A Week of Firsts!

That's right, it's been a week of firsts in many ways. This past week we had our 1st Young Life club, 1st Wyld Life club, and 1st basketball game! I have one word to sum up the week....INCREDIBLE!

Young Life and Wyld Life were so great! We did one of my favorite games at YL...the good ol'....fish goust! For those of you not familure, here's how it works. There are 4 teams. Each team consists of a guy and a girl. The guys have a pair of panty hose over their head, and inside the panty hose is a egg. The girl is on the guys back...piggy back style, and the goal is to try and smash other teams eggs. You might ask how are they supposed to do this?! Well....with a fish of course! This is hilarious. The girls are flinging around these huge raw fish trying to smash an egg on a guys head! Fish goust....it's so great!

The thing I love about the ministry of YL is that everything is so intentional. We don't just do these fun games just for the heck of it. Granted kids like things that are fun, and fish gousting is definitely F.U.N. but these games are done to break down walls, so that kids can clearly hear the gospel. Jessie spoke that night and she rocked it! She showed a clip of Susan Boyle perform on Britains Got Talent, and talked about how we have preconcieved notions about people...especially Jesus. She challenged the kids to think differently this semester, and and to come and see what He is really about.

Wyld Life was on Friday night, and holy cow. That's all I have to say. Holy Cow! The club was themed "Costa Rican Snow Storm." There were 50 crazy middle schoolers there, and the energy was so intense! You could feel Jesus's presence there that night! We of course did a lot of crazy games, sang really fun songs, and then after the talk had a "snow ball fight" with shaving cream and marshmallows! It was rediculous. Soren, who graduated high school last year, gave the talk and dude, he BROUGHT IT! Man, he freaking brought it! I'm so impressed by him. He's such a stud. Max Lucado (a Christian author) has a childrens book called "You are Special" and it's about a Wemmick named Punchinello. Wemmicks are wooden puppets made by Eli the Woodcarver. They live in Wemmicksville, not far from Eli's workshop, and they treat each other pretty much like humans treat each other. Wemmicks walk around and give other Wimmick gold stars for doing something really good, or boring grey dots if they mess up, or aren't very good at something. Punchinello is chipped and ugly, and has lots of grey dots. One day he sees another Wimmeck that has no stickers at all. Punchinello asked her how in the world she has no dots and she told him that she visits her maker, Eli, everyday and he and he removes her dots. Like I said, this was is a childrens story, but Soren did such an incredible job capitvating the kids attention. He then used scripture to tell the kids how special they are, and that God even knows how many hairs we have on our head! Ahhh, I don't think this talk could have gone any better. Middle school kids are totally looking to find their identity and to be reasured of who they are. How cool that Jesus uses us to tell them that they are His Beloved, and they are special the way they are!

Ok, and then there was the basketball game on Thursday! Oh man, I love this team! We lost, but it was a real nail bitter! The final score was 15-10. We scored 10 points! This is huge! 10 points! Oh my gosh, seeing how excited the girls were when they scored was absoulutley insane! I loved it!!! Gloriana, an 8th grader scored twice, and dude, she was soooo excited! I couldn't stop smiling for her!

Other first for the week... It was the first time I payed for my cell phone bill. It was 11 dollars, and I paid for it at a pharmacy. Crazy. It was my first time having Burger King here. Thought we would mix it up a little bit from the typical McDonalds! It was my first time watching a movie with my host mom. We watched P.S. I Love you...in her bed. Surprisingly it wasn't awkward, and surprisingly I didn't cry! It was my first time going to a movie with Wyld Life girls! We saw The Proposal, and it was so much fun! It was my first time taking a taxi to church with Kate. It was a nightmare... dude got lost, and it was just frustrating as all get out not being able to tell him where to go. And...yesterday marked my first month of being here in Costa Rica! It's gone by so fast! I'm practically a Tica now right?!¿¡?

¡Pura Vida!