becoming a worshiper again.

I get so caught up in perfecting lessons and discipline in teaching. I'm getting in the bad habit of checking things off a list, rather than teaching from my heart. I get annoyed when my first graders ask to go to the bathroom 10 times in one hour or when they lean back in their chairs when they know they aren't supposed to. But I've noticed something...when I invite the Lord into my day, into my classroom and let His spirit and teachings move, I am at peace. It suddenly becomes easier when I believe that Christ is present. This is the kind of strength that only comes from Him. 

Last weekend, Allie and I had the chance to go to a worship conference at our church. My heart and soul were truly renewed. The pastor talked about becoming a worshiper again and how we always need to come back to our Father. You see, when we come to Him so vulnerable and broken, it gives Christ the chance to break us, strip us and then teach us. I hope I always remember to invite the holy spirit into my day because that joy and peace is amazing.

I encourage you to go back to the heart of worship. Invite the holy spirit into your day....I promise that it will make a difference.

-Kristin 

Resound

This weekend was a HUGE blessing!
I had the privilege to hear an amazing band play at our church for a special conference called "Resound Worship Conference." The guys in the band are all from Colorado; some are pastors, some are signed musicians, and others do awesome ministry there. All of them are deeply and madly in love with God. I had the opportunity to attend their worship sessions each night, and each night God's presence was so tangible. They had a way of getting each of our hearts to a place of humility and availability for the Lord. The weekend was focused on each of us becoming worshippers again, not just people who go through the motions. I really resonated with this topic because I had been drifting from the beautiful and joyful awareness of God's presence in my life, slowly every day. It was clear that God was in that church and those people's hearts, moving everyone back to him in praise and worship. One of the coolest parts was the fact that the speakers and singers were speaking in English the whole time, but there were always translators and songs sung in both Spanish and English. It's such a powerful time to be in a place of worship with others who are speaking different languages but saying the same thing...and praising the same God. I still feel pumped up and excited from it all. There was definitely a fire ignited again in my heart, and I am so grateful for this group coming and giving it all for the Lord and his people. I am encouraged, re-filled, joyful, and peace-filled. Wow, I wish you could all have been there. Now it's that time where you choose to keep the intensity and continue worshipping with the same fervor, or you fall back into your old self. I am so blessed to have the opportunity to continue to be surrounded by people on fire for God--at church, school, and home. It will still be difficult, but I am encouraged by the unity of followers surrounding me. God's moving mountains down here in Costa Rica and it's the coolest thing to be a part of. I continue to pray for the movements happening in the States...Churches and leaders need prayer, so I encourage you to lift them up as well. Here's the link to the conference if you want to learn more about it: www.resoundconference.com
-Allie

Tortuguero and Lockers

Here are some snap shots of our fin de semana pasada:
-10+ hours of taxi, buses, boats, and walking in order to get to Tortuguero (5+ to get home..)
-heavenly beach, hotel, wildlife, and small small small town
-warm Caribbean water, mmmm :) which apparently had sharks in the deeper parts...
-authentic Caribbean food and drink
-Tortugas laying eggs!!!
-the one and only discotek--dancing! ayayaya!
-meeting sweet people from around the world, and traveling with sweet people from around the same world :)

Over all, it was a fantastic weekend that was full of funny, spontaneous, relaxing, and sometimes stressful moments. Couldn't have been better (and better timing).

So now I have successfully completed three full days of school. Not only have I completed them, I stayed awake for them! Ha, I get so sleepy during the day. I guess I'm not used to the ungodly hours and tedious work of a teacher. Kudos to teachers everywhere. Well, the first day of school was just as exciting and new, but a little more chaotic than our vacation weekend in Tortuguero...I hadn't really been in a 6th or 7th grade classroom much (besides when I was a student in 6th and 7th grade), so I was a bit nervous and quite curious as to how they would be and respond to me. They were full of energy and excitement as well, lots of chit chat and laughter. The first day was a blur; I was exhausted afterwards. The second day was a bit more put together and told more of how classes would actually be. And today was sweet because we did lots of lessons, grading, correcting, planning, etc. It felt more like a normal day. The craziest part so far is the hallway outside my room. It is lined with lockers and the first day those sixth graders couldn't keep their excitement in their bodies about having their own locker. That brought back memories...oh lockers. Anyway, the hallway is SUPER CROWDED during passing time, the most congested hallway I've ever seen in a school, unfortunately. While some students are basically on all fours getting to their bottom locker, wading in puddles from the intense rain that comes down everyday, others are stepping on those students dropping textbooks and locks on them reaching for their top lockers. In the meantime, little tiny itsy bitsy first graders are trying to get from the door that leads outside into the school and to their class. They are getting crushed, squished, bumped, bruised, stepped on, and god knows what else. It's tragic. I tell myself if I've saved at least one then I've made a difference. nah, j/k. But seriously, it's a gong show. Super funny, but not at all. So moral of the story is: if you're gonna have top and bottom lockers in a small hallway, you're gonna have to be prepared to get seriously injured. Consider protective gear.
Oh, and fyi...locker shelves are a delicacy down here. They don't sell them in Costa Rica so students in the U.S. and elsewhere with locker shelves should be 100% grateful! So if you wanna make money, bring a ton down here and sell them...you'll be rich.

Paz,
Allie

unexpected surprises.

unexpected surprise #1: Anna-Lena.

Anna-Lena is our German roommate! She is so fun. She is a translator at the Plaza Colonial. We are going to the Caribbean with her this weekend to see monkeys and turtles! ah!

unexpected surprise #2: La Vina Church.

Our host family goes to this church...it reminds me so much of Branches. It's sweet, loving, simple, trendy and welcoming. We saw Lynne Allen there from Whitworth! She got a job in San Jose!

unexpected surprise #3: Octavio.

Allie and I decided to venture out into San Jose on Sunday. I'll admit, I was a little terrified of getting on the bus. Thank goodness for Allie's Spanish. We got off on a random stop and right away a man asked us if we needed help...and we did. At first I was skeptical of him...but he turned out to be really nice and helpful. His name is Octavio and he is an accountant. He walked with us through the city until we found the art musuem, giving us tips and directions.

unexpected surprise #4: Lighthouse International School.

I can't imagine working at any other school right now. It is the sweetest, most welcoming place! This morning I read Psalm 19 " The revelation of God is whole and pulls our lives together. The signposts of God are clear and point out the right road. The life maps of God are right, showing the way of joy." I felt so affirmed in my decision to be here and I know Allie does too. I have this sudden urge to get back into the classroom and meet my first graders!

unexpected surprise #5: Mario and Maruja.

Our sweet and precious host grandparents. I already know that after a long day at school I'll come home to a relaxing and quiet place. They don't speak English, so that's been a challenge! They spoil Allie and I with great food and love.

The Lord is constantly reminding me every morning to trust HIM. Only Him and no one else. This week is teacher orientation week and each day we've talked about how we are going to serve our students, staff and Christ. I've really realized that there is no way I can teach my students in a loving or caring way unless I meet Christ every day. I need to rely on Him to fill me up with grace, mercy, love and forgiveness. This part of my life right now of learning and traveling is beautiful...and I give Him all the praise.

Adios! -Kristin

Espanol por favor

It was our first day of la escuela hoy!
We finally got to go to Lighthouse and meet our master teachers, and the other faculty and staff. Wow, I was absolutely blown away by the beauty of the school and of the teachers themselves. Not only are they lovely people, they are all absolutely gorgeous :) It was a great morning of introductions, discussion, watching TED videos, eating lunch together, and setting up our classrooms. My teacher is super nice, funny, and accommodating. She is married and has three boys, but you wouldn't guess it, she looks young! What a babe! The classrooms (at least for middle schoolers) are huge! And they have lots of windows. The school is basically outdoors. You walk around outside to get to the different classrooms, but the walkway is covered due to how much it rains here. I loved talking with my teacher, setting things up, envisioning together, and just getting to know each other. I can tell we're gonna have a fun year! I'm sure it'll be a lot of work, but most definitely worth it.
We got a ride back to our home from Kristin's teacher, so sweet of her! We made a pit stop at the local teacher store, which is really small and overpriced, but the only one for kilometers! Then some of our host family members went out for helado with us (ice cream) at the local ice cream shop called Autopops. Kristin and I call it otterpops. It was so good. Afterwards my host abuelo took me to a local "Learn Spanish!" business to meet one of their teachers. Kristin and I are going to take Spanish lessons starting tomorrow. I'm so excited! I really do want to be conversationally fluent. At this point I can listen and understand a lot of it, but it's hard to respond. I'm trying, but it's exhausting...
We had a wonderful dinner tonight: yummy pasta and french bread with wine. Mmmmm, so good. I am so happy here :)
Hasta luego,
-Allie

oh hewoahh! we didn't know blogging could be so fun!!

Hola Amigos!

Allie and I are now home away from home. We found each other in Dallas as quickly as we could and screamed like little girls. Naturally, the first thing we did was grab some chips and salsa to start off this tiny adventure right. Well, and a margarita! Nom noms!

I (Allie) was about to cause this whole adventure to come to a halting stop because the lady checking my boarding pass pulled me aside...that is never a good sign. Kristin and I exchanged anxious farts and giggles, hoping this was all some misunderstanding. I think we started joking too soon about missing our flight, but just as the jokes kept flowing the lady printed out a new one, scanned it, and we were on our way!! That was literally the only speed bump in our travels today. We had a lovely conversation on the plane over a sick nasty dinner and five Pepsie's. Kristin ate about 50 sour gummy worms because she was so excited! hA! We flawlessly made it to Costa Rica with a smooth landing, an easy passage through customs, found all of our luggage in tact, exchanged money (with strangers aka the currency men) and shoved our luggage onto a cart. Whoops...we might of packed too much.

When we came out of the airport, we were greeted by our sweet professor who generously helped us with our huge suitcases! We drove through the city, ready to embark through Heredia. Lindy (our professor) introduced us to this beautiful place. The evening consisted of fresh fruit, homemade nachos, and a nice conversation with Lindy, Dinorah and Travis. We felt very welcomed and blessed. Here are a few of the fun endeavors we have to look forward to tomorrow:

-karaoke at the Castilla Country Club!
-hiking tomorrow. and with hiking brings a giant cage full of monkeys and a local tico playing music and offering wine. perf. (our prof told us that when he went hiking this is what happened haha!)
-getting coffee
-market time!
-brazilian food
-and just enjoying the BEAUTY here!


WOAH that's WEIRD! currently, the fire alarm is going off, but we are still sitting on the bed blogging. Lindy's orders. is blogging like tweeting? who really knows?

anyways...this was fun. Thanks and Gig em! Go Aggies! (that's for you Dad/camp friends)!

Love,
Allie and Kristin

packing, cleaning, packing, cleaning...and rest

Well, I finally did it! I have finally packed for my 4 month journey in Costa Rica. I am the ultimate procrastinator. I waited (strategically) until 2 days before I depart. I had slowly been acquiring everything I needed for the trip, but allowed myself one buffer day (tomorrow) in case I absolutely forgot to get something. It always works, so mom, dad, let me be a procrastinator!!

I got to talk to Kristin today on the phone! She is so excited and sounded like my mom asking me if I made copies of my passport and if I had everything packed. Haha, I love her for that. She mentioned her mom picked up some yummy almond rocca to give to our host family and others down in Costa Rica as gifts. How sweet! Thank you Cheryl!

I'm extremely excited to leave! I have one more night in the apartment then I pack everything in the jeep, say my goodbyes to friends and head over to my former landlord's house for dinner and a place to sleep. The guy offered to drive me to the airport at the wee hours of the morning on Thursday, I mean come on, best landlord ever right? So nice of him. I gladly accepted that offer!

I keep looking around Spokane with camera-like eyes, trying to capture all that is Spokane and the beauty here. It just blows my mind to think about being somewhere completely new and different in 2 days time. It's liberating to think about the fact that I won't be driving around and running errands, and dragging the boys I nannyed everywhere. I will have a completely new routine and purpose down there, and if that doesn't excite someone I don't know what would. I sometimes have a hard time with big changes in life. I love them, don't get me wrong, but I easily lose sight of God's peace and presence amidst all the stress and chaos of preparing. It took a while to remember that  the Lord wanted me to focus on him and not the petty things I had been occupying my mind with. This lead me to feel like my heart was unprepared for this journey, so I have been praying for a sense of calm and preparedness. I want to be present and open to everything the Lord is going to show me right now, so I don't have room for stress, worry, doubts, and uncertainty. I trust that the Lord has me exactly where I am supposed to be, and I rest in that. REST--that's what I need to do. Matthew 11:28-30 says "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Hopefully through this rest the Lord will open my heart to a clearer picture of who he is. I titled this blog Awake My Soul, O Costa Rica because I pray that the Lord awakens my soul to what he means for me to see and know. I want transformation, rekindled passion, new perspectives, and a deeper love for God and others. I pray the Lord awakens our souls, and in a way that we recognize he's doing it. Keep us in your prayers. Thank you! Peace.