God is constantly shaping me

Two weeks to go and nearing the finish line of the SOW! Again, I apologize because it’s been a few weeks since I’ve blogged and that always makes updates long. I promise to include lots of pretty pictures to make it interesting though :). 

So we’ve had three speakers since Bruce came, plus a week of outreach stuck in the middle of that. We just finished week ten and it’s time to reflect…

Jorge Jimenez, a Tico (moved to Montana) taught on “Bringing Worship to the Nations”. It was cool to have him teaching because he lead the past SOW at the base here.  He posed a lot of difficult questions which made all of us pause and think. We had one day where we went downtown to a park and just worshiped and prayed for people. The first place we tried to play, a policeman told us we couldn’t but luckily he told us where we could go and play (two blocks away!) so we happily skipped over there. This was a bit of a turning point for me, and changed my view of public evangelism...

Honestly, I almost detest doing public evangelism because it’s always so “in your face” and I hate that. It doesn’t come easy to me to able to go up to random strangers and get into a solid, deep conversation about God. However, music is a totally different story.  Music has a power over humans in ways we can’t describe. God created music with the intention to stir our spirit and move our emotions and I definitely saw proof of that in the park. People would just stop and listen, even though we weren’t singing secular songs. We got to pray for a lot of people, and two of my classmates even had lunch with one young woman who was most likely a prostitute. Somehow when people see you worshiping a God who is real, who loves you, and who’s having a conversation with you, that changes everything. Everything. After going to the park that day it made me want to do the same back home and see if I get a response…I know cultures are different but humans are all the same. We constantly seek and crave
one thing: love

Our group downtown after worship

We had a visit from a friend of Chove’s (my leader), by the name of Ryan McBride and his lovely wife, Elise for week eight. This was a really great week and he taught on the “Heart of Worship” which basically caused us to really dive into 1 Samuel. He talked mostly about King David because no matter how much crap David got caught up in in his life, he was extremely quick to repent and his heart was always to please God.

Another topic Ryan touched on that brought me revelation was being ruled by fear. He said: “Is it possible that fears that the enemy plants in your mind are really just a tip-off to God’s best for you? Just as a scarecrow is a tip-off to the best corn in the crop, could we be missing out on God’s best for us because we’re ruled by fear?” Wow. Pretty powerful, and it made me think about how much stuff I shy away from in my life because I’m scared of failure, or something else. Ask yourself what your fears are, and then apply that question. I’m sure God will give you some great answers.

One of our fearless leaders, Pancho (from El Salvador)

The week after Ryan we headed off on Sunday to the northern province of Costa Rica, Guanacaste to do a mini-outreach. We stayed at the Nicoya YWAM base and it’s very different from San Jose. It’s super hot there, way out in the middle of nowhere, and outdoor showers are the norm. I’d been there once back in December for a base retreat, and loved it so I knew what to expect a bit.

Hazel and Kourtney eating breakfast

We had a great week of bible distribution, speaking in church services, leading worship, doing a bit of music teaching and just hanging out with one another. I think that was a highlight for me, just the fact that it was the seven of us (plus two of our staff, Chove and Pancho) and we got to hang out with one another…a lot. At the base here there’s always other people around so you don’t necessarily get quality time with just the students in your school. We had a lot of good laughs and great times. Another highlight was doing bible distribution…in the pouring rain. Now, folks from Canada who are reading this, I'm not merely talking about a sprinkle of rain or even our “worst” rainstorms. This is like God decided to flood the earth for a second of time. It fricken down poured for an hour. In that moment, I’d never felt more like a missionary, “persisting in the rain to continue to hand out bibles to people who didn’t know God”. It makes me, Hannah, Kourtney, and Chove laugh when we talk about it.

Josue and Hannah at breakfast time, one doesn't look so pleased....

Sharon and Kourtney being their awesome selves!

It was a good trip though, and the best part was we found no scorpions in our beds…just the shower.
Poor Hazel…

Catching the bus to head back to San Jose after our week in Nicoya

This past week was a bit of a jumble because our original speaker had to cancel so we had classes via Skype with a favourite person of ours…Bruce Hammond! He spoke for two days, and one of the big things we studied were the 7 different Hebrew words for praise! English seems boring in comparison, only having one word. But honestly, we were meant to praise God in so many different ways, and there’s so much scripture about worshiping God. We couldn’t get through all the scripture because there was so much! Bruce posed the challenging question: How come people can get so excited and crazy at sports games in front of each other, but when it comes time to worship, people are afraid to let go?

Such a good question, right? How come we get excited about something that has no eternal impact but we fear being seen as ridiculous when it comes to getting ecited about God? I’m asking myself that question too, not just everybody else. I’m the same way! It’s a constant battle dealing with the fear of man! I would love to just dance however I want, but because nobody else does, I’m afraid of being seen as…ridiculous? Crazy? Or what about just passionate about God? What if people don’t think I’m crazy and all they see is the fire I have for Jesus? I’m too quick to make assumptions about what I believe people are thinking about me. Maybe it’s time that I asked God to take that fear out of me
completely…

Last weekend we had a surprise birthday for Maaike, who's staff of the current DTS, and who staffed my DTS (and was my one-on-one). Needless to say, everybody loves her...she's amazing, wise, funny, sweet, and crazy. Oh, and she loves pirates...a lot! So, secretly we planned a pirate themed party for her, complete with decorations, music and us dressed up as pirates! As she was walking up to the dark house, we turned on the Pirates of the Carribean movie soundtrack and got some of the guys to jump out at her in their pirate costumes. We had a super fun time, here are a few pictures from that...

Mar (base leader) and Maaike!

Me, Hannah and Kourtney...our best pirate faces!

My friend Adolfo (who's on staff)...yes folks the knife is legit. 

SOW plus two of our staff!

Anyways, so many things God is teaching me through class, through the amazing people here on base, and just through daily life in general! I have a blast and I’m so grateful every day that He called me to YWAM San Jose for this season, to a real, deep relationship with Him. I would be nothing, wandering aimlessly through my life, trying to make decisions on my own. My life is completely different because of Jesus and everyday I’m grateful and amazed to be called his daughter...

One of the beautiful sunsets you get to see in Nicoya at the base