Community, a fluid concept...

What is community?  I remember that this particular word was thrown out a lot when I was a student at Fresno Pacific University.  We talked a lot about wanting to have community, to do life in community, to be a community, etc.  When I left Visalia, CA for Costa Rica, I was leaving behind several communities: the Malaga School community where I had worked for 5 1/2 years, the Neighborhood Church community where I had worshipped and served, my friendship group and our shared community there, and my Frantz family community.  

Now that I live in Desamparados and work in Los Guido, I am again part of several communities.  My Students International friends and co-workers are my main community here.  We work together, worship together, pray together, eat together, go to movies together, have those hard conversations together, etc.  One of the difficult but also wonderful things about the SI community is that we are almost always having people enter and exit our community; staying for a time to minister and grow together, and then, most of the time, returning to where they came from.  I have met wonderful friends from all over the US and even from other countries because of the time that they have been a part of the SI Costa Rica community.  I think most of the time I view this ever changing community as exciting and a great learning experience, but sometimes it takes a toll on the heart.  It is HARD to say hello and then goodbye to people you have grown to love.  

I guess I've just been thinking a lot lately about this interesting sort of "forced" community that I am a part of here and how unique and (sometimes) challenging of a situation it can be to have a small group of us that are constant and full-time and a much larger group that is coming and going.  It is a comfort and a source of strength to know that we have a God that is constant, that is full-time, that is here in Costa Rica and in Visalia and everywhere else, and knows the things that bring joy and pain to our hearts.  And I guess it's okay that even after two years of living here and being a part of this ever changing and growing community, it isn't always easy.  

Thanks for your prayers as I continue on this journey of allowing the Lord to be enough and the supplier of my needs rather than seeking that from others.  
Here are some pics of some of the awesome members of Tara's SI Costa Rica Community:

Having frozen yogurt with some dear British friends from church

Kids at the Centro enjoying our newly donated laptops!

One of the sweet little first graders that I work with regularly

My birthday dinner with these wonderful ladies and co-workers

Girls' club field trip to a local park