A quiet week

I have had vacation from classes since last Friday, March 30th because nearly everything closes down over Holy Week. At first I had planned to take a trip to Panama to renew my visa but the details were not coming together for the trip and I did not really have a peace about going. (Of course there was also the issue of choosing between various things that I wanted to do). In the end I opted to stay in Costa Rica and go to La Cumbre camp on Saturday the 31st. There was an English-speaking youth group at the camp and they needed help with the ropes course and climbing center.
I left early Saturday morning on the bus and figured that I could use the 2 hour bus ride to do some reading. (I had lots of things that I wanted to accomplish this week from studying, to reading, to finishing taxes). But God had other plans for the ride because almost soon as I sat down, the girl beside me and I began talking. We talked for almost the entire trip. She is a university student who was returning home for the week. As we talked I learned that she is a Christian but has not found a church or Christian friends in San Jose. Because I know a lot of youth from among the camp volunteers, I know of a few youth groups and churches that she can maybe connect with. I am planning to visit a church with her in 2 weeks when she is back in town.
The time at camp was both relaxing and fun. I enjoyed being able to debrief activities in English again. At the same time there were enough Spanish speaking staff around that I got to practice Spanish a fair amount. The one evening I was able to chat with one of the youth group members who had just moved to the area and to pray with her. Through this and other events, God showed me that He did have plans for me in being here in Costa Rica this week. I was thankful for the confirmation because I had been debating whether I should have just left and renewed my visa. On Monday we finished the programming with the youth group but I decided to stick around for a few more days because my plans to go hiking had fallen through and I did not want to return to the city any sooner than I had to. I wanted to have a few last days in the cool mountain air. Monday night there was an awesome view because the moon, which was almost full, had a huge halo around it. I had never seen one so big though the next night it was there again though fainter this time.
I was able to do some rock climbing at a new site on camp and also just spend time with God down by the river or up on the rock after a climb and some bushwhacking. All in all it was a refreshing time and great time even though I did not have the adventure of traveling.