Right now I’m at debrief in Granada, Nicaragua. Month one is over which is hard to believe. This is a blog I wrote on one of my adventure days while I was still in good ol’ Costa Rica.
Like all good adventures, we started by nabbing pancakes at the McDonalds in San Jose. Lucie consulted the all wise google maps and bus schedule and we set out to get our sticky fingers onto a bus ticket to Jaco. A few games of Spanglish charades later we found ourselves sitting in the beautiful 710 bus station. We missed our first bus because we misread our tickets but luckily there was pity taken upon us and we got standing room on the next bus out.
Once we were in Jaco we met up with Katie Allen, a racer who was on my parents squad last year. I lost my mind when I saw her. In front of me was a woman who was in my kitchen months ago telling me about her adventures on her race. Sitting on a swing at Taco Bar, sharing food, and hearing stories was almost to much for my brain to handle.
We were able to meet up with another team from our squad that had been doing ministry in Jaco all month. They’ve been helping with a Christian surfing organization. It was our squad mate Allison’s birthday the next day and her team was throwing her a surprise party at the ministry Katie is at which is right on the beach. The surprise got ruined because five seconds into our walk over to Katie’s the group decided to grab a cab over and we beat the girls who were bringing a cake to set up. We tried to cover our mistakes by “spontaneously wanting to go stargazing on the beach” but Allison had already seen her balloons.
We went and stood out on the beach anyway while we waited for the girls to bring the cake. I had already gotten in the water that day but the second we hit the sand I was hopping towards the beach trying to ditch my shoes, shirt, and hat like I had never felt the ocean before.
The ocean’s different at night. Its horizon blends in with the dark sky and the waves seem to be sent from heaven. It’s vast and scary and it reminds me of how big God is. It reminds me that I’m the one choosing to stand waist deep when there’s a mystery and grace further out that could swallow me whole if I choose to go deeper. I was also sure I was going to get eaten by the kraken if I stayed out any longer so I ran back to shore.
I love adventure days. It makes the world small over fish tacos and makes me smaller when I get to stand in God’s creation.
