This week our topic was the character and nature of God. One of the things that amazed me so much about God is His greatness. Psalm 147: 4 says “He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.” If He knows every star by name, how much more does He know us by name and every detail about us? Matthew 10:30-31 says But the very hairs of your head are numbered. Do not fear therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows.”
This is so important to know the character of God in order to understand the God whom we serve and have given our lives for. He has so many characteristics about Him that are incredible: faithful, love, truthful, wisdom, righteous, patient, holy, humble, etc. The reason why we need to understand the character of God is because these are traits that He cannot help but express in who He is. We are called as Christians to become more like Him and so our character should start becoming more like His as we grow closer to Him. Your thoughts become actions and your actions become habits and your habits becomes your character which becomes your destiny (Thoughts-Actions-Habits-Character-Destiny).
Week #7 was about evangelism taught by one of our own leaders Morgan. One thing that stands out to me about the teaching was recogizing the need for us to not be concerned with the results, but let the Holy Spirit be the one who brings people to Himself. We read Matthew 10 and pulled out some major principles of evangelism which Jesus taught to His disciples. One of the principles which is so crucial for so many of us is not being afraid of what man says, but fearing what God says. Matthew 10: 32-33 says “Therefore whoever confessses Me before men, him I will aslo confess before My father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will aslo deny before My fatehr who is in heaven.” I struggle with this in evangelism. I want to make sure people approve of me sometimes and really it needs to be about what God thinks of me. I think of a phrase I heard long ago…Live for an audience of One, meaning live in concern for God, not what anyone else thinks of you.
And finally last week we went to Nicaragua on our mini-outreach. This was an amazing experience for our group. We were finally able to apply some of the things that hte students have learned during lecture phase. We stayed at the YWAM base in Diriamba, Nicaragua (about 30 minutes from Managua). At the base, they don’t have running water or flushing toilets or showers and they live in the middle of a neighborhood far from the city. This was our first real experience together as a group preparing us for our outreach and the group did great. We were able to do a variety of ministries which was awesome: we went to the city dump in Managua where thousands of families live, we went into a local elementary school and did an assembly there for the kids. We also spoke at a local church service there. I am so greatful for the things that God did through us in Nicaragua. We met a local guy who was on our bus who we were able to pray for and now he is now interested in doing a DTS here in Costa Rica. I know that pictures are worth a thousand words so I will send some pictures with this so that you can see the impact we had in Nicaragua!
Thank you so much for your prayers for my team and me! Please continue to pray for us as a couple people in our group have gotten the flu and are sick. Please pray that they will be healed quickly and that the rest of us will kept from getting sick! We are preparing for our next week of teaching which will be on Biblical worldview. I apologize for taking so long to update all of you. I really do value all of you and thank you so much for playing a part in me being here. God bless you and much love from Costa Rica!
(Pictures are from the dump, children's ministry, one of the school assemblies and a group photo as we played the game Capture the Flag).
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