pura vida.

I just returned from an amazing mission trip to Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica with HPUMC High School students. I had the opportunity to go as a leader/mentor and hang out with some pretty awesome kids for a whole week. I watched them work hard, play hard and worship hard. I watched them grow closer to God. I watched them grow in their faith. I watched them build relationships and make new friends. I watched them grow up a little bit right before my eyes.

I was lucky enough to have the chance to go on two mission trips to Kingston, Jamaica when I was in high school. It was a powerful experience that taught me how to be more humble and thankful for all the things I have. What is blessing it is that these kids had the opportunity to experience that. I feel so incredibly blessed that I was able to lead them this week and see God working in their lives.

The pictures really tell this story best.

Vacation Vexation

(not entirely sure that "vexation" is a word but I know you like my rhyming - ok it is in fact in the dictionary, i just looked it up. 1 point for Alessandra's SAT word)

One of the policies at my office is that each employee must take 5 consecutive days off each year as part of our risk management policy. Basically, it's a pretty sweet deal because I don't feel totally guilty about wanting to go on vacation and using up PTO to do that. I mean, these 5 days, still come out of PTO but we HAVE to use them, so it somehow makes it better.

So what am I going to do with these 5 days you might ask? Well, I've thought of a few things. Each one a little different with DRASTICALLY different prices.

Here is the breakdown:

1. Go on a mission trip to Zambia, Africa with HPUMC. I would need to take about 7-8 days off work. All costs of the trip itself are covered except airfare....which just happens to be about $2000. Ouch. The trip could be totally random people but it would be an awesome experience and I've REALLY wanted to go to Africa. Side note: we would have bucket showers and pit latrines. Am I really ready for that??

2. Go on a mission trip to Costa Rica with HPUMC. This trip would either be with a large group of adults OR I could go as a leader for the youth trip. This would be a little less remote and the project sounds a little more appealing. The Africa trip is with Habitat for Humanity which is a little intense. The plus side of this trip is that if I go with the youth then HPUMC might pay for it, which would mean a free vacation.

*The thing about these mission trips is that I need to decide if I'm trying to go on a mission for myself or to be selfless. If I go with the youth, the trip is about the kids. I'm not really going to be fully invested in the mission because I'm responsible for giving the kids a great trip.

3. Go on a vacation. Price: unlimited. This is risky because my friends don't necessarily get to take a week off of work so I have no clue who I would go with?!

4. Go home, see family. My sister's birthday is in June and she turns 21 so it would be fun to celebrate with her. I also don't really know when I would see my family besides at the holidays. But going home could be relatively boring. I would probably just read like 7 books and go to the beach.

Any and all other ideas are welcomed. Someone suggested looking into mission trips at other churches which could be a good idea as well, but as I am now a member at HPUMC, I want to try to be involved there.