Sorry it's been a while since I last posted. It's been a week since I've been back in Costa Rica after spending a great 3 weeks in the States, a week and a half of it being in Wisconsin for the International Christian Conference on Prostitution. I am so glad I had the opportunity to go.
At the conference there were 200 people from 36 different countries. It was so neat to share stories and experiences about our ministries and find out how similar they are, and also learn from the differences too. Since I have only been at Rahab for 3 months, and therefore very 'green' in this ministry, I had lots to learn. I'm now anxious to put some of my new ministry tools to work.
I also had a great time visiting with friends and family. Annie and Dustin had their baby while I was there, so I got to see Evangline Chou when she was less than half a day old. Aunt Alice also went home to the Lord when I was in Wheaton, so I was lucky to be able to attend her memorial service and see lots of family, many of whom I haven't seen in a long time.
All that said, those 3 weeks were a huge blessing.
Now I'm getting back into the swing of things and brushing off my slightly rusty Spanish
I just spent the weekend in the mountains on a retreat with Shelley's (the other missionary here...though she's lived in CR for 21 yrs. so she's Tica at heart) church and their women's ministry. It was such a good time. I met a bunch of girls from the Christian Surfers Mission, and a couple other women whom I'd heard about through other family and friends. Plus Ede Schultz from Wheaton (College) was our speaker. We had lots of time to spend together, to reflect and do devotions, and great worship. Over all it was a great time to, as my boss Marliana told us, to charge our spiritual batteries.
This was especially important coming out of a particularly difficult week. One of the women we ministered to was murdered, along with her daughter, by an ex-boyfriend. I didn't know this woman personally, but I did recognize her picture from the paper. None of us as staff are in any kind of danger, but it was a difficult end to the week. Now many of the women are scared or have questions. This is good, especially if it will encourage them to take more precautions to be safe, and to spur them on to do well in their studies and vocational training so that they can get a job that will financially bring themselves out of the poverty of their neighborhoods and into safer ones. Please pray for my organization as a whole as we minister to and console these women, as well as console the rest of our staff who are still grieving the loss.
I guess I'm cheating...it's technically June, but I'm gonna back blog so it's all good. Plus who's keeping score?
First off I would like to say that the new part time psychologist we've hired here at Rahab to help out with the girls group I'm in charge of is AWESOME. She has strengths where I have weaknesses. Where she claims to lack creativity, I compliment her. All this to say that God has set out to make us a great team! She is wonderful, and I can't wait to see what we can do for His glory in the lives of these girls. It won't be easy, and it's a much slower process of reaching out and connecting with these girls than I'm used to, or comfortable with, but it just goes to show that teaching and learning are a dynamic, mutual process.
On another note, I head to Panama tomorrow with Cristina. We were supposed to go to Nicaragua, but plans fell through. That's ok, because now we're going to the beach in Panama and it will be a great time.
For those of you praying for Rahab with the loss of one of the women in our program, thank you, and please continue to pray for one woman in particular who is in significant danger. Yorleny's tragic death can be used in a redemptive way if it is a wake up call to Karen to move out of her dangerous situation with the help of Rahab.