Viajar a casa: Traveling Home

There is something about returning to a place that you love.  Something in the air, the food, the land, the people, the music, the culture...that calls you back; beckoning for return. This place to me is Heredia, Costa  Rica. The place that captured my heart in a net, never to be released, about 14 months ago.  It is the place that I think about at least once, or sometimes multiple times, a day.

This summer, in July, I will be making a comeback to this land.  A comeback I will always anticipate. A comeback in which I will be joined by some souls that are so dear to me; and to once again greet the ones who I left behind 14 months ago.  Only this time, it is for a longer amount of time; a dream I wished would come true. Only this time, to gain new experiences and to take steps further into being followers of Christ.; something which may not be completely out of comfort.

This time, I will be documenting more efficiently, and not to keep experiences merely as out of memory. This time, God will push me further; and those going with me. This time, the people of Costa Rica will be reached in a way like never before. A calling in which God has placed; a calling so Divine and so beautiful it is impossible to look away in the other direction.

There is something about knowing in my heart that there are those who share the same love for this country as I do; and my heart rejoices even more for the ones whom God has placed and are desiring to find out.  There is something that He is stirring up; something beautiful and incredible. Something bigger beyond our own thoughts. Something to which we better understand what it is to "Pura Vida."

Pure life.

A life of goodness, purity and life. (a greeting common in Costa Rica)

I believe that this greeting means more everyday; our God wants pure lives for us. He wants us to have lives of goodness, peace, purity and life. He washes us clean. He makes us new. He gives us a hope and a future.

It is because of Him that passion for such a place as Costa Rica exists. Why my love for people expands the more I gain a larger outlook on the world around me; through His worldview. He gives me pure life. Él me da la vida pura.

As the next 3 and 1/2 months go by, I will live to love Him; and work to seek His plan set within this trip of return. As the months pass, please pray for myself, my friend, Trevor, who is traveling with me, for the ticos in which we build relationships with, for the travel, for the retreat we will be a part of, for those who will be graciously hosting us into their home and for His will to permeate everything that is done.

God bless, & Pura Vida!

Rachel Yvonne