Friday, June 12, 2009

JUCUM SJ

Woke up at 5, went back to sleep, woke up at 6 and went running for a few miles with Lisa- awesome, I feel so ALIVE now. Not that I wasn’t before, I’m just more aware of it now after having exerted myself so much.

We were supposed to be hanging with kids at an orphanage, but the H1N1 has people scared, and the ministry of health is not allowing foreign teams to work with kids…. Great…BUT it shows that Jesus has something else in store for us. OPEN DOORS, FATHER

We went to visit the base, and I was greeted by Ryan, a former DTS leader of mine. It was WONDERFUL to see him again. We caught up a tiny bit during the tour – basically that we are walking in the way of the Holy Spirit –WOOOO, MORE LORD As soon as we arrived, I felt that someone was going to be called to do something at the base, I thought it was Rebekah.
<- that's Rebekah paying really close attention while kris, not so much...

At night we had a team meeting, and we had each of the kids take their journals, and write at the top of the page “God, what do you want to say to me” and then they would take it from there. Some kids got pictures, one got a vision, one a poem, one a song, one who speaks NO SPANISH got words like Corazon and te quiero (heart and I love you) – she had never heard these words in her life…. Cool, JESUS, MORE LORD LET THEM HEAR YOUR VOICE MORE AND MORE, LET THEM BE HUNGRY FOR MORE, DESPERATE FOR THAT TIME WITH YOU. OPEN THEM UP TO THE PROPHETIC, LET THEM BUILD EACH OTHER UP IN LOVE.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Wrong Bus... Or was it the Right bus?

While I was waiting at the bus stop, I saw a woman digging through the trash outside of the supermarket, grabing things that they couldn’t sell for one reason or another. And it just burned within me that I wanted to buy her a bag of rice and beans. When I saw burned within in me I’m talking profit Jeremiah saying “If I say I will not mention him, or speak more in his name, there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in , and I cannot.” (Jer 20:9) So I went and bought her a bag of rice and a bag of beans $6-7 dollar purchase. And for me not having much, that’s a lot. So I go to give it to her and she says, set it over there. She didn’t even receive the gift in her hands. So I set it where she had told me to. When I see her next she is waiting for the bus, having left the bag where I had set it.

I was so confused and hurt. Had God not placed it in my heart to do this? Is she not in need of this? Instead of scrounging through the garbage, she had before her a meal. WHY? Why would she leave this? Why didn’t she want it? Was it because I had said God bless you? Was it because she had pride? Was it because I presented it to her with pride? God quieted the questions of my heart, and spoke to me that I had done what he had placed for me to do. I did it with all my heart for Him. And He is grateful, he received this. How she reacts is hers, and has no weight on me. He showed me that this is how many are presented with the free gift of Life – here on this earth, continued into eternity in Jesus- that they need not pay the price for their sins and face death- he’s already paid it- he’s given them the meal, yet still they scrounge around looking for something else in the garbage…

So I got on the bus, only it was the one to the Monte de la Cruz and not las Chorreras like I needed. At first I was kind of upset because I would need to walk a ways and up a steep hill, but then Irealized that God had an appointment for me. So I asked the woman next to her if I could pray for her. She said for her daughter who was pregnant, so I did, but how God works- he placed things on my heart to pray for her. And she rested her head in my shoulder, I could feel that she didn’t have that, someone to confide in and just hold her, so I did, and I saw a picture of God having a big lap and him just folding her in his arms. It was beautiful.

I got off the bus and WALKED and walked. And I felt the need to walk quicker, and as I did God spoke to me of how one day I would need to walk REALLY FAST and with ease to get from one village to another, to tend to medical emergencies – K God! Cool.

So then I see this old man walking down hill hobbling along with a cane. So I cross the road say the normal “Buenas” as you se a stranger walk passed you. Then I asked him about his knee. He told me it was bad and that he used to fall a lot and hit his head, and then he started to walk with a cane. So I asked him, if I could pray for him. “Of course!” was his reply. So I spoke healing to his knee, I told it to come into alignment every cell tissue, muscle- everything- and then I felt a shift in his knee under my hand, I felt his blood flowing through it washing away something. When I had finished with that, he asked if I was praying for the sick, and I said "sure!"

He told me that he was deaf in his left ear. So I asked if I could stick my fingers in his ears, and he said yeah, whatever you want. So I did and I commanded his ears to open, and everything to come into alignment as the way the Lord had created it. His tympani, incus, malleus,and stratus. And as I said that I saw in my minds eye that the connections of these parts of his ear were broken, the middle one kind of sagged farther down from the other two- I saw them line up right. And when I took my fingers out of his ears he said thnk you. I asked him how he was and he said better. So I asked him for real? (many times I’ve encountered that out of politeness people will say yes when really it’s a no) But he was like seriously I hear 100% out of this ear. I told him that it was because of Jesus that he was now healed and that he and his family must give all thanks to him for this.

As I write now, I realize that back in July, Jesus asked me to study the anatomy of the ear, because he wanted me to open someone’s left ear. I would pray every once and a while for this person’s ear and this person who was going to be healed. I was always on the lookout for one, but I came across several right ears, which I prayed for, but not seeing anything happen. It was such a treat to finally see God do something with the word that he had given me 11 months ago. YAY!
I like waking up early. I love sneaking away to be with my lover before the business of the day sets in. Today he told me he was going to bring his peace (not the counterfeit peace that the world gives) and to prepare my mind and my heart because things that I can’t even begin to imagine are going to be taking place. ALRIGHT! It has to do with Jeremiah the end of chapter 32 into chapter 33. AWESOME I SAY YES, JESUS!

We all piled into a little tourist bus, and drove a couple hours through the beautiful tropical mountain side. You could just feel the air resting upon your skin. It felt as though if I stood still enough dew drops would form on me. And the smell OH THE SMELL! Even though I’ve been here a thousand times before, it seems as though my lungs are breathing fresh air for the first time. It crawls up my nose and as it reaches my lungs it opens them up to something new. Beautiful, just beautiful.


We stopped on the side of the road because we ran into two men, walking with two ox pulling an oxcart. The man had a shoulder problem that ran from his shoulder down to his leg – gotta be a nerve or something, so I pray- and he’s healed. He was like huh, I’ve prayed so much before, God must not hear me. I reassured him that this wasn’t the case, but that there are three major blocks to healing.
1)unbelief – we need to have faith that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. That his desire is to heal, to bring healing
2) unforgiveness – bitterness, grudges, all of this – this will block healing
3) disobedience – walking in the darkness gives the god of darkness permission to have his way in your life – and he comes to steal kill and destroy (sickness comes to steal our health, destroy our bodies…. See where I’m going with this….)

I told him that he doesn’t have to meet a certain mark for God to hear him, that Christ has already paid the price, it’s a DONE DEAL, he can’t add not even a drop more blood that’s already been shed on the cross, and that his salvation could be secure – because if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, and we believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, we will be saved. Not we have to pray and act really good, and do everything right, and we will be saved. NO. It’s a heart thing. COOL YAY JESUS!

So we made it to the Volcano and it was CLOUDY, we were walking through the clouds (at 7,500+ feet above sea level) And there was no way this thick mass of clouds were going to lift so we could see the crater. SO, of course, we prayed. We prayed not only for the lifting of the clouds, but the lifting of the oppression of woman in this country. POWERFUL STUFF. We waited another hour with no avail, so we turned and walked away, and as we did, someone said, hey look! It’s lifting- So we ran the block that we had walked away and saw the crater- it was awesome.

While there I ran into a carving that I had done 4 years ago... It used to read "Ademar+ Tasha = <3" tasha =" HA... I'm glad that time makes things fade...


Hiking through the jungle, o man, nothing like it. It’s incredible. The vines, moss covered trees, oh man, oh man. I feel like I’m in some fantasy book, and some mystical creature like a nymph or fairy is going to grace us with its presence. WOW! We hiked to a GORGEOUS lagoon, and then back again, and then hit the road again.



I



This is the Kris I know. YAY JESUS, I WANT TO SEE MORE OF HIM


Farmer's Market

Today I woke up early again to spend time with the one my soul loves, I just can’t get enough. It’s like In the Song of Songs where the bride says

“Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce s the grave, its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house he would be utterly despised.” (8:6-7)

My aunt Ailena took Ruth (Joanna’s mom), Joanna, my mom, Santi, and I to the farmers market. I LOVED it, I hadn’t been there in a looong time. I bought Joanna a pipa, so she could try it. We drank them, and they were SO GOOD!

We came home and ate pejiballes YUM!

Lisa, her husband Peter, and her daughters, Bekah, Hannah, and Ruthie, should be arriving any minute now from the airport

I took a nap. And then 6 of us PILED into the back of my cousin Douglas’s car. Everyone in the back seat had someone on their lap. Welcome to transportation in Costa Rica. Below only depicts half of the people in the car...

We got to Douglas’s house (who is Hannah’s brother for those of you who have met her) They had opened the full door (which is a garage door that leads into the living room) the place was FULL of people my family and the Nygards who had just arrived. Trinidad y Tobago. If we would win against Trinidad we would earn 3 of the 17 points that we need to make it to the world cup. We currently have 9 point, with this win we’d have 12 points, only 5 away from securing a place in South Africa.

After an AMAZING WIN on Trinidad’s turf, we went home, and I had a talk with Joanna and Kristoffer. They have been dating for a month, but neither of them are allowed to date until they are 16 years old. SO I explained to them the spiritual position that they are putting not only themselves in, but the whole team, in their disobedience. I explained to them that living in disobedience is giving a doorway for the enemy to enter in and do his thing. I explained that in considering what they want out of this trip that they had three options 1) call it off for the couple of weeks they are here 2) wait until they are 16 3) share where they are at in their disobedience, and present it to their parents for their input.

They went with the 3rd. So we gathered around the kitchen table Joanna started to explain her understanding and the gravity of disobedience, and Kris quickly and quietly interrupted her “Joanna and I are going out” After much discussion, tears, and the like, the rule for 16 still holds. Joanna said that she was willing to wait, because he was worth it, and Kris agreed.

What Kris did around that kitchen table, I think he has NO IDEA of how INCREDIBLY HUGE that was. He confessed a hidden sin. Deception runs deep in our family, especially among the men. Stories of infidelity and kids sneaking around behind their parents back with sex, drugs, and alcohol is a big problem. Kris, being the first born son, of the last born son bringing this out of the darkness is a BIG DEAL. I got this picture of him and light just radiated out of him, touching generations past, present, and future. WOAH…. God’s got BIG STUFF for this guy.

I love tearing down territorial/generational strongholds, and seeing the kingdom of darkness lose control. This is one of my favorite things to be involved in…. FREEDOM woooohoooo!

I later found out that in the house in the back (on the same property) unbeknownst to each other, my cousin Ariel (aka Jeiko) was doing the same thing. He was going before his dad (Tio Juan Carlos) and telling him that he had a tattoo down his ribcage of his mom’s name (Lidieth) in Japanese Kanga. This was a BIG deal for him too. His older brother had gotten a tattoo on his arm once, and his dad took a scotch brite iron wool and scrubbed it out of his skin (tattoos aren’t viewed well here- they are associated with drugs and gangs) So, this last born son of the firstborn son was bringing light into the house next door.

JESUS BRING MORE LIGHT! TEAR DOWN ANY AND EVERY DEMONIC STRONGHOLD IN MY FAMILY. DECEPTION HAS NO PLACE HERE. THIS IS A PLACE OF TRUTH, RECOGNIZING THAT JESUS ALONE IS TRUTH. COME HOLY SPIRIT HAVE YOUR WAY WITH US.

Day at the Sibaja's

I woke up at 6 to Gabi, Sofi’s sister, getting ready work. It was just as well because I was able to spend some really nice time with God, before everyone was up. I was showere and just hanging out by seven thirty. I almost went up to see Ademar at this time, but I thought it would be way to early. So I waited.

I talked for quite a while with Sofi’s mom, Edelma, and we went to go pick up bread frm the Musmani together. I felt like I was walking on clouds the entire time, seeing all the old sites, as I walked almost the exact same route that I used to walk to and from school daily. It was so great. AH I love San Rafael, its one of my favorite cities in the world! After I came home and ate a piece of bread, and a mango shake, I went to the internet for half an hour, and when I got back, Sofi was awake.

Sofi couldn’t come, because her foot is bruised up real bad, having had a heavy glass dropped on her foot by one of her customers at the mall she works at. So she didn’t going me to go see Ademar. My stomach was tied in knots as I walked through the park on the way to his house. And then the words came to mind “even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil” and then the song “I will fear no e-vil for my God is wi-th me and if my God is with me, whom then shall I fear? Whom then shall I fear. Oh no, you never let go through the calm and through the storm Oh, no , you never let go of me…” So I know I’m not facing a life or death situation or anything here, but fear had loomed up in me, and so I had to confess that I was giving place and room for what Ademar thought of me, how he reacted to me, to hold a place in my life. So I cut off with all of that, because the only one who can judge me is Jesus, and he is just, he is merciful, and full of grace. SO I continued walking up the hill in the heat of the morning with confidence.

Upon arriving and calling to Ademar, no one came out, I waited, and called again. Then his mom popped her head out of her neighbors house, and invited me in. So I sat and talked with Dinora, and Sarita (Josue’s mom) for a while. After a while I asked if Andres was there, since he had been going there daily to work with Caleb (he’s an architect) And he came out, and I saw him, and we caught up for a while and it was great. I love him so much. He is such a special sweet hearted man. He went back to work, and I headed down the hill toward the park.

While I was waiting at the bus stop, I saw a woman digging through the trash outside of the supermarket, grabing things that they couldn’t sell for one reason or another. And it just burned within me that I wanted to buy her a bag of rice and beans. When I saw burned within in me I’m talking profit Jeremiah saying “If I say I will not mention him, or speak more in his name, there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in , and I cannot.” (Jer 20:9) So I went and bought her a bag of rice and a bag of beans $6-7 dollar purchase. And for me having nothing that’s a lot. So I go to give it to her and she says, set it over there. She didn’t even receive the gift in her hands. So I set it there. When I see her next she is waiting for the bus, having left the bag where I had set it. I was so confused and hurt. Had God not placed it in my heart to do this? Is she not in need of this? Instead of scrounging through the garbage, she had before her a meal. WHY? Why would she leave this? Why didn’t she want it? Was it because I had said God bless you? Was it because she had pride? Was it because I presented it to her with pride? God quieted the questions of my heart, and spoke to me that I had done what he had placed for me to do. I did it with all my heart for Him. And He is grateful, he received this. How she reacts is hers, and has no weight on me. He showed me that this is how many are presented with the free gift of Life – here on this earth, continued into eternity in Jesus- that they need not pay the price for their sins and face death- he’s already paid it- he’s given them the meal, yet still they scrounge around looking for something else in the garbage…

So I got on the bus, only it was the one to the Monte de la Cruz and not las Chorreras like I needed. At first I was kind of upset because I would need to walk a ways and up a steep hill, but then Irealized that God had an appointment for me. So I asked the woman next to her if I could pray for her. She said for her daughter who was pregnant, so I did, but how God works- he placed things on my heart to pray for her. And she rested her head in my shoulder, I could feel that she didn’t have that, someone to confide in and just hold her, so I did, and I saw a picture of God having a big lap and him just folding her in his arms. It was beautiful.

I got off the bus and WALKED and walked. And I felt the need to walk quicker, and as I did God spoke to me of how one day I would need to walk REALLY FAST and with ease to get from one village to another, to tend to medical emergencies – K God! Cool.

So then I see this old man walking down hill hobbling along with a cane. So I cross the road say the normal “Buenas” as you se a stranger walk passed you. Then I asked him about his knee. He told me it was bad and that he used to fall a lot and hit his head, and then he started to walk with a cane. So I asked him, if I could pray for him. “Of course!” was his reply. So I spoke healing to his knee, I told it to come into alignment every cell tissue, muscle- everything- and then I felt a shift in his knee under my hand, I felt his blood flowing through it washing away something. When I had finished with that, he asked if I was praying for the sick, and I said, yeah sure.

He told me that he was deaf in his left ear. So I asked if I could stick my fingers in his ears, and he said yeah, whatever you want. So I did and I commanded his ears to open, and everything to come into alignment as the way the Lord had created it. His tympani, incus, malleus,and stratus. And as I said that I saw in my minds eye that the connections of these parts of his ear were broken, the middle one kind of sagged farther down from the other two- I saw them line up right. And when I took my fingers out of his ears he said thnk you. I asked him how he was and he said better. So I asked him for real? (many times I’ve encountered that out of politeness people will say yes when really it’s a no) But he was like seriously I hear 100% out of this ear. I told him that it was because of Jesus that he was now healed and that he and his family must give all thanks to him for this.

As I write now, I realize that back in July, Jesus asked me to study the anatomy of the ear, because he wanted me to open someone’s left ear. I would pray every once and a while for this person’s ear and this person who was going to be healed. I was always on the lookout for one, but I came across several right ears, which I prayed for, but not seeing anything happen. It was such a treat to finally see God do something with the word that he had given me 11 months ago. YAY!

So I finally made it to see my family numero dos. I was greeted by Yami, and Catalina, and Carla (who I had talked with over face book and emails, and was just now getting the opportunity to meet) Her fiancé Ian was there. They are such a cute couple. Right now both of them are applying to be staff at the YWAM base in Montana next year. Cata was washing her dog, Nacho (from Nacho libre) a deaf boxer who doesn’t answer when called to. Yami and Cata and Carla and I chit chatted for a while catching up on what is going on in everyone’s life.

With a loud crack of thunder it started raining like torrential downpours- my favorite J But I started to pray for my friend Mario (Maruko), Yami’s son, because I knew he was on his way home, and I was praying that he wouldn’t get soaked, wherever he had to get off and on busses. After a bit he showed up and said hi. And then so did Alvaro, Catalina’s fiancé. Yami showed me all of the beautiful jewelry she makes and sells to try to help with some of the costs of living on the mission field. Then I joined Ian, Carla, Cata, Alvaro, and Mario who were watching Wolverine. Then Mario Sr came and I gave him big hug (he gives really good hugs) and caught up a little with him. He brought with him chicken so we all sat around the table to eat. He was asking about what I wanted to do, and where I was heading next, how Africa was, all that good stuff.

Then I was just chilling in the living room, and asked Mario (Maruko) how his school of worship went, what were the most impressionable things, and what God was doing in his life. This went into intimacy with God, hearing God’s heart first for yourself, and then for other people, prophesy. It was really neat and very REFRESHING to have someone talk with about these things here.

I fell asleep on their couch and missed the bus I needed to take down, but caught the next one an hour later and I figured that God had some plan with this too. I met Gabby, Shirley, and Carolina, at the bus stop, and then stopped by Sofi’s to say goodbye, thank you and pick up my stuff. We walked down to catch a bus from La Suiza and Gabby shared with me about the conversation she was having with Shirley about the exsistence of God (all in Spanish for some reason) and then I told her that I felt it was important to go into detail of the conversation, and so she did, giving the example that a person could have been smoking marijuana for five years without having anyone know it, but then some stranger walks by, God reveals it to them calls them out on it, and tells them what God has for them. As she shared this I had Holy Spirit goose bumps all over, and I knew that the example she gave was true of someone on the bus.

We got off and walked and then waited for the next bus, I saw this girl, and then God just gave me this song, and I started singing and more words came and it was this invitation to life, that she was trying to fill an emptiness, hide her insecurities, but that she can come out of hiding, because God wanted to fill her.

Then on the bus, this guy was standing in the aisle outside of my seat and I say a picture of God having this penetrating light, like a white laser going through his body, and cutting out all of this extra black goop that he had covering his organs; namely his heart. So I told him this and how God wanted to take all these weights he’d been carrying around and free him of everything that has been weighing him down, bring freedom. I prayed all of this into him, and then Gabby said that when he was several feet away from us (before I had even seen him) she said that she knew that God had an appointment with him, and that I was going to end up praying for him.

We made it to the airport and talked to EVERY stinkin department that I could, I had left my camera on the plane, and no one had turned it in…. JESUS, WHY? I LOVE TAKING PICTURES, I WANT A CAMERA…. After an hour, my mom, Kris, Joanna, Ruth , and Kelly showed up.

It was a GREAT DAY, I was really encouraged.

San Ra

Today we woke up and got ready to go to the town that I had lived in in ’05, Heredia. My cousin Joe was going to chauffer us around all day, it was great spending so much time with him. He is really neat, he is very personable, and SO easy to talk with. Our first stop was Karen’s house. We dropped in on her and talked for a while and then she served us her famous canalones – o man, so DELICIOUS. She makes really really good food. In fact, in her desperate desire to learn English, she had proposed that she would come over and cook for us once or twice a week, if we would only speak English and correct hers, while she did so. This was how we got to know this loving friend that we now visited.

After that we wanted to stop by the internet café that Marco works at, BUT he wasn’t there and they had told us that he had moved to a barrio called “La Suiza” We knew this area because one of our friends, Geiner lives there. So we went to try to take a shot in the dark, and found Marco near a cafetal (coffe plantation/field) talking with some girl. I went to hug him but he held back because he was all scrapped up. He had just fallen off of a mini motorcycle the day before.


We then went to visit his family, which is always a real treat. They are from Colombia and just so warm and welcoming. It is always good to see them. I shared with them why I don’t have a boyfriend. (which is strange for a girl my age) I told her that I had taken time to really know, and love who I am, and allow Jesus to love me, and develop more intimacy with Him, before engaging with anyone else. I told her of my struggle with finding my identity in others, not having liked who I was, my struggle with depression, and my couple of suicidal moments. My sister had known about my depression, but not my face to face encounters with the decision to end my life. She didn’t know that she was one of the main reasons that I decided not to take my life. And so we cried. It was good. I felt it to be a healing time for me to share about this.

After this Gabby stayed at Geiners, and I went with Joe to see if anyone was at the YWAM base. There was Jason and Gabino, and it was so good to see them  but I was sad because the Sibaja family (my second family –which is a term I use for all of the second families I have Molly’s, Sofi’s, etc- who I had the incredible opportunity to get to know during my DTS 2 years ago. I left a note for them.

I looked for Celso, he was working. I saw Nacho (Jose Ignacio) and he was ALL SMILES, from ear to ear, he said that he never would have guessed that I would come back, and much less that I would come looking for him at his doorstep. It was a really sweet time, nd I’m glad I got to see him.

I went up the small entry to where my ex-boyfriend Ademar lives, and had Joe call his best friend, Josue out. BUT Josue wasn’t there, so I talked for a while with his older brother Caleb, and he was very encouraging telling me that I marked History in our small community (commenting on the fact that Ademar wasn’t going to catch up with me because his girlfriend would be jealous)

I finally went to see my best friend Sofi (If you’re confused, I have several best friends in many countries) and went to hang out with her family for the rest of the night. We talked and laughed and prayed, and cried, it was SO GOOD. It’s neat to be by her side as she is walking uphill in her battle with depression, after having walked there where she has walked. It was so nice.

Fired up, airplanes, soccer

Today was a full day of packing, getting everything in order before taking off. I had everything packed and ready to go at the door by noon, which is a HUGE deal for me because I normally am still packing in the car on the way to the airport….

Kris graduated- and he was looking SO GOOD – so cool with his new faux-hawk hairstyle, skinny jeans, and dress shirt open with tie loosly hanging around his neck. He long-boarded to his graduation. Unfortunately he needed to change his entire look- button up shirt, roll down sleeves, tuck it in, fix his tie- HA- it was great.

I quick headed out to COMUNITAS- an amazing group of spirit filled people who just want more of Jesus. I listened to an AMAZING testimony of a woman in her walk with intimacy with God, had a couple of people who helped get me “filled up, and fired up” for my upcoming trip- it was great- I had never experienced being DRUNK in the Spirit before this moment- but I could tell that God was up to some pretty cool things. This guy prophesied over me that I was going to be doing great and mighty things during this trip, that God was going to draw me even more intimately to him, that it was going to show that I am a daughter of ZION and that I was going to be like a push pop coming forth- it was pretty neat. AND he was saying that people close to me were going to be encountering Jesus YES LORD! THANK YOU JESUS, I CAN”T WAIT TO SEE IT HAPPEN

I was bummed that I had arrived to comunitas late, because I was going to miss worship, but some people started worshiping at the end to- I’m pretty sure I spent like an hour and a half soaking it all in, singing, and receiving different words from God about this season of my life.

I got home around midnight and called Andy to come over and keep me company while I tried to fight sleep. (It seemed ridiculous to psyke my body out, tell it that I’m sleeping when I have to leave for the airport at 2)

We ended up leaving for the airport around three, my bag weighed EXACTLY 50 pounds. I got on the plane and slept. We made it to the airport in Atlanta, and I walked with my eyes closed almost all the way to our gate, listening to my sister who went in front of me. Then I grabbed my brothers board and SKATED IN THE AIRPORT = AWESOME. The floors were so slick, and even the carpet was nice to skate on. Got on the next plane and slept.

By 1:00 we were stepping out of the airport and stepped into the humid tropical air, to greet my grandma, uncles, and cousins. We got home and I hid in the room and started to write and read, and tried to sleep but then I couldn’t.


We were getting ready to go to the stadium to watch the soccer game – US versus Costa Rica. In case you were wondering I went carrying a sign that said “I live in the United States, but my heart is with Costa Rica”
It was an INCREDIBLE game. I prayed with my sister about the game and just seconds later, Costa Rica scored- only two minutes into the game! Then I asked God if he would let us score again, to which he replied- scoring all at once wouldn’t make for a fun game would it? So then the next goal he told me “this one’s goin’ in” –and of course, it did. Then in the second half Costa Rica had a chance at a penalty kick, I asked God to give Costa Rica wisdom and as to how to effectively move where and when, in order to score. They did an awesome play which was finally blocked by the US – (oh I prayed for wisdom for Costa Rica- but it didn’t mean that the US wouldn’t also have wisdom to stop it. So the next chance I had I prayed for wisdom for Costa Rica, and for confusion for the US, and we SCORED! It was an incredible game that ended 3-1 The US only scored in the last few minutes because of a penalty shot. We earned 9 points leaving US with 7 and if we win against Trinidad y Tobago on Saturday we will have secured a spot in the World Cup. My favorite part of all of this- I went to the game with God- what a great date 