He Is Good to Me

Hey guys! So just in case you don't know what I've been up to lately, I'm hanging out in Central America for the summer working with a few ministries.  I would say that one of the biggest problems with not having very much time to blog is that there are always so many crazy stories, but I somehow have to pick and choose a precious few to share.  I think I can kind of understand what John meant in his gospel when he said, "I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be written." (John 21:25)  God is always doing crazy things! 

A few days ago I realized that it has almost been three years since I first traveled to Honduras, not knowing what to expect from it or even coming close to being able to imagine the impact it would have on my life and in my heart.  Then I think of the last time I was there - almost a year and a half ago.  I remember driving away from El Cacao with such an ache in my heart thinking, God, when am I ever going to be able to come back? But puchica! God is so good! Three and a half weeks ago a few of us arrived in Honduras.  At one point after I had arrived to our village, I mentioned to a few of my friends how much I had missed them.  I was surprised to say the least, to hear them respond, "Yeah I guess we missed you too.  But Karlene, we always know you're coming back.  You see, it's hard to say good bye to people who are only going to be here once.  But with you, we know you're coming back so it's not so difficult."  That hit me so hard! In a good way of course.  I thought about how they knew that as their friend, I loved them and that I was committed to them.  Them saying that told me that they had no doubt in their heart they would see me soon.  I was humbled by their faith in me, and also in the fact that that was not the attitude I had when it came to trusting God to bring me back!  Through that little conversation I was reminded how the desires that God puts in our heart are there for a reason.  Maybe right now you aren't seeing those things completed, but he has not placed that passion, that excitement, those dreams and whatever else inside of you only for the purpose to disappoint you! Never! He is so, so good and wants to see those things completed! 

Thanks for your prayers people! I hope to keep you updated on what's been going on now that I have been in San Jose, Costa Rica for the last week and a half. It's been super tuanis!

Sending hugs, kisses and blessings your way,

Karlene 

The First Two Weeks Thus Far...

     Hey everyone!  I guess I arrived in Costa Rica just over 2 weeks ago.  It seems like I've been here forever but like I just got here at the same time.. which I suppose I did.  For those of you who don't know, I am in Costa Rica, just outside of the city of San Jose doing what they call a DTS (Discipleship Training School) with YWAM (Youth With A Mission) for the next five months and es la pura vida Papa!  Just a little Tico (Costa Rican) slang for y'all and hopefully I'll be able to educate you with a little more "Tica talk" as the weeks go by.   

     I think I'll start the story here.  I came home from a wonderful three months in Honduras on December 10th.  I think two days after that I purchased my plane ticket to come here.  So, the day I arrived home was literally also the day the countdown began for my trip to Costa Rica.  The holidays were so, so good but the time I had at home with my brothers and sister, mom and dad, friends and the rest of my family was much too short.  It was really hard to leave!  On Thursday January 5th, a caravan of loved ones drive into Saskatoon to the airport to say good-bye.  I flew to Denver, stayed there for a long 4 hours and then boarded a plane to Houston.  After a nice 3 hour nap, I headed to the Houston airport with my eyes half open and in the same clothes as the day before due to the fact that my luggage was already in Costa Rica. Yay.  Always, always bring clothes with you in your carry on.  One of my favorite things about the Houston airport is getting to that special Terminal E.  That's what you call it, right?  You start hearing Spanish in the Starbucks lineup and the lady on the intercom saying, "All boarding for Guatemala City" in her thick Latin accent.  Ladies with their little chiwawa dogs in a brilliant pink pet basket, men with really, really... really slick hair, and little girls with long, dark, and tight curly hair walk around everywhere. Meep!  My stomach always turns and I just want to smile.  But that would look funny and pretty odd so I bite my lip and refrain from such a thing.  I arrived in Costa Rica at about 3 o'clock.  Que hermosa! The mountains are so majestically cut out and green.  That was the first thing I noticed.  A DTS leader picked me up along with a few other people and my Spanish tongue was let loose once again!  It had been tied up for such a long time it just didn't want to stop!  After a long, typical Central American stress-filled, hour long drive, we arrived at the base.  Obviously I'll be putting up pictures sometime, because this place is so unique and I don't think I can describe it accurately.  Apparently it used to be an art building or something?  And before that it was a coffee processing factory or something like that.  Anyway, I sleep in a room that's about the size of my living room at home with 13 other girls.  We have bunk beds and limited shelving space.  But of course we've found a way to make it work.  There are 10 other girls who stay in another smaller room and 11 boys in our DTS which adds up to 35 students.  It's really cool because we are so diverse and there's quite a few people here whose first language is not English.  There are people from Germany, Norway, Sweden, Puerto Rico, Boliva, Costa Rica of course, Honduras!!! El Salvador, and the US too.  I think I've even learned most of everyone's names too!  Also, there is an overwhelming amount of Canadians running around in this place - 4 from Saskatchewan I might add.  We find ways of getting around, us Saskatchewanians. 

     I started Saturday morning with the coldest shower of life and a great breakfast of incredibly strong coffee,  fruit and pancakes if I remember correctly.  We spent the day in orientation and just getting to know each other, testing our Spanish and all that good stuff.  Sunday we went to church in the morning.  Oh how I missed Latin churches!!!  Then Monday came and we started our routine. Each week we study a specific topic. The first week we dug deep into “Hearing the Voice of God.” It was so good and I know God impacted all of us and really brought us students together as brothers and sisters in Christ. So anyways, every morning we start out bright and early for a 6 o'clock breakfast, spend an hour to ourselves with God and then get together with everyone else to worship or pray together – depends on the day. When that is all done, it's about 9 o'clock and we have about a 3 hour class. Sometimes God wants us to listen to a teacher like in a regular school, other times He leads us to hear directly from Him, or listen to each other's testimonies and what we have been learning from God. Through these classes, we have become a truly tight-knit group. It's so beautiful and such a blessing from God. The afternoons are different every day. Some afternoons we have free, others are outreach prep, another class, small groups or local outreach time. I am a busy person! But, no matter how busy you are, you will never, never ever abandon work duties in the afternoons. They are a holy thing. Some of us have to clean bathrooms, do yardwork, make supper, or wash cars. I'm on the supper clean up crew and we are pretty stinkin awesome. We are stuck with our hands in the sink for almost 2 hours but we have a lot of fun and honestly, are crazy.

Man, so many things happen in two weeks! I'll try and give a quick recap of some things I can rememeber. One of the first things I searched for when I got here was a long instrument with black and white keys. There was nothing to be found anywhere! One of the leaders informed me that they did not in fact have a keyboard. I nearly had a heart attack. That night in my top bunk, I gave God a million reasons why there should be a keyboard at this base, thanked Him that he was already bringing one, and slept like a rock. The next day I didn't really think about it. I wasn't expecting anything right away of course. Then the day after that in the evening, the music team from the School of Worship was practicing. Lo and behold there standing on the stage was a keyboard! I nearly freaked out! Since then I've been able to lead music with some of the School of Worship students, lead a team of DTS students and play in church too! Thank you Jesus!

Last week we studied “Identity in Christ” with a pastor named Steve Shank. It was a good week in so many ways. This week we're studying “The Nature of God” and I'm super excited for that. We had our first class today and I can I'm going to be challenged and stretched A LOT. He started out the class with asking us a question. The question was this: If God and I were in a garden together during a warm summer night, what would that look like in your relationship with Him? What a cool question. My response was this: I see myself sitting in a hammock with a good cup of tea chatting with God, mostly listening to Him, finally relaxing and enjoying His presence. I feel like He and I, we have been working in the garden for awhile – sometimes side by side, other times I'm just sick of weeding and watering in the hot sun and I just want to quit. But, we've finished working for the day and this time that I have now, this time in the hammocks in the cool of the evening is definitely a blessing. Ooooh! So that's a little bit of what's in store for this week! I have supper dishes to do and I hope to write soon!

Much Love to all! xoxo

Week One!

     Wow.  I can hardly believe that only last week at this time my mind was most likely in some sort of frantic state as I was trying to stuff as much as I possibly could into my suitcases.  It was a lifetime ago when I stepped into a plane thinking, Oh God, we're really doing this now!  What do you have for the people of Honduras?  What do You want to say to them through me?  Now here I am, finally in Honduras!
     On Saturday morning (early morning, by the way), I boarded a plane from Houston to San Pedro Sula.  Four hours later, as the plane started its descent, the clouds slowly parted and a most beautiful view of lush green fields, wide rivers and mountains peeked through below.  Oh Honduras, you are so beautiful.  Florence, Sonia, and my two lovely sisters Kaitlyn and Cherise were there to pick me up.  We piled in the truck, stopped at Wendy's for some chicken burgers, and drove off to La Ceiba.  The next day after church, we drove to El Cacao where Kaitlyn, Cherise, and myself have been staying all week.  Our room is in the medical clinic.  Our room is in fact, a small operating room.  Above the light switch there is a note that says "REMEMBER TO TURN OFF OXYGEN CYLINDER."  Whatever that means.  As of now it seems it is storing a great deal of operating equipment (I'm assuming that's what it is!!) and strange, large lights that hang from the ceiling.  But there is no place I would rather be right now.  I just love living in the village, teaching extremely hyperactive children their numbers in English, eating Honduran food, and visiting friends and husking corn in front of their house.  I love it when kids talk to me in Spanish like I understand what they are saying. I love the language of laughter, which is not only my favorite because I believe I speak it quite well, but because it involves no sentence structure, proper grammar, spelling or correct enunciation!  
     On Mondays and Wednesdays we teach English in the school.  Please pray that we will have patience with the kids - grade one in particular - and that we will think of more fun, creative ways to teach.  We also teach the highschool kids.  Pray that we will be able to build relationships with the them and see any needs they may have.  It's really exciting for us to have this opportunity!  Tomorrow we have youth group and next Tuesday we are starting a girl's Bible study.  We have been praying these events can be a safe place for the youth that come out; a place they can freely lay down their heavy burdens and grow closer to their Father.  He wants them to know His love is powerful and it is strong.  I'm super excited to see what God has for these people and for us in the next three months!
     Much love,
                  Karlene