I'm headed to Costa Rica again!! But are we surprised? :D

    Hiii everyone! I am so excited to be heading back to Costa Rica tomorrow! My team and I have been so pumped the last few months leading up to the trip that we can't believe the day has come to leave! I am beyond thankful to say that this summer I have the opportunity to be in Costa Rica for 7 weeks, so I figured I would continue on with my blog as best as I can throughout the summer. 

    I am writing this initial blog post to introduce the 2023 team and to write down how I am feeling going into the trip like where I am at spiritually, what I am looking forward to, along with anything else. 

From left to right: Ben, Matthew, Rachel, Mallory, Alexis, Sam, Me, Sheryl, James, and Evan

    This team is absolutely incredible! It has been amazing getting to know each person on this team and really cool to see how God pulled together our different strengths to form this team. I was in awe the first time that we were all together because it instantly felt as though we were a team with joking around, the vulnerability we had with each other, and just the overall love for what we get to be a part of. I think 7 of us on the team have already been to Costa Rica in past trips with our church and then for the others it will be their first time! Overall, I feel really good and excited to see what the Lord does through this team. One thing that has been a theme amongst the team that I've noticed throughout our different trainings is that most of us feel a sense of distance from the Lord in our personal lives. It has felt like, at least for me, very hard to feel the Lord's presence in my life, to hear from him, and to spend good quality time with him. That's been one thing that as a team we have been praying for a lot, that each of our individual relationships with Lord would strengthen and that we would become more aware of his presence in our lives. As you think about it would you pray for us too in that? Also, another prayer request is specifically for Rachel because she is not able to receive her passport in time to fly down with us tomorrow. Pray that her passport would come really soon so that she would be able to go to Costa Rica and join us there! 

Now, here's where I'm at personally: 

    I feel very blessed to say that this will be my 4th time going to Costa Rica and that's crazy to think about because just 2 years ago I went for a week right after finishing my freshmen year of college. Being a part of this church, the church there and the teams I have been a part of has changed my life in so many powerful ways. I cannot begin to describe the many powerful impact that Costa Rica has brought upon my life, we would be here for a really long time! There's just so many things about Costa Rica that makes my heart so so full of happiness and love. Anyways, this past January many of you may or may not know that I got to spend 2 weeks in Costa Rica to volunteer at Camp Penuel as part of the staff and also get to jump in and help Ana and Carlos for a week. Last summer, taking the CDI kids to the camp was so wonderful, especially getting to understand more of their lives on a deeper individual level that I wasn't able to see on a normal basis at the CDI. During my experience there last summer I was invited by some of the staff members, as well as, Paul the owner of the camp to return and serve as part of the staff. So I ended up flying to Costa Rica by myself and got to be a part of the camp. Which was an experience to remember. Going back in January felt very rewarding to me because up until that point I had been learning Spanish for about 3ish months so it was awesome to see how much I was able to communicate with others and how much I could translate too. So, now having been learning Spanish for 7ish months I am looking forward to seeing how much more I have improved and getting to practice. During the second week that I was there in January I got to spend lots of time helping Ana prepare meals for the team they had there from Iowa that was doing a VBS for the CDI kids. When I was at the VBS I got to jump in and help wherever was needed which was really fun. I also was introduced to 2 H@ngout students that I didn't meet the previous summer named Daniel and Monse along with Ada who I met last summer! Which was such a joy to get to spend time with them and get to know them! I am very excited to see them along with many other H@ngout students! 

    Last summer was definitely good for building relationships and getting to make connections with people. This summer feels like there will be more opportunity with those relationships to have deeper conversations and share more about Jesus! Earlier I mentioned that most of the team has been feeling distant from the Lord including me. For me it has felt like I haven't been able to hear from the Lord or be able to spend quality time with him and it's felt that way since the end of last summer. I think because of that I have been discouraged to put more effort into my relationship with him and I know it's not conditional but sometimes it definitely felt like it. However, I realized that since the beginning of this school year I have felt emotionally drained a lot of the time. So since beginning to learn Spanish I started spending time with the Lord that way meaning I have started praying a little bit in Spanish, I now own a Spanish/English bible. The past few months spending time with the Lord has been me doing things that bring me joy rather than things that make me feel more emotionally drained which has looked like listening to worship music in Spanish, which is fun because as I am trying to translate I get to sit on the words longer rather than skimming by them, I also get to pray in Spanish and I get to read the bible in Spanish. I brought something that brings me a lot of joy into spending time with the Lord because it makes me feel less overwhelmed. A lot of my journey of knowing the Lord these past few years has been figuring out what my relationship with Him looks like for me rather than thinking about what it should look like based on what others do. This has been a great shift in my view that emphasizes to me that our relationship is very unique and that it can look however we want it to. I share all of this to explain that for a while now I have described my relationship with the Lord as neutral and that I have desired to have breakthrough and for the Lord to reignite the fire in my heart for him. I have been praying for this a lot lately and am looking forward to see what He does this summer through that or even later on in the future after the trip. 

    That was a lot and was primarily me writing my thoughts as they came, sorry if it was all over the place lol 

That's all I got for now! My goal is to at least post a blog 2-3 times a week so check back throughout the week for updates! 

Prayer Requests: 

• Spiritual breakthrough for the team
• Safe travels 
• Rachel's passport to come in soon!
• For our hearts and those that we encounter to be ready and open for deep connections and conversations
• For the CDI kids
• For the language barrier