The Journey to Costa Rica.....

Over the last couple of months, people have been asking how this journey to Costa Rica has started. I could give you the short version, but I will give you the LONG version but in multiple blog post. I  want you to understand my heart and my passion and how God has lead me to this journey. If you missed the first post, here is the link for it.

Here is a blog post the I wrote in September of 2011. It explains my heart for Latin American people and it is one of the first blog post of my journey to moving to Costa Rica from my other blog. 


Heading back to Costa Rica.....

About 2 years ago, my church, The Well  was going through the book of Nehemiah. The message that night was talking about Holy Discontent. As I was sitting there at the table with my high school students, I began to write in my journal a prayer. It was simple. "Lord show me what my holy discontent is" Little did I know the journey that God was going to take me on. 

You see I have always had a heart for Latin American people. Maybe that is because it is my culture. I have seen how the culture treats women, how Americans treat them and how faith is a religion and not a relationship. I just didn’t know what or where I fit in, or what I was supposed to do.

At the beginning of 2010, I found out that WSM was going to take some high school students to Costa Rica. Now let me explain some things. 1. I heart mission trips! 2. I heart high school students. 3 It has been a dream of mine to take students on mission trips again. OK now that you know that, you can see how excited I was that they were going. 

 

After praying about it, I felt as though I was supposed to go. And I did :) I feel in love with Costa Rica. With the culture, the language, the people. While I was there, I got the chance to talk to the director. I explained to him what had been on my heart. He asked if I thought about CR and honestly at the time, I didn’t. I asked that he give me a year to pray about it. I had never thought about going there and I felt as though I needed more time to process that thought and be in prayer.

So I prayed about it when I got back. I wrote in my journal then put it on the shelf for a few months. I didn’t want to be consume by it, but I wanted to pray and let God do his work. In the spring of 2011, we started to plan for another trip to CR. I knew that I was supposed to go on this trip again. This time I was going to be able to co-lead the team and with that I was going to be able to go to each site. 

I started to pray again. I knew that God was doing something, but I wasn’t sure. It had been a year since I had been in the country and I wasn’t sure if I was going to have the same heart or passion for it. I told just a hand full of my closets friends about what I felt God doing in my life, in my heart. 

 

So July came and we left to CR. We (the team) were gone for 14 days. During the last week we were there, I met with the CR director and his wife. We talked about a lot of things, but mainly we talked about me possibly moving to CR and being apart of the SI staff.  I told them that I needed a few more months to pray and that I wanted to come back. 

Well it has been 2 months, since I have been back home.  I am currently in LA and by 2:25 am, my plane will leave for Costa Rica. See I have filled out my application for SI. I am currently getting ready to head back and live life there for a week, have my interview and  see what God is wanting me to do. I am nervous, excited, and scared. Nervous because I am traveling alone internationally for the first time, excited because I am going back to a place I love and get to do some mission work there. Scared that I will go there and God would have changed my heart. It is hard to believe that 2 years ago, I prayed a simple prayer and the journey he has walked me through. 

Here is what I ask from you::

     Prayer, Prayer, Prayer

     Pray that God will give me travel mercies. 

     Pray that He will continue to guide me in this process. That HIS will be done.

     Pray that God will open doors for me or close them. All I want to do is HIS will.