesmerized by that fact! A bit later my team arrived!! Which was so exciting! We immediately got checked in and went through security. Unfortunately, I forgot that I had to take my shoes off to go through and I was wearing chacos so rip me for having to walk on airport floor for a while lol. Once that was over we were all hungry so we got food! Sam and I got pizza, while everyone else got burgers. The pizza was very very good or I was just really hungry, I will never know. During Lunch Katie, Matthew, Cassidy, and Tesla met a guy named Alex to which they were able to hear about his story and that he recently came to know Christ and now feels lead by the Lord to go minister in Lebanon!! Just hearing about the conversation afterwards was so awesome, especially how God just made a way for that conversation to happen! If you want to hear a more in depth story about that conversation make sure to check out Katie's vlog/blog. Definitely be praying for Alex! 

    

    After lunch, we all just hung out at our gate and waited to board the plane to Houston. Next to our gate was a gate called infinity gate which was kind of funny. It led to places like Wakanda (Wakanda forever! 😎), and some other places in time or space, it was very cool for kids, and for me apparently 😅. 

    We officially boarded the plane! Since we flew Southwest it was a free for all (I didn't know that) and I got the very last seat on the plane but I got a window seat which is all I wanted 😂😎. Fun fact about me in relation to plane rides that you didn't ask for lol, I actually love turbulence and take off and landing!! 

Fun airplane pic just because :)

    Anyways, we landed in Houston and had to rush to our next gate because our first flight was delayed a little bit, but thankfully our connecting flights were all good and we made it on time! Next flight was straight to San Jose, Costa Rica! This time I sat next to Katie across the isle and Tesla in front of me. This flight, I was not able to fall asleep I kind of just vibed, tried watching a movie, chatted with Katie,  and ate plane snacks. 3 hours and 17 minutes later we arrived in Costa Rica!!!!!! Got off the plane, got our bags, went through immigration, took a team picture, went through customs, and we were on our way! We were almost immediately greeted by Lagos and Ana, it was so cool to see them again! We piled up in 2 cars, the other car was driven by Gomez (the Pastor of the church and the owner of Dukes!) In the car I heard about an awesome conversation that Cassidy had on the plane with a guy named Mike who was also a sophomore in college. Cassidy said they started talking a lot about cultures and then she felt like asking the Lord to make a way for the conversation to turn into a gospel conversation. She said 12 seconds later he brought it up and asked about her testimony!! Like what??!! Such an immediate answered prayer! Praise God for making a way! She also said that he was close to believing in Christ, but wasn't quite there yet. Please be praying for him, for the Lord to provide more people in his life to harvest those seeds that were planted. 

Team picture!! Such lovely people!

    The next really cool thing was that we got to eat at Duke's for dinner!! If you didn't know, Duke's is a Texan Barbecue place. Last year, I got to help put the place together which included digging out old dirt and replacing it with new dirt in the window sills on the outside and then replant new plants. Being back there and seeing it all done and operating was so so cool! Especially remembering that we were able to help with it. The food was also really good, well I did eat chicken nuggets (basically) and fries so not an adventurous food but still really good! Duke's is doing very well, Gomez even said food critiques have rated their BBQ as an 8 out of 10! 

    After dinner, we came to the airbnb and got settled in! Cassidy and I learned they are 21 mirrors, mirrors everywhere! At one point we were deciding the bathroom situation and saw that the second bathroom is really small, like the toilet is so close to the wall that your able to rest your head against the wall. This was very funny to all of us, we probably laughed for a good 5ish minutes 😂. For size reference check out Katie's vlog! Then we all went to sleep! 

    Today, we're resting more and getting settled in. We're getting breakfast and then going to the grocery store to buy food and get our other phones set up. In the evening we're hosting Lagos and Ana for dinner, which will be fun! We'll also plan and prepare for our week ahead! 

Prayer Points:

• Alex who is going to minister in Lebanon.
• Mike, for the Lord to provide people in his life that would help guide him to Christ.
• Adequate rest for the whole team going into the week.
• Planning for the week and all the Lord has in store for us. 

Stay tuned for more blogs! 

As always (well if you're an Aggie) thanks and Gig 'Em!