Hosea

So for the past few weeks I've been listening to a series of teaching by Mike Bickel on the book of Hosea. I can't possibly try and tell everything that I've been learning, but I do want to make note of one thing that I have found interesting. Hosea 2:16 "And it shall be in that day says the Lord, that you will call Me 'My Husband,' and no longer call Me 'My Master."
As I thought about that a little bit I've begun to wonder what that means exactly. For when angels address the Lord of the universe they refer to Him as Lord God Almighty, One who is and was and who is to come, Holy holy holy is the Lord God Almighty. Angels use the utmost respect when refer to the Lord. We are told to use a completely different language, Hosea 2:16 tells us to call the Lord 'My Husband' and Matthew 6:9 "In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven..."
I've wondered about who we are in the light of God, that He desires us to call Him Father and Husband. It seems to me that He is truly interested in a relationship with us and that blows my mind, that He would want a personal relationship with little old me.

Astro

This morning I woke up to voices say "Venga, venga, venga" which means come. I couldn't understand why someone would be saying this, it sounded as if they were calling a dog. Well, when I left my room, there was a little puppy to greet me at the door. Our youngest host sister has received a new little puppy named Astro (and yes its from the Jetsons). He's a cute little puppy :)

Mr. Mouse

For those of you that know me, you would know that when I travel to other countries, I can usually manage to embarass myself pretty good or somehow just miss the mark which leads to people laughing at me. So far into my time in Costa Rica I have yet to do anything of the sort (though there is still plenty of time). So far all the funny stories have happen to someone else and I have had the enjoyment of simple watching.
The latest of events comes once again from my Tico family. Bekii and I had settled down for a nice movie on Wednesday night, when all of a sudden we heard a scream of utter terror from Melissa our host sister. We were immediately concerned, because this scream wasn't the oh you scared me scream, this was the my life is just about over type of scream. I was thinking that some robber had broken into the house and I was going to have you use my special combat skills that I learned from all my years of watching wrestling on TV. We crept into the kitchen and didn't see or hear anything and then out into the office area, where we heard Melissa whimpering. Bekii knocked on the bedroom door to ask what had happen. All I hear from the office is El Raton or mouse/rat. So the scream of death was over Mr. Mickey Mouse that was interested in a bite to eat for dinner, it was unfortunate that he came to eat the same time as Melissa.
I tell this story in good humor because I'm sure we all have our own fears that cause remarkably improper reactions, so I hope that I will not have to write any stories about my little friends that scare me to death :).

Fire!!!

Fire!!! This story is a little old, but still worth sharing. Last week around 11:30 at night, I was lying in bed and I noticed an unusual smell in the room. Our Tico mother enjoys cooking meals for the next day late at night, so I didn't think much about the odor at first. As I was lying there I started thinking to myself "that doesn't smell like cooking smoke, that smells like fire smoke." I was debating whether to get out of bed or not, but decided if the house was on fire and I didn't do anything because I was too lazy that excuse wasn't going to cut it in the morning. I walked over to our widow that over looks the kitchen and noticed an orange glow coming from the oven. About that same time our tico mom open the oven door and the biggest fire ball I've ever seen came exploding from the oven. Needless to say when she screamed and I jumped people started emerging from their rooms. Melissa our host sister yells at her mom to through water on the fire. I'm thinking that it's a grease fire and water is not going to help this situation at all. Thankfully no water was thrown on the fire, the oven door was simply shut and the flames were gone. The house smelled like smoke for the rest of the evening and we all had a good laugh in the morning.