a life long study of love

Lord, make a channel of thy peace that, where there is hatred, I may bring love; that where there is wrong, I might bring the spirit of forgiveness; that where there is discord, I may bring harmony; that where there is error, I may bring truth; that where there is doubt, I may bring faith; that where there is despair, I may bring hope; that where there are shadows, I may bring light; that where there is sadness, I may bring joy.
Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted, to understand than to be understood, to love than to be loved; for it is by forgetting self that one finds; it is forgiving that one is forgiven; it is by dying that one awakens to eternal life.
-St. Francis of Assisi

I’ve been asking myself recently- how can I best love the person that is right in front of me? How can I make the most of every opportunity I am given to love? How can I love Abby? The missionaries here? A child that is in tears? The Ticos that pass me on the street? How can I best be used in every situation I find myself? It is a great and high calling that we have received- to be an imitator of God. God is love. He is boundless, unending, persistent, aggressive love. It’s only by his strength that we can live this life- loving our enemies and forgetting about ourselves.

Well, let me give you some of the highlights of this past week. I’ll be honest, I have loved most our times of prayer with the staff here. I also love praying with Abby and Shaina on Mondays. Prayer is such an incredible privilege! We have all been made priests- with unlimited access to the throne of grace.

Something else I’ve loved doing is cooking and baking. The interns make cookies with the children every Friday- we alternate between the houses. I enjoy this time so much! Most of the kids have never had an opportunity to learn how to bake. We have them take turns adding and mixing ingredients. The cookies thus far have been delicious. We only had one big blunder (beside for the urine story). One week Isela (one of the house moms) had left a plastic serving plate with some goodies on it in the oven to keep the flies away. Abby and I preheated the oven without checking inside- and we soon discovered a plate that had melted and mutated into a bowl. We pulled it out and the house filled with smoke. Oops. Anyways, we make sure to save a plate of cookies for the other house as well as the Thomas house to teach the children about sharing ☺ Abby and I are going to have a cooking class every other Saturday in the homes- last Saturday we make tacos with Gerardo and Isela’s kids. It was such fun! Some of the kids didn’t even know what tacos were…. The food here is very different from Mexican food.

Baby Isaac (Jonathan and Amy’s second child) was born on Monday!! I have yet to meet him- but I look forward to it. God was good and protected Amy and Isaac. I’m so happy for their family.

Last night, as we were chatting after dinner, Abby spotted a mouse scurrying through the kitchen. Abby took off for the stairs and Rebecca, Dona Nuria and I were giggling and timidly poking under the fridge with a broom handle. We never caught it- but it gave us some good laughs ☺ I love those surprising moments in life.

Abby, Shaina and I are getting dance lessons from one of the girls in the church here! We’re learning a little bit of everything- salsa and merengue and swing. My favorite dance is, by far, the traditional Costa Rican dance. We wear these huge skirts (I promise that photos will come) and swing them around as we dance. It’s so fun and pretty. Oh, these are the shoes that I borrowed from Shaina for the dance lessons. They matched perfectly with my outfit, so of course Abby and I laughed about it.



Abby and I went to the mall with Jonathan, Amy, and Caia last week. Caia wanted to ride the train that circles the top floor… so in order to spare Jonathan the shame of riding with a bunch of five-year-olds, Abby and I rode with her. We got some funny looks from the Ticos, but Caia was having fun, so everything was worth it ☺

Hmm… Anything else? Oh keep praying for the brothers and sisters that I mentioned last post. We’re still fighting and believing- but we haven’t heard anything from the government yet. We’re hoping that the psychologist and lawyers will be able to tell from the words and actions of the children that they don’t want to go back to Nicaragua. The oldest child has been asking questions of the Georgianna- what if I go back to live with my Aunt and she beats me? Georgianna asked, “Well what if you Aunt isn’t a bad person?” He replied, “Everyone in my family is bad.”

And as for Spanish- thank you for praying! It is still a daily battle- but I know that nada hay imposible para Dios.

Love you all.