Hola otra vez!! It's been absolutely increíble these past couple of days, I can´t say enough how good it feels to be back in Costa Rica. I have really missed this place and am just so glad to be here. These past couple of days I have been reflecting on the ministry of this church and how much it has grown since my first time coming here. My first time was summer of 2021 and the CDI had just started up, Dukes was about to open and Hangout was on zoom so I didn´t really get to meet or know anyone. Now everything has really grown and there has been so much fruit, thank you Jesus! Seeing all the kids now that I met that first year all grown up is so sweet and so crazy. It is even amazing to see how the CDI is its own community because you can just tell that these kids are like family to each other, they are so loving and considerate towards each other. With Dukes, I remember digging out dirt and planting new plants in the windows and helping with other things to help get it opened, now there are 2 locations which is awesome! The Lord is just providing and blessing tremendously! Hangout, omg, it has grown a lot. There have been so many friendships formed through it, students that have put their faith in Jesus, and blessings upon blessings. Carlos and Ana are real powerhouses, they love so well and are filled with so much passion from the Lord to all that they do. It is super sweet to see them in their element, interacting with the students, loving on the kids, among many other things. Reflecting on the growth of this ministry makes me feel so happy and full of thankfulness to the Lord. That is my little tangent, I am just filled with a lot of joy.
Anyways, lets see what has happened since my last blog :D
Friday was a bit of a lighter day in the sense that we didn´t have any hangout or CDI plans so instead we planned to get up later and then head to El Mercado Central in San José to look for souvenirs for those a part of the one week team. It was super fun! We spent a few hours there, ate lunch and just hung out. Afterwards we stopped at a Mcdonalds for ice cream and a quick break before grabbing some Ubers and heading home. Once we got home we all kind of did our own separate things like naps. Saturday the CDI kids were going to the airport for a field trip so we were in charge of getting sandwich things for everyone, so after a few of us woke up we headed to the store and bought all we needed. Then made the sandwiches and got ready for church.
We attempted to figure out the bus system, ended up with Ubers that time though. 😆
The church service was in the CDI, which was pretty cool because chairs were set up outside and inside. Carlos Gomez stood in the center of the everyone and we formed a circle of chairs around him. I was super excited to see friends in the church and catch up with them! I maybe caught 45-50% of what Gomez said but that is probably exaggerating the amount that I actually understood pero está bien jajaja. Afterwards we went to eat at Smashburger and came home to get ready for the next day!
Matthew got to lead worship at the service and did such a great job!
Ahora, Sábado! Today, the ones going to the airport with the kids was Sheryl, Alexis, Mallory, Matthew, and I. We needed to be there at about 8:15ish to help get the kids all set for the trip. Sam, Ben, and Evan stayed back at the CDI to work on a few things like touch up paint (maybe?), clean the windows, and a few other things around there. Eventually all the kids were ready and the bus had arrived so we loaded up and headed on our way for el aeropuerto! I sat in the back of the bus with a lot of the older kids and Reychel played some music on her phone, I was happy to hear some Selena songs like Como la flor, Amor prohibido and others. It was funny to see the kids faces as they saw me singing the songs word for word, little do they know she is literally my favorite singer probably ever lol. (Esther can confirm that statement 😂😆) Alright, enough of my little Selena tangent. We had arrived at the airport and we greeted by who Sheryl and I like to call the Top Gun or Maverick. So serious, with his uniform on and his aviators on, what a character and really great guy! The kids then ate their lunch and then we went to watch some planes take off and land. The kids absolutely enjoyed getting to see that. Maverick then took us all to a grassy area because they were going to bring out one of their drug dogs named Clinton to demonstrate for the kids his ability to find the drugs. Also to answer any questions that the kids may have had. Something I did not know, was that they do use both male and females dogs for the job and I thought that was really cool because for some reason I thought only males were used. After the dog found the first hidden demonstrative sample, they hid a little bag under Carlos pants near his shoes for the dog to then search him. That was funny. The kids then got to pet one of the other dogs and then head over to another area to see the planes and helicopters. Oh man, the kids for sure enjoyed every bit of seeing the planes, helicopters, all the hangers and the mountains in the distant. Each of the kids and us even got to sit in the cockpit and take a picture! It was amazing, heck I even loved it a lot! Such a good field trip idea. I think it is also really good for showing the kids the many different job opportunities that they could have when they are older and to know that there is so much they are able to do.
Maverick on the left, and the handler for Clinton!
Carlos getting searched for drugs jajaja
All the kids getting to see the plane!
This field trip was a lot more than I was expecting because I had thought we were just going inside the airport and look at the plans from a window or something, but this was 10X better! Once we were all done, we left and headed back to the CDI. Caught up with everyone else and then headed to have a snack break at Café Momo (maybe some of you remember me or one the others talking about it last summer). Later we went to La Sabana, the very large park in San José to hangout for a bit and then actually find our bus stop to get home. While at the park each of us adventured a little bit, Sheryl and I found a what looked like a dried up lake and some manmade caves in the center of it. So what did we do, go explore it of course! It was all really cool and the view, breathtaking! Enjoy the next few pictures of our little adventure!
Estamos en la cava!
Alexis and I on top of a man-made rock thing
Some of da boyz on top of the other man-made rock thing
The little caves are to the left, a bit hard to see.
After our little adventure we went to officially find our bus and bus stop to get to our home. When we got home Sheryl and Mallory cooked dinner which was so good, we had chicken and rice in some kind of nacho-ey flavor sauce. It was very very good! While they were doing that I spent some time texting a few of the Hangout students to see if they had any plans for tomorrow because I thought it would be fun to do something with them. Since tomorrow is one of our free days I figured we could see if they wanted to do something. So tomorrow we are going to get ice cream and hangout with them maybe at a park. That should be super fun!
At the bus stop we saw this encouraging sign on how to receive Jesus, as you see that I am pointing to it 😉
Twas a very good past few days!
Personally, I have been having a hard time being able to spend quality time with the Lord. Like sitting down, really journaling or doing anything. I've read my bible some, but since I am reading it in Spanish I am going slower which there's nothing wrong with that. It's just felt hard to spend time with Him and I am not sure why. I almost feel like I forgot how to spend time with the Lord. I would appreciate prayers in that so I am able to I guess relearn how to spend time with the Lord and just really sweet time with him. :) Thank youuuuuu!
Entonces, until next time mis amigos y amigas!
Prayer Requests:
- For good conversations with the students and just overall fun time!
- Rest
- Quality time with the Lord
- CDI preparation, like devotionals, English lessons, etc.
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