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