someone please get that movie reference…
I hope your July 4th celebrations were fabulous, though I know it rained so much. I spent mine watching tv shows on Netflix because that's exactly what I wanted to do.
Costa Rica has been treating me quite well. We have wifi at our "home" – aka in my tent on a little piece of property that is owned by the ministry we're working with this month. We spend most of our mornings doing small improvements around the property (which also has a small hostel on it) including stucco, shoveling gravel, and the like. We eat a lovely lunch around noon and then head off to the local watering hole – aka the beach or a pool. We open the property for a few hours in the afternoons for local skater punk kids to come and play around on the halfpipe that the ministry built a few years ago. They're pretty fun kids! I get to practice my Spanish!
There's a delicious coffee shop right around the corner, a few good restaurants, cute shops with fun souvenirs, and a phenomenal smoothie joint. None of this stuff is outrageously expensive, but after a while things add up so I'm having to practice a little self control, even though those smoothies are hard to resist and so incredibly good for me.
Like I said, we're living in our tents this month, but the location of mine has been carefully considered. I put it under a little overhang where a couple of bikes should be held (but there's not any there). I'm protected, for the most part, from rain and falling mangoes! It's incredible.
I'm really enjoying the beach, but for some reason I've started worrying a lot in the last few days. Anything that is different in my body scares me- a bump, a scrape, odd pain, anything. I know it's just Satan attempting to throw me for a loop with only a few weeks left in this gig, but God is in control. I have to keep telling myself that.
This trip has taught me a lot about trusting, that's certain. It's taught me to trust God when weird things happen to my body or when I get sick – like the time I got hives on the plane from India to Romania and thought I was dying. It's also taught me, in a more saturated and intense way, NOT to trust everything I hear, but to take everything to scripture. You'd be amazed at how many people twist the truth just a little for it to fit their own agenda – even being "missionally minded" is sometimes not the right way to go because God calls us to discipleship. Missions comes under that umbrella, but when discipleship doesn't happen, mission work simply becomes volunteer work. It's an interesting thought, to be sure.
As I'm sure you can tell by my tweets and other social media posts, we're all so ready to be home. Don't get me wrong, this is awesome and exciting, but after eleven months of continual traveling, upheaval, and goodbyes, one simply wants home. I'm excited for coffee shops, roads I can drive with my eyes closed, simple weekend gatherings with friends, familiar faces, and similar comforts. I'm not so much caught up on missing food, but I obviously do. I'm not sure I'll drop my bags and run to the closest Chickfila when I get home, but I'm excited to eat my southern food. I'm excited to smell Georgia air again. I'm excited for tea – the sweet southern iced kind, but also other fun flavors like pumpkin and blueberry.
By the way, I'm a grown up now. I like avocados. I can handle raw tomatoes. I ate cauliflower for lunch today with bell peppers, broccoli, and carrots like a veggie tray. Get ready for it. No more fat-minded Beth. I'm still small, but I eat better.
