Friends, Buses & Headaches

The past month and a half have been busy. It has been packed with so many amazing adventures and trials. Since moving into my new apartment I have developed some amazing new friendships that are a blessing from God. My new roommate and I are quickly becoming great friends through up lifting conversations and great coffee (Costa Rica has amazing coffee, if you didn't know.) We live in an apartment complex with a family from our language school, they too have quickly become dear friends. They are just a few years older than me and have lived in Australia for the past several years. Our conversations over afternoon coffee are an challenging, encouraging and a blessing to me on a weekly bases. They will be working in Peru when they finish with language school, establishing a YWAM base in Cusco.

I am spending a lot of my time these days on buses traveling to and from Paraíso, where my church is. From where I live in San Jose, it takes about an hour by bus. It is actually very pleasant and I enjoy the time to think or listen to my pastor's messages (sermons in english are a necessity, I still don't feel completely fed from a message in spanish.) On Mondays I am out there from 10am to 10pm, mostly teaching english classes & visiting local school's english classes building contacts for the church. Then on Tuesdays and Thursdays I am spending time in the homes of people from the church, just having conversations in spanish. If you were wondering, this is where the headaches come in. After 4 hours of only speaking in spanish my head feels like it is going to explode. The worst right now is teaching english in spanish, talk about a brain smoothie. With all that said, I wouldn't trade it for anything. Though I might complain and be completely exhausted at the end, it has been so much fun. Its been exciting to expand my spanish and to deepen my relationships with the people from church. Though I am still in classes at the Institute in the mornings, I am beginning to transition into my full time ministry.

I am currently making a lot of decisions and filling out a lot of paper work with EBM, but I have just been cleared to start raising support. So the next month I will be getting that under way. It has been such a joy working with EBM and partnering with them in ministry. I can really see the possibility of some future ministry bloom out of my relationship with them. Though I would love prayer for all the things that are going on in my life, please pray specifically over the next few weeks as I work out more specifics of my ministry with the Local Latin American Church for the next few years. It truly is amazing to be serving God, though the trials get thick and refiners fire gets a little warm He remains faithful and loving.

Directoral Debut

I am must first start by thanking everyone who has ever directed me in a production. I have always been thankful for all the hard work they put into the experience, but never could I have understood it completely, until now. This was an amazing experience that God gave me. It has been two and half weeks since we wrapped, but its still fresh in my mind. There were 16 students in the cast, 4 crew and dozens more working in other areas. None of this would have been possible with out of the help of three teachers from the school, Tricia, Kate and Erin. These three worked so hard in different areas to bring the play to life. It was a great time to teach in english, you can't imagine the joy of not struggling for every word. One of my favorites was teaching the kids how to engage story from a biblical worldview (whether its a play, music, books or movies) and then to see them actually begin to pick apart the story of the play as maturing believers. Directing was such a rich experience that has taught me so much about leadership and organization that I know will be helpful in ministry. On top of that, the encouragement to Missionary Kids who have given up many aspects of a normal education to serve with there parents was amazing to be apart off and the encouragement the excitement was to their parents. Theater is a desire of my heart that I learned a while ago to give over to God, and He just keeps bringing it back around.

Here is a picture of the play in action and a group shot of me and all my students. 

Could some one tell me where April is?

This month has been such an action packed ride. I have been home, directed my first play, finished my second semester, traveled through Costa Rica with a good friend from the states and I am now a short term missionary with EBM. Yes!! I just received news that I am now with Evangelical Baptist Mission (www.ebm.org). I still have a lot ahead of me, but this is a huge step that I am so excited to be apart of. EBM is an amazing organization with a biblical approach to missions and great people to help you in your ministry. I still need to finish some paper work and finalize my mission plan. Then I will begin raising support to be here for another year. I am on my way now to a men's retreat with my church here and have already begun a head start of some of the ministries I will be doing for that year. English ministries and discipleship being some of the more major, but I am working my way towards my first sermon in spanish by the end of the summer. At the beginning of the services for the next few months I will be doing short lessons on church history. There are great things ahead and great things behind. I hope to have pictures and stories from the play up in a few day, plus some from my travels these past few days. Thanks for all the prayers and I look forward to here from each of you.

'Play'ing around

Sorry that it has been a while since my last post. I have been a little busy for the past few weeks. After I made my surprise visit back to the states for my mom's birthday, I came back with two weeks till the play that I have been directing. Now, tonight we have our full dress rehearsal and performances are Friday and Saturday. This has been such an amazing journey full of fun, excitement and of course stress. I hope to have some pictures up in the next few days to let you see my students and all that I have been up to. I know it will be mixed emotions when its all done, but right now I am just enjoying every moment.