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