Praise God!! Thank you, thank you to all who prayed for my recovery. Honestly, neither my team or my hosts believed that I would be able to fly home this morning. The doctors do not know why caused this over 24-hour illness, but all I can say is that I have never been this sick in my entire life. After a whole night of disgusting symptoms that I will refrain from describing, we concluded that it was best for me to see a doctor since I was unable to recover on my own with over the counter meds and drinking bottles of Gatorade.
So around 6 pm on Sunday evening, Tom, our host, took me and two of my teammates, Chung-in & Andy, to the international hospital in central San Jose. After 2 IVs and lying in a hospital bed for 3 hours, I still did not feel better. My body was so weak, my entire body was in pain, and my head was dizzy. According to the blood test results, I had an intestinal infection, which the doctor concluded was E.coli. Since there was nothing else the doctors could do, they released me and prescribed 4 different pills.
After a good night's sleep on Sunday evening, I was ready to take my medication. I had 2 of the best "moms" on- the-go who took care of me, fed me, and made sure I was doing everything possible to regain my health & strength.
Monday morning , I was able to eat a little bit. Chung-in made me rice porridge. :) Unfortunately I was unable to keep much of it in my system. I felt a little better but still skeptical as to how I would survive the long plane ride home including a 9-hour lay over in Miami. My body was still weak and I felt dizzy after standing longer than 5 mins.
God answers our prayers! Currently, I am on the road to recovery. I have my voice back and apparently my color is back. Thank you for all of your prayers! I desperately needed all the support I could get. I surrendered this illness to Him, trusting that He is the ultimate healer.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Prayer Request
Just got back from the baech trip. A full post on the time is impending, but I wanted to quickly ask for prayer. While we were out there, Melody got a bad case of food poisoning and has spend most of her time in bed since about noon Saturday. She's still not feeling well and now we think she might be dehydrated. We're considering taking her to a hospital. Please pray that she will get better, that if we need to go to the hospital that her condition will prove to be simple and easily handled, that the hospital costs won't be expensive, and that she will be able to make it to our scheduled plane flight tomorrow at 5:30 PM local time.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Rest from Labor
I can´t believe we´ve been here 10 whole days. It´s almost time to go home, and I feel like I just got here.
As Jim mentioned, we finished off the painting yesterday. When we got to the house in the morning, the sky looked like it wanted to rain. I knew that this would be our last day painting, our last chance to finish the roof. As I climbed up the ladder, I was praying that God would hold back the rain, just long enough to paint the roof and let it dry. I kept praying while I was up there, and I didn´t feel a drop. I didn´t see any rain at all until about when we were leaving, about two hours after the roof was finished. Then the rain really cut loose; we got nicely drenched on our way to the car. The house looks good now, inside and out; I´m proud of what we accomplished there.
This morning, we spent some time with some of the students at Portantorchas who are learning English. We were asked to just talk with them casually, give them a chance to have a conversation. I really enjoyed it; my Spanish is better than I thought it would be, and I found it easy to figure out miscommunications and explain them. I would enjoy doing this for several more days, but that´s not on the plan.
Towards the end of our language lessons, the sky cut loose again and started raining. It´s been raining steadily for the last 5 hours, and not the wimpy California rain that I´m used to. This is real rain, rain that´s serious about soaking the ground and trying to wash every building out to the ocean. Occasional flashes of lightning, rolling thunder that echoes from one end of the sky to the other ... I love this kind of storm. I took a walk in it just for fun. The ducks looked like they were having as much fun as I was.
At this point, we´re done with our scheduled work. We head out to the beach tomorrow, to take a couple of well-earned rest days. The place we´re going is about 4 hours away, and we wont be back to Portantorchas until Sunday. Hopefully we´ll find an internet cafe or something so we can blog some more. Until then ...
As Jim mentioned, we finished off the painting yesterday. When we got to the house in the morning, the sky looked like it wanted to rain. I knew that this would be our last day painting, our last chance to finish the roof. As I climbed up the ladder, I was praying that God would hold back the rain, just long enough to paint the roof and let it dry. I kept praying while I was up there, and I didn´t feel a drop. I didn´t see any rain at all until about when we were leaving, about two hours after the roof was finished. Then the rain really cut loose; we got nicely drenched on our way to the car. The house looks good now, inside and out; I´m proud of what we accomplished there.
This morning, we spent some time with some of the students at Portantorchas who are learning English. We were asked to just talk with them casually, give them a chance to have a conversation. I really enjoyed it; my Spanish is better than I thought it would be, and I found it easy to figure out miscommunications and explain them. I would enjoy doing this for several more days, but that´s not on the plan.
Towards the end of our language lessons, the sky cut loose again and started raining. It´s been raining steadily for the last 5 hours, and not the wimpy California rain that I´m used to. This is real rain, rain that´s serious about soaking the ground and trying to wash every building out to the ocean. Occasional flashes of lightning, rolling thunder that echoes from one end of the sky to the other ... I love this kind of storm. I took a walk in it just for fun. The ducks looked like they were having as much fun as I was.
At this point, we´re done with our scheduled work. We head out to the beach tomorrow, to take a couple of well-earned rest days. The place we´re going is about 4 hours away, and we wont be back to Portantorchas until Sunday. Hopefully we´ll find an internet cafe or something so we can blog some more. Until then ...
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Wed, Aug 4
Today was our last work day at the orphanage. At the start of the day we still had a lot of work to be done. Two bedrooms still needed touch ups, one bathroom still needed to be painted, the living room and hallways still had unfinished areas, and the roof needed a second coat of paint. Melody and Richard started on the living room with help from our host Jorge. Sara and Chungin began work on the bedrooms. I was assigned to do the bathroom while Andy began work on the outside areas.
The bathroom was small and dirty and it took me a while to clean the dirt from the walls and extract the spiders from their webs. We had no more masking tape at the time so I had to be extra careful on the edges. Painting around the toilet and sink was the the first major feat. After that was done I used a stool to help me reach the corners. Then I used a roller to spread paint on the main areas. I had a difficult time moving the stool around because the shower head and the curtain bar were in the way. By lunchtime I still had some minor touchups left. It must have been at least three hours before I finally finished that room. I managed to get a quick interview of the orphange director (Nathan) sometime during the day.
My teammates were making good progress when I finally got done with the bathroom. Most of the living room was already complete, some doors and baseboards were not done yet but we were getting there. We finished the painting probably around 3pm but cleaning up took another hour or so. We then presented some gifts we had purchased the day before as well as some rice krispy treats we had baked. It seemed like the kids and helpers were very grateful for our work and for the gifts.
I took a brief video of the house and all in all we had painted 4 bedrooms (with closets), 3 bathrooms, 1 storage room, the hallway, the living room, the roof, and some outside walls. We had also helped with dishes and other cleaning tasks as well. It felt like a pretty big accomplishment. My paint thrashed yellow shirt will definitely attest to that.
I'm not sure exactly what we're doing tomorrow but it looks like we may be teaching english or something. Anyways, peace to you all.
The bathroom was small and dirty and it took me a while to clean the dirt from the walls and extract the spiders from their webs. We had no more masking tape at the time so I had to be extra careful on the edges. Painting around the toilet and sink was the the first major feat. After that was done I used a stool to help me reach the corners. Then I used a roller to spread paint on the main areas. I had a difficult time moving the stool around because the shower head and the curtain bar were in the way. By lunchtime I still had some minor touchups left. It must have been at least three hours before I finally finished that room. I managed to get a quick interview of the orphange director (Nathan) sometime during the day.
My teammates were making good progress when I finally got done with the bathroom. Most of the living room was already complete, some doors and baseboards were not done yet but we were getting there. We finished the painting probably around 3pm but cleaning up took another hour or so. We then presented some gifts we had purchased the day before as well as some rice krispy treats we had baked. It seemed like the kids and helpers were very grateful for our work and for the gifts.
I took a brief video of the house and all in all we had painted 4 bedrooms (with closets), 3 bathrooms, 1 storage room, the hallway, the living room, the roof, and some outside walls. We had also helped with dishes and other cleaning tasks as well. It felt like a pretty big accomplishment. My paint thrashed yellow shirt will definitely attest to that.
I'm not sure exactly what we're doing tomorrow but it looks like we may be teaching english or something. Anyways, peace to you all.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Blessed Tues.
It has been a week already since we got here!!! Time is flying by really quickly and I think that´s very good sign. It has been amazing all around since we arrived. I had tons of concerns before leaving about the trip but it turns out that God´s grace and blessing is bigger than anything.
So, today was a special day because we went to this amazing church called Centro Cristiano de Alabanza in en Alajuelitas, San Jose, Costa Rica. The church had numerous ministries geared toward helping the community. The location that this church is in is one of the worst areas in Costa Rica but one day the pastor had a moment of realization as he was preparing the sermon. He realized that the church should be the one helping the poor, out reaching to people who need God´s grace and love. They have a school that they are running and the tuition that is collected from it is used as scholarships to 20 students. CCA has men´s and women´s shelter, bakery that funds other ministries, soup kitchen for children and arts center. The shelters house all kinds of addicts. CCA builds homes for families that are in need and it was totally church without wall church!! I felt the click inside of me as I was listening to and touring the shelters. People at the shelters are given the opportunity to work at one of the ministries but after 9 months which is the duration of the program, CCA helps them to reconnect with the community. The last place we went to was the Soup Kitchen where the kids come to be fed. I met this amazingly smart girl name Bilma and her sister and the brother. I don´t speak much Spanish so it was a bit challenging for me to communicate but Bilma and I tried!! Bilma wants to be a teacher when she grows up so she was trying to learn English. I prayed that she will be a teacher that will change more kids´lives. After handing out plates of food, we went back to the church for lunch. What a great lunch!!!
Tomorrow is our last day at the kids´s home... I feel very sad about it. I will miss the faces with the biggest smiles especially Juan Carlos... He has the biggest heart and is very affectionate. We bought some things that the house that we are painting need at the Costa Rica´s Walmart called Hiper. We picked up shower curtins, floor mats, dishes, and a blender. We also picked up goods to make rice crispy so we can give them to the kids tomorrow as gifts. We just got done making and wrapping them. I can´t believe it will be our last day there tomorrow...
We still have a lot of painting to do tomorrow!! I pray that God will give us super power to finish all the rooms in the house. It will be a big day tomorrow and everyone is pumped up to work!!!
On that note, it´s 10:36PM now so I will end here...
Thank you!!
Saturday, July 31, 2010
The Two Houses
The week has been pretty amazing thus far. To end the week, we started the day with a devotion after breakfast led by Tom, the director of Portantorchas. The passage we covered was Matthew 7:24-29 regarding Jesus' parable about the two houses, one built on the rock and the other built on sand.
We've probably all have heard the story before, but not sure if this angle has been taken yet. Who ever thinks that they're building their house on the sand? We like to always think we're the ones building on the rock. Can we really build on the rock? This was one of the points that stood out. Without Jesus in our lives we cannot. Therefore, we can look at the passage as that we are the house, but Jesus is the builder if we let Him. Another take home message that stood out to me was that we don't actually know what our house is built on until the rain comes aka trials in our lives. The passage talks about the rain coming (and it will eventually!) and washing one away. We'll be able to tell how we're built through our seasons of rain.
So ongoing with this view for the day, we proceeded back to Excelencia Familiar, the children's home. Being the third day there, and learning different things each day, I feel we're being able to start to build some sort of relationship with the tias (aunts) and the children. The tias are really the servants here not us. I feel that we're lucky to be given the opportunity to serve the otherwise "invisible" heroes here. The tias take care of about 10 children each ranging from the ages of 1-14 years old. I've heard that 1 child is a full time job already.
We continue to beautify the home by painting literally from the floor to the roof and everything between. I had the duties of the ceiling (by default due to my height) and today was the roof. Carlos (one of the students who came back to Portantorchas) and I paired up to take on the big task. Over here, there are probably less policy and procedures in terms of safety and neither is the Newsong treX team have any professional painting experience :). On the roof, I was able to observe Carlos, whom is a very hard worker, but also patient with us, and a teacher as well. His English is broken, probably less so than my Spanish, but we're able to communicate and share together. In doing so, it's almost like the iron sharpening iron parable in two different languages yet achieving the same positive result.
Throughout the past few days, a few thoughts come to mind. I've met people from around the world here. At Portantorchas, students from all over the world come here for a semester or multiple semesters to study the bible to further the kingdom through ministry or missions later on. There's people here from Germany, various parts of the US, Peru, etc. Eventually, God's word is taken to whichever corner of the planet they came from. Even the story of how Portantorchas came to be is pretty amazing (which would be a whole post in itself). As for the orphanage, Excelencia Familiar, what goes on there is pretty essential for the kids. The children are basically saved from otherwise poor situations in which they would not have a fighting chance to thrive. They are abandoned, abused, neglected and are relocated by the US equivalent of the Department of Child Services to homes such as this. What makes this place special are the people. From the director, Nathan, who has moved from Houston, Texas to basically dedicated his life for the past few years to help run the child shelter, but the tias who actually do the caring and genuinely love the children. What makes this place different than other places are that these tias who care for the children have God's love in their lives and are able to let it flow outward to the children. In addition, there have been previous mission trips that have helped developed and improve the houses and land where the children live, learn, and grow. Therefore, building a house on rock.
We eventually wrapped up our Friday singing and dancing with kids with one of the songs we learned and practiced the hand and body motions. The kids joined in with us jumping, singing, and dancing in freedom. Even the tias got into it. It was videotaped so everyone will probably be able to see this sometime in the future and see our "dancing" skills.
Time is flying by here and hope to update more as we go.
We've probably all have heard the story before, but not sure if this angle has been taken yet. Who ever thinks that they're building their house on the sand? We like to always think we're the ones building on the rock. Can we really build on the rock? This was one of the points that stood out. Without Jesus in our lives we cannot. Therefore, we can look at the passage as that we are the house, but Jesus is the builder if we let Him. Another take home message that stood out to me was that we don't actually know what our house is built on until the rain comes aka trials in our lives. The passage talks about the rain coming (and it will eventually!) and washing one away. We'll be able to tell how we're built through our seasons of rain.
So ongoing with this view for the day, we proceeded back to Excelencia Familiar, the children's home. Being the third day there, and learning different things each day, I feel we're being able to start to build some sort of relationship with the tias (aunts) and the children. The tias are really the servants here not us. I feel that we're lucky to be given the opportunity to serve the otherwise "invisible" heroes here. The tias take care of about 10 children each ranging from the ages of 1-14 years old. I've heard that 1 child is a full time job already.
We continue to beautify the home by painting literally from the floor to the roof and everything between. I had the duties of the ceiling (by default due to my height) and today was the roof. Carlos (one of the students who came back to Portantorchas) and I paired up to take on the big task. Over here, there are probably less policy and procedures in terms of safety and neither is the Newsong treX team have any professional painting experience :). On the roof, I was able to observe Carlos, whom is a very hard worker, but also patient with us, and a teacher as well. His English is broken, probably less so than my Spanish, but we're able to communicate and share together. In doing so, it's almost like the iron sharpening iron parable in two different languages yet achieving the same positive result.
Throughout the past few days, a few thoughts come to mind. I've met people from around the world here. At Portantorchas, students from all over the world come here for a semester or multiple semesters to study the bible to further the kingdom through ministry or missions later on. There's people here from Germany, various parts of the US, Peru, etc. Eventually, God's word is taken to whichever corner of the planet they came from. Even the story of how Portantorchas came to be is pretty amazing (which would be a whole post in itself). As for the orphanage, Excelencia Familiar, what goes on there is pretty essential for the kids. The children are basically saved from otherwise poor situations in which they would not have a fighting chance to thrive. They are abandoned, abused, neglected and are relocated by the US equivalent of the Department of Child Services to homes such as this. What makes this place special are the people. From the director, Nathan, who has moved from Houston, Texas to basically dedicated his life for the past few years to help run the child shelter, but the tias who actually do the caring and genuinely love the children. What makes this place different than other places are that these tias who care for the children have God's love in their lives and are able to let it flow outward to the children. In addition, there have been previous mission trips that have helped developed and improve the houses and land where the children live, learn, and grow. Therefore, building a house on rock.
We eventually wrapped up our Friday singing and dancing with kids with one of the songs we learned and practiced the hand and body motions. The kids joined in with us jumping, singing, and dancing in freedom. Even the tias got into it. It was videotaped so everyone will probably be able to see this sometime in the future and see our "dancing" skills.
Time is flying by here and hope to update more as we go.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
que rico!
Hola!
Today was our 2nd day at Excelensia Familiar and I already feel like I'm home. The tias that we have been so blessed to spend our days with are some of the most selfless people I have ever met. The Lord has truly blessed these women with hearts of gold and the gift of service.
During the day we continued to paint the interior of the house. My continued prayer is that the Lord will bless the work of our hands so that it is pleasing not only for the inhabitants of the house but for our Father in heaven.
Despite having some challenges with the language, I feel like God is allowing us to speak to each others' hearts, so that the "barrier" is nonexistant. One of my teammates shared last night, about the difficulty in the transmission of language; to her, it is an outpouring of vulnerability and humility between two people. After contemplating her statement, I couldn't agree more. Taking a chance and risking humiliation looks very differently for everyone. I just pray that the Lord would totally reveal and diminish any bit of pride that is in me and any of my teammates.
Something I immediately realized upon arriving at the orphanage is the joyous simplicity that the children seem to posses. Growing up in the U.S., a sense of materialism and egotism, is apparent everywhere, especially inside me. It may be premature to make the following statement, however, I feel like that same sense of materialism and consumerism is not present in this place. I can't help but feel God's protection and guidance upon my teammates and myself.
Tomorrow, we'll probably get to share some lessons with the children so please pray that we can say exactly what the Spirit leads us to, nothing more and nothing less. Thank you for your continued support and prayers. It really means so much! We love you all!
-Sara
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