Well folks, I made it! After a few days filled with squad meetings, team time, lots of prayer, and family time they shipped us off to Costa Rica.
I want to give my subscribers a quick overview of what exactly we had to go through to get here. Back in August God put it on my heart to do The World Race even though its “not like me”. I had finally gotten my life “back on track” as society likes to say. I was going to school, working full time and living on my own. Seems like someone who has it all together right? Wrong! We will get back to that later.
When I first heard of The World Race through a friend in my small group I immediately brushed off the idea when I heard racers are required to live 11 months out of only a travel pack they carry on their back. Sounded crazy to me….and still does (yet here I am living in a tent). But I have always had the desire to travel and compassion to love people.
After weeks of turning the idea in my head and encouragement from complete strangers (you can read about this in my first blog) I sent in my application. Months filled with tears, training camp, lots of family and friend time and here we are in Costa Rica.
My team (team Radiant) is made up of 6 members. Myself, Jen, Kelsey, Kelsey, Olivia, and Cicily. Feel free to find out more about them through there blogs linked to the left. God put us together because He has something for each of us to learn from each other.
We are stationed together at our first stop in Los Guidos, Costa Rica. It is a colorful city filled with constant energy. People walking, full buses constantly passing by, motorcycles whipping through traffic. The weather here is spectacular! Sunny with nearly NO HUMIDITY! When you grow up in South Carolina you know humidity. They have a few American based stores as you see in the picture a Payless to the left. There is so much life here! Life in the people, in the towns and in the trees. When you step back to take a look at it all it is beautiful.
The first thing I noticed since being here is how happy people are. Appreciative of where and who they are.
My first lesson I picked up since being here is how unappreciative I have become. As a society we tend to get wrapped up in our everyday busy lives and selfishly think of only ourselves. We forget there is so much to be thankful and happy for. Do you have to worry about where your next meal is coming from? When you are upset are you able to go to your room, slam the door closed and be alone? Do you still have both your parents? Do you know who both your parents are? These are luxuries to most of the population here in Los Guidos.
This is something God has put on my heart recently as I see children running through the streets finding joy in being with each other. American children usually spend their time playing XBOX, playstation, facebooking and twittering alone. Americans have learned to “enjoy” their lives and find meaning in it by staring through a screen.
I am sure I will learn more about what it truly means to give up the “screen life” when I haven’t had wifi for another few weeks.
But back to being in Los Guidos! We arrived Sunday evening to meet Meg and Mark our hosts. Thankfully we have a very easy transition into this society. Meg and Mark are also from the US and have devoted their lives to ministry and the growth of Jesus Christ in the city of Los Guidos.
Meg and Mark opened a church called La Finca with a gym/feeding center for the local children. This is where we are staying. Luckily it includes a full kitchen and bathrooms. The feeding center feeds hundreds and hundreds of local children everyday. The kids are currently on “summer break” so we will not be seeing any of them for the month of January.
When we walk out of the feeding center we have a beautiful view of a volcano to the left of this picture. We often see the local boys and sometimes girls playing soccer. I foolishly decided to play soccer with the boys my second day. I was blue in the face chasing around these guys for only one hour and they play for three!
These kids find so much joy playing with each other. Finding community with one another in a city where there is no community. I can’t wait to see all the amazing things I learn from these people and the amazing culture.
