Half full, half empty? Full.

Salutations!

Well, this week has been the halfway point of our trip.  It is truly amazing how quickly times flies.  For instance, it has been 10 days since I updated this blog...

We have had an eventful past week, but really nothing crazy and news-worthy.  Maybe I need to take more pleasure in the small things of life.  In reality, God has blessed us in many small ways, with often intangible results or subtle successes.  Evangelism has been slow, but progresses each day as we get more accustomed to cultural differences and improve at relating His story to people here.  There are still not many students actively involved in the ministry, but there are a few steadily being discipled.  

In the spirit of the tourist industry that dominates most areas of Costa Rica, here is a bullet style fact sheet of what I've been up to:

-Jesse and I met a student named Mariano in the Letras campus that wants to learn more about sharing his faith, so he can reach his brother, and eventually take Bibles to Asia with the translation organization Wycliffe.

-I have been able to connect with many of my friends from last year, cool peeps like Jose Pablo, Andrey, Marco,  Fede, Sergio, Valery, and Kim.

-We had a party at the Cru House to watch the Costa Rica vs. Honduras soccer game, and over 15 students came from campus to watch with us!  Katherine got to share her testimony at halftime, and we made tons of new friends.  It was cool to connect over something so full of camaraderie, and hopefully some lasting friendships were started or strengthened there.  We get to go to game at the National Stadium next week, which should be intense!

-I got to explore Volcan Irazu with Hector and his Tico friend Sergio from American University, and Sergio's friend Sarah.  It was breath-taking, in between stretches of dense, milky fog.  We hiked around the crater, which was completely hidden from below and was much much deeper and more massive than I had imagined.  Also at that altitude I found about 15 new bird species for my all-time list.  Bonus for sure.  It seemed kind of homey up there around 10,000 ft, with cold rain and wind that numbed our fingers.

-I have gotten to know the people from the hostel a little more this year, and I would say that the atmosphere is definitely more Rasta than my last visit.  There was a copy of Ganjah Farmer magazine on the table the other day, and constant reggae on the stereo.  Peculiar calming odors seep in from the garden quite often, and the guests are always just so chill.  I think something's up...

-My Spanish seems to be improving, as is my handle on the city.  Today I rode across town and navigated the taxis and bus station all by myself.  I felt so grown up.  I even held a conversation in Spanish with the cool old guy driving my taxi.  My ability to speak comes and goes, but this week has been good in general.  I have only had a handful of English conversations on campus.  There is something so freeing about being able to communicate with someone in a different language, as well as some satisfaction in knowing that all this time at college is paying off a little.  

-Hector and I got our passport extension paperwork in, and we will be notified within 30 days...so since we are leaving within that time anyways, it doesn't matter.  We are good to go.  If mine gets extended, I'll have an extra 3 months before I have to leave the country....hmmm

-Tomorrow we leave for mid-project retreat at Volcan Arenal, and we will be hiking, swimming, soaking in the rain, etc.  

Pray for:

-a relaxing, semi-dry time at Arenal, where we can bond and lose some stress.

-continued and growing reliance on the Spirit for guidance and words on campus

-more students who are committed to the Lord and desire to grow in faith and community

-our health, as there seems to be a chest/head cold going around.  People are sick all over campus, the hostel, and Cru, including myself.  I have also been having small migraines.  Nothing too serious, but an annoying hindrance.  

I love you all and miss you!  See you soon!  (probably)  

Ecclesiastes 3:11-15

First week and half...in the books!

Hey y'all!

I'm not sure why I'm such a lazy poster.  So many things have been happening, and these posts would be a little shorter if I spread them out  :)

Our first week on campus went swimmingly, and we got to talk with many many students at UCR.  The first bit of evangelism has been more focused on exploration, of the campus, the students, the specific departments, and the spiritual climate in general.  The STINT team who lives here has been focusing on specific departments, so we have been joining them and sharing inside buildings on campus.  This is an exciting change from last year's random evangelism, which was effective but had a more short-term focus.  With the goal of long-term success in starting a Christian movement, the strategy is to raise up leaders within the separate student groups, such as engineering or social sciences.  I was blessed to go explore inside the art campus here, where none of the STINT team has gone yet.  We met some cool graphic design students and talked for over an hour with them.  Hopefully I'll continue to focus on that area while I'm here and influence students with the Gospel!  Pray that I'll meet a Christian there who could partner with us and continue after we leave!

Another outreach we have been doing is English Club, where we meet 4 times a week with a group of Tico English majors and help them with conversation skills and homework.  Pray that that would lead to spiritual conversations and lasting friendships!

So many exciting things happened, I am sure I'm leaving out several, but here is a little rundown of our past week's events.  We had a campus tour, then a city tour on our first 2 full days here, so we were immediately immersed in the local culture.  I was amazed to run into so many people I knew on our first day to campus!  I found a guy from the hostel last year, a Christian guy who I met with several times before, and a guy who studied abroad at MSU!  It was cool to see God already setting up meetings just during our campus tour.  Our city tour was basically the same as last year, so it was fun to see those places again and actually know where I was!  Downtown is smaller than I remember, and the buses are less confusing.  I think I'm making progress!

During our first week we endured the worst thunder/rainstorm that San Jose has had in 3 years!  We were stuck in the food court near campus all afternoon, and even when it let up after 2 hours, we still found our umbrellas and raincoats woefully inadequate.  Our clothes and bags are still damp 5 days later!  Also, when lightning is striking around you, running through the streets with umbrellas is a little intense.  But we made it.  Later, around 3AM, we got to experience a pretty nice little earthquake!  It was officially a 5.6 magnitude, and centered around the Panama border, but it shook our hostel for about 10 seconds.  I am in a bunkbed with my buddy Philip, and we both were agitated that the other guy was shaking the bed, until we realized it was the earth shaking both of us!  Somehow, only one other person on the team woke up.  We have definitely gotten the full nature experience so far!

A very unusual cultural experience we were involved in was the collection for the popular humanitarian organization Rojo por un Techo (literally "A red for a roof", a red being the popular name for the 1000 colones bill).  It is primarily an organization of students, both college and high school, that raises money for emergency housing for impoverished families.  We spent an  afternoon last week painting a giant sign for the collection, then the actual collection was on Friday.  I was told it would be outside Walmart, so I expected the usual American way of having a donation booth and trying to get people to come give money.  I was very wrong.  Apparently the accepted way of fund-raising is to get a large group of people, stand in the medians of a huge intersection, and run car-to-car through traffic getting money from people's windows while they are stopped.  So, our team along with about 15 Tico students, harassed vehicles all day long, rain and shine, straight through rush hour.  Surprisingly, after an entire day of this, it is not all that scary to stand on the yellow line while 4 lanes of cars and buses pass you 2 feet away on both sides...  (Mom, I'm glad I told you about this after we were all home safe.)  We made friends with the street-vendors, and I gained a whole new perspective on what life is like for a poor person in the city.  It was crazy though, now that I look back.

The next day we went zip-lining, and it really seemed anti-climactic compared to live-action Frogger!

We have a lot of prayer requests, but here are some of the main ones:
~Hector's and my passports are still unresolved, but we will know within 6 days if we have to leave the
   country early.  Worst case scenario, we go to Panama for 3 days and renew them.
~Pray for Jin and Hector as they are both speaking a 2nd language within our team, and Jin is speaking
  a 3rd language while we are on campus.  They are both a little (or a lot) tired.
~Pray for involved students on campus, because there are just not many right now who have ministry
  as a priority.  The STINT team leaves at the end of the year, and we are praying that the movement
  does not die out when they are gone.
~There have been some safety issues around the hostel, so pray for our security.  We are careful and
   not worried, but it would really be better for us and the hostel if nothing happened during our stay!

Thank you all for your prayers and support, and I am excited to see you all again!  Maybe I'll get some photos up one of these days too...

Chao,
Andrew

Luke 10