COSTA RICA AIRPORT

This morning we went ino Heredia and helped with the fund raiser they were doing to raise money to build a Recreation Center in that poor area. I think the Catholic Church was sponsoring the event, it was quite a big to-do, very organized with lots and lots of people volunteering. Our group went out along with a lot of other people to ask people for donations. I talked to a Costa Rican kid who was 19 and was with our group helping out today and he was telling me how the Costa Ricans don't like the Nicaraguans which 80% of the community we were fund raising for is Nicaraguan. He said if the people on the streets we were asking for donations from knew it was a fund raiser for Nicaraguans they wouldn't give. It's just interesting how no matter where you go there are persecuted minorities.
About 3 this afternoon we loaded up the van from the base and headed to the Airport. We stopped at McDonalds on the way and got that for our dinner. Now we are hanging out in the airport waiting to board our plane for our home away from home, Guatemala.  Then at 4:30 in the morning we will head out for our newest and I hope LAST GREAT ADVENTURE, a remote village in Northern Guatemala that will take 2 days to travel there. Many of the kids there suffer from a rare generic disorder that causes cancer if they go out in the sun.  This is the only known community in the world that has so many with this rare disorder which causes them to die young.
Two weeks from today, if God's plan for my life lines up with mine, I will be sitting in my house in Utah relaxing, HALLELUJAH!!!

GOOD BYE TO COSTA RICA

Thanksgiving is behind for this year but there is more adventure and excitement ahead for me before the year is over. Today we went to a migrant worker camp. The workers are Nicorauguans who pick the coffee beans. It was very intersting. They live in this really poor housing if you can even call it housing. The coffee beans don't all ripen at the same time so it takes about 3 months for them to go through 3 times to get all the ripe beans picked and then they move on.
We went in the morning and there weren't many people around because all the ones that were capable of picking including the older kids were out working. We left and came back after lunch and they were coming back to their small little shacks. We played with the kids, sang songs with them and played games, did a couple of dramas and a couple of testimonies and shared the gospel. The kids seemed to really enjoy it. Whenever we a program for the kids the parents are always right there watching and enjoying it also. It really is a blessing to go to these kinds of places and share the Love of God with people.
Tomorrow we are going to go help with a fund raiser they are doing to build a Rec Center in that area we went to last week that is a very bad, very poor, very crime ridden area that is mostly Nicorauguans     They said nobody goes into that neighborhood after 4 in the afternoon because it is just to scary.
Then we fly back to Guatemala tomorrow night. The following morning we are leaving to go to a remote village in Northern Guatemala for about 10 days.
After tomorrow I don't know when I will have Internet available but probably not until about the 10th of December when we get back to the base in Antigua. I will have to report on my travels once we get back to civilization.

BLUSTERY THANKSGIVING

Here it is Thanksgiving and it is a very blustery day in Costa Rica. It started raining last night and all through the night.  It is raining really hard and the wind is blowing now and it feels cold, not what I would expect for Thanksgiving in Costa Rica.  People here have been busy, busy preparing food for the big feast. Yesterday they baked apple, cherry, pecan, and pumpkin pies. This is suppose to be a real traditional dinner so I will soon find out if it is "just like home".
We did a Thanksgiving dinner at the base before we left for outreach thinking we would not have one while we were out so now we are having our second Thanksgiving.
Tuesday morning we made sandwiches and went out to a park in Heredia and feed homeless people. There was one kid there who was maybe 18 and he and his brother had been living on te streets for years. He was on drugs, depressed, hopeless and told one guy on our team he was planning on killing himself. So Terry, Bruce, and Reno were able to talk to him and then pray with him and he left feeling better.  In the afternoon we went to a different park and did ministry with our dramas and testimonies. It started to rain pretty food so we continued under a big gazebo in the park. It was good.
Yesterday we went out to the neighborhood we had been going door to door and giving out bibles and continued with that and then in the afternoon went to a park in San Rafael and did kids ministry in the park. That was good. Kalissa and I talked to a lady who was there who had 3 kids and a baby. She said she wished we were there every doing what we were doing, that it was very needed. We asked if we could pray with her and she asked for prayer for her husband who works about 16 hours a day providing for the family, health for her kids, and protection because she said it can be quite dangerous around there. It was a privilege to talk with and pray for her.
Besides that we continue with our almost daily meetings of intercession, worship, devotions, debrief, and whatever. I am really to the end of my patience of having someone dictate what I do 24/7. Other than that, life is good and God is Great!
Amen.

DOMINGO Y LUNES

Yesterday, Sunday we were going to do something at a church but it didn't work out for some reason so they kindly have us the day off (only because they didn't have anything else for us to do).  Today we went out to a neighborhood and went door to door and gave people a Bible if they wanted one and asked if we could pray for them. It was an interesting area in that there were some pretty nice houses but also some small, not so nice ones mixed in.
I did enjoy the day off on Sunday even though there was nothing that we could go and do but I have no problem relaxing and amusing myself for the day. What's interesting though is here we are in "Wonderful Costa Rica" which is suppose to be so beautiful and famous for Eco tourism and beautiful rain Forrest's and I don't think we will see anything to do with nature while we are here. Such is the life of a YWAMer.

SOMETHING NEW

Yesterday when I wrote I was starting to sound rather boring, doing more or less the same thing 2 days in a row but today was something new. Last night the DTS from here that had been gone since we got here came back and that was different with about 16 new and different people around. My room downstairs that I was so happy about, I has to leave.  But I am still enjoying the goodness of God in that I got to move into a smaller room that one other girl is in. I have the bottom bunk, there is a door on the room, it is on the main floor and it is right across the hall from a bathroom. I have no complaints. All the other girls in my group are up on the top floor (or attic) on triple bunks that are horrible, half of them are sleeping on mattresses on the floor, you can hardly move around up there and the bathroom is downstairs.
Terry, the director of the base that we all know from his teaching one week during our classroom phase has been gone with the group from here so he is back also which is really nice. He knows what is going on, where before he got back we for the most part were just left to figure things out on our own for three days.
So for ministry today we went down to Heredia to a "slum" area where he said 80% of the people there were Nicaraguans. They use to all live in these tin shanty's but now a lot of those are gone and the government has built some housing. Anyway as always in these places there is lots of crime and drugs but a local lady has started a ministry for kids there and has been working with them for the past 8 years. They have had teams come in the last 4 years and have built a building for the ministry. On Saturday which is today the kids come and they feed them lunch. Some of the mothers come with their kids. They have really sown the gospel and the love of Jesus to the kids and I thought it really made a difference. Some of the kids who has been going for a few years were now there helping out with the younger kids and with things that needed to be done.
We did a couple of dramas, played games, sang songs, and then did face painting with them. Then they all had lunch. It was a good day.
The place was by a mall so after we all got to go to the mall which was nice for a change. I went with Bruce, Kalissa, and Terry and got coffee and a pastry. The coffee was good.
Now we are back at the base and had a really lousy dinner but I am enjoying time alone in my room. My roommate left early this morning for the beach and won't be back until tomorrow afternoon.
We have to meet in 15 minutes for some kind meeting as usual.

ANOTHER DAY

Another day of cleaning the goat stalls, ministry in the park, and rice & beans.  Life is good.  At least I don't feel as exhausted today.  The weather has been nice, it didn't rain yesterday or today, maybe the rainy season really is coming to an end. It gets like maybe low 70's in the day but at night here it gets quite cool like down in the 50's. 

They are planning on having a big Thanksgiving dinner here for about 40 people so because of the cost they have been cutting back on the quality of the meals they are preparing so we have been having more rice and beans then they usually have. We had lots of rice and beans in San Jose,

they really seemed to have a tight food budget there. I think I have eaten more rice and beans since I have been in this DTS than I have in my life all combined together before I came and that is no exaggeration. 

We are going to be having a meeting here in a few minutes and I think I have been to more meetings since I have been in the DTS than in my whole life combined also.  It will be a blessing when I can have my own agenda again. 

ROOM WITH A VIEW

My room really doesn't have a view but it is wonderful. My own room with a regular bed, it's awesome, I really praise The Lord for this room. 

We got here Tuesday and as usual there was no time for rest. We went out Wednesday morning and learned how to so the farm chores. We took out the goats and cleaned their stalls, watered and fed the chickens, took care of the dogs and puppies, let the horses out so they could graze. It was a lot of work but lots of us to do it all. 

After lunch we wet to town, to a park to evangelize but before we for going it started to rain and continued for quite a while so we finally went under a pavilion and did a couple of dramas and testimonies. We had a captive audience under the pavilion because of the rain but the weren't the most receptive but it was good all the same. 

Today same routine, farm chores in the morning then we took a bus to town and broke up into groups and talked to people, went in businesses, asked if we could pray for them. It was pretty interesting. Then in the evenings after dinner we get together to have devotions and discuss the day along with other things some days. 

I am just getting really exhausted from constantly going and doing. They think id we have any kind of quiet restful time it is too much, but all the going is what I find to be "too much".

Tonight they said tomorrow is the same routine. They have a DTS going on here at the base but the students have been gone to another place since we have been here and they get back tomorrow. Things will be different then because there will be a whole lot more people around then. It has been nice and peaceful because there has just been our group here. 

ARRIVED

We arrived at the base in Heredia. It really wasn't that far from where we were but it is very different here, it's not in te city it's up te mountain. They have chickens, goats, horses, dogs, a garden, and I don't know what else. Tomorrow we get to do chores in the morning and help out taking care of what all they have outside.
So far it seems nice here, it is a smaller base so there are a lot less people and it is much quieter. In San Jose they had Internet but you had to buy time to use it but here it is free which is very nice. Dinner was good and a pleasant change from all the rice and beans we had been having in San Jose.
Every place we have been (except Chiriqui) they have had the girls rooms at the very top, either the top of the hill or the top of the stairs and then the restrooms are down a level which has been hard for me and it is the same here. But Praise The Lord there is a room downstairs that has a bathroom on the same level very close that is available until Friday and they asked if I would like to stay there. My answer of course was YES!  It has a double bed and not a bunk bed, it will be the first non-bunk bed I have slept in in over 4 months and a room to myself. I am really excited about it and look forward to having my own space.
I guess I will go down and enjoy my "own space" for the rest of the evening.

HEREDIA - COSTA RICA

We are leaving here, San Jose, to go to another YWAM base about an hour away in Heredia. I am looking forward to the change.
Yesterday we went to a church in this really bad, poor area that needs lots of work and that is what we did, WORK! We started cleaning it up, we had gone there a few days ago and did some work but yesterday we went in the morning and then again in the afternoon and did a lot more.
One of the ladies from YWAM explained to us yesterday it is something YWAM here has commited to taking on long term, to help them and see the community change around there. She said that it was a community of people from Nicaragua that live around there and sometimes 3 families will live in a space about 12X20.  People come here from Nicaragua looking for work because it is a poorer country. This neighborhood is suppose to have the highest rate of teen births in the entire country. There is crime, drugs, and the kids are molested and raped in high numbers.
She said there is no park for the kids to go to so they open up the yard of the church for the kids to come play. On Sunday there is only about 10 adults that come and 50 to 60 kids. There is lots of work that needs to be done.
This morning we went to a park downtown and was going to do open air evangelism but we didn't get  some of our stuff in the van before we left so we didn't have stuff to do our dramas or the microphone for the speaker so we just wandered around the park and looked for people to talk to. It was good. We came back to the base for lunch and now we are waiting for a bus that is coming to take us to Heredia.

Today It's Taco Bell

It's our day off, YEAH!  We have come to downtown San Jose and some of us are in the Taco Bell looking like we are all permanently attached to our cellular devices frantically using the free wi-fi. We do have Internet at the base which is nice but we have to buy the time we use so we take advantage of free wi-fi.
We only have an hour left until we head back to the base so we are going to go souvenir hunting.
Nothing else to report for now.

BIBLES & McDonalds

It's Saturday and after breakfast we went out to a neighborhood to give out the rest of the bibles we had. This afternoon we were going to go to a park and do Evangelism again but it looked like it was going to rain so we all went and got dropped off at kind of a shopping area where there are some fast food places, McDonalds being one and most of us have come here for the free wi-fi. What an exciting life. Never know what might change or what is going to happen next.  I do like the free wi-fi.
Tonight we are going to go to the hospital again to give coffee and cookies to people and pray for those who want prayer. That is a good ministry.
The weather here has been cool for the most part. The first few days it rained a lot, they say this is the end of the rainy season. Yesterday in downtown San Jose it got quite warm. It seems to be cooler at the base and during the night it seems to really cool off.
We leave here on Tuesday and go to a base in a place called Heredia about an hour away and it's up a mountain and they say it is even cooler there. None of us really have clothes for really cool weather.
Alicia, Olga, and I are going to wander across the street and see what we can find.

WALMART

We went to a Walmart here in San Jose yesterday afternoon because a couple of people needed to get some things. That was the sorryiest Walmart I have ever seen. This is the first time I have been to a Walmart outside of the states and it was nothing like ours. The selection was really bad, they hardly has anything, at least not like we have at home. The cost of everything here in Costa Rica is high so the prices at Walmart were also.
Last night we did go out to downtown San Jose where the prostitues hang out and took them coffee and cookies. It was very interesting but quite disturbing at the same time. Today we went downtown and did street ministry again, did some dramas and testimonies then talked to people, it was pretty good.
This afternoon then let us relax for about 4 hours, it was great. I don't know what is on the agenda for tomorrow. On the weekends they do breakfast at 8 instead of 6:30 like during the week but all they serve in cold cereal with milk and if the milk runs out before you get your turn its "oh well". Then they don't do lunch on the weekends, during breakfast you can make a peanut butter sandwich or a lunch meat and cheese sandwich that you pull out at lunch time to eat.

BUSY BUSY

You would think we were on some kind of marathon with how busy they are keeping us. Sometimes going out morning, noon, and night. We have gone to five coffee and cookies to those waiting outside  the hospital twice, done kids ministry on the streets, went out and night with coffee and cookies to the homeless in downtown San Jose, and yesterday did street evangelism passing out gospel tracts and doing some dramas in downtown San Jose. Today it is going to a school to pick up trash and play soccer with the kids, clean up at the base this afternoon and then tonight down with the prostitues.
It's all been good but busier than I like.
Off to intercession now. We still have to do 3 hours of intercession each week

Day 4 Costa Rica

Last night we took coffee and cookies and went to a hospital and gave them out to people who were waiting outside waiting to hear about their loved ones inside. We would ask them if we could pray for them so it was pretty interesting. 

Today we went to the University of Costa Rica and walked the campus and prayed and looked for people to talk to. The base here has some people that work with those involved in "human trafficking" and we talked with them today about their ministry because we are going to go out with them on Thursday night. Costa Rica has a huge market for sex trafficking. It's one of the biggest "Tourism Sex" destinations in the world. Prostitution is legal here and the government has ignored illegal sex trafficking. 

The food today has not been very good, it was just cold cereal for breakfast and lunch and dinner didn't her much better. On have it in good authority we are having pancakes for breakfast and that should be good. 

Well I am going to call it a night. 

Costa Rica

I am in Costa Rica. We got here Friday night. We left Panama on a bus at 8:30 in the morning and got here about 5:30 in the afternoon, it was one long hot day. No airconditioning in the bus. The border crossing was grueling, about 2 hours to check out of Panama and into Costa Rica. Neither side  has any kind of modern or speedy process and it was hot and humid, not my favorite 2 things.
What I have seen of Costa Rica so far is different from Guatemala or Panama and I haven't seen anything too impressive yet.
Yesterday we went out at night to a church service and did one of our dramas and a couple of testimonies. It was a pretty good service. This morning after breakfast we took a public bus downtown to a church we went to.  It was ok, young people with gaged ears and tattoos and loud music but they were praising God. Now we have walked over to MacDonalds and that is exciting for all. It was going to be cold sandwiches at the base so it is nice to get something different.
It has rained a lot since we have been here and it will start earlier in the day than other places we have been which puts a damper on the things we can do to go out and shared the gospel.
The base is interesting and not too bad, I don't like it as well as Chiriqui but it is better than Panama City. It's a big old wharehouse building that use to be a coffee processing plant.

LAST DAY IN PANAMA

We have been really busy the last couple of days and today is our last day here in Panama. We leave at 6:30 in the morning to go and catch a bus for Costa Rica so it's packing again tonight and off to new places tomorrow.
Yesterday we went in the morning to a neighborhood to go house to house and give people a bible if they wanted and to pray for them. It went well and then we came back for lunch and then left to for another town to a small church we put on the service. First we went out door to door and invited people to the service and that was interesting. At one house the lady had her sin climb up a coconut tree and cut us down coconuts then wack the top off with a machete so we could sip out coconut water. That was something I had never done.
We were there from about 2:30 until 9:00 last night so it was a pretty exhausting day.  Today it was off to a nursing home this morning and then to a place where kids go after school until there parent can pick them up. We drove to David to do that stuff today and for back about 5:30.
Hopefully we will have Internet at our next stop.

NGOBE CAMPS

Today we drove back to Boquete where we had been a couple of days ago. It so so beautiful there. We drove up in the mountains where they grow coffee and they have these places where the owners of the coffee farms will build these small one level type apartment houses and have the workers live there. Most of the workers are the indigenous Ngobe so we stopped at three different areas and asked if it was ok if we shared with them and they all said yes.
We would all get out, get our sound system out and the kids would come and gather and the moms and dads would stand in there doorways and we would sing kid songs, do some of our dramas, play games with the kids and tell about Jesus.
Every stop was different as far as the number of kids but always the adults would stop what they were doing and watch and listen to us.
Kalissa had said the other day she wanted us to share the bible and gospel message in a more direct way as we are sharing because its possible that many of these people have never heard about Jesus. I wanted to share the gospel so at one of the stops I did tell about God our creator and sun and Jesus and Emma translated for me. I really liked doing it and am thankful to have had the opportunity.

QUIET DAY

Today was a "day off" which was great but what made it even better is 5 of the noisiest kids left early this morning to go to the ocean. That made it very tranquil and peaceful. Then after lunch everyone else except Kalissa and I went to a river. I enjoyed the layed back day, I read, looked at stuff on the Internet, listened to some Spanish podcasts and took a nap.
Everyone is back now and we just had dinner. The kids that went to the beach seriously had one girl almost drown out in the ocean today. There were huge waves and she was dumb and just went way out but by the grace of God she got rescued.
We are going to have a movie night and watch The End of the Spear.  Tomorrow will be a new day of going and doing.

Sunday

Today being Sunday we drove to the City of David which is the largest city in this area and went to church.  We did one of our dramas at the end of the service and it's one that I am in so that was fun.  Today is Panama's Independence Day so there were parades and festivities going on everywhere. After church there was a group of about 25 of us and we went to a store that is like a Costco that they have here in Central America called PriceSmart and ordered pizzas and sat and ate in the snack bar area. It was pretty good. 

After we went to the Central Park and walked around and asked people if we could pray for them or if they knew Jesus. It was pretty interesting. 

We are back now

And have had dinner here at the base. Tomorrow is going to be a free day which will be awesome to have some down time. Some are going to go to the beach but you have to take a couple of different buses to get there and it takes about three hours so I am not going to partake. 

Boquete

This morning we had brunch at 10, is was good and then a little quiet time before leaving at 11:45 to go to a town called Boquete.  It is a beautiful place located in a valley in the midst of some huge mountains all around. It is the are where most of the coffee in Panama is grown.  We went to a church that was having a mission conference and we participated by doing a couple of our dramas, and some of us sharing about missions. I was one that had to get up and talk and it wasn't too bad.
After we went for a drive way up the mountain side and say some of the coffee they grow here. The mountains here are huge and really beautiful. It was a nice afternoon.
Tomorrow it is off to church and then out to do some ministry. I will report on that later tomorrow I hope.

YES IT WAS

Yes, that was quite an experience. We left here Wednesday on a bus they rented along with a driver and we drove to a City called San Felix, that was about an hour and forty five minute drive. There they rented a pickup truck and van with drivers to take us up the mountain about an hour drive to a Ngobe village we were going to. There were 18 of us in the group and we had to pack in food and everything we needed.
The road winds with hairpin curves, goes up and down, is misty, foggy, rain cloud shrouded 3/4 of the way. Pretty scary to me. The road used to be gravel and only 4-wheel drive vehicles could make it up part of the way. In the last year the government has come in and paved it and while we were there the government is bringing in power.
We went up the mountains to the end of the road, there is a school there and then up the mountain side a ways is where the pastor and his family lives and that is where we stayed. We had to carry everything up the mountain and sleep on dirt floors in a small wood cabin structure. The outhouse was way far away.
The day we got there it poured down rain like there was no tomorrow. It rained all three days but not as much as that first day. Today when we had to walk down to leave it was raining. Everywhere was a slick muddy mess. I slipped and almost fell a few times but managed to stay upright.
It was a beautiful place and certainly an interesting experience. Yesterday we went on a walk to visit some families where some of the family members were believers. The walk was for me a difficult mountain hike and it was wet and muddy but seeing the places and people was unique and moving. These people live very remotely and with very little.
Last night they had a church service where we were staying. It started at 7 last night and I was surprised people actually come out in the dark and rain with just a flashlight and walk up the mountain to the service. I would be challenged to get in my car and drive to a Thursday night service where there would be electricity and comfortable chairs but here these people had none of those things and they came. Some of the women and children come at the risk of making their husbands angry with them because they are not believers and don't like them to go.
Today we went to the school and did our presentation and that was good.  The drivers with the truck and van showed up to get us when they were suppose to and when we got down the mountain to San Felix the bus was waiting for us so we made it back safe for dinner at the base.
The bottom line is I have survived another wild experience.