Tico Tuesday, April 28th

Happy Tuesday to you once more!
Thank you so much to all of you who joined me in prayer last week! I felt greatly encouraged and I received extra confirmation on what the next step in life will be. More on that next week. This evening I want to tell you a little more about the amazing Spiritual Direction training I received through UWM in beautiful Austria!

With my spiritual mentor Hanna overlooking Millstattersee

There were 14 of us receiving the training, and UWM's core Spiritual Formation team was present too. We had attendees who serve in India, South Africa, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Germany, Colombia, Mexico, and Costa Rica (me). This incredibly rich group of people also included a few Mexicans and a Hungarian, which really brought a lot of depth and some great questions to our discussions.
What is Spiritual Direction, you ask? In essence, it is an intentional mentor/coach-like relationship in which the mentor helps the mentee be more in tune with God and the work he is doing in his/her life. The goal is for the mentee to grow, deepen and strengthen his/her relationship with God and experience him more fully and richly. Many people (myself included!) have a lot of head knowledge, but not a lot of heart knowledge, and spiritual direction and spiritual formation practices seek to engage the heart of the mentee.
Receiving this training was very humbling. As a few people modeled spiritual direction sessions for us, we sensed the Lord's presence and knew we were observing a conversation on holy ground!
I am so excited to be a UWM missionary and to be participating in this training (module 2 starts in September). Really great stuff is happening and I can't wait to see how things continue to develop and grow!
Thank you again for all your prayers. Please continue to pray for UWM as we continue to grow spiritual formation in our mission and through it. May we all engage our hearts more fully in our relationship with Jesus!
Love,
Carrie

Tico Tuesday, April 21st

Invitations...
This past week, I was in Austria for the spiritual formation training that UWM invited me to earlier this year. Wow! What an incredible experience! (And hence no Tico Tuesday last week.) More on that to come next Tuesday and in the April Chronicle. But today, I want to extend you an invitation.

My plane flew over the tippy tippy bottom of Greenland!

While I was in Austria, I received an invitation to consider. Tomorrow, I will be setting aside the day to pray and fast, as I present this invitation before the Lord and seek his guidance as to whether or not he wants me to accept it.
Will you join me in prayer or both prayer and fasting? (Fasting can mean abstaining from food all day or for a meal, or even just refraining from coffee or facebook--how you fast is between you and God.) I encourage you to set aside some time to seek the Lord on my behalf, that God would give me wisdom, clarity, and peace regarding this decision. I am excited for what's to come, though it may be a very big step of faith. I know God is in control and working everything out for my good and his glory. He has been doing some big work in my life, and I am excited about what he is doing!
Thank you for joining me in seeking the Lord about this invitation!
May we all respond well to God's invitations to us!
Carrie

Tico Tuesday, April 8th

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

(I thought I'd give you a day off and not send you updates two days in a row)
This Resurrection Sunday was the best I've ever had here in Costa Rica! Largely because--it actually felt more like a Resurrection Day! Generally, evangelical/Protestant churches here pretty much ignore the celebration of the Resurrection. It's largely a cultural thing and the whole country shuts down from Holy Thursday to Resurrection Sunday, so most of the people are at the beach soaking up the last few rays of summer sun before rainy season moves in. But, at Vida Abundante Heredia, there was actually recognition of this most significant holy-day and that made me so happy! We started with a time of worship and prayer at 6am and then had a Resurrection breakfast before moving on to the regularly scheduled morning services--with a sermon on the resurrection! I am pretty sure that's the first of its kind I've heard in this country--and this was my 9th Easter here! Yikes! I hadn't realized it had been 9 until just now! That is incredible!  (2007 when I studied abroad here was my first, in 2008 I came back to visit, and in 2009 I moved to the mission field shortly before Easter.)
This Resurrectiontide has had me thinking a lot about God's power. There is nothing difficult for him. As the Creator and Lord of all, he has power over all, he "is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us," (Ephesians 3:20). His power is in his children! Wow!
Thanks be to God for his power, goodness, sovereignty, and love!
May we continually rejoice in our Powerful Resurrected Savior and King and give him the glory and honor he deserves!
Carrie