This week was our second to last week of teaching in the DTS and our topic was relationships. One thing we were challenged with this week was asking ourselves what kind of qualities we want in a relationship. Then the question was turned onto us…are we the type of person that we are asking others to be? One of the biggest relationship killers is selfishness. Selfishness is the root of almost everything that will kill a relationship (criticalness, demanding, manipulating, greed, jealousy, lack of forgiveness, impatience, etc.). I realized that many times I have some expectations of others, but I don’t necessarily follow those myself. I want to be a better friend. I want to really live out the scripture Matthew 22:37-39 which says “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength. And the second command is to love your neighbor as yourself.” This whole scritpure is a challenge to do, but to love your neighbor (friend, family member, anyone really) as you love yourself can be such a challenge. It is easy to love those who are easy to love, but the Bible says our responsibility as Christians is to love those who are uneasy to love (Luke 6:32). I want to be a person who truly puts others before myself. This is what Christ desired for us…is to have friendships and relationships with others where the other person is treated with respect and love that is not demanding anything in return, just a pure love. This love is afterall not a feeling, but it is a choice that we make and demands action from us. My prayer is that God would grow my love for others and really help me to live that out in my everyday life, not only with my friends and family, but with strangers who God places in my path as well.
This next week is our last week of teaching in the DTS and our topic is Destiny by Design, which talks about the dreams and purposes that God gives us and how to follow those out. After our lecture phase, we will officially begin our outreach phase which will include Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras and El Salvador. The 2 other leaders and myself will be leaving in 2 days (this Wednesday morning) for Talamanca, Costa Rica (Caribbean coast) to do our NIKO training. NIKO, is a 4-day missions boot camp type of training that the students will be doing starting this next week (Monday, Oct. 4th). We as the leaders have to go down early for training and our students will be meeting us by bus on Saturday. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed by all that I have to do before Wednesday, but I am very excited for all that is coming up! After NIKO (which ends on Friday, October 8th), we will be leaving straight for Puerto Viejo and then Panama where we will stay until October 20th. Hopefully in Puerto Viejo I can update you on what God did on our NIKO, but after that we may have limited access to Internet in Panama where hopefully we will be working with some Indigenous people near Bocas Del Torro. Please keep praying for our outreach as we get ready to go. We truly want God to prepare our hearts and the hearts of the people who we will be reaching out to. God has been so faithful to provide for all of our students who needed money for Panama ($650 each), but we still have 3 students who are missing part of their money for the second part of our outreach (Honduras/El Salvador)-$700. Please pray with us that God will provide for these 3 students.
This last weekend I had to go with one of my students to Nicaragua. Here in Costa Rica all Central Americans (with the exception of Mexicans) have to renew their visas every 30 days and this student is from El Salvador and so we had to leave the country for at least 2 days to renew her visa. We went to San Juan del Sur, which is the border town on the beach. We stayed in a nice hostel and enjoyed resting and relaxing on the beach. This was a much needed restful weekend and I am so greatful for this time that I had before our outreach and NIKO start! Thank you for all of your prayers and encouragement! I will hopefully update all of you very soon!!
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