Him We Proclaim

What is it like being in Costa Rica? It's not too much different then being in the States. Sure, there are a myriad of differences in lifestyle-traffic is always rush hour, people are more laid back and friendly, legal stuff takes about a hundred times as long, and the weather tends to go on less of a bi-polar mood swing throughout the year. But the sun comes up in the morning, we drink our coffee, serve the Lord where and how He has us, and encounter Joy in worshiping and serving Him. The hows and whens are all different, but the Who and whats remain the same. At the end of the day we are all obedient to the direction of God in our lives. Maggie and I have been summoned to work with middle and high school students in Costa Rica. And he's summoned some of you to the same thing through the partnership we now have. We are so greatly thankful and encouraged by you! And God is crediting what will happen this weekend at camp with these students to your account (Phil 4:17). We hope...

 We safely arrived in San Jose this afternoon with warm welcomes from the Gault family. We had a wonderful dinner with them and Andres (the interim youth director) and discussed the youth group and camp out. I can't begin to tell you how energized and excited I became when talking about these students and discussing how we can best pour into them. We wanted to share some of our pictures from the journey thus far and hope to keep you updated throughout our 10 day trip.  Patrick enjoying his first milk shake when shopping with Jonathan for the trip We left for the airport around 4am. Here's our tired boy. Patrick loved looking at the planes

On Monday we get to go to Costa Rica. Jonathan, Patrick, and I can barely contain our excitement about seeing the youth and their families whom we've grown to love over these months of preparation. Jonathan has been diligently working on his messages, and they've been coated in prayer. I'm so excited about for him to share what the Lord has been pressing on his heart in front of over 70 students (pray he won't be overwhelmed)! I'm so excited that I'll be leading a small group of middle schoolers during camp out. The cool part is that these relationships will have all the more time to grow when we're finally able to be there long term. Please pray for all the students that they would be pliable during the retreat. In the midst of all the excitement, we're also a little sad. This trip is only 10 days. Only 10 days! When we purchased our ticket and had to select the return date, my heart shed a tear. Oh how I wish we could be there for good. We hope tha...

This past weekend, I worked a camping trip for a fraternity. We took them down to the Red River George and had them do a search and rescue activity. My group really struggled with the activity, and at one point, one of the students had the audacity to say, "I have no respect for you." I was in shock, but should I have been... It's easy to fall into the worldly mentality that man is innately good, but the Bible says that "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9). Romans 3:10-11 says it as well: "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God." Though Thankfully God brought redemption:"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." (Romans 3:23-24) This student obviously didn't have Christ in his life, so how could I expect anything better? Witho...

With all the traveling, moving, and other chaos, we decided to take a morning off...

We spent most of February packing, sending email, and calling people to set up appointments for our big trips in March. And it all paid off! We just finished our 10 day “tour” of Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee. It was a great trip, and we’ve felt extremely encouraged as our support team continues to grow. Here’s the highlights from the different states: ALABAMA We were able to have 11 meetings during our 3 day trip. I went to Samford University from 2005-07, so we were mostly meeting up with people I knew from my time there. From our last trip, we were able to connect with a church and speak at their Missions and Mercy meeting this time around. One of the members was a MK in Spain, so she understood the need for MK ministry. One of the blessings of the trip was reconnecting with someone I only remotely knew from Samford. They attend the same church. We couldn’t remember each other’s name, but I remembered she was a MK from Chile. We met with her and her husband for dinne...

Yummy! Right before the sugar crash  Well a lot has happened since we last posted (my attempt of an excuse for not posting). We've celebrated Patrick's first birthday, toasted over 2 years of marriage, packed up all of our belongings, sold our furniture, moved in with a family of 7, and are currently out of town for a week and a half. What a crazy fun adventure! If you had told me a year ago that we would be moving 3 times in the next 12 months, that we would be spending half of our time traveling, and we would have no idea what we would be doing just 4 months down the road, I probably would have  freaked out!  But a lot has changed in the past 12 months... We've seen the result of James 1:3-4 and truly see how God has not only given us perseverance, but He's given us great joy through the process! I use to view settling down as getting married, having kids, and moving into a house with a white picket fence that looks almost identical to the one from ...