Tico Tuesday, August 26th

And now back to your regularly scheduled Tico Tuesday...
It's hard to believe I've been back from Maine for only a week. It feels like it was ages ago. I don't have any good pictures from the week, but I'm sure you won't mind seeing some of the Great Falls Balloon Fest, right?

We sang the Nat'l Anthem when this first balloon went up!

This week has mainly been working and studying. In about 3 weeks, we are going to be inspected for our ISO9001 (quality) certification with the PANI (National Child Welfare Institute). We have a whole quality management system we're implementing. I've received days of training about it now and can even sing you a catchy song about it! (I've told you before that God has blessed us with an abundance of creativity at the Bible Home, right?)
Girls group--"Exemplary Women"--went really well again on Thursday. Explaining why it was ok that Tamar slept with three different men was a fun challenge. I should have taken a picture of the bizarre "family tree" I drew to try to show what was going on! The next day, one of the girls came to my office to help me and another was there working on a present for someone. We had so much fun together! Later in the afternoon, one went with me to the discipulado in San Jose to help support my coworker Xinia. And before I left for S Jose, the director spoke some very kind, affirming words to me about girls group: that she's glad I'm doing it and that it is really good for the girls. Thanks and praise be to God! I'm really glad I'm leading this group too: I'm loving it, and I truly believe he is working in these girls' lives.
Thank you a million for your prayers for me as I've been finishing my semester. It's been a tough push, but thanks to your prayers, I am almost there! Tomorrow I plan to polish off the last paper and take the final exam. (Oh, and last week I got my first e-mail about my graduation in May! Woohoo!!!!!) Then it's packing time! Next Tuesday I'll be writing to you from Chrissy's and my new apartment!
May God give you grace to do everything with quality and as an act of worship to him!
Love,
Carrie

Tico Tuesday, August 20th

I just spent a week in paradise!

The paradise of southern Maine and the White Mountains of New Hampshire, that is. I got to do so many things I hadn't been able to do for years... walk and run on the beach with my mom, play bocce, and enjoy a Dunkin Donuts chai with her, hike in the White Mtns with my mom and pick fresh wild blueberries right on the side of the trail, watch Red Sox games on TV with my parents and delight in Red Sox Nation and the greatness of New England, sit together with my parents at East Auburn Baptist Church and thoroughly enjoy the sermon together, go to the balloon festival and watch the hot air balloons inflate and take off right in front of my nose, laugh and share with dear friends, etc, etc, etc. I love so much to spend time with my parents and see how their sense of humor and many mannerisms and ways of life have rubbed off on me. It is such a joy to be my parents' daughter!

The trip was quick, but jam-packed, as you can see. And absolutely, totally worth it. I love Maine! It's not always easy to live there (especially in the winter...well, is it easy to live anywhere all the time???), but it is a wonderful, beautiful place. Having my parents back there makes me miss it a lot more than before. So, I will make the most of it when I am there. But, until/unless God hits me with a 2x4 and tells me to leave Costa Rica, that's where I'll be.

Thank you for your continued prayers. Please pray for me to be faithful and obedient to God and delight in him in all I do. I am nothing without him, and your prayers and mine are so important! And, it is now serious end-of-semester crunch time. I was able to advance some in my schoolwork in the past week, but not quite as much as I hoped.

Last week's Tico Tuesday is available on my blog, but I'm sure you can understand why I was unable to get it out!

God's blessing, peace, and joy be with you,

Carrie

Tico Tuesday, August 13th

I wrote this post a week ago and didn't get around to posting it till now... sorry! It's still well worth reading though!

Wednesday greetings from the USA!

Yesterday I was focusing hard on my studies and traveling, so Tico “Tuesday” is coming to you today. :-)

Monday was my second round of presentations for the Annual Training Course for instructors at our child care centers (I'll present one more time at the Bible Home later this month). This time, instead of standing there and teaching the powerpoint, I broke the instructors into small groups and gave each one the notes on a different high-maintenance personality. They had about 15 minutes to read the material and prepare to teach it to others. They could use the powerpoint, posterboard and markers I brought, or anything else their creative minds invented. Overall, I was very pleased with their presentations, and didn't need to add or explain much more for most of them. Especially with the group I had after lunch, I knew I needed to have them actively engaged in their learning or they would have a hard time staying awake. Many thanks to my amazing Aunt Jenny for her reminders and tips! And actually, I noticed something when the morning groups gave their presentations—high maintenance people often have low self-esteem! They don't know how to handle themselves and their own personal issues, and this manifests itself in a number of different ways with other people. They can end up as “sponges” or “indifferent ice cubes” or “martyrs,” but however it is manifested, the salient issue is self-esteem. I think self-esteem is an issue for a lot more people than I ever realized (myself included!). This is another area where God has been working in me lately, and I am so grateful! Not to say that I “have arrived” and have no more concerns, but lately God has been helping me see my worth and understand that he has chosen me to fulfill purposes that he designed specifically for me! So, I seized the opportunity to tell the staff at the child care center that they are valuable. That God has them there for a purpose. That he loves them like crazy! That he is using them. It was sweet to be able to speak truth into their lives like that. What a blessing and privilege.

Thank you for your continued prayers for me regarding my studies and travels!

May God use each of us to speak truth to someone's life this week!

Carrie

Tico Tuesday, August 5th

Today's picture has nothing to do with what I'm going to talk about, but I thought many of you might not have ever had the privilege of meeting one of these little creatures! Isn't it adorable?

What a wicked long tail!

Unfortunately, I took no pictures at AWANA this past Sunday. It's Mother's Day in Costa Rica this month, and at Roblealto we decide to just celebrate Family Month (or maybe more people celebrate it too?). So at AWANA, we had a big Family Celebration Day. The leaders of each AWANA club put together a presentation based on a family in the Bible. Ositos did a newscast about Lazarus' resurrection and the relationships between Lazarus, his sisters, and Jesus. Llamas did a fantastic tico adaptation of the "Prodigal Son" that got me all choked up, and in Chispas, we wrote a poem about Samuel and read it with a mime and peanut gallery to make it more fun. I was responsible for putting our presentation together and got quite stressed about it. Being the good gringa I am, I try to plan ahead and, well, don't you just hate it when people don't respond to your texts? But, thankfully, we were all able to meet together and write the poem and come up with funny things for the girls in the peanut gallery to say. Practice was minimal, but I think it turned out great. I'm hoping someone recorded it and will upload it to facebook, but I'm not holding my breath.
In other news, I gave a training session (part of our annual training course for Christian Ed) on a couple chapters from Les Parrott's High Maintenance Relationships yesterday at one of our child care centers. Overall, I think it went ok, there was just a lot of material to cover and not enough time. I have to teach on a few other chapters at other child care centers next week (and then at the HB later this month) with similar time constraints. Please pray for wisdom on how to teach the material well and for it to be a blessing to the personnel who receive it. I would also appreciate your prayers this month for me as I 1) write two research papers--which are hard for me and not my favorite--and take a final exam to finish my summer semester 2) go to Maine for a week 3) Move into a brand new beautiful apartment with Chrissy! 4) continue girls group--called "Exemplary Women" 5) Learn the ropes for my new (additional) role of secretary in AWANA and continue to juggle a whole bunch of other responsibilities at work. I know there's no way I can even try do it all on my own!
Be sure to let me know how I can be praying for you!
May you find joy in the tasks that lay ahead of you this week!
Carrie