Tico Tuesday, July 17th

The most exciting world event in the past week was the World Cup final. Ok, maybe that's a slight exaggeration for a number of people, but in this part of the world, it certainly was. The World Cup is quite the life interruption here. So much that the final at 9am Costa Rica time led us to cancel our 8am service and move our 10:30 service to 11. Although most of us were rooting for Croatia, France won 4-2 in one of the highest scoring World Cup finals ever. The only good part was that the score was decisive and didn't require overtime. So, the game ended and we were able to have our service without any further ado.

Gotta love 3 big smiles!

I enjoyed watching the game with this couple (pictured). They are fellow UWMers, currently here in Costa Rica, but headed to the Dominican Republic. Danna is studying Spanish at the Language Institute and Gil is mexicano. I met this sweet, fun couple at our regional conference in May and ended up spending a fair bit of free time with them. Now they're heading to the DR in about 6 weeks and I selfishly wish God would call them to stay here. I visited them in San José last Sunday afternoon and this Sunday they came to visit my church (and watch the game) and hang out. The hours go by all too quickly when we're together. My consolation is that I'll see them every couple years at our regional conferences and that I can text Danna when I watch an old movie or musical (a delightful interest she and I have in common!).
May God bless you with sweet, fun people in your life (or lead you to be that sweet, fun person somebody else needs)!
Love,
Carrie

Tico Tuesday, July 10th

Hello and Happy Tuesday once again!

It is said, (not in the Bible), "Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be broken." Sunday at church we got a lot of practice being flexible, since we were without electricity! Our worship band quickly chose 5 different songs so we could sing more easily without electric instruments. I was the service host for the weekend, and I ended up writing down and personally giving all the announcements (instead of having them being given via video). Everyone was sitting up front as close to the stage as possible, and it was a neat time together. There was a sense of that romantic, cozy feeling when the power goes out and it's not obnoxiously inconvenient yet. We had a battery powered microphone with a little amplifier and a megaphone, but thankfully, the power came back in the middle of me giving the announcements during the 8am service, so Rudy was able to give his sermon with his powerpoint and no technical inconveniences, and the 10:30 service was as normal. The 8am service was a good reminder of how important it is to be flexible and prepared for emergencies, and what a blessing it is to have electricity and technology!
After finishing my service host role during the 10:30, I ended up interpreting the sermon (for the fourth week in a row!) for another short term missions team. The team had practice flexibility as well, since the local school they were supposed to do Vacation Bible School for didn't tell the kids about it before they went on vacation. We ended up gathering children from church and inviting any other ones we could that were available. While the results weren't quite as expected, the VBS was still definitely a success.
Can you tell the picture was taken on July 4th? Some of the team had on some pretty great red, white, and blue outfits!
May God bless us all with flexibility that we might not be broken by unsuspected inconveniences in life!
Love,
Carrie

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

Tico Tuesday, May 22nd

Tuesday greetings to you!

At a station of the concert of prayer

Thanks be to God, I am feeling much better after being sick last week and the small group facilitator retreat went really well! At this time last week, we had 8 people signed up and there was a chance we might have to cancel the retreat. But, thankfully, we were able to get more people to sign up and ended up with about 35 participants. It was still a smaller crowd than I hoped for, but I believe there was also some spiritual resistance. We planned a really good retreat that touched a lot of things the enemy would much rather us let alone. I am grateful for those who came though, and they are really glad they came too!
The retreat's theme passage was Jeremiah 17:5-8 and was called "Your Roots." We had individual time to meditate on the Word, two times of worship through music, a concert of prayer with one station for each of the five purposes (which we managed to draw out of the passage), a special speaker from our big sister church, and some brief time to share testimonies. I introduced a new tool of resources for our leaders, and told them about some other new resources we have in the pipeline as well. It was a wonderful day and I could sense God's presence and hand in motion.
Please continue to pray for the Small Groups at my church, as well as my team and me. We have several things we need to start doing and many others we need to improve upon. Thankfully, the next couple weeks aren't supposed to be quite as busy as the last couple, so I look forward to having some time for extra praying and strategizing.
Thank you so much for your prayers and for just reading and caring, and of course, for your financial partnership with UWM!
God bless you and grow your roots as you trust in him!
Carrie

Tico Tuesday, May 15th

Greetings one and all from rainy Costa Rica!

This past Friday we had another prayer vigil at church. It was really nice to be at a prayer vigil again, as I missed the vigil in March due to my trip to the States. Prayer vigils are some of the fastest 4 hours that go by at church every other month. Friday was no exception. It was a powerful time to intercede and worship. Our theme was "I am your Healer" and we prayed for emotional, spiritual, physical, and holistic health. My faith was challenged and grown, as was that of many others present. We had some of the best attendance ever at a vigil and it is always exciting to see what God does in us. It was particularly encouraging to see a couple small groups sitting together. That's what we're going for! Not just meeting once a week for a study, but to do life together and develop bonds that reach deeply into each other's hearts and lives.
Please continue to pray for the small groups at my church, and particularly for the retreat we're having for facilitators on Saturday. Right now, we don't have many people signed up, but I pray and trust that God will bring the people who should be there. My team and I have been working really hard preparing this event and I'm really excited for it.
Please also pray for me as I've come down with a cold and need the strength (and for my voice to hold out) to teach two hours tonight and again on Thursday night.
Thank you!
Carrie

Tico Tuesday, May 8th

Salutations to you all!

This past week was UWM's regional conference for Central America and the Caribbean. Wow, what a wonderful, special time it was! Though I was on the planning committee, I really hadn't had much time to actually get excited about the conference. This week and next week are really intense, so I was working really hard in the time leading up to the conference to make sure I'd be able to really let go, disconnect, and enjoy the conference (and not have to work during free time). When I got on the ferry, I started seeing more and more of my fellow missionaries and seeing people who had come down from the office in Charlotte. It was like a family reunion. There were people I hadn't seen in years it was great to see again, and there were new people whose names I'd seen before, but had never met. What a joy it was to share and grow with these people for a few days! There were about 90 of us, and hundreds and hundreds of years of combined missionary service. It was such a treat to get to be together, listen to one another, pray for each other, enjoy free time together, worship together, learn about what's going on in the mission on a broader level, etc.
And it was also really nice to be right on the beach. My room faced the water, so every morning I'd go on the little back patio of my room and listen to the waves as I had my devotions. I wish I could hear the waves every morning while I do my devotions, but I came home very grateful that I live in the Central Valley and that I don't live sweating profusely every time I go outside here.
May God bless and refresh you as well according to your needs!
Love,
Carrie