My call is : COME AND SEE !!!

The first time I see the phrase "COME AND SEE" in the first chapter of John is in John 1:39. It's right after Andrew and Simon Peter decided to follow Christ. They called Him Rabbi and wanted to know where He was staying and Jesus said: COME AND SEE. It says they stayed with Him for a day, which let's us know that they really wanted to get to know Jesus and to talk to Him for longer than a casual conversation. Jesus knowing their genuine desire, does not answer the question: where are you staying? with a place, for it wasn't about a place to go, but about a journey that they were starting. Jesus invites them to walk with Him and discover His truth and light by themselves. He invites them to walk with Him, as He leads them in this new life. This is the invitation that I received and accepted one day in my life and that made all the difference. Let's remember that the Gospel, and the new and eternal life that we proclaim is not a merely a destination, but more than that, it's a walk with Jesus and a personal discovery of Him every day, though His Spirit and His Word. Everyday, Jesus' message to us continues to be: COME AND SEE. 

The second occurrence is on V46. Jesus found Philip and invited him to follow Him and he did. Once Philip was walking with Jesus, he found his friend Nathanael and shared how they (Philip, Andrew and Simon Peter) had found the Messiah that had been prophesied, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Nathanael was kind of skeptic about the Messiah being from Nazareth and Philip said: COME AND SEE. It's really interesting to hear this phrase now from Philip. He knew Jesus and had seen Him as the Messiah, and he knew that he could not explain or describe Him as well as inviting Nathanael to come see Him for himself. So here we find this as an invitation that Philip extends to his friend. It's an evangelistic invitation. It's the invitation that we all should carry in our wallets and pockets, ready to be given out. COME AND SEE. It's Jesus whom people need to see, it's Him who changes lives, gives hope, purpose and eternity. It's His redemptive work the actual invitation to all humanity, and He has chosen all of us, His disciples to share it, to proclaim it. Therefore, let's raise as His people and share this invitation, with our words, with our deeds and mostly with our lives ! This is my call!.

Well, after sharing this that encourages me and focuses me on Jesus and hopefully you too = ) , I can share with you that serving the Lord in San Isidro, Costa Rica is going pretty well. I feel much more adjusted and more at home, day after day. The Lord has been so so good at displaying His love and faithfulness to me here in so many different ways that it only causes me to praise Him!

First of all, I see His love, through the students, and the staff. We are into the middle of the Fall semester already and it's been great to know each other, share and spend time together, studying His word, sharing with other people or just chilling and having fun in the Pink House (which is technically the main campus). One of the activities that has been so much fun to do together is playing soccer. We have played already 3 times, and have learned so much about soccer as we played. Even though I'm Latina and love soccer, I must confess that I hadn't actually played more than twice in my life before coming to Costa Rica. It's been really fun to run, play, defend and scream "goal" together. I believe it actually shows some of the bonding that God has started to work among us with His love.

Here are the two winning teams !!!! Siiiiii !

Calvary Chapel Bible College Group-Costa Rica 

I see His love through the girls too. Bible College Girls: I live with two girls, in the apartment and the other two girls live next door. Vanessa, the other staff member lives on the first floor, so we are all in the same building. We all have "tea party" as a group to pray and share every other week in my apartment, however we also set up prayer partners, so that we grow deeper in prayer with that girl. I definitely see the Lord putting us together to bless each other and to be there for each other. They are all such a blessing this semester. Local Girls: I usually meet with Silvia (Gerry's wife) every Wednesday morning to pray together and study the Word, and that's always a sweet time.

Silvita and Gerry (Staff), dressed up in typical costumes!

 I also meet with one or two local girls from the Sunday Bible Study every week, just to have a walk or a lunch together and be a part of their lives, and be a friend to them as they are to me. In addition, I met this one girl named Lizeth at a local supermarket, who is friends with Shirley, a girl from the Sunday Bible Study, and the Lord has allowed me to build a friendship with her, so I usually plan to visit her at least once or twice a week to talk and share a little bit about the Lord and His Word. Actually over time, God gave me the opportunity to share the gospel with her, and she decided to invite and accept Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior early in September (Praise Report !!!!).
As a matter of fact, let me share her story ......

STORY TIME = )

So I go to the "Snow-cone Stand" inside the Supermarket, looking for my friend Shirley, who attends the Bible Study. However, Shirley is not there and this nice girl explains to me she was there only there for the lunch break covering her, while she was having lunch. I introduce myself and so does she, and we start talking about where I'm from and other Colombians she knows, and how she used to live in the Capital and then moved to this town, etc. We had a good first conversation, and she was really nice and opened to share about her life, and I thought: "Lord, it seems like she's nice and she can become a friend". So I started to pray for her, daily and went back to visit her the very next week. This time we talked for over an hour, while she helped customers from time to time. She kept saying "my husband this and that" and after a while I said, so you are married? And she goes "well, we call him 'husband' here", and I said, but is he your husband or your boyfriend? And she looked at me and said: "technically he's my boyfriend, because we're not married but we live together" and I said: "I see, I understand, so he's your boyfriend then" and she smiled and said "yes, he is".

The week after that I visited her, and in the middle of the conversation she said: "Paula, where in the Bible does it say that you have to get married before God?", and then I showed her a couple of passages, but promised to come back with a list of all passages that talked about marriage. She also asked me what to read in the Bible and I told her to read 1 John. Three days later she texted me saying she was done, and asked what else she could read and I told her to read the Gospel of John. The very next time I stopped by to visit her, I gave her the list and read a couple passages with her about marriage before God and the sins of fornication and adultery, and she agreed. Then, she told me she was almost finished reading John and that she had many questions about the Jews and their religion and all that. Then she asked me specifically about communion, and she said: "Paula, so is the wine Jesus' blood and the wafer Jesus' body? I don't understand that quite well". So I said: Let's go for lunch sometime and go over that passage together to understand what it means, because it's very important. She said "yes, I would love that". Almost at the end of the conversation she said: "I love God but honestly I don't know where I'm going if I die today". This pricked my heart

That Saturday we went out to lunch and ended up talking for 3 hours in the restaurant. The Lord led me to explain to her the plan of Salvation and the meaning of sin, the cross and grace. At the end of explaining the Gospel, the Spirit was telling me to ask her to pray and invite Jesus into her heart, but it was kind of late already, and she's a Catholic so I was hesitant, but the Spirit kept pressing this on my heart, so I asked: "Do you want to invite Jesus into your heart today understanding His grace and love?". She said: "Paula, I invite Jesus into my heart everyday, I pray to Him". So then I explained what this meant, and how it was a prayer but at the same time, it was a one decision for life, based on faith and believing His Word to be born again, and with surprise on her face, she looked at me and said: Yes, yes, I want to do that!. So we prayed together, and then she asked me to pray for her boyfriend, for God to cause him to want to get married as she wants to get married before God, and so we did.

After this, I just kept praying of her, for this decision to be real in her and for Father, Son and Holy Spirit to start a mighty work in her heart and that's exactly what has happened. It's so so EXCITING for me to see this !!! Soon after accepting Jesus she asked me to meet up and explain the Bible to her, so we started to meet Friday early mornings to go through the book of 1 John and it's been a great time to talk, laugh, become better friends and understand God's word together. Honestly, the Lord is teaching me so much as I prepare to go through each passage with her. We have met 3 Fridays already and I pray that she grows in her faith and falls in love with Jesus and His Word, and His light shines in her and from her to all the people that she has contact with, for only His glory! Please help me to pray for Lizeth, her heart and her growth and for me, for God to guide me and give me wise words and His love for her! I promise to post a picture of her next time I update the blog!.

This post got kind of long, but to close this post, I just want to ask you to pray for one more thing: Evangelistic Outreach on Saturday, October 27. As an idea from the students, we plan this outreach to be free pedicures for women of all ages, and to have kidz activities in case they come with kidz. The plan is for each woman that comes to get a free pedicure and a snack and then see a drama skit performed by all of us girls reflecting how we, as women, search for love but can only find it truly in Jesus. Then we plan to share an evangelistic message explaining the Gospel of Jesus and a call to prayer. Please lift this up, and pray for divine appointments for all of us to invite women, and for God to use the fliers we are working on! We pray in faith for hearts and lives to be saved and transformed by His power alone !

You are His light in the world, so Shine in the darkness !!!!

Love in Jesus,