Beaches, Rip Tides and the longest travel day in history!

It's been a couple days since I last posted. So let's see, Thursday:

We left San Jose around 6:30 AM to head to a town called Manuel Antonio. It was about a four hour drive but on our way, we made a few stops. First, for breakfast. This restaurant was built right on the side a mountain. It was an open air restaurant with this incredible view of the whole valley allowing us to see the ocean from miles away! Our second stop was at a tourist spot where people could zip-line through the Costa Rican rainforest. I almost didn't do it because it cost 80 bucks American. NO WAY!!!! When we got there, because we were such a large group they cut the price. If you had your student I.D., they cut it even more. So for only 40 bucks I was able to zip through the jungle! WOW...tha's all I can say. Wow! It was so much fun! There was one line where you went four probably three hundred yards and were moving around 30 mph! It was such a blast! The only thing was the humidity...near a 100%. I was feeling pretty dehydrated. So I loaded myself with three water bottles worth of H20 in about 5 mins. We headed to the beach. I ate some chicken for lunch and headed for the water. I did not wait 30 min afterwards to go in...I got in the water in the only dignified way possible...running as fast as you can till the water is too deep and then you fall flat on your face! I swam and played in the waves until the salt water made it impossible to open my eyes. We got back on the bus and headed to our new hostel. This wasn't as nice as the first one but it was mostly open air which made for a much more unique expeirence. We grabbed some grub and went to bed. It was like ten o'clock but everyone was so hot from the humidity and tired from the travel.

 

Friday: 

We got to sleep in for the first morning all trip on Friday. We took a tour of the national park in Costa Rica in Manuel Santonio. We saw sloths, toucans, and monkeys. It was a cool place. Along the trail of the park there was a small cove where we stopped to cool off in the water. Clear blue water and warm temps made for a relaxing two hours. Around 12:30, these monkeys I saw started showing up near the beach. The monkeys got so close to people .I was standing inches away from one. They were so much fun to watch. We continued on our way down the trail. THe trail ended on a public beach where we scattered for food and shopping. At the beach, I did some boogie boarding. THis beach was full of surprises. I got board, sun burn, and caught in a rip tide. It happend so fast. One minute, I was riding over a wave that hadn't broke and the next I was 70-75 yards out from the beach. I tried swimming but the waves were too choppy and the board got inthe way! Some surfers and a life guard came out to help me and my friend who were stuck out there. It was a bit intense but I actually laughed about it. It was just another story I have to tell. After we got our breath back, we ran back into the water to catch more waves.  It was our last night of our trip so we went out for a great dinner to cap of our trip. We stayed up till 1 A.M. that night because we had to drive back to San JOse for our 7 am flight. We stayed up swinging on a rope swing tied to atree at the hostel. We actually got pretty high up. I was called the sloth when I did it because of my long legs and arms. I got the highest on the rope and people thought I was swinging in slow motion. We did that for acouple hours...it was fun!

Saturday:

This day started early...we drove from Manuel Antonio to San Jose. It was a four hour drive. The bus we were in was not very big so everyone was cramped and because of all 22 people, the humidity, and the close quarters, the windows were condensating when we arrived in at the airport! It was gross!!!! We got our tickets, security, and got to our gate. We just chilled in the airport...i toured the duty free shop...pretty intereting stuff in that store. 

We flew from San Jose to Costa Rica...I mostly slept on the flight. We landed in Phoenix around noon. We had 8 hours to kill while we waited for our flight to Boise. What could I do while waited for our flight. Lets see here, im in phoenix and its spring training for Major League Baseball. Teams play in the phoenix and there was a stadium only 5 miles away. If you haven't figured out already, I went to spring training game between the Anaheim Angels and the Seattle Mariners. My friend Andrew and I arrived by cab to find that the game was sold out! Shoot! So we scalped some tickets. 6 dollar tix for 20 bucks a pop! The seats were for sitting on a lawn out in left field. Through out the game though, we made our way closer to the field and by the ninth inning, we were sitting right behind homeplate. It was so much! Lots of homeruns and hits! I have never been to a spring training game so it was a great experience. We made it back to the airport by cab and hung out till our flight. I could have given up my spot because the flihgt was over bookd. I would have had hotel accomidations and a free round trip flight to anywhere out of phoenix. I went home though. It was too important to me to sleep in my own bed. I slept the whole way on the flight last night. We landed about midnight in Boise. 

The whole trip was an incredible experince. I felt God stretched and tested me! I felt like I am closer to God. I was happy to share with people that didn't speak the same language as me. My faith has grown tremendously! I had so much fun. I did things I would never been able to do if I did something else for spring break. I shared God with people, ziplined, got stuck in a riptide, and watched baseball. It was awesome! 

The Last Day On Campus

Today was the last day we were spending on campus. I woke up feeling good with a restful night sleep, swallowed, and felt a surprising discomfort! -- A soar throat! -- I couldn´t believe it! I decided that this was not going to get me down. This is my last day and I had to make the most of it! Our day started on campus started like all the others. We found our spot near the busiest part of campus and waited for people to stop by. I found it strange that through 5 hours of sharing, I talked with four people inside and outside of solarium. Each conversation was deep as I got to share with people. I spent an hour working at solarium. There I only had time to talk with two people. The first seemed a bit skeptical of what we were doing. When I was finished sharing, he had a demeanor of comfort...he didn´t pray but he told me he was going to bring friends to Crusade. The second I talked to was someone who believed that having that personal relationship with God was important. He believed that just going to church or mass wasn´t enough. Thats when I invited him to Crusade. I told them that they are interested in whatever questions that this person may have. He thanked me for sharing with him. I had never had any thank me before, hearing that really made my day. I stopped for pizza! YA! My goodfriend Andrew and I went sharing. We stopped to pray firt about what we were about to do. We finished praying and there was a girl studying just a few feet a away. We sat down with her to find out that she was German. Andrew speaks pretty good German so he was excited with that coincidence. Andrew and I had a great conversation with this antropology major name Alise. With anthropology, you can never know what sort of belief you are going to see. She didn´t believe in any specific religion but was open to what we had to tell her. Her friend...a tico came by and joined in on the conversation. He was catholic and Alise told us that that is where he belief was if she had to choose. Andrew and I explained the difference betwee the two because both Alise and her friend thought that they were synonomous. Alise freind got side tracked but Andrew and I continued to talk to Alise or quite sometime. We invited her to Crusade and told her just to try it and see what it was like. Bring friends and experience it for yourself. We also talked about music and life in Germany. After sharing , we could tell that everyone and I were pretty tired because we started goofing off. Chance and I took goofy pohotos with some statues on campus (I´ll upload later. This computer I ´m on takes too long to load pics) We next played soccer on campus. Gringos vs Ticos! I thought it was going to be a slaughter but we actually held our own for the game. We scored the only goal!!! Because the security showed up and kicked us off. I guess you need a special permit to play there. LAME! We did a lttle shopping along with dinner. Tomrrow, we are headed to hte beach in a town named Manuel Antonio. I´m pretty excited for it..hope not get sunburned...!! It´s time for bed because we´re leaving at 6 am!

Later
JMc

Spiritual Warfare

Today was a strange in many ways. The day was supposed to start when at the Crusade house for a short study, a talk about the day, and such. Well at sometime point in the night, a pipe broke on the second floor leaking water all over teh house. Water was everywhere. Fortunatley, there is zero carpet in the house so there was acutally very little damage. It was about 11 o'clock when everyone had arrived to the campus and we had the solarium booth set up. I worked the at solarium for a little while but went sharing for most of today. One of the staffers, Laura Bruner and I went sharing. We talked with a guy named Andreis. He is graduating at the end of the semester from University of Costa Rica's law school. We got into conversation with him to find out that he is a christian! He explained to us that he was struggling to find christian friends. It was great to see that he was searching for people to reinforce his faith. We strongly encouraged to come to Crusades. We just continued to talk to him about Crusade stands for and find out more indepth what he beleived. What suruprised me was that he experienced things taht I experince. Things like how it's not easy everyday to follow God and that at times...doing what I want is easier to do than what God wants. Talking with Andreis was very encouraging for me because I was able see that I am not the only one who struggles with that. Through out the day I tried to share with many and five times in a row, the person didn't speak english, was not interested, or had to go. My title for this entry is spritual warfare because many of us felt like the enemy attacked hard today. Startging with the water leak (btw was cleaned up and repaired quickly today), people are tired, myslf included, and today seemed to be a day where people just didn't want to or have the time to listen. It's ok though. Through it all, the day was good. Successful evangelism is sharing the word with people. For many of us today...we did that! Tongith and we ate at a pretty nice spanish restaurant. I was stuffed! I had nachos and two burritos! I was stuffed like a burrito. The best part was my check! Here in Costa Rica, their currency is called Colones. 560 colones equals a dollar. So about a 1000 colones is two dollars. My check was 9,000 colones. At first glance I had a heart attack! "Oh ya...colones!" It still is almost 20 dollars but I'm keeping that check...it looks pretty cool! Its been a long day here in San JOse. Tomrrow is our last day on campus. There is much to look forward to.

First Day on Campus

Today was our first full day on campus. We started off at the Crusade house going over things we were going to do. Our main outreach is a thing called Solarium. It is a poster board with 25 pictures on them. People come up to the sport where we have set up. We hand them a survey asking them various questions about which pictures represent their life and which ones they wished represented their life. Next we ask which pics represent God to them. Through these questions we are able to get into spiritual conversation. I did that for an hour as we traded shifts. Today I share dwith about 5 people. Two didn´t speak english. When that happens, all you can do is tell them thank you and walk away. The people who did speak english, you start out with just questoins that allow them to warm up to you. I shared with a coupl guys and a couple girls. No one praye to accept Christ but the seed was planted. I was definatley pushed outside my comfort zone today. It was an amazing expeirence today! Tomorrow...more salorium and more sharing.

Sunday!!

We started this morning with church. The church service was made up of our group and local Ticos that attend each week. It was incredible to worship with our group singing in English and the others singing in Spanish. I stopped to just to watch people worshiping. It struck me hard...in a good way...to see all of us (so different) yet so much the same. We had a translator for our lesson which was Mat. 7:21-27. It was the ending verses to the sermon on the mount. Afterward, we walked to the mall and grabbed lunch. I ate Burger King. It was so different! The meat was beef but because it did not have the normal preservatives that we are used to, the taste was much different. The ketchup was also different. It was sweet, not tangy! It was really good! We walked back to the hostel to change from our Sunday best and started on a small tour of the city. We stopped by statues and old buildings. The city is rich with culture and history; so much history for such a little country. We made our way to the market. We walked through downtown San Jose. There was lots of people. It reminded me of any downtown. Little tourist shops, street performers, home made art, jewelry and such. As I was walking I was grabbed on the arm by a beggar women. I didn´t know what to say to her becaue she held out her hand and ahad few coins in it. I looked at one of the Crusade staffers who was with us because I didn´t know what to say. I didn´t have any coins with her. It scared me when she grabbed my hand. I didn´t even see her because she was so short. Just flew under the radar...literally. We shopped at the market for sourvenirs. It was all haggling, and trying to get a low price. Not too low because this was these people´s livelyhood. We all picked up souvenirs for our families and freinds. We took a bus back to the hostel to put aside our things and then quickly walked to a park where a band was playing. I can´t remember the band name but they were great! I guess they are one of the best bands in the whole country. I enjoyed it so much...even though we only saw half the concert. We ate dinner tonight at a Italian restaurant. It was really good food! After dinner, I hung out at the Crusade house four a lttle while learing words in spanish and translating words into enlgish. Tmorrow, we are sharing on campus for the majority of theday. It is going to be a loing day but I am excited to see what happends.

A Bitter Sweet Day

We started this morning around 9 am headed to an orphanage. It is not really an orphanage. It´s a husband and a wife who adopt children. Right now they have over 30 kids. We stopped at the Basilica in Costa Rica first. This church is very symbolic to Ticos. People make pilgrimages from all over to the country to visit this place. We arrived there to see many of pews filled with people. People were lining up for confession and praying...it was a very serious moment for these people. We than went to a natural spring behind the church. The church has been blessed by a priest so people could drink the water and it will heal sickness and disease. People fill up bottles of this water to take home to sick friends and family. The Basilica is a sacred place for these people. We next traveled to the house of the kids. When we arrived, I was very timid. Mostly because of the language barrier. I was assuming that it would be us coming up to kids and doing the ol buddy, buddy. Instead...it was them coming up to us and wanting piggy back rides, looking at our watches and jewelry, and taking pictures with our cameras. We were going to a farm but im not sure why we didn´t. We ended up going to a park. There we played soccer, caught tadpoles in a lake or laguna. The whole time was spent bonding with these kids. That is what made this whole day difficult, we meet the kids...play, learn, laugh and than say goodbye; likely to never see them again. It was sad...some of these kids come from horrific stories. Some are dealing with physical problems because of someone caused it. Saying goodbye ot the kid I hung out with, Luis, was very difficult. I didn´t want to! I could feel there love as well as the love of God around me when I was with these kids. They didn´t care that we couldn´t speak the same language. I am sore, tired, sad and rejoiceful from this experience. After saying goodbye, we drove back to San Jose for a brief rest and food. We walked to the mall to eat at the food court. I ate at Taco Bell! LOL, it was much better than The Bell in the states. Somehow though... I felt I was ripped off at the register. HAHA. Friends and I strolled around the mall looking at shops and seeing what the mall was like. The truth is that this the mall in San Jose is like any mall in America. Lots of stores, lots of people and lots of things I can´t afford. I wanted to buy some nice Costa Rican cigars. Well...I thought that a three pack of these cigars I know are good was 14700 colones or roughly $28. I was wrong...that was the price per cigar! A pack of three was nearly $100. I felt like a dumb stuck'up American when I said that I can´t pay for this. I didn´t even have that much money on me. Oh well...i´ll have to barter somewhere else! We went back to the Crusade house and talked about our day. Many people cried when talking about there stories with these kids. I stayed back while most everyone went home and played some games. Tmorrow, we are going to church and all taking a personal day as we are going to tour the city and do some shopping. Maybe I´ll find those cigars!

Today was the first full day we spent here in San Jose, Costa Rica. We started at 9 am where we walked to the house where the Campus Crusade is located. We met the leaders of CCC Costa Rica and had an orientation to how we were to go about and share with the students at the University of Costa Rica. We than took time to pray and do so some spiritual training. It was about noon when we started walking to the university. We ate lunch at the cafeteria. The food was great! We than broke off into groups and did a prayer walk. We were led by a staff member of Crusades around the campus praying for different people they knew in each college. The campus is beautiful! Lots of trees, steams, and color! After the prayer walk, our group split into pairs to go and share. This was difficult because of the obvious language barrier. We were instructed to introduce ourselves and ask if they spoke english. Costa Ricans or Ticos(as) are very friendly and they are very welcoming to people and conversation. I was paired with Chance Requa. The two of us prayed and made our way to find someone to talk to. The first person we found was a guy named Marco. He was a freshman at the school studying agricultural engineer. He was a catholic who believed God was good. It was about this time that he had to run off to class. Chance and I continued on and found two guys eating lunch. There names were Jose and Christopher. Both of them were English majors and were more than welcome to speak english with us. We talked to these two guys for about 45 minutes discussing differences between christianity and other religions from around the world. Jose was most engaged because he asked the most questions. He asked questions that I would expect someone who has thought about religion on the past. We shared what we believed with them and they were open to listening but I think both of them were skeptical of christianity. We invited them to a dinner we were doing at the Cru house. Unfortunatley, neither came.

The dinner was a lot of fun. The house was full of Ticos that were part of Crusades and ourselves. We helped make dinner and made some new friends. We broke into groups to share abpout ourselves and what God was doing in our lives. It was exciting to here what Ticos had to say. Most of the people there spoke english but not everyone. Using a translater allowed us to understand but just hearing them talk in spanish about how God a part of their lives was incredible. I had no idea of what they were saying but I could still hear God's voice in it all. Afterwards, we hung out some more just chatting and learning spanish. Everyone is pretty tired so sleep is needed for our trip to an orphanage tomrrow.

We Made It!

Hey Everyone,
So today was a long day for everyone. We started the day at 5 o'clock where we all met at the Boise Airport. We got all checked through and waited for a while in the terminal. We flew to Phoenix and had an 4 1/2 hour layover. To stay busy, people ate, wandered the terminal, played cards, slept, or whatever they could do to past the time. The flight to San Jose, Costa Rica was long! It was six hours, turbulence was sporadic through out the flight. We landed though in San Jose with no problems. We made it through customs and made our way outside. San Jose is a lot more...industrialized than I had imagined. It's a big city. To me it was like New York City and Los Angeles mix. THis place is nice but busy and crowded. The language barrier quickly became an issue when we went to get some food. We split our group to eat at Quiznos or Subway...all this way for American food! I had to order my food using spanish. We had a translator with us to make things easier but it was still awkward. Everyone is tired...some people have less than three hours of sleep in the past day and everyone is running on fumes. Tomrrow, we are meeting up with Campus Crusade here in San Jose for orientation, a trip to the campus and pretty muc hthe start to our mission trip!

Good night!

P.S. I can't upload pics right now but I will asap!