Today is already May 10th and I can hardly believe it. The time is flying so fast. I have been in Costa Rica for four months now. I am so tired because I have been working in every fiber of my being: physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally.
I have seen some very great successes in these past couple of weeks, and I praise God for those victories. We had a great turn out last Saturday for the L3 meetings, and I praise God because lives were impacted and three people got saved that night. I am sure that others left with food to chew and new perspectives that they had not had before about Christians. The whole purpose of the night was to draw in the unbeliever and join together with them in a show of talents. It was incredible. We had a group of bikers who were unsaved, and some fire-breathing antics with another unsaved group. We also had two outside Christian singers, a “worship” band, musicians, drama, and choreography. We also had artists in our young people who drew incredible things on the walls, we did graffiti, and it was an all out party. We also re-arranged the sanctuary in such a way that it would be like a circle. The congregation on Sunday morning was a bit shocked I am sure at the condition of the church, because we kept it the same so that they could see it.
Although we passed out invitations for a few hours the day of, my critique is that it may not have been enough time for many people to come. I feel that it was a bit too ambiguous for many and that while they expressed half-hearted interest, they couldn’t actually come. However, if we had been out there a different day as well as the day of, I feel it possibly could have been more effective. The thought of the others was that doing it the day of was the best, because it gave people just enough time to remember about it and not forget when it was. We had a blast.
The last Sunday of April, we had a special “Pirate” theme Sunday for the kids. As most of you know, I am a part of a team that does a special outreach one Sunday a month to the kids of Curri. It was extremely successful. In it we had a big pirate ship, three classrooms transformed into cabins of the ship. We all dressed up in Pirate gear and we played pirate like games. We had a map in which they had to pin flags on the X marked on it. It was like pin the tail on the donkey. We also had many decorations that we spent hours working on. I told a lesson about pirates and finding treasure. And we learned the verse about Guarding your Heart. I also talked about the most important treasure ever, which is having a relationship with Jesus! And how no one had the ability to take that away from us.
Monday, May 5th we started up classes again. This week has been all about Missiology. We have reviewed the Indigenous church model which makes every effort to keep the church run by national people. This is important so that there does not become a reliance on the missionary, but rather the people are being trained so that they can grow in their faith and they can have ownership of the church. We have talked about many things in regards to what our goal is as missionaries in proclaiming the good news and as we say in the Assemblies of God, the FULL gospel. This implies that we are centered on Christ and bringing him to all people by means of the Spirit of God working within us. It is through the power of the baptism of the Holy Spirit that we are blessed to see people come to Christ, but on our own we recognize that we are weak. We talked about the problems that can happen when we start to try to do things in our own strength and forget to rely on prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit at work in us. This is often how burn out and different kinds of moral failure happen, because people get disconnected from the source of all which is Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit whom he has sent as our Advocate and our Comforter.
It has been enriching and convicting to have this class.
Sometimes when we follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, he takes us places we don’t desire to go or that may seem insignificant to ourselves or others, but the important thing is that we are following His call. When we lose sight or hearing of His voice, is when we start to get off track.
Today I pick up a team of construction workers who are here to help with the Bible school construction. It is so very exciting to be a part of what God is doing! I will be with the team on Saturday and Sunday and we will be doing an outreach concert on Saturday night, and doing a service on Sunday morning in a little village. The construction guys will give testimonials and I will look forward to this!
As you can hear, I have been incredibly busy, and I am praise God for every opportunity he has given me. I pray that I will be able to be faithful to share his word. My prayers are out to you back home because I believe God is going to begin a new work in you and that we have barely tapped into our potential as a church. It is amazing the kind of outreach we can do, if we are just faithful. It doesn’t mean we will always see great results but we cannot measure those results with human eyes because the Spirit sees something completely different than we do.
MY BATTLE
As you all know. I am a very relational person, and relationships are important to me. Herein lies my weakness. I have been battling some loneliness, but at the same time, I feel ashamed of this need I have. God has always blessed me with many friends, and I love them so very much.
I have been fighting, however, and I have lost some of the battles. I desire to have a relationship one day that is pure and holy. I desire to have the relationship that is right for me. However, this only comes through fighting and prayer because there are all kinds of opportunities for the wrong relationships. Although this should be only secondary right now, because I am focused on many other things in my life, and I have committed not to date for the next couple of years, I find myself yearning for the right person. I see children and can't help noticing how much they look like their parents, I sit at home and cook for myself, iron for myself, and I simply struggle from time to time...in the times of quiet.
Please pray for me that I will trust God, and not be afraid of what he may be telling me. One of the most important things for me right now is discernment and focus. Pray that I will put such thoughts out of my mind, because I know that I can trust God who knows the desires and seasons of the heart. He knows my ways. Please pray that I will grow in Him and in His desires for me and in His understanding!
Sometimes our dreams must die, in order to find life and grow into something beautiful.
I am sure every young single woman has to deal with this on occasion, but the most important thing to me is my relationship with Jesus. He is the greatest passion of my heart. I struggle with the tensions of these two things. Because I feel that if he is truly my greatest passion, then marriage should dwindle, rather it is still strong. Other single missionaries struggle with this tension as well, and I ask you to pray for us. We are called, and God loves us so much. He is our husbandman and best friend.
God is faithful and good. His love never fails and I am forever grateful for who He is. I need him every day and I am thankful that He can be strong where I am weak. I acknowledge that I have not handled this desire with perfection.
If he can use me…one of the least of these…friend, He can use you. All it takes is a willing vessel and a willing heart.
God would say to you..."I love you. I want you. I am jealous for all of your love." I know He says this to you. He told me that. It was so beautiful and I felt His presence and I could barely breathe.
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