23 Years Young

Ya'll, so much to catch up on...I know.

First of all, it finally became official: ALABAMA is playing LSU in the BCS National Championship in New Orleans on January 9th! (kind of old news now) Even better news- I'll still be in the country for the game! I'm so thankful for the opportunity to see the 2010 Tide play in the rematch of century. Roll Tide!

Lots has been going on in the world of YoungLife & WyldLife since my last blog as well. We had our last clubs of the semester the last week of November/first week of December; both with a fun Christmas theme! This past week we had our end of the semester Christmas party for our committee members and leaders. We also been prepared an awesome 2012 calendar for them to keep up with monthly prayer requests, events, camp dates, etc as a "thank you for what you do" gift. (That was Alex's genius idea). The strangest part about wrapping up a semester of ministry is that we, as a whole staff, won't be together in Costa Rica again until January the 29th! We're all in the States until at least January 11th, and then the full-time girls take off for the YoungLife All Staff conference in Orlando while Nicki & I hold it down in Costa Rica as school starts back up. We would love your prayers for our time off, at home, and at staff training until we reunite in 2012!

Then, last Wednesday, I turned 23 years "young"  in Costa Rica! The day started by Alex, Nicki, and Jessie coming in my room while I was still in bed with a box of my favorite doughnuts and gifts. Then, as if doughnuts weren't enough, we went to Jessie apartment and made cinnamon pancakes. We spent the day hanging out at a cute coffee shop (one of my favorite things), eating way too much, and we watched Elf. That night, we all went to dinner at the best Mexican food restaurant in San Jose, Huaraches! I'm all about ranking different things in my life, and I can honestly say my 23rd was a top 3 birthday. I am so blessed to have friends and family that love me and celebrate my life so well. Here's to year 24!

Clearly, very early in the morning...but look at those doughnuts!

 Birthday dinner @ Huaraches

 My first birthday cake in Spanish! (carrot cake)

Since my birthday, we've been going non-stop with fun activities! Friday night was the committee/leader Christmas party. Saturday, Fer took my golfing for my birthday and we watched the Barcelona/Real Madrid game afterwards. Later that afternoon, last year's intern, Josh, flew in to visit! I've heard so much about this "Josh", and it's been a treat to get to spend some quality time with someone who's done exactly what Nicki and I are experiencing this year. Saturday night was the Christmas parade in downtown San Jose...absolute craziness. Then we went to Jeni's house to spend the evening with some YL staff friends from Flagstaff, AZ who are in Costa Rica for some sabbatical time.

Another day on the golf course...a birthday ronud!

 With Josh & Alex-one of the floats at the parade

 Flamboyant parade costumes

A view from the walking bridge

Sunday was a top 5 day in Costa Rica (again with the rankings). We went to see Nicki perform in the IBC Christmas play in the morning, and then Alex & I went to Multiplaza for some high-quality girl time. We shopped for fun outfits to wear while we're home, ate the best frozen yogurt ever, and got manicures. You just need days like that every now and then...But, it gets better. Sunday night, we had tickets to the Costa Rica soccer finals game- Alajuela v. Heredia. I had been dying to go to a Liga (Alajuela's team) game, and it was everything I expected a latinoamerican soccer game to be like...rowdy fans, non-stop noise, pouring rain,  and more yelling in Spanish than I've ever done in my life. Game 2 of the finals will be on the 18th once I'm back in the States. Vamooooooos Liga!

With Alex, Nicki & Sharon waiting for the game to start

 The stadium pre-gametime

A video from the game! Must watch. 

That pretty much wraps up these last 2 weeks as we prepare to go back to each of our hometowns for the holidays. Needless to say, I've experienced so much joy here in Costa Rica these first 4 months, and I have so much to look forward to come back to!

This is the Christmas collage I made for my co-workers to commemorate the first 4 months we've spent together. 

I'm so excited about being back in United States for almost an entire month! Now that it's getting closer (2 days away), I keep thinking of simple American pleasures I've been missing: Chickfila, winter weather, Starbucks, wandering the aisles at Target, good barbecue, and, of course, my family and friends! My schedule is a little crazy while I'm home, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I want to see as many people as I can while I'm home, so my time will look something like this: (estimates)

Sydney's 1 Month Tour of the Southeast
-Flying into Birmingham: December 15th-17th
-Mobile: 18th-24th
-Atlanta: 24th-26th
-Maryville/Knoxville: 26th-30th
-Nashville: December 30th-January 1st
-Maryville/Knoxville: 1st-4th
-Tuscaloosa: 4th-6th
-Mobile: 6th-8th
-New Orleans: 8th-10th (Roll Tide!)
-Flying out of Birmingham on January 11th

Merry Christmas & Happy 2012! May God bless you and keep you as we celebrate Jesus' entrance into our world to redeem us and as we begin a new year. You'll hear more from me when I return to the Rich Coast. Thank you for all of your prayers & support!

"Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus...May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul & body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

THE ONE WHO CALLS YOU IS FAITHFUL, AND HE WILL DO IT." 

(1 Thessalonians 5: 16-24)

Thanksgiving

Even though Thanksgiving has come & gone, allow me to give the Lord public thanks:

(This was made by Kevin & Michelle Suwyn's sweet kids for Thanksgiving)

1) Thank you for a family here in Costa Rica to celebrate the holidays with: The Vida Joven & YoungLife staff gathered at Kevin (our regional director) and Michelle (YoungLives director) Suwyn's house for Thanksgiving dinner. Everyone brought a dish for 30 people. I was in charge of the classic green bean casserole! Everyone there wrote what they were thankful for this year on a construction paper leaf. Leaves from the previous 10 years decorated the room around us-such an awesome tradition! It was a great evening of football, food, and great friends/family!

Jessie, Alex, and Jeni (with Lucas)

 Getting ready for games after dinner & dessert (notice the leaves)

 Boo, Pan, Sharon, & Daniel

2) The Suwyn's kids: As many of you know, I am generally NOT a kid-person. However, the Suwyn's kids are always a breath of fresh air to be around- 3 boys & a girl. The EXACT family I would love to have one day (maybe one more boy in the somewhere). They're crazy, hilarious, and Samara (the girl) and I have a sweet connection! They also have the blondest hair in Costa Rica. 

Sweet Samara

 Jonathan sporting an interesting way to wear a hat...

3) Theme park days with the best of friends: Friday, after Thanksgiving, we went to Parque Diversiones (a theme park) in San Jose. It's no Six Flags, more like the Costa Rican Dollywood, but still so much fun! We spent 6 hours riding rides & eating your oh-so-healthy theme park food...

About to ride the one roller coaster they had

 Hot dogs with everything! Literally,everything...you don't want to know. 

Random Mario & Luigi dressed guys?

4) Visitors from the U S of A: Alex's boyfriend, Andrew, came to visit her for Thanksgiving all the way from South Carolina! It was so much fun to get of glimpse into friend's lives outside of our world here in Costa Rica. Also, it's just exciting to have a new english-speaking face around every now and then to spice things up! I'm Alex misses him already...(Friends, come see me!) 

Resounding, "Awwwww..."

5) AN IRON BOWL VICTORY & A FREE RIDE TO NEW ORLEANS FOR THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP: Usually my Alabama football updates come first, but this one needed to be saved for last. The Crimson Tide embarrassed Auburn 42-14 Saturday evening in their 76th meeting in what as known as the Iron Bowl- easily the most intense rivalry in college football. The win couldn't have been a better way to finish our regular season and clinch a spot to play on college football's biggest stage on January 9th. This is HUGE for me because I'll be home for the championship game! If you can only make one game out of the year, it might as well be the National Championship, right?! I've been saying it all along, and now we're really going! I wouldn't miss cheering on the Tide in New Orleans for the world! ROLL TIDE! Now, LSU just needs to beat Georgia in the SEC Championship so we can get revenge for that November 5th loss!  

"Who is a god like you, who pardons & forgives the transgression of the remnant

of his inheritance? You do not show anger forever, but delight to show mercy.

You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot & hurl 

all our iniquities into the depths of the sea." (Micah 7:18-19) 

The Winter Olympics, Camp, & the BCS

For those of you who don't know- the Crimson Tide has been at the mercy of the BCS gods for the past 2 weeks now, and our national championship hopes still lie in their hands. Before leaving for the mountainous rain forest of Costa Rica last Friday, I posted a Facebook status about last weekend being the best weekend to be away from access to college football because it "wasn't going to be that exciting." I know, I know...I should know better by now. When I returned Sunday afternoon and realized that anyone relevant to our season except LSU lost, I was shocked/ecstatic. Regardless of whether or not the BCS is the best system, it sure does make things exciting! At this point, all Alabama can do for themselves is beat Auburn this weekend...and if we manage to let those barners beat us- then we deserve to have our season ruined. Remember Iron Bowl 2010, Tide fans! It's time for revenge. Keep those title dreams alive and Roooooooooooooll Tide Roll! I'd take an Arkansas win on Friday, too...

In the meantime, we hosted the winter Olympics right here in Santa Ana, Costa Rica last Wednesday evening.  That's right- YoungLife brought a little taste of winter to the now summer in Costa Rica complete with ice skating and bobsledding...on a Crisco covered tarp and soon-to-be-ruined socks. It was both the coolest and greasiest thing I've ever seen, and I'd do it again tomorrow if someone wanted to. We had speed skating, partner skating, Disney on Ice, bobsledding, and some epic falls. The most amazing thing about all of this was it was all indoors. Sounds crazy, right? YoungLife is a little crazy...check it out. 

The Ice Rink

People take to the Crisco ice

Partner skate champions

Bobsled Building 

Then, on Friday, we loaded up two buses of middle school students from 7 different international schools and took off for a weekend of WyldLife camp in the mountains/rain forest. This camp, La Montana Christain Camp, was incredible. We started off Friday night with a surprise roller skating session straight out of my own elementary school days...disco ball lights and all. Saturday, we did a high ropes course in the middle of the rain forest, went to the lake- where there was a huge water slide, a water trapeze, and a trampoline-, then we did a military style mud obstacle course in chest-deep mud, and then we had a dodgeball tournament. Talk about a long day. Throughout the weekend, I led a cabin of 8th grade girls who opened my heart to middle schoolers in a whole new way. I also created and scripted characters for meal program and club program...I was constantly in and out of costumes, switching accents, and making sure supplies were ready for whatever aspect of program came next. What sounds like absolute chaos actually ran like a well-oiled machine; no thanks to myself- only God could pull something like this past weekend off. The British rock star sensations, Freddy VanWalen (Me) and Dingo Starr (Nicki) rocked 4 clubs like it was 1975. The scooter-riding nerds, Beatrice (Alex) and Barb (Me), saved camp from muscleman record-breaker, Rex (Olen), by breaking a Guinness World Record of their own after several failed attempts. Everything about camp makes me smile now looking back...For those of you who can appreciate a classic YL skit: I hosted a "WyldLife's Got Talent"  show on Saturday night where each cabin performed a YL classic. My cabin combined with a guy's cabin to perform the most epic "Pass It Down" skit possibly ever done- 16 people and a dog. I have never been so proud of 13 and 14 year olds. Anyways, enough writing- take a look at the pictures... 

Hanging upside down rather than skating 

Getting ready for the ropes course!

Not your average ropes course...

My group on low ropes challenges

At club!

Freddy VanWalen & Dingo Starr

The lake and its activities

Water Swing

Retoselva (Jungle Challenge)

Nasty guys after finishing 

Scooter soccer...with plungers

With Lindsey and Ali

Ugly, right?

Leadership 2011-2012

After returning from the craziest 48 hours of my life, we had an extra day with the camp speaker and his wife, David & Carol Morgan- complete bad-a's by the way-, whose flight wasn't until Tuesday. What would you do with 24 hrs. in Costa Rica? We took off for the beach at 7 am Monday morning! Our original destination was Playa Hermosa, and after accidentally ending up in Puntarenas, we settled for an afternoon at Jaco beach. The weather was awesome, there were iguanas everywhere, I busted open my first coconut all by myself, had an Imperial on the beach, ate fresh fish tacos, and had the best ice cream/coffee mixture you could possibly imagine. It was a GREAT day at the beach. Then, on the way home, we stopped on "crocodile bridge"- notorious for wild crocodile sightings- and there they were! About 7 or 8 crocs just bathing in the sun...

Jaco beach

Crocodiles

That's not all the wild life I saw last weekend. At camp, I saw howler monkeys and whatever these things are, too:

More than a few times this weekend, the thought that kept coming to my mind was, "This is where I freaking live...?" It's hard to believe sometimes when I'm in a harness in the rainforest, standing on a tropical beach, or looking down on a 15 foot crocodile. But it's true- this is where I live! God has blessed me with the opportunity of a lifetime, and I'm happy to share it with you.      

A Reason to Mourn & a Reason to Celebrate

For the first time this season, I'm not as excited to update you on the happenings of Alabama football this past week. But, the facts are the facts, and we lost to LSU 9-6 in overtime in an intense defensive battle Saturday night. Special teams were the deciding factor between the two teams, and LSU's kicker made one more field goal than we did...that's all there is to it. I hope someone took notes for recruiting priorities next year. Did I cry? Yes. Is there still hope for a championship season? Yes, and that would be absolutely crazy if all of the cards fall into place as necessary for that to happen. I'm proud of those boys in crimson. Roll Tide, forever. Now, let's beat H-E-double hockey sticks out of Mississippi State this Saturday and remind this country what Alabama is capable of. This could still be a wild ride to January 9th!

I wouldn't be being telling the truth if I say that I've completely bounced back from the loss yet...it'll take a day or two of mourning, but I know it's not the end of the world. While the score wasn't ideal, my company during the game certainly was. We had another "viewing" party at Fer Solano's house (the first one was for the UT game two weeks ago), and everyone supported my Tide! We all wore crimson, had our Bama coasters and huggers, and watched the game from start to finish. I loved getting to tell my friends all about our coaches, our players, football rules and strategies, and share some Tide traditions with folks in Costa Rica!

Great friends cheering on the Tide

Our wonderful host and chef, Fer

I just love this picture...

In other happenings, earlier in the day Saturday, I played golf in Santa Ana at an absolutely beautiful course with a great friend, Fer Solano, to keep my mind off the "game of the century" coming up that evening. You had to have been there to fully appreciate the scenery and the weather, but the pictures do it a fair amount of justice. It was very relaxing and enjoyable at the time, but now that it's Sunday morning- I can hardly move. I'm so sore from swinging that golf club...goes to show how often I get out to play. I can't wait to go again soon though! 

The mountains, the course, the weather...just doesn't get much better!

Driving and Putting 

Even earlier in the week-Wednesday we had our "Revenge of the Nerds" YoungLife club. In true YoungLife fashion, I went all out with the theme and did a little Costa Rican thrift store shopping to put together the perfect nerd outfit. The best part of the night ended up being taking "jumping pictures" in Laura Prada's basement in our outfits. This provided lots of laughs, fun pictures, and plenty of entertainment! I gave the "Need" talk at the end of the night reminding our high school friends of their need for Christ. All went well, and there are pictures to prove it...

Our team has never looked better.

One of many "jumping pictures" from the night

Finally, the only thing new with me is the beginning of a "40 Days of Prayer" prayer initiative that I started on Halloween in partnership with my church, The Church at Tuscaloosa, in the States. I listen to Dan's sermons online each Sunday, and I smiled two weeks ago as I heard his message begin to align with where my heart is right now as well-prayer. It's vital, and we'll never know how to well enough or often enough. The ultimate prayer during this time is that God would say to his people exactly what He wants them to hear. In order to hear Him speak, we have to be communicating, right? The doors of our church are open from 7-8 every morning for 40 days for time set aside specifically for prayer, so with a similar attitude, I am praying simultaneously for 40 days days in Costa Rica. I've shared my heart with you in previous weeks about my desire to be better connected as I discern how the Lord is working through my own life in ministry and where He's going with that, as well as how He is working with our YL ministry here in Costa Rica. May these 40 days serve as a time for spiritual training on how to be better connected, how to listen, and how to respond faithfully beyond the initial 40 days...This is a reason to celebrate!

My prayer each morning is this, "Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul. Rescue me from my enemies, O Lord, for I hide myself in you. Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground." -Psalm 143:8-10