I'm sore from laughing.

The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Psalm 16: 5-8

Amen.

I’ve been thinking about how different all our lives are and the different paths we all take in life. Isn’t it amazing how God leads us on a journey down the road we need to go down to learn the things we need to learn and to discover the things we need to discover? I think it is. His ways are perfect and never without reason. I take great comfort in that and great comfort in the great Creator.

These past few days have been absolutely crazy. We have a team from New Jersey this week and they’ve been wonderful! We’ve been doing lots of construction, playing with children, and working in the daycare. It’s been a lot of fun getting to know these new friends for NJ, and I think we will stay friends for a while (thanks facebook!). That’s one of the aspects of this trip I was so excited about – meeting all the people and establishing new friendships through the teams that come. One down, five more to go… but I’ll miss this team. They’ve been so much fun and I’ll definitely miss them. Maybe I’ll take a little road trip to New York to visit them ☺

One of the main highlights of the week, for me at least, was Wednesday night. We, meaning the team plus Rachel and I, met up at the church with some of the youth from the church. They hosted us for dinner and a night of games and a skit (marionette) done by Victor, who is a member of the church and also a construction worker for the project. He grew up in a rough part of the neighborhood, was in a gang, and has a pretty powerful testimony. We played some games with the youth and the team, which was hilarious, and then we ate dinner and settled in to watch the marionette. I was moved to tears as I watched this. Victor is incredibly talented in so many ways and he turned this marionette into a crazy dance routine/testimony of salvation. It was done to clips of music while he was held on to by elastic from a piece of wood from above by satan, and the elastic represented sin and the control it has on your life. As he danced through the music, it eventually came to the climax “we were meant to live for so much more” by Switchfoot. The demons were tempting the marionette with all types of sinful desires (alcohol, drugs, etc.) and he had to choose between that and Jesus who came out as a figure with two angles behind him. It was so powerful because of the way Victor betrayed the struggle between good and evil. It was so clear and real. He continued to be pulled by the strings until he decided he wanted Jesus more than satan, in which time Jesus removed the strings from Victor’s hands and feet. He was then free to dance for Jesus! It was beautiful! I know I can’t fully describe to you how I felt when I saw it, or how beautifully it depicted the struggle between good and evil, or even how gifted Victor is, but the point I want to get across is it was powerful. God has and will use Victor’s gift in an amazing way to reach people for the gospel. He currently has, along with another guy, a cell group in the bad part of town and he uses his gifts to reach those guys who are in gangs, on drugs, alcoholics, you name it. I think it’s a beautiful thing when people use their past and gifts for the glory of the Lord and I think God’s ways are wonderful.

We went to the volcano Irazú yesterday and it was amazing! I was a little afraid that it would erupt while we were there… but it didn’t and it was great! The drive there and the volcano were spectacular. I can’t describe to you how beautiful it was so I’ll just show you some pictures ☺



Volcán Irazú



Rachel and I at Volcán Irazú



On our way to see the volcano :)



It was absolutely beautiful.


Well, we said goodbye to our first team today. It was sad, but I’m glad we’ll be able to stay in touch with them through the internet. I seriously laughed more this week than I have in a long time. Thanks guys :)

Gotta go because my computers about to die!

Hope you all are doing well.

To God be the Glory.