Outreach Update

So since the last time I’ve updated I’ve finished classes, finished NIKO camp, had a week of outreach in Puerto Viejo and a week in Guanacaste! Needless to say a lot has been happening and I have had very little internet sorry about the lack of updates. Classes finished up with the teaching on Destiny by Design, which talked a lot about spiritual gifts and Gods plans for our lives. It was a great week full of anticipation, packing, A MILLION QUESTIONS, and it was odd because for half the week our staff was already at NIKO preparing for us. We went out on Good Friday night to get ice cream at McDonalds as kind of a “last hurrah”/ “yay were done classes” and it was a great night together in San Jose.

Our NIKO camp was really awesome, I learned a lot and the base in Talamanca (close to the CR Panama boarder) is such a beautiful place. They day before NIKO started we all went and played in the river and had a delicious dinner. I can’t say anything else really about the camp itself because the only reason it works is because of the surprises and I signed something saying I wouldn’t spill the beans, so you’ll just have to trust me.

Talamanca!

After our week or so in Talamanca we spent a week doing ministry all together in Puerto Viejo! Its on the Caribbean side fairly close to Panama and is a very touristy beach town. A lot of people there spoke English which made doing ministry a lot easier for those of us who only speak spanglish (me!). We were staying in this great Pentecostal church and had a lot of evening services with great worship times. I even got to share my testimony at the Monday night youth service, which was a little stressful, but such a great experience. We worked a little bit with a skateboarding ministry that is in the town called the Concrete Jungle, we also did basketball and soccer ministry during the week. We would play sports with who ever talk and get to know people, pause the game for a drama and continue playing, it was a really great time. Later in the week we had a free bike wash (bikes are the super common transportation) and a concert in front of a Christian Coffee Shop called Caribeans (Care-ibeans). The community was really great we were so blessed by the church we stayed in and a man named Orlando who is involved with the Baptist church in town, we cooked us lunch one day and dinner another night it was so special to have fresh fish that had been caught that day! Our time in Puerto Viejo was coming to a close and we were all sad to leave our home one minute away from the ocean, but excited to go back to San Jose to see everyone and get our mail!

Welcome to Puerto Viejo

the church we stayed in

soccer ministry

Being back at the base in San Jose was good but a little weird, being on outreach but back in your regular bed is an odd combination. The new DTS (Extreme Adventure/ Backpackers) was arriving and we had the welcome dinner for them on Saturday night, we all got dressed up and enjoyed good food, and a Costa Rican band was playing music and we danced.

back at the base

This past week I have been staying at the YWAM Base in Guanacaste Costa Rica, which is in a rural area with lots of cows, scorpions, iguanas and intense heat. Our main focus there was to help the base with their vision of seeing a Bible be placed in every home in the province of Guanacaste. So we split up into teams and went door-to-door talking, praying and Bible-giving! It was such a great experience; people were so nice to us and practically took us in in some cases, with cold drinks and mangos galore. By the end of the week we had handed out over 400 Bibles to the community. While in Guanacaste we were also involved in some really fun soccer games with people from different towns close to the base. It was cool because we even had JUCUM Costa Rica jerseys to wear and it was fun to be a team with the other DTS girls. I was of course goalie (having to tap into my grade 9 soccer playing skills) and we didn't even get kicked by the Costa Ricans like I thought we would! haha

on our way to the Guanacaste base

part of the "Big-Blue" Bible crew

My birthday was really amazing! We got in the car bright and early and drove to an english speaking church by the beach (about an hour and a half away). I got to sing on the worship team with Melissa and Dave (Johan on drums) and it was really special to be a part of an english speaking service! We also did a drama and then got to sit back and enjoy the service. After church we went to the pastors beach house, had lunch, brownie and ice cream and went swimming in the ocean! It was such a great birthday, that one is going to be hard to top!

note the b-day pin!

But I think thats all for now, and I'm finally caught up on filling you all in on my life! I will be staying at the base for around a week, and will update again before leaving for Haiti!

Lots of love from Costa Rica

Outreach on the brain

So when I last updated I was barely un-packed from our amazing week of outreach in Diriamba Nicaragua. Since then we have been doing a lot of reflection, preparing for our upcoming outreach/ NIKO camp and attending an amazing week of classes.

Thinking back on my time in Nicaragua it seems so crazy. Crossing the Costa Rica/ Nicaragua boarder is like stepping (yes we walked across the boarder with all of our packs) into a completely different world. Nicaragua is an amazing country, starting with a really unique landscape, a massive lake with two volcanoes in it as well as a lake that has sharks in it, yes sharks very cool. The people in Nicaragua are very open and friendly. The neighbourhood Barrio Berlin that we were in was just getting a stone road (bricks) put in over the dirt. There were all kinds of houses from sheet metal and scrap wood to fairly modern brick constructions, right next to each other. This is the neighbourhood the church and JUCUM base are located in. The people here were absolutely amazing, the kids were always hanging out with and attending every class or program we put on. The church there is a huge light to the community, and it was really great to see how involved and open the community was with the church.

As for our up coming outreach, my DTS will be leaving out base here in San Jose on Saturday April 3^rd. We are going to be going to Talamanca, close to the boarder of CR and Panama for our NIKO Camp. NIKO is a hardcore camp in the jungle for 5 days and 4 nights, which begins on the Monday. They don’t tell us a whole lot about it, its ment to be a time of testing and I am SO EXCITED! After NIKO we will all be doing 3 weeks of outreach in different areas of Costa Rica, then the Central America & Haiti team will be going back to Nicaragua for 1 week (yay!), and then I along with the Haiti team will be leaving to Haiti around May 7^th. Somewhere in there before Nicaragua and Haiti we will be stopping by the base for a few days, so if you still want to send me mail please do! :)

So that brings us to classes this week; we had the option of going to the Heredia Base and having a teaching from water for life or staying at our base and joining with the Children at Risk school and having a teaching on human trafficking. I chose to stay here and learn about human trafficking, it’s something that is a huge global problem but is rarely talked about. There are more people in slavery right now in the world than at any other point in history.

check this video out if possible http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPoauYYhI5E

It was a really eye opening week and we are all fired up to go out and do something. It’s a good thing we only have one more week of classes left because I think we are all getting restless and ready to go out. I have so much anticipation and excitement for these next few weeks!

That’s all for now, lots of love from Costa Rica

So I’m back!

my DTS and staff at the YWAM (JUCUM) Base in Nicaragua

In San Jose that is; we are now officially in our second last week of classes. The week of outreach in Diriamba Nicaragua was amazing! We had a long day of travel on Saturday leaving around 5am, and arriving in Diriamba very sweaty, tired, and excited for the week (after getting pizza for dinner, such a treat) we settled in, the girls at the library and the boys at the Church. The next morning we got right into it by putting on a childrens program at the church, lunch at the JUCUM base, a little time to rest and get changed and our group put on the church service in the evening, which went super well. We did a lot of ministry with kids this week, the kids in the neighbourhood (Barrio Berlin) are absolutely amazing, and I think we all fell in love pretty instantly.

The other really exciting ministry opportunity this week was doing a mural for the library. The library is a fairly new project and it was great to be able to do something to raise awareness about the library.

There were a lot of kids there in the afternoon, to read, play, hang out with us while we painted and some attended and English class there as well. It was overall an amazing week!

the library in Diriamba

killing time at the boarder back into Costa Rica (classic stefan with his eyes closed)

on the bus to Nicaragua

update from the pool on our free day in Nica

Nicaragua Round 2...

So it has been a great week so far here! We are learning about the father heart of God, tonight our speaker Jack Kody took us all out for pizza and ice cream (and when I say “us all” that means our entire class, all the staff, and the dts from the Heredia base! Felt like one big crazy family). We went to a park and just took pictures and acted like lame tourists for a while. So I wanted to update everyone before I leave for Nicaragua for 8 days…

my room mid-packing eeek

We are all leaving for Nicaragua on Saturday morning bright and early! We will be travelling by bus, so it will probably be pretty cramped (we are only bringing our backpacks). While we are in Nicaragua the base here in San Jose will be hosting teams from the states, which will be around 45 extra people so we have to pack up our room and store everything while we are in Nicaragua so people can stay here. It’s a bit of a sad thing to see everyone packing up and we are all realizing these aren’t really “our beds” or “our room”. But we are all really excited to do outreach in Nicaragua for a week! It is also making me realize how thankful I am for my amazing roommates! Who I have had the pleasure of sharing a room with for the past 9 ish weeks. Reggie (Switzerland), Lauryn (Colorado), Melanie (Minnesota), Ingrid (Norway), Tawneke (Minnesota), Jenelle (the other Canadian!), Bailey (Virginia) and Rachel (Engalnd) I am absolutely blown away by these girls, how much they’ve all grown and how each one of them contributes so much to the experience of being here! When one person is away they are missed!!! I cannot say that enough! Haha maybe were all just a bit clingy, but we have grown so close over the past few months and I wouldn’t have it any other way. That’s all for now, I should get packing and making lists of the stuff I need to get/ do tomorrow! Lots of love from Costa Rica!

so much to say

Hi world!

So much has happened since my last post, but this exciting crazyness has been taking up all my blog time. So here goes, last week our speaker was Kenny Peavy. He was speaking on the kingdom of God as well as worship and it was such a great week. We went to Manuel Antonio beach on Thursday to have a baptism (most of my DTS had only been baptized as babies or not at all). It was so much fun to have the day off classes and just play in the waves. I learned a valuable lesson, never turn your back on the ocean… when I turned around to climb down a piece of rock we were sitting on and watching the ocean and a huge wave went over my head and raked me across the rocks and into the water. I some how managed to come out of all of this with bruises and scratches and without any serious injury (with my sunglasses and bandana still on to boot)! We were just about to start the baptism while I was getting medical attention from nurse Elena (one of my dts staff, so amazing). It was so exciting to walk out into the water with everyone, we all just had so much anticipation and the energy was crazy. I was unsure weather or not to get baptized again (I was baptized at DCC when I was 15), and I mean I can’t just get baptized again whenever I screw up. But I really felt like God wanted me to make that public declaration again and re-commit my life. I’ve been nursing my cuts ever since and I am healing up really quickly, so no worries there. Our class said goodbye to Kenny on Friday after the amazing week of teaching, we were so sad to see him go. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that week of teaching.

about 15 mins. after being carried out of the ocean

all of the people who got baptized!

The weekend was really chill, as I had my turn at weekend work duties (a small team of people take over the normal chores and meal making for the base to give everyone the weekend off of there work duties). It went really well and gave me a chance to take it slow for a weekend and just clean in my pjs (which was nice). I also got my mail this week and saw my video from home! I was just grinning and then crying (with those of you who did) while watching it and I just feel so supported and loved way over here! THANK YOU SO MUCH!

This week we have been doing a lot of outreach prep, learning dramas, kids songs and working on our video; so much fun stuff. Today we had another “giving day” with our DTS class, so bright and early we all sat in a circle on the basketball court and took our turn giving things to bless one another. It was so crazy today, I feel so crazy blessed its ridiculous. Oh so I forgot to mention that at the beach last week I lost my old baptism ring in the ocean, either when getting baptized or when that wave kicked my butt. Today Jaymie took her beautiful ring off her finger and gave it to me; I was an absolute mess (as those who know me could have guessed). Its silver and fits perfectly and says “the LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want” I will treasure it and this day forever. I also was the very grateful recipient of lovely notes, a new creative Bible J, a fudgicle and a t-shirt from Nicaragua (to mark my arrival from Canada to Central America!) I had an amazing day. I think that’s all I have for now. Lots of love from Costa Rica!

This past week...

So life in Costa Rica is going awesome. I am just winding down after a busy week here at the base in San Jose. Our speaker this week was awesome, he talked a lot about leadership, living in community and how we should react towards one another. I've been O.D.ing on ice cream, as it has been really hot out for most of the week. For our local outreach this week we put on a children's program at a church nearby with music and games. It was a lot of fun and some of the little kids were on there way home from school and had their adorable uniforms on. The kids had fun, we had fun, it was a good day for everyone.

This Saturday I went to downtown San Jose with some friends and we just did touristy things, walked around, went to markets, took pictures... it was a nice relaxed day. We found a Canadian cafe, which was a nice taste of home (coffee and donuts). It was a great day with really fun people and to top it off we had burritos for dinner!

This week we also had our first official meeting with our outreach teams and it was great to see us all together, praying about what we can do while on our outreach. My team is made up of people from the states, canada, switzerland, el salvador, norway and costa rica! Its a really sweet diverse group, all of us with a huge heart for Haiti :)

Thank you guys at home for all of your support and prayers, I miss you all!

Anyways thats all for now from Costa Rica, lots of love!

Life at the YWAM base in San Jose

This video was not staged, i just knew he would tell me to get to work (as he does everyday haha)

Okay so I realize this isn't much of a post but this is normal life at the base right now. Usually this place is close to bursting, full of visiting teachers, mission builders, and teams here doing outreach. Right now its just the base staff, the DTS and CAR (Children at Risk) students and a few others, in short its very quiet. Our speaker this week is talking about leadership and discipleship, we had a great class this morning so I am sure its going to be a good week! Everyone is a buzz about outreach and where everyone is going... I also put up some pictures on facebook of some things going on lately if you are interested. But thats all for now, lots of love from Costa Rica!