Tico Tuesday, June 26th

Happy Tuesday to you once again!

"The Best Cluster Ever"

Last week I had the great blessing and privilege of attending my second "Come before Winter" renewal. My first experience was life changing, and my second was as well. In 2015, I was an absolute emotional disaster as I waited, waited, and waited for another ministry placement. This time, I am in a much better place, but was still in need of a renewal. To have 12 women stop their lives and come serve 31 women, be able to disconnect from my phone and work, be with other women that are a lot like me, and be able to sing in English (and have some nice harmony in our a capella singing!) all made the week a real treat. We spent the week studying and reflecting on the book of Exodus. It was rich!
God spoke to me through many passages, but my biggest takeaway was about God's presence. I knew in my head before about God's omnipresence and Emmanuel is one of my favorite names of Jesus, but I now have a fuller, deeper, heart-level understanding of what it means for God to be present: with me. It means He's near, He's here. That He cares, that all I do, think, feel, and am matters to Him, that He wants to know me and be known by me, that he loves me. His presence brings peace, comfort, and joy (hmm... tidings of comfort and joy? Christmas is less than 6 months away now!). Indeed, in his presence is fullness of joy, as it says in Psalm 16. This past week, I felt more joy than I'd felt in a long time, and it was wonderful. Now to abide in it, and not let long to-do lists, ministry responsibilities, and stress rob it from me. I have a breath prayer I'm using, and I'm working on making up breath prayers for lots of different things I do throughout the day. It's a sweet time in my relationship with God and I am so grateful.
More on Come before Winter and other recent events in my Chronicle next week!
May you be aware of God's presence with you this week and may it also fill you with joy!
Love,
Carrie

Tico Tuesday, June 12th

Happy Tuesday!

Another family fun weekend at church has come and gone. We baptized over 30 people over the course of the three services, and the activities we had Sunday afternoon were such a hit, people stuck around until the sports ministry was ready to pack and clean everything up! We had bingo, foursquare, dominoes, Jenga, Cranium, Uno, ping pong, pool, and more! Since it's rainy season, we couldn't count as much on outdoor activities; though some still happened before the rain came. It was a really fun time, and as always, a great time for people to hang out, get to know each other, and make memories together.
A couple ladies in my small group and I hung out and joined in a couple different games together. I think one of the things that's exciting me so much about my small group right now is that I'm seeing the people in the group build relationships with each other: people making plans to go to a class at church together, sit together, etc. That really encourages me! And I think this was the family weekend in which I've felt the most comfortable. I often end up kind of wandering around trying to figure out what to do and who to hang out with. So, it was nice to have the chicas from my small group there. It was also nice that there were more game options than ever before too.
May we remember to make time to play and invest in relationships!
Blessings on the rest of your week!
Love,
Carrie