
Class of 2019
Children & Youth Ministry Discipler in Costa Rica Track: Youth Development
Region: Latin America
My motto: Changing the world, one heart at a time... Quote to ponder: "I just want to love God!" -Pi Patel, Life of Pi by Yann Martel
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Encounter in the Park
Posted on January 18, 2021
If you’ve been following my newsletters, you’ll remember that I went to the park in the beginning of December, and after having a strange feeling that I should bring an extra coffee mug, I did indeed receive an unexpected visitor when a little girl (and her little dog too!) appeared in the quiet park and stopped a while to chat. This evening park-picnic ended with an invitation to a second more official park-picnic. I wasn’t quite sure how God would use this, but I knew He would. Within the SAME WEEKEND, I got the idea that maybe God was using that first encounter in... Read more
Those One on Ones
Posted on December 16, 2020
“Well, how are you doing?” A long pause. A sigh. Silence… “Umm, well… so often I just feel… like I’m just messing up… all the time… and I’m struggling and upset, and going through stuff… and I don’t know what I’m doing… and you call me and say things like, ‘I’m so proud of you, I’m encouraged to see your life, and watch you say yes to God over and over again,’ and… sometimes I don’t even want to talk to God. Even though I know deep down that I love Him with all my heart… I just… don’t want to read my Bible enough, and I’m just… not the leader role model that you would think... Read more
The Sun is in the Sky...
Posted on November 25, 2020
Dear Diary… I really am blessed and thankful. There have been some rough ups and downs- some bumpy patches this month as expected. But today, the sun is in the sky, shining again- still, regardless of my puny circumstances. And this I find as evidence of God’s incomprehensible, constant, greatness. Read more
I went to the beach this weekend...
Posted on November 2, 2020
I went to the beach this weekend… and it was really nice: A miniature city just for tourism, humidity thicker than Houston, Texas, flat, open, sandy beaches, with huge, curling waves- water stretching for miles until it touched the clouds. My neighbor and I played that slug bug/punch buggy game, but the tourist edition. We dressed up, and went out to a fancy dinner, we stayed in a little surf camp hotel, aimed at backpackers and surfers (obviously) that had a community kitchen and a library of travel books to share. (And a dog named Teo who guarded the pool.) At the beach, we laid... Read more
Implicit Curriculum AKA How to Play Boliche
Posted on October 27, 2020
In my first education course, “Students and Learning,” we had to memorize the definition of curriculum. Of course by now I’ve forgotten it, but I remember it being something about, “the stuff that you teach the students, both EXPLICIT and IMPLICIT.” (Emphasis on that explicit and implicit thing- because you’re always teaching someone something, whether you realize it or not.) I’m not sure about each of you, but sometimes as I’m teaching the kids in Sunday school or the teens in youth group, I feel that explicit teaching thing does not go so well. Or maybe just because... Read more