Tico Tuesday, June 18th

Alto a la violencia! Un mensaje de Dios. Soy valioso. Vivo libre. Elijo vivir en paz. En lugar de pelear, mejor sonrío. Soy un agente de paz. Stop the violence! A message from God. I'm valuable. I live freely. I choose to live in peace. Instead of fighting, it's better to smile. I'm an agent of peace.
These are the key phrases, topics, and words to the song we are using in our Alto a la violencia campaign at the Bible Home. We kicked off a week ago Friday with a special activity (including a hilarious video by Andrés, Fau, and the school staff) and sidewalk-chalking nearly every solid surface on the ground we could find with messages of peace. We all wore white t-shirts and everyone was given a blue or white bracelet to show that we are agents of peace-in-training. This week, we are watching the children closely to see if they can win their other blue or white bracelet (so they'll have one of each color). Last Monday we took this sweet picture with the Peace Bear, showing that with the effort of everyone, we can all live peacefully together.
This is a really important campaign, and we are doing all sorts of special activities in the houses, at school... everything we can to ingrain in the children's minds that violence is not ok. So many of the children who come to us have grown up experiencing and or witnessing violence on a far too regular basis. And that's not even thinking about the TV shows or movies they've seen. Thank God for the creativity and hard work of all the Bible Home and Enrique Strachan School staff who are helping with this campaign, and let's ask Jesus together for these children to live as agentes de paz.
Keep reading below for a testimony and a Migration update!
God's peace be with you!
Carrie

A Miracle!
There's a house mom I've asked you to pray for a lot. She is pregnant and has been through a lot this year. Her grandmother passed away, other close family members have had other health concerns, and her own pregnancy has been very high risk. Oh yeah, and she's been taking care of 11 children at the Bible Home when she hasn't been out on medical leave. This is the same mom I filled in for 5 nights back in February. She's been out on medical leave again, and it's been incredibly hard for her. She's been really stressed by a lot of things, including some kind of malformation in her baby's heart, something about blood crossing over...  But, Friday she had another ultrasound, and the doctor asked what they were supposed to be checking her for, because the baby was perfectly fine and the blood in his heart was all where it was supposed to be! Praise the Lord!!! He heard and answered our prayers! Please keep praying for this mom, for her baby's health, for the 10 children she is caring for again until she goes on maternity leave in 2 months, and for the woman who has been covering while she's been out on medical leave and will cover again when she goes on maternity leave. Please pray especially for their times of daily devotions to go well, as that has been a challenge for both women (the house mom and the lady who's been covering). Thanks!

Migration
There really is light at the end of the tunnel! I think. Today I spoke with my contact at Migration and she said she was going to resolve my case today! I got on my knees right away and begged for it to be so! The woman called me a couple hours later and made sure that I knew I was switching from being here as a religious resident to a volunteer. Uh....yah! I've had that clear since... October? And that is precisely why this stinking process has taken so stinking long and been so stinking complicated! So stinky, I'm pretty sure you can almost smell it from here. Especially those of you that live in the south. Anyway, she didn't call back again after that. :-( Bummer. I'll probably call her again in a day or two to see how things are going. I don't want to be obnoxious, but I do want to be persistent! Please keep praying with me for this to be resolved ASAP! It would be so wonderful to have my new card in hand when I board the plane to fly to my brother's wedding next month!

Tico Tuesday, June 11

Tuesday greetings to you all once more!
Life in Costa Rica has a lot of bittersweet moments. Sunday was one of them. We had a going away party for a missionary couple that has been here in Costa Rica for 40 years. 40. That's a really long time. And they've lived in the same house the entire time. That, I cannot even imagine. I haven't even stayed in the same house for 4 years here! (My life record is 7 so far.) And this wasn't just any neighborhood. They live in Los Guido, which has one of the worst reputations in the country. They shared a brief testimony with us on Sunday about the time people stole their vehicle out of their front yard... and how that same night their Toyota was mystically returned to them and both they and their neighbors heard someone say very clearly, "don Roberto, here is your Toyota." There was a bullet on the floor of the vehicle, but no damage had been done. Pretty amazing, huh?
 I've enjoyed getting to know this sweet, old couple at LAM picnics and retreats. Ann is SO excited about the Los Guido Childcare Center being built! She once told me she could list off to me all the moms whose children we should receive in the center!
The funniest part of the day was the cake. Kind of looks like it was originally written "Valla con Dios," doesn't it? Oh native Spanish speakers and the spellings that trip them up! Here in Costa Rica, the y and ll are pronounced exactly the same, so unless people have seen it written or learned correctly that vaya is with a y, they are much more likely to put it with an ll. We carefully scraped off the top of the y so it would look better, but this shot is of the cake as it originally was. So funny!
May you have some fun moments this week (even in the midst of sadness)!
Carrie

Tico Tuesday, June 4th

Hello!
This weekend was a blast. It took hours and hours of preparation over the past few weeks, but being with the children whose moms were at Camp for Moms and caring for them, snuggling with them, getting back rubs from them, hosing them down each morning and leading the devotions and Bible lessons for them was an amazing experience.

To be honest, I was having such a good time, I didn't want it to end! I'd met many of these kids before, when I used to work with volunteers in the Int'l Development Office, or I'd at least read about them and written their entrance and progress reports for their sponsors. I'd met this cutie-pie before since she's come to the Bible Home a couple times on special family days to be with her brother. This picture is a year old now, and my has she grown! I met 3 other girls who have brothers at the Bible Home too. I ran into these brothers before leaving on Friday and asked if they had any messages to send to their sisters. Both sets of brothers sent their love to their sisters. When I met their sisters, I passed their messages, and the girls sent similar ones in return. It was so adorable! I was thrilled to meet these girls. I hadn't even known they existed until last week! It gives me a different perspective on their families and makes me want desperately for the families' conditions to improve and for the treatment plan to be completed so these brothers can be reunited with their sisters and moms again! And it makes me think... the boys are at the Bible Home for a reason, but surely these girls have had similar life experiences. They are siblings after all! It makes me wish I could have more of a relationship with these girls. Maybe I can send them notes with their brothers when they go home for the weekend on Friday...
God bless you and your family this week!
Carrie

PS The latest with Migration is that, there really isn't anything new. I spoke with my contact on the inside today and I guess the meeting on Friday with her boss went well. They are supposed to meet again tomorrow (Weds). I hope and pray this would be with the idea of making a resolution about my case. Please keep praying for things to keep marching forward and for a positive resolution asap!

It Gets Better!

Here's a quick update on a few things I mentioned in my last post.
Blogging and just verbally processing was very helpful, as you can see the difference in tone from the way my blog started to the way it ended. I can hate things the way they are and get all angry and rant and what not, but that doesn't change a thing, and it doesn't do me any good, so there's really no need to bother.
Anyway. THE NEWS: Bad news is, the lady didn't call yesterday as promised. She didn't even call today. But I asked my friend to make sure the lady had my number right. He just talked with her and gave her my number again, and (Here's the GOOD NEWS) she said that she has all the information together and that tomorrow (Friday) she'll be meeting with her boss asking permission to take over my case and be the one to resolve it!! This is so encouraging to me! I'm not forgotten! The ball is rolling! Maybe not as fast as I'd want it to, but it's moving forward, and that is a definite cause for rejoicing! Please pray for the meeting to actually happen tomorrow (meetings have a way of getting postponed here...) and for the lady to get permission to resolve my case! Thanks so much for all your prayers so far!
In other zones of stress, the material I need to get together for the house moms for the month of June still isn't close to ready, but I'm not going to stress about that. I'm just going to push the date back a little.
One of my hermeneutics lectures got posted today, and it's the one I'm more interested in seeing, so I won't write much longer so I can go see that and hopefully get a little more work done this evening.
The blessed ice creams for the Bible club? Well, that was really stressful for a little bit. There were some ice creams there in the kitchen, but they are for AWANA on Sunday. It was looking like we weren't going to have anything, or I was going to have to get a taxi to the center of town and buy all the local little grocery/convenience stores out of chocolates. Ay ay ay. Not planning ahead really sucks. But, then there was a change of plans and someone was able to bring us cheap, relatively tasty ice creams and novelties! Praise God! And, all the houses that had to present did their presentations and they turned out really well! One was about a city with no rules and was all messy and the people learned to make rules and get themselves organized. Another was a fantastic skit the Arco Iris house made up about sin. They compared it to having fleas. All we have to do is accept the free flea spray (say that 10x fast!) and we will be flea-free! Of course, that relates to us being sinful and in need of God's grace and forgiveness. We can't get rid of fleas on our own. And the gift of flea spray makes us clean and presentable before God. Talk about a creative skit!! And, the last presentation was singing "Oh be careful little eyes what you see," since it tied in PER-FECT-LY with this month's Bible lesson of "What are you watching?" I'd wanted us to sing the song, but didn't know all the words in Spanish very well. So, God worked it all out. And all the kids were really well behaved today! Oh, and we finished by playing a review game of what we've learned so far this year. The kids did great and it was a lot of fun. So, though there were some really stressful moments earlier in the day, things have gotten way better, and I'm so encouraged with things in migration! And I found out I have Monday off since I'll be working all weekend. That makes life a lot easier too!
Please keep praying for that and for this weekend. I almost have everything ready for my 3 lessons on Abraham!
Off to watch the OT narrative lecture!

PS CONSTRUCTION OF THE LOS GUIDO CHILD CARE CENTER OFFICIALLY BEGAN ON MONDAY!!! WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!! PRAISE THE LORD!!!!

Tico Tuesday, May 28th

Tuesday greetings from San José de la Montaña!
I'm going make a confession. I like to be in control. I like to know what's going on, who is doing what, when things are happening (or when they will happen by), and feel like I have some power or sway in making sure everything turns out right. That's the way it should be, right? Well, that's sure not the case in Costa Rica. I sort of learned this lesson when I studied abroad here in 2007. I can't control things, and therefore it does me absolutely no good to stress about them. That's fine when it comes to a trip to Nicaragua, but when it comes to the legal process of my residency in Costa Rica, it's a little bit harder to let go.

In October 2012, 11 months into my residency renewal process, Migration told me they would have a resolution for me in February. In February, Migration asked me for more papers from Roblealto and told me to come back in 3 months. When I told them that wasn't a resolution they told me it was a partial one.
Today, 18 months after I started this process and 11 weeks after my driver's license expired (which I can't renew without a valid residency card) I went back to Migration to find that there is STILL NO RESOLUTION for my stinking residency! Migration has NO EXCUSE to take so stinking long with their lousy, inefficient system. 18 months, Migration! That's a year and a half! My first residency card was only good for 2 years!
Anyway, there is good news. I now have contact with someone from the inside! An acquaintance of a friend... I'll take it! She was able to look me up in the system and see that my case is still not resolved. But, she has enough power that she sent the minions out to search for my file (I'm imagining some 90s computer game with large pixels and the little player searching through rooms and rooms for my treasure-like file). She is supposed to call me tomorrow. I hate waiting. So, I'm bummed that my case isn't resolved, but to have someone on the inside that is helping me is a very good thing, and for that I am truly grateful.
But, what guarantee do I have that she'll actually call me? Only her word. What will she say? Will she have good news? I have no idea. I HATE not having control!
I've been thinking of rewriting a hymn I truly love:

Tis so hard to trust in Jesus,
just to take him (and the lady from Migration) at his word,
Just to rest upon his promise,
when I know, I've no control,

Jesus, Jesus, tough to trust him
though he's proven o'er and o'er
Jesus Jesus precious Jesus, 
Oh for grace to trust you more!

Anybody else ever feel this way? (As my dear pastor Ethan says, you can raise your hand in your heart if you do). Just bein' honest, people.

And the irony is: I've had to learn this trusting thing before. If he can take care of our trip to Nicaragua when everything goes wrong. If he can provide for me financially as a missionary for 4+ years. If he can keep me safe and protect me from any serious health concerns. If he can move mountains, change children's hearts, give sight to the blind, cast out demons, make the lame to walk, rise from the dead...then of course he can take care of a little bit of legal paperwork in a retarded broken system!
The other ironic piece is that, as scary as it is to let go, trusting God really does bring freedom. Freedom and peace that are way better than stressing. Stressing never did anybody any good anyway.
Stress. Want to know the rest of it? Well, there's a Bible club on Thursday and I haven't really planned it and I don't think the houses that are supposed to present are going to be ready. I forgot to order the ice creams, and I haven't told anyone we're thinking about having it in a different place and I need to talk to doña Magaly about changing the time we start. I still have a ton of stuff to prepare for this weekend as I'm in charge of Christian Education for the child care program we're offering for the kids of moms who are going to the camp for moms this weekend (Fri afternoon through Sun late afternoon). I have materials to prepare, stuff to gather and pack, lessons to review, etc. And next week we are supposed to give to the moms the material for the month of June. That's not close to ready either. I still have to put all the doctrines in plastic sleeves, and stick labels on the back of every visual (8*12), I think I need more copies of the right or responsibility and I need to reorganize the materials for the Bible lesson. Plus I need to make the cover sheet for the envelopes I put all the materials in. Oh, and I need to make the banner. crap. Then there's my studies. This week's lectures still haven't been posted and I want to have as much time as possible to do my assignment, especially since this weekend is shot and today I didn't get much done since I was at Migration this morning. Deep breath. God is bigger and higher than all of this. It's all going to be ok, and even if EVERYTHING goes wrong and I have to start my residency process from scratch (I can't imagine that happening and don't even know if it's possible, but if so, Lord, please have mercy!), I am still the accepted, beloved child of the King of all. He will continue to be faithful and care for and provide for me. His love for me will never change, and that's what I care about most.
Ok, I'm starting to feel less anxious already. I feel like I should list you a host of good things I'm grateful for now (probably starting with the awesome chocolate chip cookies I made the other night. It's really tempting to devour the ones I didn't give away Cookie Monster style!). But, being thankful for God's love and the ability to truly trust him is enough. And I need to go exercise. Billy Blanks is like a therapist to me.
Thanks for reading and taking a glance into this wild life. I beg you for your prayers, for everything I've mentioned, but especially for my residency renewal and for the activities of this weekend, including the 2 devotionals and 3 Bible lessons I'll be leading.
May Jesus remind us every day of how sweet it is to trust him each day!
Carrie

PS Instead of posting a picture of me looking wild and pulling my hair out, I've decided to share this blue crowned motmot with you instead. It has an awesome name. And one posed just like this outside my window the other day. And google enabled me to identify it. God is good. He's even better than google.

Tico Tuesday, May 21st

It came! The long awaited start of the 2013 AWANA season finally came! Sunday morning we had a special service and ceremony at the Bible Home to celebrate the beginning of AWANA this year. I'm helping out in our Sparks club once more, and am looking forward to building relationships with these 4 sweeties and sharing God's truth and love with them and helping them not just hide God's Word in their hearts, but understand it and encourage them to put it into practice every day. I was working with 2 of these kiddos in manual time, and they had to memorize the Sparks key verse, John 3:16. I asked them what the verse was about, and they weren't able or willing to say anything. So, I got to explain the verse to them, piece by piece. They both say they've accepted Jesus as their Savior, but I'm not sure they really understand what it means to have a relationship with Jesus. Please pray for them, and pray for me as I work with these kids.

I have another prayer request too. The Roblealto-wide camp for moms is coming up May 31-June 2. While the moms are at camp, we have cuido, a sort of mini-camp for the children of these mothers. I was originally going to go to the camp with the moms, but Carmen, the Christian Ed. coordinator/mom camp director, called me the other week and asked me to help out at the cuido instead and take charge of Christian education there. It turns out this means I have to prepare 2 30-minute devotionals, plus 3 90-minute Bible lessons on Abraham. There are going to be about 40 kids there, ranging from 1 year to 11. I feel capable of doing this (thank God he qualifies the called!), and am very honored that Carmen believes I can do a good job, but am definitely feeling the weight of this big responsibility. Please pray for everything to come together and go well. I'm excited to see what God will do in that weekend!
Thanks so much!
Love,
Carrie

Tico Tuesday, May 14th

Happy Tuesday to you!
I feel like I could write you another Chronicle again already. This weekend, I was finally able to get back to Isla Venado again. It was a great trip, but I came back with a heavy heart. There are some really difficult family situations people I know and love there are facing. On a more positive note, I learned how to make the delicious frozen coconut treats (apretados) and my little freezer is full of them! And as Jessica and I were saying good bye to Pastor Eladio and doña Epi, an idea came to me: what if we had a "Family Conference" for the people on the island and have different sessions on marital relationships, parenting, and how children can honor their parents? I'm talking with someone here about leading this, and ask you to join me in praying for it to come together!

But back to the heavy heart. Apart from the prayer requests I mention for the Bible Home, I feel like I often paint the Bible Home in pretty rosy tones. I genuinely believe it is a wonderful place and everyone who comes can feel God's presence. But, some really sad, tough stuff happens too. House parents get tired, sick, and burnt out. Some children talk and laugh through devotions and prayer. Today I was in one of the houses, and when I got up for a moment a kid wrote a bad word in my textbook I'd been reading. Sometimes my coworkers and I have miscommunications. The kids steal, lie, are violent, defiant, disrespectful, and disobedient. They can be so sweet and loving though, that sometimes it's all too easy for me to forget the extremely difficult realities these kids are coming from. It is good for me to remember the kids' backgrounds, and that they are in desperate need of love, acceptance, and comprehensive help. So, my heart is heavy for all these things too.
Life is hard, and with a lot of really tough stuff. I'm so grateful for the hope we have in Jesus and for God's amazing love and grace!
God's peace and joy be with you whatever you're currently facing. There is hope and you are loved!
Love,
Carrie