Beyond Blessed: Costa Rica

So sorry I'm super late at posting another blog! Better late than never though :)

These past 3 weeks have been a complete blessing and I have learned so much about the Costa Rican culture, myself, people, and about God.

Here are a few really neat/interesting/weird things that I've noticed about Costa Rica!

Culture:

• Always wear shoes in the house
• Throw away toilet paper, don't flush it
• Public Display of Affection is everywhere, all the time... gross
• Kids are very into the emo look, lots of interesting piercings
• Men wear A LOT of hair gel and about 2 gallons of cologne
• The majority of women wear very tight clothes, very tight
• There is a very "macho", male-dominated sense of entitlement in most places

Food:

• Lots of rice and black beans are common for most meals
• Plantains are super popular here. They're usually mashed up or fried into chips
• Tres Leches cake... oh my goodness (vanilla cake with regular, evaporated, and condensed milk poured into holes in the cake)
• Snow cones have a layer of shaved ice, powdered milk, more shaved ice, syrup, and condensed milk
• They eat more bread than humanly possible
• Tons of mangos and pineapples
• Papusas are really popular here, they're this thick tortilla with refried beans, pork, and sauce cooked in the tortilla mixture... they're ok
• Mamones... look 'em up!

Experiences:

• I learned how to surf!!! I'm addicted... Cali here I come ;)
• Saw real live crocodiles in their natural habitat, way cool.
• I tutor 1-6 grade kids 5 days out of the week and I love it! I work with the staff leader Krysta and then we have teams that rotate every 2 weeks from the U.S. We tutor in all subjects and then we usually have a craft or game time at the end of their sessions!
• I was able to teach a hip hop dance to girls who have "Girl's Group" on Friday mornings. It was to "Never Say Never" by Justin Bieber... they loved it!

Prayer Requests:

• As you know, the "emo" scene is very big here in Costa Rica. With that being said, it's supposedly cool to cut yourself and A LOT of the kids in middle school have a problem with that. Please pray that kids would find an alternative outlet and that Jesus would be their hope and answer instead of self destruction.
• A lot of weird things have been going on at our sites with kids having really poor attitudes and many of them have stopped coming. The tutoring center hasn't had this problem but at all of the other places, it has been quite discouraging for us. Please pray with me that God would move and work through S.I. to reach those who don't know Him.
• Pray for all of the interns and students coming and going from the S.I. sites that we wouldn't be discouraged by any lack of spanish skills or feelings of inadequacy.

Thanks friends, I'll be sure to post again soon! I love you and miss you all oh so very much!

Hola from Costa Rica!

I made it! Praise God, I made it. I was pretty intimidated and overwhelmed the first few days. I was just made really uncomfortable by my unfamiliar surroundings and not being fluent in spanish so I was, indeed, culture shocked! We had the weekend off to do whatever and so I think that I needed that to just collect myself and let it set in that I'm going to be here until the end of July. I feel a little more at ease after hanging out with the interns this weekend.

So I am an intern for Students International and I will be working at the tutoring center ministry site. There are several different ministry sites that include photography, social services, sports, business, and some others. As an intern, I will be here for two months with the other interns and we help lead groups of students that come down to work on short-term, 2 week long mission trips. I stay with the other two girl interns, Sarah and Bre, with our host family Mita and Carlos. All of the interns and students and most of the staff live in Desamparados, which is kind of like a county or sect of San Jose, Costa Rica.

It's definitely unsettling when you arrive in a strange city where every house looks like a cage. There are literally bars on the front of every house and two sets of doors to lock. After being here for a few days, I actually feel a lot safer, surprisingly, knowing that I'm locked in behind two sets of doors :) Perhaps I'm a chicken...

I was really homesick at first and just wanted to leave but I know that's not an option. It would be so easy to just check out now and go back to comfortability but I can't let that happen. God has opened up so many doors for me to be here and has granted me with this opportunity for a reason and I will not squander this. I feel unbelievably blessed to come down here to be whatever God needs me to be. Even though I feel separated by language and culture, God can work through any circumstance and any obstacle. He is with me and I cling to that.

Costa Rica in 3, 2, 1...

Hello FRIENDS!

If you didn't already know, I am going to Costa Rica from May 25 until July 24 for a Social Work internship through a Christian organization called Students International. I will also be doing practical, hands on outreach mission work by helping lead other groups in short term mission trips.

So with that being said, I'm not there yet but I am leaving for Costa Rica in two days! I will have access to the internet and so I intend to keep this blog to update my loved ones :)

ALSO, if you have skype then we should do the whole vid chat sometime! The name is ajr_89 (Amy Jo Russell (duh))

One last thing, just in case you're old fashioned and would like to send me a hand-written letter ;) my address is :

Amy Jo Russell

Apartado 946-2400

Desamparados, Costa Rica

America Central

I love you all so much and will miss you but I know that God has blessed me with this opportunity to do something bigger than myself and that is what I intend to do with his help!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5ctO5MaFLg

This is my prayer in the desert...

I have thrived in this forsaken desert for too long. I'm so thirsty, I can hardly stand it. I've been unfaithful and ashamed. I have nothing of worth to give. There's a war in my soul that suppresses feeling. This indifference, this numbness is getting old. My soul is tired. Revive me, Oh God, because I'm suffocating.

Yet, I hold on to the hope of future triumph. God is bigger than my shortcomings and will conquer this inevitable battle within me.

This is my prayer in the desert

When all that's within me feels dry

This is my prayer in my hunger and need

My God is the God who provides

And this is my prayer in the fire

In weakness or trial or pain

There is a faith proved

Of more worth than gold

So refine me Lord through the flames

I will bring praise, I will bring praise

No weapon formed against me shall remain

I will rejoice, I will declare

God is my victory and He is here

This is my prayer in the battle

When triumph is still on it's way

I am a conqueror and co-heir with Christ

So firm on his promise I'll stand

All of my life

In every season

You are still God

I have a reason to sing

I have a reason to worship

This is my prayer in the harvest

When favor and providence flow

I know I'm filled to be emptied again

The seed I've received I will sow

Nothing could say it better than this song. I absolutely love how God has used music in my life. This brings me joy and he knows it. Thank you Jesus for using this song in my life today. Thank you for blessing me with another day that I might hear it and gain hope. Please fill me.

Hope, He's coming for me

So here it is, my way overdue blog. I have been temporarily out of the blog scene for a while... but I'm back. My life is more busy than I ever would have thought. I have been getting minimal amounts of sleep and have been constantly on the go since school started. BUT God is good, his love is steadfast and unchanging and I have that to rejoice in daily. I crave Jesus. I long for so much more that I feel a sense of dissatisfaction on this earth. I can't wait to be with Jesus but until then, I'm going to glorify him in my satisfaction with what he has blessed me with.

This song is absolutely my life right now...

If I find in myself desires nothing in this world can satisfy,

I can only conclude that I was not made for here

If the flesh that I fight is at best only light and momentary,

Then of course I feel nude when to where I'm destined I'm compared

Speak to me in the light of the dawn

Mercy comes with the morning

I will sigh and with all creation groan as I wait for hope

Am I lost or just found? On the straight or on the roundabout of the wrong way?

is this a soul that stirs in me, is it breaking free, wanting to come alive?

Cos my soul would prefer for me to be numb

An avoid the impending birth of who I was born to become

For we, we are not long here

Our time is but a breath so we better breathe it

And I, I was made to live, I was made to love, I was made to know you

Hope is coming for me

Hope, He's coming for me

-C.S. Lewis Song

Grace

My life is a reflection of God's grace. All of our lives are. I just read Ephesians 3 this morning and the word grace just kept jumping out at me.

Ha I think I'm funny sometimes, how I actually think I own things or that I have a right to boast in any of "my" accomplishments. I have no such rights. Everything in my life is a gift from God because of his grace.

I am back at school now. I've spent 2 nights in my new dorm room so far and I was blown away by how much nicer my room is this year and I just felt so blessed to even have a place to rest my head. Goodness, God's grace is truly amazing.

This summer I have just been learning how to be appreciative for everything that God has blessed me with. Every breath is a blessing and a second chance. God has really placed it on my heart to make every single day count and I try to do just that. I just know that if I die today, I want to die talking about Jesus and about how incredible his love is. I've tried to really make it a point to do so, to talk to at least one person a day about Jesus and to share with somebody who probably doesn't know him. You honestly never know the impact of your words and actions and what that will make somebody think. I want my actions and words to speak volumes of love in Christ. I know I still have a long way to come myself but I am striving, in prayer and persistence in Jesus.

Ephesians 4:1-2 says "As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love." I long for that so badly. I don't want to have anything to do with sin because God has poured out his grace on my life and I want to try and be worthy of that grace. I have failed a lot at that in the past. I was slacking and my life was mediocre but once again God had such amazing grace on my life that he took my mediocrity away and filled me up with his love. Thank you God. You grace is enough.

Daily Gratitude: God I thank you for your constant presence this summer and for watching over my life. I thank you for turning my mourning into dancing, for replacing sadness with joy. Thank you for this summer. Thank you for an awesome dorm room and the best roommate in the whole world. I praise you for blessing me with my best friend. Thank you for my wonderful family. I love them so much and I just praise you for them. Thank you for instilling your Holy Spirit within me and constantly changing and molding my heart. I am not who I was a year ago, not even who I was a month ago and I am so grateful for that because I don't like who I was. I praise you for your peace, love, joy, mercy, and grace today. Amen.

...Then I am strong

Lately I've been feeling low, as you know. I understand my vices and I know there's more to discover but I would much rather spend my time finding out your character. Your perfect character. I cannot get enough of you.

God I'm so tired of distraction though. I ask that you would please extract any distraction from my life that is not of you. I know it's bold of me to ask but this is what I need, I need you to fill me with your Holy Spirit every single day. I am such a fool without you.

Please be my strength, I know you are more than able. Your power is shown in my weaknesses and I ask that you would be displayed through me. Bless you Jesus. I love you.

"But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you,

for my power is made perfect in weakness."

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses,

so that Christ's power may rest on me.

That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults,

in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.

For when I am weak, then I am strong."

2 Corinthians 12: 9-10

Daily Gratitude: Thank you for Epictetus. Thank you for Francis Chan and his absolutely amazing book Crazy Love. Thank you for protection and always watching over me. Thank you for delighting in me and singing over my life. Thank you for Emily, Amanda, Mariah, Chelsea, and my sissy. Thank you for giving us a wonderful time together today. I thank you in advance for what you're going to do this year in me at Greenville and on my campus. Thank you for all-surpassing joy! Thank you for being the strength in all my weaknesses.

Give me faith

Give me strength enough to wait

To stand in faith

And listen for, listen for your melody

Your songs have never stopped

You songs have never stopped

Your songs have never stopped,

You've been singing, always singing over me

Your words are still enough

And you're singing, always singing over me

-Kari Jobe