Tico Tuesday, August 30th

Thank you so much for your prayers. Leading Vigía on Friday night went really well!

We had several new people come and everyone participated well in the different activities I had us do. It was a really lovely time. First I explained a little about Psalm 119 and how it is an acrostic of the Hebrew alphabet. Each letter of the Hebrew alphabet has 8 verses that start with that letter. What an incredible task! Yes, Psalm 119 is indeed the longest chapter in the Bible. And it is all about love for God's Word: his laws, his teachings, his statutes, his promises. The psalmist is deeply passionate for God's word and shares about the blessings that come from loving and obeying it: peace, joy, understanding, protection, worship, etc. Often when people hear Psalm 119 they think it is long, boring and repetitive. My hope was to give people a different perspective on it, and I feel that my mission was accomplished! I read the last 16 verses of the Psalm with my partner and when we finished she exclaimed, "¡Qué lindo!" How lovely/pretty! That was the best reaction I could have dreamed. It was a joy to see people enjoying the chapter so much and having God speak to them through his Word.
As a response in worship, I had each pair compose 3 verses that all started with the same letter. Then I had everyone read their verses in alphabetical order, composing our own acrostic psalm. It was really neat! I heard lots of positive feedback afterwards. People saying they'd never done anything like that before, how fascinating the activity was, etc. Thanks and praise be to God! I love the Bible and I was very grateful to be able to share my passion for it with others and help them interact with it in different, creative ways. God is so good!
Small groups started meeting to do the series last week. Please keep them all in your prayers. Talking about Life-Giving Relationships is turning out to be a lot more confrontational than we thought and is bringing a whole bunch of life-sucking relationships to light. There are also a number of relational crises taking place. The enemy loves to attack the very area we are trying to strengthen! Please pray for the church staff and all the individuals and families participating in this series and for life-giving relationships to grow and abound!
May God bless you with rich life-giving relationships--thank you for the life you give me through your friendship and support!
Love,
Carrie