Final days in Costa Rica

I will try to put a close to the final days in Costa Rica. My last blog ended with us visiting the slums. From there our group of students sang some songs and did their skits for any of the community that would come. Watching the students interact and play with the kids is always a joy. With smiling faces among them all you can see the love of Christ.

From there we came back to our base and prepared over 100 lunches to take to downtown San Jose to feed the homeless. Our contact/missionary who accompanied our group spoke very powerful words to our group - to the highschoolers - and did an amazing job of teaching them - what to expect - and the love that we can show. He used the example of how Jesus touched the man with leprosy. He loved no matter what. After we interacted downtown the girls were instructed to return to the bus, followed by the guys. As Raymond (our leader) shared with our group on the bus on our way home there were many tears flowing among the group. (in the picture we are preparing the lunches)

Day 6 - This was Sunday, our day off. We went to a church there - all spanish speaking. That was awesome. We did have a couple of translators for our group though for the message. We were then taken out to lunch for pizza. Later in the day part of the group went sightseeing and others went to watch the top pro soccer team in Costa Rica. Saprissa is the team name. I did go and it was awesome. We ended our evening with group devotions.

Day 7 - Monday - This was a good hard work day for everyone. Our team was split into two groups. One headed out to another ministry facility and worked on the outside of the building. Scraping the cement blocks to prepare them to be painted with a water sealer. Messy good hard work. The other team stayed back at our facility - some worked inside cleaning and others did painting in the block building that is being built for the missionaries to live in. All in all everyone felt good that we worked up a good sweat serving.

In the evening one of the missionaries, Raymond, shared a powerful closing word with our group. Challenging everyone to surrender everything to God. Many of us hold in one hand our belief in God, but in the other hand we hold our sin - the sin that we don't want anyone to know about - the sin we don't want to get rid of. It doesn't work!!! Jesus wants us to completely surrender to him. What joy you will find when you do.



Now that I am home it feels great and strange at the same time. When I got home I took a shower and came out and sat in the living room chair. I just melted - then my husband walked in the front door carrying a dozen roses and dinner. Tears filled my eyes - I am so blessed. Yesterday I had gone 19 hours without sleep. When I crawed into my bed last night and felt my quilt and pillows just surround me I felt like I was in a luxury bed. I must have fallen asleep within a minute. I woke up at 10:00 this morning and Tim brought me my coffee in bed - I could have stayed there all day. I have truly enjoyed resting today.

Now we must lead. Spreading the gospel here in America can be a real challenge. I had three different missionaries in Costa Rica express to me that they see America as a country forgetting God. I have known this, but to hear this perspective from other missionaries in another country was definitely confirming of the need here. We need to equip our children to be warriors of the faith and not be afraid.

God had me in situations this past week that I would not have put myself in here. Passing out gospel tracks to people on the streets - but I totally would do that now. One lady told Angela "God bless everything you are doing." God did some amazing work in Costa Rica this past week. A lot of work in each of us - and a lot of work in me. Thank you Jesus!!!

Thank you everyone for following my blog and keeping us in your prayers.

Costa Rica Day 5

Yesterday was a long full day of ministry so I didn't have time to blog. We started out our day going to downtown Costa Rica and met up with a missionary there. His ministry focus is to the people living in the slums. Because we were there with skits and songs he had flyers ready to deliver to families living in the slums, inviting them all to come to the church for our program. So off we went, on foot, around the block and down the hill walking through the slums, inviting them all to come. Children coming out from behind homes made of pieces of sheet metal and living on dirt floors. One after another, stacked on top of each other, and about the size of a walk in closet. Families living there. As we intereracted with the children I was blown away with the smiles on their faces. I only took 4 pictures - only for the purpose of raising some awarness and to show you all how precious these children are. This little girl in the picture was up around the corner in her little doorway. I spotted her and stopped on the step and waved her to come to me with a smile. She had the biggest smile as she came to me, with her brother. I was able to tell her that she is beautiful (in spanish) and that Jesus loves her. She hugged me and I wanted to just stay for the whole afternoon sitting on the step and playing with her. Her smile is such a reminder for all of us not to complain about our life and especially our lifestyle. This little face will forever be etched in my mind.

Please pray for the missionary serving these people. He is a wonderful man from Germany. He and his wife serve here and just have a love and compassion for them. Their mission is to reach the children and teach them about life with Jesus.

This will probably be my last blog before we come home. Tomorrow is a full day of working.

To God be all the glory. He has broken my heart in so many ways and showed me the love he has for those less fortunate. I love them.

Costa Rica Day 4

Not too much time to blog tonight. We have been going since sun up.

So today was a super long awesome day. We went to, what we thought was an orphanage. We found out that the children there are from ages 9 mo. - 22 years old. They are orphans but not up for adoption as adoption in Costa Rica is virtually impossible. This is a christain home, run by a wonderful christian couple. They take care of 25 children there and treat them all as their own. The kids call them mom and dad the children treat each other as brothers and sisters. The backgound of the children is so sad but we were glad to see that they are with loving people who teach them about Jesus and also teach them english. The little girl that is in the picture with me was so precious. I love to hug - so of course it didn't take me long to hug her, but she said she really doesn't like hugs. I made her smile about it and it turned into a game. By the time we left she came up to me to give me a hug. I told her "I knew that you would love my hugs." And reminded her how much Jesus loves her. I told her that I would pray for her. Isn't she just precious?

These are just a few of the young guys that our guys played soccer with. Wow can they ever play soccer and you could tell that they were thrilled to have a team to play against.

This young lady on the left said she was 22 years old. (don't know if that was true or not) She was so precious too. Her name is Cindy and she wanted to meet everyone. I just loved reminding her how beautiful she is. She smiled!

Some of our girls spent a long time making jewelry with the girls. They loved the beads and the attention.

Everyone on our team used their own money for our missionary to take us for one fun event. We went to a rainforest and went on a zip-line. But they didn't tell us that it was more than a zip-line. It was a serious hike. And I really mean serious hike. The view here is what we zip-lined over. Yes, very high. We had to climb up to get to the top.

This is one of the platforms that we started out on. Just so you know, I was super scared to do this. But it was a blast - and I was flying through the sky 300 high - I just took in the incredible view.

Angela and I almost ready to go in our dorky helmets. :) After we got our helmets our guide took us through quite the terrain to get to the top. Rope climbing, running through the woods, over rocks and the river. No joke - he kept telling us "come on, lets go, run." Gee - he does this every day and he wanted us to run. He was hysterical.

Costa Rica Day 3

Woke up this morning and had some God time before heading out to the van. We headed out to a day care center/kindergarden. There we were welcomed by at least 75 children. So adorable and so strange for me not be able to talk with them. I could have been on "are you smarter than a kindergardener?" Nope! My spanish is pitiful. haha So our group joined them all outside to play games with them, toss water balloons then went inside where our kids graced them with some awesome Jesus songs in spanish. The teachers and the kids seemed so happy we were there. I talked with one of the teachers who does speak english. Watching our highschoolers run around with them and playing games was awesome. Some of us wondered if they even understood what English was since they were so young. :)

We left from there and our driver took us on a windy ride up to the top of the mountain. A most breathtaking view. On our drive down the mountain we/I had a very enlightening conversation with a our driver, a local pastor here. With the help of one of the other chaperones who knows spanish fairly well we were able to learn so much about the people here. Manuel needs all of our prayers. Please pray for him and his family as they serve here for 4 more years. It is difficult to reach the people with Christ - people don't want to give up their sinful ways of life to follow Christ. They are open to listen, but it is a slow process. Please also pray that God raises up men of God, and young men of God to show what it is to be a Godly leader.

After lunch we headed off to another daycare center. One of the teachers there spoke English so it was nice to chat with her. She said she tries to teach the little ones English. Our team had a blast playing with all the children and I am sure that the teachers appreciated getting some relief. I ended up helping in the toddler room - 12 children to 2 adults. Talk about a long day. When I told the teacher that in the US the ratio was 4-1 she was blown away. After playing with the children for a long time they were all gathered on the outdoor patio area and our kids sang songs for them and did a skit. One litte girl I held the entire time - she was motionless. I think she was about 18 mo. old. She almost fell asleep in my arms. As the teacher motioned to bring the little ones back to their room, Brandon and I carried the ones we were holding back for her. Natalie came along too. After they closed the gate behind us I noticed a little girl standing by the gate alone just crying. I went over with the little one I was holding and bent down to pick her up too. I put down the other little girl so I could give her my attention and she just clung to me. We were then told that it was time to leave and the three of us, who were all holding little ones, were all having a hard time leaving as the kids would not let us put them down. Tears filled my eyes as I had to put her down and step on the other side of the gate with her crying. I bent down on the other side of the gate, held her cheeks, kissed her nose and told her "Jesus ta ama" (Jesus loves you) That is all I knew to say to her. I broke my heart to walk away and leave her standing there crying. They just need attention, hugs and love and I wanted to stay so bad.

These are all Jesus precious children. "Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

I have heard the song "We Must Go" many times and I am so glad that God sent me.

I love our closing worship in the evening.

All glory to our amazing God.

Costa Rica Day 2

Wow, where in the world do I begin today.

After waking up to quite the dream this morning I sat down in the kitchen with my bible and a cup of coffee. I believe God gave me my scripture this morning to share with the group before we headed downtown to hand out tacks to the locals. Isaiah 52:7 "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God Reigns!" I read this and knew that we needed to go out on this verse. Isn't it so awesome to think that when we are sharing the good news that our feet our beautiful!!!! Seriously, most of us don't like feet but God does. :))

Then a little further down Isaiah says "Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing! Come out from it and be pure, you who carry the vessels of the Lord. But you will not leave in haste or go in flight; for the Lord will go before you, the God of Israel will be your rear guard." We read these verses and prayed the power of the Spirit before we headed downtown. So off on the bus the 31 of us went. (3 trips) We arrived in very busy downtown San Jose with 3 of our contacts. Many blocks lined with store after store. All open doors and super sweet fruit stands. We handed out tracks to everyone walking, greeting with smiles and greetings of "Hola" (hi/hello). On one of the streets we walked down, there were two very young boys sleeping on the sidewalk on a piece of cardboard. Angela teared up and my heart went out to these boys - not men, but boys. Later in the week we will be heading to another area to feed the homeless.

We bused back for lunch to the compound where we are staying. Shortly after lunch we were put to work cleaning and working on the Score Mission site. I was super excited to work hard outside, while a handful stayed in cleaning and helping the ladies in the very small kitchen they use to feed all of us. The Mission site where we are staying is all fenced in with barbed wire on top of the fence. (I must interject here that our 3 musicians are playing and I just love that, 2 guitars and one bongo drum.:)) Score International is building a new home for their full time missionary (Manuel) and his wife to stay at. So we were put to work, some sifting dirt for them to use to plaster the home with, others pulling nails from wood that we in America would just throw away, some scraping cement inside the home, one young man used the weed eater to clear the fields. (no lawn mower) So we spent most of the afternoon working around here.

Just took a break here - Manuel, the missionary just shared an incredibly powerful message to the group. So powerful - and the translator did a great job too. He is from Costa Rica, left to go to Argentina, met his wife there and the two of them came back here to serve God. With nothing but the clothes on their backs - now they are getting a new home built for them - God is providing for them.

Getting back to where I was, after our work afternoon we were bused again to a nearby grocery store to buy some serious Costa Rican coffee. Mmmmmm. I've got my share to bring home. I laughed with Remi (one of the other leaders on our team) that I felt like we were in a foreign grocery store. Ha ha - I missed my Tim to help me figure out how much money things cost but he should be glad to know that there are others that know math too. :)

I am sitting in a kitchen surrounded by teenageres talking loudly and playing musical instruments and I am loving every minute of it. Tomorrow we leave at 7am and we will be visiting two daycare centers. (Wish you could come Emily - I'll hug extra big for you.)

We closed our evening after Manuel's message to us with some of our boys sharing a devotion.

Wow, awesome young men of God. It was so amazing to spend 15 minutes in worship together. I told one young man to pray and ask God if he wanted him to become a pastor/missionary. He thanked me.

I will close for tonight.

Costa Rica Day 1

Day 1 in Costa Rica.

So this morning was super early and I think that I will be recovering for a few days from that. Leaving at 2am with 3 teenage girls who didn't really sleep much at all. Neither did I. Took off from Detroit and had a smooth flight all the way to Houston, then to San Jose, Costa Rica. Met a man on the plane who is coming to Costa Rica to start a mission for drug and alcohol abuse. Guess there isn't much of that here.

Everyone got through customs just fine and since all 31 of had on orange shirts we were easy for our contact to find. Hopped on a bus for about an hour driving very fast through the busy city. We were warned NOT TO PUT ANY HANDS OUT THE WINDOW OR YOU RISK LOSING THEM. No kidding - wow do vehicles drive close to each other, and fly by super fast. You could reach out and touch the truck next to you.

Arrived at our home for the week, welcomed with a snack of sandwiches. I loved how our contact told everyone - instead of listening to your ipod, take your bible and go off and spend time with God and allow him to work in you.

So I headed outside in hopes of trying to get in a run - that didn't look too promising since the grass is so tall and the ground is super uneven - so instead a group of the boys asked me to come and play soccer with them. The goalie net was made out of wire. :) So off I went with the guys to play some soccer. Aren't you proud of me Tim. :) It didn't take long before a few more girls joined in along with a local. We had to play with one wire net so we played 1/2 field. I love these kids - and to top it off I scored a goal. Hear that Tim!!!! :))))

Well that's about it for now. Here's a few pics from today. This evening is hanging out and relaxing and hopefully getting a good solid night sleep. Up and at it in the morning.

Thanks everyone for your prayers.

We pray that God releases us big time for ministry here and removes anything that can get in our way. Especially ourselves.

The picture of the orange shirts is just part of our team at the airport in Costa Rica.

The guy in the pink shirt is our contact discussing getting our bus through the gate.

Pre- Costa Rica

So tonight I am going to attempt to go to sleep by 8pm. (It's 7:50pm - doubt that will happen) That has been my plan all along since we have to leave the house at 4am for the airport. Plus we have 2 girls staying the night with Angela. Hmmm - how much do you think they will sleep? :)))

I am going to attempt to blog every day while there but since we will be on a mission trip one never knows what the day will hold.

Tonight was our final gathering for students and parents. It was pretty awesome to have a room full of people praying together. Different people popping in with different prayers for the trip.

Our theme for the week: Isaiah 61:1
I am off to finalize some things and hopefully to bed.

Rescue

So today I would like to contast some scripture. I must first say that I am frustrated because I had my blog almost done and somehow clicked the wrong thing and deleted the entire post. Argh - I have to start all over.

Psalm 68 "...Praise be the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens. Our God is a God who saves..."

Most Christians understand that our God is there to carry our burdens yet we still don't understand why we still feel like we are carrying them. We know that God is a God who saves, yet we still feel ensnared. Contast this with Isaiah 46 "...The images that are carried about are burdensome, a burden for the weary. They stoop and bow down together; unable to rescue the burden, they themselves go off into captivity..."

As I read the Isaiah passage I was reminded how many images we create in our own life. They may not be carved images, but they are images non-the-less. It may be our career, money, our posessions, our pride...etc. the list can go on. Take a moment to ponder what images you have created in your own life. Be honest. What is there in you that you have made more important than God? Would you be willing to give it up? Are you willing to allow God to refine you in the fire to remove it? Notice in the Isaiah passage what these images do in our life. They become burdensome, make us weary and take us into captivity. Yikes - sounds miserable.

Then I was thinking that when we attempt to give our burdens to God and we still are carrying them - maybe - just maybe - we have not surrendered our images. We can ask God to take our burdens, but if we are not willing to give up our own images we will continue to be in captivity. Notice how Isaiah says that "they stoop down together, unable to rescue the burden." Can't do it on your own - "Our God is a God who saves."

Christ came to set the captives free.
"My chains are gone, I've been set free, my God my Savior has ransomed me."

It will be hard, but when you ask God to reveal to you what you have made more important in your life than him - he will - just have an open heart to receive.

Filled up

This morning I read a scripture that I have read countless times but for some reason today it brought tears to my eyes.

"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us." Ephesians 3

Seriously people - really take in this love that God has for you. We can be filled with the fullness of God. Have you really thought about that? Even now as I think about that it is difficult to comprehend. And that my creator is able to do more in my life than I can even imagine. To top it all off his power is at work within me/us. Can we even begin to comprehend his power within us? As I think about all this and feel blown away by these promises I believe that we do not even begin to tap in to this power. We actually forget it's there or don't realize we even have it. Yet the more we are in the word and in prayer - asking God to reveal himself to us and speak to us the more we will see the power that he placed within us. It's definitely not anything of our own doing, but the power and strength of his Spirit within us. The first verse above says that!!! And Christ dwelling in our hearts. Wow - isn't that just the best.

Don't ever forget this love that Christ has for you. I love this song. What a prayer! Close your eyes and worship your creator - open up your heart to him - he promises to fill you!!!


A few randoms
By the way, I LOVE OUR SMALL FAITH GROUP!

Last night we skyped with our daughter who lives in California now. We haven't skyped with her in quite some time so I ended up staying up till 1am to chat. (10pm for her) We shared life with each other and it was truly a joy to see her face. I think she smiled the whole time!!!

Just chatted with Denise over in Africa. Keep her and Mike in your prayers that God give them strength in the last leg of their mission work.

Yea, we are going to be grandparents again. Our grandson Zechariah is going to be a big brother.

Tuesday off to Costa Rica. I love the group of students I am going with.

A beautiful day today. God is good!!!!!

Keep in Step

"You, my brothers, were called to be free, but do not use your freedom to indulge in the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. Galatians 5

Most of us have read this command many times in our life. We have heard it in various ways. It is so important that we remember the last part. When people devour each other I think of things like judging others, gossip, and many other hurtful things toward others so it makes sense that it will destroy. I have personally seen this happen and never want to experience it again. This result comes when we are not following the single command to love your neighbor as yourself. If we are seeking to live this out daily in our life how can we devour each other? If our intent is to daily love one another I picture a people praying for each other, speaking words of encouragement, and even if you have to confront someone that it is done in love.

Paul says "So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature." and "Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other."

I have days when I feel so strong in the Spirit - I love those days. Daily I seek him to fill me up. Keeping in step with the Spirit is so cool. As a little child I always had to run when my dad took me for a walk. He was a short man, but had a fast pace, but I wanted to keep up with him. So is our walk sometimes with Christ. Sometimes we can fall back and have to run to keep up - the things of this world can so get in the way and distract us and we have to just keep up. Some days it feels like we are just running to stay in step with the Spirit - and other times when we have surrendered completly to Christ our walk is moving along with a steady walking together.

What joy!

Smile Day

When was the last time you felt like this?

"My soul yearns for you in the night;
in the morning my spirit longs for you."
Isaiah 26:9

As I read these words it made me long for this. To really truly yearn for my heavenly Father's presence. To wake up and long for him. I think it's a hard question to ponder though - but a good one. I know that I have days when I just long to be with Jesus. I long for his Spirit to completly fill me up. Those are just the best times ever! There are times when I miss my girls so much. I was sitting on the sofa in our three season room on Sunday afternoon - it was the first day since we moved in that it was warm enough to sit out there. I curled up in the sofa and tears filled my eyes as I longed to curl up with my girls that are far away and just talk. You see, that particular sofa has always been our curl up couch where we talk. I longed for them - and our heavenly Father longs for that communion with us. He wants to curl up on the sofa and talk with us and he wants us to long to do that with him.

Today I woke up with a smile on my face. It just felt like a SMILE DAY!
Cry out to Jesus today. He longs for you!!!!
Smile, knowing that you are loved.

Baths

So last week I was just feeling like I was in a slump with God. Just that I felt like I was just going along - almost bored. Well, when you want more of God and ask him he does come through. He has been working on me in a number of ways. It's not always fun, in fact, some days I have just been plain fatigued. Yet I know that when God is working that in the end I know that I will never ever want to go back and what he does in me is for my good.

I think that so many of try so hard in our life to overcome things. I am watching a little bird take a bath in our birdbath which Angela just filled yesterday. It is the cutest thing to watch. Oops, a Cardinal just landed and is scaring off all the other birds. Pause - He's gone now and others have returned, obviously feeling safer now. It's a little picture of God bathing us. He wants us to bathe in him - to allow him to wash us up of our crap, our fears, our concerns - but our enemy wants to come along and divert us, even scare us away - but Christ is our victor and he always wins. There are now four birds bathing and it's a simple reminder of bathing in the waters of Christs cleansing as brothers and sisters in Christ. We need not go it alone! Then we fly away feeling lighter and cleaner than ever!

Psalm 60:11-12 "Give us aid against the enemy, for the help of man is worthless. With God we will gain the victory, and he will trample down our enemies."

Don't try go go it alone - and don't seek man for a solution, support yes, solution no. It is God who brings the victory. Galatians 3:3 says "Beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? Have you suffered so much for nothing - if it really was for nothing?" Let's stop trying on our own - AND LOOK TO JESUS!

I love the beginning signs of spring. The sounds, smells and sights of new life beginning are uplifting after a long cold winter indoors. Such is the life with Jesus. He is the author of new life in us and through us. Smell it - listen to it - look for it - THEN TASTE IT!

Bask in His Presence

Sometimes I get those moments when I just get overwhelmed by my girls. It is in those moments that I just miss them so much. Sometimes I read posts/comments that they make to each other on facebook and it brings so much joy to my heart as I can read the love they have for one another. Sometimes they are simple - but filled with love. This morning I saw a picture of Denise & Mike with Emily & Jon.
Written under the picture was:
(Emily to Denise)
Yay for such a happy picture.
Denise.
I think we look like sisters.

(Denise back to Emily)
wow...our husbands our cute..

Not far down was a post from Nicole:
Nicole Bickel Thayer WE'RE HAVING A FUNDRAISER FOR MIKE AND DENISE ON APRIL 17TH! PLEASE CALL ME FOR INFORMATION

Denise Bickel Murphy - ahhhhhh.........I LOVE YOU SISTER!!

And of course Angela who mixes in beautifully in all of this.

Sometimes I wonder why God blessed me so much. Sometimes I wonder why I ever have times of doubting, anything and I want to shout from the rooftop that Jesus is super great and he wants to have a relationship with you. Not just a "hi" now and then but a serious, personal, intimate and loving relationship. I could not have the loving personal relationships with my girls if I hadn't spent time with them. With three of them moved away our relationships stand because of the time we have invested in each other.

Isaiah says: "My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you." He clearly knows what a personal relationship with his creator looks like.

Jesus longs for time with us. He longs for us to stop what we are doing and be with him. For me I find it helpful to close my eyes and just think about him. Not really saying much but basking in his presence. Close your eyes right now as you listen to this song and ask Jesus to just wash over you with his presence. he is totally and passionately in love with you.

Champions

So we wake up every day - go to work - cook dinner - do laundry - grocery shopping - and maybe squeeze in a little time with God. Sounds like our leftovers. Here God, I will work all day for me and if I can squeeze in a little prayer I'm good to go. Think how sad this makes him.

Our Christian walk should be nothing less than being champions. Champions at home, at work and wherever we are - but champions for Christ. How much effort do we put into our relationship with him? How much do we invest in the one who gave us life, the one who created the universe, the one who DIED FOR YOU AND FOR ME?! It's a pretty tough question to think about - especially if we don't like the answer. But....we don't look at yesterday but to tomorrow. We don't have to look at the past but at our future. Jesus has already taken care of our crappy past sins. He wants us to be champions for him.

I am attaching a trailer for a movie that we just watched. I would highly recommend it to you. When the coach says that he wants them to be forever strong on the field and forever strong off the field I couldn't help but think of this in my faith. God doesn't want me to be forever strong in my faith only when things are going good, but to be forever strong when I face trials. No matter where I go and what I face I want to be a champion for Christ.