February newsletter, pictures and more!

Hmm...I've realized that title is a bit of a tease because I'm not actually going to give you **here** my February newsletter or more pictures.  BUT I am going to re-direct you!  For a copy of my newsletter, email me at ali.c.campbell@gmail.com.  (I rarely post newsletters here for confidential purposes since I work with youth.)

AND, for pictures from:

• my recent hike up the Tres Cruces/Three Crosses mountain
• a beach weekend at Playa Hermosa
• Wet & Wyld Wyldlife and Young Life training

...please visit my Facebook page.  (See the link bottom right.)

Th-, Th-, Th-- that's all folks!

Facing the ugly stuff

Disclaimer:  Hang in there, it's a long one.  But a good one.

There are a million things I want to share with you at the moment!  (In particular, a recent hike up a mountain...yes, I, Ali Campbell, hiked a mountain :)  But I feel compelled first to share with you something I was reading this morning.  Well, a few things I was reading this morning.  

First, my old trusty, My Utmost For His Highest.  To read today's words of wisdom, go here:  http://utmost.org/.  Today's verse is:

Arise and eat.  -1 Kings 19:5

I found this rather comical because Oswald was talking about seasons of depression today.  No one has to order me to "arise and eat" when I'm depressed...in fact, I excel at it!  The past two weeks I've managed to polish off a medium-sized bag of Peanut M & Ms, a slightly smaller bag of Sour Patch Kids, macaroni & cheese, pizza, and countless Oreos.  It's been Round 2 of rough times in Costa Rica and Round 2 of junk-food/Dawson's Creek escapism.  

Oswald's words were comforting this morning because he reminded me that depression (or sadness, loss, etc.) are part of the human experience.  He writes, "If human beings were not capable of depression, we would have no capacity for happiness and exaltation." Thank goodness!  Has anyone out there ever felt alone in the fight against discouragement, sadness or depression?  It's good to know (1) I'm not alone, and (2) If it weren't for my capacity to feel depressed, I'd also never feel happiness.

Oswald goes on to say something incredible:

When the Spirit of God comes to us, He does not give us glorious visions, but He tells us to do the most ordinary things imaginable. Depression tends to turn us away from the everyday things of God’s creation. But whenever God steps in, His inspiration is to do the most natural, simple things-things we would never have imagined God was in, but as we do them we find Him there.

I don't believe he was telling me to feast on Oreos, but how true is it that when we face a season of depression it is the simple, every-day things where we find God.  For me, I've been finding God each and every time I make the slightest step toward Him.  When I say, God, I can't get through today and more than that I don't want to.  Just for talking to Him, just for sharing my thoughts and feelings, He always surprises me with something sweet--a free sucker at the little store at my school, a message from a YL/WL kid or friend on Facebook, my host mom cooking my favorite dinner, whatever.  AND I SEE HIM IN IT!  These are not coincidences, but God saying...keeping going, one foot in front of the other, just keeping walking toward Me.  

Okay, next I read a sweet devotion by Joni Eareckson Tada called Pearls of Great Price.  Today's devotion is based on 2 Corinthians 12:8-9, which says:

Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.  But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

She was talking about hardships that hang on, hardships that never go away...no matter how much we pray and plead for God to take them away or heal us.  I've been struggling with some personal weakness lately and wondering why God won't take them away.  I certainly would be able to follow Him better, reflect His goodness and grace better, and share His life and joy with kids better if He would just TAKE THEM AWAY!  Ever tried to barter with God?  Then get frustrated and just yell at him?  Then resign yourself to pleading and begging and crying, just to revisit anger again?

If you don't know anything about Joni Earekson Tada, she suffered a spinal cord injury as a teenager that left her paralyzed in a wheelchair.  I've just read one biography of hers, but from what I gather, she struggled for months and years to come to grips with the fact that she would never walk again, that this was a hardship God wasn't going to remove from her life.  She writes:

The core of God's plan is to rescue us from sin and self-centeredness.  Suffering--especially the chronic kind--is God's choicest tool to accomplish this.  It is a long process.  But it means I can accept my paralysis as a chronic condition.  When I broke my neck, it wasn't a jigsaw puzzle I had to solve fast or a quick jolt to get me back on track.  My paralyzing accident was the beginning of a lengthy process of becoming like Christ.

How easy I forget that learning Spanish, adjusting to Costa Rican culture, making friends in a new community, building relationships with kids and ministry opportunities, and especially, becoming more and more like Christ is a LONG PROCESS.  Jeesh, I've been here 6 months, you'd think I'd have it figured out already!  My own personal struggles/weaknesses and the evil one's voice whisper in my ear:  "You aren't good enough.  You'll never be as good as so-and-so.  You'll keep failing, you'll never be perfect.  It will always be this hard.  Nothing you are doing is making a difference.  It would be better if you left, or if you'd never come.  You disappoint everyone around you, and most of all, God."

What lies!  What awful lies we listen to and we tell ourselves.  The truth is that God meets us where we are, but doesn't leave us there:

And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.  -2 Corinthians 3:18 (MSG)

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.  -James 1:2-4 (NIV)

Finally, the inspired, and dare I say brilliant, lyrics of Derek Webb from his second album, I See Things Upside Down, and third album, Mockingbird.

"Cause it's been one of those kinds of days, and I feel so out of place...and the whole world is on my case...and I hate everything, everything.  I hate everything, but You."  -I Hate Everything (But You), 

Mockingbird

"Don't paint my face, I need to see the scars so i don't forget, the back of my tutor's arm...I don’t want medication, just give me liberation even if it cuts my legs right out from underneath...I want the real sensation, even when living feels just like death to me."  -Medication, I See Things Upside Down

Today, may you hear wisdom in people like Oswald Chambers and Joni Earekson Tada, truth instead of lies, great and inspiring music...and that you are a work in progress, like me, like everyone.  And in the midst of the struggle, arise and eat (maybe just not a whole bag of peanut M & Ms :)

"Sorpresas" y Bendiciones y Carne bien cocido!

"Surprises" and Blessings and Well-done Meat!  Just wanted to share a bit about our leader retreat this past weekend and a Spanish snafu in class.

This past weekend was the long-awaited, long-anticipated (at least for me) Young Life Spring semester leader retreat to fellowship and plan for this upcoming semester.  I worked for countless hours the last couple of weeks helping to plan the schedule, training sessions, planning sessions, and some logistics.  Don't get me wrong, I had some awesome help from Josh, our intern, and Boo, the Tico guy I work with.  However, Jessie (my supervisor and area director) has been in the States for several weeks for Young Life training and so I felt the weight of the weekend falling on my shoulders.

Like the best laid plans, they sort of crumbled.  Unfortunately, we had some leaders back out at the last minute (and others who couldn't come originally) and so we had FAR fewer numbers than anticipated, which was a little disappointing for a number of reasons.  Not the least of those reasons was I was looking forward to some great team-building time.  But God always has something up His sleeve, and I was blessed more than I can say by those who were able to come.  We were able to not only plan 95% of what needed to be planned, but also have some great time just hanging out.

I laughed a lot.  We played football and watched a movie.  I got some awesome girl talk time in with one of my favorite ladies here.  And we planned 15+ Young Life and WyldLife clubs, among other things.  Score:  1 for God, .5 for Ali (I did manage to get over my disappointment and jump into what GOD had planned for the weekend faster than normal, so I get half a point :)

Okay, on to part 2:  My latest Spanish language snafu.  The task was to answer this question:

"Que esperanza tiene usted?"
"What hope/wish do you have?"

Because of the type of verb we were studying, I was supposed to answer by saying what I would like someone else to do.  Since I go to a Christian language school we talk about God a lot, so I thought I would say that I hope at the end of my life God will say, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

Now, I know how to say "good job" and "you finished well" in Spanish, but not exactly "well done."  So I looked it up in my Spanish online translator and it said, "Bien cocido."  Now, if I had thought for two seconds, I would have realized this was not the type of "well done" I was looking for, but I was in a hurry to finish the assignment and this was the last question.

As we shared in class, I responded to the question:

"Yo tengo la esperanza de que al final de mi vida Dios me diga, "Bien cocido! Mi serviente fiel."  Basically, "I hope that at the end of my life God will say, "Well-done little steak, my faithful servant."

The Spanish teacher looked at me with a funny face, "I don't understand, bien cocido?"  And I told her I put well done in my translator...and as I'm saying it...I and the rest of the class realize that this type of well done refers to meat, not a job well done!

We laughed for a good five minutes!  How humbling this process of learning a new language is!

Gotta love Nelson Mandela!

I haven't blogged in nearly a month.  For those of you who actually read this blog, please forgive me :)  My goal is to continue updating this blog every 1-2 weeks and I'm going to try my hardest to be consistent in that.  Well, there's so much to talk about--a weekend with one of my awesome college friends, Donna; two weeks in fabulous Westfield, IN over Christmas; 10 days in snowy Atlanta, GA for Young Life training; and now a little over a week back here in good ol' Costa Rica.

So, what's new?  THE SUN!  It was reappeared and it is warm and sunny here. Now this is why I moved here! Haha.

My friend Stacy, who got to travel around the world last year, recently put this quote on her Facebook wall:

There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged 

to find the ways in which you yourself have altered. 

-Nelson Mandela

I have always been a big Nelson Mandela fan, but this is one of my favorites!  Now, I didn't spend more than 20 years in jail, just 4 months in Costa Rica, but being home over Christmas definitely took a magnifying glass into the ways in which I've been growing and changing down here in the tropics (which is now actually tropical!) 

Pretty much what sticks out the most is how much more tranquila I have become.  Tranquila is a very popular word that means:  tranquil, relaxed, laid-back, easy-going.  These words could not be used to describe me in the past--always running from activity to activity in high school and college thinking the world might end if I wasn't there.  Then in grad school and during the fundraising process to come here working 2-3 jobs, volunteering with Young Life, volunteering on a Board of Directions for a local sports organization for people in wheelchairs, and who knows what else!

Well, I may have just arrived (or at least further along in the process) of understanding what it means to live in the present, go with the flow, and really enjoy each moment of life (or at the very least live it).  I'd say that's a small victory!  

Alright, more to come soon...a newsletter will show it's face here within a week-10 days! 

Feliz Navidad!

Here's a second "Merry Christmas" video and a bonus snapshot of what it looks like to work with international school kids!

This first video is of our Wyldlife crew at our last club of the semester.  Wyldlife kids are so fun because they LOVE to dress to the theme--this one being Christmas, of course!  We played candy cane hockey, dressed kids as Christmas trees, and had 12 small groups act out the 12 Days of Christmas!  And then at the end my co-worker Jessie invited kids to open the greatest gift ever given--the gift of freedom in a relationship with Jesus.  Here's them telling you "Merry Christmas!"

This second video was at one of my favorite Wyldlife kid, Rylie's, birthday party.  She had one of the coolest middle school birthday parties I've seen, well for a girl anyway :)  She's an awesome dancer and her mom rented out their dance warehouse studio and all her friends got a private lesson then performed the dance.  It was so fun and a great opportunity to get to know some Wyldlife girls a little better and meet some new girls to invite to Wyldlife!

Merry Christmas from Costa Rica Young Life!

Combine a bunch of crazy Costa Rica international school kids and a random White Elephant gift exchange and this is what you get:

They are telling you first, all at once, what they received in the gift exchange and then a very fragmented "Merry Christmas"!  If you know me well, Christmas is my favorite time of year!  We had so much fun with these kids wrapping up the first semester with their renditions of holiday classic movies in 1 minute then 30 seconds then 15 seconds, some Christmas carols and a message about how Jesus loves them SO He's knocking on the doors of their hearts to be with them!

Praying for the least of these...

Sex-trafficking.  It's not a fun subject to talk about.  It's uncomfortable, tragic, and very very real.  I have a friend here at language school who has a heart for sex-trafficking and modern-day slavery. She will be serving with Youth With a Mission with indigenous peoples in a remote jungle area of Costa Rica after language school, but while she is here in San Jose she  is using her time to help raise awareness about this difficult topic.

Did you know?

• There are more than 27 million people enslaved in the world today...more than at the height of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade (Free the Slaves)
• The highly organized sex trade industry brings in an estimated $32 billion annually...that's more that Wal-Mart, Coke and McDonalds...combined! (UN)
• Costa Rica is on the Tier 2 Watch List for its failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat sex slavery (U.S. State Department)
• Costa Rica is quickly gaining a reputation for being the sex tourism capital of the world
• In San Jose alone, there are more than 300 brothels with an average of 10 women and children working in each 

The statistics are staggering.  Even more of a shock to me was seeing the reality of the statistics with my own eyes.  Along with Brooke and some other friends we have gone downtown twice in the past month to pray in front of the Del Rey hotel, a well-known adults-only hotel.  The first time as part of an all-night prayer vigil and the second time on a week-night.  Each experience was shocking and numbing at the same time.  Here are a few stories/observations:

• "Are there girls who have been sex-trafficked in this hotel?"  Brooke asked one man who stopped and talked with us for a long time.  The man, Marlon, came over saying, "They all sent me over (looking to the people on the other three corners of the street crossing) to see what you are doing here?" Brooke told him we were there to pray for hope.  He proceeded to give us a run-down of each group of people surrounding the hotel--the low-end and high-end drug hustlers, the addicts, the 'sex hustlers,' and the people who 'keep the peace' through force if necessary.  When Brooke asked him if sex-trafficking occured at the hotel, he said, "No."  But later described how many of the women working there were from other Central American countries and had come under the promise of other jobs then told when they arrived they had a $6,000 debt to pay off and needed to work as a prostitute to pay it off.  THAT is sex-trafficking.

• Gilbert.  I met Gilbert the first night and got to speak with again when we came back.  Gilbert spent a considerable amount of time in the U.S. where he actually became a Christian and attended the Brooklyn Tabernacle church.  Fallen on hard times, he now works as a coordinator for transportation and escorts women from the hotel and to the cars which will take them to their next 'job'.  We got the opportunity to pray with Gilbert both times we saw him and encourage him that he can be a light in a dark place.  But as it seems in most cases, the darkness is so powerful, so seductive and without a strong supportive community around him, Gilbert is struggling to maintain his faith.

• "Praying for all those old gringos going in and sinning?"  Was the response of one man who questioned us about why we were there.  What began with a sarcastic comment ended with, "I want to change."  We may never know if this man decided to change his life that night and open his heart to a different source of pleasure, power and identity.  But we were encouraged that God's presence there with us was able to soften his heart in that very moment. 

• Looking for _____ in all the wrong places.  Brooke's Tico roommate joined us the second time.  She comes from a very poor community with a mother who worked as a prostitute for years, even at the hotel.  Another great source of information, she actually has some friends and cousins who currently work there.  She shared with us about how women who worked there would bring girls in from the poorer communities who wanted to make money and then they would go into a room with a double-paned glass mirror so that the hotel owner and crew could pick out the ones they wanted unbeknownst to the girls on the other side of the mirror.  She said the girls would come to make money to buy things, to buy a better life.  

• Fishing trip.  Brooke shared with us before we went downtown the first time to pray that many international tourists purchase and come on "all-inclusive" vacations which include sex.  Sure enough, we saw several vans marked "Tourism" stop in front of the hotel and several international men apparently from countries all over the world get out and walk into the hotel then the van would return a few hours later.  One man walked by us and asked us if we needed a hotel room for the night as we were in a "dangerous place."  We explained to him what we were doing there and that we live here and we were being careful.  Brooke asked him what he was doing there and he replied, "Well, I came for a fishing trip and we were supposed to go to the beach but the roads are closed because of the rain, so we came here instead."  Lightbulb.

• Cinthia.  Many people came up to us both nights asking for money or food.  As the spirit led, we would give food or just pray with them.  Cinthia came up to us asking for money and then saying how cold she was.  I offered her my scarf I had in my bag.  (The first night we went I have NEVER been so cold standing in the rain all night, so I came better prepared the second time!)  She said no and walked away.  WHEW!  I really love that scarf and didn't want to give it away.  I felt God tugging on my heart to offer it, but was relieved this was one of those times where all I had to do was obey, but I would get to keep my scarf.  Not so fast....Cinthia came back 10 minutes later.  "Do you still have that scarf?"  I gave it to her and prayed she would keep it to help keep her warm and not sell it for money.  

• A police officer.  The second night we went there were more police officers in the street than before.  There is a security camera over one of the street corners and we had been told the police watched the camera and if something started happening they would arrive.  That story seemed to be true as we watched this happen the first night when there was a scuffle on the 'low-end drug hustler' corner.  But the weeknight we went we saw several cops on foot and several pass by in trucks or motorcycles.  I mentioned to our group that I was hoping one would come over to our corner so I could ask them some questions.  My stepdad being a police officer, I was disgusted at how the police could just sit back and watch this all happen before their very eyes.  

They never did come over.  As we got in the taxi to head home, Brooke started talking to the taxi driver, who proceeded to tell us that he used to be a police officer.  I was tired and not fully concentrating, so Brooke nudged me in the side.  And I got the chance to ask him several questions.  He explained to us his views on the problem of illegal immigration and the mafia and how that all played into the sex tourism here in Costa Rica.  It was a fascinating discussion and an answer to prayer!

So, what?  What did we learn, what did this accomplish?  

"Everyone wants a revolution, but no one wants to do the dishes."  -Shane Claiborne

"...Prayer is spiritual defiance of what is in the name of what God has promised."  -Walter Wink

Not many people want to get their hands dirty with topics such as these in places such as these with people such as these.  But if we want a revolution, if we want to see this city block, this hotel, these people come to know a better life, the One who has created a beautiful story for them waiting for them to step into it...then we must get our hands dirty.  We must know these people and this dark place, we must arm ourselves for battle....which leads me to....

Prayer.  I have never in my life more fully understood the power, the strength, the hope of prayer as I have since moving here.  We pray because God tells us to, tells us He wants to hear our requests, hear our deepest longings.  And when we pray we remind God of what He has promised.  He has promised beauty for ashes, joy for mourning, freedom for the captives, sight for the blind, and life...more and better than we ever dreamed of.  

Brooke has challenged us to pray every Friday night for the end of sex-trafficking and slavery.  Would you join me?  Prayer is a powerful weapon bringing light to dark places.  Consequently a recent Friday night God very carefully, but very firmly brought me down from a place of self-dependence and into a place where I could pray from my heart for this issue.  He used my attitude of wanting to be strong and independent to humble me to see (and even experience, though with his protective arm around me the entire time) what these women experience...the fear they have, the sense of violation and being trapped.  

We know and love a God that has created such a better life, a better future, a bigger hope!  And He wants to work through you and me to bring this Reality into the lives of the least of these here and around the world.