Tico Tuesday, August 27th

The last two Sundays I have been blessed with the opportunity to deepen my relationship with two different ticas. Last Sunday, it was my friend Ivannia that was a house mom in the Jardín house, and this past Sunday, it was a girl I met at church named Jessie.

Jessie & I sang in the church choir last year

Jessie and I have been saying for months that someday we need to get together and hang out. Usually, when ticos say that they are just saying it would be nice, but they actually have no intentions of ever making it happen. But, Jessie and I really did get together: we went out for lunch and talked until 4:30 and then went and got ice cream before parting ways. I had a wonderful time. And since it was just us, we felt comfortable sharing with each other. (Deeper conversations tend to not happen in group settings in this culture, especially among young people.) So, I'm feeling really grateful and blessed. I yearned for single female friends for so long here, and now I'm FINALLY getting some! Jessica is still my closest friend here right now, but I'm enjoying getting to know her roommate Tammy too, who often joins us when we run together. Now that Ivannia isn't in charge of a house full of kids, she's more available to hang out, and though Jessie is wicked busy, she really needs to get out sometimes. And Iva and Jessie are ticas! I'd wondered if I'd ever make friends with any ticas who are actually closer to my age than my mom's. I don't know how close I'll get with either of these ladies, but I thank God for what He has given me with all my heart. Thank you so much for praying for this to happen! Please continue to pray for God to provide me with good friendships, for me to be a good friend, for people to always be able to see Jesus in me --and for me to remember that it's about Him and not me!
As you can see, I'm staying plenty busy as always. I especially appreciate your prayers as I try to get my Church History II paper written and submitted by September 7th.
Thank you for all your prayers, love and support!
Carrie

Tico Tuesday, August 20th

Happy Tuesday to you, once more! This is another one of those weeks in which I could easily write you a whole chronicle. To followup on last week's picture: My dear sad-faced boy in the chef hat told me yesterday he's going to start behaving better again and is very excited about helping me with some upcoming activities. He has some fantastic ideas! Praise the Lord! Please keep praying for him, the other boys in the Arco Iris house, and Leslie their house dad. They are still working to adjust to their new situation. 

I know I wrote about AWANA two weeks ago, but this past Sunday was the most special lesson time we've had in AWANA the whole time I've been there. We watched a movie clip of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane and Judas betraying him. Then, we talked about how we can follow Jesus' example of praying when he was going through a really difficult time. We wrapped up the lesson forming a circle and having everyone give thanks for something and then share a request. The kids responded really well to the activity and were very respectful as everyone else shared. Some of the leaders opened up quite a bit and a couple of the kids followed suit. It was really beautiful and special. One boy shared, "I want my dad to leave his vices so we can all be together and share as a family again." Talk about ripping your heart out. At the end, we let the 2 boys who'd been wanting to pray ever since they heard the lesson was about prayer pray for us. One (the taller tan one in the picture) had paid incredibly close attention and mentioned almost ALL the requests we'd made. It was so amazing and beautiful, truly a special moment. I thank and praise God for all the things he is doing and will do in the lives of the children at the Bible Home and their families, and more than ever, I consider it an honor and privilege to be a part of what God is doing here!
Thank you for journeying with me and helping make it possible for me to be here!
With joy and gratitude, 
Carrie

Tico Tuesday, August 13th

An incredibly sweet family came to meet and hang out with me on Saturday. I'd gotten an e-mail from some fellow LAM missionaries with an open offer by this family to bring any LAM missionary in Costa Rica stuff from the US! I seized the opportunity to have them bring me my books for the fall semester. What a blessing! But they didn't just bring me books! They found my blog and brought me a number of things on the "if you so happened to want to send me a package" list! Raspberry zinger tea, organic maple syrup from Canada, a box of shredded wheat, and a bag of Dove Promises. Yum, Yum, Yum, and Yum! What an incredible blessing! And I was really touched that this family took a full day out of their vacation to hang out with missionaries (they were with another missionary family before they came over to me). Talk about generosity! It was such a gift to get to know this family a little bit and just be a tourist in my own town. God gave us such a great sunset we had to stop multiple times for them to snap more pictures! (I went unarmed...they promised to send me pictures though.)

Oh, and on the way down to Barva for a fantastic supper, we were able to see random fireworks going off over part of San Jose. It was so cool! I am so blessed and grateful! There's nothing like a mini-escape and some fun for a missionary that's been feeling a little worn lately! If we all like it so much when people invest in us, why don't we invest more in other people so they can experience the joy and love too? Who will you invest in today? Tomorrow? The next day? Go for it! God loves us not so we can keep it to ourselves, but for us to pour out and share his love with others.
Ok, so what's the connection between this and the picture? One of my Dove Promise wrappers says, "Make a list of your dreams." Thursday evening, the youth group we have at the Bible Home had a hat parade and a special activity about dreaming about the future. So, everyone who went had to make a hat about their dreams. I was checking in on the Arco Iris house before the activity and got to see the hats the boys in the house made. B did a fantastic job with his (his face is sad because he misses his former house mom a lot)! I look forward to spending some time in the kitchen with him!
May God fill all of us with his love and show us who to invest in and how!
Thank you to those of you who write to and invest in me!
Carrie

Tico Tuesday, August 6th

It's Tuesday again!
First off, let me say THANK YOU for praying for everything I mentioned last week! The 11 boys of the Arco Iris house now have someone to be with them the rest of the year! God called up Leslie, a fellow AWANA leader, to be a tutor/uncle/father to these boys. Today was his first day officially working. We've had single house moms at the Bible Home before, but never a single house dad. We're giving this a shot though, and we believe God is going to do amazing things through Leslie! Please keep him and the Arco Iris boys in your prayers!

A couple boys from the Arco Iris House participated in this presentation on Sunday

Speaking of AWANA... we declared this Sunday Friendship Day in AWANA, so we had a few special presentations, along with a number of other activities to develop friendship among the children. In Sparks, we made a banner with the slogan "mi amigo para Cristo" (My friend for Christ) and had all the kids decorate it. Then we had everyone draw the name of another person in the group and give them candy and tell them something nice. All the kids participated with great attitudes and didn't have to spend much time thinking of what to say. The boy who gave to me just said, "te quiero." It was so adorable! I praise God for all that he is accomplishing in the lives of these children and everything they are learning.
Thank you for joining me on this journey. May God continue to do his amazing work in your lives too!
Carrie