¡Aprendido más cada día!

It has officially been a month since I arrived here in Costa Rica! The days felt long, but the month was way too short. In the midst of settling in and wanting to try new things and see new places, I have to remind myself to take a step back and appreciate the fact that I’m actually here doing what I have been working towards for so long. Luckily, I have some amazing friends who aren’t afraid to remind me to do that!

While the first couple weeks felt good settling in physically, the past couple weeks felt a little more like settling in emotionally. It’s been an adventure getting used to living with 12 other students and 7 staff. I have had great conversations with many of them and have loved getting to know them through studying the Word of God together. It is really cool to see the Lord bring us closer by challenging us to think about and study who he is together.

Ministry

Ministry has been getting better every week! Now that we have a better understanding of how it all works, we are beginning to take on a little more responsibility. My ministry partner, Martin, and I are in charge of planning the games for both the kids club and youth group. We are hoping to be able to start working to explain the games ourselves in Spanish. My ministry leader, Ryan, is taking charge of leading the bible lesson for the youth group. It is both humbling and encouraging to see someone who went through a GAP year using the skills he learned both in Bible and Spanish to partner with a church making disciples for the Lord. In addition to leading games, I am hoping to play a part in the musical worship in the church.

Family time! I was blessed to be able to spend the weekend with my parents, grandpa, and brother. They came down to visit Sami and Brandon and being in their ministry, I got to join in! They joined our ministry activities throughout the weekend and I stayed an extra day in Santa Rosa to spend the morning on a boat looking at some Costa Rica monkeys. It felt a little weird for my routine to be interrupted so early on, but it was very encouraging and refreshing to have them around for a couple days!

Story Time!

Beach Olympics! Yesterday was our first full day outing as a whole group. We were divided into three teams and we competed for the GAP trophy! Each team had a theme, ours being Hawaiian pineapples! We all wore Hawaiian shirts, the girls wore grass skirts, and we had a pineapple on a stick as our mascot. We played a couple smaller games, like crab-walking, getting water over our heads and into a bucket, and squeezing water into a gallon on top of someone’s head. My team came in last in almost all these, so we pretty much gave up on winning. Then, we all had to build sandcastles, and we won! We also won burying a team member in the sand, and WE WON! We were the Hawaiian underdogs!

Prayer Requests

• As we continue to get to know each other around the villa, pray that we can be encouraging and loving towards each other, even when it’s not easy.
• As conversations continue happening around the villa, at ministry, to and from ministry, and anywhere else, pray that they will be honoring to God and encouraging to others. Pray that we can have this mindset in everything we do.
• Pray that I can continue taking on responsibility at my ministry and that I can do it well in a way that is helpful to those in the church.