Welcome!

Thank you for visiting my blog! I look forward to serving you and sharing God's heart of love as I share what He is doing in my life and in Costa Rica.

I left on July 1, 2009 to work with the Abraham Project for about fifteen months. I am serving as support staff--publicist, babysitter, translator, cookie baker, meeting coordinator, missions team assistant, etc.--to fill in the gaps where help is needed because the Project is growing, but there are not enough permanent staff. My work is intended to facilitate the good things that are already being done and free up more areas for continued growth.

You can partner with me and the Abraham Project in many ways while I am here. I value your support as it is an encouragement and a blessing! Personally, I am in need of prayer and financial support. Please see the 'How to Donate' link on the right side of my page for information on where to send funds. Please let me know if you would like to become a regular, monthly supporter; one-time gifts are also welcome. You can find more information on my sending agency, New Hope International Ministries, and the Abraham Project by visting their websites under the 'Important Links' section on the right. The Abraham Project is also in need of child sponsors for their children's homes. Please visit their website for more information, and consider supporting their work in this way.


The Lightouse Christian Community Church in Villas de Ayarco, Costa Rica has spearheaded an organization called the Abraham Project. Their mission is to reach out to the hurting and lost in their surrounding communities and those of the nearby capitol city, San Jose. The project was initiated with a few Costa Ricans and very little money. It has since grown into a major effort as more people have joined to help complete the work before them. http://www.abrahamproject.org/











Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Two Months and Counting!

In my two months in Costa Rica, I think the past week or so has been the busiest.

Two Saturdays ago I helped take care of 18 kids from the ages of 10 months to 10 years. Well, I wasn’t the only one, and I didn’t take care of them all at once, but it was still a lot of work. The house parents of the two Children’s Homes get one day off per week, and they have to be out of the house during that day. Usually the administrators of the Homes have sufficient help covering that day, but this time they asked me to help too. I played with them after breakfast, went to the park and ate lunch with them, stuck around during naptime to make sure they behaved, fed 10 of them dinner, then helped put them to bed. It was a great day all-in-all; and the only difficulties came when it was dinner and bedtime. For that I was helping in the House that had ten kids, most of which are four years old and under. Boy did it get crazy! Phew!


But I must have enjoyed it because I volunteered to help out again if they needed me! :D


In the baptism class that I have been attending with the two kids from the Children’s Homes, we have started doing homework, two chapters each week. So far they have completed chapters 1-4, and it takes about an hour to do each chapter. This has been an interesting and fun experience as I have virtually no experience tutoring young children. I learned pretty quickly that they have a short attention span, and I am now learning the virtue of patience. But they’re really great kids and very smart, too! It’s hard to get home from a day at school and sit down again for two more hours to study.


I have joined the praise and worship team at church as a singer! I’m excited to get more involved with this community and my hope is that it will naturally lead to building relationships with more people. Trying to make friends has not been easy.


Another weekly thing that I’m excited about is being an English conversation partner with a girl named Priscilla. She plays bass in the church’s band so we will be seeing a lot of each other every week!


Funny cultural faux-paux time! There was a block party in my neighborhood this past Saturday afternoon, and it was scheduled to start at 3pm. Well, counting ‘Tico Time’ the correct thing to do is arrive late. So, Candace (a missionary here for 6 years) and I went at 3:30 thinking we would be appropriately late, but when we got to the location we found out that we were the first and only ones there! (Apart from the party coordinator, that is.) Oh, silly gringas! We then got to sit and wait for the next hour until more people started to show up. What did I learn from this? Wait to go with a Costa Rican :D


Prayer Requests:


-I haven’t been able to sleep very well lately so please pray that I would be able to find a way to sleep better.


-Continue to pray for relationships to develop more.


Thank you so much for your continued support! I am praying for you all today so please let me know if you have any requests. My e-mail is shaina.lex@gmail.com


If you would like to contribute financially to my ministry here, please see the sidebar under “How to Give”. All of your donations are tax-deductible and greatly appreciated.


Be blessed!


Tim and Johanna--'grandparents' for the kids in the Children's Homes, also English teachers in the daycare two days a week.

Me, Janita (cooks lunch when teams work at the projects. She's fantastic! And she just got back from a trip to the States where she visited Wisconsin among other states. She said she loved Wisconsin the most ;D), and Candace (she was the intern coordinator but has just passed that job on to another missionary couple in order to focus on other tasks)

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