This week we started our ministry in Costa Rica after a 4 day debrief on the coast of Jacó. Our debrief was amazing and such a refresher! Here at Oceans edge ministry, we are helping with a project that the local church here was asked to do, which is painting the light posts all around town! I’ll attach a couple pics of what the paintings look like. People from all around town stop to ask what we’re doing, see what we’re painting, and simply just to thank us. In those moments we have an amazing opportunity to share the Gospel or ask if they need prayer of any kind. It’s such a cool ministry that we get to work on! Along side that, we have the amazing opportunity to serve at the local church that was finished being built in December 2018. Seeing this new church and being apart of such a cool local community in the middle of Jacó, Costa Rica has been more than a blessing. This morning I got to serve on the worship band which was so awesome and it felt like home so much.
But I think the most special thing that has been happening for me in Costa Rica is the complete 180 turn my heart has made.
This past week was a hard week. The first couple days of ministry I was at the end of myself. I’ll be honest, I was begging my mom to come home because I was so caught up in what I wanted and so caught up in my emotions. I look back at that now and think, “how selfish?” Since then, I’ve felt God say to me time after time, “I have not only given you the grace of your salvation, but I have also had so much grace on you that you are living an extraordinary life on mission.” Every time I think about that, I’m stopped in my tracks. It is so like me to think about what I want and the things I’m missing at home, than to think about the amazing things that are happening right in front of me!! By God’s amazing, sweet grace, my heart is being formed more into His will for my life than what I want. But it is an every day, every hour, every minute decision. Dying to myself and my own wants and needs and following what Christ is telling me to do right now is so hard, and really sucks right in the moment. But literally from just this week, I can testify that His way has been so much better. How easily do I forget that His way is so much better? Lord forgive me for that! I want a heart of joy simply because I am here following God’s will. I want a heart of joy simply because Christ has chosen me as a part of His people and He lives inside of me! I want to have a heart of joy simply because Jesus is enough. If you’re reading this, pray to that end for yourself and me, because no matter where we are, no matter if we’re living in uncomfortable situations or not, we always have to die to our own wants and choose Christ’s. Thank you Lord for turning such a selfish situation into the praise of Your glory.
“And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”
Luke 9:23-24
