Truth...

 

I can't speak for anyone but myself, but at times I know I have a problem with following rules and commands. Being truly obedient has never been easy for me. I can be obedient through my actions, but in my heart and mind I am often disobedient. God has been teaching me a lot lately about what it means to be truly obedient to Him.

Today, after I got back from downtown San Jose I decided to make a Truth Wall. I wrote out Bible verses that God has been using to reach me or placing on my heart and I wrote them down on a piece of colored paper and then placed them on the wall next to my bed. I need Scripture that I can turn to quickly in my time of need and I need reminders of God's sovereignty and of whom I am in Him. I am also working on memorizing Scripture so these wall reminders will help me in memorizing some of the verses that I have been studying lately. 

Weekend Trip to the Arenal Volcano...

This past weekend was such a blessing, seriously...it was wonderful. Thank you Lord. Spending the weekend at a resort, laughing, swimming, and spending time with friends, and taking in the beauty of God's creation....wow!

I have been truly blessed with some wonderful friends here in Costa Rica and this weekend I was able to go away with some of those girls to the Arenal Volcano.

"Arenal is Costa Rica’s best-known volcano. It’s a stratovolcano – a large, symmetrical volcano that’s built upon layers of ash, rock and lava – and at 5,437 feet, it stands high above the rest of the countryside. After nearly 400 of years of inactivity, Arenal began erupting in 1968, when it exploded and buried over 5 mi² (15 km²) in rocks, lava and ash. That eruptive cycle took pause in 2010 when the volcano entered into an indefinite resting phrase." - http://www.arenal.net/

We stayed at Los Lagos which is a nice resort near the volcano. While I was there, I was able to do one of my favorite things....SWIM! I absolutely love swimming and it was so much fun to be able to swim in a pool. I also really enjoyed hanging out with friends, they are such a fun group of girls. The volcano was also amazing, good job God! I love nature and just being able to walk around or sit and stare at God's beautiful creations. The balcony in our room looked out towards the volcano and was the perfect spot to sit and stare at the volcano.

While at Los Lagos, I also got to try something that a year ago I never could of imagined doing...I went zip-lining. This was a terrifying, thrilling, exciting, and fun experience all rolled into one. I zipped in the air on 12 different cables, which were stretched out to almost 2 miles, through the rainforest. I am terrified of heights so this was quite an experience, one that I will probably not be repeating in the future but it was still a lot of fun.

While walking up to the volcano lookout and while at the hotel reading God's Word, God opened my eyes up to some things that I have been thinking about lately and that have been on my heart. God has been teaching me some things and little by little He continues revealing more of Himself to me about who He is and who I am. It was nice to be able to walk and talk with God while being surround by the beauty of the forest and the volcano and the laughter of close friends.

Thank you Lord for the exceptionally great weekend!

This Weekend...

Tomorrow morning, I will be heading to the Arenal Volcano with some friends from school. We have an extended weekend so we will be staying til Monday. I am really excited to be able to spend some time with friends and try new things. We will be going zip-ling, which I am quite scared about but at the same time excited. I have never been very fond of heights so we will see what happens. While at Arenal, we will also be going to the volcano and taking a dip in the hot springs. Please pray for us as we travel.

Pray...

For the group of students who will be traveling to Panama today. Thanks.

(FYI: I am not going to Panama but I did coordinate this trip.)

Building Relationships...

This trimester my host mom, Sonia, (a.k.a. mamî) and I have been meeting weekly to discuss the culture in Costa Rica. I absolutely love talking with mamî. Every Wednesday night, our conversation topic is different and by the time we finish talking our conversation topic might have completely changed. I talk with mamî every week because I want to build a relationship with her, the homework is secondary in my eyes as long as I am still practicing and speaking Spanish.

This week, our conversation went a bit deeper. We started out talking about vacations and by the end of our conversation we were talking about God and she shared with me part of her testimony. As we sat there talking I started getting tears in my eyes, as I listened to her share her testimony and as she talked about her relationship with the Lord. This is one of those conversations that I will never forget.

Thank you Lord for my wonderful host family and specifically for mamî.

A few things I am thankful for...

• Chai Tea
• Hoodie
• Sweatpants
• Thunder
• Rain
• Music
• Friends
• Laughter
• Cooking
• Coffee 

Now put all of those things in one day and you have a pretty great day. Thank you Lord.

Even though, Costa Rica doesn't really have a fall season today really felt like fall to me in many ways. It has been a bit cooler the past couple days so that has helped, and today I actually pulled out my Columbia jacket for the third time this month. Not only that, but I also got to wear my sweatpants and hoodie, one of my favorite wardrobe combinations. I also got to help my friend, Kate, make cookies and apple cider (oh one of the many smells of fall that I love).  Now, I am drinking hot tea on a cold rainy night, thank you Lord.

"Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Ephesians 5:19b-20

Laughter...

Sometimes God makes me laugh... I was having a bad day the other day and out of nowhere I get this desire in me to laugh. Laughing out loud in class is usually not a problem for me because I laugh all the time. However, on this particular day I was done. My body was physically done and so was my spirit, at least I thought so. I had been filled with anxiety all day and I had spent a good portion of my breaks from class getting sick from worry. This anxiety had been with me all weekend and by Monday I was done.

On this day, I went to a Women's Bible Study. To be honest, I really did not want to go to this study and I was not in the "mood" to go, but I went any ways. God gave me more peace in that hour then I had had all weekend, this blew my mind. I really couldn't understand why I had been trying to get rid of my anxiety all weekend and then all of a sudden in the place where I didn't want to be God decide okay let's remove this worry. (I have to admit that this added to my confusion and frustration.) After the study, my first reaction was okay I am done, I am leaving. However, I knew I had to finish out the school day. I went into my next class still thinking about the Bible study and determined not to talk in class so that I could just sit there thinking about everything. Then it hit me, I was listening to my friend Sarah give an example of one of our grammar rules and I lost it. I just started laughing. She didn't even say anything really funny, but I just started laughing so hard that I started to cry. It was great. God knew I needed to laugh.

After a weekend/week of stress and anxiety, it was almost like God said okay you need to laugh so He just put this joy in my heart that just made me burst out into laughter. That might have not been the most appropriate time to laugh out loud but it was for my heart. After that laugh, I still did not have much energy but my spirit was definitely a bit better. It was like in that moment of laughter I saw a glimmer of hope that things were going to get better.

I can recall one other time where that had happened. I had just returned home from a mission trip to Italy and the team and I were doing a group prayer. We were all stressed and the tension in the group was really intense. We were in the middle of praying and I lost it. I just started laughing so hard that I about fell over with laughter. That was not an appropriate time to laugh but the Lord knew that we all need to laugh. Before, I could stop laughing and apologize for interrupting the prayer the whole team was bursting into laughter (2 people did actually fall on floor laughing) and the tension was lifted.

God used those moments of laughter to bring me back to Himself. I knew that everything was not automatically better in that moment but that moment of laughter and joy reminded me that He is with me and He also reminded me of His love for me. In grammar class, I wanted to continue laughing out loud but at the same time start really crying, because God was reaching out to me in my moment of weakness in a way that only He knows how to do. God knew what I needed in that moment and He provided me with everything I needed.