Mi Casa, Es Tu Casa

Hello all! 

I hope everything is going swell back in the States, Or where ever you maybe reading this blog. I am surprised how many different countries people are reading my blog from. It is quite cool knowing how many friends I have made all over the world.

For our DTS classes we have to read a book called Is that Really You God? It is written by Loren Cunningham. It really is quite an amazing book. I picked it up and didn't put it down until I finished. It is basically the story of how YWAM came to be what it is today, YWAM is the organization that I am doing my DTS with. I recommend that if anyone is interested in what YWAM is about to read it. For those of my friends that aren't Christians to also read the book as well. Not because I think the book will save you, because honestly I don't think it would. But the book is the best way to explain why I am "giving up" six months of my life to go off for a classes/mission trip. 

On Friday night we had what the base calls friendship night. It is basically where a bunch of people just hangout around the fire and hangout. All the girls were trying to take photos of everything and were taking a million selfless. I was able to avoid most of the picture chaos for the majority of the night. But they began to realize that I was not in pictures by the end so I bet you can all see the pictures on FB already. Later in the night we played a game called dead fish. It is where everyone in a circle and has to be completely still and one person tries to make people laugh or move. If they move at all, even a smile, you are out. Well I just stood at attention because the Concord PD taught me how to stand at attention and not have anything distract you for hours. Well sure enough I was the last one left and everyone was trying to make me laugh or move. I was having a fun time seeing what people thought would make me move. It ranged from jokes, to yelling and I think someone even started fake crying. The strangest was someone blowing up my nose. That just felt really really strange, plus he had bad breath… but I held true.  I realized that I would be able to stand there until I got tired so I decided to give up. But right then, Kevin came up to me and said would you like a kiss, and started making a kiss face and noises. So I lunged at him and gave him a big kiss on the check. He screamed and everyone else had a really good laugh. After that Brittany, and I somehow started putting on little skits for people. I am still not sure how it started but everyone lined up and would yell out a scene for us to act out, kind of like Who's Line is it Anyways, just not nearly as funny. but that night, in the moment, everyone was laughing and having a good time. We did scenes like a couple fighting, getting engaged, getting divorced, they all seemed to be couple themed. They all seemed to end up with me yelling and Brittany crying. 

On Saturday I was invited to Jesus's house for lunch along with Kevin. Him and Kevin are both tico's who grew up in the church together. Kevin knows Jesus's family, so the fact he was invited wasn't surprising, but for me, I was very surprised that I was invited since I've only known him for a week. We took a bus for about 15 min and then walked about a kilometer until we got to his street. Everyone on his street except for one house at the very end is related to him. So when we were walking to his house he was telling me which one of his relatives lived in what house. When we got to his house we ran into his dad first who I have meet him twice before. He asked me how I was doing and I responded with the common response here in Costa Rica, pura vida, or pure life. He told me how he loved the peace and view that his house had, and boy was he right. The only thing you could hear was the wind and birds, and there was a great view of the hillside. I then went inside and meet Jesus's Mother. Jesus translated for me and he told me "My mom says welcome to my house, our house is now your house, we are so grateful to have you here. There is a lot of food cooking and I hope that you are hungry, also you are ugly." I knew the Jesus's mom  say that, especially since I didn't hear feo, which is spanish for ugly. But I started laughing historically at what Jesus said because it took me by surprise. Jesus's Mom looked at me like I was crazy, understandably since nothing she said was funny. Jesus explained to her why I was laughing, Her eyes got really big and started saying NO! NO! NO! and gave Jesus a couple good slaps, by the end of it we all had some good laughs. I also was able to meet all of his brothers as well.

Jesus's mom was not lying when she said that there was a lot of food, but she forgot to mention how good it was! We had rice and beans, which I am pretty sure is a law here in Costa Rica that it must be served with every lunch and dinner, as well as this carne (shredded beef) that was cooked in this amazing sauce, mashed potatoes and bread. Everything was so good! Jesus told me that it was his favorite meal, and for me it is probably in the top five. I ate and ate and it seemed as if the bowls we were being served out of just kept replenishing itself. After I decided that it was just pointless to eat anymore because I was so full, they brought out some freshly squeezed blackberry juice and we had a nice time chatting, while either Jesus or Kevin translating for me. After about 30 min I saw Jesus mother pull out what looked like there monthly spending sheet and then told Jesus to get some ice cream. While we were getting the ice cream at the store, I grabbed the ice cream that Jesus was going to buy plus a big tub of vanilla and bought it for the family. It was quite literally the least I could do after the hospitality they had showed me. When we got back, when Jesus mom saw how much ice cream there was and said something to Jesus. Jesus told her that I bought it and I could tell how pleased she was. When I left, she told me to come back anytime I wanted and to look out for Jesus for her. I responded to her in my bad spanish " that is a hard job, but I will do my best." she agreed with me and gave me a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. When we got back to base and everyone found out where I had been, and the meal that we had, they all got a little jealous and told Jesus that next weekend they were all going to his house for lunch.

Miss you all,

Scott

Soft Hands

We started our first day of classes on monday. We are talking about intimacy with god. So far to be honest I don't really like it. Our speaker Elise has been talking about how the lord will tell women who and when to marry. I don't like the fact that she is talking about this because one I am a guy (shocker I know) and she is only really addressing the women. Secondly, most of the girls are either 19 or younger. I don't really like the fact that someone is talking to a bunch of girls who in my opinion still need a lot of growing up to do about how God is going to tell them when and who to get married to. To me it almost seems creepy, plus I talked to all the girls about it and they said that they are all no were close to something like that. This isn't all she is talking about, in fact it is probably a about 10 % but it is enough to put me off to most of her talks.

Later we played soccer again and I got hurt, twice. I got another ball to my favorite area again, and by Rowey as well. I need to make sure that he is on my team from now on so that he stops hitting me there. Second was I got a ball to the face, but I was wearing my sun glasses so I got a nice cut above my eye. It bleed for a while but other then that I was fine. I did a lot better today. In about 5 min I scored three goals. I am really excited though because they told us today that they are going to the Soccer DTS. DTS is the program that I am doing and originally I was going to do the soccer DTS but they didn't have enough people sign up so it was canceled. Well for some reason, I have yet to hear the official reason why, but they are going to do the soccer DTS! There is going to be about 11 of us total doing it and it starts next week.

We got a new student this week, his name is Jonathan. He is originally from Holland but has been living in Guatemala for the past six years. He got here late because first he missed his bus, and he was also having problems with his visa.

On Tuesday we had more class, it was a little better today. We talked about Petter and how he denounced Christ but how after Christ was resurrected that he came back to Peter and excepted him back. I liked this a lot because I myself denounced Christ, and I love the fact that he will always bring me back into his arms because his love for us is so strong. 

I've been asked what my average day looks like. It is kind of hard to explain but I will try my best. During the week breakfast is at 6:30 in the morning. Then we have personal devotional time from 7-8. From 8-9 we have some sort of worship. 9-12:30 we have our first class period then we have lunch until 2. Then depending on the what is going on that week 2-4 can either be class, free time or mission work. 4-6 is work duties. Everyone has a job that they have to do. I have dinner clean up though so I have free time during this period. I thought that I had finished having to do a ton of hand washing once my parents finished remodeling the kitchen. Now I get to do anywhere from 20-80 peoples dinner dishes all by hand. After dinner is either class time, free time or mission work. then it is bed time. I am quite busy here, even during our free time I am either, journaling, writing my blog, reading or playing soccer.

Wed is when I finally got internet. I was able to talk to my parents for the first time since being here. They let me know though that they got a call about my credit cards. Visa fraud department called and said they thought that maybe my credit card got stolen, but they wouldn't tell them anything more because it is my card not theirs. Well since I didn't want to pay two dollars a minute talking to visa I went to get some credits from Skype. When I entered in my credit card information I got a screen that said that my card was temporary blocked. Great… Luckily my parents were able to give me some credits for Skype. I called Visa, quite mad because I called them before I left to let them know that I would be out of the country for six months. When I finally got to talk to an actual person, fifteen minutes later, they informed me that they didn't block it because I had been using my credit card in Costa Rica. It was because I bought some music on iTunes… because that is totally suspicious. 

Thursday we had our feet washed by our DTS leaders. For those of you that don't know, this is a pretty big gesture within the Christian faith. Jesus did this to his disciples right before he was betrayed. A lot of the students were very emotional by then end of it. I just couldn't stop thinking about how soft Josè's hands were. I mean they were really really soft. We had some more of class time and then at night we watched Passion of the Christ. By the end everyone one in the room was crying and said that they felt the Holy Spirit, except for me. To be completely honest I haven't felt much of anything when it comes to God since I have been here. This is very frustrating because one of the reasons I wanted to come here was to reconnect with God. It makes it very difficult to do these things when I feel absolutely nothing. So for those of you who are reading this, I could really use your prayers right now. It would be greatly appreciated. 

Love you all,

Scott

My New Home Part 2

So it turns out that the three guys spoke much better english then the originally let on. The whole time that they were unpacking they only spoke spanish, including when I introduced myself. When they finished unpacking, Kevin came up to me and asked if I wanted to join them outside. I said of course but why didn't he speak English before hand. He said he thought his English wasn't that good. I have no idea why he thinks that because in reality their English is pretty good. Apparently most Ticos (Costa Ricans) speak English. They are already teaching me some Spanish and I am teaching them some English. Some more students arrived to and guess what… they all speak English!!  I am starting to not feel so isolated. When I first got here basically only spanish was being spoken but now with more and more people coming who speak english, more and more english is being spoken. 

It is now Saturday. We woke up at 640, which believe it or not is sleeping in here! we usually have to get up at 6:00 o'clock to be ready for breakfast. For those of you don't know, when I was at home I usually went to bed around three o'clock in the morning, and woke up at 12… on a good day. This is definitely a huge transition for me. Luckily because of the plane ride I am already starting to adjust. I broke my watch today though when I woke up and took it off to shower. I've only had it for three days and it is broken. Pops, I should have just taken the one you originally gave me. Oh well

We had our DTS orientation today which lasted a couple hours. Everything is spoken in English and Spanish here, so things tend to take longer. But I am using that to try to learn as much Spanish as I can. However it is going a lot slower then I would hope. I am not very good at this whole speaking another language thing. It makes me wish I tried harder in high school and not get D's in Spanish. Edguardo and I have made a pack though to help each other learn each others language. I have the easier job though because he is pretty good at speaking English. I wish that I brought my Spanish textbook though. That would have made learning Spanish easier.

Tonight we are having our welcome dinner. They made the place look really nice. with flowers, I took some pictures but not many.

 They had a very nice tasteful dinner. I actually like the food here a lot so far. Although we still haven't had rice and beans. I have realized that I have been writing a lot so far and that this first post is going to be very long. I know they won't be this long in the future, just so much is happening in these first couple of days so far. Anyways, after dinner we had worship. It was both in english and Spanish, which made it very interesting. I am sure though that Caralee would have absolutely loved it. After worship they played music and people started dancing. I had fun watching people trying to learn how to dance from the Ticas (means a Costa Rican Girl). Ben who is 6'4 was trying to learn from the shortest girl, Ben also isn't the most graceful person either, so it was a very entertaining sight to see.

It is now Sunday. Today I got woken up by a loud thunk at 6:30. Josh who sleeps on top of one of the bunks jumped out of bed. He was wearing socks so when his feet hit the ground they slipped out from underneath him and landed straight on his ass. I wasn't to happy because we could have slept in till about 7:30. After that we all got ready for church. We went to Kevin, Byron, and Jesus's church today three of the Tico's that are in my DTS. It was a short 5 min car ride away. At the church service people were so emotional. So many people were crying hysterically, one person sounded like she was laughing like a witch. There was a guy who had maybe three teeth but was the nicest dressed guy there. He was probably in his 60's and had a face full of wrinkles. During worship he was interpretive dancing the whole time, he actually had some pretty good moves. Worship went on forever though. They like to repeat themselves about twenty six times. I almost fell asleep about twelve times during the service since it was all in spanish and I understood maybe one in every twenty words.

After church we went back to the base and hungout for a while. Then we took about a ten-fifteen minute bus ride to downtown San Josè, we took the bus so they could show us how to do it on our own. The bus ride only costs about 50 cents each way. When we got to downtown we just walked around for a while, and then meet up in the city square. Apparently it is tradition that when kids go there that they feed the pigeons. We were standing there with pigeons flying all around us and I said "someone is going to get hit" right then I see splatter bounce off of someone. Melissa got hit right in the head with a nice big bird turd on her head. It is one of those moments when you feel bad for the person, but you can't help yourself from laughing. After that we had ten minutes to go do whatever we wanted to. Jesus took me to the bank so that I could get some Colonies. 500 Colonies is about one dollar. After that we went and got some ice cream. Jesus and I got to the meeting point first and meet up with Katie, one of our DTS leaders. Katie said she was going to ask the whole group which way the bus station was. Jesus and I both knew right away, and Katie told us she knew we would know, but she wants to show the 18 year old girls who have never been out of the country what being lost feels like. When the whole group got there Katie asked them, I don't think there was a direction that people didn't point at. 

When we got back at the base we played soccer. We played 4 on 4 on a small basketball court. I couldn't believe how much I have lost! Granted it has been about four years since I have really played but still. I kept trying to do things that I was once able to do, but failed completely when I tried. I scored two goals out of the ten our team scored so I didn't do terribly. About halfway through the game Rowey, tried to get the ball past me, but I stopped it… with my groin. It was awful, I was decommissioned for about 15 minutes. After that we had a very nice dinner and went to bed. I really needed sleep by the end of the day.

Please remember to keep me updated about your life as well!

Here is a photo that I took that I really like

My New Home Part 1

Hello from Costa Rica! Or should I say Hola!

First of sorry that It took me so long to post something. The internet has been down so I have yet to be able to post anything or talk to anyone, I hope that I haven't worried anyone (Mom). Second what you are about to read my seem confusing. It is basically the order in things that happen. so far I have written some, gone off and done something, and then write some more. so things might seem to jump a bit but I want to write things down when they are fresh. so here is what has happened so far. Third, since so much has happened since I have been here I am going to split it up into two.

First off was leaving my family at the airport. I said my goodbyes gave me hugs and kisses (your welcome Pops) and went through security. Before I can even get my shoes back on I get a call from my sister Caralee. She told me that I had to come back and wave to them or else my Mom would start crying, I told Caralee that I hadn't even put my shoes on and that I would wave soon. Well I finished putting my shoes back on and waved goodbye and pointed at my shoes while doing so. Then it was off to my flight.

Boy did the flight here suck. The plane was completely booked except  for the seat that was right next to me, so I though the flight was going to be awesome. I would be able to spread out, not bump elbows with someone and get some sleep. however, it was anything but awesome. I took the red eye so we left at 11pm, and I was tired from the start of the plane trip but was never able to find a comfortable position. They didn't give us pillow or anything and the seats were very uncomfortable. Plus the person that was sitting behind me kept moving a lot and hitting my chair with a strong force, making it so that every time I was about to sleep or just feel asleep I would be jolted awake. Total I probably slept for an hour and a half, no more then 15 min at a time.

Customs and immigration was pretty simple, there was only one hick up. I didn't know the address to the YWAM San Jose base that I am staying at. The customs officer told me he couldn't let me go without an address. Luckily I took a screen shot of the PO box for YWAM here and the customs officer said he would let me use that. that could have been a disaster but I do have someone watching out for me so that could have helped.

When I walked out of the airport two YWAM staff where there waiting for me with a sign Noland and Rowey. They told me I was the only one they were picking up in the morning so we went on our way. We pilled into this very rickety van. I counted three spiders webs with spiders and two without. Every time we accelerated the floor of the van vibrated heavily, and when we changed gears the whole car shook violently. I have read a couple of blogs from people who did the same thing that I am doing here at YWAM San Jose and they all at one point had a van break down on them. I can see why now. Also my seatbelt was completely broken and the whole 40 min ride I felt naked without it.

When I got to the base I had a quick breakfast and then took a nap, boy did I need that. I woke up in time for lunch but everyone had already finished and started there jobs already so I ate by myself. I was completely surprised that it wasn't beans and rice. It was meat and rice with salad. The salad however didn't have any dressing. I don't know if they put it away before I got there but I barely eat salad as it is. But I didn't want to waste the food so I did my good old water trick. I take a bite and quickly swallow it down with some water. Salad without any  dressing really unappetizing. 

I then got a quick tour around the base. If you compare this place to American standards you would say this place isn't that nice, but by what I could tell from Costa Rica so far this place is pretty nice. Personally I really like it. It use to be a coffee processing plant, and then after that it was a design school. Apparently the design school made some modifications and I have no idea what they were thinking. There are doors on the second floor that lead to the outside… with no stairs, just a straight drop off. The stairs to my room are block by another set of stairs at one point so there is at most three feet of clearance. 

Most of the staff here live in old shipping containers.They are small! The bed fit just perfectly and then there is about two feet then a desk and dresser, oh and they are bunk beds so two people live in them! My room at home, and the singles at Porter are massive compared to these places. 

More students arrived! wooohooo I am not the only student. But still the only student that speaks english… What did I get myself into… 

My Blog

So this is my blog, I probably should have made this earlier to get familiar with it. But it is just like me to wait till the last minute to do things. This is where I will do my best to keep you all updated. As of right now I am all packed and leaving for the airport in 30 min.

-Scott

picture test

Not a good photo just wanted to learn how to upload it.