pictures!

Wow, so I finally figured out how to add pictures to this thingy ha ha. So here ya go:

This is the world's smallest scorpian...about to be squished by my shoe

That is Leidy in the back, who I played frisbee with :)

This is Neideli

Neideli again...so cute!

Pastor Phil teaching at club Thursday

The look on Dylan's face = someone please translate for the grina

He has the cutest little boots ha ha

trying to catch a frog outside the apartment

view from our door

our cute little cabina :)

5/29

5/26


My coffee cup says, “Eres la major mama.” I’m so glad ;)
I got another chance to kind of connect with the kids again. There was a really quiet girl named Leidy who was keeping to herself a bit, but as I tried to start up a game with the group before club started, she was really the only one who kept saying she wanted to play. So her and I threw a Frisbee around. I know this doesn’t sound very significant, but it’s difficult (for me at least) to reach out to the older girls in the group. So it was cool to just spend some time with her :) I also met and talked with a little bit a girl named Neidelli. She’s only 5 or 6 and speaks very slowly in Spanish which is probably why I like her so much ha ha. I am so blessed to have another chance to come to Costa Rica and spend even more time with the kids. I ran into Gabriel walking to Matt and Brooke’s and he was so excited and kept saying hola and waving until I got closer to him then talked a lot and really really fast in Spanish that I didn’t understand (not that I usually can understand the kids, but it's harder with him especially...Ethan says usually can't understand him either). I'm going to miss these kids soooo much!

5/29

Justine and I were sick all day Saturday. Not sure what it was, but both of us were achy, Justine had a headache and I was sore inhaling and exhaling. But it wasn’t too bad, as long as I didn’t, you know, move or breathe or anything crazy like that. I had to walk to Matt and Brooke’s to tell them that we couldn’t go to the beach with them, then after sleeping from 9-3pm realized we were pretty much out of food and walked to the pulperia down the street. On these two occasions that I rolled out of bed, and just grabbed shorts and t-shirt, I ran into one of the guys who goes to the church (who just said hola and looked at me funny), Eddy, Rosiris’ and her dad, Gabriella, Neysi and Dayana, all at different times. It was ridiculous ha ha… and I’m sure that if I looked the way I felt, it was a scary experience for them ;) But on the bright side, this time I didn’t wake up to the smell of a rotting rat and have to use a spoon to open up the box fan and get it out…yaaaaay… :)

Anyways, please be praying for us. I think it’s spiritual warfare. I got sick 3 times the week before I left to come here. But we’re both doing well today, and excited for church this evening!

Oh yeah also, Justine is totally getting the hang of living in Costa Rica.  There was a HUGE cockroach on the floor and without hesitation she got the broom and somehow flushed it down the toilet. I'm so proud of her ha ha :)  Also I decided that besides the Bible, the broom is the missionaries greatest tool- gets rid of and kills scorpians, cockroaches, spiders AND leaves your floor nice and clean. Amazing! ;)

2/24-2/25

2/24


Well I told the kids today that I live in the state of mountain. There’s a fine line between Montana and mountain in Spanish, and I missed it ha ha

It was so awesome to be able to see all my friends again! I’m so excited for the work ahead of us. It’s going to be stretching though. Brooke asked me to pray about (aka you should really do this ha ha) doing worship with the PFR kids and also doing choir with the kids on Wednesdays. I think that she might be greatly overestimating my musical abilities, but I guess God kinda uses under qualified people a lot :) And praise God that Spanish is starting to come just a little bit easier. I was actually able to understand and have a small conversation with Victor (which was impossible before) and asked the kids a lot of questions and talked to them in Spanish. I still need to be diligent in studying every day.
Oh also, Justine saw her first scorpion today (and it’s only day 2 ha ha). It was funny because she’s the one who found it so I went into the kitchen expecting to find a huge scorpion on the wall like the times before, and it was smaller than my pinky! It was actually kinda cute…I considered keeping it but didn’t know if they were like rattle snakes in that the younger they are the more venomous they are. I have realized how blessed I am to not be afraid of the numerous bugs and insects here in Costa Rica. Please pray for Justine as she makes the adjustment! Also for obedience and God’s will and hand in absolutely everything that I do here. .

5/25

Today was our second day with the kids and was a total blessing. We went to the plaza and played kickball. It was a good opportunity to get to know the kids a little better. There’s a few that left the program and some new ones. It’s amazing how children’s minds work. I was sitting with one of the girls, Jessica and I asked her in Spanish if she wanted to read. So we sat and went through a few books. The books were in English so she would just talk in Spanish a little for each page, completely making it up. I have no idea what she said ha ha. But if I would took away for a second or get distracted she would catch me eye, command me to “mire” (look) and then continue talking. She did it at least 3 times. It was so funny! Then we walked to the plaza to play in the field and she was just babbling in Spanish and every once in a while would stop and stare at me waiting for an answer. I just kept nodding then finally told her “Um, soy una gringa, lo siento pero no puedo entender mucho espanol!” She simply laughed and kept on talking.

I love kids :)

5/23 Costa Rica parte 2!

Costa Rica, the lastest frontier for PFR interns. These are the voyages of Michaela, Justine and Natalie. It’s a 10 week mission: to explore strange new cultures, to seek out new lives in Christ and serve with fellow brothers and sisters, to boldly go where no interns (wel,l prior to Sarah and I) have gone before!
Don’t judge me I woke up at 4 a.m.

Matt and Ethan picked us up at the airport. As we drove to Villarreal (our flight was to Liberia, about an hour away from Villrreal) we got to talk to them a little about what’s been going on. Then Matt started talking about the bugs (I was just waiting for this ha ha). When Sarah and I came, we were informed that the “season” they were going through were locusts, jumping spiders, and scorpions. This time I guess it’s toads/frogs, giant flying ants, and large june bugs. I still think this sounds suspiciously a little like Exodus 7-11 ;) Ethan threw in that since it was rainy season there’s tons of more bugs ha ha. I wish it were light enough at that point to see Justine’s face. But I’m loving being back and I know Justine is excited. Matt and Brooke added some things to the cabina including a big voltage regulator that Justine found also conveniently works as a “squish every moving thing that you see” regulator. When we first arrived we didn’t see any bugs so I tried to be encouraging to Justine and tell her maybe they’re all gone now that there’s activity. 3 cockroaches later she’s clapping and stomping before she enters a different part of the cambina ha ha. She would make a great Pentecostal…very enthusiastic…

Lastly here’s just a list of things that blessed me that I made at the airport while thinking about the month I had at the Ranch:

-meeting the two interns, Justine and Natalie, that I would be going to Costa Rica with
-meeting Pastor Jim, Patti, Pastor Gennarino, Margaret, Klein and Leanna
-praying with the interns in the morning
-Hearing about Gabriella from Dawn Marie
-dodging reverse pot holes of death with Katie
-finally finding someone who will call me something other than Michaela
-working in the admin: 10 minute warning!; the ducks are flying over the bridge; just inconspicuously get a mint from Kelly’s office; “WALT? ANETTE. NO, ANETTE! JOHN’S GIRLFRIEND!?NO JOHN’S GIRLFRIEND!”;
-shopping with the guys and buying my first packaged shirts from the boys section
-sitting on the dock with Chris, Cortney, Michelle and Tony in Whitefish and hanging out
-seeing Potter’s Field keeping Coffee Trader’s and the Red Caboose open single-handedly
-Canoeing and laughing as Chris tries to pull us through 3 inches of water and ends up in 3 feet
-Searching for potatoes and muffins in the Piedemonte’s backyard with Selah
-Creating experiments with Gabe
-Holding baby Spencer
-playing that weird version of Uno that Tony never quite got ;)
-answering my cell phone in town “Potter’s Field Ministries, this is Michaela”
-Playing guitar and singing with Matt for 4 hours and trying not to laugh when he sings worship songs low and sounds like Johnny Cash
-Hearing Michelle’s song
-finding out how well Justin and Tony play mom: Just drink more water right? :)
-family dinner prepared by Pastor Jim and Patti <3
-worshipping and fellowshipping around a fire
-Spanish class: PescaBlanca
-Answering phones and coloring Dora and Blues Clues with Selah at the front desk
-Ballet in Bigfork with the girlies
-Bible study at Pastor Jim and Patti’s
-Singing “Girl Named Tennessee” by Needtobreathe loudly with Katie, Michelle and Justin in my car
-watching Beauty and the Beast with Tony
-Seeing a moose 3 days in a row
-John MacArthur cult ;)
-Katie and her “incident” at Bruce’s
-IMing Eden, Ezekial and Elijah “Do you has a puppy?”
-Sushi with JoJo and Kendyl and sitting on the dock admiring the weird dead squirrel things in the water
-Going to the lake at Bigfork and skipping rocks and going for a short swim for Katie’s flip-flop
-trying to analyze paintings with Matt and Chris (which we totally rocked)
-Dandelions with Kelly!
-being blessed more than I thought possible by my brothers and sisters in Christ