Lesson's Learned:

           What an incredible time back home!! I am so thankful for the time that I had with my family and friends!! There were no sweeter words than hearing my precious nephew saying “I love you Aunt Recker and I miss you”. There were also fun times with my friends as we hung out and traveled to good ol’ Alabama for a night in the country under the stars!!

My first thought when I arrived back home was how blessed a life I had! Just being able to drive my own car on easy paved roads, parking it in front of my cute little house, and walking in to a place all my own that is full of peace made me be in awe of everything I had/have! I realized how much more thankful we need to be for the little blessing in life and how exciting it is going to be to realize the little thing in the new shelter that I get to be thankful for!!

It was so amazing to be back among the people I love and have that love given it back to me! I was so blessed by the outpouring of love from all my friends!! I am once again truly blessed by the people God has brought into my life. Yet, as I have left home and arrived back in Costa Rica, God has shown me that no matter where we are…how much we are loved…how many friends we have…we have to let God fill up that need for love and friendship first and then every other person will be an overflow of God’s amazing blessings.

The letting God fill us up also requires us letting go sometimes. It can be letting go of the comfort, people or whatever else that we let fill us up. Yet, in the letting go, I have received so much more. I have received more of God, more of His adventure, more of Life in and of itself. I can have joy because my life is a part of His story. There is a joy knowing that what is happening is not because of who we are but because God was gracious to use me! The joy of seeing His work first hand!!

I pray that these girls will see God filling them up. Last night was so cool as one from our team came to the house to do a special Bible time. He played and sang songs for the girls and had them just let God speak to them and to spend time in Him. It was so precious to hear them worshiping God and praying and writing down their thoughts! It wasn't the easiest coming back, for there was a ton of transition and there still is, but it makes it all worth the while to see the girls growing in Christ! By the way, I love the new shelter and community!!! It is awesome!!!

I recently heard for the first time the song “Come to Me.” The night I heard it I just sat in awe of a God who brings us the words almost from His lips to touch my heart at the exact moment you need them. It was the perfect ending to the day.  So, I am leaving you with the words that maybe they will touch you just like they touched me!

I am the Lord your God and I go before you and stand before you and all around you. I am closer than your breath and I am with you more than you know! I am the Lord your peace.

 No evil will conquer you so steady your heart and come into my rest. Oh let your faith arise and lift up your weary head for I am with you wherever you may go.

 Come to me, I am all you need, Come to me, I your everything, I am your anchor in the wind and the waves and I am your steadfast so don’t be afraid, though your heart and flesh may fail, 

 I am your faithful strength….

The cutest nephews!! Had so much fun playing with them!

So blessed by these ladies!

Double Blessings!

To cute not to share!

God's Story

A God Story:

I remember a pastor speaking on obedience and stating that if we let God work He will get the glory and we get the story. Well, He has given us a story!!! I am getting ready to come home for two weeks to meet my new twin niece and nephew and reconnect with friends. I have been saying, “God, I know I’m suppose to come back to Costa Rica but I need help being excited about coming back.”

Life has been so hard. I have felt alone, drained, isolated, physically unhealthy, and no way to fix it without a car and more time. I have been seeking God and asking for a solution. Well, instead, the house septic tank is overflowing and it is flowing into my shower, the teams cars are breaking down, and the list keeps going. Times when I thought I could get to the beach for a few moments of me time, either it started to rain or there was no transportation. My church that I went to in Spanish was just not exactly my beliefs and my church in English just didn’t quite fit me. Nothing was working and it has just been difficult…..

BUT…I always love the buts in a story. It is the time when things turn around. The time when God takes the difficult things and makes them beautiful. I love it when He takes the impossible and makes some incredible!!

So, about two weeks ago, I was sitting asking God to show me Himself. I wanted something grand and big. I wanted some dolphin to jump out of the water or something cool. Well, I saw nothing. After a while of sitting, I felt God say “hold out your hands”. I did but I kinda complained saying “I do this all the time there is nothing special or different or grandious about this”. Well, the next day, I felt God had drawn me into a special time with Him. I was listening to a sermon and the pastor stated “there was a woman who felt God had told her to hold out her hands and that in return God was going to fill them up and that when the blessings came she couldn’t grab the blessings but to leave the hands open.”

Well, He is filling them up! Ever since I have come to Costa Rica, I have heard of this church in a beach town. I have wanted to try it out. I have made plans to go there but they never worked out. Before I ever saw it, I thought it would be cool to live there. Well, God worked it out that, my teammate, Holly and I got to finally try it out for the first time last Sunday. It is both in English and Spanish. When we arrived we felt like we had made it home. It is a church on the beach. A church working with youth. A church doing outreach in the community with focus on organic farming and eating healthy. We both were like this is where we are to move. Yet, the prices for houses in a beach neighborhood and safer neighborhood are way more than our little budget could allow. To find a house, get approval and to get a house for a good price is impossible.

So, this is where the story gets good! On Monday, Holly and I looked in the neighborhoods around the church and found houses 3x what we are currently paying. Nothing was working out. Well, on Tuesday, she got a phone call about a beautiful house in a great neighborhood for less than what we are paying now. But, now we had to get Child Protective Services and the Health Department approval. Well, guess who decided to pay the shelter a visit on Thursday? Child Protective Services. She immediately loved the house and gave instant approval. Not only that but she stated that Seed of Hope is the newest shelter of hundreds in Costa Rica and we are one of the best in the country. The next battle was the health department. For the current shelter we are living in, they made us build an extra bathroom and jump through a ton of hoops. Yet on Thursday, they looked at the house and said they would waive the need for another bathroom that would cost thousands!! God gave us a house in 3 days!!! But nope, the story doesn’t stop there. On Friday morning, we were praising God and having a great worship time together as a team. We get a phone call. We have a bigger home in the same neighborhood for the same price. What???….yep! Another house above and beyond what we could have hoped for! So today, we got a new shelter for the girls and a missionary house. Everyone on the team is moving to the beach town! So now, instead of being spread out and isolated, God has given us community. God has done incredibly more! 

He blessed, He moved, He worked!!! 

This is His story!!

A Heart of Gratitude

Yes, a simple basic thought. Yet, when faced with constant drama, dissention, fights, and frustrations how do  you have gratitude. When it seems like everything is against you, how do you keep going? This has been my thoughts as of recent. I have felt so many burdens that I have started focusing on the hardships. I have never liked conflict. I have never liked drama. I don’t think I am great at dealing with it.  Yet, this is what God has plopped me in the middle of.

It is in my weakness that I boast. It is in the suffering that I can declare the Lord is with Me. It is when I am done and give it all to God that He gets the glory. He is glorified when the girls realize a fight over a simple shirt goes deeper. That their anger over a shirt, which has escalated to I’m leaving the shelter and no one loves me, is because they are hurting from past abuse and rapes. Their anger and hurt was because their moms have stated, I don’t love you and am done with you. He is glorified when the girls are starting to talk about forgiveness and how it will bring their freedom. He gets the glory when the girls make the decision to love and accept even when they are still learning what that means.  They realize that even in their suffering God has provided a hope for the future. 

So, if the girls can see that God has provided a hope of a future despite the sufferings then how much more do I get to see that in the midst of my suffering, God is working. He has me here to help these girls realize their future. To give them a God story that only He can write. God has provided me with support and with encouragement at just the right moments that I need it. He has provided me with the ability to see Him working in ways that are so beyond me. He has been so real to me in the hard exhausting days.  He has invited me to join Him. My sufferings might just be for the salvation of another soul. My life is not about me. It is about Him and His works! I am blessed not because of what I have or what I do but because of who He is.           

 He is Able. He is Enough. He is Provider. He is Love.

 

Fights, Lice and Fire

Sept 5, 2013

Fights, Lice and Fire

 

If I could have penned my first month here, I never would have imagined including fights, lice and fire. So much happens each day that I could write a story each day about the life and drama that happens. If only there was time.

The next day, after my last blog, the girls arrived back from a church camp. It was there they learned about forgiveness, letting go and of God’s love. It was so cool to hear each girl state that even though they went not wanting to know God, they came away knowing Christ personally! It was an incredible night!!

I thought the battle was over. These girls are different and life is going to be a bit easier now. Well, just as God works and has to keep working in me, so He is going to be working in the girls. Change takes time AND lessons AND experiences AND trust. My precious girls have known abuse, hurt, being let down by those they love, fear and so many things we would never want sweet girls to experience. As a result, they have each developed ways of handling life’s struggles. Anger, walls, fighting, shutting down and not communicating are their coping mechanisms.

As a result, we have had quite a few blow ups. Typical teenage drama over clothes, chores and going to school has resulted in things being thrown at me and being called names that thankfully I didn’t understand. One week, I was so discouraged. If there ever was a week of drama it was this one.  I had to hold back a girl trying to go fight another girl regarding a torn up letter and missing clothes. I had a match lit outside of my door. I had to try to break down a bathroom door that was locked and a girl inside trying to hang herself - fyi, there are no more doors in the girls areaJ- I had another girl not like her punishment of not being able to participate in the evening fun activity so she tried to light a fire by tearing up drawings and putting them under a lamp. I came away from the week exhausted and wondering, can I do this? That weekend, God came to me like none other. He kept saying your job is to rest and let me fight the battles. This was reiterated so many times in each devotion, message and even fb posts I saw that weekend. I came away refreshed and ready for what God had!

As I came back this week, ready for God to fight for me and to just rest in Him, I saw a huge difference in the girls. We have had breakthroughs on getting the girls to talk about their feelings and not fight them out. One girl, was able to report her past abuse to the authorities and stated for the first time she was able to say everything that happened to her. The freedom she felt was so noticeable! God is working. Sometimes subtly and sometimes you see it as plain as Day!

Ok, so I am a nurse. I know my way around doctors and hospitals. Let me tell you, I am so confused with how things are done here. We finally got the girls cards to go get physicals. We take them to the doctor. This includes me getting up at 5:30 to get in line and make an appointment. One hour later, I have an appointment at 11a for the four girls. One girl doesn’t even get treatment because they want to take her to the judge so she can state the past abuse. I agree this needs to happen but shouldn’t her health be considered first? They saw the doctor and were given some prescriptions. They were also given another date in late September for another exam and a date in late October for the labs and then they will go see the doctor after all that to know if everything is ok or not. In the meantime, we pray they don’t have TB or HIV or other communicable diseases! I must learn this system of many systems in order for these girls to get the treatment they need!!

This last month has been exhausting. It has been full of love. It has been full of heartache. It has been a time of learning. I am blessed that God has allowed me to be able to serve these girls and love them like they have never experienced before. Thank you for joining with me on this journey. You support prayerfully and financially blesses me beyond what you could imagine!

Please join me in praying for:

1)      The lice that each one of us has to be eliminated

2)      God to provide a car so I can enjoy and rest on my days off

3)      The girls to learn to communicate and experience  God’s love

4)      More volunteers, bilingual, to come and serve with us at the clubhouse and the shelter

5)      For the boys that have yet to be reached because there are currently no guys serving here full time.

6)      FOR WISDOM!!!

 

https://www.seedsofhopehome.com

 

God's handprints

You ever walk a path that you feel like God has you on but its only until you look back do you see how amazing His timing was? Well, that has been my life these last two weeks!

 My first day in Costa Rica, I got to go and see the girls at the prevention clubhouse right before the end of their class!! I was met with a huge group hug and lots of girlie squeals!! It made the cancelled plane ride, new airline and long travels worth it.

 

The next morning, as I was trying to get unpacked, I got a phone call from the director of Seeds of Hope. Her husband, whom had been sick for two weeks, was getting worse

and the doctors wanted him taken to the capital to go to the hospital. Since I kinda know a thing or two about hospital, I went with them. After sleeping for 4 days in the hospital room on a small cot, we got to go home with a probable diagnosis. The last day, after many hours in the room, we were notified that he either had TB or histoplasmosis. Yeah, I loved the probability of it being TB:) Thankfully, he tested negative for that one!!! He is now two weeks later

finally doing much better!!! Still waiting for an actual diagnosis.

 

We got back to my new home on Tuesday evening. I was excited for the next day because I would be able to jump in with the clubhouse girls and spend more time with them. I arrived

at the clubhouse on Wed afternoon and 30ming after being there, I got a phone call. There were three girls that wanted to come be at the shelter. They arrived around 4p on Wed. They arrived with the clothes on their back. One had walls up a mile high. Another had a look of uncertainty and another was outgoing and very engaging.

 

Things went well for about one hour, then we let them know the rules. Well, it was then we realized that these girls had lived like they wanted and some things just weren't going to be easy.

The hardest thing was for them to give up the cellphone. Their lifeline

to the old life. We finally convinced them to try it for one week then to make the decision of whether to stay or not. They finally agreed after about one hour of debates. Little did I know, this was

to be my life for the next bit. Learning to stand strong and teaching the girls

to make good decisions.

 

My heart has broken many times as the girls have shared little bits of their hurts and pains

of the last years. One week after getting the girls and things getting into a

schedule, we got another phone call. Another girl needed a place. We wondered how the girls would respond. Would they love her? Would they treat her right? We talked to the girls to prepare them and my hear broke as one girl stated "how can I love her, if I don't love myself"

That night the girl arrived and

one of our girls went up to her and gave her a huge hug and started

laughing. I knew then God was all over this. Of all the girls in Costa Rica, we had girls coming from

totally different areas but they knew each other.

 

I love these girls!! They have stolen my heart. The coolest thing is watching them transform from the tough and uncertain women to sweet and funny little girls! They are precious.

This is probably one of  the hardest thing I have done yet so rewarding to see the changes in their young lives!

 

Please pray for the four of them to be a strong family

Pray for wisdom and strength as we teach them the right ways

Pray for me to grasp Spanish quickly

Pray for these girls to see Christ and want His peace and forgiveness

 

One Week!!!

Time has absolutely flown by! It is crazy to think that at around this time, in one week, I will be driving up to my home in Costa Rica! I am cherishing every last moment that I have here with my friends and my family!!

 Last week, I said goodbye to a steady, secure job with some awesome people. It is cool to just step out in faith and fully trust God for what is next!

 Last week, I also got to celebrate my birthday! My family and I had a fun pool day. The next day, my precious girl friends and I went to New York for a last fun trip! What memories we made!

 

 

 

There is so much that I have been learning just getting ready for this trip! One of the coolest yet most simple truths that God gave me last week was "The Cross before me; the world behind me"

It is way too often that we let the world come first with the so many questions of relationships, money, jobs, insecurities, tv ect. and then we think of Christ. My prayer is that Christ will be central and the one that I look to first and praise regardless of what is going on!!

 

I am at around 50% of my monthly support! I am so blessed by those who have given sacrificially! I am also trusting God's perfect timing on the other 50%! I cannot wait to sit back

and watch Him do His thing!! His stories are always so much greater than we could ever imagine!

 

Please be praying for me during this last week at home. I have already said some "see you laters" and I know there will be more to come. I will not say goodbye because I will see everyone later!!!

The hardest will be my precious nephews. I am praying Aunt Recker will forever be in their memory and we will have just as much fun in 3 months

when I come home!!

 

 

 

Also, please be praying for me spiritually, emotionally, physically during this last week. I know Satan wants to fight in any way he can.

 

Thank you guys for joining me in this journey!!! It will be a road of many unknowns but I get the joy of following the Omniscient One!

 

 

If you would like to give here is the link- in the comment box just please put my name so seeds of hope will know where the money is to go! https://www.seedsofhopehome.com/node/112