Buenos dias, EE.UU.  (Estados Unidos, aka home)

Life in Costa Rica is stellar!  Successfully fended off an aggressive stomach ailment this week, and things are looking up!  We took a break yesterday and went zip-lining in the Carpintera Forest Preserve.  That was quite an experience!  I would rather just hike under the trees, but flying over and through them is definitely a new perspective!  Sometimes you go over 30 mph, and two of the lines were almost 1 km each!  Plus there were two "rappels".  I am used to normal rappels where you let yourself down a rock, but this one, you just jump out of a tree into space, and the guides let you free fall like 50 feet and then stop you right before you hit the ground.  I don't know how it works, but it takes your breath away!

After zip-lining, we went to a contemporary dance performance by a dance team that our friend Juan Pablo is a on.  It was a very interesting experience, to say the least!  Lots of strange music, and crazy clothes, and skipping and rolling to and fro.  I can't say I would attend if I didn't have a friend dancing.  But it was intriguing, nonetheless!  I feel like I have added a big piece to my collective art experience.

Sharing on campus was interesting this week!  I think God is challenging me more and more each day!  At first, everyone I initiated with spoke English, but now, I can hardly find someone who speaks English!  But I have been getting more and more comfortable conversing in Spanish, and have had probably 10 Gospel conversations solely in Spanish!  Like Paul said, "I have determined to know nothing among you except Christ, and Him crucified".  Thus, I can talk about Jesus pretty well, but I am a little lost when the conversation strays from my Bible vocabulary haha.  I would still much rather talk in English though, and a normal conversation is quite refreshing.

People here have many many many ideas of who God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are.  I have talked with athiests who profess joy, and Catholics totally lacking hope.  I have talked with non-religious biologists, and anthropologists who believe that God is part of nature.  Some believe in Jesus as a teacher, some as a prophet, some as an impersonal savior, some as a fictional religious superhero.  I have talked to a future priest, taught papal dogma since age 9.  The differences in people's ideas of God are as tangled as the alleys of San Jose, as fleeting as the morning sun, and as shrouded as the top of Irazu.  I have gained a much greater urgency in sharing the Gospel as I see the lack of direction and hope among the students here.  It truly fills me with joy that there are students searching for something more, and that I can show them Jesus!  Only in Christ can all these doubts, uncertainties, and fears be removed!  He has proven faithful in the lives of many students we have met, and I trust that He will be revealed in the hearts of many more!

Praising God for all He is doing!
Andrew

p.s. I also stumbled into a bunch of bugs somewhere, and my arms got snacked on pretty good.  So many little bumps.  Fun stuff!

Luke 9:18-20