Softball Outreach

This past Saturday one of the other students at the school and a local church partnered together to put on a free Home Run Derby as a ministry outreach. I was able to go and to help serve food. There was of course a 3 round home run derby with trophies for the winners, free hot dogs and cookies for lunch, and gospel presentations for both the kids and the adults. It was an awesome way to give back to the community I have been living in the past 6 weeks. It is hard most days to feel like I am doing anything useful even though I know that I am here to learn Spanish and that is what God has called to for this short time.
Then, Sunday we took a day trip to a volcano and were able to swim at a resort at the base of the volcano and to ride horses around the volcano. Let me tell you this was not like any trail ride you will ever take in the States. We pretty much had free range and the guides were normally not even in the front. My horse was a lot like me. She tried to sprint the entire time (which was fine with me) and couldn't stand for another horse to be ahead of her. The only disagreement we had was when she refused to jump a fallen log that all the other horses had jumped-that earned her the nickname Lazy Bones. But that's okay too because I borrowed someone else's horse and jumped it anyway:)
Look for photos on Facebook of both the Home Run Derby and Arenal Volcano.

Be in prayer for my last 2 weeks of language school! Crazy to think that in less that 2 weeks I will be in Honduras!

TONS of things have happened since I blogged last! First, we went about 3 hours away to Manuel Antonio to the beach this past weekend. It was awesome and kind of like a "mini-vacation". Since it is a huge tourist spot most people spoke English! Then on Monday I went over to a lady from church's house (if you rember Rosita from my last post, this is one of her daughters) for lunch with the youth group. We ate hamburgers and played the Wii (I know, life here is rough haha). Her granddaughter, who is almost 3 was possibly the cutest thing ever! She knows all of the songs on Just Dance and was not too shy to show us. Then today was my birthday and we celebrated by going to the mall for pedicures and American fast food. It was awesome! And more parties to come because another girl in my class's birthday is Sunday, so were having a big, joint party Friday night.
On a more serious note, a girl in our class is in the hospital..tonight will be the second night so be in prayer for her (and for us, that no one else gets whatever infection she has).

Sweet Rosita

I am in awe of God’s faithfulness right now…this afternoon I was able to visit with an elderly widow from the church I have been attending here. This means 2 things: first of all that God answered my prayer for someone to practice Spanish with! And second that my Spanish is improving since I’ve been here, even though most of the time I feel like it’s completely inadequate! Let me assure you that 3 weeks ago when I arrived here I could not have visited with someone for an hour and kept conversation going the entire time! Sweet Rosita and I talked about her children and grandchildren, Guanacaste (where she used to live in CR), all the other countries she’s visited, and her garden. I even got to taste a guanabana from her garden; it’s kind of like a green apple. Rosita also managed to learn in an hour that I have no idea how to sew and can only cook a little, needless to say I don’t think she will be recommending me to any Costa Ricans as a wife. Continue to pray for my Spanish and for other opportunities for me to practice! (Rosita and I already made plans for me to visit next Tuesday too!)

Also continue to pray for my support I still need a little over $3,000 by the time I arrive in Honduras on August 4. If you are interested in giving or know someone who is you can give online at https://donations.mtw.org/donate/default.aspx , just choose my name from the drop down list, or you can mail a check to:

Mission to the World

P.O. Box 116284

Atlanta, GA 30368-6284

(please be sure to put 11854, my account number, in the memo line)