Pura Vida

My first and middle name, Ava Katherine, translated into Hebrew means "pure life" which when translated into Spanish is "pura vida." The beautiful, botanical country of Costa Rica is known for their unique greeting and national saying of "¡Pura Vida!" The divine serendipity of this series of translations is found within this life changing country - specifically within my school's yearly summer mission trip to Costa Rica.

I recently returned from my second and final school mission trip to Costa Rica led by my extraordinary Spanish teacher Señora Prater who grew up in Costa Rica and moved to the United States with her American husband at the age of 19. Señora Prater is one of the most incredible women of God that I have ever known, and I am forever thankful for the opportunity to learn four years of Spanish lessons and life lessons from her. For this reason, this final trip to Costa Rica was extra sentimental, and I made sure each night to record each emotion felt and each activity done on this week long trip. Here is an excerpt from my daily journal that I wrote at the end of the very first day in Costa Rica:

"For some reason though this year's trip has felt significantly different. I feel out of place, insecure, anxious, worried, useless, stupid, and worst of all, homesick. I know what homesickness has felt like before, and I'm so angry. I'm angry at how comfortable I am with my lifestyle. I'm frustrated with how dis-comfortable I get with discomfort. Why do I feel this way?! I'm trying so hard to have faith and rely on God's strength, but I don't understand...It's scaring me because this is not the me I want to become. I don't want to stay in one place. I want to grow and travel and serve. I don't want to feel overwhelmed by discomfort to the point where I shut down and hold myself back. I don't think it's a bad thing to miss home for the right reasons...It's just day by day, moment by moment all focused on God."

It's safe to say that the first day was slightly emotionally rough. It shocked me how accustomed I had become to constant comfort. I realized and felt the unhealthy amount of reliance I had on comfort and its friends; and then there I was in Costa Rica on a mission to paint an elementary school, serve at a nursing home, buy groceries for families in need, and do a VBS with the weakest of faiths. Comfort had become my crutches that I held on tightly to, and Faith was being pushed to the side without any priority to exercise it. On this trip that is so dearly close to my heart, I found the weakest point of my heart: trusting God in every moment. Oh how I had forgotten to prioritize giving God my every moment and trusting Him with every worry and crippled thought! Each day presented it's different obstacles, but each day God provided me the the strength and endurance to work through and experience each obstacle. I felt my faith grow because faith was all I had to rely on. Faith is all we ever need to rely on.

All in all, the mission trip as a whole was phenomenal. Along with missions, one of the most incredible experiences of Costa Rica is the rich culture. I am beyond thankful to have had the opportunity to speak another language, zipline through a rain forest (in the pouring rain), eat plantains, rice, and beans for breakfast, and be a receiver of the Tico's hospitality. I had fallen in love with Costa Rica all over again, and I did not want to leave. Here is an excerpt from my daily journal that I wrote the night before leaving Costa Rica:

"This was the best week of my life because I grew. I may not fully know in what way, but all I know is my relationship with God is not staying in Costa Rica."

I believe I have a habit that wherever I go and have that spiritual "mountain top experience," I tend to leave it at the place I traveled to and not pick it up back at home in the proverbial valley. However, I am determined to follow though the commitment I wrote down on my final night of my final time on the Costa Rica mission trip. My relationship with God, my stronger faith in God, is not in Costa Rica. It is right here at home, and it is with me wherever I go.

"Pura Vida With a Purpose" is the Costa Rica mission trip main statement. God had a purpose for me in Costa Rica - to grow my faith. He had a purpose for every person who went on the trip. I hope to one day find myself back in Costa Rica, but until then ¡Que Dios lo bendiga y pura vida!

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Psalms 62:5-7 (ESV) "For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence,

for my hope is from him. He is my rock and my salvation, my fortress;

I shall not be shaken. On God rests my salvation and my glory;

my mighty rock, my refuge is God."

Ineffable - incapable of being expressed in words