* one more flash back to Costa Rica trip in July of last year.*
I leave at 4:00 in the morning on Friday (I know...ouuuucccch). My team will meet at our church, drive to the airport, take off at 6:00 am, land in Miami a couple hours later (where we all get our last cup of Starbucks for 10 days!), and then by 1:00 we will have flown into San Jose, Costa Rica!
I am giddy with excitement. After all of our preparations and practices (3 dramas...6 puppet pieces...1 group dance...VBS lessons...workshops...) it is finally time to DO IT! I might not sleep tonight. I am THAT amped up about the whole thing.
My suitcase is (mostly) packed with all the necessary clothes and rain gear (it is rainy season and street ministry doesn't stop just because it rains ever afternoon). I have lots of snacks (chewy granola bars, pretzels, sour gummi worms, pringles, gatorade...). I have been running over my VBS lesson all day ( I have to do a Bible Lesson, with kid participation, through a translator on Jesus feeding the 5,000. In five minutes...?) I have been brushing up on my Spanish for weeks! My knees are bruised from hours of drama/dance/and puppet practice (yes, literally bruised. Very ugly knees, have I...). My team and I have done everything we can to prepare, now it is all in God's hands.
I JUST WANT TO LEAVE ALREADY!!!!! I miss the people (beautiful, beautiful people. By the way, something like 70% of the country's population is under the age of 30. So lots and lots of youth! I can't wait to see some of the people I met last year again!), I miss the food (gallo pinto-aka black beans and rice, with like every meal. amazing fish. pineapple grown within miles of where you eat it. coconut everything! and the best: COFFEE!), I miss the church we will be working at, and...well, no, I don't miss the hot and sticky humidity. There has been enough of that here. It was 105 degrees yesterday here in Connecticut, and stickystickysticky. I am absolutely thrillllled to be able to go back (and I am especially thrilled that this time one of my best friends- the wonderful MoPeeps- is going to be on the trip with me!) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Make sure while I'm gone you check up on me and my team on this site (or friend "MERGE AHEAD" on Facebook!) Click "Costa Rica 2010 Team Updates" and it will be like you are there with us! (and yup, that is me on the opening page, with my messy wind-whipped, bus window down in the rain forest for 5 hours hair. Gorgeous, I know...) Pictures, written recaps, and hopefully some video testimonies will be going up daily! Powerful stuff will be going on! We will mostly be doing church services and street ministry, but will also be involved in a Vacation Bible School, conference workshops, and children's church. We will also be visiting a Nicaraguan refugee camp on Monday, where we will be handing out a buuuuunch of clothes we gathered through a clothing drive. Don't miss out on what God is using some CT youth to do down in the nation of Costa Rica!
Couple things you could be praying for:
- The safety and health of my team and I. On planes, in buses, or out and about, be it in the city or within the rain forest...
- Unity for our team of 17 youth/leaders. We have a very diverse group as far as age, experience and skills (which is GOOD!!!). Pray that God would bring us together and that we'd flow as a body and not 17 separate parts...
- The heart's of the people we will be ministering to, that God would begin to prepare them, even now, before we get down there. There is a lot of depression and an overall feeling of hopelessness that looms over the nation. We want to see that broken off by the power of God's love.
- The team's flexibility and sensitivity to what God is doing.
- and most of all, THAT GOD WOULD BE GLORIFIED.
1 comment:
Praying for you!
It's awesome that you are able to do this for God's family :)
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