Its been forever!

Well, its about time I had time to get back on and update! I am going to be putting some pictures up on my facebook soon hopefully as well so make sure to check that!

So, it looks like I havent written anything since November! So, so much has happened. first of all, my name has been changed. Nobody calls me Christina really. I am either something pronounced like "KREEES" or called Tiny (Teeney). And every once in a while I am called Tina. But never Christina. hahah thats ok though.

 Nobody really lives in the Quebrada anymore because of the flod. (The pictures on my last blog showing the huge landslide, that area has barely any houses anymore, as well as blow the landslide.) All the people that lived there were given a little rent money and told to go find a new house. So, we have been doing alot of moving. One of the ladies that is closest to us has already moved 3 times!

I got to go back home to Maine over Christmas for a week which was really really nice. I didn't relize really until I was getting ready to go how much I missed everyone at home. As awful as that is, we are THAT busy.

We are now hosting our second team from the States. The first (that came the beginning of Jauary) was from Grand Rapids, Michigan. And we now have a  team from Gahana, Ohio. With the Michigan team we went to Nosara (about a 2.5 hour drive) to stay for 4 days becuase we know some people there that are starting a Vineyard there. (The first step of their church plant is getting together for surfing and then doing worship on the beach, how cool is that?) With this Ohio team we are building a yellow house as well as doing a VBS-type program. It is going awesome so far.

Julie is really really good at this blog thing, so make sure to check out her blog alot. She has an aweosme sense of humor so its really funny, as well as there are alot of pictures. It is called My Life In Tupperware. And Steve, well hes as bad as I am at this blog thing. :)

I think Ive found that I like working with the teenagers here the most. We have youth group every Friday night which I look forward to all week. I absolutely love it. Alot of the boys that we hang out with the most are really on fire for God. I love them! For a reason really no one can figure out, there seems to be no teenage girls 'plugging in' to the chruch or any of the things we do. I really really hope that I can help bring down that wall while I am here. I have become friends with 3 teenagers I see alot and so we text alot (thank You, God for cell phones..haha) and chat alot so I pray that that is the beginning.

If I get back into blogging regurlary, I would love to write about some things about this culture that absolutely amaze me! I feel like Ive learned more about every subject in life in the last 3 months then in the 17.5 years before that. I would have to say that one thing I like most about the culture is the typical music. I love it! And it keeps up alot of the people that come at night, but not me. I like it alot.
-One thing about the culture that makes me hurt inside the way alot of the men treat woman. Cheating on their ladies seems to be a regular, not-a-big-deal thing. They can be in a relationship and still be cat-calling ladies on the streets and making comments that shouldnt be said outloud out in public. And for some reason, I feel like the woman seem to be willing to fight (even physically) over a man instead of the other way wround. What ever happened to these fairytale stories of the men fighting for a womans love and protecting her at all costs? I dont know. I guess its hard to explain.
-One thing about the culture here that amazes me, it is not necessarily good nor bad is their use of cell phones! We could be in the middle of intense prayer and be casting out demons and suddenly you will here, "ello? si! como esta?" It irks the older generation no end. But I look at it as letting someone else somewhere join in on the fun!
-Another thing that I like is all the "whooping" they do. I could be giving a 7 year old boy a hug and people will start hooping and hollering. hahaha I think it is so much fun.

So, to end, a few simple tips for if you ever come down. What NOT to do, speaking from expierence.
-If a huge coakroach comes flying at you during a quiet and tranquil bible study, dont jump up and yell. Ticos in said bible study will never let you live it down.
-If you absolutely cannot talk Spanish, please dont go out trying to invite people out ot events by yourself. Everything that Ticos think of Gringos (anyone from the states) is at stake. Please. This tip is not spoken from my expierence, but there was a certain Gringa here that went through the streets yelling, "Donde los ninos?" (where the kids?) "hot-o dog-os!" (hot dogs, which they call Peros Calientes), "No pesos!" (she was trying to get the point accross that we had free hot dogs for the kids, that you didnt have to pay. Well, they use pesos in Mexico! Not in Costa Rica!)
- Careful where you step in 2 places: on "Calle de Kaka" (litterally 'poop street'), and when you are at a festival where there are cows. lots and lots of cows.

The second flood :( Wednesday, November 3rd

Well, I've been putting up some rather vague statuses on my facebook, so on this quiet Sunday, I will let you all know whats really going on. The first weekend I was here, the night before Dad left, there was a flood. The river rose even before the rain started here in Anonos. It took out about 6 homes that were right on the bank and killed one man. We fed people that were in major need and helped out repairing houses that were wrecked. Rodney said that flooding is not a regular thing, and we all thought it was awful, but it didn't affect Anonos like the next flood that happened this past week. It had been raining pretty heavily all day due to the hurricane that was coming through heading for Haiti. We ran home as fast as we could from Bible study that night and went to bed. We woke up to a phone call from Adriannah, a member of the Vineyard here, saying that the River was so high, that she couldn't get out of her house and that a landslide happened behind her neighbors house.

 We were watching from the windows in the living room. The river was probably twice as high as the last flood, and what was amazing to me is that we could see people in their houses trying to rescue stuff! Even the people that could get out weren't leaving. Rodney and I watched the electricity transformer blow up and everything go dark. It was awful. We went down to the community, and everyone and their mother was up. People were screaming, dogs were howling, but we couldn't go across the bridge or do anything to help. Sometimes thats just how it is. So, Cindy put on beans and rice to feed the people in the morning, and the best we could do was pray. The rain just wouldn't stop. So, we've been feeding people since Thursday morning, and many many people have left. The government is taking them out and letting them stay in shelters until new houses are built for them. Tons of people are refusing to leave though.

This is after the river went down:

Today we saw that people are moving BACK into the Quebrada (the most affected place) because its starting to get cold and windy, letting people know that the rainy season is coming to an end. It is really sad. The foot bridge that really connects everything here in Anonos is closed off because the ground is so fragile. If an earthquake happened right now...wow. Everything would be gone. We have been visiting the people we are closest with that Julie convinced to move out. They are really scared of the unknown. But it is best for their families. Please pray for everyone here. For the ladies in the shelters to feel peace and know that God is with them always and for the people refusing to leave for protection.

Hey All! I just updated last week but thought I would again because I have a quiet night.
   I love it here so far! I especially love these kids. There is nothing better then walking through the street and having kids come running up dying for hugs. I love it. I am going to be taking over the kids program in probably a month or so, once I learn more Spanish. That will be challenging but a lot of fun.
  Probably the biggest problem I have run into here is the huge language barrier. It seems to be falling VERY slowly. I do love the language though.Please continue to pray for me in this area!
  We are headed to Nicaragua the beginning of December with the small team from Maine and a few people from here in Anonos. That trip is going to cost about $400, so I am going to need some support in this area. We are going to be putting on a big Christmas party there (in a town called Tippy-Tappa) and giving gifts to kids that normally would have no Christmas at all. So the money raised will help with buying gifts, feeding them at the party, ect... It should be awesome! I am excited for what God is going to do there. Please be also praying and consider giving to Harvest Hands specifically for this trip.
     Julie is definitely a wonderful mentor and friend to me! She is amazing and sooo on fire for God! She has a passion for the people here, especially the women. She has started exercise class and English class for them and they are totally loving it! Its amazing to watch. She actually teaches English here for all ages and I hope to get into that eventually too. It is really valuable to the people here. To know a second language helps them in a lot of ways.

  Another big thing that is happening here is the start of the new church. It is going well and you can soo tell that Gods hand is all over it. Right now we are preparing the building and holding small groups there. Julie is putting murals on the wall in some rooms and it looks AMAZING!
   Something that I believe God is putting on my heart is teaching the teen girls here about sexual purity, though I really don't know what they have already learned even about God yet. I would love to get a group started as soon as possible  with them. I have heard that they really have a huge wall up when it comes to teaching them. Please, please, pray for this area. I really want to be the missing link they need to get into a relationship with Christ.

  Well, its only been about 2 and a half weeks and I cant imagine leaving! Maybe this is what I will do with the rest of my life! Who knows. But thank you for your prayers!!! Miss you all!

I'm living in the book of Acts!!!!!!!!

Oh. My. Word. This is so incredible. God is absolutely astounding. I don't really know where to start. I guess I can start on Friday when Dad and I hung out with tons of little lids during Julies exercise class. Dad really fell in love with this 3-year old boy named Chi-chi who is such a big man in a tiny tiny body. He is so lovable. :) We gave all of them piggy-backs and played games, and had too much fun. By the end of all or piggy-back races, I think Dad had lost 43lbs. I'm very glad that Dad got to spend some time here. We had tons of fun together.

On Sunday, Rodney, Cindy, Steve, Dad, and I went to the beach. It was a 2 hour drive and it was soo hot, but so worth it! We are all sun burnt now. The waves were HUGE! and disorganized, so Rodney and Steve couldn't do too much surfing. But we found a lot of shells and cool drift wood and had an awesome day! Its weird for me to swim in October! During the long drive, we saw alligators and Iguanas and huge wild parrot-type birds, which I couldn't catch on camera :(.

 



Sunday night, the river running through the valley (that is Los Anonos) flooded over and about 6 houses were lost and tons were ruined. They still cannot find one person so they think he drowned in the river. One woman who has 4 kids across the street from the river lost absolutely everything. The river was about 5 feet deep on the street. I am sure many people down there didn't sleep Sunday night because they were trying to fix their houses and gather their stuff. But it was amazing, because as soon as we heard about it, we started praying, and Cindy prayed for the rain to stop and within minutes it did. The police only had the bridge blocked off for maybe an hour or so. So that night we went down for a little while to assess the damage. Our close friends Adriana, Maline, and Jacqueline, (not that I know how to spell)  house's were wet, but fine.

Monday morning we all got up super early and Dad's taxi came to take him to the airport. It was a long day! We brought down tons of rice and beans and bread for all the people that no longer have anything (even though they didn't have much to start with). We asked God to multiply it and he did! It was amazing! We fed about 45 people. When we all got back, Rodney decided to start the Sandwich give-away. God told him to give away 2000 sandwiches, so we went to the store and got enough for 200. When we went down to give away 100 for lunch, Jacqueline was already there with rice and sausage. So we decided to serve that first, as it was hot. Jacqueline told us that she started off with 2 small bags of rice this morning, so she prayed over it and asked God to multiply it, and we served over 50 people with just that rice! We were totally in shock when we heard this! He is multiplying so much, its especially cool to see the woman's faith be, too!! So while we were serving Lunch, it started raining, so Julie and I prayed for it to hold off for an hour. And exactly 1 hour it held off, just in time for us to get to the door.Julie was sooo excited. I think throughout the day Julie and I were down there 6 or 7 times. That hill gets bigger every time!!!!

And its only the first day.......

Well its only the first day, but for some reason there is alot to write about. Because of the egg man going through town yelling "HUEVOS, HUEVOS, HUEVOS" into a loud speaker, I got up at 6am. After some awesome prayer, Julie (who speaks AMAZING Spanish!) took me down to the community for her woman's exercising group. It was awesome and the relationship she has with the women  and their Ninos blows me away. After only a month! There was lots of little kids there, and one little girl named Kalin wanted me to paint her nails, take it off, paint them again, take it off....ect. for an hour! Needless to say, I now know my colors in Spanish pretty well. Rodney showed me the new iglesia (church) building that we are renting, which is sooo cute. Steve and Luis are working on painting that right now. The language is coming back to me better then I expected. Lots of people prayed that over me, and God is providing! I love it! The picture above I got right before we landed. The most astounding sunset I've ever seen.

As soon as this little girl came in La Casita, she snuggled right up to me. Julie says she is usually like this to everyone. She is the sweetest girl ever! And her sister! Sassy-pants Caty!  They are both so full of personality! Tonight at the Bible Study, I felt the language barrier come down even more. Hearing Rodney speak and then Julie translate helps alot because I could match the words up. I love this language already!

A quick update...

Hey, just a quick update...

I am leaving at 1:30 next Tuesday. Super Excited. I have about $2,000.00 dollars in my Costa Rica account thanks to everyones help and an amazing job at the Fair last week. God is really good!!!!!!!!!!!!

My Opponent

Hey again,
 wanted to say tonight that I am not feeling those same nudges anymore about "pursuing my own dreams, worrying only about my own life." I feel like this was definitely an attack from the evil one. Thank you for prayers.

"Be sober, vigilant, because your opponent the devil, as a roaring lion, doth walk about, seeking whom he may swallow up." (1 Peter 5:8) I love this version because it talks about the evil one being my opponent. EEEEK! Something about that excites me beyond words. I'm gonna kick his toosh! "whom resist, steadfast in the faith.... (1 Peter 5:9a)

Another one of those Eric Ludy CDs (I love them, if you cant tell already), talked about the word sober, how it means to be always alert and watchful, not letting anything dull your senses; anything worldly. (That to me is alot harder then it sounds.) Can you imagine if everyone on one side of the battlefield was drunk? Who would win? 

Well, must go to bed, super excited for the months ahead. I can't wait for this battle. :) :)

*Christina