Tico Tuesday, September 7th

Being a missionary is not a job title, it's a lifestyle.

Maybe you've heard me say this before, maybe not. But I firmly believe this with all my heart. It is my challenge and encouragement to myself and to you today. One thing in the Perspectives class that really stuck out to me was an article that talked about the “spiritual-vocational hierarchy.” Maybe I even mentioned this in a Chronicle, now that I think about it. But anyway, the article points out how so many of us think that being a missionary, pastor, doctor, or some kind of service professional is more noble and God-honoring than it is to be an engineer, computer guru, or janitor. That is absolute rubbish! God looks at our heart and wants to be honored in all we say and do! Technically I'm here because God called me here to serve at CCI, and I know He has been using me here, but I'm also positive that He has been using me in everyday life here too. There's nothing wrong with being a missionary vocationally, but that doesn't put everyone else off the hook! Let's make ourselves available to God and see how He wants to use us today!

The story behind the picture and other thoughts can be found on my blog! I dare you to read an entry if you never have before!

Your fellow servant for Christ,

Carrie

Saturday was my friend Diana's birthday. We decided to make pancakes at her house for a birthday breakfast. Diana, nor anyone else in her family (which is also my 2^nd family here), had never had chocolate chip pancakes! So, it was fun witnessing the experience. Felipe was amazed at the chocolatey goodness and was just thrilled to bits. My little Verónica ate out all the chocolate chips and consumed very little of her pancakes. Mami (Ana Victoria) and Papi (William) enjoyed them thoroughly too (especially with the New Hampshire maple syrup I gave to Mami). So, that was really fun.

God gave me several other opportunities this weekend to share with friends. I feel like I'm finally establishing a strong enough relationship with some of my friends here that we can confide in each other more. I felt really honored to have one of my girlfriends here tell me that she wanted me to know about something that's going on in her life.

Please keep praying for the youth of CCI. A lot of them are having struggles with family, work, relationships/friendships, and school. May this drive them closer to God and not farther from Him! He is our only hope!

And a slight change of subject.... the sermon at church on Sunday night was REALLY good!! Fernando Montero gave it. He is an elder of the Sunday morning service and General Secretary of ECU, the equivalent of InterVarsity here in Costa Rica. He preached on the Sermon on the Mount, with a lot of his notes taken from a book that John Stott wrote about the Sermon on the Mount. It was great!! He talked about the Beatitudes being like a staircase with each one progressing to the next. I felt like I had never really understood what it meant to be “poor in spirit,” but the way he put it made so much sense! It is a recognition of our sinful condition and need to turn to God. This leads to mourning-lamenting our sinful condition and repenting, which allows us to be humble and accept it when others point our sin out to us. This then leads us to have hunger and thirst for righteousness, etc, etc, etc. It was wonderful! I have heard him preach I think 3x now, and each time he does a great job expositing the Scriptures. I took notes and shared them with Tía and Abuelita yesterday morning. After I finished, Abuelita said that reminded her of such a such a hymn, I think it was “At the Cross/Alas! And did my Savior Bleed.” So, I went and grabbed my hymnal and plunked through it on the piano (I can read music but I don't really know how to play chords and such). Tía LOVES to sing and Abuelita loves to listen, so we had a little bit of music and and that was our Monday morning church service. It was really sweet and I could tell Tía was really touched. She'd had a bit of a difficult morning up till then. And Abuelita was feeling a little better too. She sat up for a little while afterwards, reading/praying through her notebook full of notes/prayer requests. So, that was a special time. Please keep praying for Abuelita and the rest of the family as she continues to get worse. We called emergencies in the middle of the night last night because Abuelita (felt like she) couldn't breathe. She has been significantly weaker and we know her time is coming close (but not how close).

Thanks for reading and thanks even more for praying!