Tico Tuesday, June 23rd

A New Adventure

Did you know Mexico is about 3x the size of Texas?

Tomorrow (Wednesday) I embark on a new adventure. Another chapter of my life story will begin. I fly to Mexico! I will be in Mexico City (known as the DF--Distrito Federal) for the next 3.5 months, working with Avance and the Centro Latino de Movilización (Latin Moblization Center). Avance is a ministry, language, and cultural immersion program for young adults who are considering a future in missions (generally from the US or Canada). The Moblization Center (known as the CLM) is a coffeehouse that provides coaching and spiritual direction to Mexican youg adults who are feeling called to missions and helps them get get involved in missions. I met the leaders of both of these ministries when I was in Austria for Spiritual Direction training in April. I am glad to have connections with a couple people in Mexico already and look forward to seeing my new friends again!
By the end of my time in Mexico (mid October), I hope to have clarity on whether or not God is calling me to move to Mexico and serve Him there. Will you join with me in seeking God over the next few months and asking him for guidance and clarity regarding my next step?
This has all been a big surprise for me...I never thought I would serve in Mexico, but God has made it clear to me I should check out a few of the ministries there. I know that God knows all, and that He is good and in control. It is my desire to grow closer to him in this time and for my will to be one with his.
Thank you so much for walking alongside me and for your support, encouragement and prayer!
Carrie

Tico Tuesday, June 16th

Artfulness

When I was little, I wanted to be an artist. My parents got me a few art lessons and actually still have the framed painting of my take on Van Gogh's Sunflowers on the wall. My painting/drawing skills haven't improved much since then, sometimes I think they have even deteriorated, but 8th grade art and the Arts in Civilaztion course I took in college have given me an enormous appreciation for art. In college, our InterVarsity staff worker gave those of us on the leadership team notebooks one year, and allowed us to select if we wanted one with lines or without. I, of course, chose a lined one since I am a lines and structure kind of girl. But, our staff worker also encouraged us to draw in our notebooks: we started with Ephesians 1 (that's a rich one!). I am now surprised at how many sketches of spiritual reflections I have in there...not many, but enough that I wish I'd chosen a notebook with no lines in it! Like I mentioned in my Chronicle, the trip with my mom really did leave me wanting to express myself in a more artistic fashion, and I guess my point today is that doing artistic things like writing a poem or making a drawing are good and can be very worshipful. I know some of you already know this far better than me. I have a friend who often includes poems she wrote in her missionary updates. I'm not sure I'll be so bold to do that, but I want to encourage you today: what is that thing that you keep in the back of your mind that you like to do but don't do hardly ever? How can you worship God through your hobbies and other things you like to do? Or maybe you need to cultivate a new hobby. Will you take 10 minutes today to consider this and worship God in a creative way?
I leave for Mexico a week from tomorrow! Please keep praying for me as I prepare to enter a different (but related) culture, different Spanish vocabulary, and meet with potential future coworkers! Thank you!
Love,
Carrie

Tico Tuesday, May 19th

Tuesday greetings to you all from Portland, ME!

The last week was full of fun with family and friends in North and South Carolina. And the highlight? GRADUATING from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary with my Master's of Arts in Religion with a concentration in Christian Care and Counseling! (similar to an MDiv without the Hebrew and Greek) It was a full weekend for the seminary, since Friday afternoon was not only Baccalaureate, but also the dedication ceremony for the new Rogers Hall of Mission. I was able to represent my missions organization there (as it made a donation for the Latin America room to honor the legacy of the Latin America Mission) not only with my presence, but as we closed with people praying in a whole bunch of different languages, I was asked at the last minute to pray in Spanish! What an honor it was!
Graduation was a wonderful ceremony and time of celebration. My mom flew down, and an aunt, uncle, cousin, and my grandma joined us too. Afterwards we all went out to lunch with a couple friends I bonded with in seminary who showed extra kindness to me in my times of residency there.
I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to get my Master's at Gordon-Conwell. It was a great experience, and though it required a lot of hard work, I know it was worth it. I truly did learn and mature through it all. I feel more confident and better equipped for ministry now. And I will say, it feels SO GOOD to be done!!
Thank you for your continued prayers for me as I step forward into what God has for me!
Love,
Carrie

Tico Tuesday, May 12th

Happy Tuesday from South Carolina!

Thanks be to God, I had smooth travels up to the States from Costa Rica. I spent the weekend in Charleston, SC, and was able to spend some time with a couple cousins. Sunday, I spoke at a church just outside Charleston and was very grateful for the opportunity to be able to share what God has been teaching me. To keep it interesting, I used a Disney illustration: Aladdin asking Jasmine if she trusts him. Over the last few months, I've felt like Jasmine. God has been asking me, "Do you trust me?" He is standing there on the edge of the magic carpet inviting me to go on a new journey with him. I find it scary to get off my comfortable balcony, but God has reminded me that trusting him is what truly brings me joy and freedom. And thankfully, God truly is the King of all, not just Aladdin imposing as a prince. I can trust him fully and know that he knows best and is taking care of me. He is the real deal! God has been so faithful and good to me and I am very curious and excited to see how the next chapter in life will play out!
Thank you for continuing to pray for me throughout my journeys: both spiritual and physical (as I fly around)!
May each of us take God's outstretched hand and trust him with our whole hearts.
Love,
Carrie

Carrie's Chronicles, May 2015/Tico Tuesday, May 6th

Greetings, dear family and friends!!

What a month April was! So much happened I will do my best to be concise.

-April started with a visit from a friend from college. She graciously read to me for hours in the car and patiently napped next to me at the beach so I could finish my readings for seminary and the Spiritual Direction training I was about to receive. We managed to see a few sights and have some fun together too. I keep making friends with people who are better than me at Boggle! ;-)

-The Spiritual Direction training was excellent. We received a lot of information in a few days, but it was very valuable. God met us in a special way, both as a group and to many of us individually. I know I raved about this last week in Tico Tuesday, but I can't express how excited I am about the way UWM is choosing to invest in the spiritual well-being of its missionaries. UWM wants to be an organization its missionaries love, and that is definitely the case for me! It is so wonderful and exciting to partner with this organization as I join God in his work in the world! And to receive training in a castle with a prayer room in a tower was just wicked awesome!

-And now...what you've all been waiting for: What was that invitation I had you all praying about and am I going to be accepting it or not??? While I was in Austria, 2 people who serve in Mexico (one an incredibly amazing woman who was my roommate there) realized I am in transition between ministries, and each invited me to Mexico (in the Distrito Federal—the capital city commonly known as the DF) to get to know their ministry and help them out for a few months...possibly as an interim kind of visit. But, the ministries--a short term missions program and a new center to help mobilize Latins into missions (especially the second one)--sound so great and I received so many confirmations from the Lord, I will go not for an interim visit, but what the missions world calls a “vision trip:” visiting and getting to know a place and ministries in order to discern if that is where God wants one to be. (While I’m there I’ll get to learn about some other ministries too.) I've shared with you only part of my experience with wrestling over staying in Costa Rica, and I will say that God has been doing a huge, wonderful work in my heart. My heart had been so gripped with fear, not wanting to release my comfort zone, this place and these people I have grown to love over the last 6 years. But God wants me in the challenge zone, not the comfort zone, because that is where I can grow more. He is stretching me, and reminding me once more that though trusting him and letting go of everything else sounds frightening, trusting him is what actually brings true freedom, joy, and peace. (It really does!!) He wants me to rely on him for everything, and he is more than enough. Besides, when I try to do things on my own, I tend to just make a royal mess. I want to follow him and be obedient to him. It is worth it to follow Jesus!

The plan to go to Mexico has come together quite quickly and so this has been a whirlwind for me the past few weeks. It wasn't until church on Sunday that it started to really hit me. My hopeful/tentative timeline is as follows:

May 7 (TOMORROW!): Fly to Charlotte, NC

 (little did I know in 2011 when we chose Mexico for Missions Sunday!!)

May 16: Graduate from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary!

May 18: fly to Maine

May 25: Go on a special 2 week trip with my mom to Europe as a graduation present

June 25 at the latest: Fly to Mexico!

Mid-October: Fly back to the States and visit a whole bunch of YOU! It is my prayer that by the time I leave Mexico, God will have made my next step clear. Please pray with me!

Late December: Fly to Costa Rica for my current roommate's wedding and do whatever I need to do to move into the next step God has for me.

Please keep praying for me in this time. These last few months have been incredibly challenging, but like I said, God is calling me to trust him, to keep stepping forward into all that he has for me. I especially ask for your immediate prayers for safe and smooth travels tomorrow (Thursday). The Turrialba volcano has been spouting ash off and on for the last couple months and they've had to close the airport periodically because of it. It is currently open. Also, I have a 3 hour drive from Charlotte, NC to Charleston, SC tomorrow, so it will be a long day.

The last couple weeks have been filled with “See you laters” with a lot of people. Last night, the young adult group from church got together to share with me and bless me. I felt deeply honored, appreciated, and loved. I am blessed and grateful, and there really aren't words to express all I am feeling. I'm pretty sure there are going to be a lot of tears on the plane in the morning. Please pray!

Thank you so much for your faithful support and partnership. You are all an amazing blessing to me too!

Love,

Carrie

Tico Tuesday, April 28th

Happy Tuesday to you once more!
Thank you so much to all of you who joined me in prayer last week! I felt greatly encouraged and I received extra confirmation on what the next step in life will be. More on that next week. This evening I want to tell you a little more about the amazing Spiritual Direction training I received through UWM in beautiful Austria!

With my spiritual mentor Hanna overlooking Millstattersee

There were 14 of us receiving the training, and UWM's core Spiritual Formation team was present too. We had attendees who serve in India, South Africa, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Germany, Colombia, Mexico, and Costa Rica (me). This incredibly rich group of people also included a few Mexicans and a Hungarian, which really brought a lot of depth and some great questions to our discussions.
What is Spiritual Direction, you ask? In essence, it is an intentional mentor/coach-like relationship in which the mentor helps the mentee be more in tune with God and the work he is doing in his/her life. The goal is for the mentee to grow, deepen and strengthen his/her relationship with God and experience him more fully and richly. Many people (myself included!) have a lot of head knowledge, but not a lot of heart knowledge, and spiritual direction and spiritual formation practices seek to engage the heart of the mentee.
Receiving this training was very humbling. As a few people modeled spiritual direction sessions for us, we sensed the Lord's presence and knew we were observing a conversation on holy ground!
I am so excited to be a UWM missionary and to be participating in this training (module 2 starts in September). Really great stuff is happening and I can't wait to see how things continue to develop and grow!
Thank you again for all your prayers. Please continue to pray for UWM as we continue to grow spiritual formation in our mission and through it. May we all engage our hearts more fully in our relationship with Jesus!
Love,
Carrie

Tico Tuesday, April 21st

Invitations...
This past week, I was in Austria for the spiritual formation training that UWM invited me to earlier this year. Wow! What an incredible experience! (And hence no Tico Tuesday last week.) More on that to come next Tuesday and in the April Chronicle. But today, I want to extend you an invitation.

My plane flew over the tippy tippy bottom of Greenland!

While I was in Austria, I received an invitation to consider. Tomorrow, I will be setting aside the day to pray and fast, as I present this invitation before the Lord and seek his guidance as to whether or not he wants me to accept it.
Will you join me in prayer or both prayer and fasting? (Fasting can mean abstaining from food all day or for a meal, or even just refraining from coffee or facebook--how you fast is between you and God.) I encourage you to set aside some time to seek the Lord on my behalf, that God would give me wisdom, clarity, and peace regarding this decision. I am excited for what's to come, though it may be a very big step of faith. I know God is in control and working everything out for my good and his glory. He has been doing some big work in my life, and I am excited about what he is doing!
Thank you for joining me in seeking the Lord about this invitation!
May we all respond well to God's invitations to us!
Carrie