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

When I go running, the last 100-150 meters I always try to sprint. Now that I only have only 3 weeks left, I kind of want to do the same thing. I'm not breaking off communication or anything, but I want my free time to be spent more in God's Word and less time with stuff like this.  I remember in youth group probably 2 or 3 years ago now, we talked about finishing well. In that context it was a little different, but I want to finish my time strong here too. Anyways, I don't think I'm going to be writing much anymore, though you can still contact me by email or facebook or if you're feeling adventeres write a letter :) See you all in a few weeks. God bless!

Michaela

One Pilgrim's Progress

February 23- Monday we had kids club and Tuesday was the first day of Manos del Alfarero (PFK). It was pretty crazy, but it went really really well. At first Sarah and I were sure what to do. The kids were just running around playing before we started. So I just jumped in with them and taught (well tried to teach…Tito had to help me a little ha ha) them a new game and I talked to them and they laughed at my Spanish and they taught me some new things. It was so amazing! It’s only been 2 days and I’ve fallen completely in love with these children!


February 25- One Pilgrim’s Progress

This morning, I woke up at 4:30 in the morning. So, since Pastor Phil had pointed out certain roads I’m allowed to go jogging on by myself, I pulled my sneakers on and went out. I started down a road that I’ve been down dozens of times, then took a turn down a new one. As I ran, I started thinking about how I got here from where I was just a year and a half ago. And as I made my way jogging up a steep, rocky hill I was flooded with memories. Now just to be clear, I am sure in my salvation.  I have no question about it.  I just have problems with letting go.  Everything that's happened in the past two years overwhelmed me and brought back the guilt and shame.  It wasn’t long before my run up this hill became a slow walk. I kept moving forward though, and by the time I made it to the top, the sun was peaking over the distant green hills, filling the sky with shades of pink, purple and orange. Over to the side was an empty, abandoned stone building. I walked over and sat down, tired, on one of the window sills, resting with my back up against the cool stone. As I watched the sun rise I realized that I can’t do this anymore. I can’t carry the burden of my past with me wherever I go. It’s a hindrance and a stronghold and only slows me down. The verse that I had memorized a few weeks ago from Phillipians came to mind- “…forgetting what lies behind and straining forward…” And FINALLY, after all of this time, I gave it God!
I am not who I once was!

Like in John Bunyon’s Pilgrim’s Progress as the character Christian crawls up Calvary to the foot of the cross, and his heavy burden on his pack falls off and rolls down the hill into an empty tomb. There is nothing to look back to! It is gone, nailed to a cross! And as one song says, “Like hinges straining from the weight, my heart no longer can keep from singing! All that is within me cries, for you alone be glorified!”

"I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I won't look back, let up, slow down, back away or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense and my future is secure"

As a ran back home, I turned my ipod on shuffle. The first song that came on randomly, was Oh Happiness which if you don’t know is a ridiculously happy song basically just exclaiming joy, because we have grace! The second was Forgiven and Loved by Jimmy Needham. “He died, to rectify my hopeless situation, and his blood commands my guilt to leave! Now on Calvary I stand, empty pockets, open heart, there is no condemnation for me! Child, you’re forgiven and loved!" I didn’t make it home before I was on my knee's.

No more looking back.

Philippians 3:12-14 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Break Dancing and Unicycles

January 18- We just got back from youth group (it’s about 10:30). A while back Eddy asked me if I danced and I tried to explain no, but I’ve taken some lessons with a friend for swing dancing. He got that mixed up with break dancing (which now that I think of it is way cooler, I totally should have rolled with that). Tonight at youth group, Daniel asked me if I danced. I just told him no. He genuinely seemed incredulous that I didn’t know how to break dance. Apparently it’s pretty popular with the teenagers. Daniel, Denise and one other boy put on some Grits and P.O.D. (I know right?) and started break dancing on the patio. They were actually really good haha. They kept trying to get me to join in. I was going to show them up some awesome moves like, you know, the lawn mower or the shopping cart, but I didn’t want to make them feel bad ;]


I’m super excited about just how great youth group over all is going. I got to do worship with Pastor Phil and I keep surprising myself that it goes so well. I’m not trying to say I’m really awesome at it because that’s definitely not the case. From my little experience, it’s a bit difficult to have two people playing guitar, especially when they haven’t played together before. Pastor Phil and I did a few chords of 2 of the songs, but when we were actually doing worship we did 5. And it all worked. This is new for me ha ha things don’t usually go this well. Then there was the lesson and then I taught the kids a new game. It’s one we use to play at my old youth group, called “train wreck.” Pretty much there are two rows of chairs and each chair has a number and one person calls out some of the numbers and if you are one of the numbers you have to find a new chair. If you call out “train wreck” or “choques de tren” in this case, everyone has to get up and switch chairs and there’s always one person left standing. The girls (who don’t like to interact much) even played and seemed to have a lot of fun. We played the game for over an hour! And towards the end it was getting pretty crazy- kids and chairs were flying everywhere. At one point, some of them started putting rocks on the chairs because everyone was just getting wild and I was going to say something but then I looked over and Rebecca (Pastor Phil’s wife) who was trying to be sneaky and put rocks on her chair before the numbers are called ha ha. She just looked over and said, “Soy loca” and smiled. So worship and the game went really well and I now know how to explain two games in Spanish. But what’s even better is that I really got to hang out with the kids and connect with them. It was a lot of fun, and I’m really going to miss them



February 20-When we were at the beach, I saw these two guys and a woman who were obviously body builders (we see them running on the beach a lot) running down the beach. I was going to try to start inconspicuously running next to them and try to blend in…I mean, no one would be able to tell the difference. I am 108 pounds of sheer muscle!

It’s funny the things we’ve seen in Tamarindo. This last Saturday, I was running on the beach and I was looking at the waves (I’m not trying to rub it in. Promise.) and thinking about how great and awesome God is, then I looked the other way and randomly saw some guy unicycling backwards next to me…

Anyways, we are now half done with our time here. I thik we finally have the routine down (though now it’s all going to change now that kids club starts tomorrow). But this Sunday was a lot of fun. I did worship with Kristi and Daniel, then right after that had to run to the nursery and watch the kids with Sarah, then Daniel comes running in a while later to grab me for the last two songs so we had to try to sneak up while Pastor Phil was praying. Then we played the songs, and then I had to run back to the nursery then go back to the stage for take down. It’s been really awesome to have the opportunity to play on Sundays for church and for youth group Friday’s. I learned following my brother, so I know how to, but it’s still difficult. Not just because all of the words are in Spanish, but also because I’ve never heard the majority of them. So I have to pay close attention to the beat and rhythm of each song. And we never actually go through each song so I have no idea what she is going to do and where the build ups and endings are. But it just makes things interesting. Blessed are the flexible, right Pastor Steve? :)
Oh right, one more thing that’s really awesome. So we played some songs Sunday and then Santiago and his wife were going to do a song. So Pastor Phil asked me if Santiago could just use my guitar and, of course, I agreed not thinking much about it. So Santiago and his wife get up there and I hand him my guitar and sit to the side. First of all, he is a lot bigger than I am (because you can’t have a puny guy with an awesome name like Santiago). So he just put the strap on (which was way to small) so the guitar is really high up. It didn’t seem to bother him though, he didn’t adjust it at all. Most of you have probably seen my guitar. It’s black and just a little bit smaller than the average guitar and has a NOTW sticker that’s pretty girly on it. So here’s this grown man playing a song with a tiny girly guitar up high in an awkward position… ha ha he totally pulled it off though :)