November 20th

Hola!

Ah seriously, every time I go to start these, I am just overwhelmed with God’s goodness and faithfulness that I never know where to begin.

First, I would just like to thank you for your prayers and support. I can tell you that your prayers are not returning void. I know God is changing, breaking, stretching, and preparing me for whatever it is that He has lying ahead for me. Also, thank you for praying for my safety. I feel more healthy, pretty much better than ever! And I have not gotten injured, which is a huge step for me! Haha So, thank you thank you thank you!

As I said in my last post, God has given me this crazy hunger and passion for Spanish. I just want to learn and take everything in. I’ve been talking so much, asking a lot of questions and studying outside of classes. God has made it very clear to me that He is going to use Spanish somehow in my life and future ministry! So, knowing that I am going to be using Spanish for Him makes me even more passionate about learning! I am so excited! Please continue to pray for God to just expand my time, energy and knowledge!

I am coming home in 26 days! I feel like I just got here! But on the other hand, I feel like I’ve known everyone here for my whole life. It’s so awesome how the Holy Spirit in someone else brings you together and you have this common bond and unity that seriously only comes from God. My friends here are awesome. Everything about GAP and Costa Rica is awesome. It is so cool how much God has done in my life since I’ve been here. And after I go home for Christmas I will have even more time here! Ah!

So just some really awesome things:

Metro on Saturdays is awesome. We are making friendships which is allowing us to love on these kids more and more as we get to know them. God is really showing me how different long term and short term missions work is. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love the trips that I have been on to the Dominican and would encourage anyone and everyone to go on a trip! However, being here in Costa Rica, living here, doing more “long term” missions work is really opening my eyes. Having the opportunity to be here for 9 months really helps in making friends, inviting people to church, or going and hanging out. Whereas short term is more like going into a village doing a few skits, sharing a testimony & the gospel, then hoping someone gets saved. Not taking anything away from this, God is just changing me to be a lot more relational minded and motivated. I’ve been able to hang out with some ticos and just build relationships and invite them to our Sunday night church. People want to be loved, everyone has a God-shaped void in their heart that can only be filled by God himself. We as Christians have accepted that gift, we are filled, and now have the opportunity to share it with others. And we share this by loving other people. Making friends. Being patient. Slow to anger. Listening. Not always talking about yourself. Not being competitive in conversations. Letting the Holy Spirit use you. Striving for everything you do, to bring glory and honor to the Only One who deserves glory and honor!

Trying to be like Jesus. Which for me, looks like waking up every morning and asking God to help me look more like His Son in everything I do that day. (Which is what God has laid on my heart to do).

“Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me” - Jesus

This past week I had the opportunity to play and sing on the worship team at our English-Spanish church! God is so awesome and is stretching me so much. I am learning to rely on Him for my source of everything. God is stripping me of my pride and humbling me to realize I am truly empty without Him or when I try to do things apart from Him.

On a funny note: The Gathering Place (GGP) (Our English-Spanish church) is an old theater. The ceilings are high, with tiles and window type things, old wooden seats, and a stage. In the middle of the song “Yaveh” during worship a window type tile & a cat… Yes…. A cat…. fell from the ceiling. The window hit the piano I was playing, and the cat landed on it’s feet, ran up onto the stage and out the back. When I say this was one of the most bizarre things that has happened to me since I’ve been here, I am being completely serious. I was in shock. My first thought was that it was an earthquake. I wanted to run and scream. But it was one  of those things that you want to react to but your body is in shock that you just cannot move. It was so crazy.

We have been studying Apologetics in Bible for the past couple of weeks and it is amazing! Learning so much truth about God, the Bible, Salvation, other religions & beliefs, and how to refute or answer when we are presented with questions or arguments. God is constantly revealing himself to me and just how real and sovereign He is. I am definitely being tested, having to figure out truth, and why I believe what I do on my own. This is something kids who have grown up in the church and with Christian families often struggle with. Why they believe what they believe? Do they even really believe it? Is it just because their parents told them what to believe? Is what their parents told them truth? All of these things are coming to the surface for me. I’ve never really been one to just believe anything, but I am definitely being challenged, stretched and encouraged.

I just want to say thank you and hug all of you for your prayers. I will be home in 26 days! :)

Les amo mucho! Estoy muy agradecido para ustedes! Dios bendiga!