I cant believe that it is September already. It feels like we just said good-bye to our last outreach a couple a weeks ago, not over a month ago. But on the other hand I feel like I took my vacation months ago, not 2 weeks ago. But none the less, we are in September and I am already looking at flight prices for December.
Summertime Madness...
Summer time. I loved summer time when I was in Fresno. Going to the coast, visiting friends in the Bay area, Summer camp with my WSM students, Thursday Nights at The Park and the list could go on and on. Now, I have a love/hate relationship with summer.
Summer is the busiest season here for us in Costa Rica. From May - August we have teams coming every two weeks. That means, every two weeks we say good-bye to our new BFF's and welcome a new group who will then become our new BFF's. This goes on for at least 12 weeks. It means long days, working on weekends and translating a lot. BUT it also means that for 12 weeks over 100 people will be here, working with us. That means that we have extra hands to help the students in our Tutoring Center, kids in the Social Service site get some extra love, the teenagers at the Woodshop get extra help on making items and the list goes on and on. It means that over 100 people will be here seeing and doing what God has called us to do everyday, which is LOVE.
And he answered, "You shall love the Lord
your God with all your heart, and with
all your soul, and with all your strength, and with
all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.
Luke 10:27
You see my love/hate relationship come because I LOVE having teams here. I love seeing how God changes peoples lives while the team is here. How team members come here one way and leave differently. There lives have been change and we didnt do any of it, GOD DID! My hate with it is because I go home exhausted. I am exhausted in every area of life by the time we half way through the season. And my introvert is not happy! But my LOVE for it out weights my exhaustion.
With every good thing, it must come to a end.
Summertime Sadness...
You see when August comes, schools, colleges and life starts back in the states. That means we dont have any outreaches, no teams coming to help, no semester students (at least for this fall), just our little SICR family. And as crazy as summers can get, I miss having teams here. I miss seeing people from my church, building community with each team (it is so hard to build community in this country. That is another blog post) and just being able to share apart of my heart with them. So for a few weeks, I am sad and miss teams and I am in a funk. (thank the Lord that is over now)
Fall Transitions....
Now that we are in full swing of our rainy season (There are only two season here: Rainy season and Dry season) with no semester students, it just seems like the perfect time to move. Well actually it is never a good time to move but that is what Kenzie and I are doing. In June, Kenzie talked to me about how she felt God calling her to move to Las Fuentes (where her site is at) and asked if I would take sometime to pray about joining her there. After praying, I didnt have a peace about it. Right now I live 10 min from the office where I spend a lot of my time at and I live where all the host families are at. For me, Desamparados is my place of ministry. So I am going to move in with 2 friends/coworkers that live down the street. I am excited about this change but sad because I have LOVED living with Kenzie BUT I am excited for when we have our weekly sleepovers so we can catch up on life!
Prayer Request...
1. Moving.. We move out this next weekend (Sept 13). For the process and transition from going to 1 roommate to 2.
2.Flight to Fresno.. Pray that I found a great price for a ticket back to Fresno for Christmas. My parents are wanting to pay for it, but because of the drought, my dad's hours have been cut. I dont want my ticket to be a financial burden on them, so I am going to help out with the ticket. Finding ticket for a great price would be a huge blessing!
3. Community... I have started to get involve with my home church here in Costa Rica. I am excited for the different opportunities that God has opened up for me. I am also excited because I have longed for a community outside of SICR (my SICR family is great) and I am hoping that this will help create community for me.
Thanks for reading and I promise to do a better job of blogging. I am trying to figure out a balance of writing about life, work, living in a different country, God and so many other things. Hopefully soon I will be able to master it.
Till next time!
Rose
