Newsletter - September 2010

September 2010

Becoming Tica

I think I’m starting to fit in here.  Its 70 degrees outside and I find myself agreeing with host mom.  Hace mucho frio!  Its very cold.  I may even put real shoes on to go to school tomorrow instead of flip flops!  One because its cold, two because I’m tired of being wet all the time.

I’ve been sick.  Boo.  I hate having fevers because I get super wimpy, a little teary for no particular reason, and I can never seem to get comfortable or sleep well.  And then there’s the sore throat.  I haven’t had a real sore throat in maybe 10 years, I don’t like not being able to swallow.  And I hate that applesauce is the only thing that sounded good to me and they don’t sell it here.  I definitely lacked the energy to make my own, so I hate oatmeal and mashed potatoes instead.  But enough complaining, today is better.  My fever is gone and I can swallow enough to eat an egg for breakfast :)  (Which my host mom translated to 2 eggs and 2 pieces of toast, which is a little much when you’ve been eating nothing but oatmeal and potatoes for 3 days, but whatever)  I stayed home from school today to try avoid sending this home with all the families with kids – you’re welcome.  But I do think I’ll go tomorrow.

In the midst of my being sick I found a movie on TV last night that I love.  “I Am Sam”  I cannot even explain why I love this movie so much.  But it catches my heart every time.  Yes, I was crying in my room by myself and I can’t even blame it on the fever.  I just love the way that He loves his little girl as much he possibly can and she loves him too.  I love the scenes where she is walking to his house at night in the dark and he keeps bringing her home.  Finally her foster family brings her over to stay with him.  I love it.  If you haven’t watched this movie, you should.  The end :)

Lengua

You may think I’m going to write about my ability to converse in my new tongue fluently, but surprisingly, I’m going to introduce you to a literal “tongue”.

As I was at Hipermas today with my host family, we made our way to the meat section.  “Umm… gross” was my first reaction to seeing something that looked exactly like this cow tongue in the meat case.  Whoops, spoke too soon, that’s exactly what we’re there to buy.  “Really???”  So, clearly, I’ve already made my reaction to this known and then I find out its what we’re having for supper.  Great.  I am repeatedly reassured that I’m going to love it, it really is delicious, and I’m going to have to taste it.  Well, I guess my host mom didn’t really know if I’d love it b/c she brought me a sandwich at 5:00 :)

However, I’m brave.  And it did actually smell really good!  So when it was ready, I went out to have some while they looked on waiting to see my reaction.  To be completely honest, it was delicious.  She cooked it up with tomato sauce, spices, onion, and peppers and then served it with delicious mashed potatoes. Bon appétit!

“A Day”

Imagine if you will the creepiest scratchy, deep ,latino-accented voice saying “I like American women…” as you walk pass the bus stop.

This was the unfortunate jolt back to reality that Melissa and I had i the midst of pretending we were back in the suburbs of the US.

Turns out we both just had “a day” today.  To be honest, it was the kind of day where I gladly would have jumped on a plane and headed back to NC in a second.  Nothing in particular happened… frustrating classes, not getting the stuff done that I wanted to in an afternoon, loud street noise, not having a car… the kind of stuff that happens everyday, but today every part of it bothered me.

Our solution…
Step 1: Dinner at an awesome restaurant in Curridabat called Trio.  It was loud, but playing American radio type music, so I was okay with it.  And I ate buffalo wings and mozzarella.  That’s right, that was my whole dinner.  It was almost the same as home… different tastes and I’ve never had wings served with tarter sauce before, but it was close enough :)
Step 2: TCBY.  Enough said.
Step 3: Walked by the creepy guy and were reminded that we were in Costa Rica.
Step 4: Auto Marcado.  I’m obsessed.  Not really, just tonight b/c I wanted to buy everything with a US brand name.  Its just a supermarket, but they have lots of American products that I haven’t seen here yet.  So it felt familiar.  I almost left with easy mac, not because I love easy mac, just b/c everything on the box was written in English.

It was just that kind of day.  But really my first day I’ve really had like that here.  Which is feel like is acceptable given its been almost 4 months.  I will allow myself an American splurge :)

Chickfila, oh how I love you

Ranking the things that I miss from the states, I think they would go in this order…

1. People… friends and family.
2. Food… specifically chick-fil-a, cheese at almost every meal, pad see ew (thai food), butter chicken (indian food), NC BBQ, my mom’s hamburgers, outback steakhouse, and toaster strudels.  There’s more, but I’ll settle for those :)
3. My car and the freedom that comes with being able to take yourself where you want to go at exactly the time you want to go there

So, why even bring it up?  Well today my dear friend Cassie sent me an email.  If I didn’t know we were best friends before, I do now!  Chickfila is premiering spicy chicken nuggets in Augusta and she had exhausted her email addresses for getting free coupons and needed me to sign up to get her more free food :)  Understanding the life of being a poor student and also doing ministry, I was happy to oblige.  However, it did remind me how much I miss Chickfila…

peach milkshakes, chicken biscuits, the new spicy chicken sandwich, good service, the best cups b/c they’re styrofoam and not paper, waffle fries, Chickfila sauce, free food for a year, the cow calendar… need I go on?

If you are near a Chickfila, PLEASE take this opportunity to consider yourself fortunate and go eat some on my behalf.

(and now I’m hungry…)

Estudio Biblico

Task for this evening…
Convey the content of an adult Bible study about the glory of God and the greatness of his name using a four year old’s vocabulary.

This, my friends, is quite a challenge.  But I can say that tonight I led my first Bible study in Spanish to a room full of Spanish language students and a Tico family who didn’t look at me like I was an idiot while I was talking.  And by led, I mean read the Bible study that I wrote :)  But either way, I consider that a success.  Thanks to my very limited and simple vocabulary, one of the new students even told me that she understood what I was saying!  YAY!  I pray that the Lord really was glorified.  I’m thankful that the Word of God speaks for itself… we read a lot of verses :)

It was really good for me to do this and to realize that I am learning a lot and the Lord is giving me the vocabulary that I need to be able to talk about Him.  Its so encouraging for me to remember the purpose for which I am learning Spanish.  Its not just to be able to use pronouns correctly, although sometimes that takes all my concentration.  But I am learning exactly for the purpose that we talked about tonight in Bible study…

“Por Amor de Su Nombre” – For the Love of HIS name!

family

Sometimes you are born into family and sometimes extra family is given by the Lord’s great goodness.  I have both.  And I could not be more thankful.

This weekend I was in Panama with my Uncle Joe and his family.  He has been a part of my family for as long as I can remember.  I taught him how to change my brothers’ diapers when I was just a kid and he brought me a hammock from Panama, tickled me mercilessly, and spent a lot of time just investing his life into us.  This weekend I got a chance to be part of his family and spend time with his kids.  I love how the Lord does that.  What a blessing!

At one point Ana Raquel, seven years old, asked me “Is my dad part of your family?”.  “Of course he is, Ana Raquel, and so are you.”  I loved sitting at the table with she and her mom at dinner on Sunday night.  Ana Raquel was sad that I was leaving and her mom just kept explaining that we will see each other again, it may be years, but we’re family and we will see each other.  And even when we don’t see each other, we still love each other, because we are family.  I’m not sure Ana Raquel quite understood, but I love the picture that painted of the merging of two different families… we’ve adopted each other.  And what a picture of how the Lord adopts us into his family and calls us His own children… allowing us to be brothers and sisters.

I have a lot of aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers, cousins, second moms and dads… some blood related and some not… and the family is constantly growing.  I have friends who have joined our family, people get married, and its impossible to keep up with everyone.  But it doesn’t matter because the Lord has done a miracle in the hearts and lives of these people to love one another, to sacrifice for each other, to provide for each other, to take care of each other, even when we don’t see each other often.  And when someone has a need, there is always someone to help: to bring food, to lend a car, to let you stay at their house in Panama… This is a picture of the body of Christ and I’m so thankful to be a part of it.

I’m so thankful for this legacy of family that my parents have passed on to me.  Truthfully I think its a miracle that the Lord has done and is doing whenever he brings people together to love selflessly.  Its very much against our natural selfish inclinations to love people for what we can get from them.  And not that we ever love perfectly this side of heaven.  But allowing the Lord to extend your family, living with arms wide open, welcoming people into your life, is so worth it.

Día de la Independencia

How do you know its Independence day in Costa Rica?

1. You sing this song so many times that you can’t get it out of your head… well… maybe its just me, but I have gone to sleep and woken up with this song this week!
“Los hijos del pueblo levanten la frente al sol refulgente de la libertad. Sepamos ser libres no siervos menguados, derechos sagrados la Patria nos da.”

2. You don’t have class… hooray!

3. You see lots of red, white, and blue… sound familiar?

4. You go to a parade

5. You make it feel like a holiday with your family in the US by getting together with friends and playing wildlife adventure and dutch blitz :)

Today was really fun.  The festivities started yesterday with a school-wide convocation to sing the national hymns, learn a little bit about history and culture, and proudly sport the national colors.  Then last night there was a lantern parade for the school kids.  They made their own lanterns, had a competition, and paraded around the block.  This is typical for all the schools here.  Then today we took a big group to the parade in San Pedro!  I’m feeling very “tica” after all the celebrating.

Here are some fun pictures from today.  Our group is the Hollidays (another MTW family), Chad and Nikki (also moving to Honduras), Melissa, Abby, Kate, Katie, and Michelle.

 

  

This last one wins best picture of the day :)  I love it!

Christmas is coming…

the geese are getting fat.  Please put a penny in the old man’s hat.  If you haven’t got a penny, a hay penny will do.  If you haven’t got a hay penny, then God bless you!

Thanks nan for teaching me that song.

But no, really, I was at the mall tonight and Christmas has exploded here in Costa Rica.  Christmas trees and decorations are taking over Universal (a store) and they were playing American Christmas music.

Tomorrow is their big independence day holiday (more to come on that soon), but I guess it still gets outshined by Christmas.  Ridiculous.

Food Favorites

Tonight I’m housesitting and I just went the feria and grocery store and bought stuff for poppyseed chicken casserole (minus the poppyseeds and you make your own creamy soup from a powder mix:) ), mozzarella tomato salad, and guacamole.  And I am SO excited about it!!!

Peru to China

Sorry I’m in the habit of updating my blog two posts at a time, but sometimes things need their own post b/c the topics are super different.  I’m the writer so I can do what I want… right?  I vote yes :)

Anyway, back to the story.  So, Ide is a friend who I always visit at the market (p.s. I don’t actually know how to spell her name, whoops!).  I love Ide for so many reasons: she is super friendly, she is really patient with my terrible Spanish, she always thinks my name is Sonya, and she laughs all the time.  I think we finally cleared up the name thing, and just to clarify, generally she is laughing at me.  She also doesn’t forget anything and reminds me of my past Spanish blunders everytime we talk.  They get funnier everytime because she just keeps cracking up out them. 

For instance, one time I told her I was going to move to Honduras using the verb mover.  Apparently you don’t use that for people, who knew?  Clearly not me.  So she laughed lots, corrected me, and now everytime she sees me she says… you’re going to move (mover) to Honduras right?  And then laughs some more.

Yesterday I went to visit Ide and found out through conversation that she is from Peru.  Cool.  Here is the rest of the conversation as I heard it…
Me: I really love Peruvian food and I hadn’t had it until I came to Costa Rica
Ide: What do you like?
Me: I don’t remember the name, but I ate at the restaurant Macho Pichu
Ide: That restaurant is not Peruvian, its Chinese
Me: ¿Qué?
Ide: It used to be Peruvian, now its Chinese
Me: When?  This week?  Because I just ate there and I know it was not Chinese food.
Ide: hahahahahahahaha…

Turns out the OWNER used to be Peruvian and now is Chinese, so the food isn’t as good.  Seems I missed a crucial word.  Sometimes you just have to laugh. :)

Spanish, Spanish, Spanish

Tonight my brain is on overload!  Abby and Melissa introduced me tonight to some of their Tico friends.  We ended up joining them for a Bible study in San Pedro with university students.  We met a bunch of people and spoke a bunch of Spanish.  Thank goodness for Melissa who can help me translate when I get in a pinch.  But the girl who led the study spoke slowly for us and I actually understood most of it.  They were all SO patient and so kind to have us there.  I was just really blessed by how welcoming they were to have new people in their group.  And we were not the only new ones.  I got the impression they have new people every week.  And they really went out of their way to make everyone feel welcome.  I would love to go back and to just hang out with them at other times, I think it will happen!

Then I got home and talked with the neighbor about her itouch and other technology… lots of words I do not know in Spanish.  But I was excited that I could actually participate in conversation without having to have them repeat every word.

So, two things tonight.  1. I’m learning, hooray! 2.My brain hurts :)

Ministry

This morning the Lord woke me up early before my alarm clock and thoughts and prayers of ministry were filling me head.  I really enjoy these mornings of getting to just be and process with the Lord before ever getting out of bed.  This morning I was praying about ministry… here in Costa Rica and soon in Honduras. 

Ministry doesn’t scare me necessarily, but it is overwhelming, especially thinking towards Honduras.  There are so many things to be done, so many options that I have to choose from for where to get involved.  So many people who I want to tell about the Lord… where do I start?  Where do I feel gifted and called?

I was praying for a church plant at home as they launch their church this weekend and realizing the Lord has really grown my love for church planting as well.  I’m excited to get to be a part of something like that.  But it has to start with the Lord changing hearts and lives one person at a time.

So I read Isaiah 43:12 which says “You are my witnesses, declares the Lord, that I am God”.  The word witness stuck out to me today for what it means.  I have witnessed the goodness of God, His grace, His mercy, His power.  I have witnessed that He is God.  And that’s ministry… to tell people what I have witnessed of the Lord and to point back to who He is.  Today I am encouraged by that and praying for opportunities to do it.

ar/ir/er

Oh verbs.  This week I learned 182 new ones.  Yesterday I tried writing to a friend without verbs because I was frustrated with having to learn them and decided to see what it would be like to speak without them.  It goes something like this…

It possible for speech without a verb.  But it difficult comprehension what another person intentions.  Verbs important for good communication.  It important for them in mind.

As you can see… I really needed to get on the learning of verbs.  They make communication to much easier.

Last night I accidentally said repetar (which means nothing to my knowledge) instead of repetir.  Oh the little difference that one little letter makes.  Guess I better keep studying…

Just good

2 Peter 1:3-8
His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ

I’m not sure exactly why… but these verses jumped out at me today.  I am just so encouraged by them.  Because of the goodness and glory of God, we have promises from Him that are good and trustworthy.  And if I rely on those promises and trust in God’s character, I can escape the corruption in the world.  Which is so encouraging because today I’m a little homesick for heaven.  I cannot wait for the day that holiness comes easily and godliness isn’t a fight.  I can’t wait to just be able to rest in the Lord and enjoy His presence and see Him face-to-face.

But until then there are such good things available to us.  God’s promises, first and foremost.  But then also faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, kindness, and love.  Most of these are not things that I possess in “increasing measure” but the point is that the Lord is growing me up in them poco y poco, as we say.  And HE has promised to grow me in such a way as to keep me from being ineffective and unproductive.  Today I feel ineffective and unproductive.  So I’m really thankful for that promise!

To be dangerous…

My brother Xan posted this quote on his blog recently and I remembered how much I love it…

"We are so utterly ordinary, so commonplace, while we profess to know a Power the Twentieth Century does not reckon with. But we are "harmless," and therefore unharmed. We are spiritual pacifists, non-militants, conscientious objectors in this battle-to-the-death with principalities and powers in high places. Meekness must be had for contact with men, but brass, outspoken boldness is required to take part in the comradeship of the Cross. We are "sideliners" -- coaching and criticizing the real wrestlers while content to sit by and leave the enemies of God unchallenged. The world cannot hate us, we are too much like its own. Oh that God would make us dangerous!"
-Jim Elliot (1948)

I know that I have lived too often on the sidelines, content to live as the world lives falling to its temptations and not looking any different.  God IS worthy of a life set apart from the world where we live in this place and yet totally different than the people around us.  Sometimes I think I forget how important the Lord is and how much He hates sin.  It is tempting to make sin “not a big deal” when it is the biggest deal because it separates us from the Lord and is an insult to His glory.  Oh that God would make me dangerous.  I pray that I would fight for holiness.  And in that, that God would make me radical for the Gospel.  The Gospel brings about change and we must DO something.  I don’t know exactly what that means for me today or exactly what that looks like… but I pray that God will show me.

Its a small world after all…

This song is pretty much my only memory from going to Disney world when I was 4 years old.  But, also, its true.

This morning in church I met a guy from La Ceiba, Honduras!  Isn’t that great?  Who knows what will come of it, but I would love to hear from him about culture and life there. 

Also… having nothing to do with it being a small world, but I just got wireless internet at my host family’s house and I could not be more excited! :)

leaving = flying

Today at the market I was trying to say… “I think its time for us to leave” and my tica friend heard… “We are going to fly now” or something of the like, she couldn’t really tell me what she heard me say because she was laughing so hard and just kept flapping her arms in a flying motion to emphasize what I had said.

How did that even happen?  Those words don’t sound alike at all.  I have no idea.

The dreaded gym

One day recently I woke up with a phrase running through my head… “train yourself for godliness”.  Not sure what to do with that, I moved on with my day, but that continuous thought wouldn’t go away.  So I started asking the Lord what He was trying to tell me and what this was supposed to mean for my life.

While processing through this phrase, I was really convicted of my current life.  One of the blessing of being 27 years old and single and that I get to do what I want.  Its really true.  I do what I want, when I want to do it.  I eat when I want, I sleep when I want, I go out when I want, I stay home when I want.  I’m not responsible to anyone for making sure the kids get naptime or wanting to have dinner ready when my husband gets home.  If I’m not careful, this becomes a very selfish stage of life.  And I don’t often have to tell myself “no” about anything.

Unfortunately, I believe that this lifestyle trains me to just do what I want.  So when temptation comes, it is hard to resist because I am so used to doing what is easiest for me.

To this end… I was really convicted that one way to “train myself for godliness” was to practice saying “no” to my fleshly desires.  So that when temptation comes my self-control isn’t so out of practice.  For me, this looks like food and exercise.  I like eating what I want to eat and I don’t work out b/c I don’t like it.  Having self-control in both of these areas would be of great benefit to my life.

All that to say, I joined a gym.  Against my heart’s desires :)  But so far so good.  I go with my friend Abby and my goal is 3x/week.  If I go 4, I get to buy a smoothie.  HA!  I still need motivation, and smoothies are healthy, right?  These don’t have any sugar!  So today I ran a whopping half-mile.  That’s right, and I was proud of it.  But I did walk a lot longer than that!

Here’s to self-control and training for godliness…

Indescribable

It all started when I decided to sing the song, “Indescribable” when I lead worship tomorrow.  Its hard to put that song in a worship set because it so powerful.  We are put in awe of God when are reminded of how huge He really is and you feel like you need to follow it with other songs of the same tone… “How Great Thou Art” for instance.  And yet, I love being reminded that God is not only Indescribable, but also personal.  So… I choose songs to that end and then the Lord brought me to these Scriptures tonight.  And I’m blown away again by how amazing it is that the creator of the universe has chosen to say “I have summoned you by name, Shannon, and you are mine.”  Wow.

Psalm 89:5-8
The heavens praise your wonders, O LORD,
Your faithfulness too in the assembly of the holy ones.
For who, in the skies above, can compare with the Lord?
Who is like the LORD among the heavenly beings?
In the council of the holy ones, God is greatly feared;
He is more awesome than all who surround him.
O LORD God Almighty, who is like you?
You are mighty, O LORD,
And your faithfulness surrounds you.

Isaiah 43:1-3a
But now, this is what the LORD says-
He who created you, O Jacob,
He who formed you, O Israel;
Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.
And when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.
For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior!

Isn’t it all just summarized in that last line?  He is all of those things at the same time.  Both able to sustain the world by His powerful word and yet personal enough to enter into my messy heart and bring redemption.  And I am so thankful.

September Sabbatical

Its hard to even begin to write about this because none have you have been in my heart and head over the last 3 months as the Lord deals with me at the root level of my sin.  He is transforming my heart and my life yet again… a continual process.  It is hard.  But it is good and worth it and in the end it brings great freedom!

So, one thing I’ve learned… I’m a relationship junkie.

The Lord has made me to be a extremely relational person.  I just love people.  I love getting to know people and what makes them who they are.  I love stepping into the mess of people’s hearts and lives with them and seeing the Lord transform it.  I love knowing people and being known by people.  I love encouraging words and the difference that they make in someone’s life.  And I love being a part of a family and friend community where I feel loved and known and accepted.

This is a good thing, a great thing.  I think it is how the Lord has gifted me to do the work He has called me to do, both past and future.  And yet, I am starting to see the places where this part of my personality is also a detriment. 

1. I can easily get to the point where I begin believing I “need” people more than I “need” God.  It becomes easier to run to other people with my mess and my emotions than to run to God.  It becomes easy to find my identity in what other people think of me than in God.  All things I have to fight.

2. I am terrible at saying goodbye.  My goodbye tends to go like this, “Talk to you later.  See you later.  Let’s skype sometime.  I’ll talk to you soon.  Let’s catch up.  Call me sometime."  You get the point.  I don’t like for relationships to change and to ever not know someone as well as I once did.  That is so hard for me.

To that end, the internet is a blessing and a curse.  I have recently been convicted that the Lord is calling me to really LIVE here in Costa Rica and to really say a stronger goodbye to life at home.  To that end I am taking September sabbatical.

I still want to hear from people, don’t get me wrong.  I am just allowing myself freedom to not return every email, every phonecall, every facebook message.  I am not cutting off from the internet, I will still be blogging and keeping the people who read this up to date on my life and adventures in language learning.  But I will not be using skype or facebook or email to communicate with people in the US for the month of September.  But remember, you don’t all have blogs where I can stalk your life, so I would still love little updates every once in a while. :)

I am really praying that God uses this time to give me freedom to really invest here – in community, but mainly in Spanish language learning, time in the Word, and in resting.  That sounds strange to invest in resting.  But its something that has to be very intentional for someone like me who likes to be on the go.  I think that I will come out of this with a much healthier balance of living away and yet still loving people at home from a distance.

Thank you for your prayers and for your patience with me :)