The first week back I was "tour guide and translator" for my friends from the church in Aserri. As I had mentioned in a previous blog, my church in Olympia invited a few members from the church in Aserri to come to Olympia to continue our relationship that started in 2009, and to experience how we do ministry in Olympia. They were able to work with us at our feeding ministry and meet a lot of our different ministries within the church and community. The original group was made up of five church members that are actively involved in different ministries in the church, however due to visa problems only two of them were able to go. They were Mayela and Nayu, Pastor Alberto's wife and daughter. I had the joy of showing them around Olympia, Seattle, and even Mt. Rainier. It was great to show them where I am from, my family, and my church family. We stayed with Caroline, the visitation Pastor at Oly First, and a member of Emmaus Community. She lives right on the Puget Sound so they were very amazed by the pretty view from their room and the deck. Besides showing them ministries of the church we took them to the Point Defiance Zoo and to Seattle and went on the Duck tour. They touch and saw snow for the very first time in their lives at Mt. Rainier. Caroline and I enjoyed watching the joy in their eyes as we all made the trek to the snow and had a little snow ball fight at Paradise. Saying our goodbyes were tough after a week visit, but I was super happy they were able to come and experience what they did. I am trying hard to go back to Costa Rica for Christmas. When I left there I had told the church that I will do everything I can to come back to share Christmas with them and their big end of the year party, which made our goodbyes a little easier...rather than good bye it was a see you later. 
I continue transitioning back into my life in the States but will continue to live my life differently, a little more pura vida, because after life in Costa Rica I will never be the same. As a commissioning prayer that Emmaus community did for me was this prayer."May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you; may he guide you through the wilderness: protect you through the storm; may he bring you home rejoicing: at the wonders he has shown you; may he bring you home rejoicing : once again into our doors." That He did indeed! He had taugh me so much during my time as a Volunteer Missionary, and brought me home rejoicing once again into our doors at Emmaus Community.
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| Mayela and Nayu making their first snowman! |
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| Us at the Zoo...you definitely don't see those animals that are behind us in Costa Rica! |
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| With friends from Emmaus Community at Point Defiance Zoo, Tacoma, WA |
I would like to say thank you, a BIG thank you, to everyone that had supported me financially and through prayer on this adventure God sent me on. Although it was a journey to learn Spanish and continue a relationship with the church in Aserri that began in 2009, it was much more than that...It was a life journey. A fifteen month long discernment process of obeying my call to missions that I had felt way back in junior high. I look forward to the next chapter in my life as I begin my degree in Theology with a concentration in Urban and Global Minsitry at SPU. I am looking forward to returning to Costa Rica or Latin America as a full time missionary in the near future.
Bendiciones,
Sarah Jean
