certainly not bored

At this point, when I look back on the past three months... my time seems to be filled with some really high highs and some really low lows. This is most certainly one curse of being a passionate person. However, it seems to me as though God is using me during this time, so I must convey deep gratitude to our unchanging God who continues to bless me with opportunities of service despite my changing dispositions.

In Matthew 6:20, Jesus tells us to store up treasures in heaven... treasures that can`t be taken away... treasures that last. It seems to me as though my time here has been filled with opportunities to invest in such treasures. Let me brief you on some of the most recent ones:

This past week, SEMANA SANTA, Theos Place had a retreat. In regards to my work here, several significant things happened. 1. Our praise team, currently, me (guitar and vocals) Manfred (guitar) and Daniela (bongos) made our debut worship set. Theos has long been anticipating the chance to have live music instead of just music videos for worship, so after 3 months of practice, we are finally on the ground running. 2. Eight more people accepted Christ the first night of Campamento and then had a chance to grow throughout the weekend... Praise the Lord! 3. I was expecting any normal church retreat... one small group time, praise and a lesson at night... lots of games, etc. Theos retreat was really different. We had a Bible study in the morning 1 1/2 hours, some free time before and after lunch, another 1 1/2 hour Bible Study, dinner, worship then an hour long sermon. Honestly... every break that we had, we desperately needed. All this to say, I was leading one of the Bible Studies. It was in Spanish, so much of my free time was spent translating the study and preparing... this was solely for my comprehension and readiness... most of the study was in Spanish anyways.

Now... my Spanish is getting a lot better- praise God! After this opportunity with 8 new believers, there are currently 15 people waiting to start in a Bible Study. I am going to be co-leading one with just guys and Dylia has generously offered to lead one with the girls until our wedding. There is a lot going on. Please pray that God will give me strength to complete all of these tasks with excellence- just a reminder, I now have
Worship Responsibilities Tuesday nights
A Bible Study Wednesday nights
A leaders meeting for THEOS YOUTH on Thursday nights before
The Bible Study for Leaders on Thursday nights (every other week and meetings on the odd ones)

Still a lot is going on. As of yesterday, Dylia and I are 2 months away from our wedding. We are still both pumped about it. In regards to our relationship... we both feel like we are in a really rough place spiritually... we are teaching people about a loving, intimate relationship with Jesus, but right now we both feel like when we pray... we are talking to ourselves and that Scripture is not making any changes in our daily lives. We continue to press on in prayer, service, and study, but we are both longing to FEEL god´s INTIMATE touch again. We know he´s working we just don´t feel it. Thanks for your consistent prayers for us and our ministries.

Bri Bri

This past weekend i went with a group of 18 students from Theos to do some construction in a little costa rican village called bri bri. this village is located on a river that borders costa rica and panama. after a four hour drive to the border we had to take a 20 minute boat ride up river to arrive in bri bri. the people here didnt wear loin cloths, but we were in the jungle, and very far away from normal civilization. These people have been impacted by flooding in the past year, quite severely, so there is some work going on there to help them rebuild a medical clinic. There was currently a group from Canada working there, from Samaritan´s Purse and a group from Denver Colorado had just left. It was fun to help with some of the construction that these groups were involved with.

I enjoy thinking that I am living in a country where I can serve people on a week to week basis that need a lot of help. These people from the US and Canada, have to take a plane to come, but I just have to drive, and catch a boat. Our trip didnt really feel like a missions trip, it just felt like a normal part of life and i think that´s a healthy place to be.

the whole group was sitting in a room, on saturday night. we had just finished up a game of charades and some of the guys started telling ghost stories. the interesting thing about these stories was that they were all real accounts of some sort of encounter with an unseen being. one guy told us about going to bed and feeling hands all over him, poking him and he couldn´t move. i didnt feel very comfortable with the nature of these stories in this group of young christians, so i decided to speak up.

i explained that the bible does talk about unseen beings- both good and bad. always, the bad beings seek to create fear or harm and always the good are working to help god with what he is doing. i explained that when jesus is living inside of us, then his spirit is working to produce the fruits of the spirit, like love, patience, self- control and joy. i also explained that as long as jesus is living in us, we dont need to fear the bad unseen beings because their power is not nearly as great as jesus power.

as i spoke of these things, i really felt like god was speaking through me and trying to mend a very delicate situation. sometimes i dont feel like god uses me very often in tangible, spontaneous ways like this, so it was really encouraging to see the result of this opportunity.

excitement

in my last post i mentioned that benjamin was going to preach the gospel. last night he did. thank you for anyone that prayed for this event. i want to give a little background before i let you know how it went. theos place is only one year old. currently they have around 50 regular attendees. all of the regular attendees are involved in a bible study. almost all of these attendees became christians at theos- which means their relationship with the lord is less than one year old! currently, theos has 9 bible studies going. now... the past couple of weeks the numbers have been high in theos. they've had over 70. last night at the group over 10 people accepted Jesus as their personal savior. at the bible study on wednesday 4 people accepted Jesus as their personal savior. that means that within the week over 15 people became new believers in theos place. this is a huge number considering we only hav 50 regulars! this growth is 25%. more than growth... there is quite a party going on in heaven for 15 new lives in Christ. Please pray that Theos will be able to secure these new believers into a bible study- there are only 6 people leading bible studies right now, so several of them have 2. most of the other leaders are relatively new believers. we'll see what happens, but i am very excited about the process of growth that i see happening within this organization. I am thrilled to start the youth group!

things that grow

I´ve been learning a lot lately about some of the ways that God chooses to grow things. I am pleased to announce that in a brand new Bible study- it was their third week, four people officially began a personal relationship with the lord. One of these, is my good friend Gabriel (shown in the picture) and it is fun to hear about the excitement that he has to start this relationship, but he also seems to have a clear understanding that there will be lots of challenges. It is fun to walk next to him and the rest of these new believers in this journey. Tomorrow night, Benjamin will be giving a gospel message to the big group. The past three weeks, we have had a LOT of visitors. Please pray for this message, it is very important.

As far as the youth group goes, I had the first meeting with the potential leaders this past Saturday. I had a potential 6 and only 2 were able to attend the meeting. But... praise the Lord, both of these people- Gabi and Manfred, are eager to help and to serve. The process has been little by little, but we are making progress.

Please take a quick second to praise the Lord for new beginnings! There are four that have new life in Christ and I have 2 that are committed to serving the Lord by helping start this youth group!

youth group excitement

This past week I had a meeting with a guy named Fernando. He is from a wealthy family, he likes to surf and he is very intentional about spiritual growth. I spent some time asking him questions to find out what he perceives to be as the ideal youth group. There is a documentary called "The Merchants of Cool" that talks about how MTV and Sprite and those companies determine what is cool. I essentially used this sort of an interview with him- not doing any talking, just listening to exactly what he likes and perceives as cool. I think this will help me understand a little bit more about the demographics of our target audience.

He has a lot of friends in three of the biggest international schools here, christians and non-christians and i believe that fernando may be a great place to start. we are having a meeting for the potential leaders next week on saturday morning. please pray that god will continue to guide those whom he wants to participate in this work. please pray that god will guide me as i try to communicate the vision and mission of this group. thanks for your prayers.

also, just a quick note to say that the bible study is still going well. this group asks some of the most difficult questions. quite honestly many of them we wouldn't be able to answer without a hebrew scholar present, so its intimidating to take on the responsibility of guiding a discussion with these people. we finished proverbs last night and are due to study job next week.

lots of work

there is a lot of work to do here in costa rica. dylia and i are preaching the sermon tomorrow on practical steps towards having a god-centered dating relationship. we aren´t perfect for sure, but most of the students at theos don´t know anything different from the secular, ungodly relationships they´ve always been in. we will be doing the talk in spanglish... you are more than welcome to listen to the sermon- it will be on the theos website.

finding leaders has been a difficult process. I visited the youth group at the local vineyard church here. There was a husband and wife- the main leaders and one volunteer. The group was about 40-50 kids. Can you imagine that? I heard that churches were protective of their potential leaders, but no wonder. Anyway, the process has been more challenging than I anticipated. Please pray that God will give me wisdom in recruiting a strong group of core leaders who are excited about the youth culture.

a lesson in provision

many of you know that i've felt frustrated and discouraged in the past in regards to my financial debt. today i received an email informing me that a scholarship account for alumni with financial debt is being used to pay off my student loans. this was 1/4 of the financial debt that i had and what an incredible burden is lifted! i am blown away at how the lord has blessed me this past year, one significant chunk at a time. i feel like the remaining loans i have (parent loans) are just a drop in the bucket- dylia and i will be able to pay them off in no time. it is amazing how much i am like thomas. i have such a hard time believing the reality of the lord's provision until i see something tangible and then all doubt is gone. oh how utterly human i am.

enough about me... please... please praise the lord for his ability to provide for all that i need. praise the lord for his never ending and unfailing love for us that so powerfully fuels his generous provisions. praise the lord for he is good.

conference and classes

this past week i began teaching clubs at lighthouse international school. that job will be fun, but will most definately have it's challenges (like the 25 minute ride up some ridiculous hills on the way there).

i am helping manfred learn guitar- we are hoping that theos place might be able to switch over to live music instead of music videos and the best part for me is that worship in english is better for the demographics of this group! i never thought i'd be teaching music lessons to people my age overseas.

also, i met with alvaro williams, the leader of the youth group at unidos por cristo. his insights were very valuable and i'm beginning the process of thinking through how to find leaders. please pray for this process. spiritual depth is rare in costa rica (outside of catholicism). there are many baby christians, but most of them are just in the starting phases of a relationship with jesus. this is not necessarily ideal for leaders of youth. please pray that the lord would open doors and put leaders in the path of this ministry.

lastly, i wanted to mention that yesterday i went to a conference for pastors. benjamin invited me and it was an honor to be among the most influential christian people in costa rica. the speaker was bill hybels from willow creek. i just have to say that going to christian conferences like this in smaller countries is most definitely the way to go. it is so easy to have a personal conversation with the main leader (i did not b/c i had to leave early). i enjoyed the conference- sitting only 5 feet away from the main leader was awesome and his insights were awesome. doing ministry in costa rica has been quite a unique experience. it is far different from anything that i had imagined before hand.

i want to make a brief comment about theos. bill hybels has done a research project surveying over 700 churches throughout the world. when benjamin told him about theos place, hybels made an expression of intrigue and said that he had never heard of anything like it. working under benjamin has been a lot of fun. it is clear that god is using this ministry in powerful ways.

bible study

on thursday i taught the bible study for the leaders of theos. this was their first study in this setting and dylia's parents invited some other people who they thought might benefit (like Rodrigo's Dad). this group was quite intimidating- from professional businessmen, to young professionals, this group wasn't intellectually slow in the least. however, besides benjamin and debbie (dylia's parents), i'm the only one with a formal bible education and they are eager to learn.

i taught the study on ecclesiastes, which is a monster to begin with, but it went very well. i spoke in english, they spoke in spanish and most of the time, we all understood each other very well. we will be meeting every other week, so our next study will be in february and i'll be teaching on proverbs. a lot of the information i have was from Dr. John Crutchfield's class on wisdom literature and i feel it is valuable information for this group.

also, i start teaching at the lighthouse school on monday. i will be teaching drama on monday for kids ages 4-6, english on tuesday for kids 8-11 and english on thursday for kids 5-8. i'm pretty excited and it's been very helpful that i've had the chance to babysit for keegan and logan in the past because their ages fall right in this span of ages, which will be helpful as i try to consider what activities to do with them. thanks for your prayers!

One week done...

well... it's been one week. i'm starting to understand what the next couple of months will be looking like for me. my house is an incredible blessing and is reminding me of the value of a simple lifestyle. however, it takes a lot of time to maintain a clean house. i can only cook one thing at a time, i don't have a dishwasher or washer/dryer machines. therefore, i anticipate roughly 20 hours a week just to maintain my house and feed myself. this is more than i expected, but praise the lord a work opportunity came up that is truly an answer to prayer. i will probably be teaching english two days a week and drama one day a week to elementary school students (all in english) and it is sort of a tutoring program so the parents will pay me directly. essentially, i will be making $500 a month for 12 hours of work... what a deal, huh? the school that i will probably be working at is called lighthouse.

i told you more about my involvement at theos in my previous email, so i will tell you a little bit about my past week. on saturday i went up to poas with dylia, gloriana, dona debbie and some students from unidos por cristo. this is where the earthquake hit. we were planning on just helping with food distribution, but they had plenty of volunteers and a system that wasn't very organized. so... dona debbie began looking for other opportunities and we ended up going into a restricted access area. this was in san rafael, one of the most hard hit areas and it was considered very dangerous, so even relief workers weren't allowed. however, we went with the intention of finding families who had experienced damage to their house and asking them what their needs were. essentially, the govt. has gone in to see what happened, but they haven't really told the people what to do or tried to find out how to help. so we had surveys that would be able to clearly convey what the people needed... in many cases it was a place to live.

one man that we met was in a house when the earthquake happened. he was thrown to the floor immediately and was tossed from one side of the house to the other throughout (40 seconds!) and had absolutely no control over himself. we saw one house... more like a pile of sticks, that had fallen off a cliff as the whole cliff gave out in a landslide. there was a man and a little girl inside the house. somehow... they both survived. this is a picture of what used to be their house:

i find it strange to think that this terrible catastrophe is just part of what the earth does. its so terrible and many people lost their lives or their homes or the majority of their belongings. praise the lord that this situation has caused many people to be generous with their time and resources in order to benefit those who are in need. there is an abundance of workers and of food for those impacted and it is incredible to see how a country without an army has supported itself through this difficult time. i'm learning a lot. thanks for your prayers. i miss you all, but i am having a blast... i really do miss you.

a quick start

so i've been able to enjoy getting to know many of the students that are involved in Theos. Last night I was able to have a long conversation in a casual setting with two guys- Manfred and Jose, about how they came to have a personal relationship. They both have been Christians for less than a year and heard the Gospel for the first time in Theos Place! Praise the Lord for his work in this community here through Theos. believe it or not, all of these conversations have been almost exclusively in spanish. my spanish is doing very well and i'm finding it easy to communicate even though my grammatical mistakes are innumerable- my friends have been very gracious.

after a meeting with don benjamin y dona debbie, my future parents-in-law (who began and are in charge of theos place) we decided that I will be leading a bible study on thursday nights for the leaders at theos- most of whom speak english better than i speak spanish. please pray that the lord will use me through these lessons. i feel intimidated trying to lead a lesson in broken spanish when they get to hear don benjamin give a lesson once a week- he is an incredible teacher and evangelist.

in addition to this, i will be taking practical steps towards starting a youth ministry- making connections with students, interviewing leaders of similar groups, etc. please pray that god will guide the starting process in this group.

though i was so intimidated and worried before coming, i'm having a blast. i had forgotten how much i love this country- how much more exciting it is to drive anywhere in town because every trip could mean that i'll see jesus today. (it's really not that bad) living on my own has also been fun and i've enjoyed making the house look like it's mine- with pictures mostly.

thank you so much for your continued prayers- it means so much that i have your support on such a consistent basis.

i made it!

this is just a quick update to let everyone know that i did arrive safely in the country. so far, my spanish is doing alright and i've been enjoying getting to know the people involved in theos. i am encouraged to see the way that they desire to grow. most of them have not had a relationship with christ for a very long time, yet it seems that jesus is cultivating an incredible amount of depth within these souls. praise the lord for what he is doing here. thanks for your prayers. they've gone a very long way!

just what i needed

as you may know by now, i've been through lots of discouragement and frustration as i've tried to prepare for costa rica. may i proclaim god's glory in his deep, deep, loving provision for my needs. this week i've spent most of my time packing, meeting with people and studying spanish like crazy. even though my trip to costa rica is nearing, i've still felt apprehensive and nervious.
today i received letters from two friends at CIU- peach taylor and david blanchard. these letters could have empowered me to face the devil himself today. honestly... i was so blown away by this simple act of provision that i wept. i didn't know what else to do. i'm sure that these two friends didn't realize they were meeting such deep needs in my life. but their words seemed to speak affirmation and encouragement so loudly that any sounds of discouragement were instantly drown out. they both shared specific ways that i had encouraged them- what a great reminder that god does work through broken people (i'm referring to myself). blanchard also gave me this encouraging verse: psalm 103:13-14 says,

13 as a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;

14 for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.

how valuable a reminder that the lord knows that i am only human. perhaps i also needed to hear these words and remember that yes- i am just human.

since i have graduated, my dear friends from ciu- the m2 justice boys, have not treated me like a friend from the past. i've had phone calls, facebook messages, letters. how gracious and good the lord is to have blessed me with such an empowering, encouraging group of men with whom i have shared three years of my life! truly, whatever happens in costa rica will most certainly be a result of god's gracious empowerment and the faithful prayers of those that will never receive due credit for their labor. what humility is demonstrated by these friends of mine who faithfully pray for my life and for my ministry?! may i always remember the responsibilities i have as a steward of these blessings.

i want to briefly mention that my mom and dad pray for me like crazy, grayson and wendell have both been reading my blog and leaving comments (which mean a lot!), hodges has called me on numerous occasions and there are countless more people that remain unrecognized with such faithful prayer and labor on my behalf. thank you so much. tears of joy were shed on your behalf today.

sacrifice and vision

a couple of thoughts: one about life as a christian cross-cultural communicator (missionary), and one about vision.

1. i've come to grips with the idea that i am, indefinitely, a missionary. dylia and i have no certain plans, or even hopes (as of now) of living in the united states. though i will get to enjoy living in a beautiful culture, and experiencing many new things, there will be things that i will have to give up. hanging out at starbucks, having quick access to english literature, or even resources for ministry, white christmases... from the past, i've found that sometimes, the things i miss the most are the little things that we take advantage of on a daily basis- like flushing your toilet paper. of course, the most reoccuring sacrifices will probably have to do with my family: just wanting a mom hug, or not being able to go to my brother's concert, etc. in light of all these sacrifices, i remind myself that what is at stake- people's souls and god's glory- are far more valuable than anything i could ever sacrifice.

2. concerning vision- i have two thoughts. first, i've been asking god to give me vision for this group and i've had one specific idea come to mind- i want people to come to our youth group because they've seen radical changes in the lives of people they know. this, obviously won't be immediate, and we will have to have kids come somehow to start, but eventually i want this to be a goal. so much of the time we try to draw kids in by entertaining them. it seems to me that what you have then is a deep message (or even a shallow one) being presented to a group of people that have incredibly shallow intentions. i want depth. i want people that want depth.
secondly, this morning at church, a friend, peter, asked me if i had given up on unreached people groups. those of you who know me well know that this has been a heavy burden on my heart for a long time. in no way do i intend to give up on them, (i'd have to give up on god to give up on the unreached) but i do hope that god's heart for the unreached will be passed on. this is something that you can keep me accountable for in the future.

lunch with peter

yesterday i had lunch my my good friend and renowned youth pastor, peter henderson. in general our entire lunch conversation was thoroughly beneficial and very encouraging to me. if i could sum up the main encouragement that i got from lunch, it was to not focus my attention dreading things that are not certain.
peter told me that he would start a ministry like this by examining his immediate resources, in this case, leaders who are already involved at Theos. he also said that he tends to take a 1/10 risk, on placing people in leadership who demonstrate great potential, but who need some discipleship and growth, perhaps. roughly 9/10 of his leaders are those who have demonstrated trustworthiness and steady growth over a longer period of time.
one piece of advice he gave me was to make certain that my expectations for leaders are clear and reasonable. he said that frequent meetings with leaders (even if for 5 minutes) are a good opportunity to check in on areas that need attention in the ministry, ideas for improvement and an opportunity to remind your leaders what is expected of them, or just to encourage them in their ministry.
peter gave me this quote that i absolutely loved, by an anonymous source- "if you get the right people on the bus, it doesn't really matter where they sit." this is an analogy for a leadership team. if the right people are on this leadership team, it won't really matter where or how they serve. their character and their life is what will shine the brightest where ever they are.
lastly, peter talked about vision. he told me that as the main leader of their youth group, he provides 2/3 of the vision for the group. the other leaders provide 1/3 of the vision and they directly influence peter's vision for the group in many ways. i loved the way that peter described this. as i begin this ministry, i should be diligent in seeking what god might do through this ministry and sharing that vision with others. however, because this is cross cultural, i should be very sensitive to what i see other leaders expecting and looking forward to. as i express my vision for the group, these things should most definitely be taken into consideration. after dreading many negative things, lunch with peter was uplifting and helped me to look forward to many positive possibilities instead. praise the lord!

vision and plan

with the information that i currently have, i will be expected to recruit junior high and high school students, as well as leaders to form a youth group. i am also responsible for training the leaders, (especially one leader to take over) and then transitioning out. i have given this a lot of thought and have come up with several concrete ideas to see this happen.

1. i will be intentional about delegating tasks whenever possible. (this might be especially helpful since my spanish is limited.) if i am training these leaders, then there will be some tasks that don't work out well, or some that the leader may not be ready for. in the latter circumstance, i will make an effort to train and equip the leader with the necessary resources and skills to complete it. in the former situation of failure or mistake, i will need to follow-up with the leader in order to talk through what happened and how the situation may be handled in the future.

2. follow up may be one of my most valuable tools. if i have regular meetings with intentional sharing about what is going well and what isn't going well, perhaps the leaders will develop a system of support amongst each other instead of always having to look to me. in addition, follow-up may help us to see areas of weakness or possible opportunities for innovative strategy.

3. i will need to come up with specific boundaries that will give others the opportunity to learn (i often can get carried away with taking on responsibility). these boundaries will take into consideration the principle that teaching (or hands on activity) is one of the best ways to learn. one of my personal boundaries is that i won't lead any bible studies outside of the ministry and within the ministry i would lead only studies for guys (sort of discipleship) or for leaders. *all of this is subject to change. ultimately i will need to talk to the director of the organization (my father-in-law) who will have a better perspective on what i should determine as boundaries. the purpose of this boundary would be to give leaders the opportunity to jump in and get teaching experience or even students.

as far as leaders and students... please pray that god will be preparing both students and leaders who will end up being a part of this group. i don't necessarily know how i will find either, so if i succeed in developing a group it will be because god was doing the work and not me. thanks for your prayers and support.

new year update

i must fill in the blanks... for they are many. dylia and i are engaged! we both officially graduated a couple of weeks ago and we will be getting married on june 14th. i bought a plane ticket for costa rica, so i am officially committed to the ministry with theos place.

i have spent the last two weeks at home with my family. though it is nice to see them, i must admit that it has been incredibly lonely. consistent friends in colorado seem rare right now. i guess there comes a point at which we part ways, even if this is only on a social level. i suppose this parting took place several years ago, it just seems to be more dramatic now.

as i look forward to costa rica, i have had a lot on my mind. my parents refer to these things as "stressors", i call them "intimidators". perhaps this brief list will give you a bit of insight as to what has been taking place in my mind:

1. i will be living on my own for the first time of my life.
2. i will be living in a completely different country, having to adjust and adapt to this different way of life.
3. my spanish really isn't where i would like it to be as i step into this spanish-speaking country.
4. i will be embarking on an adventure in ministry- i have no idea how to go about recruiting students, leaders or how to train them. (for this i am incredibly thankful to have Don Benjamin overseeing my work). on this matter, i want to be incredibly sensitive to develop a youth program that truly reflects the costa rican culture. i don't want to start an american youth program with costa rican people... i don't exactly know where to draw the lines.
5. my financial debt is significantly more than i had expected- i have been struggling with trusting that this is what God's "good provision" looks like.
6. the economy is different- the cost of living is lower, so i will be payed less. i'm wondering how this might effect the payments that i will have to make on my loans that are in american money- dylia has had difficulty finding jobs for more than $4 an hour. this is INTIMIDATING to me because my spanish is rough, i don't have much of a history in CR and i don't have a full time job currently. i just hope i don't get stuck in a rough situation.
7. i have struggled with thoughts that i am going to be giving dylia a life that is less than par after we marry. i must say that she has been so incredibly encouraging, empowering, supportive through our conversations. therefore- on a positive note- i am not really intimidated by the thought of marriage, but i am eagerly anticipating being married to her- at this time, i truly believe that she is one of god's greatest blessings in my life.
8. at the same time, marriage is a time in which i will have to learn how to love dylia more than myself on a day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute basis. i understand that this will be quite an adjustment as i learn how truly sinful and marred i am. one of our friends referred to marriage as a "sanctification machine". though it will have its' difficulties, i praise the lord for the opportunity of marriage to such an incredible human being (and yes, i understand the sanctification process will be mutual).
9. i've been told by reliable and experienced sources that the best way to get a job in costa rica is just to show up and get one. i have a hard time believing that there will not be legal issues at some point. also, i am going on a tourist visa. (this is what I have been told) essentially, this means that every three months i will have to leave the country for 48 hours. this just seems sketchy to me, but... i REALLY trust my sources.

now... i said the list would be brief. really- that is. i know it was a lot, but for some reason, my brain never quite stops thinking (obnoxious). i have two and a half weeks left. pray that my spanish comes quickly, and that god's peace will flood my mind. please praise god for dylia and his work in our lives!