Adventures in Costa Rica!

that pretty much sums up the last few days-or should i say, the last week of my time here in costa rica.
last week, on thursday, all the interns and ray went ziplining right outside of san jose. we had to hike a mountain to get there, which was ya know…well, it built strength, lets say that. by the time i got up to the top, i was ready to zipline…which is funny because i am usually terribly afraid of heights. i got up there and i prayed and i said, god please just take my fear away for it is because of my weakness it exsists. and soon after that, i felt a peace. i wasnt scared. more so, i was like..whoa…did that just work? and i was more contemplative than anything on that zipline experience. until we got to the free fall part…where we..well..free fell. that was awful. but whatever, i made it. and i kept my eyes open this time! despite any fears or surprises or whatever else, i am grateful for opportunities like that, to experience some of the beauty of the earth.

another team came in on saturday. so here i am. in puerto viejo again. this team is really cool. i mean, they are all wonderful…i am sure i will say every time, “this team is really cool”. but these guys impressed me in a way that is going to be difficult for anyone else to live up to. not that any have to live up to any expectations that i have. i have zero expectations for anyone, not even myself.but they did something that made me respect them so deeply. on sunday, they wanted to sing some songs to the church. we said yea, thats fine, they always like that. so they got up there and they started singing” humble thyself”, this really beautiful song that i havent heard since i was quite young. it was beautiful. but its what they did next that surprised me. they began to sing the song in spanish. they did that 3 times, with 3 different songs…singing the english and then the spanish. they learned the songs in spanish. none of them speak spanish at all. they took the time to learn the songs in spanish. they had so much respect for the people and the culture here that they learned their songs in their language, so that they would be singing WITH the church rather than AT the church. it was quite possibly, the most beautiful thing that i have ever seen. it brought me to tears. and im sure for them, that was humbling. learning it in another langauge. church that day was wonderful. the spirit was so strong i could hardly stand it.god had a strong voice that day.
the last few nights i have been just wrought with nightmares. im not really sure why, maybe it was worry or fear or something, coming out in my dreams. but it was really causing me a lot of stress. so matt and i prayed the other night and what happened? i havent had night mares since. 2 nights of peaceful sleeping after 4 of restless. and all i had to do was ask god to take that from me. and he did. pretty great huh? god has been good to me here.
work has been good. just digging ditches, making cement and tieing rebar for the walls. its kind of funny when you start to look at different groups and different group dynamics. despite the fact that its the same work, in the same place, week after week, everything changes. humble thyself. it comes up again. there are always people that have been here many times, and know what they are doing. it is difficult to share with them maybe my own way of doing things, which isnt better at all, but ya know, as a leader i want to share how i dig a ditch. some people dont take that well, they dont want to hear any way that is different that their own, because they have been before and they know what they are doing…and maybe, they can even help me with how to dig a ditch, maybe their way is better. humility, humility, humility. something that i dont really struggle with, but something that i am constantly being tested on here. the song i was talking about before, humble thyself, goes like “humble thyself in the sight of the lord”. i am humbling myself in the sight of the lord, because these people are the lord, these people are doing christs work, in his name, with their hearts. so i humble myself for them, for their work, for His work in them.
my spanish is improving slowly but surely. but yall…when i mess up, i mess up bad. and its embarressing. for example, last week a lady at the seminary asked me a question. i didnt really understand her, i thought she was asking me if i wanted some of the milk she had sitting next to her. i responded with “no, lo siento”, “no, im sorry”. the next day, come to find out, she was asking me if she could put the milk in the refrigerator at the seminary! i told some poor lady that she could not put her milk in the fridge. that is awful. and today, i was trying to say “tiennes hambre”, which is i am hungry and i said “tiennes hombre” which is i am man. so johann and roberto, the tico workers we have with us, made fun of me all day. sooooo funny. whatever. humble thyself. it is difficult and i have to work at it. but then again, what fun would all of this be if it wasnt a bit of a challenge, of what point would it be if, rather than being humbled, i became proud and boastful? right. it would not be as worth it. i love what i do and i do what i love. pura vida amigos.