FREEDOM!

Sorry that it has been a while since I have written to you! We just finished our week called the Divine Plumbline which is basically a week on inner healing, but let me first start with the teaching 2 weeks ago on the character and nature of God. Unfortunately I was unable to be in class too much, but one thing that really touched me was the fact that how we act is a result of the way we think about God. In other words, if we constantly walk around in defeat then we must not have faith to believe God is bigger than our circumstances. Our thoughts eventually dictate what we will do. I don’t want to limit God and what He can do because I know that in Luke 1:37 it says “For with God nothing will be impossible.” Our God is omnipotent (all powerful), omniscient (knows everything), the beginning and the end, and sovereign (in control of everything). We also took one day to go to the park and ask God to speak to us through nature. I learned so much from what other people heard God say to them. I really heard God remind me of Matthew 6:26 “Look at the birds. They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren't you far more valuable to him than they are?” God is our provider and as we look at His creation all around us we forget how He takes care of all of it and we don’t have to worry since we are so much more valuable to Him than they are!

So this last week was CRAZY! First, to start off unfortunately as I was writing this blog update on Monday one of the girls from the DTS approached me and told me that she wanted to leave the DTS, that she just really wanted to go home. I had dealt with this in the last DTS unfortunately as one of the girls decided to leave early as well. With mixed emotions, but eventually a great peace, we wished her well and she was on an airplane back to the United States on Wednesday morning. This week is already an emotional week for both students and staff, but it made it a little more emotional with this girls departure. However, God turned this whole event around for the whole group as usual His greater purpose was accomplished through this. During the teachings of the divine plumbline we are called to focus on God’s sacrifice for us on the cross and how we have received freedom because of this sacrifice. We watched the movie “The Passion of the Christ” and had an amazing time of worship and communion together as a group on Tuesday night. Then Wednesday night we had an incredible time of teaching and worship as a base where the Holy Spirit fell and ministered to all of us…He brought us so much joy that night for hours! I haven’t experienced that kind of joy and the presence of the Holy Spirit in a while and it was so refreshing! Then students have a time where they can confess as a group to one another and we pray over each student after their confessions and claim God’s truth over each one. It is sad that each time we do this we find so many lies that Satan has fed to people that they end up believing about themselves and so we have to break those. God was showing me so much about myself as students were confessing, how I still am working on healing in areas. I have realized that healing is a process and does not happen immediately many times, God wants to walk out His freedom with us each day. All 24 girls (and 7 guys separately with the guy staff) confessed their sins to one another and the girl staff and received so much freedom this week! We had a girl delivered from a bondage of fear and suicide that she had for a long time and she now has an incredible freedom like she has never had before! After we had this incredible week of God’s power and freedom, we had a bonfire for the students to burn the things that represented their old lives since they are now free as John 8:36 says “He who the Son sets free is free indeed.” We are really excited to see how this freedom will now be walked out in the lives of all of the students now and what God has for us next as a school.

This next week we will have a special speaker Kenny Peavy who will speak about Kingdom Living. Please keep our school in prayer for finances, for protection against fear, and for direction on where God wants us to go on outreach. Thanks all of you for your prayers this last week, it has really meant a lot to me! God bless all of you and I hope to hear from you soon!

Back in Costa Rica!

Back in Costa Rica!

I didn’t know how much I missed the United States until I went home for 3 weeks between schools. I missed the food, the shopping, throwing toilet paper in the toilet (and not in the trashcan), and most of all my friends and family! But, now I am back in Costa Rica and readjusting again to life here. We started the new DTS (Discipleship Training School) January 7th where I am serving as a leader. The new school has 32 students (25 girls and 7 boys) with 10 staff members! This is the biggest school that San Jose base has ever had, but God has given us an incredible group of students!

I have a lot of responsibiliites with this school. I am leading a small group every Friday, I have 4 girls of which I am serving as a one-on-one (kind of like a mentor), I am responsible for snacks everyday in class, a driver of one of the vans whenever we need to go somewhere, help cook lunch every Thursday, leading a Bible study every Thursday night, a local outreach group leader, and in charge of all media for the classroom. As you can see, I am keeping VERY busy! I got here and really hit the ground running and didn’t have a break until last Thursday, but things are finally getting into a routine for me. This last weekend we took the whole group of students to Jaco Beach for their first beach experience in Costa Rica too which was fun.

The last week’s teachings were on Intimacy with God. One thing that God has reminded me of with this teaching was about hearing His voice. John 10: 2-4 talks about the sheep knowing His voice and obeying (“But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.”). One thing that the speaker said was that the more time we spend with God in His presence, the more we will recognize His voice when he speaks to us. I have been wanting to hear His voice more and more lately. A relationship with God is not a monologue, but a dialogue. This is such an important reminder for me because many times I come to God and just speak and speak and forget to listen to Him. I don’t want to have a one sided conversation with God, because I know He wants to speak to me. I am learning to practice the art of listening and being silent when I pray so I can hear Him speak.

One other incredible thing for me was learning my spiritual temperament. There is a book called “Sacred Pathways” and the author talks about that there are 9 different spiritual temperaments or ways that each person is inspired most or feels closest to God. One of my temperaments is naturalist. This means that I am most inspired by God in nature. I love going to the beach and just experiencing God through the outdoors and His creation. I have a hard time having my quiet times indoors or in a room…I love to be outside and I feel so close to God there. Knowing this has really helped my worship times and my quiet alone times with God.

God is taking me on a journey with Him. This next part of the journey has been compared with the Israelites crossing the Jordan River in Joshua 4. Joshua commanded the people to pick up a stone as they crossed the river in order to remember what God had done in their lives. As we started this school, each of us picked up a stone as a reminder that we are crossing our own Jordan Rivers, but God is going to do incredible things during this time and to not forget what He has done and what He will do! I am very excited to start on this new journey with Him!

We are now on our second week of teaching which is about the Character and Nature of God. The students are starting to adjust a little more and we are getting into the flow of things more. Thank you again for all of your support over this time! It is the only way that I can stay here and do what I am doing. Some prayer needs: please pray for finances for a couple of the students who are still missing the total amount of their money, please pray for me that I would hear His voice more everyday! Let me know if you have any prayer needs, because I would love to pray for all of you! I love you all and miss you!