dia de GRACIAS

The above picture is a little decor at the Regional Director's, Kevin Suywn, house, where all of Young Life and Vida Joven Costa Rica staff celebrates Thanksgiving together each year. I was so excited about Thanksgiving Day in Costa Rica because I heard it was one of the most fun days of the year for YL staff! The days leading up to Thanksgiving I was really missing home, as I saw everyone on social media posting they were going "home" to be with family for the holiday. I was sad to be far from my family, boy friend and friends on this special day of the year in the states. Thankfully, Thursday was in fact one of my best days here. Full of gratitude, traditional Thanksgiving food and laughter and games with great friends.

If you didn't know.... they don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Costa Rica. (not to undermine your intelligence that this wonderful holiday is a US-only holiday, but I have gotten asked if they celebrate it here!) It was really funny as I tried to explain to my host family WHY we celebrate Thanksgiving... try telling the story of the May Flower and pilgrims and Indians in espanol! If that wasn't enough, I tried to explain to them what pumpkin pie was (one of my favorite things about this holiday!) It took me about 10 minutes to find the words and explain what it is before they understood...or at least I think they did!

Here is a re-cap of the festivities...

they hang the leaves from past years with people's thanks for decor.. what a cute and meaningful idea!

 Jessie and I made potato souffle...everyone loved it!

 Yes, we watched football! Kevin, Packers fan, getting nervous during the game..

Another cute idea- pilgrim hats! Cracker/cookie, marshmallow and jelly bean, all smothered in melted chocolate.

 singing some thanks to God :)

 playing signs!

God has been teaching me so much about how to be truly thankful and how thankfulness is the root of joy and trust in Him. How can you be uncontent if you are thankful for God in that moment? It just doesn't happen. I cannot say I have mastered this yet, but I do believe one of the biggest personal reasons God brought me here was to learn how to be "content, no matter what the circumstance is". So many days pass where I think life would be easier or I would be happier if I was home close to my family and friends. God always reminds me that I am here for a reason and there is SO much joy and purpose to be found here amidst the challenging life of doing ministry internationally.

I'm so thankful for a place I can call home, Houston, Texas, and for all the lovely people there that I love. I'm so thankful for San Jose, Costa Rica and the amazing new family of friends I have here.

I'm so thankful for Jesus Christ dying so that we may have eternal life with God, for giving me a hope that exceeds all understanding, for giving me purpose to live and for loving me no matter what I do.

Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-19

WYLD life camp

What a WYLD weekend we had at La Montana camp with 45 middle school international kids! I went into this experience not knowing what to expect because, 1-I've never been to a middle school camp, 2-I've never done camp in a foreign country (fun fact: I woke up to the sound of howler monkeys on Sunday morning!) and 3-I've never had so many roles at camp (club program character, leading music, running media, cabin leader for 5-6th grade girls) I'd have to say it was the most jam-packed weekend I may have ever had!
Friday morning as we prepared to leave the city, I focused on abiding in God as I was about to take on this huge challenge. I was reminded that fruit would only bear through the work of the Holy Spirit, nothing I could do on my own (John 15). Concluding the weekend, I could be nothing other than thankful for all that happened. God showed up big time and supplied amplitudes of energy and joy for every moment!


Re-cap of the weekend and some thanks...

Thankful for bus rides full of singing our hearts out to Beiber and every other popular song on the iPod, braiding hair and snacks.

Thankful for my cabin of 8, 6th grade chicas. Thankful for laughter and relationships built. I had never spent this much time with this age group before. They were very lovey towards me with lots of hugs and lots of questions about everything! We had 3 "cabin times" in this short weekend where we discussed further what David Morgan, the camp speaker, spoke about Jesus Christ. These girls said they knew somehow God loved them and He was good for sending Jesus to die on a cross for us. They weren't sure WHY Jesus came and the meaning of sin and the cross. We got to unpack this and discuss the meaning of the gospel. They all wrote a "letter to God" in response to what Jesus did on the cross for us. God used this time to teach these young minds about the truths of who He is and to grow their understanding of God. Two of my cabin girls went home with their first bible!

 Thankful for going all out for program and being the "Britsh Rockstar sensations that are sweeping the nations!" We rocked their SOCKS OFF. Never would I have thought I'd be a YL camp program character before this! God challenged me in this and allowed me to have a BLAST with my air guitarist, Freddy VanHalen...I mean Sydney :) I was Dingo Starr, the air drummer. We introduced and ran club games and rocked out with British accents.

Thankful for the opportunity to do something else I thought I'd never ever do...lead music at a YL camp in a microphone! David played guitar and sang and I sang with him. I've always been shy of my singing voice, and God, once again, allowed me to be confident and have a blast as I saw kids in the crowd singing and responding well to the music. Above are some of my girls singing Beiber's Baby...one of my faves to lead :)

Thankful for exotic ropes courses, facing fears and conquering them, encouraging words from 6th grade girls, trusting the ropes and the water to catch you, spanish-speaking camp staff and fluent 6th graders to translate instructions for me, Reto Selva (mud obstacle course, pictured above is guy leader Esteban making his way thru the trenches!)

The camp we went to had amazing camp games, high and low ropes, lake games and mud obstacle course. We had non-stop fun from the minute we started camp until we loaded the buses home. All of these activities incorporated team work, challenging adventures and conquering fears. 

The kids weren't the only ones who faced their fears. I have always had a fear of free falling, and one of the lake activities was to stand on top of this really tall platform and jump into the water. Some of my girls were just thrilled at the idea of jumping off with me! After the 4th time, my fear was gone. I'm so thankful for fearless middle school kids that teach me to trust and just go for it!

 SO thankful for the group of WL leaders I serve along side. They are such an awesome group consisting of high school student leaders, volunteers and YL staff. I had the privilege of having Lau, one of my closest high school students, to lead our cabin of girls with. Thankful to see God work thru Lau as she grows in maturity in her faith leading middle school students towards Christ!

Thankful for a fun road trip to Jaco, a beach close by, to relax and celebrate the weekend with Sydney, Jessie, David and Carol Morgan. Thankful for getting lost and having adventures, laughing till you cry, eating tacos on a swing, delicious ice cream and making memories.

Thank you to all my supporters for praying for this weekend! God worked mighty in these students' lives and in mine and your prayers were felt. Praise be to God for giving all things good and giving us the opportunity to take part in his work of redeeming the world and His people.

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.

2 Corinthians 2:14-15

thankful tree & trusting

I wish that I could post more than every 2 weeks, but somehow life flies by and I don't get to writing on my blog that often! It's very hard to believe next week is THANKSGIVING! This Thanksgiving will be different of course because I am not in the states. Thankfully, we have many friends here from the states that celebrate the holiday and that will host fun festivities :) Also, this is the first Thanksgiving that I will spend since I read 1000 Gifts and have been really pondering on this idea of living life in Eucharisteo.

Last week my older sister sent me a picture of a Thankful Tree that she made with her precious kiddos. What a sweet family activity this time of year!

Diana told Colin, her step-son, about what they were doing and asked what he was thankful for, he squealed in excitement, "Ava (my niece)!...God!" My 5 year old nephew teaches me of what God has been drilling home to me the past couple months: Thanks is the root to joy. When we name our thanks, it makes the gifts of God more tangible and more present in our minds. I think we all have many things to squeal out of gratitude in. What would be on your thankful tree?

Today I got to skype with the most beautiful baby in the world- my niece Ava. :) I have learned much from this little one as well. She is 1.5 years old and is in the stage where she mimics everything her older brother Colin does. She does not hesitate to trust him. We are made to TRUST in something and to mimic someone as we grow up. 

Aren't we all still that way? After exhausting all other options, we come to a point in our faith journey where we realize the true Person to mimic and trust wholly in is Jesus Christ. I have been learning here that THANKS leads us to TRUST. This is the foundation of our faith in Christ! We must come to a place of gratitude with the things in our life in order to completely trust God when the circumstances seem impossible.

Life in Costa Rica has not been a breeze, but through the challenges God has been teaching me to simply trust, beginning with gratitude. I've also seen this in the lives of my friends who are facing some extremely tough circumstances in life, such as, losing  friends and family to cancer, divorce and heart-break, seemingly impossible health and financial problems (and the list goes on right?). Even when we cannot see the good in a situation, we can be thankful for the one thing that gives us hope. Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of all things, the Savior of our souls and the hope of a life of eternity with God.

In other news...

Last weekend I went to waterfalls called Los Chorros in Grecia Alajuela (about 1.5 hours from where I live) with a group of International college students that I'm connected to thru my church. Thankful for day trips (paseos) to enjoy nature and sweet people. We swam in the chilly water and stood under the strong current of the fall, which was a blast!

Valentines from God at the waterfalls....

My Young Life team and I are heading to La Montana, a camp 2 hours outside the city, with our Middle School students this weekend for Wyld Life camp! It will be the "best weekend of our lives" with non-stop controlled chaos with crazy games and program and the Gospel presented by the speaker/a fellow Texan, David Morgan. My next post will tell of all God does! Stay tuned!

Chau!

~N

being part of God's work

Psalm 100
Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth.
Serve the Lord with gladness;
Come before Him with joyful singing.
Know that the Lord Himself is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him, bless His name.
For the Lord is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting and his faithfullness to all generations.

God has surely been at work in the ministry of Young Life at International Schools in San Jose...and I have been striving to "serve the Lord with gladness", as the above psalm declares amidst all the opportunities and challenges. Here are some highlights of the past month of ministry...

Speaking at 80's themed club about Jesus being fully God and how grand God's love is for us that He would confine Himself to a human body, all so that we may know Him and live with Him for eternity! (I have had the privilege to talk twice at YL thus far and will speak once more this semester at WL this Friday)

Dancing with our YL students at club! I love how we create an atmosphere where they can let loose and really just be themselves.

All-day soccer tournament with Vida Joven (the YL ministry for the local schools in Latin America...obviously all in espanol...) and I did NOT play in this tournament... our girls won 2nd place over-all and that would not have happened if I was on the team!! It was fun to just spend the day hanging with them while they weren't playing and to support our Vida Joven family.

Probably my favorite club thus far, Game Show Night club... Few reasons it was so great: students came that we've been praying for!; we played fun "game show"-like games that were a blast (you know, I always loved watching the Game Show Network on TV as a kid...anyone else remember that channel!!??); Sydney and I played these hilarious skit characters, Debbie and Deborah Downer. We spoke in super mono-toned voices and hosted games while inserting really "depressing"/sarcastic facts about the world. As you can see, we looked quite ridiculous and it was quite funny. This may not make sense to those of you who are not involved with Young Life-type activities, but trust me, it was funny. ;)

The craziest Wyld Life of the semester, Incognito at Multiplaza! (it's a mall here, like Houston's galleria) We have about 10 friends of YL dress up in wacky clothes and spread about the mall and the kids get in groups and search for the "incognito" folks. The kids must ask the person who they think is incognito, if they are incognito, and if they are one of our incognito folks, they respond with a code and give our students a piece to a word puzzle they must solve once they collect all the pieces. My group was the first to finish! That means they had me SPEED walking all around that mall for an hour and a half! It was funny when kids went up to people dressed in semi-different clothing (like the lady in pink zebra pants) and the people were like...incognito what?
Here Jessie (our Area Director) is giving a WL talk in the mall to 70 middle school kids! Amazing!!

Here are my fellow YL teammates and I dressed in our outfits for the "If I were not a Young Life leader" skit at our "Halloween" club. Halloween is not really celebrated here because most people associate it with demonic roots and there is no tradition of trick-or-treating and they don't really have pumpkins here...so what is Halloween without pumpkins and candy?! So we had a "costume party club" and did fun games that were similar to our Halloween traditions, like bobbing for apples and carving papayas :)

I am so very grateful for all of these experiences in ministry. We have had unique challenges as we have been trying to reach a very unique audience of students, but God has shown us how powerful and faithful He truly is amidst it all! We have faced challenges as team on how to best utilize our gifts and function best as a team, and God has revealed specific ways we can individually use our gifts to reach different groups of students. The main area God has led me to focus on is our student leaders and students interested in campaigners (our bible study). God has given me the privilege and role to disciple and equip the Christ-following international students here in our community!

A little story of how God has provided HUGE in this area of ministry...
The first 2 months of this semester we had a time once every other week for campaigners, but it was not the best time for our students and it wasn't fully what we thought it could be. We were not at peace with what we had or where it was going, so we began to pray and explore other options. A teacher at CDS (the school we have most contact with) had the idea of us doing a bible study/campaigners in his classroom on Thursdays during lunch. This teacher is a believer and a parent of one of our student leaders. We had recently been asked by the school administration to not be on campus unless there was a sports game, so we thought for sure the admin would not allow this (they are VERY strict about religious clubs not having activity on campus). Our Area Director met with the Director of the school and after some discussion and more understanding of our organization, he gave us permission to have bible study every week during lunch on Thursdays!!...what?! Last week we had our first meeting with 6 students and began studying the gospel of John. Alex and I are heading this up, and we are so thankful for this opportunity!
Also, in the past month I have grown close to these two precious high school gals who go to my church and have such strong desires to know the Lord. The three of us are meeting up once a week now for discipleship time where I will get to mentor them and walk through different areas of the Christian faith with them. I am thrilled about this because when I did Young Life in Houston, some of the most fruitful times were my early Thursday morning discipleship meetings with my two closest girls. I know God will use this time with them in more ways than I can imagine!

So thankful for your interest in what I am involved in here in San Jose, Costa Rica. Your prayers and support are SO appreciated!

~N