Tico Tuesday. June 14th

Happy Tuesday to you!

This past week we recorded the videos that we'll use as the primary material for my church's next series, which will start in August. My supervisor don José found the material in English and really liked it, but it didn't exist in Spanish, so he translated the whole thing and then got the church staff and a few other people from church to be recorded. I was a little surprised that he wanted the gringa to be recorded too, but part of it talks about small groups and it definitely made the most sense for me to do that part. Putting this video together has been a ton of work, but we trust that this series on Life-giving Relationships will powerfully impact the lives of everyone in our church.
Things continue to progress in small groups. On Saturday we had another training. Not many people came because the Father's Day activity was that morning and the last training was only 3 weeks ago, but I felt it was important to not cancel. Also last week I ended up having a 4 hour meeting with my small group team. We are getting more organized and are about to call all the facilitators in order to build a relationship with them and provide better support to each group according to its needs. And God is answering our prayers! This past week I had 2 people contact me and say they are interested in helping more with small groups! I'm not sure these people will end up on the core team I'm working on building, but still to have people interested is a wonderful blessing! The small group ministry needs lots of helping hands! Thank you for your prayers, and please continue to pray for this team and for the calls we'll be making to each of the facilitators. Please also be in prayer for my church in general. It is an exciting time and we are growing and great things are happening, but that means we need to remain all the more humble, united, holy, and flexible, as Rudy our head pastor has been preaching.
Thank you so much for walking with me on this great journey! How great is our God!
Carrie

Tico Tuesday, May 24th

Greetings from Costa Rica!

The last week has been absolutely insane--full of wonderful activities and lots of emotions. First, I HAVE MY NEW CAR! At last! Praise the Lord! Thank you so much for your generosity that made it possible for me to get this vehicle. It is such a wonderful blessing to me! My mechanic was very pleased with the car when he test drove it and I am really enjoying being a couple inches higher, being able to fill up my gas tank faster (my old car had a defect that made me spend about 10 minutes at the gas station each time!), listening to CDs, being able to pull a U turn instead of a 3 point turn, giving people a ride without have to move seats, and riding more smoothly, and feeling more safe, secure, and comfortable. I miss having a clutch pedal, but am truly thrilled and delighted with this wonderful blessing from the Lord. I pray it will be an instrument of blessing to many. I was able to pick up my car on Wednesday last week, and a friend was even able to come along and accompany me to a couple government agencies to get all my proper stickers and everything. It was nice to be able to share the experience with a friend, I was very grateful.
I would also love to tell you about an impressive 60th birthday party I went to for a fellow staff member at church, the great core meeting we had for church leadership, the small group facilitator training I gave, and more, but right now my priority is to ask you to please pray, pray pray for the trip I'm going on to Cuba. Twenty of us are going. I'll be totally out of touch while I'm gone, so I will happily respond to all emails and texts after I return (June 1st). I'm feeling a little nervous, but also excited and full of anticipation. I look forward to sharing some stories of the trip with you once I return!
Please keep all twenty of us in your prayers! Thank you so much for your faithful prayers, support, and encouragement!
Love,
Carrie

Tico Tuesday, May 17th

Happy Tuesday to you!

This past Saturday, the young adult ministry partnered with the ministry from church that provides a meal and Christian teaching for the homeless every other weekend. I'd heard a lot about this ministry, but never had participated. It was a really interesting experience. Of the approximately 40 people there, only one was a woman, and she had a little girl with her. All the rest were men, a few young ones, but I suspect most were between the ages of 40 and 60. The vast majority of them, if not all of them are substance abusers. Some were quiet, some almost started throwing punches at each other at one point, some reeked, some looked quite well taken care of for living on the street. We shook all their hands as they came in, and as I watched them while we sang and listened to a woman share how God changed her life and helped her get and stay off the streets for good. And the thought that came to mind was: These are the least of these. These are the ones Jesus would rub shoulders with were he to walk the earth today. Jesus loves these people just as much as he loves me. Jesus died for these people too. The homeless generally don't have much dignity. It's easy to pass them by, ignore them, judge them. But, they have names, personalities, and stories that people in my church are getting to know. And not long ago my church assumed responsibility for a drug rehabilitation center that's about an hour away. The goal is that we can use this biweekly ministry as a bridge to send people to the rehabilitation center. It's really exciting! Please pray for God to transform the lives of these homeless men and women and for them to experience true freedom and love in him--and for me to see and treat them more like Jesus.
May God continue to use us to be his hands and feet!
Carrie

Tico Tuesday, May 10th

It's Tuesday once more!

That means tonight I'll be attending my third session on a prayer seminar my supervisor from church is teaching. This seminar is based on Philip Yancey's book Prayer and is being offered to approximately 40 of the students who have already taken the Bible Basics course through my church. (Hence why Tico Tuesday is coming out before most of you are in bed.) So far, it has been really good. I still like Richard Foster's Prayer better, but I'm still learning and growing and very appreciative of this little course on prayer. It's incredible what a vast topic prayer is. So far we've talked a lot about perspective--how differently God sees things than we do, and how truly other he is. He is far beyond our comprehension, yet longs for us to know him and draw near to him. I look forward to seeing what all else we learn in this course. And I also look forward to continuing to get to know my fellow students better. I see and interact briefly with a lot of people at church, but this is a great opportunity to get to know some of them a little better.
Change of Topic: I have started sending out my Chronicles via Mailchimp. If you haven't gotten the last couple, please be sure to check your spam filter!
And, as I mentioned in last week's Chronicle, I hoped to have my new car in my possession by now. Unfortunately, things continue to take longer than I expected. So, maybe next week by this time I'll have it? Please pray for things to go smoothly and no further complications.
Thanks so much!
God's blessing and peace be with you!
Carrie

Tico Tuesday, April 26th

Welcome to Guararí (pronounce wah-ra-REE with the r's flipped so they sound a little more like d's), the poorest part of my province Heredia.

My church partners with a local ministry here that provides children with tutoring, Bible clubs, a free meal once a week, women with discipleship classes, sewing classes, and a host of other activities. Today, several players from Heredia's soccer team came to meet some of the kids and serve them lunch. It was quite a to do! While we waited for the players' arrival, the man who directs the ministry and some of his fellow clown friends led the kids in some fun songs. When the players arrived it got pretty chaotic, but what do you expect when a couple hundred kids meet famous people? All the local news stations were there interviewing the players--I wasn't so impressed by that. But they had the press come to the activity instead of their training session today (and they are currently the number one seeded team and heading into semifinals). I understand the press' desire and the desire of the team to look good, but I also understand the children's desire to hang out with some of their favorite players.
I had fun getting to meet and interact with some kids. They were having a blast getting their faces painted and balloon animals and such. I saw one boy swinging at the grass with his balloon sword much like people cut grass with a machete here. Thankfully he didn't seem upset by his balloon popping.
I'm grateful for this opportunity to visit this ministry of my church and see the bridge we are helping them rebuild (which is literally falling into the polluted stream below and therefore quite scary to cross. You can see part of it on the left side of the picture). It was quite an experience! And thankfully, God held off the rain until just after we finished.
May God continue to teach us to see his hand at work and be his hands and feet to those in need,
Carrie

Tico Tuesday, April 19th

I've had some great meetings in the past week.

 I visited a couple small groups and tonight my supervisor and I met with the leaders of the Crown Finance ministry (pictured) of our church to figure out how we can make better use of their knowledge and materials in small groups and the rest of our church. This morning before the weekly staff meeting I met with Shirley, my right hand small group woman, and last week I had a really good meeting with my supervisor. Needless to say, it's been a productive time.
While I definitely still feel like I'm adjusting to my new role, I feel like I'm slowly gathering a better idea of how things will be and how to go about them. It will not be an easy task and I have a lot of learning and growing to do, but I know that God is at work--in me and in my church. It's a busy, exciting time as we prepare to move up to our property and our first church building!
After the series we are currently doing on the war against temptation, we will be strongly encouraging all small groups to keep on meeting! In the past, the tendency has been for only a few groups to meet year-round, while the majority only have met when there is a series (6-7 sessions, 2-3 times a year). I'm working hard on developing resources for small group facilitators to use when we're not doing a series. Please pray for me as I build a team to work with, develop materials, plan trainings, continue to visit small groups, etc., etc., etc.!
In other brief news: 1) My car is in the country! Please pray for all the paperwork and everything to go smoothly so that I can have the keys in my hand by the end of the month!! Thank you again to all of you who made buying it possible! 2) Please pray for the team I have joined who will be going on a short term trip to Cuba next month! It will be a challenging time, but I'm really excited for this experience!
Thank you so much for your faithful prayers and support!
Love,
Carrie

Tico Tuesday, April 12th

Happy Tuesday to you once more!
The ups and downs of this week were a little more exaggerated than normal. It's not every week a good friend has a baby with a bit of a scare right after the delivery (thankfully baby and momma are now well and at home), I get to go to an elegant 25th anniversary party/vow renewal with mariachis and fireworks, and I have to deal with some extra-tricky cultural situations. But thankfully, God is present and at work through it all.
I was particularly grateful my friend and small group member Angie (pictured) was at the anniversary party. There weren't many single people there and while I know I would have been fine without her, I was very happy to have a buddy there. Angie is one of the few people who kept in touch with me while I was gone last year, so she is really special to me. I've really been enjoying getting to know her and the rest of the members of my small group. We're starting to develop a stronger sense of community and I'm really excited about it. I think I've mentioned it to you before: the last time I remember being part of a good small group was college!
I've started visiting other small groups now too and am really enjoying that. Last night I was really impressed by a leader that is reaching out to her neighbors and teaching them from God's Word, even looking up extra passages not mentioned in the study to share with them. From the little I know about this woman, I can see that what she is doing is a really beautiful act of love and service. It's a wonderful blessing to get to know and work with these people, encourage them, and provide them with a listening ear, support, and resources as they obediently serve the Lord. I'm so grateful to be a part of the Lord's work here!
May we be obedient to the Lord and selflessly serve and love others too!
Carrie