Tico Tuesday, October 11th

I've been sitting here for over an hour trying to figure out what to write to you about: the miraculous birth of my friend's baby after she was told her body was like that of a woman in menopause and her marriage almost disintegrated? How Walmart has had Christmas decor in it for like a month now? How much I love David Ortiz and am so sad the Red Sox lost last night? How the new church office space is coming along?

Most of the pastors will have cubicles in this space

 How the last small group training of the year had a disappointingly low attendance level and how God showed up there? And how glad I am that I didn't plan to use a computer and projector because the power was out for most of the meeting? Yes, I think this is a good thing to tell you about, even though there are no pictures of it. Although we have around 70-75 small groups that were active during this series on Life-Giving Relationships, only about a dozen people came to the final training of the year a week ago Saturday. Apparently there was a tremendous rainstorm happening down in Heredia centro and that made it hard for some people to come, and I suspect it discouraged others from venturing out. It is difficult to work hard to prepare something and then only have a few people come and learn. Especially when people come to me later with concerns about things they would've known how to address if they had come to the trainings. I've been learning a lot though. It looks like we are going to revamp quite a bit next year and aim for fewer, longer trainings and make them even more interactive and dynamic. I'm working on planning a closing evening for the facilitators to thank them for their service this year and encourage them to be more committed to trainings next year. I know I still have a lot more to learn, but I'm really thankful for my team that helps me keep in tune with the culture and come up with good ideas for the future. So, please continue to keep the Small Group core team and me (and the facilitators) in your prayers, and for God to raise up more people for the core team. Thank you so much!
Love,
Carrie