Woohoo! Good news!!

I got approved for temporary residency!!

Woohoo!

Thank you, Lord!

I have an appointment with Immigration next Tuesday, October 6th. I'm not sure what goes on during that, but I'm not worried about it. Still, please pray that things go well with that. Yay!

Well, I know I'm terrible at updating this... sorry! I can't believe it's been two weeks since I've updated. That's crazy! Quite a bit has happened in those two weeks. Well, the 15th was Independence Day here, so I got to do a few fun things with my host family. On the night before, we went to a Lantern Parade where the kids from the neighborhood come and make a procession, led by a torchbearer, carrying all different kinds of patriotic lanterns that they bought or made. This is a yearly tradition.

Felipe and his Dad with their lantern

The torchbearer getting ready to lead the procession through the streets

On the actual day, we went to see a parade in a nearby city. Every school usually gets involved by putting together some sort of display, like traditional transportation or dress, or musical presentation. It really enjoyed being able to experience another part of Costa Rican culture that I've never seen before.

Costa Rican flags often preceded each group of kids

this group led the way with a fantastic musical

depicting coffee plantation workers

the ox cart - traditional method of traveling back in the day

little ones in traditional dress--so cute!

ending with a percussion group by a local night school--hence why they look older

I believe I mentioned in my last posts that I'm involved in the worship group at church, and practices have been going well. I'm learning a lot of worship songs in Spanish of course, but we also have an instructor come in bi-weekly to teach more technique. It's so funny to see people warm up for singing. They pant and stick out their tongues as far as they go and crazy stuff like that. haha! ...wait, I'm saying 'they' but what I really mean is 'we' seeing as I also have to do that crazy stuff now too. :D

I've also gotten more involved with the youth group and will be helping with the before-service prayer once in a while. I had just volunteered to get more involved two weeks ago, and the youth pastor had me jump in right away by asking me to do the prayer the next week, which was this past Saturday. I think it went well, could have gone better, but it was my first time so I'm fine with it.

I'm very excited about something that has just started in the group of people I work with. We had a meeting last Friday in which we discussed Community, among other things. But we are now making more of an effort to purposefully grow our relationships both with each other and with God. So, we'll be having a monthly potluck with our pastoral group which includes all the Americans working here, the house parents of the Children's Homes, and another couple from the church who volunteers their time to this part of the Project. We also just had our first weekly Monday morning prayer meeting! It was so refreshing, and I know that it will be so beneficial to us as a group and to me individually. The more unity there is in the body of Christ, the more we will be able to stand against the attacks of that enemy, Satan, who easily weasels his way into our lives and communities if we are not vigilant.

I had a really great weekend! Yesterday, Sunday, was great because we had company over in the afternoon, and I was able to be part of the conversations that were going on. My host mom's sister, brother-in-law, and their daughter Rachel visited. Rachel is about eight years old, I think, and is so much fun! She and I got to spend a little time together in July when she was on 'winter' break from school and visiting with her cousin, Isabelle who lives next door, and she is not shy at all. :) I also got to join in the afternoon 'café' which I rarely do. It's a cultural norm to take a break in the afternoon to eat something, typically bread with cheese/jam/butter/etc, and drink coffee. In my house, it happens anytime between 3-5 when I'm usually working, or I just don't realize that they're doing it. But on the weekends, if I'm at the house, I'll have coffee with them (but I don't drink coffee, just eat). Anyways, it was great to hang out with the fam!

Speaking of hanging out with the fam, mine is coming to visit in March! It's finally official, and I'm so excited already! It's going to be super special because I'm not going home for Christmas, so it'll be the only time I get to be with them while I'm here. Also, I'm so excited that they'll be able to see where I've been spending all my time, and I'll get to show them this country and experience the culture with them. Plus, they're coming on my birthday... but that's because it happens to be spring break for my sister which is why they can come in March in the first place. Yay!

Wow! So many things to tell! I just leave you with one more thing. God has been dealing with me about the attitude of my heart. I've been reading and learning about the Law of the Lord--you know, all those boring commandments about mildew in your house and the dimensions of the temple and blah, blah, blah. Right? You're following me? Well, they are so NOT boring! Ok, reading it can be tedious, but in learning the history of Israel I am beginning to understand why King David went crazy in the Psalms about how much he LOVED the law and how he meditated on it day and night! Anyways, I hope this makes sense, but all that led me to Psalm 50 which basically talks about how God liked the sacrifices Israel was bringing Him every day. But it also said that God didn't need their sacrifices, and He hated when the people did these daily rituals without their heart behind it and their actions reflecting what was in their hearts. And in Matthew 5:23-24 Jesus said that if you come to bring your offerings to the Lord and remember that you have something against your brother, you should leave your offering and make things right with your brother before you come to give your offering. How important is the attitude of our heart to God! Our attitude is a product of our will; you can choose to be happy; you can choose to persevere, or the opposite. Well, your thoughts are vital in this decision making process, no? But Paul says to 'take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ' (2 Corinthians 10:5) and also says that our thoughts should be occupied by things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy (Philippians 4:8). I want to confess to you all that my attitude has been less than Christ-honoring because I have allowed my thoughts to wallow in self-pity and selfishness. I want to bring my offering to the Lord with a clear conscience and a right attitude. Although God had been convicting me of these things for some time, I had selfishly held onto my attitude. No more! I have repented and know that the Father is faithful and gracious towards me. I want to take joy in my God and let nothing keep my heart back from Him!
Prayer Requests

-that our community would continually be strengthened, that relationships would be built on Christ the Solid Rock, and that through our unity we would become a witness to His love and be more effective workers in His kingdom here in Costa Rica

-that I would be bold in seeking friendships with the youth and others in the church

-that my Spanish would improve rapidly and I would be able to remember the new vocabulary that I'm learning all the time

-that I would be in constant communication with the Father so that my focus is in the right place and that my thoughts and attitude would naturally follow; that I would be able to take my thoughts captive for Christ

Thank you so much for your prayers and intercession on my behalf and for the work that God is doing here! Please let me know how I can be interceding for YOU.

Midnight Musings

No, it is not midnight right now, but last night I got woken up around midnight... to raucous singing and loud drumming a couple days ago. It was not a parade and it was not drunken Ticos celebrating the latest win of their beloved soccer team (actually, Costa Rica lost their last two games in the world cup semi-finals). It was a group of my Tico brother's school friends carrying out a beloved (questionable) tradition. Apparently, when you graduate from high school it is tradition for a bunch of your friends to come in the middle of the night and serenade you. Yes, it was definitely unexpected, and I was slightly disoriented from having been woken up from a deep sleep. But, the good news is that they didn't stay long. :D Also, school doesn't get out until sometime in November, so I'm not sure why they did it so early... Oh, well!

Life is full of surprises, isn't it?

Surprisingly, about a week ago I made huge strides in the brochure that I'm working on. I went from floundering around just trying anything to having a very nice, professional layout and design to the inside in three days!! Praise the Lord! Now, if I could ever get Steve to look at some of the off-shoot designs I made with different color schemes... ;D But I digress.

This will not be an extremely comprehensive update because frankly it's been too long since I updated, and any of the things I wanted to tell you about, I have forgotten... In light of this, I will be trying to update more frequently whenever I feel I have something to share instead of trying to do a longer post once a week/every couple of weeks.

I do want to let you know that I started sleeping better the day after I posted that prayer request, so thank you all for your prayers! The Lord hears us that's for sure!

Also, if there is anything you would like me to update about on a regular basis, please let me know. I'm happy to oblige!


Prayer Requests

-Please pray that God would deepen my relationships with the Costa Ricans that I know.

-Please pray for wisdom in understanding God's plan for this community and this church and how I fit into that plan. Pray that I would have open ears and a willing, bold heart.

Thank you all! Please send me an e-mail if you have any prayer requests for yourself. shaina.lex@gmail.com

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)

Hello Everyone!

Well, not a whole lot has happened since my last post. I’ve been working on designing a brochure for the Children’s Homes, which is much harder than you would think it is. And I got to babysit an almost two y/o little girl twice last week. She is such a doll! I’ll have to get a picture to show you.

This past Saturday was Mother’s Day in Costa Rica, so my entire host family with all the kids and grandkids came over for a big lunch. It was fun and delicious but also an interesting experience. I don’t know about you, but when my entire family in the States gets together for a holiday we’re usually talking or playing games for a couple hours after we eat, and we take our time eating. Well, I’m sure that my host family stayed at the house for an hour and a half, tops. It took me by surprise. But I think it’s just because they see each other literally every day.
And I finally got some pictures of them all! So now, I introduce to you my Tico (Costa Rican) family:

clockwise from lower left (forgive my spelling): Marcelle (tica sister-oldest), Isabelle (Marcelle's daughter), Doña Olga (mama Tica), Jennifer (tica sister-23 y/o), Don Carlos (papi Tico), Michelle (tica sister-2nd oldest), Charlie (tico brother-18 y/0), Glorianna (tica sister-16 y/o), and me.
Macelle's husband, David, was taking the picture.

That little guy in the corner is Felipe (Michelle's son). He's at the house every day while his parents are at school and work. Jeffrey, Michelle's husband, was visiting his parents that day.

Don Carlos spent days marinating this huge hunk of pork for the lunch.

I think this is one of the most entertaining things for my family, Isabelle's handheld PS2. :) Everybody plays it (except my tico parents).

In other news, what has God been teaching me lately? I think that one of the most significant things was when I realized that I was a terrible missionary. A good missionary should assimilate to the culture, build good relationships, and know how to do their job. Right? Well, God could have sent tons more people more qualified than I am. Really! I’m not the perfect person for the job. So I was wondering, “Father, why me?”

Then He brought to mind the verse that He had given me at the beginning, when I was writing my first letter about my trip. It’s 2 Corinthians 12:9—“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” … God’s plan may not make sense to me because I can only see as far as right now, but He sees all the way to the end of my life. He even knows how His plan for me affects His plans for other people. Nothing is a surprise to Him. When He became Lord of my life, He knew that I would not be perfect. Yet He desires perfection in His children; He said, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:48)” And I am constantly in the process of being made perfect.

He desires my obedience. “This is love for God: to obey his commands.” (1 John 5:3) So I continue in obedience, trying to always keep my eyes on Jesus who is “the author and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2)”. I know beyond a shadow of doubt that I am here for a reason, and God has a plan for me here whether I know what it is or not. Have you heard this saying: ‘God doesn’t call the equipped; He equips the called’?

So I am anxious to know what God’s plan is. He always surprises me with more than I expected.

Prayer Requests:

-continue to pray for relationships to be developed

-pray that I would live daily in the ‘joy of the Lord’

-pray for patience and peace

Thank you all for your prayers and the notes that you send me. I love hearing from you as it always brightens my day! I am praying for you, too, as God puts you on my heart, and I would love to know how I can pray more specifically.

Be blessed!

Happy August to you all! It’s so strange to think that it’s already August… Summer is winding down and people are getting ready to go back to school. As for me, I can’t really tell the difference. The weather is quite mild here all year round. Although it is the rainy season (winter), I am told that it is the driest it has been in many years. Everyone keeps saying it’s like summer because that is dry season here—warm, sunny, and windy...

I have had quite a few interesting cultural experiences in the past few weeks. I went with our last team to Orosi Valley and visited the oldest church in Costa Rica that is still in operation. Our bus driver said it was built around 1750, and all the original artwork is still there! There are no guards, gates, or bars, yet it is all in excellent condition.

And today, I experienced a taste of the judicial system. I had to go to the main police station to get fingerprinted because I am applying for temporary residency here. Well, I waited there for 2 ½ hours, but I am now officially in the system… that’s a scary thought. I should be able to submit my paperwork on Monday or Tuesday!

Those kinds of waits are the norm in Costa Rica, especially at more official places like banks and government buildings. Everyone takes it in stride and with a good attitude though because there is nothing you can do about it. It’s just part of life.
On the way there, I also got to see the first ever mall in Costa Rica! How exciting! ;D

In other happenings around the Project, we got a new intern on August 1st, and he’s a surfer! I think he really liked our excursion to Playa Hermosa this past Thursday and Friday. A world surfing competition took place there, and I, along with four other Americans and four Costa Ricans, got to be right there in the action! We not only got to spend time by the pool, in the ocean, and watching the competition, but we also helped the Christian Surfer's Association with security detail. I had a great view of the competition surrounded by teams from all over the world! But praise God because we arrived at the beach only minutes after the storm that we drove into caused a tree to fall on a transformer just a few hundred feet behind us. I watched the transformer explode and live wires fall onto the highway! As far as I know, no one was hurt though.

I am very excited about the next four months because I was asked to help out with a couple kids who recently accepted Christ and are going through a course about basic Christianity in preparation for baptism. One is a 9 y/o girl from one of the Children’s Homes at the Project, and the other is the son of the couple who runs one of the homes. I will be attending the class with them on Sundays and helping them with their weekly homework. I can’t wait to be a part of their walk with God as they learn who Jesus is and who they are in Him.

Prayer Requests:

-Continue to pray for humility as I continue to learn about the culture, form relationships, and integrate myself as a part of my host family.

-As I start my job as a publicist for the Children’s Homes, please pray for a clear and organized mind. This is new ground for me, and I know that anything good that is achieved is a result of God’s grace. The first step is seeing what needs to be done and coming up with a timeline of goals to achieve it.

-Please pray that our pastoral group would be able to form into more of a cohesive community of believers despite the constant work that needs to be accomplished. The people in this group are: Steve & Georgiana (admin. of Children’s Homes), Brauny & Ingrid (House parents of 1st house), Isella & Gerardo (House parents of 2nd house), Candace (intern coordinator), Johanna & Tim (fill-in house parents and ‘grandparents’ to the children), Jonathan & Amy (short-term missions team coordinators), and me (publicist).

An evangelistic activity at a local elementary school where professional martial artists integrated karate with sharing the gospel and their testimonies

The July interns (L to R): Me, Clay, Donnie, Jennifer, Nick.

Clay and Jennifer left at the end of July, and Nick leaves on the 20th.

Be still and know that I am God. ~Psalm 46:10

Hello All!

Thank you for waiting so patiently for my next update. I really wanted to write an update a week ago, but I promise you that I had nothing to write then.

Most importantly, I have internet access at my host family's house now! Ok, I'm kidding about that being the most important thing. But it does mean that after next week, I'll be able to keep in touch with all of you better...hopefully.

As far as what I've been doing lately... Last week I was working in the daycare, helping teach English to kids, and also doing construction. This past week, we had a small team from Tennessee at the Project, and we all had a blast together. I got to work with a few of them doing something very interesting indeed. We stripped the paint off of a crib using shards of broken glass. Let me tell you, that is not an easy thing to do. The whole project--stripping, sanding, varnish--took two whole work days. But it looked beautiful in the end. Although the foreman at the Project said it wasn't worth the work and would be much quicker to just make a new one (which is what they decided to do in the end), they will now be able to give this to someone else who needs it instead of just throwing it in the burn pile. We're fans of re-using things here.

What I've been doing for fun...playing Monopoly, Uno, and Rook. :D No, really. Last night, I got to play a partial game of Rook and a partial game of Monopoly with a couple interns, one of the intern's host parents, and one of their brothers. It was really fun. I've enjoyed getting to know the other interns here, and two of them are already leaving next week. So sad!

On another note, I want to share how God has been working in my life more specifically. I want to be honest with you all so you can praise God with me and also know how to pray.

Up until this past Monday, I was really struggling with a lot of things. My host mom and I were not getting along at all, and I barely talked to anyone else in the family. The following is an excerpt from my journal, in retrospect, about how things were going for the first 2 ½ weeks:

I think I felt very confused about everything… What was I doing here? Why
was I away from the place I was thriving in so much in Madison? Why was I in
this house where nothing was going well? I didn't feel useful. I didn't feel
like I was keeping busy. I didn't know where I would be serving, like in the
church and in the Project. And I just felt so confused about everything, like
none of it made any sense at all to me. And I just kept getting more and more
confused about things and more and more unhappy. But that's what the enemy likes
to do, right? He's the master of confusion. Where God wants to put things in
order, the Enemy wants to confuse them. God is not a God of confusion but of
order… and the stupid thing is I was totally blinded to it. I guess I thought
this confusion was supposed to be kind of normal or something… you know,
everything's changed… new country, new language, new life, new purpose.

Things had gotten to the point with my host mom that I was preparing myself for the worst…moving out, which would not do anyone any good. There was a big fiasco on Sunday night, and we both ended up angry with each other.

Well, there is a lot of detail that would make this story really long, but that’s not the point so I’ll try to make a long story short. Basically, we ended up getting together—me, Dona Olga (my host mom), and Candace (the intern coordinator)—on Monday evening to try to straighten things out. After talking, it turned out to be one huge problem of communication and cultural misunderstanding. The thing is, none of us realized that until we got together and talked about it. It was really amazing how God turned the whole situation into something good. Apparently, all of us had prayed about what to do on Sunday night and felt that we needed to talk together. And on Monday afternoon, God reminded Dona Olga that He had told her I would be coming to her house before Candace called her to ask if I could stay at her house. For me, that is a huge confirmation that He has a purpose for me right here, in this house.

I believe that God has big things planned, but I also know that Satan will try to mess with that any way he can. Take this situation as an example. How could it have happened? I know the language quite well. I’ve been here before for two months and have already experienced the culture. Dona Olga heard from God that I would be coming but conveniently forgot about it for the first few weeks I was here. And we both are “prayer warriors” as Candace calls it. (See my last post for more on this.) This family is also quite prominent in the local church and could provide me with many opportunities that I may not have had by staying somewhere else. This is a fantastic situation, and I shouldn’t have had problems with communication. But, Satan likes to mess with a good thing so… communication is the perfect thing to mess with. Why would he want two “prayer warriors” in the same house praying together? Praying together is a unifying thing, as I’ve experienced in the past. And a unified body of believers is powerful and effective. I praise God that we are no longer having problems. In fact, at the end of our meeting we prayed together, and I believe we gained freedom from what Satan had been trying to do. I certainly felt a lot of freedom after that, even down to feeling more comfortable and at home in the house. But there is still a lot that needs to happen.

Please pray for the following:

-Continued development of relationships with my host family… relationships founded in Christ.

-Alertness against the Enemy’s schemes and protection in all areas that might be vulnerable to attack.

-Pray against loneliness, as I have been feeling very far away from my friends and family from home. Along with this, pray that friendships would be formed here and that I would find a community to be a part of.

-That God would show me my purpose here and that I would be listening when He speaks… I am definitely re-learning how to listen to Him and am making it a daily practice to spend time doing just that.

Be blessed! I think about you all very often and so wish that I could call you up and talk to you at any time! I am praying for you so please let me know if there is any way I can pray more specifically.

Steve, the coordinator of the children's homes, and I wore the same t-shirt on the same day...twice :D

One of the views from the second floor of my home.

Out the same window but in another direction

My first week in Costa Rica

Hello Everyone!

I'm sorry for the lack of updates, but this is the first time I've been able to spend any time on the internet. It has been an extremely full week, and I can't believe I got here just last Wednesday!

For a rundown on things I've been doing:
The project hosts short-term missions teams from the States, and one came down the same day I did. And because this month is very busy with teams, Candace, the intern coordinator, asked me to help out with them during this month. So I've been busy, busy, busy since day 1. We did construction on Thursday, half of Friday, and this Tuesday. From Friday through Monday, we went to the tico/gringo (Costa Ricans/Americans) camp that the youth group organizes every year. The city we were in, Orotina, is in the countryside and our first night there we saw a tarantulla! Talk about being worried about all the other rainforest creatures we might see! But we all warmed up to the place in the light of day. There was an outreach activity to kids and their parents in a community called Barrio de Jesus on Saturday. We had devotionals and teaching times every day. And we all built great friendships through hanging out in the pool; competing in games where we got sweaty, muddy, and wet; sharing testimonies; and participating in a talent show on Saturday night.

To share a fun story, we went hiking through the rainforest to go see a waterfall as the management of the camp had hacked a path through the brush just for us! The path went up and down steep hills, and I was wearing flip-flops because I didn't bring tennis shoes to camp. Well, of course it started pouring after we arrived almost at the end. I and another group decided to turn back, and it was quite the adventure trying to get up and down those slippery, muddy slopes in my flip-flops. We arrived soaked and muddy, but one of the men who keeps up the camp told us we were "muy valiente" (very brave/valient) and took our picture.

On another note, it has been a pretty smooth adjustment to my new diet, my host family, the culture, and language. I am staying with Doña Olga and Don Carlos. They have three children living with them: Jennifer, Gloriana, and Carlos--who we call Charlie. We have been getting along well, and Jennifer and Olga are both fantastic cooks! There have been only three meals, I think, where I have not eaten rice and/or beans. But I love them both so it has been quite alright with me.

Prayer Update

~I have many options for ministry opening up to me, and it has been wonderful to see where I may fit in here, but it is also difficult to decide where to invest my time. Please pray for discernment in this area.

~God has also been speaking to me a lot to invest more time in prayer. I wanted to, but was busy with other things and so used that as an excuse not to pray. I know that sounds strange, but prayer, especially intercession, is something that I just need to sit down and do sometimes, make a commitment to doing and not just sparsely throughout the day. During the camp I was convicted to make an intentional decision to pray.

~Also continue to pray for favor with the Ticos (Costa Ricans) as I continue to develop relationships and friendships with them.

I have much more to share, but hopefully I will be able to post more frequently in the future. Thank you for your prayers and continued support. May God bless you all richly and show Himself to you every day.