Taking Note

A very wise man on staff with Phil and I talked about this this morning and I put his wisdom to the test. This is what resulted.

Ronnie McGlocklin made the comment that when we take note, record, and revisit what God has done on our behalf, the ways He has provided without us knowing how he would, and when we put on paper the many details He has followed through on along the way of our just walking by faith, the amount of times He has moved might astound us. That I could have faith enough to not need to record these and revisit them to notice them is my prayer; till then I was humbled by this little exercise of my friend’s.

Since arriving in Costa Rica:

God provided a contact, a pastor in San Jose, who picked us up from the airport when we arrived and helped us by a car in the first week of us arriving. The contact was through a relationship based through FCA, Phil’s former job.

We bought a car in one week of moving to a new country.
That car still works today (6 months later on really bad roads)

We switched hotels in Alajuella the first night in town to the one we now stay at every time we go there. The owner has become a great friend and continues to bless us with information on how to handle car situations, legal situations, and other daunting tasks. He and his wife have taken great interest in Phil and I and it is a joy for us to return every time.

When we first joined the team we were ministering primarily to guys. Our prayer was how to reach the girls.
We now have 8 or more girls come every Tuesday for Girl’s Skate Night, and one girl that has been particularly on my heart has recently began coming to house church.

Since the 8th grade and after watching a film that I swear scarred me on Revelations, I have not revisited the book, even though I have felt I needed to. Shaun, a woman I do Pilates with and someone that is becoming a really cool friend has asked for me to sit with her through the book. To be with her and just be available to talk through things with her as they come up. We are going to explore it together and God has given me the confidence between 8th grade and now not to fear that.

Pilates classes (don’t laugh it is hard stuff) are continually introducing me to more and more of Shaun’s world. I have more people to pray for each time I go and would not have met them if God had not opened this door.

The skate park continues to grow. If we had more staff we would have more sessions running during the week. The Concrete Jungle opened in April and already we need more people to man it!

God directed our staff to the AWANA’s program for our Kid’s Church. It starts this Sunday and all of us are extremely excited. This is the right step for our ministry.

Ronnie and Tammy have been praying for local people to help lead Kid’s Church. Between this last December and February we now have 5 new local leaders committed to being teachers and helping run AWANA’s. We just finished our training.

Mike and Joanna a local couple who live next door to Barrett have begun leading house church on Monday night through Barrett’s discipleship. This is a key step in planting house churches and has needed to happen.

Kashara, a girl who came to the skate park every once in a while but lived in Limon, has now moved permanently to Puerto Viejo. She lives five minutes from the skate park and works across the street. I see her almost every day I am in town.

Costa Rica has been the best marriage seminar Phil and I will ever go to. God is working to create the marriage He wants us to have. I have never enjoyed talking with my husband more.

God is teaching me to cook! (in Costa Rica with funky meat of all places) =)
Anyways, Phil will agree it is a much needed intervention by God.

I am convinced there are others that I have overlooked but this was enough to make me aware that Phil and I , nor our team, have ever been alone in Costa Rica.

In Grace,
Shan