Take Me To Post Comment Form Since classes have started, not much of anything else has been happening. I’ve been diving into the book of James and absorbing as much of the Word as I can. The study changed a lot about my prayer life that I didn’t realize was wrong with it until now. When you pray, no matter the prayer, you should believe that God can achieve what you’re asking him to do— because he can. That doesn’t mean he will because it might not be his timing or his plan, but he can do anything, so pray like you believe he can. It has turned my prayer life around completely.

I saw the craziest taxi driving the other day. My friends and I were walking home from the supermercado and we were waiting at a crosswalk when out of nowhere three taxis came flying down the road and blocked off all the lanes. They had portable sirens on top of their cars, so everyone was paying attention to them. The three taxi drivers that blocked off the lanes got out of their cars and spread out. One was waving for more cars to speed through followed up by more sirened taxis and the other two were going to the first cars in each lane yelling something at them in Spanish. My friends and I were caught so off guard and thought something intense was about to happen. Turns out that’s just Costa Rica’s version of a funeral procession.

I’ve started going to the University everyday with some girls and running. It’s been great to get back into some form of activity after a very long, lazy summer.

The villa I live in is so nice, but there aren’t enough rooms in the actual villa to house everyone, so I live in the girls’ apartments in the backyard. The rooms are bigger than in the villa and the garden behind us is absolutely beautiful so I prefer living in the apartments. The only negative is at night. The whole compound is walled in and gated, but the apartments also have their own gate. At night, the staff lets out the guard dogs to roam the campus at eleven pm, and that’s why we have our own gate. The dogs have the ability to push our doors open if they get excited enough, so we have to keep our gate locked at night. Well the other night, that was a major downfall of living in the apartments. At about 12:45 am the fire alarms in the apartments started going off. They are extremely loud and repetitive. Needless to say, they did their job and woke all the girls up. We all gathered in the pathway in front of the apartments, but couldn’t go to the villa because the dogs were out and our gate was locked. We have a walkie-talkie in the first apartment incase of emergency, so we were calling the director, Justin, and the groundskeeper, Adolfo, on it frantically. No one was answering and we still didn’t know what was going on. It turns out that the girl using the walkie-talkie wasn’t holding the button down while she was talking, so next emergency- someone else is using the walkie-talkie. Justin finally poked his head out his window and saw us all standing there so he came over and got everything straightened out. It was simply a power surge that set the alarms off, but unfortunately they have them a lot, so I may have a similar occurrence again soon. Hopefully not, though.

All the GAP students went to a missions conference at one of the local churches where George Theis and a few other men of God were speaking. It was a great opportunity to hear from different missionaries who have dedicated their lives to God and to Hispanic countries.

We also participated in the Word of Life Costa Rica’s “Mufa Pufa.” Mufa Pufa is where you split into teams and play the most wild, random, hilarious games. The teams were split up by churches and the GAP kids were spread out within the different teams. My team was the blue and gray team, also known as La Gracia. My roommate fractured her ankle in two places during one of the games, so that’s been dramatic. She gets her cast off on October 22nd, which conveniently happens to be her birthday.

We had a pool party last Saturday night at the villa with the GAP kids. It was so much fun. I got thrown in and that was not so much fun. We bought a blow-up walrus. Its name is Gertrude. Gertrude is now the pride and joy of the GAP students. We love her.
On Sunday we got put into groups for our church rotations. For the next few weeks I will be church-hopping in order to find the local church that I feel called to be part of. My group is Julie Coppenger, Evelyn Price, and Evan Acres. Down here, Julie is one of the girls that I feel closest with. She reminds me a lot of my best friend from Gainesville.
So many funny things have been happening. One of the boys brought a pair of carpet skates, which is virtually a piece of plastic with velcro straps on them, and the guys took turns sliding around the tiled floor and jumping over furniture. The same boy used a pair of crutches as makeshift stilts and fell off them. Again, it was hilarious. Last night we played a villa-wide game of sardines and of manhunt. (For those of you who don’t know what those games are, they’re different versions of hide and seek.)

Tomorrow night is our October Birthday Party. There are seven of us who have birthdays this month, so we’re all celebrating at the same time. I thought that was so sweet of everyone to plan a party for all of us.

On this coming up Monday, I’ll be going hiking with some of the students and I am excited. I can’t wait to see a different area of my new home!

We had a bible study tonight on the book of Colossians. My God is so amazing. All the guys went out to dinner to celebrate a birthday, so the girls had the villa to ourselves. We all got together and studied the first chapter. My heart was broken tonight for all the girls as we went around sharing our struggles and prayer requests, but I was also disappointed in myself. God convicted me through verses 28 and 29 that I am here to focus on Him, to grow and learn in Him, and to share Him with others. I’m not here to have awesome experiences, even though I have been. My main purpose this year is to be blessed and stretched and to pursue my relationship with Christ. I have not been as focused on my purpose as I should be. I thought that God pulling me away from my friends and family and conveniences of the States would draw me closer to him, but just a change of scenery doesn’t translate into a change of heart. From now on I’m making it a point to contact home less, to blog less, and to get on internet less. I know that may upset a few people who miss me, but my goal here is to grow in Christ and if I’m spending all my free time on the computer and not in the word, how am I going to do that? I wrote this blog at two different time points. The first half was pre-Bible study and the second half is post. You can clearly tell where my focus has been and it’s been in the wrong place. Please continue to pray for me; that I would prosper in Christ and in nothing else. He is my provider, my comforter, my creator and I am simply the clay. Who is the clay to question the potter? This clay has got to get back on track and that’s what I’m going to do. Thank you for everyone who’s been praying for me. I love you all so much and thank God for you.

“Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.”
Colossians 1:28-29