Princess Club: A Tale of 4 Kingdoms

What a special treat! We had princesses from FOUR countries represented at our club! Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Brazil, and the United States!! The Princesses from the Kingdom of Nicaragua had come on a far-away journey to share about the princesses in their kingdom. With them came an ambassador princess from Brazil.  The princesses from Nicaragua taught the girls how to dance to our Princess Club theme song, Yo Soy Tu Amada. The girls had a wonderful time following the steps and every one got involved. The best part, though, was the pretty dresses the princesses brought. The girls loved trying them on and had fun whirling and twirling. Ever princess needs a great dress!! 

 

 Princesses Mildred and Rebecca also shared a traditional dance with the girls. 

 

Princess Rafaelee, from Brazil, taught the girls how to say "Hello, my name is_____" in Portuguese. She also taught the girls what it means to be a princess in another country. 
  
 

The girls in turn shared about what they have been learning about during the last few weeks. They were able to tell the visiting princesses about the power of our words, our authority in the kingdom, and the inheritance our Father King has promised us. In talking about different kingdoms, we helped the girls make pictures of their own kingdoms to remind them about what we were learning. 

I can't believe we've already completed 8 weeks of Princess Club!!! I seems like just yesterday we were making and sending out invitations. What an amazing journey it's been! Next week will be our graduation and fiesta!!! It has been wonderful seeing the girls learn about identity. What's next?!? Princess Club 2?!? We're not sure yet. Ana Laura and I are going to take several weeks off (I'll be in the States for 3 weeks) and we're going to pray about what God wants next for the princess club. We are trying to decide if we should start the club over with a new set of girls, keep the same girls and go deeper, or both. Pray for wisdom!! The video below is the dance Mildred taught the girls to our theme song. ENJOY!!!

 

Princess Club: Stations of Activity.

Princess Club update!!! The week that I missed blogging on Princess Club (#6) was a little different. Ana Laura and I set up 4 tables and each table had something different for the girls to do.

 

One table had our theme Bible verses (Colossians 1:12&13) as a puzzle that the girls could put together and another table had actual princess puzzles.

One table had pictures of princesses to color or the girls could draw their own. We had special guests from the Kingdom of New Hampshire.

The teens came and braided the girls' hair and painted their nails. We also had a place for the girls to write out prayers in a Princess book that we used during prayer at the end of the club.

Eye Doc in a Box

This blog post is a bit out of order, but I had to share it...Two teams ago when the Summit team came from Virginia, they hosted an eyeglass clinic. They brought down and "Eye Doc In a Box" kit that allows non-medically trained missionaries to do a quick screen for vision. You can get a rough estimate of what a person's prescription is and then try to find appropriate eye glasses for them. The team brought down something like 600 pairs of eye glasses, all in individual baggies with the prescription written on the baggie. We did two afternoons of testing at a church in northern Costa Rica in a beach town called Nosara. We also did a morning here in San Jose at Fundavida, another Christian foundation connected to the Vineyard church, and an afternoon here in Los Anonos. I wanted to share a couple of highlights from that time.

 Here are the girls modelling some of the donated glasses. Me thinks we pretty sexy...

 

There was a woman who hadn't been able to read her Bible in 5 years. She was so excited to finally be able to read that she had a hard time giving me the Bible back. We saw several stories like that...where people hadn't been able to read for years. It was amazing to "give sight back to the blind".


The woman pictured on the right had a prescription that we just couldn't fill. One eye was drastically different than the other and it would have taken a special pair of glasses. Tovah and I ended up praying for her, knowing that while we couldn't give her better vision, our Lord and Savior can. While we didn't see a miracle and her sight instantly restored, she was immensely touched by the Holy Spirit and began weeping. Her name is Maria. Please remember her in your prayers that she would receive her miracle and restored sight!!

I love children. I especially have a heart for children who wear glasses. I got my first pair of big, bright pink, thick plastic framed glasses when I was 7 years old. I thought I was pretty hot stuff in those glasses...until I look back at the pictures and think "WHY?!?!?!?" Yet, those were the 90's...they were made that way...So we were doing a clinic day at Fundavida and we had a pretty good system down. Two girls would screen for vision, the people would come to a center area to hear the gospel message from Tito, and then they would come 3 at a time to get fit for glasses. While one group was hearing the gospel, I couldn't help but see a little girl, about 8-years-old, trying to choke back tears. Most of the kids that day were screened as not needing glasses, and were a bit upset at not getting any. So I thought this girl was the same. She and her mother came through my line to be fit for glasses. The mother handed me the slip of paper with the prescription and it was a pretty high number, so I assumed it was for the mother. I went and selected a few pairs in the prescription and brought them back. I handed the first pair to the mother and she immediately stuck them on the little girl's face, who then preceeded to burst in to tears. Oh, NOOO! I thought. These weren't for the mom!! They were for the girl!! I scooped her up into a big hug and told her it was okay, I hadn't realized they were for her! I told her I was going to find the prettiest pair of glasses we had! Not to worry. As I turned back to where the glasses were, my heart SCREAMED at Jesus... "PLEASE, Lord, if you have ANY mercy on me, let me find the right prescription for this girl...IN THE CUTEST FRAMES POSSIBLE!!! PLEASE LORD, PLEASE LORD, PRETTY PRETTY PLEASE!!! AMEN!!!!!" I went back and found 2 really cute pairs...and the one that fit her and was the right prescription.........WERE PINK!! With glitter on the ear pieces!! With little hearts by the lenses!!! HALLELUJAH, Praise Jesus, He really does care about little girls!!!! (Not that I doubted, but this was a big deal!!). As soon as I put them on her, she said simply, "I can see!!" And then broke out into the hugest ear-to-ear grin. Praise you, Jesus! I gave her another big hug and told her that she was a princess. I told her the same things I tell my girls in the princess club. That Jesus knows her heart and He thinks she's a princess. And every time she wears these glasses, they are to remind her of that. She then proceeded to show EVERYONE in the room her new princess glasses....and then she brought me her friend who also needed glasses and wanted me to find a pair of princess glasses for her too...Help me, Lord!! AND HE DID!! I found ANOTHER pair of pink, little girl glasses in the right prescription. God is SO good!! This is a picture of her after Jesus helped me find her glasses:

 

For more information on how you can be trained in the Eye Doc in a Box kit, click on the link below.

Eye Doc in a Box

When Jesus shows up...

Rodney and Cindy found this video from a recommendation from a friend on facebook. 

This is what happens when Jesus is glorified...

even the world has to recognize Him as Lord!!!

End of a year, beginning of another...

Wow...has a year gone by already? Several year anniversaries have already passed for me...It's been a year since I came on a 10-day missions trip with my church to serve in Los Anonos, Costa Rica. It's been a year since I applied to come stay as an intern in the community for a year. It's been a year since I gave my 4-weeks notice at the children's hospital and officially decided to make the move here. September marks 1 year over seas living and working as a missionary. In that year I feel like I have seen, experienced, and learned more about what it means to be a follower and lover of Jesus Christ than in all other years before.

Here's a brief run down of my year:
~Arrive on September 11, 2010...a quiet day to fly. No kidding.
~It started to rain. Every day. No kidding.
~I started English and exercise classes in the casita. Every child in Los Anonos learned my name. And uses it more than my own mother.
~Rodney heard the Lord tell him to make 2,000 sandwiches. The when and the where and the how were left out of the Lord's message. Rodney decided to make them the first week of November.

~We started renting the Casa Nueva!! Let the Extreme Make-over, Church Edition begin!!!
~Christina Potter, another intern, arrives in October. A week later the community has a minor flood. Several houses are damaged, but repairs are fairly quick and easy.
~Steve decides to dread his hair. Maybe not such a good idea...
~The Vida 220 discipleship school boys start to work in Los Anonos. Yay George, Dago, and David!!!
~We made our first 100 "sandwhiches" for the community. They were just hot dogs, but they were a hit.
~On the 3rd of November, the community was devastated by another flood and landslide. The families were moved into shelters, where they stayed for 3-6 weeks. Many families were relocated to other towns. Many have moved back in with relatives in the community.
~By the time we finished with emergency flood relief, we had made over 2,000 meals. God still speaks!!!
~The Harvest Hands house (AKA Rodney, Cindy, Steve, Christina, and I) make a quick escape to the beach after the drama in the Quebrada settles a bit. I meet some new wild life.
~Demolition by the municipality started and by the end of January, the majority of the Quebrada and the hillside was removed. Many people who had come on previous short term trips noticed the stark difference.
~The gringos celebrated Thanksgiving by inviting some Costa Ricans over. Turkey and pumpkin pie were enjoyed by all.

~Missions Trip to Nicaragua!!! Who would have thought that during my missions trip I would be doing a missions trip?!? Sooo cool!! We took a group of the young guys from the community and some other gringos who flew in and drove to Managua, Nicaragua. We helped build a roof for a new Vineyard church in Tipitapa, Nicaragua, in David's home town.
~Jules decides to get hair extensions. Maybe not such a good idea numero dos.
~Christmas came and 2010 went.
~Extreme Make-over Church Edition continues in the Casa Nueva. The backyard is leveled in preparation for a new cement floor. The walls are painted. Little by little the house starts to look more like a "church"
~TEAM SEASON!!! We kicked off team season with a team from my home church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, followed by a team from the New Life church in Columbus, Ohio. Columbus built a yellow house. A wedding dress was made for the first wedding in the new Vineyard Anonos.

~February brought about the renovation of the Casita into a thrift store. Adriana was given a job as store keeper. The women in the community were taught how to cut hair and crochet...not at the same time or by the same team, but they learned some pretty sweet new skills. I did, too!!

~Will and Jessie are married in the Vineyard Anonos church!! Jessie looked stunning in the dress that the Ohio team donated and one of the women altered for her. 

~Another yellow house is built in March. The teams really make connections with the people here in the community. As team members come back year after year, they are able to communicate even more and friendships form. March also brings our first official church service is held in the Casa Nueva!!!! God is soooo faithful!!!!!!!! Los Anonos has a totally bilingual church. We continue to pray for more workers. When we first started services, we would have worship nights in the front room. When we packed in almost 50 people into that room, we decided we needed to head outside.

~Team season is over for a bit. April showers brings May...wait a minute...it's the end of the rainy season! There are almost no rain showers in April!! It's the end of the rainy season!! Woot woot!! We focus on the community. My birthday is celebrated on a bus during a visa renewal trip to Nicaragua. Not exactly how I thought I would celebrate turning 28, but it was cool.
~Plans for a roof in the backyard of the Casa Nueva were started. We needed something to shade us during the morning Sunday sun as well as the afternoon, and some times unpredictable, rains.
~The other Vineyard church hosted a worship conference. Jeremy Riddle came to Costa Rica as a keynote speaker. AMAZING!!!!!!!!!
~Professional skateboarder, Jud Heald, visits. Most of the kids skateboard here. Steve and Tito started a skateboarding ministry for the kids. Ramps and rails were constructed.
~Baby Bruce is born! The first baby born into the new Viña Anonos!!!

~A new Bible Study for people wanting to go deeper into the Word is started. It's been awesome seeing the guys want to grow in their relationship with God. God is setting a fire in their souls!!!
~My parents visit me for 2 weeks!!!!!!!!!! I had a great time showing them the community, my classes, Bible studies, and friends here. We also spent some time touring the country.





 ~The Princess Club starts. What an amazing opportunity to teach the girls about their identity in Christ than with a princess themed club?!? A group of ten 8-12-year-old girls are invited to learn about their Father, the King of kings. 

~The Columbus, Ohio team comes back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They help with handyman work around the Casa Nueva and build a safer swing set for the kids. I no longer have to stand on the swing set pole and yell at the kids for being on the same party line. They can swing safely!! Some of the guys from the community climb the mountain to the cross with the team.

~The beginning of July was a hard time here. Dean Stoeklin, one of the guys on the Ohio team, died of an aneurysm while serving here in Costa Rica. The impression that his life had while working here will never be forgotten, either by the team that was serving alongside him or by the young guys of the community who he invested in while in Los Anonos.
~Taylor comes for a visit! She is the intern that lived here in the house with Rodney and Cindy the year before I did. She was serving here when my team came a year ago in June. She had a blast seeing the growth of all the kids. It was also a shock to see how much had changed in the community in only a year.
~Summit comes from Virginia to host an eye-glass clinic in the beach community of Nosara and here in Los Anonos. Several hundred pairs of eye glasses are fit. 
~August is a busy month with 3 teams. A team from New Hampshire come to work around the community. They participated in the trash clean-up and other projects at the Casa Nueva. A team from our sister Vineyard church in Managua, Nicaragua comes tomorrow! Thankfully I won't have to translate for that team ;) One more team comes from Denver, Colorado at the end of the month.

WOW!! I can't even believe all that has happened in a year! This is only a broad brush stroke of the things that has happened here. I can't even begin to write about all the stories of hanging out with the guys and hearing about their dreams for the future. The growing pains of teaching kids and teens who have never been disciplined how to live Godly lives. Seeing drug addicts go in and out of addiction. Learning how to lead and teach in a small group Bible study...in Spanish. Being stretched into leading worship instead of just playing back-up. Leaving my friends and family and watching my nephew grow up via Skype. So many learning and growing opportunities!!

With all of that said, when I first left to come on this crazy adventure, I had asked for prayer. Thank you all for your prayer support. God has been so faithful in answering your prayers for me and the community! Is is amazing to see God working in the community and especially in the hearts and lives of the families and teens in the church. Thank you also for all of your financial support, without which this would not have been possible. Thank you for your sensitivity to the Holy Spirit when giving to this mission.

As most of you know, Costa Rica is now deeply embedded in my heart. Rodney and Cindy have asked me to stay another year to continue working here with the church. After prayer and consideration, I have decided to stay. I feel like there are still things the Lord wants me to do here in Costa Rica before I can come home.

I will be coming home to the states as originally planned on August 27th. I will be staying for 3 weeks and will be splitting my time between Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan. I would LOVE to see all of my family and friends while I'm home. Please feel free to shoot me an e-mail or facebook post to set up a time to visit. I don't want to miss seeing any of you!!!! 

During this time I will also be raising prayer and financial support again. If the Lord lays this on your heart, please let me know and I would love to tell you how to donate to my mission here in Costa Rica.

Again, thank you for ALL of your support, especially the prayer support. God is faithful, kind, and compassionate with all His children.

Cleaning up trash

The last team to spend time with us, a combination of two churches from New Hampshire, had the opportunity to work with Niños Sin Fronteras (Children Without Borders), a non-profit children's clinic here in the community. The clinic organized a trash pick up day in the community. As any of you know who have been here, trash is an interesting part of this culture. It's every where. And it's not well taken care of. Most kids are allowed to throw candy and gum wrappers where ever they happened to put the sweet into their mouth. The drug addicts and alcoholics use the streets as their personal trash can. People who are responsible and bag their trash up and leave it in piles for the trash trucks to collect become frustrated every week as either dogs paw through the trash looking for scraps, or the addicts dig through it looking for left over food, scrap metal, or anything they can use. This undoubtedly leaves trash every where in the streets. Not to mention the trash that flows down river and ends up on the banks of Anonos. The clinic had a group of volunteers, the group from New Hampshire pitched in, and of course the young dudes and some of the little kids in our church wanted to lend a hand, too.

I don't know if you've ever been part of a trash pick up in your community. Let me tell you. It stinks. No, literally, it's not hard to do and I'm not complaining about picking up the trash. It just literally stinks. It was an olfactory assault on the brain. Who knew trash could be so stinky? Well, maybe Oscar the grouch, but that's his own fault. I started thinking about this as I worked. Many times in our lives we also collect trash. Things happen to us. People throw their own trash into our lives for us to pick up. They say mean words, little words or lies, which is like throwing gum and candy wrappers into our minds and hearts. They do mean things to us, like pitching used kleenex in our faces. They abuse us, like chucking broken bottles and dirty cigarette butts into our hearts. I think that looks different for every person, but in your own way I think you, too, understand what that means for you. 

 

This analogy also works for the sin in our lives. When we do things that we know we shouldn't do, we are effectively throwing trash into our own lives. When we hold on to sin in our lives, instead of asking for forgiveness from God, it begins to collect in the streets of our brains and the rivers of our hearts.

If we let those things build up in our lives, it can be very hard to get them out. Let me give an example of what I mean. As I was cleaning along the river bank, I came to where a house used to stand, but was washed away. Even though the house was gone, there was trash tangled in the old foundation that had obviously been there since November...like clothes and blankets that were wedged under heavy rocks and shredded bags tangles around exposed pipes. I tried to pull at it to trow it out, but it was so tangled and rotten, wedged in and stuck with mud and nastiness that it wouldn't budge. I tugged and tugged, but it would have taken two guys to pull the rocks off it and maybe a knife to cut it free of the branches, metal bars, and debris that it was snared in. Since it had been there since November, it was ODORIFEROUS!! This is just like trash that has been left in our lives, from other people throwing it at us and from our own selves letting it collect from un-confessed sin. If left long enough, it too will begin to rot. This is what the Christian dictionary calls "bitterness". We can probably all think of a person or two who has let the trash of this life collect to the rotten point.

The amazing thing about walking with Christ is that he provides a way to clean this trash out of our lives. He has already paid for the "garbage truck" to come and take the trash out of our lives. All we have to do is ask him to come and clean us. The Holy Spirit loves to come in and clean out all the areas in our lives where trash has been placed. We also can take part in this process by confessing our sins. It's like we pick up our own trash in our lives and throw it into God's trash can, where it is removed as far as the east is from the west, never to be smelled again!! 

Of course, as a good Calvin College student and steward of this planet, I also have to give a plug for saving our planet. Reduce, reuse, recycle (sayings from my generation). It is important to not only pick up the spiritual trash we collect, but natural, physical trash, too. Let's leave a clean planet for our children's children's children's children's children's children's children.

CNN Report

Costa Rica is making it's mark on the map! 

With the help of our dear friend, Dianu, 

a crew from CNN came in to do 

a feature story on Anonos. 

All of the people featured in the film 

are from our church. 

It is in Spanish.

Click here or the picture to see the CNN video

The laziest drink available.

I make almond milk because I’m lazy.

But, you say, can’t you buy almond milk from the store?

Aha, I say, but then you have to put on pants. And find your house keys. And walk to the store. Which can be like walking to Guatemala. And meet half of the community out in the streets. And you must stop and talk. Which means talking for at least 20 minutes. And then you finally make it to the store and they don't have any almond milk left. Or maybe they never had any to begin with. That’s work, people. Hard work.

Or just drink some soy milk? Isn't there always soy milk in the bodega (the storage room behind the kitchen)? How much more lazy can you get?

Alas, but then again, you have to put on shoes. And find your house keys. And walk out to the bodega. And realize that the soy milk is in a box on the shelf and is not cold. It is warm. And so you stick it in the freezer for 20 minutes hoping to chill it, only to realize that now 3 hours have gone by and you have forgotten that the milk was in the freezer and now it needs defrosted.

The solution to this madness? Homemade almond milk made from easily stored, nonperishable ingredients in less time than it takes to go to the store. And I’m only somewhat lying.

There’s no cooking. It's easy. And the best part is you have to make cookies afterward. First because you have to have cookies with milk. It's like a law or something. And secondly because you need to do something with all that left-over almond pulp. What is almond pulp, you say?? Pulp fiction, maybe?* We'll get to that. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

What you need:
1 cup of almonds

4 cups of water

A sweetener (honey, agave nectar, maple syrup...whatever floats your boat.)

Dates (I know I am always talking about finding a man, but not that kind of date, silly. You don't need a man to make almond milk...I'm talking about real dates here...like the fruit. Use about 2 Tablespoons. Eyeball it. Whatever. To taste. If you want. I can't force you to do anything.)

Vanilla (again to taste...whatever that means, I like to use a glug. What is a glug? I dunno...a splash...a teaspoon)

A blender

A fine holed strainer or cheesecloth

I like to use raw, whole almonds. You can use chopped, I guess. Measure out a cup. I like to use a glass 2 Cup measuring cup...a 2 cup glass measuring cup? a 2 Cup measuring glass? While I try to figure out how to say that in English, let's move on. Put 1 cup of almonds in the glass and fill the measuring cup up to the 2 cup line with boiling water. This softens the nuts. Leave them for any where between 1-4 hours. If you have other important business, now is the time to do it. Like checking facebook. If you want to be really lazy, just pour regular tap water over the almonds and leave them to soak over night. I know boiling water can be vexing to a body.

After your almonds have had a good soak, drain and rinse them. Put them in a blender. Add your dates and 1 cup of water and blend the heck out of them. Let 'em have it!! Sing the Eve 6 song "wanna put my tender heart in a blender, watch it spin round to a beautiful oblivion...."** This is the part where a good blender lid is very important. you know how almost all blender lids have that little plastic piece in the middle that makes a peep hole into the swirling world of the blenderizing foods? Slip that little piece out and gradually add 3 more cups of water. Don't worry, it won't overflow. Just pour by faith. At this point the almonds should be chopped into itty bitty teeny tiny pieces. At this point, while it's all swirling and turbulent...pour in your sweetener...I dunno, I always just squirt...maybe 1-2 tablespoons. Depends on how sweet you like it. Make a batch. If it's not sweet enough, add more the next time. Add your vanilla. Stop the blender. This is a very important step. STOP THE BLENDER!!!

Next take the lid off and pour the liquid through the strainer (or through the cheesecloth) into a pitcher. Once all the liquid has been poured off, put the tiny almond pieces into a tupperware container for later use. I will give recipes later for what I have dubbed "almond pulp".

Isn't it delightful?

This is what the pulp should look like.

After that, it keeps in the fridge for up to a week.  If you're a two cup of coffee a day kinda person, you won't make it a week, though. You'll have to make another batch!!

Making coffee the Costa Rican way...

My completed almond milk and a loaf of whole wheat almond nut bread...You'll have to wait for that recipe...

Hooray for lazy!***
~~~~
* Who wants to bet when this reference will seem old and absurdly dated? I call October 2011.
** OF COURSE this popped into my head while writing and now it won’t leave. If I have to suffer, you do too.  Misery loves company.
*** Thus the “kind of lying” part. I suppose it doesn’t take 24 hours to get to the store unless you’re really in Guatemala and have to go by donkey to the nearest town.

Baby turtles!!

By now, anyone who knows me at ALL knows I am slightly obsessed with my camera. I take it every where. Heaven forbid a Kodak moment go by without it being eternally captured by my lens. If you've hung out with me for even an extended amount of time, I may also pose you until I get just the right shot. I may ask you to do something ridiculous, like jump off a rock or a tree stump. I may ask you to twist into the "squishy face" or stand toe-to-toe for a foot picture. You may be given a prop to hold or model with. Whatever. All for the shot. All for remembering moments that we can (for the most part) never relive again!! So alas, to my shock, horror and dismay! I did not have my trusty camera with me for one of the most incredible moments of my life!! I was with the Virginia team doing evangelism on the beach in Nosara and had decided I didn't want to bring my camera...mostly because I knew it was going to rain. I had left it at the hotel hoping to go back later in the day for it. 

Fortunately, someone else did....Because that day we saw one of the most incredible miracles of God's creation...the birth of turtles and their brave new-born journey to the ocean!!! Johnny, Shannon, and I were walking down the beach to go shell hunting when all of a sudden I saw a tiny creature scuttling down the beach in front of us. "A baby turtle!!" I exclaimed. It ended up being the first of probably 50 or 60 turtles. We ended up finding the nest and watching in awe as they scrambled over vines and branches to get to the beach sands. They then made tracks to the ocean. When they arrived at the shore, a gigantic, merciless wave would come crashing in and sweep them out, but amazingly, we could see them swimming in the waves that were sucking them out.

 It's truly mind-blowing to think that these palm-sized newborns have the instinct to hatch from their eggs,

start scuttling (for lack of a better word...turtle army crawl? scurry? flipper?...I think I'll stick with scuttle.)

They really did make the cutest tracks in the sand. 

Ok...so lesson learned. When we first saw them, our natural instinct was to pick them up. I mean, dude, we are the touchy-feely generation. BUT we realized after 2.5 seconds we really shouldn't be picking them up. So before you call PETA on me, only 3 or 4 were actually touched...the rest we left alone. We didn't even help them over the vines and tangles and branches because we knew they needed to do it without human interference...  

You have to admit, the turtle is REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY cute!!!! You probably would have had the same instinct.

Some fun facts about turtles. The information is from wikipedia, (the parenthesis are my own thoughts...) Costa Rica is one of the most important nesting grounds for sea turtles. Mature turtles often return to the exact beach from which they hatched. (so maybe in a few years we will see these little turtles again!!) Females usually mate every two to four years. Males, on the other hand, visit the breeding areas every year, attempting to mate (go figure). After mating in the water, the female moves above the beach's high tide line, where she digs a hole with her hind flippers and deposits her eggs. Clutch size depends on the age of the female and species, but can range between 100 and 200 (yowzers!!).  She then covers the nest with sand and returns to the sea. At around 45 to 75 days, the eggs hatch during the night (except, surprisingly enough, for us. We saw them around 3PM), and the hatchlings instinctively head directly into the water. This is the most dangerous time in a turtle's life. As they walk, predators, such as gulls and crabs, grab them (not on our watch!!!). Since they are born at night, they use the light reflecting off the surface of the water to guide them to the ocean. One danger to this process is light pollution from beachfront homes. Many turtles never make it to the ocean because they are disoriented by the light. A significant percentage never make it to the ocean (EVERY single turtle we saw hatch made it to the ocean!!!!).

What an incredible gift that God gave us! The ability to see one of His precious creatures surviving in the wild! What a great lesson for us, as well. When we are born again in Christ, we are also called to make the journey into the kingdom of God. It is a journey by faith that can seem long and difficult. There are natural predators out there that would try to kill and destroy us before we can enter into His kingdom. There are also false lights that would try to disorient us from where we should be going. But with help, we can make it to the shore.

Ah, Language

Do you ever get into a situation or a conversation with some one and all of a sudden you're lost for words. Like you want to use a word, but your language just doesn't quite capture it? Like there has to be a better way to describe what is going on in your head? Maybe you need to use one of the follow from a list of not-easily-translated-into-English words:

1. ToskaRussian – Vladmir Nabokov describes it best: “No single word in English renders all the shades of toska. At its deepest and most painful, it is a sensation of great spiritual anguish, often without any specific cause. At less morbid levels it is a dull ache of the soul, a longing with nothing to long for, a sick pining, a vague restlessness, mental throes, yearning. In particular cases it may be the desire for somebody of something specific, nostalgia, love-sickness. At the lowest level it grades into ennui, boredom.”
2. Mamihlapinatapei
   Yagan (indigenous language of Tierra del Fuego) – “the wordless, yet meaningful look shared by two people who both desire to initiate something but are both reluctant to start”
3. Jayus
   Indonesian – “A joke so poorly told and so unfunny that one cannot help but laugh”
4. Iktsuarpok
   Inuit – “To go outside to check if anyone is coming.”
5. Litost
   Czech – Milan Kundera, author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, remarked that “As for the meaning of this word, I have looked in vain in other languages for an equivalent, though I find it difficult to imagine how anyone can understand the human soul without it.” The closest definition is a state of agony and torment created by the sudden sight of one’s own misery.
6. Kyoikumama
   Japanese – “A mother who relentlessly pushes her children toward academic achievement”
7. Tartle
   Scottish – The act of hestitating while introducing someone because you’ve forgotten their name.
8. Ilunga
   Tshiluba (Southwest Congo) – A word famous for its untranslatability, most professional translators pinpoint it as the stature of a person “who is ready to forgive and forget any first abuse, tolerate it the second time, but never forgive nor tolerate on the third offense.”
9. Prozvonit
   Czech – This word means to call a mobile phone and let it ring once so that the other person will call back, saving the first caller money. In Spanish, the phrase for this is “Dar un toque,” or, “To give a touch.”
10. Cafuné
    Brazilian Portuguese – “The act of tenderly running one’s fingers through someone’s hair.”
11. Schadenfreude
    German – Quite famous for its meaning that somehow other languages neglected to recognize, this refers to the feeling of pleasure derived by seeing another’s misfortune. I guess “America’s Funniest Moments of Schadenfreude” just didn’t have the same ring to it.
12. Torschlusspanik
    German – Translated literally, this word means “gate-closing panic,” but its contextual meaning refers to “the fear of diminishing opportunities as one ages.” (Altalang.com)
13. Wabi-Sabi
    Japanese – Much has been written on this Japanese concept, but in a sentence, one might be able to understand it as “a way of living that focuses on finding beauty within the imperfections of life and accepting peacefully the natural cycle of growth and decay.” (Altalang.com)
14. Dépaysement
    French – The feeling that comes from not being in one’s home country.
15. Tingo
    Pascuense (Easter Island) – Hopefully this isn’t a word you’d need often: “the act of taking objects one desires from the house of a friend by gradually borrowing all of them.”
16. Hyggelig
    Danish – Its “literal” translation into English gives connotations of a warm, friendly, cozy demeanor, but it’s unlikely that these words truly capture the essence of a hyggelig; it’s likely something that must be experienced to be known. I think of good friends, cold beer, and a warm fire.
17. L’appel du vide
    French – “The call of the void” is this French expression’s literal translation, but more significantly it’s used to describe the instinctive urge to jump from high places.
18. Ya’aburnee
    Arabic – Both morbid and beautiful at once, this incantatory word means “You bury me,” a declaration of one’s hope that they’ll die before another person because of how difficult it would be to live without them.
19. Duende
    Spanish – While originally used to describe a mythical, spritelike entity that possesses humans and creates the feeling of awe of one’s surroundings in nature, its meaning has transitioned into referring to “the mysterious power that a work of art has to deeply move a person.” There’s actually a nightclub in the town of La Linea de la Concepcion, where I teach, named after this word.
20. Saudade
    Portuguese – One of the most beautiful of all words, translatable or not, this word “refers to the feeling of longing for something or someone that you love and which is lost.” Fado music, a type of mournful singing, relates to saudade.