Tico Tuesday, June 27th

Hello!
Thank you so much for praying for me this past Friday as I had my retreat day to pray for and focus on strengthening the vision and philosophy for small groups. It was a wonderful day and I came away feeling a greater sense of focus and clarity with small groups and some ideas of what needs to happen next. I am now even more excited for the Small Group Strategic Planning conference I'll be going to in 2 weeks! There is much work to be done. I think my greatest prayer request now is two-fold: For God to raise up people to help carry this ministry forward (because it is completely impossible for me to do on my own), and for me to be able to let go and trust the people God raises up (I have some pretty obnoxious control issues that God and I are still working through). I'm excited to see what God will do in the future!

Today we had a staff work retreat day. We needed to update our organizational chart in order to prepare for making our first ever 5 year strategic plan. It was not an easy task, but God gave us grace, and a really helpful engineer took the day off work to help us. Some restructuring happened, and now our chart makes a lot more sense. However, we are also more aware now of some glaring personnel needs, and the budget has been painfully tight lately. We have seen God's hand as we've made our way through the God Provides series, but as we discussed today, long lasting change starts in the heart and makes its way to our pocket. Ok, so we didn't say it quite so poetically, but life experience shows that real, lasting transformation happens from the inside out. Please pray for us as we continue to move towards making our 5 year strategic plan and being a better organized, more effective church. We have a lot of churches asking us for training and mentoring, and having our ducks in a row will also allow us to help others better. I'm excited for what God has in store for us and the churches we mentor in the future!
Funny note about today: I think it was the day in which we ate the most together. We started with a big breakfast and fruit, then someone brought us a traditional dish called chifrijo at 11, then we had lunch at 1 (though no one was hungry), and we celebrated a coworker's birthday, so we had the dirt cake I made him too! Needless to say, I had a very light supper tonight! As you can see, food is a very important part of our church's culture!
May God continue to transform us all from the inside out and use us more effectively for his glory,
Carrie