Give Thanks

In the spirit of Thanksgiving (weekend) and wanting to focus on the goodness of the Lord and what He has done, I thought I'd write a post with that theme.  Thanksgiving isn't a thing in Costa Rica since it's uniquely a U.S. holiday, but our multicultural staff celebrated with turkey and the works on Friday evening at our leaders the Dixons' home.  I've missed Grandma Rogalsky's apple pies these past four years to be sure, but I'm grateful for the chance to celebrate together in community here.

Some of the ladies (and little Joab in the background) enjoying the Thanksgiving spread

So back to the being thankful topic at hand.  Here are just a few things that I am thankful for as I consider the past months here in life and ministry in Costa Rica:

• All of the team members and students who come down to love on kids in the Tutoring Center!  Jose and I are the staples here but these "gringos" that come bring a fresh energy, perspective, love and man power that we need to be able to do our job well.  

  

  Team McFarland, Cal Poly and Bellvue

  
   
• The fact that SI owns the Tutoring Center is a really positive thing for the community of Los Guido and our ministry.  It sends a message that we are here to stay, Lord willing, and want to continue to invest in the community around us.

  

  Our new sign to let everyone know who we are when they walk past our building!

• New kids always find their way to our door!  Oftentimes the season after summer and all of our extra helpers have gone, we see a drop in attendance by some of the kids.  But the moms and kids themselves are great advertisers for us, and we have welcomed new faces this fall when some of our old faces have taken a break from studying with us.

  

  The two kids in the front right are new and faithful attenders.  Those are my cool parents in the back. :)

• A new church that I have become a part of these past six months or so.  Having attended an English speaking church for the majority of my time in Costa Rica, I felt God leading me to find one that worshiped in Spanish.  My friend MacKenzie and I have been attending a church led by a young Tico pastor who is passionate about the Bible and Jesus, and we have felt welcomed there.
• Although our 4th-7th grade girls' group's attendance has not been as consistent as I would like to see, our study of "Grandes Mujeres de la Biblia," (Important Women of the Bible) has been going really well!  They are remembering who and what we are talking about from week to week, and are excited to read and discuss what God's Word says about these godly women.

  

  MacKenzie leading a discussion about Hannah.  LOTS of girls came the day I took this picture.  :)

•    All of the financial and prayer supporters of both the Tutoring Center and me personally!  Chances are, if you are reading this, that means you!  I'm so thankful for the people who are invested in this ministry and make it possible that it continues.  

There are MANY other things that I am thankful for that I could include here.  In a world where there is so much pain and ugliness around us, it is so valuable to take time to reflect on His goodness and good deeds.  What things are YOU thankful for?  

A lifelong learner

When I was an undergrad and then a teacher credential student at Fresno Pacific University, I heard a lot about the idea of being a "lifelong learner."  I received an excellent education and gained a lot of knowledge in college, but that did not mean that I was ready to take on all that teaching in a public school in a small farming community at the edge of a big city had to throw at me.  I learned so much those 5 1/2 years of teaching in Fowler, CA, and it was a wonderful place to do ministry through the noble occupation of public school teacher.  Fast forward to 2015 (ten years after graduating from FPU!!) and I am continuing to learn, every day.  Living in Costa Rica outside the capital city, I am in much more of an urban setting than I ever have been before.  Add to that the difference between being from a first world country and living in a developing country, there are many many differences and things to be learning and growing in.  

There are so many things that I wish I could change about the systems and way of life here, especially in the community of Los Guido where I work at the Tutoring Center.  My students receive such a sub par education that it's almost a surprise when they DO have class.  There is not a substitute system in their school district, so if the teacher has a meeting or conference or illness or whatever, there's no class that day.  It is so unfair because these children have so much potential to learn and develop into contributing members of society, but I just don't see their education being valued as it should by the powers that be.  The Tutoring Center exists to be an extra support to what they are learning and working on at school, but if they aren't at school, our job becomes a lot more challenging in trying to fill in all the huge gaps that are left.

The entire county that I live and work in has been a place of strife the past year or so, and a lot of it has to do with a territorial drug war that exists.  I don't understand that stance that the law enforcement takes sometimes and why they don't do more to help solve this issue.  I realize it's way more complex than I could ever understand or imagine, but it is heartbreaking to hear my students talk about the gunshots they sometimes hear at night and see in their eyes not necessarily a fear but an acceptance that this is part of their "normal" of life.  

These problems are not unique to Costa Rica or Los Guido.  Our world is broken, and thus systems are less than perfect and people don't love and value one another as God desires us to.  We can read the news feeds or turn on the television and just get so overwhelmed that we just want to curl up and shut it all out.  We can decide to go numb or on the other extreme, become so self-involved that we don't care about what is going on in the world around us.  God has been teaching me lately that He has given all of us a place to live and to serve, and we need to do that the best we can, with the help of the Holy Spirit, where we are in this moment.  I can't solve the issues of the Costa Rican public school system.  But I can be available for those 10+ kids who are going to show up on Tuesday morning to study with Jose and me, and do my best to love them, point them to Jesus, and remind them of their potential.  

I pray that I will always be learning, seeking how I can be a part of bringing restoration to this broken world.  To be the hands and feet of Jesus.  And I pray that you will do your part as well.

Here are some pics of what I've been up to lately!

A 4 year old's pirate birthday party with these SI friends

My friend Mallory, a cute little blond pirate

Two of my silly second graders that have become really great readers.  I'm a proud teacher.

Getting out of the city for a day of sun at the beach.

Seeing the bigger picture

I am so thankful for my SI Costa Rica family.  Here we are pictured with our summer interns and a group from California that was with us for two weeks this summer.  As a staff, we are all so different from each other; age, gender, nationality, conflict style, leadership style, personality...but at the end of the day, we all are committed to being a part of this multicultural missions organization.  We share the same vision of seeing students (the North Americans who come to work with us) and the poor (community members) transformed into the likeness of Christ and discover their true calling.  

The Centro de Tutoria is undergoing some construction work and we decided that it would be better to close the Center for a few days because of the noise and dirt and disturbance.  That meant that Jose and I needed to find another place to be in the meantime.  As much as I missed my kiddos from Los Guido, it was SO GOOD to spend time with some of my coworkers and see what they do at their different ministry sites.  It is one thing to hear them talk about their kiddos and ladies that they work with, and it is another thing to see it for yourself.  I got to meet a young man in Las Fuentes who is working hard to make different life choices and actually just came home from a spiritual retreat through his church today.  I spent a day with my coworker Norma talking with both victims and perpetrators of bullying in a public school, with the goal being to get to the bottom of the hurt that is causing the mistreatment of their fellow students.  And I was able to help with an English class that we had for a group of teenage mommies, who had to grow up way too early in order to take care of their own babies.  We cannot change their life choices after the fact, but can help  be a part of them making better choices in how they parent and have relationships in the present and the future.

Sometimes I wonder if what we are doing in the communities really matters.  When we see situations of drug use and child abuse and violence and alcoholism happening in the homes of the kids and the women that we work with- does our presence in their lives make a difference?  We can get discouraged when we see hard situation after hard situation.  But I was reminded this week that we are called to plant seeds and to be faithful.  Sometimes we might get to see the fruit of our labor.  God has been so generous to me in showing me a bit of "fruit" when I think about some of my former high school youth group students in California and how they are following Jesus wholeheartedly now that they are college students.  But we are not promised that we will see fruit- Paul even said in 1 Corinthians 3:6 "I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow."  That's the key- it will be up to God when and how and where it will grow.  For now, I want to keep on planting seeds in the children and students that I work with.  And trust him to be faithful in the rest. 


As I said before, I'm encouraged by my staff and the different ministry sites that we have around Desamparados.  I am thankful that I now have a better understanding of what is happening in the Las Fuentes house and La Capri school and the Woodshop and the Microfinance groups.  (I could also talk about Sports and my friends in the Office and Child Sponsorship, but I didn't spend time with them this week.  But they certainly are being faithful to the call that God has given them here in Costa Rica as well.)  I see Jesus in my coworkers and I see why He has each of them in the ministry sites that they are assigned to.  May we each be faithful to plant the seeds where we are placed!

I wanna go deeper...

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations for ever and ever!  Amen.  Ephesians 3:20-21

I believe that the Lord has been taking me on a journey these past months and challenging me to dig deeper and decide if I really REALLY believe in His promises, in His love for me.  These verses written above are an incredible promise that He has given to us- "immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine."  What?!  I feel like I can ask and imagine a lot.  And He's able to do so much more than that?  But I think the rub for me lately has been situations where I cannot imagine a good result or ending, where my faith is limited.  Pastor Steve from my home church Neighborhood Church has been told he has only a few months left to live because of a terminal brain cancer- do I truly believe that God could perform a miracle in his life?  And if that miracle does not come for Steve on this side of heaven, do I believe that God is still mighty and powerful and "to him be the glory?" 

I would imagine that I'm not alone in desiring to go deeper but also struggling a bit with some of the implications of these scriptures and promises.  I'm a bit late jumping on the bandwagon here, but during this past week that I've been off of work for a much needed vacation I read "Anything" by Jennie Allen.  (Sidenote: I read the original version she wrote in 2011 and am interested in getting the updated version that contains the companion Bible study).  But anyway, for those who haven't read the book, the premise is making the decision to stop chasing after things of this world, to once and for all surrender and abandon our lives and all of it's decisions to the Lord, and be willing to say "God, I/we will do anything for you."  To be completely honest, I don't know if I'm there yet- if I'm ready to say that I would do ANYTHING.  Anything, could mean, well, anything!  I realize that sounds redundant, but I don't want to think about God potentially calling me to be single for a lot longer or to go somewhere where I don't really want to go.  Selfish, I know, when I reflect on what God has done for me.  

But this is where I'm at right now.  Feeling challenged to go deeper, to be willing to be stripped of those things that I hold on to too tightly.  This season after our busy team season and when we don't have a semester program and it's just going to be Jose and Tara at the Tutoring Center for the near future- it's going to become a bit routine and challenging in a different way.  This is something I wrote recently in my prayer journal regarding this new chapter of life and ministry in Costa Rica: "...I want to give it (this post-team season) to you ahead of time.  I pray that you continue to use this season to take me deeper in you, to show me new things and grow me more.  I pray for creativity for Jose and myself in how we interact with and love on our kids.  I pray that you would renew our vision for them, remind us of why we are here, why you called us to SI and the Tutoring Center." 

Having a week off from being at the Tutoring Center is good and healthy.  Getting calls and texts from students who didn't know we were off and were asking if we can put them on the list for studying that afternoon is a reminder that we matter in this community.  There have been so many wonderful moments in the last months of light bulbs turning on and connections being made for both our Los Guido kids and the team members from the States.  Below are some pics of special moments and reminders of why we are here and of what the Lord is doing in all of our lives.

Full house as we watch Jose put on a spectacular puppet show!  He is so creative in sharing the Gospel with the kids in many different forms.

Three awesome college girls who loved on our kids, were wonderful servants, and are considering what the Lord has ahead of them in terms of teaching and missions.

We prayed up on the "mountain" with each group this summer, but this time was especially precious when we had a group of our kiddos join us.  And our sweet and sassy 4th grader Keylin had us all in tears when she prayed her own heartfelt prayer to our God.

We don't often have adult men on our outreaches to the Centro, and it was really fun to have two men from Texas join us for our last outreach.  Pictured here are Andy and Fabian, who really were able to figure out how to communicate and joke around across the language barrier.

"Let us become more aware of Your presence."

Where has the summer gone?!  It seems like just yesterday we were saying goodbye to our spring semester students and now we only have an outreach and a half to go before our "summer season" is over with.  I am so thankful that we have had the opportunity to work with so many wonderful high schoolers, college students, and adults over the past months in the Tutoring Center.  Every two weeks, new faces come in and are nervous about the language barrier, but are excited to love on our kids and help them the best that they can with their homework and test prep and art projects.  It is also such a joy to see how they fit into the vision of the Tutoring Center, and how by the end of day 3 they have started to build friendships with our kids that will continue into the second week of their outreach with us.

What about me?  What have I been learning these past months?  I will admit, sometimes in the hustle and bustle of trying to get the English speakers plugged in with the Spanish speakers and spending time with the interns and planning art lessons and Bible time- I don't have a lot of energy left to focus on me.  There is a danger in "doing missions without Jesus" because this work I do here is my job.  It is how I pay the bills, in a sense.  And it can become automatic- every other Wednesday morning I talk with the team about storing up treasures in heaven rather than treasures on earth, and about the importance of not worrying because each day has enough troubles of it's own.  Every morning and afternoon we pray with our team to start and end our work day.  Every Monday at staff meeting we talk about the Bible together.  I would imagine that anyone who has been in formal church or missionary ministry can understand where I'm coming from. 

But God is faithful and when I take the time to listen to the Holy Spirit, He continues to speak to me, to challenge me, to grow in me.  During one of our outreaches this summer we sang the song "Holy Spirit" every morning during devotions, and I was really struck by some of the lyrics: (speaking about the Holy Spirit)- "Let us become, more aware of your presence.  Let us experience the glory of your goodness."  As a believer, the Holy Spirit's presence is constantly with me.  I don't have to ask for His presence to be with me.  But I do need to be aware of His presence, to welcome His presence. 

We have also been going through Ephesians as a staff, focusing a lot on unity in the Body of Christ.  There are so many nuggets of truth that can be taken from those passages, including the idea of being really careful about the words we use and the talk we talk, but rather, "speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.  Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."  Now I don't know how literal we are supposed to take that, as in, do we really need to go around singing songs to each other all the time?  (Sidenote- I do LOVE musicals, so maybe that wouldn't be such a bad idea. ;) )  But that part about always giving thanks for everything- if I'm giving thanks, it's pretty hard to say something rotten to or about someone.  If I'm giving thanks, it's hard to have a negative attitude towards someone.  That's where I'm at right now- wanting to be more aware of the Holy Spirit's presence in my life and to allow Him to renew my mind so that I can have more of an attitude of thanks that changes the way I speak to others. 

Transitioning from there- what would a blog post be without some photos of what's going on at the Tutoring Center?  Two weeks ago my students had their two week vacation from school, and we did a lot of fun workshops and a few field trips with the kids.  Below are some highlights of those activities.

Water Day!  It was a bit overcast this afternoon, but they had a blast!

Girls' club! 

So excited for our field trip to the National Stadium

Everyone was thrilled to be on the field level at the Stadium

Baking fruit pizzas with our 4-6 graders

1-3 graders enjoying their fruit pizzas.  They are adorable children, they just don't like smiling for pictures, apparently.

A picture is worth a thousand words

Many times when I sit down to write a blog, I have a topic or a theme that I would like to write about.  Some deep thoughts that I'd like to share with my faithful blog readers and supporters.  Tonight I would like to share a few different pictures and some short stories that go along with them, just to change it up.  Kind of like a snapshot of what's been going on around here and in my life the past month or so.

 This sweet first grade girl has been coming to the Centro since the beginning of this school year, and I really am encouraged by her enthusiasm for learning to read.  It does not come naturally for her, and she has missed quite a bit of school in the past.  There have been times during our "recess" breaks that she wants to read instead of going out to play with the other kids.  I love that she knows that she can come to the Tutoring Center and receive the extra attention that she really needs, as well as be in a place that is full of love and acceptance.

 The Tutoring Center is located near a pretty significant hill, and when you climb up that hill like we did in this picture, you are able to look out over the entire community and see the homes and schools and churches and corner stores that the children and their families frequent.  It has been a really powerful thing for us, as a group of full time staff and short term team members, to pray over the community of Los Guido, the Tutoring Center, and the families that we work with.

 UNO!  It would be safe to safe that Uno is played daily at the Tutoring Center.  Homework and studying for tests is our first priority, but after we have finished their tasks and done some reading from books in our library, the Uno cards come out.  I like to think that they are learning number sense, sportsmanship, reasoning skills, among other things.  And it is a great way to incorporate our English speaking short term team members. 

There are so many special students that I have known over the three + years that I've been working at the Centro.  These two girls are in 5th and 6th grade, and have been an important part of our upper grades group and my girls' group on Friday.  When I hear them talk about things of faith, their (mostly good) decisions regarding friendships and relating with peers, and see their desire to study and be a part of our program, it reminds me that what we do here is worth it.  It matters to these students, and they matter to us. 




Please keep us in your prayers as we are in the middle of a busy summer season of short term teams coming and going every two weeks.  "Bringing students and the poor together cross-culturally to encounter God, share the Good News, disciple and serve others in occupational ministries."  That's the mission of Students International, and why we are working at the Tutoring Center day after day.  Thanks for all your support of our ministry!!

In every season, You are still God

I figured that it was time that I write another blog post, but have had trouble coming up with what to write about.  These past few months have been filled with challenges for us as a staff, as we have seen people leave and have experienced some conflicts within ourselves and have also just been a bit discouraged in general.  None of those makes for a real uplifting blog post, so I think that's a big part of why I haven't felt like writing much lately.  I think that the longer I am a part of a formal ministry and also as I learn more and more about what it is to walk with Jesus, I see that there are these ups and downs, seasons of discouragements and seasons of much joy.  I don't think it's a coincidence that even as I'm writing this post, I'm listening to Hillsong en Español and hearing the words to this beautiful song:
En todo lugar
En todo tiempo 
Tú eres Dios 
Tengo un motivo al cantar 
Es mi deseo adorarte
The translation is: All of my life, in every season.  You are still God, I have a reason to sing, I have a reason to worship.  

Isn't that what it's all about?  He is still God in no matter what season we happen to find ourselves in.  And praise Him for that, because I don't want to live this life without our consistent and unchanging God of all.  

I thought that I'd borrow the idea of my fellow staff friend Theresa and mention some recent "Yay ducks and Yuck ducks" that I have experienced as of late.  The idea for the yay and yuck is that we live in a paradox as missionaries living in a culture not our own, with many things that are "yays" but also things that are "yucks."  We learned in our mission training prior to moving here that these are normal and that it is good and healthy to call attention to both of them.  So here we go...

Yay: I spent a great 9 days with friends and family in California a few weeks ago!  It was refreshing to my spirit and so fun.
Yuck: It was hard to come back, especially when my three-year old niece told me that she didn't want me to leave.

I got to go to a Dodger's game with my dad and my siblings.  Go, Blue!

We had lots of silly talks and fun play time together while I was in California.

Yay: We have had a number of new kids coming to the Tutoring Center in our "littles" group, and mom's who seem to care about their children's education.
Yuck: We have very few 4-6 grade girls, and this has really affected my Friday girls' club.  We had a really committed group last year, but since the majority of those girls graduated, we are having to kind of start from scratch and it has been kind of discouraging for me.

Our "goodbye" party for our two semester students with the littles and a few bigs.

Yay: I celebrated my 32nd birthday with my fun girlfriends here, and they were up for the challenge of dressing like super heroes.
Yuck: Getting older seems to mean the development of a more sensitive stomach.  I'm having to learn how to listen to my body more and more in regards to what and when I eat.

My European staff friends representing their countries' flags and being "super" at the same time.

Yay: Summer season is upon us and we will have many helpers coming through the door of the Tutoring Center the next weeks.
Yuck: My brain is exhausted at the end of every day from going back and forth between Spanish and English all day long.

Our interns from FPU, Evelyn and Mady, along with our Tico intern, Josue

Yay: It seems that rainy season has arrived and that means cooler temperatures, fresh air, and green everywhere!
Yuck:  I think, because my people in California are in such a drought, I better not say anything here about the "yuck" side of all the rain.  

Yay: Our staff has been spending a lot of time together lately, sharing meals and jumping on trampolines and just living life together.  I am so thankful for this community that I'm a part of!
Yuck: Being a single person in a foreign land is just hard.

Intern Alex and I taking some of our staff kids out to to the movies.  A quote from one of the girls- "This is the best day ever!"

Thanks for listening, err, reading.  I want this blog to be a place that I share things that are REAL, and that includes the yays and the yucks.  I'm thankful that we have a God that cares about all of those things.  That He doesn't promise that it will be all glossy shiny all the time.  But He does promise to be with us, that He wants to be in a relationship with us, despite all our "stuff."  I recently listened to one of the past sermons by my pastor from my church in Visalia, Steve Harms, and he said: "The message of Jesus is this- You don't have to grow, change, or be good to be loved.  You ARE loved so that you can grow, change, and be good."  Thank you for your big love, Lord.  Continue to grow and change us so we can be more like you.

 

The time that Mom and Mississippi and Arizona came

Two posts in one day, that's not really like me!  :)  But I thought I'd post a bit about what has been happening the last month or so in the ministry site as it has been quite the exciting time.  If you read my previous post, you will know that this weekend marks my 3rd anniversary of moving to Costa Rica.  It's hard to believe that three years ago I was practically a stranger at the Tutoring Center and to my SI staff.  Now I feel like I belong here, I greatly value my SI family and love all the kids that I know in the Los Guido community dearly.  

The past few groups that we have had serve with us at the Centro have been really special groups that have had a really neat connection with the kids that I work with on a daily basis.  A few weeks ago, we had a group of women, mostly from California, come for an outreach.  On that team was my mom and a good friend of our family, Karen.  My mom had asked me if it was okay with me if she was placed at the Tutoring Center for the outreach, and I was almost offended that she would even need to ask.  Of course I would want my mom to work with me and my kids for a week!  Having "Tara's mom" here was a big hit, and those who had met my dad in the past wanted to know why he didn't come too.  The other two women that were at our site were also wonderful helpers, one of which was a woman in her 70s who had been a missionary to the Philippines in the past, and the other a Visalia native who was a reading specialist.  And though you wouldn't think of it when you looked at them, those three ladies were AWESOME four square players and could hold their own with our students.

This past week we have had a group of high school students from Christian high schools in both Mississippi and Arizona.  We had a group of 5 junior and senior students, and they did an awesome job of using the little/moderate amount of Spanish they knew and connecting with our kids.  I think that the thick, Southern accents were a bit challenging for my kids to understand, but between smiles and hugs and tickles and basic Spanish phrases, communication was made possible.  These kids reminded me of myself in high school- in love with Jesus and wanting to see what He had for me in the future.  Insecure in many areas but sure of my love for kids and education.  I'm so thankful that they gave up a week of school and invested their time in the lives of my kids who will not soon forget them.  

Something that I don't always have the opportunity to do is to share my testimony with the groups that come, but I was able to do that this past week with the entire group of high school students and their leaders.  It can be a bit of a spiritual battle for me to share with them because I could easily feel like I don't have anything really exciting or "dramatic" to share with them like some of my co-workers do.  But God confirmed in me my story and my sharing when one of the seniors that worked with me this week shared that my story impacted her and encouraged her that she too could pursue being a single missionary woman in the future.  I was so blessed to hear that and know that the Lord can use any and all of our stories for His good, we just need to be willing and obedient to share.

Below are some pictures to highlight time spent with these two amazing teams:

Spending time with Mom at the La Paz Waterfall Gardens

Mom and the girls playing with our homemade playdough!

High school students doing a read aloud with a bilingual book about the 10 Commandments

We were at maximum capacity this afternoon- and all smiles!

Our sweet group of high schoolers spending time together at our Friday night banquet

 

Tres años en Costa Rica!!

March 8th marks my third year of living and working in Desamparados, Costa Rica!  Three years sounds like a long time and a brief amount of time at the same time.  In view of my third anniversary, I thought I would give you some "highlight footage" of some of the ups and downs I have experienced while living and serving here.

• A few weeks after my sweet Grandpa Roger passed on to be with Jesus and the same week that my first niece Kate Annmarie was born, I moved (with 5 pieces of luggage!) to Desamparados.
• Lived with a host family for my very first 10 weeks and shared a bathroom with a family of 5.  I unknowingly ate liver at their home, was spoiled by my host mom's care for me, and grew in my Spanish language ability.
• Survived 6 weeks of Spanish language school as the ONLY student in the school.  My grammar teacher was a bit severe and didn't have the best people skills, but BOY did I learn my grammar!
• 2012 had a full summer of non-stop, short-term outreaches, including 30 high schoolers from my home church- Neighborhood Church!  What a blessing to serve alongside my sweet, former youth group students and their leaders, my good friends.
• Got my license to drive soon after moving but bought my Suzuki Sidekick after 6 months of riding the bus everywhere.  Driving stick shift in Costa Rica = stressful and always an adventure to be sure!
• During Fall 2012 the distance of being far away from friends and family really set in and was a challenging time emotionally for me.  The Lord blessed me with the friendship of three single young women around my age who came to intern with us and I was able to spend some of my weekends and free time with them.  
• Spring 2013 was my first experience with the semester study abroad program in SI Costa Rica and we hosted the 12 FPU students in our home for "family nights" every Wednesday.
• During my parents' second visit to Costa Rica, we got to see the USA national soccer team play the Costa Rican national team.  Costa Rica won, as expected, but the other US fans at the stadium got plenty of "boos" and other negative words yelled at them.  That night sealed the deal that I am a fan of the Sele, or the Costa Rican team.
• I befriended and dated a nice Christian man for about 6 months that I met through church here.  I learned a lot and had a lot of fun, but in the end, we had too many differences that weren't going to work out for a long term relationship.  
• My youngest brother got married November 2013 and I flew back to CA for a super quick weekend in LA to celebrate with them.
• Spring 2014 brought a great group of semester student interns to the Tutoring Center, and I developed a strong relationship with the three placed with us.  They even wrote a song about me, loving called the "Taradactyl Song."
• Jose had to go to Texas for the summer months and I was quite concerned about what that was going to look like as me being the sole leader at the Centro during our busy team season.  The Lord provided the BEST intern in Alexis, a former student of mine from Neighborhood Church.  She stepped up to the plate day after day, and we had a great summer loving on our team members and Los Guido kids together.
• All 8 of us Frantzes had a dream come true vacation in November of 2014 together here in Costa Rica.  We had a house near the beach where we played and laughed and ate and just lived life together for a week.  I will cherish those memories forever.  
• November through February has been a challenging time for me health wise, and I ended up having an upper GI tract endoscopy here in a hospital in San Jose.  Medication and adjusting my diet for acid reflux and a hiatal hernia has improved how I feel a ton, and I'm praying that I am continuing on the road to 100% full and restored health.  
• And here we are, in March of 2015!  I am seeking the Lord about how long I am going to be here with SI in Costa Rica, and would ask those who pray for me and my ministry to do the same.  I want to do what is HIS best for me, and I'm not sure what that will look like for 2016.  Thanks, God, for all the good times and hard times.  You are working in me and growing me through them all.  You are faithful. 

Learnings from an (eventful) trip down the river

I love having students here with us for numerous reasons, and one kind of selfish reason is because I get to do exciting activities with them because, well, they always need a "guide" to go with them.  Generally if I am available, I am down to go on their excursions with them, and a canopy zip line and white water rafting adventure sounded like a fun Saturday plan.  I have been zip lining here in Costa Rica more times than I can count (such a hard job I have!) and also been white water rafting a few times as well.  I also thought that for that reason, me being an "experienced" zip liner and rafting adventurer, I could also be a good person to go along and accompany the "newbies" that had never been.  The white water adventure, however, turned out to be more eventful than I would have wanted when I found myself having to quite literally swim for my life after being unexpectedly tossed out of the boat.  Before I get too dramatic in my storytelling, here are some pics of our adventures yesterday: (Thanks, Tori and Evelyn, for the great pics!)

All ready to hit the river

6 of our semester students and their fearless guide

Ready to zip through the canopy

The ziplining adventure went without an issue and everyone had a great time flying through the trees.  We feasted on build your own nachos that were especially delicious because of how hungry we were, and then it was time to go rafting.  As mentioned earlier, I have been rafting twice already here in Costa Rica and once in California, and my last CR experience we faced some Class 4 rapids.  Because of this, and it being dry season here, I really wasn't concerned about it being difficult or dangerous.  I was in the raft with my SI staff friend Jana, her three friends visiting from Europe, semester student Tori, and our guide.  The guide was the same guide I had two years ago when I went rafting with the same company on the same river, so that was fun to be repeating that experience with him.  Right away when we took off down the river, we were faced with a pretty big rapid, and there were a lot of screams and nervous shouts from my fellow rafters.  I could tell that a few of them were concerned about our safety and not so sure about participating in this adventure, but like it or not, we were on the river.  

I honestly can't remember what happened next, but before I knew it, I found myself launched out of the front of the raft, bouncing along down the river and every second getting further away from the boat.  I tried to grab the rope that was around the raft, but the river was too strong and pulled me away before I could get a good grip.  Worse than the shock of being tossed out or the temperature of the water was the fact that my life jacket seemed to almost be weighing me down and I was struggling to breathe without taking in a lot of water.  Soon I realized that two other ladies had been thrown out too, and we made eye contact to assure that we were "okay."  I tried to think back to what our guide JJ had told us about which direction my feet were supposed to face, but the water kept spinning me around and I felt really disorientated.  Next thing I knew, the "rescue" bag and rope was thrown out to me, and I took a hold of it and felt myself being pulled in towards the boat.  When I got close, JJ leaned over and with great force, pulled me in by my life jacket and I felt a relief rush over me.  My heart was beating SO fast and I felt really emotional about the reality of what had just happened.  While I was in the water, I felt so helpless and confused, and also fearful that they might not be able to catch up to me to rescue me.  The other two girls were also pulled back into the boat, and then we somehow made it over to the shore  to take a breather and regroup.  (Now I know that people get thrown out of the raft all the time when doing this, but it had never happened to me or anyone in my raft, and the fear and helplessness that I felt at that moment was quite real.)  Our boat was pretty shaken up, and the three of us who had been in the water were ready to call it quits and not finish the adventure.  But that wasn't an option; we had to continue.  

I was reflecting on that experience on the way home and this morning as well.  (Obviously we finished our rafting journey and ended up having a great time- no more incidents.  When asked if we wanted to jump out and take a swim in the calmer waters downstream, JJ was responded to with a resounding "NO" from our boat.)  So many songs have been written about rivers and their movements, and I unintentionally chose "Rivers In the Wasteland" by Needtobreathe to listen to on the trip home back from day trip.  (Sidenote- they are an AMAZING band and I would encourage you to check out this song here at this link: More Heart, Less Attack).  But isn't life truly like a trip down a river?  We are all in the raft, we are floating along and may even feel confident and comfortable out there because of our life experiences, maturity, knowledge, etc.  But sometimes there are things that come along unexpectedly and sometimes quite literally throw us out of the boat and into the churning waters.  We might feel like we are drowning, we might panic because we don't know what to do in that moment, we might lose focus on the One who can save us and bring us back to where we are supposed to be.  But He isn't going to give up on us, He won't leave us in the water to drown if we are seeking Him and wanting to be saved.  He sometimes uses other people to bring us back to Him, sometimes He miraculously intervenes Himself.  And sometimes, after being rescued, we may feel shaken up, not wanting to put ourselves out there again, to try something that seems a bit risky.  But oh what we would miss out on if we threw in the paddle and gave up on participating in the journey.

I apologize for being more long winded than usual in this post, but there are times where I feel like the Lord has spoken to me in a specific way and I am to share my learnings and journey with others.  Does the image of life with God as a trip down a river resonate with anyone else?  (I have to say that my friend Ashley and I have talked about this idea before, and so I may subconsciously be borrowing from her a bit here in this post. :) ) I'd love to hear your thoughts.  Thanks to Him for being the ultimate Guide on this adventure called life; I am so thankful.

2015, here we go!

I realize that it's been 2015 for 12 days already and so my post title might sound a bit strange, but hey, it's my first post of this new year.  A new year always means time for a bit of reflection, as well as looking forward at what is to come.  I have been back in Costa Rica for a little over a week after having spent three weeks in California visiting with friends and family.  This was my third Christmas vacation since living in Costa Rica, and each time I go "home" there are always a lot of emotions.  Excitement to see so many people I love in a short amount of time, delight at eating at many of my favorite places, a business of trying to fit as much and as many people in as I can during that time without being a crazy person, and a strangeness because I don't quite "fit in" like I did before.  I realize that people's lives have gone on and everyone has had their own experiences like I have over the past three years.  And my life has quite obviously changed in the past three years.  But all that being said, it is encouraging to my heart to be loved on and to have so many good conversations with people who have known me well prior to Costa Rica.

I don't know all that 2015 holds for me.  I know that today, this day, I live in Desamparados and am part of Students International.  Tomorrow will be the first day back in the Tutoring Center with my kiddos and they are eager to have something to do again since they have been on their summer holiday for a month now.  I know that I am excited about having semester students with us and a number of short term teams coming down to help out.  And I know that I have a God that is WAY wiser than me and knows what is to come.  I want to be obedient today, in how I live this day.  Not easy, especially for a planner like me.  If nothing else, I know that these past threeish years He has been teaching me about being more flexible.  Not always fun, but such a good lesson to be learning.  Bring it on, 2015, let's see what you have for me, for all of us.  

Below are some pics from my time in California:

My dear family along with Grandma and Grandpa

Some of my favorite ladies in Visalia

Disney with my friend Ashley and SI friends and roomies Cailah and Rose

Gorgeous lookout from a day trip to Sequoia National Park