Explosion!!!!

"Smoking, the van is smoking!" What!? I look over as one of the 19 year old twins from Pennsylvania is sitting next to smoke that is filling 1/8 of the van. My heart begins to beat 100 miles an hour as the teenagers begin to scream laughingly.

This was no laughing matter to me. In the past 3 weeks I had ridden in two prior vans that had broke down. One van for 6 hours, a van full of 12 New Yorkers while heading to a Volcano, the other was a van heading back from the beach with a team from Wisconsin, and NOW for the third week would there be another van crashed on the side of the road!

I thought, no, this couldn't be! As the van began to fill with more smoke, my mind began to wander with possible problems. Suddenly, the other twin from Pennsylvania screams. "Jump out of the car! It's going to explode."

So guess what I do? In the middle of the San Jose highway, while the car is stopped, I literally jumped out of the car. As I earnestly jump out of the van expecting a heard of people to follow me I realize that I am the only one on the road. What was going on!? The worse part begins. The driver is unaware that I have jumped out of the car and continues driving!! I begin chasing after the van exclaiming, "Stop the Van! Stop the Van!" After about 10 seconds jogging after the van in 4 lanes of chaotic Costa Rica traffic, the driver stops and everyone, laughing hysterically, pull me back into the smoky van. I felt safe again.

I later find out that the smoke was only water steaming and the van was not going to explode.

I share this story not only for a good laugh, but also for an important lesson that this experience later taught me.

Sometimes as we are in the midst of fear, struggle, and hopelessness. We earnestly want to jump out the world, or quite frankly the van. We many times want to flee from our problems, finding the easy way out. The easy way out for me at the moment was to jump out of the van. However, my plan of escape was only into more danger. The danger of uncontrollable traffic.

I want to encourage us as we are dealing with fears, pains, and problems not to to just run from those problems. First of all what is the problem? Maybe the problem is an easy fix like the steam in the van. Sometimes are problems appear to large to fix. Maybe they are, but we have a BIG God who can work on our hearts to confront the problem and change it. He can change our hearts and He changes hearts.

I'm so thankful the van stopped for me, just as God has stopped for all of us. Thank you God for the cross and your grace. Thank you because you STOP for us.

Pennsylvania Team

The last team to enter the red gates of the YWAM base were a group of chill and "pura vida" youth. (pura vida is a term used in Costa Rica meaning layed back. In general, Cost Rica is "pura vida.") As this group from Pennsylvania joined us in ministry, my heart began to ask God for strength and passion to pour into these youth. I felt tired, passionless, and dry.

It was a Thursday morning. This was the last day that I would be working with these Pennsylvaniates before they headed off to serve in a far off village for the remainder of their time. While I was praying that morning before we were to head out to the salvation army, God gave me the chapter Psalm 139.

"OH Lord, you have searched me and you know me..." The chapter continues with David, the author, stating that God knows everything about him and when he sits and when he rises. That God knew him even before he was born.

It was incredible how this verse filled my heart and soul. How this psalm made my heart feel close to God's because he knows everything about me. This verse also continues to say that "you are fearfully and wonderfully made." Wow, fearfully and wonderfully made. I shared this verse with my boyfriend Jono, and later with the Pennsylvania group before we began serving food to the homeless at the salvation army.

One girl exclaimed, "Wow, that was perfect." Yes it was. God knows when we are feeling tired and exhausted. He knows EVERYTHING about us. He so much seeks for us to ask Him for help, for wisdom, for encouragement. I would encourage each one of use to give Him all of our thoughts and desire through prayer. Yes, he already knows them, He's put them in our hearts, but He desires us to seek Him. Thank you God for prayer. Thank you that we can speak to you and you answer.