One step at a time......

I have realized the rather large gap in time since my last post. I reported my completion of my first semester in spanish and my return home. Which I must say, was a huge blessing. To spend time with Family and close friends was just what I needed. I had missed everyone so much. But so much has happened since then that I want to fill you in on. I am back in San Jose, Costa Rica studying spanish in my 2nd of 3 semesters. If all goes to plan I should finish my schooling in the beginning of August. School is going great, extremely hard, but a joy. We are diving deeper into the more intricate parts of spanish, so more headaches. However, I have moved into a house with 2 other single guys from school and have been able to get my gluten-free diet under control and I am feeling so much better. This semester has a lot of extra-curricular activities in store. I will be teaching an english course at my church for 4 weeks starting next week and I am currently directing the spring play for the MK school at my language school. It's an amazing group of students and such a joy to be using drama in ministry. We will be working on the production until April 16th and 17th, our show dates.

  As I was getting ready to leave Costa Rica, back in November, the missionary that I had been helping started to pick my brain about staying. He was encouraging me to stay in a spanish speaking country for at least another year to get the spanish down a bit more. Then He opened up some ideas about staying and helping out at our church, Roca Viva. At first, I must say, I was a little apprehensive. I had a rough start to my time here in Costa Rica and a big culture shock. However, with no set plans for the next year I had been telling God to just open up a door and I will go for it. So with this idea planted I thought it might be my open door for the next year. I took the idea home with me over break and began to mull it over in my head. After lots of prayer and discussions, I decided to move ahead and explore to idea of staying for another year. After having a great meeting with the two missionaries here, I have decided to stay in Costa Rica for another year. I will be living closer to the church and spending the majority of my time working amongst its members in discipleship and leadership training. I hope to also use this time to expound my language training for future ministry. I would appreciate your prayers as I am interviewing with agencies and choosing right now which would be the best for this experience. Also, pray for the approaching mountain of raising $8,000 dollars for 650 dollars a month to live on for the year. Right now the plan is to come home after school finishes to finalize everything and be back in Costa Rica by the beginning of October 2010 till October 2011. This will be an amazing opportunity for ministry experience and growth. Please pray as some many things are still coming together and other people are coming into this process. I look forward to future updates, more frequent ones, that will fill you in on all the God is doing in my life. He certainly has great things on the horizon for us all. I hope that you have a wonderful day and if you are cold enjoy some of the Costa Rican warmth I am attaching to this post :)
~Eddie 

There, and "almost" back again

Looking back on the 3 and a half months that I have spent in Costa Rica I am overwhelmed by the journey God has led me on. There have been times that I have wanted nothing more than to never hear Spanish again in my life and stay inside the US forever. However, there have been times of the opposite. Where I couldn't get enough spanish and every conversation in my new language was the most exciting adventure life could bring. Ups and Downs, thats life for you I guess, keeping perspective. This past week has been one of the most packed weeks that I have had in Costa Rica. It all started last sunday with a surprise invitation to a soccer match, which happened to be one of the most historic games in Costa Rican history, so I am told. There were fights, riot police and small explosives going off. All on the other side of the field from me, luckily, but on my side we were singing and chanting for the underdog team (in spanish :) ). As you can guess the underdogs won and I watched as hundreds of people flooded the field and old men tore off their shirts to run around the field with tears pouring out their eyes. As the week went along I found myself saying good bye to a lot of the new friends that I had made, some to the US and many all over the spanish speaking world. I spent a lot of time studying for my final grammar test, which I ended up failing. Which is really odd that I made the mistakes that I did, because I can actually speak the material I just have a hard time when its in writing, I am just weird like that. Then it was on to searching for the right christmas gifts for ever one, once again using my spanish all along the way. I spent some time with the missionaries that I help, we went to the biggest mall in Costa Rica and experienced reverse culture shock. Everything, except signs, look exactly like a mall in the states. It was very strange to experience. However, the other night I did something that made me so excited, I went roller skating with a bunch of friends. I HAD A BLAST. Now, I grew up roller skating with my Aunt, so this was a special treat to be able to go, but the fact that I was rolling skating in a foreign country was super exciting. Then the next day I had two conversations in spanish ON THE PHONE!!! Which is a very hard task and Lord helped me through. Church yesterday, lunch with the missionary family and a youth group party that afternoon. Seeing all that God has brought me in this week is just an example of His faithfulness over the past 3 and half months. The weeks after my grandpa's death were difficult and lonely, but God supplied strength and comforted. The weeks that I hated spanish, He spoke soft and clearly to guide me through. And the weeks were I was so wrapped up in my own selfishness, He was still there waiting for me to see that is was all about HIM.

Now, as I sit on my bed with packed bags lying on the floor, I can't wait to be back in my home country tonight. But I know that come January 11th, I won't be able to wait to come back to Costa Rica to see what another 8 months has in store. I once again petition you for prayer as I travel back to the states today. I arrive into chicago at 12:50 am and then leave on a bus to Indianapolis a few hours later at 8am Tuesday. So, I have a lot of traveling and I am in need of prayer during that time. I look forward to seeing many of you while I am home, please come and talk to me. It would be a privilege to put the faces behind these words. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Another Time, Another Place

My time with Mom and Dad was wonderful. We had such a fun time being together and enjoying the beauty of God's handy work in Costa Rica. We crammed in as much as we could and made the most of our time. You can see a slide show of pictures on the right side bar or on facebook. If you see several shots of a valley, that is actually the view out of our hotel window. Being a shutterbug at heart I made sure to get the photo at sunrise, night time, day time and when the clouds moved in and out. This entire valley is filled with coffee plantations. Also, make sure you see the photos that prove Mom did the zip-line. She was a bit nervous at times but she did make her way through a serious of 11 platforms above the Costa Rican Rainforest. They made it safely back to the US with all the souvenirs. I now have 9 days till I head back to the states and only 4 days of classes left. With one test left in Grammar, which is going to be a big one, my classes are wrapping up. The last month has been a lot of fun and difficulty wrapped together. We have moved into the sections of the spanish language that do not translate into english, literally. They are ideas that are said differently than how we would think about it or say it in english. So as you can imagine you get a little baffled when you say, "me caes" "you fall to me" (rough english translation) but it is communicating that you like them, they are a good friend to you. Please pray for me that I would finish strong and please mark december 14th and 15th as I will be traveling at night and the early morning of those days. Hope you are having a wonderful Holiday season, please enjoy a bit of cold weather for me and I enjoy the warmth for you.

Thanksgiving with my parents in Costa Rica

I just picked up my mom and dad from the airport, here in San Jose. We are going to be celebrating Thanksgiving together in Costa Rica and then exploring the coffee plantations, waterfalls, volcanoes, zip-lines and Mountains. I will be sure to post lots of pictures and stories by the end of the adventure. Happy Thanksgiving (I would say it in spanish, but they don't have the holiday)