Today I am Thankful.

Today I am thankful.
I am thankful because I am looking back on every single moment that God has been undeniably present in my life in Costa Rica and I am realizing more and more I am exactly where I am supposed to be. 

I look back to the moment before I turned in my downpayment to come here. I remember sitting alone at a coffee shop crying because I was so terrified I would get here and everything would fall apart. I remember praying and giving this semester up to God.

I look back at that frustrating moment where we weren't allowed to board our plane to Costa Rica and how it turned into a series of opportunities that lead to me spending a weekend in the Indigenous region of Talamanca, and reading Bible stories to the beautiful little kids. -One of my favorite memories here.

I remember everybody asking me before I left how they could be praying for me and I remember telling them that I just wanted to have a girlfriend to do life with here. Thanks for praying. God definitely answered that prayer with multiple people.

I am thankful for my Tico brother Fernando. Our talks challenged my faith so much and they helped me validate why I live the way I do. I am thankful that he is searching for answers and I am praying fervently for the day he realizes that a relationship with Jesus Christ isn't a sacrifice, but a blessing. 

I am thankful for the email I got from my best friend in Texas telling me he had decided to pursue Jesus. I had never prayed for something so much in my life. (:
I remember being in Nicaragua and having my heart break for the people living in the trash dump. Even though I was only there for an hour or so, I cried when I left. The little kids all ran up to me and hugged me. I am thankful for God giving me that opportunity. It's the best memory I have so far.

I am thankful that after a hard week, God is blessing me with the opportunity to spend Thanksgiving with several missionary families. This is only possible because there just so happens to be a missionary family from my parent's church in the San José area. God is good to me. I wasn't supposed to have a Thanksgiving here.

I am thankful for the overwhelming and undesired rice that I have eaten for the past 3 months. Even though I cannot wait to start eating salad and running again, I have never before realized how much food can be a spiritual thing to people. Especially when they are giving you something out of the nothing they have.

I am thankful for this month. Working at this Pani is turning out to be the hardest thing I have ever done. I have laughed at work, cried at work, and spent more of my days praying than ever before. My heart is broken for these kids, the workers, and their situation. 

Lastly, I am thankful for the people in the states, and my friends here, that have prayed for, encouraged, and loved me from so far away. I have never in my life felt so loved.
Soooo. As you all eat your turkey, spend time with your family and go black Friday shopping, know that I am thanking God for you all. I will be jealously liking all of your instagram and facebook pictures of food. Eat some extra stuffing for me. It's my favorite!

¡Feliz dia de Acción de gracia! Happy Thanksgiving! (: 


Psalm 95:1-6 - O Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. For the LORD is a great God, And a great King above all gods, In whose hand are the depths of the earth; The peaks of the mountains are His also. The sea is His, for it was He who made it; And His hands formed the dry land. Come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker