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| Praise God for His goodness! |
To actually be accepted to go on the trip, we had to fill out a giant application. Okay, my brother would beg to differ, since he wrote like two word answers to each question. But being the person that I am, it took 17.5 hours to finish that application.
Then there was also an interview that we had to do. I thought it was pretty easy, and it was just talking about why I wanted to go and if there were things I was scared of about the trip.
Well, needless to say, I got accepted! There are ten students going, and three leaders, and let me just say, I love them all to death! (Yes, even my brother...) I can't wait to spend ten days with these awesome people!
We did a lot of preparation as a team, too! We had monthly meetings where we got all sorts of stuff done. On the practical side of things, we put all our support letters in envelopes and got them ready to send, we talked about how the support was coming in, and we talked about a lot of the little logistical details. We also did things to strengthen our team, like doing personality testing and learning how to deal with each personality. We spent time in prayer each meeting, and we also had fun with eachother.
That is not to say it wasn't work. It was SO much work! In the beginning, we all had to write a letter to send out and inform people about the trip and how they can support us, and make an Excel file with the names and addresses of all the people we sent letters to. We also got homework at each of our meetings. Things like writing papers on the culture of Costa Rica, doing journal entries that had us explain why we wanted to go, and more recently, preparing the presentation that we will be doing in the schools, and putting together our photo books.
In addition to our monthly meetings, we also had to meet quite regularly to practice our skit. (The one that I posted in the last blog post) Which meant we saw each other quite often!
As a team, we also went on a retreat together. It was a couple of long days talking about evangelism and what it means and how to do it. It was needed for our team, and it was really good time of being together and increasing our unity. Through this retreat, we put on an outreach event. Planned solely by us!
I, personally, did a lot to prepare for this trip, also! I took a Spanish class this school year which was so helpful! But I was also very motivated to learn because I knew I would be going to a Spanish speaking country. Our teacher had us do a cultural project each semester, and I technically did double because I liked to tag along for Robbie's too! I went to two different Spanish churches, wrote a 6 page paper on Costa Rica, complete with an interview I did with the missionary down there that we are partnering with, and went to all the Hispanic shops and restaurants in Wauconda, ordering and asking questions in Spanish. I have to say, these experiences were probably one of the most helpful things to help me learn the language! Also, in preparation for the trip, I joined a homeschool soccer team, because soccer is a favorite past time in Costa Rica. Now let me just stop to say that I do not like soccer in any way. It is probably my least favorite sport! Now that was already established before I joined the team, but I knew it'd probably be helpful to at least know how to play, right?
As I explain in a blog post HERE, I also got baptized and we had two missionary families stay with us. Now these things were not intentionally to prepare for this trip, but I must mention them anyways, because I feel like they played a big part in my preparation.
Now in the preparation, I'm not including all the making a list and checking it twice stuff, or all the shopping required plus the packing. But let's not forget that stuff, cause it was definitely necessary, and took a while too!
I'm guessing this blog post is kinda interesting to you guys. I mean, y'all know that I've been preparing, but it's kinda cool to step behind the scenes and see what's all be going on! Well, here ya go! There has been a lot of preparation for this trip, and you know what? I feel ready! In about eight hours I'm gonna be stepping on a bus and leaving officially! It's so exciting. And people ask me if I'm nervous, cause it's to be expected, right? Well, this is probably odd, but I'm not. Not in the least bit. I've been waiting for this trip for months, and God has prepared me. I don't feel nervous--I feel ready. So let's do this thing!
