Why Costa Rica?

After I came home from Argentina I didn’t think that I would ever live in another country again. Let’s face it, it was hard. Things didn’t turn out the way I thought they would. It didn’t come natural for me to share the gospel or for me to live in another country.

I am SO thankful that God sent me to Costa Rica.

During this summer doors seemed to be shutting in my face…well actually it was more like there just weren’t any doors to open. Going to grad school right away didn’t seem like a good idea. Plus the deadline had already past. I didn’t qualify for most of the social work jobs. The jobs that I did qualify for, I needed my social work license which I didn’t have.

I knew that I wanted to keep up my Spanish. I also knew that I didn’t feel confident enough in my Spanish to use it in a job. Ryan Gray suggested at the beginning of summer that I go to the language school that he attended in Costa Rica. All summer I joked with my parents that I was going to Costa Rica. At some point in the summer I decided that I should apply to the language school, just for kicks. The same day that I emailed they responded. During this time I was reading a book about giving up your life and money for Christ. At that point I felt God giving me the green light to go. In fact, I knew that God was telling me to go. So I went.

The course was great! I was placed in the advanced class which surprised me. Each week each person in my class had to give a 15 minute speech…in Spanish. This of course intimidated me every single week! As the title of the course suggests, the classes moved at a very quick pace and were very difficult. I had to study every night, all night. I mean let’s be for real, I didn’t even do that in college!
The last 2 weeks of class I was the only student in the class. I got one on one attention and was able to focus on the things I needed to work on.

In those six weeks I learned a ton of Spanish. I now feel confident in taking a job where I need to use Spanish. The other day I was hanging out with a teenager. In the middle of the conversation I realized that I understood everything and I wasn’t even giving him my full attention; I was also playing with a kid while I talked to him. Now that was exciting!