I've been attacked...
Hey everyone! I know I've slacked a lot on writing blogs recently, but a lot has been going on here (obviously izzy bc you haven't blogged... geezz I know I'm sorry. lol just giving myself a hard time, not really).
One thing that happened is that last week on Wednesday I started not feeling well with digestive problems so I have been sick since then. I went to the hospital on Monday and they gave me medicine and now I'm doing somewhat better, but not fully recovered. I think I got some bacterial infection which sucks, but it's okay I've been able to still do most things with rest here and there. I'm thankful for a graceful team. I'd love if y'all would be praying for me to get better as soon as possible, thank you! :)
Okay, so you may be wondering about that title right? I know it's very direct and concerning, but don't worry I'm more than good lol (besides sickness *sad face*). Let me address the title reference before everyone actually becomes concerned about me 😬😂.
We spent the whole day in Heredia on Wednesday and it was so so good! Jose (one of the H@ngout students who teaches English now) invited us to his classes to give his students experience with learning English with native speakers (us gringos). We played games with the students, had conversations and made connections. I got put into a group with 2 girls named Karina and Keyrna (I'm definitely not sure how to spell her name) and each of them asked me some questions like what do I enjoy doing, what my favorite foods are, what is the weather like in Texas and other things like what have I been doing here for so long. That last question opened up such a good conversation, especially with Karina. At one point she asked about the church here that we are partnered with and if anyone can go to it. I said of course! Then she asked the same question again about if anyone can go to this church and pointed at all of her piercings she had. To which I still answered of course! I think there could be some hurt there from the church (big C church) for her, or something else. She said she used to go to church with her grandmother, but they just stopped going for some reason. I ended up getting her number and I'm hoping to meet up with her before I leave and also invite Ana, Esther and Katie probably so that she can get connected to the church and H@ngout hopefully! Please be praying for Karina in all of that, for her to trust God, getting connected to the church here, and just everything.
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After attending the English classes a few of us went to buy pizza for H@ngout since it was the last one for the semester until the next one starts (last H@ngout for us this summer 😢). A few others went to another store to get something for the CDI. Once we got to the university we all sat down and enjoyed the pizza! There were fewer students than normal probably because of final exams going on, it was still really good! OHH yes title reference, here it is. While we were just chillin during H@ngout time a few of us started throwing beans and leaves and other things around. At one point Lagos threw an avocado pit at me and I caught it immediately, but did not realize it was broken and dirty with avocado on it. My hand ended up becoming really dirty with avocado. I'll remember this Lagos, don't worry. I washed my hand off with laughter and a side eye lol. Then we found whole avocados and started tossing those around and at one point Esther threw one at me to catch it and then Katie threw another at me. They threw 2 at me!! the one Katie threw hit me in my face ughh sighh. I'm just playin' I was actually fine, just caught me by surprise because I was focused on the one Esther threw at me. Later, Lagos threw another avocado pit at me and it hit my leg, this time not dirty thankfully. I'll remember that one too Lagos 😒😂. In other words, I was attacked by AVOCADOS!!!
At the end of hanging out for a while some other students walked by and Lagos asked them if they wanted pizza and they all said yess so they joined us for a bit! Lagos shared about what H@ngout is and then shared about how we've been talking about how Love is the Way. They all seemed to be listening and engaging well so that's cool. Hopefully they'll join next semester! Earlier we had gotten invited to go have coffee with some of the students and their organization. This is really awesome because the students are bringing in Carlos and Ana into their lives! We joined them and then played some games one of which was Werewolf and the other was Cards Against Disney, but is in fact not appropriate at all so we tried to do the best we could to filter out the bad cards it was still really fun though. We ended up hanging out with them until like 8ish at night!! My team and I went to eat at a peruvian restaurant, I wasn't feeling the greatest so I didn't eat very much everyone else seemed to enjoy it for the most part. Then we all came home and went to bed pretty immediately since the next day was an early one for the CDI.
Did I mention our second week long team is here?! Well they are! James, Evan, and Andrew are here this week and it's been super fun having them here! I'm so thankful for this team because everything has just come together real nicely, the Lord has provided so well for this trip in so many ways and it's been cool to see that. The Lord's timing is amazing, as always, and I'm also thankful that they are here this week especially since I haven't been feeling the greatest and sometimes I just feel like I need to go home and rest, so I'm happy that they are able to step up more and see all the things the Lord has in store for them here this week. I've enjoyed watching them interact with the kids and just immediately stepping right in to everything even though not knowing Spanish is hard. They are doing extremely well though!
Here's a bit of an update on how I'm doing thus far in the trip. Honestly, I have felt sad for a lot of different reasons. There are things the Lord has brought up in my heart that I feel he wants me to work through again in order to allow him to fully heal me. I'm also sad that my time here in Costa Rica is almost ending and it's hard to stay present in the moments that I am in without thinking about having to leave. I absolutely love it here and the people, I've just felt more comfortable here than I expected to feel. Before coming on this trip, 10 weeks seemed overwhelming and like a really long time which it is, but it just hasn't felt that way. That's a sign of the Lord's provision and I'm so happy that the Lord has brought comfort for me while being here and just living life. I still have 3 more weeks here, still a while, but it doesn't feel like a long time. Pray for me to remain present in the time I have here and continue walking in the Spirit in everything I do. Also, pray that I would glorify the Lord and rejoice in the sadness that I have. For majority of my life I have seen sadness as a negative emotion, a sign of weakness, and just not good. I've come to learn that sadness does not have to be a negative emotion, the Lord gave us the ability to feel sad and I think there's beauty in it. It's been hard though to understand sadness since for most of my life I've kind of bottled it up and never allowed myself to truly feel it. I think the Lord is opening that door in my heart in order to experience true sadness which I think is good and really needed in my life. Feeling feelings is hard y'all, especially when you haven't truly learned how without trying to fix it immediately.
I have so many other things that I can share with y'all (which is another small reason why I'm sad because I haven't blogged as much as I would have liked to, it's okay though that just means I have lots of stories to share later!).
Prayer Requests:
- For our team to walk in step with the Spirit.
- For the CDI kids and their families to be blessed.
- For Karina to become connected to the church here and her relationship with the Lord.
- To be present in what the Lord has for my team and I here in these next 3 weeks.
- For learning to sit and feel the feelings.
- For good team dynamics.
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