Tico Tuesday, July 13th

God showed up
I think this is one of the hardest weeks it has been to choose a picture. Do I choose a picture from the baptisms? One of the speakers? A cute group shot? People spread out reading their letters of encouragement and love? (thankfully you can't tell I'm bawling my eyes out) A picture of the cross with all our sins and burdens nailed to it? There are so many options to choose from!! The CCI youth retreat this weekend was indeed amazing. God met us there and was hard at work! Please join me in praising Him for everything He is doing in and through the youth and praying for their relationships with him to continue to deepen and for their lives to be transformed by the Holy Spirit.
Wait, am I dancing in that picture? Find out why and read more about what God did this weekend on my blog!
May our hearts be open to the work that God wants to do in us today and every day!

Carrie

A dance party at a youth retreat? Yep, we had quite a fiesta Saturday night! There was much to be celebrated! God was there and working in us, reminding us of the powerful work of the cross, our need to submit and be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and the freedom we have in Him, the need to forgive, others as God has forgiven us, our identity as His beloved children and chosen people and so much more! God was breaking down barriers and filling us with the Holy Spirit and reminding us of His love and answering our prayers, etc, etc, etc! And so we had bubbles, horns, balloons, music, confetti, a dance battle of the sexes, threw people in the pool, and of course, cake! I almost put a picture of Jorge and me doing the worm, but the one of Jose Pablo and me was fun too, and you can actually see my face. (and I was blown away at how tan I look! Jajaja!!)

One of the most impacting things for me at the retreat was what we did with some slips of paper and a cross....Everyone wrote down our problems, issues, sins, everything that we wanted to get rid of on a piece of paper. Then before supper (we had chances to add to the list all through the day) we all nailed our papers to a cross. This was really moving for me. Jesus took all our our sins, burdens, failures and problems and took them upon Himself. He, God the Son became incarnate-he came to this earth and walking and lived among us... a Perfect Life! He made our crap His very own! As I watched people nail their papers into the cross I imagined Jesus' body being on that cross and being nailed too. What incredible suffering! Not just physically, but emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually!! We had a lot of crap nailed on that cross. And that was just us! 40 youths in Costa Rica! But Jesus took upon Himself not only our sins, but those of everyone who is alive in the world today and everyone who has EVER existed and will exist. WOW!!!!! WOW!!!!! After nailing all our papers on to the cross, we took it outside and burnt the papers off of it. It sounds kind of ritualistic and weird, but it was just to symbolize that Jesus took AWAY our sins, he made them NO MORE. He forgave us and then forgot our sins! That was really powerful. I thought that was that. But, to top it off, the next day there were papers nailed on the cross again. We each took one and unfolded it. But this time they were all blank. It was another symbol of how Jesus offers us new life, a fresh start. We are new creatures through the work of Christ on the cross. And we have eternal life with Him!! Thank You, Jesus!!!!

Ok, one more thing, and I'll tell you more later... Ana (who planned the retreat with her brother Josué) had Ana Victoria (a dear lady from church I adopted as my tica mom) contact the youths' parents and get them and other family members and loved ones to write them letters of encouragement. I wrote a couple letter for some people that weren't going to have many. I wondered if it would occur to Ana to contact my parents somehow. I knew she had their e-mail. but I wasn't going to say anything about it. I didn't want to wreck the surprise or get my hopes up only to have them dashed on the rocks. And I knew that even just with people here writing me that would be really sweet and I could and would be totally content with that. Well, the first letters I pulled out were from Richi (the pastor I adore and have been growing closer to) and his wife Silvia. Silvia said she admired me and gave me a little Costa Rican souvenir. SO sweet!! Richi wrote to me in English. His 3-4 sentences were far from correct grammatically, but I was really really touched by his labor of love. A couple other little things came out, and then I pulled out a folded letter that was clearly a printout. I saw the Gmail logo through the other side of the paper and figured it was the letter from my parents. Well, to my incredible shock and amazement I looked at the sender and it was from MY BROTHER DANIEL!!!!!!!! I just broke down crying. I couldn't believe it. It was really hard to make it through his letter. The first part was so sweet-telling me how the most encouraging thing he could do would be to send me Isaiah (my youngest nephew) and how adorable and wonderful his smile is. Oh man do I wish I could go and visit them!! Then he included a quote/excerpt from a book that was really good-about martyrs and daily sacrificing ourselves and our lives to God. That really hit the spot. I was just so blown away. I also had letters from Aunt Jenny, Christianne, Brenda, Grampa Smith (which was also really hard to read because I couldn't help but think about Grammy and miss her and wish she could still be a part of my life) and of course, Mommy and Daddy. I just couldn't believe it. I don't know how long I cried, but it was for a really long time. I was feeling it in my abs yesterday! I finally tried to get myself together enough to go back into the room and I was getting close, and then Samu came out and hugged me for a really really really long time-I kept crying and he cried some with me and finally we went inside. I was still delicate and cried again a little when I told someone who all wrote me. but it was all just such a huge blessing. I am SO overwhelmed at how loved I am. And it's just even more incredible to know that all this is because of the love of God and what Jesus did on the cross... I am in such awe of God!