vidas jovenes camp!

This weekend I experienced my first every Young Lives Camp!  Young Lives is Young Life’s ministry to single moms.  Most are very young, 14-20 years of age, and have at least one child.  Myself and the other interns acted as niñeras (child care) for the weekend with some other women from the community.  It was exhausting, but also extremely life-giving.

These kids are the hope of their mothers.  They are their mom’s reason for living.  And because of that, they rarely spend time away from their kids.  So, at camp, not only is it difficult for the moms to trust us to look after their kids, but the kids also have a hard time being away from their mothers.  Many of them are anxious and have extreme fears of separation.  Some calmed down easily by playing in the pool, or engaging in other fun activities, and others cried/screamed for 4 hours straight.  It was a test of patience for sure, but also an extremely obvious example of their need for Christ.  That their little hearts need Jesus so deeply.  That they need to be known and be loved by their Creator.  It was a gift to see and be with the same kids for 3 days in a row.  We had definitely earned their trust (and their mother’s trust) by the end, it they were more excited/less anxious to be with us.

It was also a cool weekend to see so many Tica women loving on kids and young moms.  Committee members and other volunteers (who have adult children) gave up their whole weekend to serve and care for these little ones.  And they were so good at it!  It was fun learning from them, especially considering the whole weekend was in Spanish.  It can be pretty defeating that you don’t have the vocabulary to calm down a three-year old, but a lot of the time it was true.  So I’m grateful for the many times they came to the rescue!

Three of the girls!  I spent a lot of time with Celeste, in the middle!

Our new friend, Fio (middle)!  She is an awesome high school
student from Alajuela who volunteered as a niñera, too!

Jesus called the children to him and said, 

“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.  I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the Kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

Luke 18:15-17

missions fest

Today was Missions Fest at International Baptist Church (IBC).  IBC is one of the local church that supports us monthly, and several of our families attend this church.  Annually, they have an event called Missions Fest, where their congregation can learn about all of the organizations it supports.

It was a great way to let others know about Young Life International Schools and some big events coming up.  We have a fundraising tea in March and are taking kids on a service project in April, so it was great to be able to tell so many people about these opportunities!

In addition, we were able to hear Pastor Paul preach on Acts 2.  I was really struck by the idea that the presence of the Holy Spirit and the work of Christ demands a response.  In Acts 2 we see how nonbelievers were amazed and filled with awe after seeing the Holy Spirit and that many lives were changed!  When Christ moves, it’s contagious!  People want to be a part of it!  It was fun being able to invite people to join us in what Christ is doing through Young Life International Schools Costa Rica.

baile lourdes

This past weekend we celebrated Young Life’s anniversary in Costa Rica with Baile Lourdes!  It’s a huge, national, mega-Club!  COW (Camp On Wheels) was there with tons of activities:  a rock climbing wall, volleyball, carnival games, etc!  There was food and fun and LOTS of dancing!  Randall, the National Director, was also able to share with the kids a little bit of his story.

We helped out with Vida Joven Capernaum, Young Life’s ministry to kids with special needs.  And we had a blast!  Lots of laughter and joy this night.  And, again, LOTS of dancing!  They love it!!

Take a look at a couple hundred students celebrating together!  These kids are from various neighborhoods all over the city!  So fun!

And is this not the biggest bag of popcorn you ever did see?!!  Total Young Life move right there!

three crosses

There is AWESOME hike in San Jose called the Three Crosses.  I’ve been wanting to do it for awhile now, and we finally did it!  It was beautiful and the most perfect day for hiking.  Clear and sunny with a cool breeze...perfect!  And it has the most amazing view of the city!!  So fun!  We hiked down the back-side, which was basically a super steep pasture.  The grass was super long and there was no “trail” but it was fun!  Rach, pretty much slid the whole way down on her rear, but we had fun laughing at how uncoordinated we all were, trying to imagine how in the world the cows could make their way down so gracefully haha.  

Check out that VIEW!!! Beautiful!  

Loving life half way up!

Not the best pic, but made it to the third cross!  

Rach and I at the top/off the backside!

Such a great day for a hike!  Cross #2.

time to explore!

Rach and I had an unexpected free Saturday so we went exploring!  We left Escazú in hopes of stumbling upon Zumba in Sabana (a huge park) - it’s on our Costa Rican bucket list!  Unfortunately, there was no Zumba to be found.  So we went for a run, made our way to our favorite smoothie shop for #14s, and then went on search for a Costa Rican tamale (also on the bucket list)!  

We found ourselves at the feria in San Francisco (the other side of town).  We had fun pretending we were kids playing in the park and getting stuck in the slides haha!  We saw lots of these chicken-ducks (I don’t know what they are called, but they are so weird looking).  And found a new favorite, oriental looking park in San Fran.  I bought a delicious bag of green beans at the feria and we found tamales!!  They were good...corn something...not exactly the ones we were looking for, but they were great!  

We headed back to Escazú to get ready for church.  And we ended the day eating pizza with Alex at La Fabrica.  It was SO good!  Thin, Italian, wood-fired pizza.  Rach and I had been dreaming about it since we passed one in Sabana at 9:30AM.  Plus, they messed up my order and gave us a free nutella pizza to share!!  That kind of service is absolutely unheard of here, so it was completely unexpected, and that much more delicious!  What a great day!!

thirty

So my boss, Jessie, turned 30 today!  We had been planning a surprise party for her at Kevin and Michelle Suwyn's house (Regional Director), but obviously we had to play along like nothing “abnormal” was happening!

L to R:  Alex, Jessie, Rachel, Me

So...we went out for ice cream after lunch!  Ice cream makes every celebration complete!  We hung out for an hour or so, and then Jessie dropped Alex and I off at CDS for cross country practice, and Rachel at her house.  Alex immediately called a taxi to come get us (someone else was running practice for us, obviously), we swung by and picked up Rach, and off to the Suwyn’s we went!

The party was Australian themed, in honor of Jessie going to Australia this year (a life-long dream of hers)!  We ate dinner together, played games, and got excited about the Olympics!  It was a great night!!

Great friends!