Día de la Independencia

The 15th of September we celebrated Independence Day here in Costa Rica! It was sort of like the 4th of July, but then again not at all the same. It involved a parade, kids carrying homemade lanterns (most with real lit candles), a torch running across the country and some music and drama by our students. For me these type of activities are not fun because of the hour long walk to nowhere and back, but because it's a community activity that I get to be a part of. All of the kids are out and most of the moms and a few dads. You get to see people out sharing together for a celebrated day. It was really fun (and not just for the 2 days off of school)!  :)

The parade

My friend Julianna's two kids and me

Some of my students after their drama

Two more of my students

On a side note: I've been having some of my girl students over to my house recently, just to enjoy time together. It's been fun watching girly movies, doing hair, eating junk food. I really enjoy getting to be like a caring big sister to so many of these girls!

Gaby and Sandra showing off their pretty hair

In the Spanglish Middle

*I recommend playing this song as your read the rest...

It's a weird thing to live somewhere between two languages. I feel like it's something you can't really understand until you've been forced to do it yourself and even then people's experiences differ greatly. I've been here in Costa Rica for almost 2 years now and after coming with absolutely no Spanish a lot has changed.

I literally came here never having learned any Spanish. I had studied German in high school and again in college and even studied abroad in Germany and Austria. My German had gotten good (though please don't ask about it now). When I moved here, pretty much all I could say was "hola" and "gracias". To give you a better idea of how that affected everything here's something one of my first students said about a year after I came (in Spanish of course): "Lindsey, I didn't like you when I first met you. You didn't say anything to us. I mean...I guess you couldn't. But now I love you!"

It was incredibly challenging. It took many headaches and many confusions and blank stares. I like to tell people that language learning is both humbling and humiliating. Now I've come a long way (still have a long way to go of course as well). I'm still living in a community that speaks a language that is not the one I am most comfortable with. It's not the language that I've known all my life, lived in, and studied in for years. It's not the one I've sung in or read in or prayed in.

But now that my life is in this other language, I've come to see that I want and maybe even need many of those more "optional" areas to be in Spanish also. I'm trying (slowly) to read a book in Spanish. I've come to pray some in Spanish. And I've come to love worshipping the Lord through song in Spanish (at times).

Yet there's always a balance I need and an in between can often be better for me and my soul. That's one of the reasons that songs (like the one above), movies, and even conversations that are in both Spanish and English in some form or another have been the most positive for me and even something I've found myself craving for. I can tell you, it's a weird thing as I never had any desire to learn Spanish but God has brought me so far not only in my ability but also in my desire and even joy in speaking it. He's good!

(Hope you enjoyed my little ramble about something I've been thinking about a lot recently.)

Thanks for reading, friends!

ADE Happenings

Over the past few months (with the help of one of our summer interns and the new focus of one of our staff members, we have been a lot better at keeping the general public up to date on ADE Happenings. There's been a lot going on over the summer. I wanted to share with you all some of these blog posts to give you an ever growing and developing understanding of ADE and what I'm doing here.

Check out the ones that seem interesting to you!

ADE's Zero Down Development and Economic Sustainability Projects
If you ever ask the questions: What is ADE? or What on earth is Lindsey doing in Costa Rica? This should help answer those questions a little. It should at least give you a good little overview of what we as ADE are working on and how. It should also give you a good idea about some of our most current projects.

The Role of the Church During a Disaster
As a seminary class did research up here in this area, one woman wanted to share her findings with our local church. This same woman is now one of our very active Costa Rican board members!

Organic Garden and Fruit Co-op
Something we as ADE are working on as week look to use our hands and the land to serve the Lord and others better here in this community.

Vara Blanca's First Strawberry Fair
Our town (along with some partners) put on a strawberry festival. As this area is full of just that - strawberries - it was a great way for people to really come together over a mutual fruit! We, as the high school, put on a few fun activities that surprising went off very well.

ADE Girls Soccer Team First Game 4-1
Our students are now playing indoor soccer (both a girls team and guys team with a few other community members). I'll be writing more about this, but hear about the first game and how awesome my girls are!

New Talent Search - Congrats to our students!
The students in our school participated in an art day at a local business. Though we as a staff aren't the most artistic group, our students LOVE any type of art they can get their hands on.

Tropical Agriculture and Mission Class
Here you can hear about the class that we hosted here in May called "Tropical Agriculture and Missions" put on by Au Sable and taught by a professor from Eastern University.

Ruth, Boaz & God's Providence

On my way down to Virginia last week, I listened to a series of sermons from my home church on Ruth. As I listened to them I got so pumped and excited about the goodness and sovereignty of God! You can ask just about anyone I saw in the following days that I recommended listening to them, because I was so personally encouraged. Someone once told me that the best sermons are not those you walk away saying, "Wow, what a great preacher" but instead saying "Wow, what a great God." That's the only thing I could think during the 6 hour drive to Blacksburg with my parents sleeping while I drove.

Here's a few specific thoughts of mine:

• God's providence really is over everything and people historically didn't have as hard a time believing that as many of us do.
• If I really believe that God is both completely sovereign and completely good, my perspective on life will be drastically different.
• Naomi tried to get Ruth to go home, but she committed to stay - Often I too don't see the deep need for people to know my God because I think it'd be easier for them where they came from. But by Ruth committing to Naomi and Naomi's God, she got to be a part of history!
• Boaz was a "worthy" man...I want one of those  :)

Listen to these sermons! Click here and you won't regret it.

I hope you're as encouraged as I am. 

Here's one of my favorite songs right now, which fits in well with this theme: