TBT: Costa Rica, March 2015

Pura Vida! Here’s another installment of my year-long TBT series taking you back to my World Race journey last year. March 2015, Month 3, was one of my hardest goodbyes and it’s still the country that I spend the most time thinking about and longing to go back to. God blessed me with some incredible relationships that I have the opportunity to continue investing in today.

I spent this month at Faithful Servant Missions in San Ramon. My time was spent coaching volleyball for elementary school girls, investing into the women at the Tuesday/Thursday sewing ministry, painting the church, teaching English, spending time with the neighborhood children, and building relationships with staff.

 

I would be lying if I said that living with my team was a cakewalk. It definitely wasn’t. This month was our first month being alone (the first two months, we were with our squad) and as we were getting more comfortable with each other, conflict became more common.      

Word the month: Family
     This came up in the middle of a team time while we were watching a chick flick about time travel and making the most of your life. Through that movie, I realized that I really wanted my team to feel like a close-knit, unified family. The others felt similarly and we began working toward that.

One of my dear friends, Liz, started a conversation with me one night and lovingly called me out from my passive aggression. I didn’t even realize I was affecting my relationships as harshly as I was. It was a hard conversation that had infinite potential for growth. Because of that conversation, I am changed, she is changed, our relationship is changed Because of her courage to actually love me in the uncomfortably tough way, my LIFE is changed! I might still be hardcore in that passive aggressive defense mechanism, but because of her, I’m a year into working through it. All of my relationships are different because of that one conversation –THAT’S the beauty of feedback!

Songs on Repeat: 
“How Can It Be” and “Come Alive (Dry Bones)”- Lauren Daigle
“Never Let Me Down” – Jake Hamilton

This is the month I got 2 tattoos. Every single person on my team got a tattoo that month and we spent a handful of nights at Triskell Tattoo with Jafeth, Tito, and Andre. 

It was in this month that I had two of my favorite off days on the Race:

• The first was on 3/14 when my team and I traveled to La Fortuna to see Volcano Arenal. It was on this day that me and Kat started our long friendship when our adventurous spirits came out and we ran around finding rivers and hot springs to explore.  
• The second was on 3/21 when my team and Jafeth traveled to San Jose for a music festival. I cannot communicate to you how much fun we had. We listened to reggae, had amazing food, and explored artsy vendors. We were in a moshpit, I got a dreadlock, we danced and laughed, AND I found McDonalds! It was a fairly perfect day.

Back to my ministry: 

I was so blessed. I had numerous ministries to invest my heart into. Through these ministries, God made clear my heart for discipleship. I wanted nothing more than to stay in San Ramon and continue discipling the young girls and middle-aged women I spent my month with. My heart still longs to go back. I miss my people everyday and wish I was back there.

Costa Rica still has a piece of my heart. Click the link to read last year’s blog about it. It’s like Inception with a Throwback inside of a Throwback. 

Be blessed…