COSTA RICA FINALLYYYYY

It feels like forever since my last post. We've been on a crazy adventure through Central America. 

This is a long post. But I have to catch you up!!

Christmas Day on the YWAMDP base was awesome. We woke up and had brunch which was AMAZING. My mouth still waters when I think about those pumpkin and chocolate waffles. Mmmm... Later we got to visit staff casitas where they made us delicious food and provided us with movies and music and wonderful company. 

The next morning at 6:30am, Team Costa Rica said our goodbyes to the rest of our DP family with lots of hugs and tears. So so sad. 

We headed by boat to San Pedro where we walked to the airport and took a tiny plane to Belize City.

We caught a taxi from there to the bus station where we got on a sketchy school bus and rode in beautiful country for six hours. We stayed the night in a town in Belize. Got the hook up with a penthouse suite. It was suite. 

We took a water taxi from there to Guatemala. The ride was supposed to last around an hour, but one of the two engines on the boat died, so we had to go super slow until another boat came. We switched to the new boat in the middle of the ocean! 

(In this picture I'm passed out on Anette's lap. Haha. You can see my head if you look closely.)

By the time we got to Guatemala, it was too late to get to the border, so we had to stay the night. God had it planned out though. The guy who we gave hot sauce to so he would drive us to Honduras had a place for us to stay! Bunk beds, showers, a basketball goal, and delicious food. He and his wife were such sweet hosts. We left from there on Sunday morning and took a small van to San Pedro Sula, Honduras where we had arranged to stay in a hostel. 

From there we had to buy bus tickets for Monday morning to get us to Costa Rica. Except there weren't enough tickets for us Monday or Tuesday morning. We had to stay in Honduras two extra days. 

Our team was super flexible about it, but it was a hard thing for our leaders to swallow. Understandably so. The plans they had made for us weren't working out, and as people leading a group of 13 through Central America, it's a little stressful when things don't work out as planned. Especially since we found out that San Pedro Sula is actually a dangerous place to be. (It's called the murder capital of the world on Wikipedia!) 

We prayed about it as a team and felt that God wanted us there for a reason, and we made the decision to go in full force to figure out what it was His plans were. We were on a mission that God stopped all travel plans to send us on, and it was our jobs to get over fear and exhaustion from traveling and go out to the people of San Pedro Sula. 

Travis, our fearless leader, decided that the safest place we could be would probably be inside of the mall. We prayed and God pointed out specific people by clothing or locations, and we did what we call a "treasure hunt" to find the people God showed us. Some of the time we walked around and prayed aloud as we saw things that we felt needed prayed over, and sometimes we went up to strike up conversations with strangers. The language barrier made it pretty intimating for some of us (me), but God was so present in our time there. It was awesome. Our groups went out with the intent of showing people Jesus in whatever way we could, and I truly believe God used us for that at the City Mall in San Pedro Sula. :) 

We met up at the movie theater in the mall after our time of ministry, and watched the new Star Wars movie together. I don't love Star Wars, but it was pretty good.

When we left the mall, we had to cross several busy streets to get back to the hostel. Travis was crossing while cars were stopped at a red light, and between lanes, a motorcycle showed up out of nowhere and hit him! The funny thing is that Travis hardly moved at all. The man and the motorcycle fell. Travis walked away with a bruise, but the motorcycle's mirror broke off. Travis wins! Haha. It was not acceptable to laugh at it at the time, but I did a little bit. He's fine!

Wednesday morning we left our hostel at 4am and loaded a REALLY NICE bus where we rode for 12 hours to the next bus station in Managua, Nicaragua where we slept for the night. We left bright and early the next morning to travel another 8ish hours to COSTA RICA!!!! We got off that bus in San Jose, then got on another bus to get to another bus and eventually got to where we are staying for the next couple of weeks. (Potentially.)

Costa Rica (and really, all of Central America) is so beautiful, and the place we're staying is awesome. I feel so incredibly blessed not only to already have been able to take part in such a cool trip, but also to be in such a gorgeous location with these amazing people. 

These past two days we've been resting. Lots of pool time, some ultimate frisbee and handball, and sleeping. I'm also reading a crazy book. Of course. 

So sorry for the long post. But it's been a long week. Ha. 

I also stole a lot of the pictures in this post from the Team Costa Rica public group album on Facebook. Go there to see the rest of them!

Pura Vida!!!

Christmas in Paradise!

This is my last update from Belize until February! 

We're in our final week here as we prepare to head to our outreach locations. I'm blown away by how fast the time went here. Sad to leave my YWAMDP family and this beautiful country, but my outreach team is so great. I'm excited. :)

Christmas is the day after tomorrow! What!!! I can't believe it. It doesn't feel anything like Christmas here. But we've been doing things throughout December to put us in the Christmas spirit a little bit. Last night we went around the island to sing Christmas carols! Mixed reactions. Apparently everyone doesn't love Christmas carols as much as I do. 

Our outreach team will be leaving on December 26th at 6:30 AM. We're taking so many different types of transportation and staying two nights in different countries. We're even exchanging a ride to Honduras for hot sauce. Sketchy. But awesome. We'll arrive in Costa Rica at some point on Monday. We hope. :) There are so many variables. Haha. 

So far all we know is that we're going to stay at a place that hosts outreach teams and its on the side of a volcano!! We're going to take a day to hike up to the top to see the lava! Coolest ever!!

Team Costa Rica!!! (Our leader isn't pictured here, but he still loves us. Josh is in the back center, and he's the assistant leader.)

Quick emotional paragraph::

Guys, I can't thank you enough for your continued support through prayers. Your finances helped me get here, but your prayers have carried me through one of the most significant seasons in my life so far, and they will continue to be my lifeline as I'm experiencing new things in a new culture. I wouldn't be seeing the growth and healing that I am if it weren't for your prayers for me. I'm beyond blessed to have you all as my prayer warriors. I pray extra blessings on you at home as you invest on me down here in Central America!!

Here are a few pictures from my time here in Belize to close the post with. :)

"This trusty snowman shows up here every year!" Spotted on a resort on our walk to town. 

Team building activity. Taking our unconscious leader to the hospital through treacherous conditions with a "local" who can't speak our language or read body language. (I'm in the background!!!)

We do yoga sometimes here. :)

Mermaid Alyssa!

Our wonderful staff put on a fancy dessert night for us last week. We dressed up and they escorted us to our seats and served us so well with wonderful food and coffee drinks. Favorite night ever. Such a thoughtful group of people.

Pictured above are the girls of our DTS. :)

I got to live with these four WONDERFUL girls in the "Bonita Casita" over the past few months. So many laughs and so few arguments. I wouldn't trade my time with them for anything. We pray together, laugh together, and sing together on an almost daily basis, and I love how well all of them shine for Jesus. (It's okay to be cheesy because we have Aly Cheese on our squad.) 

I took this during my quiet time this morning, and while it's not the best quality of picture, I love the bright sun in contrast to the darkness of the ocean. Such a good representation of life. :)

Merry Christmas from the land of the Palm trees!!! I hope your holidays are full of joy and you give an extra hug to those you love! Because I wish I could this year. :) 

Hugs and kisses!

- Alyssa - 

The Great Divorce

For my final book report, I read The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis. (READ IT!! Because there is no way I'll do it justice.) 

It was about a man's journey in a dream from a grey world, which represents hell, to a heavenly world where the ghostly creatures who are traveling from Hell meet solid people in this new foreign world. 

The ghosts are only there temporarily unless they make the decision to journey up the mountain which will cause them to become solid and enter "heaven". The problem is that most of them are not aware or refuse to believe that the top of the mountain holds eternal glory, so most of them choose for one reason or another not to make the journey. If they don't choose verbally to go back to hell, their lack of choice is the decision itself. 

The book is fictional, but it tells of scenarios that we see every day in which people are choosing to refuse the gift of eternal life in heaven. Whether it's because they can't believe in an absolute heaven and hell or they are too chained to their fractured self to let go and gain freedom, all of the characters have their reasons for not making the journey, and the ghost telling the story is present to witness many of the conversations that determine their final destinations. 

I loved this whole book, but one part stuck out to me more than others. In this part, the one experiencing the dream - a ghost - is asking one of the solid men in the new world about those who never make it to heaven. He is concerned that people won't be able to experience this incredible place. 

The man responds:

"Never fear. There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done.' All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened."

It is portrayed here that there is no one who hears of heaven that simply misses it. Either he wants it, or he rejects it.

There is no way to know when our time on earth will be over. I pray today that those who are waiting for a huge revelation will receive it. 

I pray that those who are holding onto bitterness or mistrust will let it go and claim freedom over these things. Those negative thoughts were put there by the enemy. He wants you in hell. But they were nailed to the cross with Jesus so we don't have to carry them.

I pray for those who are dragging their feet in this area in order to experience "life". That they will realize that there is no joy in life without God. He is the source of joy. He is the source of freedom. He is life. 

And I pray that people will be awakened to the fact that an indecision in this area is a decision to spend an eternity separated from the Creator. 

The very one who breathed life into each of us in the womb wants us to join him. We have been invited on an adventure!! And let me tell you.. It's so much fun. 

Sorry to get preachy on ya. :)

Perceptions vs. Reality

Background Knowledge

Last week for lectures we had Jeff Pratt come and talk about God's heart for us. It was my favorite week of lectures so far. Not only is Jeff an incredibly talented speaker, but he revealed truths to us through his experiences and through movie clips that so closely related to our lives. (Fun fact: I would do DTS all over again just to hear his teaching again. So impactful!!!)

During the week, we were given questions to answer that helped us identify our "false self" - the person we want people to see us as, but not our true selves. After coming together and revealing our false selves to the rest of the group, we discussed who God sees us as. Then there was a time of prayer and affirmation which was super powerful. (These things took place over three days.)

One of the last things Jeff had us do was to write the things we falsely believed about ourselves -our false selves/old names- on one side of the paper, then on the other side what God believes about us in regards to the words we wrote down. He wanted us to have "new names" that we could go back to when we were feeling attacked in those ways again. 

I want to write some of the things that have been revealed to me in my time here. Not all of these are from last week, but I'm realizing all the time that the way I see myself isn't always how God or other people see me.

Introvert vs. Extrovert

I've seen myself as a complete introvert for so long. I always thought that I would rather be alone than with other people, but I'm realizing that I'm not that way at all. There are definitely times that I need to get away and recharge in peace, but I'm generally one who loves being around people. I think my retreating has been more about insecurity than it has been about being an introvert. My time in Belize has been spent mostly with lots of people all the time, and I absolutely love it. But I still won't be the first to speak up in large groups. :)

Bad Speaker vs. Competent Speaker

I have always told people that I'm bad at public speaking. I don't love it, but in the past few months I've been pushed to do it (a ton of times), and I have found that I'm not actually bad at it at all. When I spoke at the churches before coming to Belize, people told me they couldn't tell that I was nervous, and all my presentations here have had comments on the feedback forms about me being a clear and confident speaker. That was a shocking discovery for me.

Tall vs. Short

I know this sounds funny, but until about two weeks ago I thought I was tall. I always thought it was funny that my Auntie Robin called me petite because in my head I'm as tall or taller than most. Two weeks ago in line for lunch I discovered that I am in fact NOT taller than all my "little" friends. I'm the shortest one in my casita and one of the shortest on base.

Rude vs. Friendly

This one was hard to label. I basically believed that people saw me as a rude person because I'm not super outgoing when I meet new people. This stems from high school when I had a friend who told me he thought I was a snob before he got to know me. I realized while talking to a friend at home about this that people don't actually view me this way. I've spent years assuming that people all viewed me as rude, so I rarely made an effort to reach out to new people in fear I would come across wrong. 

Since being here, I'm realizing that people truly don't see me in that way, and it's changing the way I interact with people. So crazy that I let someone's opinion of me become a truth. 

Weak vs. Strong

I came to DTS very guarded. I didn't want anyone to see my emotions because I believed that emotions showed weakness. For whatever reason I felt that I had to be strong all the time and that meant I had to hide myself in order to portray that I had it all together. 

My small group leader and I were talking in a one-on-one and this came up. She asked me some questions then said, "you don't want people to see you as weak, but you're afraid to show your strengths." She challenged me to talk to God about it and to write the things God loves about me so I could find my strengths. 

There is absolutely no way I can write all of the transformation that happened in this area of my life, but God has shown me that many of the things I viewed as weaknesses were actually planted in me on purpose and FOR a purpose. He's showing me that the emotions help direct me to a passion and a purpose, and I will use this information to impact people in crazy cool ways. They're not weaknesses at all. 

In closing..

Like I said before, I'm realizing new things all the time about myself - which is a really cool thing about DTS, but I'm also learning so much about God. There are only two weeks left of lectures and that kind of breaks my heart, but the closer we get to outreach, the more excited I get for that phase. 

Thank you for your continued prayers as we dive into the rest of our week of teaching (on spiritual warfare!) and as our leaders figure out details of our outreach. We still know nothing. Ha! I'll update you when we get answers.

Thanks for reading! If you made it to the end of this monster of a post.. Kudos. 💜

Adventures

We're over halfway through our DTS which is CRAZY!! In so many ways it feels like we just stepped onto the dock here. Seven weeks in, and I have yet to spear fish, I still occasionally forget to show up to my work duty, and despite our weekly cooking duties, I think the kitchen here will always be a mystery to me. 

On the flip side, it feels like I've known these people so much longer than seven weeks. I'm kind of fond of them if I forgot to mention that before. :)

Also, my sand volleyball skills are improving immensely. Although I still make a weird grunting noise when I need power in my hits, and I can't serve overhand to save my life. 

The downside to my newfound love of sand volleyball is that there are little bugs that live in the sand that fly, and they have followed us into our casita. They apparently don't bite, but they have acid on them, so when they land on us, it's a sudden stinging feeling, and they're so small it's hard to kill them! Ugh! We're living through it, but I want the little bugs to die. All of them. Be in prayer for that, if you wouldn't mind. ;)

Last week was called RRR week which stands for.. Something about recharging?? The students from the last DTS were back on base after their outreach all of last week, so we used the time to meet them and reboot our systems in a chill week without lectures. We got to know around 25 other students (who were such sweethearts) and hear all about their outreaches. They went to Uruguay and Mongolia. It pumped us up for our upcoming outreaches! DECEMBER!!

Last weekend held the long-awaited ADVENTURE DAY!!! We started the day at  5:15 AM with a [rainy] two hour long boat ride to Belize City where we then hopped in vans and rode another hour or so to a rainforesty area where we got to go on lots of ziplines!!! It was GORGEOUS! And tons of fun.

Then we went to the Belize Zoo. Way different than American zoos. We touched a lot of animals we probably shouldn't have been able to touch, but it was a really neat place. We had fun. 

We took a break for lunch before going to climb all over Mayan temples! That was way cooler than I expected it to be. And our tour guide was hilarious. "Come, white people!" And "We're walking." Were common phrases she used to get us moving. We were cracking up. 

In other news..

Monday night there was a base-wide worship and prayer night for those who were still lacking in funds for outreach. At the beginning of the evening, they still needed more than $4,000 USD. An hour later, all funding needs were met! This was such a cool time of prayer and celebration as we came together as a family to lift those up who were needing help and doing what we could to fill in gaps. $4,000 seems like a lot of money to us, but God has such a huge wallet. And he LOVES providing for his children. The whole thing got me really emotional. Guys.. God loves us SO MUCH!!!

I hope everyone at home is doing well!! I still miss my family and friends, but now I'm starting to miss things like hot showers, Starbucks (I know.. classic white girl), and Taco Bell. So eat a burrito in the shower while brewing Starbucks coffee in memory of me. I'll be home to do it myself soon enough!! :) 

Love you all!! 

[Potentially. Depending on who reads this.]

Freedom!!!!

Hello again! I'm writing you from 80 degree temperatures on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in Belize. :) It's hard to believe that it's November. I miss fall!!! But I truly enjoy the consistency of the weather here. Aside from the torrential downpours that bring armies of mosquitos with the intent of sucking our blood till we die. 

Not to be dramatic or anything. Ha!

The last week and a half have been crazy. Busy, but also restful in a weird way. I've been learning a lot from God, and it's been awesome to see the things that he says to me during my quiet times confirmed throughout the day in other conversations and through the teaching. Often times what he says is word-for-word what others will say, and every single time, I'm blown away by how cool that is. I'll never get used to it. But I really don't want to either.

A week ago on Friday, I was baptized in the Caribbean by two of my [many] favorites on staff. I have felt a push to be baptized over the past year, but because I had done it as a child, I didn't really feel the need to. 

During freedom week, we went to God in prayer to ask who we needed to forgive. Forgiveness is something that I didn't realize had such a negative spot in my mind, but God quickly showed me that I've only ever forgotten about being hurt and never forgiven those who have hurt me in the past. I always viewed forgiveness as excusing actions. Like saying "it's okay", when it actually isn't okay. I didn't want to be fake about it, so I never forgave people. I just decided to move on and get over it. But doing life that way caused me to go numb. 

Numbing is something that I also overlooked. Instead of feeling sadness or acceptance for what happened in my life, I went straight to anger and stayed there. I felt that sadness was the same as weakness.

When I made the list of people I needed to find forgiveness for, I opened wounds that had been numbed and covered up - some since I was a little kid - and saying the things out loud that I thought I had "gotten over" brought feelings that I didn't even know existed to the surface. It was raw. There was a lot of praying and handing it over to God and offering forgiveness aloud and crying that took place in a super short period of time. It was mentally and emotionally exhausting, but afterwards, I felt physically lighter. I can't describe it any other way. I felt like I was almost floating. 

In an effort to embrace the forgiveness and freedom that I experienced, I decided to be baptized. It was a visible way to show that I am no longer in the place of numbing and heavy anger, but that I am free! I declared aloud to my new family that I am a new person and won't go back to who I was.

I fully believe that I will be used to teach others how to find freedom at some point in my journey because I can so easily relate to holding onto unforgiveness, yet was able to experience the intensity of freedom when I gave it to God. I let it go!! (Elsa status!)

Every week challenges me in a new way. I'm sure I'll have more to say next week. Stay tuned. :)

Love you all!!!

YWAM DP

Hola from Belize!!

I'm absolutely loving my time here. I have so much love for my new family members, and I find new reasons to love them every day. I know.. Cheesy.. But I'm already dreading the day I have to leave all of them!! Trips to visit have already been discussed! Haha.

(Photo Cred: someone sent it to me after stealing it from someone else?)

A little bit about what we do here:

Our week day mornings start at 6:45 for breakfast. We rotate between intercession and worship every morning at 8, then start class at 9. We attend class for four hours a day Monday through Friday, then have an event every afternoon or evening depending on the day of the week. Our days are full of learning in lectures, reading books for assignments, memorizing a map of the world, writing reports for oral presentations, and sand volleyball. Plus a few other things here and there. :) We also all have jobs we do on base, and we are assigned one night a week where we join a team to cook dinner for everyone. 

Even with so much going on here, I go to bed every night excited to wake up and do it all again. 

During the first week in lectures we re-learned the foundations of our faith. We studied truth, God, man, sin, and salvation. The topics seem broad, but even as a church-goer since birth, I was able to get a lot from the teachings. Much of what was said felt so personal to me and where I'm at with God. 

Last week we studied the seven spheres of society: family, religion, economics, education, media/communication, celebration, and government. We learned about cool ways to study the bible using these lenses and how our different passions and callings in regards to these spheres can be used to further the kingdom outside of just the church realm. It was such an inspiring week, and I can't wait to learn more about how God will use my talents and passions to fulfill some portion of the needs of the world in relation to missions whether it be local or international. 

The topic this week is freedom, and the leader of our base, Lynn Toney, is speaking. She is such a crazy/awesome lady, and we're all really enjoying what she has to say. 

Last week was a big week for all of us because on Monday we got to choose our outreach locations! The staff prayed about which countries they felt God calling us to, and on Monday they told us the three places they landed on: Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Japan. Then they gave us fifteen minutes to pray about it and see which location God placed on our hearts. After we wrote down our choices and handed the papers back, the staff went off to pray about the teams before coming back and revealing where we would be spending our two months after lecture phase is over. 

So God and I talked, and I felt like he kept bringing Costa Rica back to my mind. I don't know why yet, but I feel He is leading me there. So I'm going! Yet another step in the journey that God has planned out and I am clueless about! :)

Once again, I'm way excited for the next phase. Not at all ready to leave the other two teams yet, but happy to go where He wants me. Luckily, I still have two months with all these wonderful people. 

They don't have details on the trip yet, but I hope to have more information soon about where in Costa Rica our team will be going and what we'll be doing there. For now I'm totally cool with trusting that to God and spending my days learning and growing closer to my creator. 

Thank you guys for your continued support through prayers. You all are so valuable to me, and I wouldn't be on this amazing journey without you. I'm so excited to let you know that - thanks to all of my wonderful supporters - I am now fully funded!!! It is such a relief to be all paid up and ready to change some lives! :) Starting with mine. 

I miss you all at home!! Specifically my sweet family! Being a long way from them has been the hardest part of being here by far. 

Because how cute are they!! :)

I love you, friends!!!