Social justice

Dear friends,

Did you wake up in your own bed this morning? Enjoying the warmth of your family. Sitting under the christmas lights and dreaming?

There are many who do not have this luxury. They scrounge for food, they hide from police, who have watched them be beat, and done nothing, they live as invisible trying to escape from existence. they are dead people walking.

What of these? Wake up! Get on your knees. Cry out to the living God. He is not ignorant to our pleas. and He will let justice be done.

Repent all you people. Repent from your wickedness.

My opportunities were given to me by my Maker who loves me, those who did not have my opportunities, along with those who have victimized them, are also loved by God. He will bring justice.

Fight for these.

An update

So what have I been doing this past couple of months?

We had the first ever HIMAD + camp for those pastor’s kids ages 21 and older. It was a very refreshing time of renewal in the Lord and challenges. We did rock climbing, ”Jump of faith” and a couple of other challenges which depended on team work, getting beyond your fears and embracing a courageous attitude.
For this I not only enjoyed the camp and made a personal renewal with the Lord, but also was able to serve the Dahlagers by taking care of their kids during the altar time. We played hide and seek, made up our own dances to the worship, roasted marshmallows, and drank too much hot chocolate.

I have been enjoying teaching English once a week in one of the Latin American Child Care schools, and the took pictures at the kids special “Day of the Child” celebration. It is such a joy to hear the kids begin to speak in class little by little and very rewarding.

Each of us have an important role to play when it comes to bringing others into a closer relationship with Jesus. A smile, a touch, and a word of encouragement are all things that can enlighten the day of those around us and give them the strength to take another step.

Jesus says that “even a cup of cold water given in my name, … will be rewarded.” How important that we give those cups of cold water, give those significant hugs and smiles, and let our lights shine as people see what kind of difference that we make they will want to serve this God.

I went to a compassion forum in the end of August and learned many important areas that I can implement into the work I do with street children. I am excited to look into the next couple of years, when I can work with the vision of the national church to reach 1 million children for Christ in Costa Rica. These children are the ones with a whole life in front of them, imagine what a difference it can make in their lives to have a friend with them to help them through any situation they suffer or go through. Jesus walk with me and kept me from substance abuse or from promiscuity. There are so many temptations that our children confront every day in this generation, and the education that we can give them and the resources that we can partner together to bring them, will prevent them from the paths that lead to death, and lead them on the path that leads to life.

As I have been praying about the focus God wants to give me for this next step in the journey, a word has come to me again and again which is “prevention.” The process of restoration is so important, but what can we do to prevent these children from being abused and running to the streets for protection? What can we do to prevent these kids from STDs and from drugs and alcohol? There is such a great need for education and for values in Costa Rica among the youth. A need for education on behaviors, for preventative measures from the abusers and rescue for the victims. This is a culture that has been overly exposed to sexuality at a young age, and the kids are not protected from billboards of half clothed woman or commercials on TV these days. We cannot protect them from the environment in which they live, but we can give them tools to help them focus and find purity and greater hope.

I need your continued partnership with me. I want to help to enable these children who have been victimized in their settings. I want them to be empowered to escape from the abuser. We can be a part to create a safe haven for these children. One that King’s Castle is trying to create for them here in Costa Rica. There are people here already working to educate these children, and building relationships with them and the parents who are there.

I want to see His name honored and glorified. He is great! One of the many opportunities I have had are to go to different places and preach about missions. I believe that God wants to transform communities and be involved in the every day lives of his people. For that reason, I have enjoyed going and sharing with congregations, women and youth about missions, purity, and various topics. I remember one place that I visited, that I felt like this small church has incredible potential in their community and that it is God’s desire to see that whole town worshipping him. These people can be missionaries in their own towns, they can live by example and spread God’s love abroad. They can make a difference through the way that they live, and God can be glorified for his name.

I have many things to learn, and often my heart is sad for many reasons. I am sad by failed dreams, I am sad by misuse of resources, I am sad by imperfection, and poor use of resources. I feel humbled and amazed at how God uses us in all of our weaknesses, but never consider that my weaknesses are acceptable. I feel an eagerness to be used by God, and yet a failure to always be sensitive. I feel caught by a lack of focus. The devil is sneaky but God is victorious. I am grateful for God’s hand, and I desire to serve him, yet I am always testing my motivation. Oh that we could be less self seeking, less desirous of praise, because when I do something, I want it to be all for his glory, yet I see that many struggle with these things.

When God calls you to do something, that does not mean he makes it perfectly easy to do, nor does he tell you all the answers to the problems. But we must take His hand and trust him. Not be afraid to make mistakes, but be only determined to never quit and never leave His side. Determined to stay on your knees, and take the time necessary for Him regardless of all the demands that people wan to make on your schedule. ALWAYS schedule in time for God and DON”T COMPROMISE this time for anyone else. Also make time for yourself, and have it FULL on your agenda. Be the most time efficient as possible and don’t back down on your purpose, but keep it in focus at all times.

THAT CHRIST MAY BE PREACHED TO ALL GENERATIONS AND THAT HIS PEOPLE WOULD SEE AND HEAR HIM!

ALEF

Blessed are they whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the Lord.

Blessed are those who keep His statutes, and seek him with all their heart.

They do nothing wrong, they walk in all his ways.

You have laid down precepts, that are to be fully obeyed.

Oh that my ways were steadfast in obeying your decrees.

Then I would not be put to shame, when I consider all your commands.

I will praise you with an upright heart, as I learn your righteous laws.

I will obey all your decrees, do not utterly forsake me.

I am working on memorizing more scripture so that I can be full of the Spirit of the Lord at all times.

Friends, memorize with me if it so delights you... I know that it delights the Lord.

I find that with God as my director, I am strengthened and encouraged. I make all kinds of mistakes, and I am an imperfect worker, but my goal is to follow him with an upright heart just as David wrote in Psalm 119. My desire is to know my Heavenly Father in His fullness, because He loves me. "OH THAT MY WAYS WERE STEADFAST, IN OBEYING ALL HIS DECREES>"

The Word says in Psalms 37:4 to Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.

To know him... to serve him... to live for him... to MAKE HIM KNOWN!

Values and Investments

What are those things that you value most?

I have been thinking about what is most valuable to me, and how those things have had to come under the cross.

Paul says some encouraging things. He says to the Macedonians, that Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.

I think sometimes we let life become so complicated. I do anyway.

I was reading some stuff defining limits in your life. Life is full of investments.

We constantly make investments of time, money, people. All of these are very important. I have been re-evaluating my investments and how they show a picture about who I am.

Are the investments I am making an accurate picture of what my core values are? It is too easy to just live according to the needs of everyone around you, and according to the pressures around us, when Christ says we are to walk the straight and narrow way.

He says "Enter the narrow gate," he says that "Wide is the road to destruction and there are many on it..." "But narrow is the road that leads to life, and there are few who find it."

Of course there are basic needs that must be considered in a fair evaluation of one's values.

If you do not value sleep, you will probably not be well rested or as effective. Sleep is an important value.

If you do not value food, You may make all the wrong choices and end up still hungry, unsatisfied and malnourished because you are eating poorly.

Those are two givens: FOOD AND REST.

Then you have other values that are going to be important for you.

I value giving very much. It is a very important thing to me to give of myself and to give quality. I have learned that the more that I can invest in saving... the more I will be able to give. Thus saving is also important for me.

These are principles that I have learned recently to re-evaluate and focus to realize what causes me to behave the way I do, and what areas I have been suffering.

Many of our sufferings and confusion can come from displaced values or lack of them. I believe that focusing on core values is something that will bring clarity to many areas of my life.

I am so happy that God has revealed this to me, and used some great friends to help me. I had heard their story more than once before, yet this time, somehow, a different light went off and I learned something I had not previously caught on to.

I hope reading this, you as well, will begin to think about what are the things most important to you, and evaluate how you have aligned your life in such a way as to match up with those things.

Paying attention to yourself is important.

Biblical Boundaries: PART ONE

Titus 33:11-14

"For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say "NO" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope--the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good."

My dear friends,

So many times I have fallen into the hands of perhaps well meaning people with a "Yes" or "sure" or "I guess so" when the Bible makes it clear that we are to say NO. I am so grateful for the unfailing love and redemption of Jesus Christ, but I take it very seriously that my sins have been what has nailed him to the cross.

When we take lightly the things that we have done wrong or any correction that we receive, it is as if we are saying,

"Jesus, oops, I nailed you to the cross." and we are taking for granted our salvation, when really the pain and suffering that He went through was something that NO OTHER human being could have suffered. I am so grateful that my FAITHFUL LOYAL AND DETERMINED BEST FRIEND EVER chose to bear my sins and suffering. He bore each of our sins. He bore our burdens. He saw what was yet to come as well as what had passed.

When learning to say NO, it is important that we learn when we can say YES as well. This task is a great joy when done correctly, and frustrating from time to time as well. I have found myself angry and frustrated, but also peaceful and free because of learning this word. When I utilize it, I begin to realize the good I can do with this word.

Sometimes we say NO to things that we could have chosen to say YES, and it is possible that we go overboard on saying no when we are first realizing its power. We must also remember that in Christ Jesus, His promises are always YES and AMEN. (2 Corinthians 1:19) Paul says this in a very serious tone in this scripture, because he is speaking of the ownership that we have in Christ Jesus, who accepts us as we are without finding fault.

We, in and of ourselves, are weak, and it is only by the grace of God that we are able to stand up to the deceitfulness and the temptations that are present in this world. I have failed to say No too many times, and this has caused me great pain and conflict. It has also caused me confusion.

Although I see myself as a fairly conservative person, and I am extremely passionate about serving my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, as so many of you know about me, I have had great trials and I have been in slavery.

Slavery, yes, slavery. I was in slavery to everyone's will. I wanted what everyone wanted. If it was their will that I do such and such, ok... and if it was their will that I be at such and such a place ... ok. The more that I wanted to please such a person, the more I was a slave to their desires. I was also held captive by some of my desires like marriage & perfection which I choose to nail to the cross. From time to time I was able to break free from this problem, but although "Whom the Son (Jesus Christ) has set free is free indeed," (John 8:36) I was blinded by my overpowering desire to please. So this part of my life was not under submission to the Spirit of God, but was still sin, working and alive within me.

I have no desire for that. The small little taste of freedom that I had the other day in my empowering ability to tell a friend NO about staying at my house was very liberating. I want to walk in freedom, in Christ. This means I have the freedom to choose activities, times of rest, friendships, and the things I do, which of course for me will be centered around the love of my life (Jesus Christ.) He is really the one I desire to honor, and I am forever grateful to him for the sacrifice he made for me.

This is a very complicated topic and I am sure that you will be hearing more from me about it. The desire for change is there, and I repent of my old ways, but I have to tell you, that this journey has been extremely difficult. I am reading the BOUNDARIES (by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend) book for the 4th time, and you know what? It is a great tool, but of itself it is not sufficient. I mean, I almost have some of this stuff memorized. This time through, I have learned even more, but until I took the steps to repentance and actually recognized my aversion to putting up boundaries for many various reasons, I was not able to feel good about the boundaries that I was putting up.

The roaring lion (the devil 1 Peter 5:8) looks around seeking whom he may devour. He is hungry to steal from us (the body of Christ) our unity, love, inner peace and purity, and he comes to rob, kill and destroy (John 10:10). and he has robbed so many Christians of these things by attacking their first love, which is in Jesus Christ.

I want to pour all my love on Him. He is the first and last and He is and always has been the GREATEST DESIRE of my heart. Since the day of my birth in Christ, there has been no hunger so great as the hunger to see Him face to face and to give my all to Him. So ... NO to guilt NO to depression, and NO to false securities and insecurities, NO to overresponsibility and NO to selfish ambition.

I say YES to forgiveness, YES to the joy of the Lord, YES to confidence in Christ and in my salvation, YES to self responsibility and Spirit-given responsibility and YES to godly righteousness.

I am FREE. "You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free." (John 8:32)

BE BLESSED PEOPLE!

The greatness of the Little

Don’t be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated; you can’t cross a chasm in two small jumps. –Lloyd George


Have you ever had one of those "I can't" attitudes?

"Pues Dios no nos has dado un espiritu de timidez sino de poder, de amor y de dominio propio."

"For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline."

2 Timothy 1:7

On Tuesday night of this week, Pastor Maicol, (the youth leader) shared a message titled Lo grandeza de lo pequeño, or the greatness of the little. It was a great reminder of things I have heard before, and of the greatness of God.

Why say "but I can't?"
God always delighted in taking the little and making great things of it.
It doesn't mean I will ever be Big, but great isn't BIG. Sometimes great is little.

If God says that I can, why am I going to believe a lie.
LIE: I can't. TRUTH: I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

Imagine the awe and wonder of a baby. It starts from something invisible but yet full of power. It starts with passion. You can't measure it and its too little to touch. But its quality creates many things, a baby, dreams, great things.

Maicol talked about the mustard seed. The Bible says that if we come to him with just a mustard seed of faith, we can see mountains be shaken!

I have had the habit of trying to do more. Feeling that what I was doing was not enough, and always pushing to do more. However, the more that was added to the plate, the more I was feeling unsuccessful. Was I really doing things for God? Was my heart or service in the right place?

I am praying,
Lord,
Help me to do the best I can for you. Whether I fail or whether I succeed, I give all my works into your hands. I ask you to keep and purify my heart. May I have the kind of self discipline that you have given me, and may my moments be in your hands.

Forgive me for giving too much time to others and not enough to you. I ask your help in saying no and in trusting. I thank you that everything that I do in service to you in enough.

I thank God because everything I have is His and he has blessed me with good health, great friends, support, the ability to reason and learn, the heart that loves others, and he has given me every opportunity that comes my way. He has used me, even when I have had an "I can't" attitude.

When I have failed in my own eyes, He has still found something successful that He has accomplished in me, and He has still brought glory to his name!

HE is not finished refining me and making me like him, and the process is so beautiful and worth it.

"Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth." 2 Timothy 2:15

Hungry for Him... He consumes me.

Today is the day of salvation.

My heart burns and my spirit cries within me, to see the salvation of our God, the deliverance of His people.

This is a time in which many have confused the truth, and traded it for a lie. Many are choosing convenience instead of justice, and are lazing through life instead of realizing the battle they are fighting.

Since the beginning, when Lucifer turned against God, there has been a great battle throughout the world. This angel of light, would like nothing else than too take you down with him as a revenge against God for casting him out of heaven.

He is not happy that God sent him away, and he does not like humankind. He hates us. But God LOVES us. God created humankind in his own image, with the ability to be creative, think, love and have give life.

We were limited but created to be a design replica of him. He gave us even the ability to choose. Something that most animals don't have. He gave us a will that we could make choices about how we would live our lives.

The thing is that our race, humankind, chose to believe a lie instead of the truth, and it has cost us a paradise world, instead turning this world into a battle grounds. It was through the first of humankind, that the ground was cursed and that animals began to be killed for our use and protection.

We have been here for thousands of years now, but we were created with a purpose. Many have lost that purpose. The purpose we were created with was exactly this...

To be in relationship with the Creator and give him great pleasure. To be set apart and holy as his prize of all creation. Innocent, vulnerable and unashamed, clean with a heart and transparency that is unequaled in all creation. With eyes that reflect the light of our Creator and a love that is incredibly intimate between Him and us.

We were created pure, but our choices forever marred this purity. Forever marred our vision. We could no longer be innocent, for our eyes had been opened to the vastness of the world, the hunger of power, the naked desperateness that we had without Him. We became obligated instead of pure. We became slaves to knowledge, to conscienceness...instead of freely basking in our Father's presence without knowing punishment, evil or vulnerability.

My desire for him consumes me. Yet all around me, I see the turning waters. I see the growing confusion inside and outside the church. People are looking for the truth and are not resting. People are growing more and more complacent. We have some atheists more determined to convince that God doesn't exist, than Christians that He does.

What does the Atheist win by an unexistant God? just a loneliness... an unpurposeful life, ... an excuse to live how they desire while here, ... but nothing afterwards. No purpose, no hope...no leader.

What does a Christian win by perseverance, a dedication to the truth and belief in spite of all odds? He wins everything. A relationship with a loving God ... meaning relationship, not loneliness, a purposeful life driven by love in his/her heart towards a Creator, a leader and a guide, IMMORTALITY, and a reason to live the best possible so that you will have more to give in the eternal.

If a man lives 120 years, and then dies, how many will remember him, and for what fame? But in eternity? 120 years is little in terms of 2000 years but what about infinity? I want this time on earth to be a time of great preparation for my immortality with my Father after I leave this earth. This earth is a temporary time, but afterwards, I will live forever.

Please, if you are reading this and you think I am crazy, please think about what I am saying.
and study. The Word of God will lead you to all truth and holds the secrets of Immortality.

Mankind has looked for immortality through every method possibly in all kinds of fairy tales and fantasies. The only reason these fantasies would be created is by a real dream and desire that mankind has. The reason we have this hunger comes from our true need and true intention in creation. We were never intended to be mortal. But we went our own way.

We must come back home, to be able to be everything that our Creator intended us to be.

Why wait? He already paid the price so that you would come home to him!!! The death and ressurection of His Son on the cross redeemed us from the curse that came. Our forefathers didn't have the opportunities that we have, why do we still reject Him?

Would you spit in the face of someone who just saved your life? Would you haughtily reject someone's outstretched arm to you while burning alive?

Don't reject him any longer. He loves you and it cost him everything. If you reject the Messiah, He will also reject you, because there is no other way to the Father by which you can be saved from death. Look into it. You will find that I tell you the truth.

Peace to you. I hope that you who read this, choose immortality rather than a moments pleasure and an eternity of darkness. I want to live in Christ!

"This is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son, as a ransom for many."

Being a missionary

Is about surrender.

For me it has always been about surrender. Since very young, it was a deep desire within me for the power of God in my life. I wanted to see Him glorified and see many coming to know Him.

This Father intrigued me. I found Him extremely interesting. I found great delight in sharing with others, gum, money, whatever I had to share with them. I liked sharing and giving to others.

The thought of an adventure where I could give even my very life for the gospel. So that others might know Christ. but perhaps there was also a selfishness in my dream.

A desire for personal gain? Honor? Wanting to be loved by others?

These things are ALL disillusions of a little girl who wants to be noticed by the world. My calling was real, and my promises to God were not given to him in vain. Rather it was the deep desire for intimacy within this heart, that pushed me to make crazy challenges with him. I loved that we could do that with each other.

But when does one of us fail to believe in the other? I admit my sinfulness. I have been faithless and given up time and again in my heart or in my mind. Seeing it as impossible and saying, "I can't" but the Word of God tells me that
"Even when we are faithless, He is faithful still! because HE cannot deny himself!"

He will still do it! He will still obtain all the glory! He will still give all the love and attention that my heart of hearts desired from him. In spite of my failures. In spite of my disillusions. And HE probably

winks and laughs...

because He planned it all along. And used my childlike faith mixed with a deep desire for love and attention to gain my confidence...so that I would never be afraid to go.

TO GO....

thats what I have done. Gone into another country specifically so that I might share the love of Jesus Christ. and although there are days, there are weeks, and there are hours, where I feel like I have failed...

God NEVER fails! and it is not about us anyway. And He is bringing about the good work that He has begun. He also delights to prune and shape us so that we will be even more fruitful.

As I prepare my heart for a very special message this weekend, I desperately cry to God for his help. Because I know that God can heal women of their pain, and that God can challenge them to remain faithful even when the going gets hard. and He can also heal them of their illnesses of all kinds.

I trust him and love him more than anything else. And I will love Him until I die. For me being a missionary, was a very selfish thing. It was all about me displaying before God my hunger and love for him.

But he has taken and shown me my poor efforts. He has shown me that being a missionary is just another title, but that as a minister of the gospel, one thing is important.

Bringing others into right relationship with Jesus Christ. Whose faithful love for them will conquer the enemy.

And God delights in showing up the enemy and causing all opposition to Him to be destroyed.

I completely LOVE being a missionary. Because I am discovering here how immature that I am, and how much I still have to count the cost every day, and how much that I need to trust him. It is a very difficult situation.

Because He is TOO kind and gracious and ETERNALLY loving to allow me to remain in sin. Rather He
Disciplines those that He loves.

Yes, I fail.

but He never EVER will!!!!

Thank you Lord for loving me and calling me your daughter!!!! I am eternally grateful and once again I commit my life to you just like I did back then as a little girl!!! I never want to grow tired or skeptical of what you have called me to do! I always want to be an instrument of reconciliation and peace and love to a lonely, empty and overly self - important world!

I love you all, and I hope that you were able to get something out of my little reflection! I hope that you will let me know if you have any questions about what it means to have a reconciled relationship with the Father of all righteousness, and the Son of God!

The dreams are taken to fire

There is a burning within my heart for this incredible vision. This dream I see but I don't talk about.

I have so many dreams, and I definitely talk about them, maybe too much, but I cherish closely the deepest desires of my hearts.

God, will you take me through the refining fire? Will you try me and see what things will stand the test?

You have said you are sending your fire to burn away sin and to purify your people. Father, purify my heart and make me like you. Make my dreams yours. I want nothing else!

1 John 2:15-17
"Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, and the boasting of what he has adn does--comes not from the Father, but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever."

A poem

written Feb 11.

Lastimada niña

Venga para escuchar

En sus brazos

Sanidad

Ponga sus hechas

Lo bueno y malo

Donde condenacion

No hay

El nombre precioso

Sobre todos

Toma sus manos

Libertad

Jesus la conoce

Niña, es verdad

Antes de que naciera

La vio

This is a poem I wrote about a girl who has been hurt. I wrote to her that Jesus loves her and knew her before she was born. I will translate it, but I don't think its poetry will be quite the same.

Injured girl
Come to hear
In His arms
Healing

Put your deeds
The good and the bad
Where condemnation
Is not there

That precious name
Over all names
Take his hands
Freedom

Jesus knows you
Little girl its true
Before you were born
He saw you

Tears

Tears mean a lot of different things.

To me, they can be a sign of joy and relief. as well as the expression of love.

Pain, longing, compassion, bitterness, loneliness, feelings of being overwhelmed...relief, healing, vulnerability, misunderstanding, (or being understood profoundly) physical, emotional or spiritual pain, travail, fear, again Longing. . .

Tears of Joy when good news is told, tears can also be very cleansing.

When I was a kid, I clung to the verse of the Bible that said that God holds all our tears in a bottle. I selfishly longed for all of his love. I clung to this promise and cried all my tears out to him... knowing that He cherished me was enough.

Knowing that my pain was not stupid, but that He saw and He was capable of comforting me. And He did.

Jesus says that in this world we will face trouble...but take heart!
I have overcome the world!!!

We will only be here on earth for a time. We will spend eternity with the Father when we live for him.

The heavens and the earth will pass away, but the Word of God remains forever!!!!

That makes me SO CONTENT!!! He is ALWAYS with us! He has promised to be our guide forever as we remain in His LOVE.

He sees your tears... and He understands, when no one else does.

Your friend.

Take from me this heart of stone

El pueblo que andaba en la oscuridad, ha visto una gran luz; sobre los que vivian en densas tinieblas la luz ha respandecido.

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.

Isa. 9:2

The Cynic

The cynic within you
Tells you these things are fake
Tells you it is vain glory
The cynic tears down

Beliefs and Faith
Hope in something great
Victory, healing, deliverance
The cynic stares

Human mistakes, man's pride
Faith wavers
It has seen the false
Hope cries out

Cries out for truth
Cries out for the glory of God
Longs in spite of the
Cynical voices

Lord Jesus,
Thank you for lifting my burdens. You have said to me in your word, "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Lord I chose to believe in your power in spite of man's errors. Man is under your grace and you have favored us by the move of your hand. Please keep your servants Father. The servants who sometimes fail you. Who sometimes gain pride. Keep your servants Father, and glorify your Name.
Help the cynic. Help them to hear what you told me. It is not our job to judge, rather to love. That the body of Christ might be built and may be edified to the glory of the Father.

Thank you Heavenly Father for writing your law on our hearts and minds as prophesied by the prophet Jeremiah.

I see things sometimes, my friends, things that may not be true or may. Things that cause my cynical side to start to shout, but you know what? God is good. And He will cause all glory to come to his name. Men, great men, greatly used by the Lord, WILL FAIL him. We are not above them to be able to judge them. Rather, we shall be known by our love says the Word of God. IN 1 peter it says "They shall know we are Christians by our love"

Well, This is my prayer.

Lord,
Take from me this heart of stone and give me a heart of flesh.

Ezekiel 36:26
"I will give you a new heart and put a new Spirit within you; I will remove from them their heart of stone, and give them a heart of flesh."

Thank you Father,
For loving us in spite of our failures. Please take the cynic my dear Lord. Please help me to be wise as a serpent, yet innocent as a dove. May I take humility as my cloak. May we your church be humble in all our ways, and faithful to teach the truth.

Be glorified.

Have you ever had one of those nights?

I had a night last night where I was literally acting things out in my sleep. I woke up to punching a pillow and clenched fists. I had to literally tell my self to relax and put my hands to my side. I couldn't feel them.

Who knows how long I had been in that position? It was like a fight.

The Word of God says that we are in a battle against our flesh. It is a constant battle, but we know that we have the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. We have nothing to fear when we are in His presence.

The most important decision I ever made was to choose Him over my life. There have come many different teachings which lead away from the truth, but the Word of God says,

"I am the way the truth, and the life, no man can come to the Father except through me." John 14:6

"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love." John 15:9

Good morning!

My dear friends.

It has been so long since I have written, and I have a lot of news for you. May God be my strength and help to get my newsletter out to you and get on the roll.

Today, is Wednesday, and we are nearing the end of January. This month has been full of many exciting things, amidst camp for the PKs, seeing them renew their lives and feeling an exciting direction from God myself. It encourages me to pray more for the pastor's kids when I begin to see and understand what they suffer. Many do not understand these things.

We had a national emergency on January 8th, the first day of our pastor's kids camp, as a 6.5 earthquake shook our grounds, but the Lord faithfully protected us at the campgrounds in Sarapiqui, although we were quite close to the source of the earthquake. I have never felt something so powerful or incredible in my life, and I was reminded of the power of God.

Incredible damage was done and relief groups are still being sent to help re-build homes for the 2000 people who were misplaced. The work is going well, and God is providing.

This month has been so full of things, so that time seemed to go slow in a wierd way. Yet, one finds it difficult to get everything done. One of my favorite children, from the children's home that I visit in Cartago, is getting a home with her 3 other siblings and I am so glad for her!!! They will be going to stay with her uncle. I see the difficult things these children have struggled with and please remember to pray for Nicole, (11 going on 15), Alison (3), Marcos 8, and Michael (?). They are precious kids, but this transition will not be easy for them. It is so much better that they are in a loving home where they have two parents. Pray for wisdom for their adoptive parents who are actually their uncles, and pray that they would be well cared for. They have been children who were living on the streets and suffering the hardship of life on the street before PANI (child protection here in Costa Rica) took them to this children's home.
I am going to miss them, but I am so happy for them.

We are full fledged into the project of Jon's book. I am working on surveys for him. The Dahlager kids are getting big and they are so precious.

This month I have begun working on developing the plans I have for future ministry. I am constantly seeking God for his direction and guidance, and I have been working with a friend in the area of evangelism. Right now, we are asking everyone to pray for these two guys we have recently gotten acquainted with who are interested in the word of God but feel bound by sin. Pray for freedom, and that they will feel the love of Jesus. My friend and I are seeking the Lord for a greater compassion and that God would give us grace as we minister.

I have a meeting this Friday with one of the English teachers from the PIEDAD schools here, and we will be discussing the English program. I hope that I can continue to be of service to them.

God has strengthened my faith over this past month, as I have struggled with some basic issues of our theology. It is interesting how things that you have always believed so firmly can be challenged, and in one moment you can have a shift in your whole view on things, but then God just took those moments and used them to strengthen my faith and cause me to come back stronger. I have been diving deeper into his Word these days and enjoying knowing Him more.

There are too many things I could tell you, my readers about. Too many dreams, hopes, and risks that I am beginning to take to even tell you all about them.

May my life be all about him and all about making his name known to the ends of the earth!!! Jesus is my rock. My dreams could die, my hopes could vanish away,

but my Jesus is the best friend I have, for He has given me the only thing that really matters: and that is a restored relationship with the Heavenly Father. It is for the matchless love of a Father and His Son that have given me reason to shout, reason to be a missionary.

This is all I want. That the world may know him. However possible!!!

"and to all who received Him, to those who believed on his name, to them he gave the power to become children of God. These were not born by blood, nor by human desire or will, rather they were born of God." John 1:12-13