team work

Along with growing in my personal walk with god, I'm also growing a lot in working with other people. As a group we've only had a couple team building exercises and opportunities but in the past week we've grown a lot together through planning a youth service, confessing sins with one another and sharing our life stories, and white water river rafting. All very different things all were lots of work.

Last saturday we got the opportunity to plan a young adults/youth service for a church in down town San Jose. It was a full service with worship, dramas, testimonies, and and alter call. With 18 girls with strong opinions and 1 boy- it could have been a really big challenge- but it wasn't! The planning went surprisingly fast and we worked hard for a couple days and the result was amazing. God truly blessed with a strong message of being a missionary to people around you. We were also truly blessed with our ability to work together and respect one another.

The next team building opportunity we had in the past week was repenting our sins in front of one another. James 5:6 says that we should confess our sins to one another so that way the heaven and earth are both witnesses. It was so amazing! Our openness and honesty with one another. Everyone had secrets that they had never shared before. And for every person we had words of affirmation and encouragement to help them through. 

Finally, this past weekend we got the chance to go white water river rafting. For some people this isn't a big challenge... but when we only have 1 boy we were all a little nervous. AND to top it off its the end of rainy season which means the river was super high. Normally, the route we did has level 2 and 3 currents. We were doing level 4 almost the whole time! God really tested our group but it really strengthened our courage, ability to work together, and to build each other up.

Me and my 17 sisters and 1 brother are a family and its so crazy how god put us all here in this one place at the same time. And i'm so happy he did!

Father Hear of God

This week has been a busy busy week of FUN! Our topic was Father Heart of God. Our speaker, Jack Kody, was like our daddy. He took us out to ice cream, bowling, watched pride and prejudice, and finding nemo. It was so nice and he was so nice! But whats most important isn't what we did but what he taught us.

One of the biggest things I learned this week is that God really is our dad, our father who art in heaven. He loves us so much and we are his children, his joy. I know that my earthly dad loves me a lot... but times that by infinity and thats how much god loves every one of us! The amount of love that earthly parents can give to their children is only 1 drop of gods ocean of love for us. And for those people who don't have a dad in their lives- god is the ultimate dream dad and is perfect!

Another big thing I learned was how much god doesn't actually NEED us. God doesn't need us to do antyhing... he's god. He made the universe so what we do in our lives isn't something he needs us to do- he just wants us to do it. He can do everything we do way better than us- so why have us do it? Because he loves us! Like a little kid going to work with their dad- the little kid does a really bad job but the dad just works beside them and helps them and fixes what they messed up. God is inviting us to go to work with him everyday. He just wants us to spend time with him and enjoy the things he enjoys. So its not about what we can do in life its about our character and our love for god. 

One final thing that I took away from this week was Jack's advice to all us girls. Its wonderful advice for life so here's some of it:

-the world is full of idiodic boys who are immature, play videogames, and read play boy.  Don't marry a boy like this because all you're going to end up being is their mother.

-follow god first and foremost, boys should be second on your list. When you foucs all on god and run after him he will take care of the rest.

-Once you get married it wont be a fairy tale happy ending. The man you marry isn't there to satisfy all your needs- thats gods job. 

-Make sure you are filling yourself up with gods love everyday and then make sure your husband and family are full of his love.

- There is no better thing that you can do for your children than loving their father/mother. It provides them with a home of security, comfort, and love. 

I know this has been a long blog. But it was a good week! If you have some extra time watch this video by Rob Bell. I know there's some controversy about his new book- but his videos are still good. So enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qme_d-qC4is

(or just search Nooma Rain by Rob Bell on Youtube)

mustard seeds

So we've all heard the story in Matthew 17 (14-21) about Jesus healing a demon possessed boy. There seems to be a sermon about this once a year at most churches- even in Costa Rican churches! And thats what the pastor at our church here preached about this week. But basically, the disciples can't rebuke a demon from this boy and they ask Jesus to and somehow Jesus could do it, but they couldn't. Then Jesus explains that in order to move mountains all we need is the faith the size of a mustard seed. A freaking mustard seed! And they couldn't rebuke the demon because they didn't have faith in God that they could do it. The pastor handed out mustard seeds and i took a picture of it in my bible. Look at the picture and look how tiny that is! Its hardly the size of the print in my mini bible. Its so small- and thats all we need in order to have true faith to do miracles. 
Now, I haven't seen any huge miracles in my life yet- but I know that I'm going to. Because I have faith in God and trust in him that he's going to do amazing things through me and through other people all over the world. All things are possible with God, I mean, he made the universe. So instead of asking yourself why i should trust God- you should be asking why aren't I trusting God?

fearless

So yes, I do take random pictures of cute little kids during church in Costa Rica. He was just so cute and went up front during worship and was dancing. He was so fearless and didn't care what anyone thought, like most kids are. And I am so jealous that they are so fearless. They don't care about what other people think if they go up front to worship, if they yell, if they cry, what they wear, etc. Yes, there brain isn't fully developed and they don't know the world like we do- nonetheless, they are fearless, how God created us to be. 1 John 4:18 says that in perfect love there is no fear. No fear of sin, other people and their opinions, no fear of anything in this world! So why can't we be like that? I mean we love God- right? Or do we just say we do? Because if the bible says that love casts out fear and we say we love God... we should be fearless right? Personally, at the beginning of this week I had to really think about this. Did I actually love God with all my heart and soul? And the answer was totally no, but looking at all he did and still does for us I can say yes without a doubt! Just look at your life- the things he's given us, all he has provided, and the fact that he sent Jesus to take away all our sins! Without him we wouldn't exist- so why not love him and be fearless?

Daily Life

 Amongst all the learning and amazing things that go on- theres lots more that goes on in my daily life here in costa rica. So i'll give you a little idea of what we do most days. On week days:
-6:20am: wake up
-6:30am: breakfast
-7-8: Devotional time
-8-9: worship and intercession time
-9-12:30: Class
-12:30: lunch
-2-4pm: it depends on the day, but theres bible study, local outreach, small group, teambuilding, extra class time, etc.
-4-6: work duties (cleaning)
-6pm: dinner
-7:30: different activities including worship, worship via arts, date night with jesus, bible study, intercession




Then weekends are free except for church on sundays- which we get to go to different churches in the community which is really exciting. But basically my weekends include relaxing, doing our homework (books, book reports, and journals), one on one time with our leaders, shopping!!, the beach, and many more adventures to come!


ps.. the picture at the top is from our shopping trip last weekend where we bought exotic fruit called "mamo chino"- it was delicioso!

Filling Up Your Cup

So I don't mean for my blog to just be preaching about life- but I just want to share with everyone what i'm doing right now. And for now, learning is all we're doing so thats what I want to share! This past week we talked about the character of God. Now, the bible always says be christlike and imitate his character, etc. But how do we do that? As you humans we try to do that ourselves and it really doesn't work. It all comes down to who we actually are on the inside and not the outside. On the outside we go to church, do good things, etc. But is that what actually sustains you in life? Humans have 4 basic needs: acceptance, comfort, security, and the need to feel important. Now, we can fill all our needs ourselves with things of this world such as relationships, friends, money, jobs, education, etc. But these are only temporary fixes. I know i definitely found myself always wanting more but nothing in my life was filling me all the way up. The reason for that is because God is the only thing that will actually fill us up! Only HE can make us feel 100% accepted, only HE can comfort us, only HE can provide us complete security, and only HE can provide us with a sense of importance- in His eyes we are so important! We are His children and beloved creation. 
He loves us so much and designed all in such amazing ways. He made it so that nothing in this world would satisfy us- thats is his giant hint to us that He is the way, the truth, and the light. He put things like friends and family in our lives to help us and support us through this life- but they are not there to provide every need in life for us. Humans can only do so much so we can't be 100% dependent on each other, but be dependent on God alone and he will satisfy every longing or emptiness in us. An its when we truly fill our hearts with God that we can be godlike and transform our lives and other lives. His love will shine into us and from us to others. So fill up your cup not with things of this world, but of God!

Itsy Bitsy

So there's this itsy bitsy thing called fear and we all have it or have experienced it at some point in our lives. Its something so little, like this tiny little bug crawling on the backpack in the picture (which I hope you can see because its cute and tiny). Now, I'm not saying that i want to kill the bug... but it can be very easily smooshed, and so can fear! Fear is something from the enemy, especially when its fear of asking a question in class, sharing your story, doing the right thing, being scared to talk to god, or scared of what other people think of you. These are all fears I've experienced here so far and I'm sure I experienced them back at home too. But they are of Satan! He is trying to distract us so much from the truth and doing things that will bring us closer to god or even bring glory to god. God isn't someone we should be scared of and He's there to talk to us, we can ask him questions, we can openly praise him, and he protects us- which means we can do anything through Christ! He gives us strength! So I encourage everyone to not be scared because we're on God's side and he has already defeated satan- so don't let him put fear in you. So go out there and share your story, his glory, and don't me ashamed! God is all things good and has nothing to do with any feelings you have of fear, anger, shame, or anything like that- he actually wants to fix those things and He can help you do anything!

Childlike

The cuteness of this picture is attributed to Euma and Ebe, whose parents work on the base.


As followers of God we can never forget that we are His children. Yew, we are reminded of this many times at church and throughout the bible- but have you actually ever thought about what it really means? Maybe you never had a good father figure but even if you didn't... you can still imagine what the perfect dad is like. The perfect dad is someone you can go to when you're sad, scared, happy, mad- and who loves you no matter what and will protect you from everything. That perfect dad is God! He's there for us all the time and wants to talk to us wether its a good day or a bad day, and most of all he wants to take care of us and tell us we love him. Our relationship with Him as a God isn't about him just dictating our lives and us waiting to hear from Him- its about a relationship and it should be just as easy as loving your daddy. The biggest part of this for me is not worrying! Little kids are so carefree and don't worry or think about anything. But when you grow up your mind wanders and we get distracted by everyday worries. Its SO important that we don't let those worries consume our lives because its those worries that satan uses to distract us from Him! Worrying is a sin and it saddens God that we don't trust him. So my advice- trust in Him and don't worry- be happy :) just like you were when you were little and let your daddy just love on you.

time

Already over a week has gone by!! It seems so crazy, because it feels like I've already been here for a month. I guess time flies when you're having fun and praising Jesus. Even though the time has been quite amazing there have already been struggles. The big one amongst most of the girls here has been expecting too much right away. They knew about YWAM and heard that amazing things happen and wanted it to happen right away. But thats not how it works. During small groups all the girls in my group talked about how they felt so dry and just like God wasn't around. But James 1 says that  God will test us and we need perseverance so that way our faith can be stronger. So we kind of came to the conclusion that this week was our test week and god had to prepare us and get us comfortable in order to make the best out of the upcoming weeks. We have to wait for him because God is in control and its HIS timing and not ours, and that He has plans that are perfect and we cant question them.  On a side note... yes I do my solo time on the playground set which is what the picture is from.