Be prepared…. It’s LONG!!! Come back tomorrow and read some more if you get bored!!!
As many of you already know, I was a student once again in Youth with a Mission’s Biblical Core Course from the end of September through mid December of this year. The 12 week course is well known for being life-changing, yet very intense. I was at the same base in San Jose, Costa Rica where I did my Discipleship Training School (DTS) last fall. I would like to share about our typical weekly schedule, and then maybe you will be sympathetic as to why I didn’t blog for the past 3 months. J
Life on the Base
Breakfast is from 6:30-7am each weekday( 8am on weekends), and quiet times are scheduled in for us from 7:00-8am. Just like last year, every Monday we had base worship from 8-9am, and every Wednesday we had base intercession during the same time. Even though I had a hard time getting up some days, I always looked forward to these special times where all students and staff would get together and praise God and intercede in prayer for our base family and needs around the world. There’s just something super exciting about being with your family and worshipping our Awesome God together! The other mornings from 8-9am all students would share in a time of intercession or worship with their particular school. Last semester there were 3 schools going on at the base: The Discipleship Training School (DTS), The School of Foundations of Community Development (FCD), and my school, the Biblical Core Course (BCC). The latter 2 schools are secondary schools, and are typically smaller than a DTS at the San Jose base. The DTS this semester was comprised of 18 girls and 1 boy. The base was nothing short of exciting with all the 18-22 yr. old girls running around, plus Sam. I was very freaked out when I heard about this bunch of young ladies, plus young man, coming to do their school at the same time I was doing my BCC. I honestly thought they would either be wonderful young people, or wild and crazy, and I was hoping they were not the latter! I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised once I got to know most of the girls and Sam, and I really enjoyed each of their cute little personalities. I will share more about some of these amazing young people later in the post.
My class consisted of 5 girls and 3 guys, including 2 full time Latino staff members, 3 Canadians, a German, and 2 American girls. The youngest was 18 and I was the oldest at 32. We all had very different educational backgrounds and life experiences, but we worked well together. We were all there for a common purpose: to know God more by understanding His Word. We were privileged to have 2 amazing staff, Douglas and Paty. Douglas and his wife Karen were called to Costa Rica several years ago, and they have 2 sweet little boys. Douglas went to Bible college and is more than qualified to be the director of the BCC. He is a very gifted and knowledgeable teacher, who is also on the main leadership team at the base. He runs the school with great patience, has a heart for discipleship, is spirit lead, and is a man of prayer. Karen is amazing and is like a mom to most girls on the base, but since she and I are close in age, she was more like a sister to me! Each day before class, Douglas and Paty would pray for our time together. Paty is in her early 20’s, is from Honduras, and has an amazing heart for God, for His Word, and for prayer. She was my one-on-one, and almost every week we would share a meal together and pray for one another.
The Inside Scoop on the BCC
With the exception of the first 2 weeks, and a few other days, Monday -Friday, we would have a lecture in the mornings, and do our assignments in the afternoons and evenings. Every Saturday, we would read 3-6 hours of the Word, and we either read in one group or two. In the beginning the native Spanish speakers read together, but the last few weekends of the school, they wanted to be with us. ( In order to read through the entire Bible in 3 months, we had to read about 6 hours a week.) We were given a reading sheet with the historical context for the book, and had to answer 3-5 questions about each book. We read the entire Bible, but we only had time to study 14 books in depth. The books that we studied in order were: Acts, Philemon, Hebrews, John, 1 Peter, Titus, Romans, Genesis, Revelation, 1 & 2 Kings, Esther, Jeremiah, and Haggai. About 2/3 of the way through the course, we had to preach, teach, and lead a small group Bible study. We had to preach from one of Paul’s prison epistles ( Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, or Colossians), and we could teach and prepare our small group lesson from any of the books we had studied up until that point. I preached on Philippians 1:20-21 ( emphasis on to live is Christ and to die is gain), taught on Romans 12, and lead a small group on Romans 12:1-2. Amazingly, my small group spent 45 minutes discussing just 2 verses!
The BCC teaches students to study the Bible through the Inductive Study Method. Each week we did the same assignments, with a few variations. For each book we studied, we color coded ( people, places, ideas, connectors, etc.), did our own paragraph, section, and division titles, looked up the historical context, including a biography on the author, and everything we could find about the original audience, when it was written, why the book was written, etc. In addition, for the book we were studying, we had to had identify the structures, law of composition, and genre. For each book we also did some sort of observation, interpretation, application, and proclamation assignment (s). To “proclaim” what I learned, I usually wrote a poem, a sermon, or a rap. We learned how to do horizontal charts, vertical charts, character studies, and word studies. Each week we also read 15 Psalms on our own, and completed an inductive study on one of those Psalms, along with a personal meditation and illustration. Additionally, each week, (in groups of 3), we read 3 chapters out of the book of Proverbs, and selected one proverb to do a personal meditation and an illustration of the wisdom we took from the proverb. Each group then had to prepare a skit to act out the wisdom they got from the proverb. Every Tuesday morning we would perform our skit in front of the class, quote the proverb from memory, and share the wisdom behind the proverb. Now, hopefully, you understand why I didn’t blog for 3 months!! You are probably wondering when we actually took a break. Each Saturday after our reading, we had until 6pm to finish our assignments from the week. We were not allowed to work past 6pm, but I did sometimes and to be honest, I still didn’t complete all of my work! I would work on the assignments that carried higher weights before I would work on say my Proverbs or Psalms meditations. ( Yes, we did get grades, and had a final !) So, we had Saturday evening and Sunday to rest and chill. How did I spend most of my time off? SLEEP!!!!! I think my record from one Saturday night to Sunday afternoon near the end of the course was close to 13 hours, with some RR breaks in there! I was absolutely exhausted from getting up early and staying up till midnight sometimes doing HW so all I really did during my time off was sleep and do laundry!!! Pathetic, I know! But, that's what happens when you get older! I had to laugh because all of the young folks in my school would get up and go out for coffee or visit with friends on the base, and I could barely get out of bed before 1pm on Sundays!
It was a miracle that I even got up on Saturdays too! The only reason I got up was because the base serves Gallo Pinto (a Costa Rican traditional dish made of rice, beans, Salsa Lizano, herbs and spices) with eggs, and sometimes fried plantains! I have to confess that I told the Lord that if there was no Gallo Pinto on a Saturday morning, then I was not going to get out of bed ( I would've cried too)! And, do you want to know that every Saturday morning during my school, that there was Gallo Pinto!!! Sometimes, in the past, the people on weekend kitchen duty would forget to soak the beans the night before, so they would make pancakes ( not gluten free, so I skipped Sunday breakfast) on Saturday, and Gallo Pinto on Sunday. God was so faithful to provide a big, yummy breakfast for me on Saturdays so I had energy to work on all my HW until 6pm! ( It wasn't the healthiest of meals, I know, but hey, my brain needed carbs!) I love how He is involved in the little things that will sometimes just make or break us!!!
If I were to write everything I learned during the BCC, you would fall asleep after reading this post that would be more like a book! I learned so much about God and His character, but one of the most powerful things that I saw was the fact that He is so compassionate, loving, patient, and gracious in dealing with the people He created! I really noticed this while reading through the Old Testament. I think sometimes the perception of God can be that He is a gracious, loving God in the New Testament, but He is harsh and full of wrath and judgment in the Old Testament. This is absolutely not the case! God was very clear with His people, and time and time again, He told them that if they obeyed Him, they would have life. If they disobeyed Him, death and destruction were sure to come. In our study of the book of Jeremiah, we had to color code where there was “HOPE” for the people at the time. I honestly didn’t think that I was going to be coloring much of anything, but I was totally surprised to find the opposite. There are several portions of the book that speak of HOPE for those who would turn from their wicked ways ( mainly idol worship), and turn back to God. Throughout the book, the LORD spoke through the prophet Jeremiah repeatedly about Jerusalem’s destruction, but the kings stood by while the people of Israel and Judah continued to offer sacrifices to other gods. Before long, all the prophecies came true, and King Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans destroyed Jerusalem with fire, including the house of LORD, and the Jews were sent into exile.
I also really enjoyed studying the Bible in context and found that every word is written for a reason. The author was communicating with his audience in a very specific manner that they would understand. During the school, we had to put ourselves in the shoes of the original audience ( interpretation) before we could even think about applying it to our own life. One of the best examples for me was in the book of John. Since I spent so much time doing my assignments, I copied the next paragraphs from my historical background research. I think you will understand why John uses the language that he does after reading this section:
The book was written to Jews who had left Israel, and who had adopted the Greek culture. They had strong faith, but mixed their beliefs with the ideas around them. Greek philosophers heavily influenced their ways of thinking, and schools of thought like Gnosticism and Docetism dominated. The Greeks had the basic idea that a good god created the spiritual world, and a bad god created the physical world. Furthermore, Plato said that matter was corrupt, and the spirit was good (pure). A bad god was as corrupt as his creation. The knowledge was the secret key to salvation. Gnosticism started around the 2nd century and Gnostics believed that the only way to escape the “bad world” was to receive secret knowledge Only the Gnostics could actually receive this knowledge. A sect of Gnostics known as Docetists believed that the body of Christ was not flesh and blood. They believed he was simply a spirit or a hallucination. As John was writing the book, he specifically addressed some of these ideas with parallel statements to describe Jesus. While Gnosticism says that only a select group of people receive “secret knowledge,” John says in 1:9 that the true Light (Jesus) enlightens every man. While no good god would come to a physical world, Jesus “ was in the world (1:10).” And even though matter was bad, Jesus became flesh and dwelt among men (1:14). John repeatedly addresses that salvation ( eternal life) is by believing in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Some references are: 3:15,16,36, 5:24, 6:40,47. He doesn’t mince words, because salvation is clearly available to all men if they believe.
Highlights of the Last 5 Months in Costa Rica
I really enjoyed developing relationships with friends I had made previously in my DTS. Whether staff or students, I met quite a few people during my DTS in 2010, and it was fun to get to know them more. One of the girls from my DTS also came back and did the BCC with me, and she was just such a blessing to me. Even though we only really talked at meals and on breaks, Jody aka “granny” on the base, and I had this cool connection. We already knew each others’ history, so we were able to encourage one another and love one another in a really special way. About once or twice a week we would jog together around 6am, and it was just nice to have a partner to get up with me at the crack of dawn. She and I were always giving each other big hugs, and many times we snuggled up right next to each other during our reading times on Saturdays. I’m super affectionate, and she loved getting hugs too, so we just shared the love and were happy!! Jody wasn’t the only one was huggin’ on! I must have gotten 20 plus hugs a day on the base, not to mention all the love from the kids during the summer during ministry! It’s unbelievable how many people are huggers on that base! (Man, I miss all that love!!)
The BCC was a huge challenge for me in many ways, but God gave us an amazing weekend away for our Bible reading retreat that really blessed me. (Some of you saw the pics that were posted on Facebook of the house and the view of the beach from our front door). Talk about AMAZING!! It came at the perfect time for me because I was really feeling the stress of not having balance. The retreat allowed me to refresh and make it through the last 5 weeks of the course. Unlike the previous schools, we got to go to the beach. Our assignment was to read the first 5 books of the Bible over the weekend. The moment we left, we started listening to Genesis on a CD in the van. A few followed along in their Bibles, but I think most us would get car sick if we read. Once we got to the beach house, we finished Genesis, had a lunch break, and started reading Exodus. After dinner we decided to knock out the book of Leviticus, so we just had to read 2 books on Saturday. We finished around 2pm Saturday afternoon, then ran to put on sunscreen and swimsuits, and we all played in the ocean for a few hours! We read about 13 hours, so we had some major energy to release! The weather could not have been more beautiful, and we had a gorgeous house for the weekend with free wi-fi and a wash machine. (It may not sound like a big deal to have these things, but as missionaries we get excited about the little things in life!) Our staff even cooked delicious meals for us, all we had to do was read, rest, and have fun! Douglas and Karen brought gluten free pancake mix so when they made the other students banana chocolate chip pancakes, I got to have the same, but a GF version! I was stoked!!! God LOVES me so MUCH!!!
If the doors close to Germany, then I will more than likely apply as FT staff at the San Jose, CR base. While I’m in Texas, I am trying to triple my customer base with Juice Plus, as well as find some more distributors to work on my team. Everything I sell will go towards my ministry, however, that is not a whole lot right now. I really enjoy learning about health and sharing what I have learned with people. Right now I am reading 2 books, ProMetabolics by Dr. "Smokey" Santillo, the genius behind Juice Plus, and The Ministry of Intercession by Andrew Murray. This year, I want to grow spiritually and be healthier as I'm sure most of you do. I am looking for work to help with gas and other expenses, as well as my airfare and language school. Please keep me in your prayers for a job opportunity to present itself soon, and that God would provide for me in His ways and His timing. God has already been faithful in this area because some friends from church have given me money that I was able to use towards renewing my passport and gas. I have no idea how long I will be here, but I know that God is faithful to provide for me each step of the way. I also know that he needs to prepare me and do some things in my heart before He will send me back overseas. He has already begun to show me some areas that I need to work on, so I can either go with it, or fight Him on it. Personally, it takes way too much energy to fight God, so I have learned to surrender, and get on the operating table so He can do some more surgery on this little heart that still needs Him to heal some pockets where pain lingers. If I become stubborn again along the journey, He loves me enough to humble me, reminds that He knows best, and I just surrender all over again. (This happens more often than I care to admit… I’m just hard headed sometimes!)
I will post updates here and there, including what He’s teaching me in this season!
Thanks so much for your love and support!! Please send me a quick e-mail and let me know how you are doing and how I can pray for you!!
Trusting Him,
Steph
