Andres comes to Costa Rica

My best friend/boy friend came to visit me in Costa Rica for 2 weeks and what a GIFT it was! At the end of every day I just sat back and thought, seriously God is so generous to give us this time together! We had such a blast as we adventured Costa Rica in San Jose and Montezuma beach, visited with all my close friends and host family and hung out with students at WyldLife and the Ladies Valentine Tea Fundraiser.

here are some highlights and gifts from our time together...

 thankful for our sound tech at the Valentine's Tea event (andres!)

thankful for a crew of 7 middle school boys who came to serve the ladies! here they are learning how to pour the pitchers with Alex :)
 side note: we raised more than our goal at the Tea! we had a great turn out and it was a beautiful event! i had the privilege to help organize it with Ali. thanks to all who attended and donated!!!

thankful for Feb. 12th, Andres' 25th birthday, when we traveled to Montezuma, Costa Rica located on the peninsula. We traveled by bus including an hour long ferry ride with stunning views!

 thankful for this yummy bday dinner after a fun day playing in the sea. we even shared a piece of chocolate cake and watched the Grammys on a big screen at the restaurant!

thankful for the amazing hostel we stayed at, Luz en el Cielo, and all the interesting and fun people we met and stayed with! I recommend it to anyone going to Montezuma. Pictured above is a howler monkey outside the balcony with a baby on its back. These things are LOUD in the mornings!


thankful for this epic Valentine's Day...

 i overflow with gratitude for the sweet valentine God has gifted me with!

thankful for this fun day tour we took to the beautiful Tortuga Island (it gets its name because its supposedly shaped like a turtle ["tortuga" in spanish!], there are no turtles..). we rode a boat, snorkeled and swam with fish, had lunch on the beach with our group and hung out on the island for a couple hours. not too shabby!

 thankful to have had the opportunity to see a Saprissa soccer game in the National Stadium and spend time with my close friends in the Rica!

so thankful for all the time we got to spend with my closest friends and family from my life here. Andres also was a guest speaker at one of the best WyldLife clubs in my experience doing ministry. everyone, including him, was so blessed by this opportunity! i don't have pictures of all the places we went with all the lovely people we spent time with, but i assure you that every day was full of fun, great conversations, adventure and just normal life (Costa Rica style) stuff.

some of the many gifts i recorded....

1086. singing in the shower, loving being in Latin America

1093. fresh flowers in my room from Dina

1099. walking hand in hand down Costa Rica streets

1105. full breakfast at hostel with people from all around the world

1107. waking up to howler monkeys

1110. my first cup of straight black coffee

1115. playing in the ocean. no fear of the "red tide"

1116. sitting in silence on the shore side by side

1119. joy and thanks that brings tears

1125. a day to celebrate love

1126. sunrise on the beach with my Valentine

1132. tight grip of his hand as we stand near edge of waterfall cliff

1135. wet clothes hanging all around hostel- sign of a fun day

1140. unexpected routes and adventure

1144. sunlight hits the tree with such beauty

1145. he spots VFGs in nature

1154. best gelato in the world in Montezuma..who knew?

1159. bug nets over our bunk beds, princess style

1168. when scripture just clicks for your talk

1177. sleeping in a queen size bed with a fan

1188. a missed flight- grace and gifts abound

1200. sunlight beaming on the mountain and we are taken back by the beauty

~N

times of ministry and celebration

I sure have a lot to be thankful for in all the hustle and bustle of this past week!

Our first YL club, Young Life Thug Life, Sydney and I reappeared as the bilingual rappers, Penny and Dyme! I think I had more fun with it than the kids did :) This semester we are incorporating pop culture in our talks, like music, movies, art and sports as we share about the person of Jesus Christ and how we can be in relationship with Him. I'm thankful God is challenging our team with YL ministry and humbling us to realize we cannot do this ministry without Him. (pics and possible video of Penny and Dyme coming soon...)

Our first WL club was yet another controlled chaos, with a "Wet n Wyld" theme. We had a blast and were all soaked by the end of it. Thankful for the many conversations about life I had with middle school students.

 Water game where leaders are human tables holding cups of water on our backs...and heads!

Group of the most hilarious middle school boys I know. Never a dull moment!

After our WL club all the high school students leaders and Young Life staff piled up in a van and headed over to a student's house for our leader retreat sleepover. I'm so grateful to have had a whole day and night with these studs! We had a fun time just hangin' and laughin' and eatin', we discussed about what it means to be a servant leader in light of Jesus Christ's servitude, we went BOWLING at the ONLY public bowling ally in Costa Rica (as you can imagine they have not been bowling much so it was a treat!) and we had a planning party to plan all the remaining clubs for the semester. Any time spent with these 7 student leaders is always a highlight to my time here in CR! They each have a huge heart for their peers and middle school students to know Christ as their friend and Savoir. They love well and are SO much fun!

 my team! Ali came in 1st with over 100 points!

 good lookin bunch :) we are missing Luke here...

love me some Lau Prada!

Sunday we celebrated!...
We celebrated Jessie's 28th birthday by hiking to a nearby waterfall. It was a beautiful day and the waterfall blew me away! It blew me away because the moment I saw it, I recognized it was shaped as a heart! Could not believe it! I just had to jump in it and play around, couldn't help myself! I'm so grateful for my "boss" and friend, Jessie who is SUCH a servant to me and our team. She loves well, period!

 me and the birthday girl were the only brave souls to get in the cold water!

 lovin' it!

Sydney, Alex and I and the <3 fall!

We also celebrated American football at a Super Bowl party at Mariana's (my Venezuelan/Southern states amiga) :) It was one of the funnest nights I have had it Costa Rica thus far, hands down! We ate good meat, watched a good football game and karaoked to some epic songs (after the game of course..!) Thankful for this fun time with my friends after a long week of work together.

Alex, Sydney, Mariana and Ali- gringas excited to celebrate American this "holiday"!

 singin/rapping our hearts out!

Gifts from the week:
1064. I break down, You take the burden
1067. New, fresh mornings
1070. Laughing til your eyes water
1072. "wrestling with God brings rest in God" (from Ann Voskamp's blog)
1074. <3 waterfalls-joy and fun!
1077. pink sunset over mountain tops on the drive home
1080. texts asking for prayer on first day back at school

God has been teaching and revealing so much to me recently. 

He alone is worth living for, and He alone can make me fully satisfied!

Psalm 42
¹ As the deer pants for the water brooks,
So my soul pants for You, O God.
² My soul thirsts for God, for the living God;
When shall I come and appear before God?
³ My tears have been my food day and night,
While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
⁴ These things I remember and I pour out my soul within me.
For I used to go along with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God,
With the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival.

 ⁵ Why are you in despair, O my soul?
And why have you become disturbed within me?

Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him For the help of His presence.
⁶ O my God, my soul is in despair within me;
Therefore I remember You from the land of the Jordan
And the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.
⁷ Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls;
All Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me.
⁸ The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime;
And His song will be with me in the night,
A prayer to the God of my life.

 ⁹ I will say to God my rock, “Why have You forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
¹⁰ As a shattering of my bones, my adversaries revile me,
While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
¹¹ Why are you in despair, O my soul?
And why have you become disturbed within me?  

Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him,
The help of my countenance and my God

~N

gift of today

"How ridiculous to grasp for future gifts when today's is set before you! Receive today's gift gratefully, unwrapping it tenderly and delving into its depths. As you savor this gift, you find Me." -part of Feb. 3rd Jesus Calling devotional entry.

The above quote has rung so true in my life recently. I have found GOD when I bask in the gift He has given of today, and when I focus on the future and those things I want, yet do not have, my joy is gone and God seems far. The first couple weeks back in the Rica there were days when I was focused on "future gifts" and not thankful for what that day brought. But, there were more days where I saw God generously giving me Himself in unique, intimate ways, before YL ministry and work picked up.

I went to 2 weeks of intensive private Spanish lessons and learned the last step in Spanish grammar. I feel like I crossed a hurdle in learning Spanish. My teacher really helped me feel confident in my Spanish and I'm excited to be able to communicate with more "complex" sentences. Now all I need to do is practice, practice, practice!
Side note: God has given me more confirmation in the direction of pursing teaching Spanish in the public school system when I return to Texas. I have been taking classes online for my alternative teacher certification and I'm actually enjoying them! I dream about how I will set up my classroom and teach Spanish and execute classroom procedures. What a nerd :) There is a possibility I could get hired next fall if I pass tests and God wills it!

I also got to go on a day hike with some Vida Joven friends one random morning....

And Sydney, Saray and I spend last Sunday at the beach in Jaco! So thankful for these 2 dear friends of mine here in Costa Rica...

some of my recorded thanks gifts in the past 2 weeks....
1013. unwritten and unspoken gifts
1017. Yoga with Sydney and sore muscles
1018. Being the only gringa
1027. Costa Rican skateboarders in the park
1038. 2 buses, $10 taxi ride home and a walk uphill to hang out at a friends on a Saturday night
1042. First, fresh, white page on my new journal
1044. Crammed on a bus between 2 large ticos, "this is where I live moments"
1046. Giving apples to homeless people on my walk home, and the JOY that comes...
1053. crispy sun burnt skin in January
1060. trusting Christ amidst getting a traffic ticket
1062. rapping in my room until 10:30 p.m. practicing a skit for Thug Life Young Life club
1063. an extra FaceTime call just to say goodnight.


What is God giving you today to find Him in?


My next blog post will recap my first week of YL/WL club and campaigners of this semester and the upcoming weekend events of our student leader retreat and Super Bowl party!! Thanks for journeying with me!

~N