29 kids and leaders, one island, and lots of memories!

Friends, I write this from my friend (and future supervisor's) living room with a gentle breeze blowing through the trees outside the window and bright sunshine streaming in.  It's an almost perfect morning following an awesome week doing service work with kids.  All 29 of us leaders and kids boarded a bus last Saturday and headed off to a small beach town called Quepos where we stayed for 8 days working every day on a small island called Isla Cocal.  We worked every day for 6-7 hours building homes, constructing walls in existing homes, painting houses and a school and playing with the kids on the island.  The last day we spent at the beach, relaxing and soaking up the sun and reflecting on the week.  (And maybe getting a little sunburnt :)

It was a very long, but very rewarding week!  The families on the island had next to nothing...some with only black plastic for a roof and walls, others with scraps of tin.  They ate a diet consisting mostly of fruits grown in their yard (coconuts, mangos, water apples, etc.) and rice, beans, and fish caught in the ocean.  And the stories, oh the stories, of struggle, hardship, lack of housing and food, and pain/heartache.  But they were so thankful, and they thanked God for sending us!  It was so awesome to watch a kid listen to these stories and their gratitude and watch it pierce their heart.

Each night we had Club after dinner--playing games, singing songs, and listening to Tank (our speaker from the US) share about us, God and life with God.  It was for sure different than camp in the US.  We had no sophisticated sound and light system, not a beautiful room to host us, but rather a tent with mosquitos.  We didn't have a professional musician, but two kids who played guitar unplugged.  It wasn't dramatic, but God was there.  He filled Tank's talks with truth and beauty and wonder, and the kids responded with questions and thoughts and amazing insights from their lives.

As I sit here reflecting on this past week, I'm amazed at how God provided and showed up in really different ways than I've experienced before.  I'm amazed at these kids who both at once are just like any other kid in the US (struggling with friendships, family issues, and school) and yet are also dealing with these things in a completely different social and cultural context that seems so foreign to me.  And I'm more certain than ever that Young Life's vision of reaching every kid, everywhere for eternity is being realized here in Costa Rica among international school kids in both big and small ways.

I leave Wednesday to return to Indiana where I continue the marathon of fundraising reaching the last leg where I'm both tired, weary and yet hopeful as I catch a glimpse of the finish line.  I've been accepted to langauage school here in Costa Rica that begins the first week in May and I'd love to be here to start then!  But it will take an additional $1,200 in monthly commitments to get me here.  I'm trusting God to provide, trusting His timing and His plan.  Thanks for walking this long road with me...thanks for your prayers and encouragement...I wouldn't have made it this far without you!