certainly not bored

At this point, when I look back on the past three months... my time seems to be filled with some really high highs and some really low lows. This is most certainly one curse of being a passionate person. However, it seems to me as though God is using me during this time, so I must convey deep gratitude to our unchanging God who continues to bless me with opportunities of service despite my changing dispositions.

In Matthew 6:20, Jesus tells us to store up treasures in heaven... treasures that can`t be taken away... treasures that last. It seems to me as though my time here has been filled with opportunities to invest in such treasures. Let me brief you on some of the most recent ones:

This past week, SEMANA SANTA, Theos Place had a retreat. In regards to my work here, several significant things happened. 1. Our praise team, currently, me (guitar and vocals) Manfred (guitar) and Daniela (bongos) made our debut worship set. Theos has long been anticipating the chance to have live music instead of just music videos for worship, so after 3 months of practice, we are finally on the ground running. 2. Eight more people accepted Christ the first night of Campamento and then had a chance to grow throughout the weekend... Praise the Lord! 3. I was expecting any normal church retreat... one small group time, praise and a lesson at night... lots of games, etc. Theos retreat was really different. We had a Bible study in the morning 1 1/2 hours, some free time before and after lunch, another 1 1/2 hour Bible Study, dinner, worship then an hour long sermon. Honestly... every break that we had, we desperately needed. All this to say, I was leading one of the Bible Studies. It was in Spanish, so much of my free time was spent translating the study and preparing... this was solely for my comprehension and readiness... most of the study was in Spanish anyways.

Now... my Spanish is getting a lot better- praise God! After this opportunity with 8 new believers, there are currently 15 people waiting to start in a Bible Study. I am going to be co-leading one with just guys and Dylia has generously offered to lead one with the girls until our wedding. There is a lot going on. Please pray that God will give me strength to complete all of these tasks with excellence- just a reminder, I now have
Worship Responsibilities Tuesday nights
A Bible Study Wednesday nights
A leaders meeting for THEOS YOUTH on Thursday nights before
The Bible Study for Leaders on Thursday nights (every other week and meetings on the odd ones)

Still a lot is going on. As of yesterday, Dylia and I are 2 months away from our wedding. We are still both pumped about it. In regards to our relationship... we both feel like we are in a really rough place spiritually... we are teaching people about a loving, intimate relationship with Jesus, but right now we both feel like when we pray... we are talking to ourselves and that Scripture is not making any changes in our daily lives. We continue to press on in prayer, service, and study, but we are both longing to FEEL god´s INTIMATE touch again. We know he´s working we just don´t feel it. Thanks for your consistent prayers for us and our ministries.

Bri Bri

This past weekend i went with a group of 18 students from Theos to do some construction in a little costa rican village called bri bri. this village is located on a river that borders costa rica and panama. after a four hour drive to the border we had to take a 20 minute boat ride up river to arrive in bri bri. the people here didnt wear loin cloths, but we were in the jungle, and very far away from normal civilization. These people have been impacted by flooding in the past year, quite severely, so there is some work going on there to help them rebuild a medical clinic. There was currently a group from Canada working there, from Samaritan´s Purse and a group from Denver Colorado had just left. It was fun to help with some of the construction that these groups were involved with.

I enjoy thinking that I am living in a country where I can serve people on a week to week basis that need a lot of help. These people from the US and Canada, have to take a plane to come, but I just have to drive, and catch a boat. Our trip didnt really feel like a missions trip, it just felt like a normal part of life and i think that´s a healthy place to be.

the whole group was sitting in a room, on saturday night. we had just finished up a game of charades and some of the guys started telling ghost stories. the interesting thing about these stories was that they were all real accounts of some sort of encounter with an unseen being. one guy told us about going to bed and feeling hands all over him, poking him and he couldn´t move. i didnt feel very comfortable with the nature of these stories in this group of young christians, so i decided to speak up.

i explained that the bible does talk about unseen beings- both good and bad. always, the bad beings seek to create fear or harm and always the good are working to help god with what he is doing. i explained that when jesus is living inside of us, then his spirit is working to produce the fruits of the spirit, like love, patience, self- control and joy. i also explained that as long as jesus is living in us, we dont need to fear the bad unseen beings because their power is not nearly as great as jesus power.

as i spoke of these things, i really felt like god was speaking through me and trying to mend a very delicate situation. sometimes i dont feel like god uses me very often in tangible, spontaneous ways like this, so it was really encouraging to see the result of this opportunity.

excitement

in my last post i mentioned that benjamin was going to preach the gospel. last night he did. thank you for anyone that prayed for this event. i want to give a little background before i let you know how it went. theos place is only one year old. currently they have around 50 regular attendees. all of the regular attendees are involved in a bible study. almost all of these attendees became christians at theos- which means their relationship with the lord is less than one year old! currently, theos has 9 bible studies going. now... the past couple of weeks the numbers have been high in theos. they've had over 70. last night at the group over 10 people accepted Jesus as their personal savior. at the bible study on wednesday 4 people accepted Jesus as their personal savior. that means that within the week over 15 people became new believers in theos place. this is a huge number considering we only hav 50 regulars! this growth is 25%. more than growth... there is quite a party going on in heaven for 15 new lives in Christ. Please pray that Theos will be able to secure these new believers into a bible study- there are only 6 people leading bible studies right now, so several of them have 2. most of the other leaders are relatively new believers. we'll see what happens, but i am very excited about the process of growth that i see happening within this organization. I am thrilled to start the youth group!

things that grow

I´ve been learning a lot lately about some of the ways that God chooses to grow things. I am pleased to announce that in a brand new Bible study- it was their third week, four people officially began a personal relationship with the lord. One of these, is my good friend Gabriel (shown in the picture) and it is fun to hear about the excitement that he has to start this relationship, but he also seems to have a clear understanding that there will be lots of challenges. It is fun to walk next to him and the rest of these new believers in this journey. Tomorrow night, Benjamin will be giving a gospel message to the big group. The past three weeks, we have had a LOT of visitors. Please pray for this message, it is very important.

As far as the youth group goes, I had the first meeting with the potential leaders this past Saturday. I had a potential 6 and only 2 were able to attend the meeting. But... praise the Lord, both of these people- Gabi and Manfred, are eager to help and to serve. The process has been little by little, but we are making progress.

Please take a quick second to praise the Lord for new beginnings! There are four that have new life in Christ and I have 2 that are committed to serving the Lord by helping start this youth group!

youth group excitement

This past week I had a meeting with a guy named Fernando. He is from a wealthy family, he likes to surf and he is very intentional about spiritual growth. I spent some time asking him questions to find out what he perceives to be as the ideal youth group. There is a documentary called "The Merchants of Cool" that talks about how MTV and Sprite and those companies determine what is cool. I essentially used this sort of an interview with him- not doing any talking, just listening to exactly what he likes and perceives as cool. I think this will help me understand a little bit more about the demographics of our target audience.

He has a lot of friends in three of the biggest international schools here, christians and non-christians and i believe that fernando may be a great place to start. we are having a meeting for the potential leaders next week on saturday morning. please pray that god will continue to guide those whom he wants to participate in this work. please pray that god will guide me as i try to communicate the vision and mission of this group. thanks for your prayers.

also, just a quick note to say that the bible study is still going well. this group asks some of the most difficult questions. quite honestly many of them we wouldn't be able to answer without a hebrew scholar present, so its intimidating to take on the responsibility of guiding a discussion with these people. we finished proverbs last night and are due to study job next week.

lots of work

there is a lot of work to do here in costa rica. dylia and i are preaching the sermon tomorrow on practical steps towards having a god-centered dating relationship. we aren´t perfect for sure, but most of the students at theos don´t know anything different from the secular, ungodly relationships they´ve always been in. we will be doing the talk in spanglish... you are more than welcome to listen to the sermon- it will be on the theos website.

finding leaders has been a difficult process. I visited the youth group at the local vineyard church here. There was a husband and wife- the main leaders and one volunteer. The group was about 40-50 kids. Can you imagine that? I heard that churches were protective of their potential leaders, but no wonder. Anyway, the process has been more challenging than I anticipated. Please pray that God will give me wisdom in recruiting a strong group of core leaders who are excited about the youth culture.

a lesson in provision

many of you know that i've felt frustrated and discouraged in the past in regards to my financial debt. today i received an email informing me that a scholarship account for alumni with financial debt is being used to pay off my student loans. this was 1/4 of the financial debt that i had and what an incredible burden is lifted! i am blown away at how the lord has blessed me this past year, one significant chunk at a time. i feel like the remaining loans i have (parent loans) are just a drop in the bucket- dylia and i will be able to pay them off in no time. it is amazing how much i am like thomas. i have such a hard time believing the reality of the lord's provision until i see something tangible and then all doubt is gone. oh how utterly human i am.

enough about me... please... please praise the lord for his ability to provide for all that i need. praise the lord for his never ending and unfailing love for us that so powerfully fuels his generous provisions. praise the lord for he is good.