APRIL'S RAIN OF BLESSINGS = )

May the Grace and Love of Jesus Christ flow abundantly in your hearts !!!

“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”

Heb 11:8-10

As I have been reading through the book of Hebrews I found myself stuck in chapter 11, of course, the “Heroes of Faith” chapter. No matter how long we’ve been walking with the Lord or what He’s doing in my life today, it’s certain that He desires to grow my faith in whatever I’m going through today. “The Just shall live by faith” (Romans 1.17); this means I am to walk by faith and live by faith for the rest of my life. Thinking of Abraham as the father of faith and the way he walked by faith, God challenged me in these three principles from Heb 11:8-10 : 1). Faith will move me out of my comfort zone. Just as for Abraham, the Lord is calling me out of my comfort zone in a couple of areas in my life, and to be able to move out I need to exercise faith. Is your faith moving you out of your comfort zone? 2). Faith challenges my natural logic. In the case of Abraham, when he left, he did not even know where he was going but he was already moving and that’s not logical at all. As I try to apply my human logic to choices and situations in life, God will challenge my logic having me exercise faith in Him and His word. Are you walking in faith today or by your own logic ? 3). Faith keeps me heavenly minded. The passage says that Abraham dwelt in tents in the promise land for he received the promise, but his eyes were still in heaven. He was really waiting for the heavenly inheritance. There are promises that God has given me and that I’m waiting on for Him to fulfill, however no matter when that happens, I have a heavenly promise, an inheritance with my Savior in heaven forever and faith allows me to keep that promise in front of all the others so that I can walk as a stranger and pilgrim on this earth. Is your faith allowing you to see the promise of heaven way bigger and more important than any other promises for your life here on earth? May the Lord strengthen and deepen our faith and trust in Him that we may walk closer and pleasing to Him fixing our eyes on the things above and not on the things of the earth.

On this update I would like to cover the Outreach to the Guaymi people which I promised on my last newsletter and couple other beautiful things that have happened in the month of April.

OUTREACH TO THE GUAYMI

The Lord opened a door for us to go with the Bible College students to the Guaymi People, an indigenous group found in the south of Costa Rica and the north of Panama. We partnered with an American missionary that works with them. Even though we were there for only 3 days, we got to experience first hand what their life and basic needs are. The two main purposes of our trip were accomplished: we built the foundations for a pastor’s house in concrete and we did an outreach for the Guaymi kids. They have their native language however most of them speak basic Spanish and that’s how we could communicate with them, especially with the kids. I got to play with the kids in the river and eat raw cocoa from the trees, but my favorite moment was the quiet moment of explaining the gospel to all these kids through the gospel bracelet and seeing them pray to Jesus! Some of their parents did not know they were there and may have not allowed them to come play with the foreigners but Jesus brought them and touched them with His love! Amazing! A strong prayer request is their need for clean water. They currently use river water, which has brought forth several skin diseases, stomach problems and other health issues. Help us pray for a mission’s trip later this year or next year, and for the funds to be able to bring and install a community filter for them, for they truly need it. If you feel God leads you to donate for this, please email me letting me know before you donate it to me, so that I can set it aside. Here is a slideshow of our visit to the Guaymi. Hope you enjoy it and pray for them !!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOD03wnsorE

BEAUTIFUL WEDDING

This is a praise report! All of us attending and serving in the church plant here were blessed to witness a beautiful wedding of a family that attends our fellowship. Junior and Odelva, with two kids that are part of our children’s ministry, decided to take this step of faith and commitment with the Lord and with each other before the Lord. It’s worth saying that we had prayed for this for several months and God answered prayers and brought them to the altar. Their faces were shining, and there was so much joy!!! Students and staff decorated the school house and transformed it into a wedding reception room. There was such joy in all of us, to celebrate with them, and their family the blessing of seeing them married before Jesus!!! Please keep them in prayer, as they stand as a testimony for Jesus in this town where there are so many unmarried couples living together!!!  

WOMEN’S MINISTRY

This ministry has been going on for a while, in conjunction with other missionaries in town. However, at this point, as many more women have come to faith, the Lord is leading us to a new stage of consolidation of unified group of women that meet to study the Word together and fellowship in His love. It’s amazing how many women there are in this town, many more than men; and the ministry here reflects the stats. The biggest spiritual need in my opinion is the woman’s value and identity in Christ Jesus and as a consequence establishing her priorities, decisions and relationships based on that new identity. Please pray for us, as we are meeting weekly to pray for the women we know and have relationships with, that God may lead the next steps for this ministry through the power of His Spirit. We are planning a worship night towards the end of May and a special kick off event in early June to study the book of Philippians. May the Lord move in all the planning, give us His favor, and give us insight into their lives and spiritual needs so that we pray and plan according to His will for them. 

Here is a picture meeting with Nicole and Ivannia, two girls that come to the Bible Study, and  Shavi, our intern. The ocassion was Ivania's birthday.

My last prayer request is regarding the Sunday Bible Study! The Lord is so faithful to his Word, and as Ryan is used by God to teach the Bible in a relevant and practical way here every Sunday, there is a pretty steady group of believers that keeps growing. It’s such a blessing to see the Lord bring His people and to talk to some of them and see the joy of the Lord that comes from being in His Word. Please keep Ryan in prayer, as our pastor, that the Lord may continue to use his Spanish, his illustrations and his applications of the Word to break and change every heart, to bring light and truth where there was darkness. Pray for his spiritual wisdom, discernment and vision for the Bible Study and for each individual as well. And please pray for all of us in the serving team, that we may serve humbly and wholeheartedly and that we may be a blessing to the family of believers that God is giving us here ! Here is a recent picture of the Study!

Thank you for all your prayers and support, which allow this ministry to go forth in the power of God. May God continue to open the way before us ....

God's at Work in this Valley !!!! = )

Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful-Heb. 10:19-23

I send a big hello from San Isidro, Costa Rica !!!!

Before I share with you some of the beautiful things that God is doing here since I came back in January, I would like to share a few thoughts on God's truth. I am reading through Exodus in my personal time and came to chapter 28 which describes the way God design the Priesthood Garments, and how they were to be worn by Aaron, as the High Priest and by his sons. Chapter 29 goes into the cleansing and consecration process they were to go through to become official lifetime priests for the Tabernacle. It called my attention that the High Priest was to wear a golden diadem on his forehead with these words engraved: Holiness Unto the Lord. All the other engravings on the priesthood garments referred to the people of Israel, but this one on his forehead referred to himself and the way he was to come into the presence of God on behalf of the people. Likewise, as Hebrews tells us, Jesus is now our High Priest, who is perfect and holy, and once for all became the Offerer (High Priest) and the Offering (Lamb of God) at the same time on the Cross. He made atonement for our sins and opened the way for us into God's holy presence. How cool and perfect is that !!! Moreover, 1 Peter 2:9 describes the church as Royal Priesthood, which means we are made priests in the new covenant. As I am a priest for the Lord, I ask the Spirit to engrave in my heart "Holiness unto the Lord" that I may approach His Holy throne boldly (Heb. 4.16) but also in holiness: with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having purified my conscience and my body unto Him (Heb. 10.22). Our God is Holy, and only He can make us holy as He is !!!! Let's draw near Him and pursue holiness = ).

This spring semester we have a total of 9 students in the Bible College, 5 girls and 4 guys. It´s been so cool to see everyone God has brought to us this semester, how different each one is and what a blessing it is to get to know them all. We all make a great family, for sure !!! I live with two girl students named: Audrey and Mari, both so different and so loving. We have so much fun together and get to share about our lives and what God is doing and showing each of us. We have a female intern, Shaviane, and she lives with 3 other girls. We have a girls meeting every other week to have fellowship, share our testimonies, meditate a on the Word and pray for each other. I feel like the Lord is blessing me so so much through the girls, and seeing all the conviction and revelation He is giving them in different areas of their lives. God is definitely at work and I am so so privileged to be here and serve them with all I can. Here is a picture at a Women´s Bible study with most of the girls and some Ticas that usually come.

Women's Bible Study with Annie, Chelly, Students & Staff and some Ticas !!!

Since I have been back, the Sunday Bible Study is growing spiritually and becoming more and more solid in the sense that there is already a faithful and committed group of people that attend and that come so hungry for the Word and for fellowship. I have to say that Sunday is definitely my favorite day!!!! My heart just bursts of joy to see the people coming in the afternoon to study God´s Word. Every Sunday is a new adventure of faith, praying for God´s Word to break, change, restore and touch all the lives of those that God faithfully brings each Sunday. I serve with the kids and that has also been such a blessing. The group is small and energetic and we just have so much fun singing, studying God´s word, and then playing and doing a craft based on the theme studied. I am going through the book of Luke with the kids and I can see how their little minds retain so much and their faith in Jesus is being nourished little by little. They encourage me to walk Jesus, speak Jesus and live Jesus to the most. As a petition of a family that comes faithfully on Sundays, since mid February, we are gathering for prayer in their house every Wednesday evening. We get together to worship and seek God in prayer, lifting up the prayer requests of other people in the Bible study as well as our own requests. I´m pretty excited about this new space God has opened for prayer, for it´s in prayer that we need to walk and only in prayer that God will move through His Spirit in our hearts together as a body and in others as we intercede for them and stand in the gap. May the Lord lead and move this prayer meeting to His heart and may all attendants grow in our prayer life. 

Here is a picture of kids ministry on Sundays, from left to right: Elian and his little brother, Hazel, Esteban, Mariel, little Isabella and Tiffany.

Kids class on Sunday Bible Study !!! We have so much fun = ) 

Don't know if you all remember but last year I wrote about a girl named Liseth, who accepted Jesus in September and whom I started to meet to study the Word together. Well, she decided last year that she wanted to get married in obedience to God's Word. A week after I got back, she got married and I had the joy to help her with some little preparations and to be at her wedding and get to know all of her and his family. We started to meet up again to study the book of 1 John. Please lift her and her husband Bryan in prayer. May they become a family for the Lord Jesus, and may she grow in the knowledge of Jesus and His Word and leave behind all weight such as tradition, and religion to run freely the race in Jesus (Heb 12:1). A second girl I would like to ask you prayer for is Nikole. She came to our Tuesday night class of Thessalonians with her friend Shirley. I had the opportunity to talk to her during the break and hear she was going through so much hardship and was at the end of herself. I invited her to come on Sunday and gave her a Bible verse to read and medidate. God had me pray for her salvation every single day of that week, as I knew she was suffering. She came that very next Sunday to the Bible Study and was strongly touched by the Word of God and the application Ryan, the pastor, shared about the need of Christ's sacrifice for forgiveness of sins. After the study, she came to me and said: I'm done with trying by myself, I want Jesus in a real way in my life, I need HIm. We prayed and cried together and she accepted Jesus into her heart. What a wonderful joy, What a glorious decision!  Ever since that moment, which was 3 weeks ago, she's been coming to bible studies, and meeting with me at least once a week, to study foundations of faith. She is a dear sister now and is part of God's family. However, she's still suffering from past decisions and is in need of a job desperately, would you help me pray for her and for God's revelation, will and strength upon her life?.   

Here is a picture  at Liseth's wedding and a picture with Nikole two days after she gave her life to Jesus !

Liseth getting married and Nikole and me after Bible Study.

On another note, the Lord gave us an opportunity this month to go outreach an indigenous group in the South of Costa Rica called the Guaymi, and it was truly amazing!. I have pictures and stories but I promise I will share those in my next newsletter since this one is too long already. 

In short, as you can read God is clearly at work in this Valley, and I feel so privileged to be a part of what He's doing and can't wait to see what He will continue to do. As I always ask, and need to ask, please keep me in your prayers and also the ministry in San Isidro. Your prayers make a huge difference and it's probably those that God is answering with every single person that comes to His knowledge and that He allows us to love upon. Please pray for me regarding these areas: good & balanced time management, spiritual discernment  in conversations, interactions and discipleship, inspiring personal time in the Word, and more opportunities to meet new people and share the love of Jesus. Please pray also for the staff team here: Ryan, Gerry, Vanessa and me, and for the interns serving with us this semester: Aaron, Kory and Shavi. 

Thanks so much for your prayers and support, that's what keeps me here! I am so blessed to have you in my family = ). May His love and grace flow through this valley swiftly and may we just be tools in His mighty hands !!! 

Love you all in Christ,

Having the mind of Christ in Christmas = )

"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross". - Philippians 2.5-8

Spending precious time with mom in December !!!!!

I send a big hello to all of you in this beautiful season of CHRISTmas and New Year with family and loved ones. The Lord has brought me to this verse in Philippians 2:5-8 that illustrates clearly what Christmas is about and links it so perfectly to the Cross. Not just the manger, which is a beautiful scene of love but the Cross and the Empty Tomb which is an even greater scene of love and redemption. Two key concepts have been resounding in my mind and heart from this piece of Scripture: "No Reputation" and "Bondservant". This is the example that this season calls me to imitate and live after, to make myself of no reputation just as my Jesus did and to take the form of a bondservant after Him for the sake of the Gospel and the expansion of His Kingdom, in myself and in others. There is a such a strong picture of humility and selflessness in these two that moves me to call upon Jesus and say: Please make me more like thee, my Lord! 

It's been already 2 months since dad's passing and I have to confess it has not been easy or predictable for us. As I mentioned in the previous newsletter, dad was a strong spiritual leader, and for our family that's been the hardest part. We all miss his encouraging words, his bible verses shared with so much passion and his prayers for all of us, in person or through skype, dad was always willing to jump into prayer when hearing about anything be it good or bad. I personally miss his spiritual leadership and his encouragement since I went out in faith to the mission field. He would always challenge me to serve the Lord in every single way and he would pray for me whenever I would bring up any doubt or any trial. The Lord has been showing me what a wonderful and godly man I had as my dad, even more now that he's not here, the Lord has moved my heart to an attitude of gratitude for the blessing He gave me with my earthly father and His example. In addition, God has opened more my eyes to Him as my heavenly Father. I think I see it differently whenever I read the Bible or I pray. The word FATHER sticks immediately out to me, and I really ponder about it, now that my earthly father has been taken to heaven. My God is my father and has always been but I just feel it different in some way. It's amazing to think how close and intimate my God wants to be with me that He reveals Himself to me as my Father..... There's so much authority, respect, love and example to me in thinking about God as my father, as my only father now. He's so loving to teach me more of Himself even through this trial. Let's give Him glory!!!! 

Mom has been my first ministry during this time.... just being there for her, and pouring His love to her as much as I can. We have studied the Word together, prayed together, cried together and even the Lord gave me the opportunity to visit with her 2 couples that my parents were discipling and encouraging in the faith during the past year....They truly miss dad and his wisdom teaching the Word. However, they were truly encouraged to see and hear mom talking about dad's passing with such faith and contentment knowing that it was God's decision and that we are to praise Him in all, so I see God being glorified even through this! 

I have also seen the purpose of God with me being here to help a missionary family (the Hartman's) from Iowa that arrived in Medellin 3 months ago to support a church plant and to build a house to host missionary groups in the future. They came in faith sent by an independent Christian church in Iowa and in obedience to what God showed the father, Dan who had come here in several mission trips. They are Dan (father), Lois (mother), Jessica (daughter) and Ivan (son) and it's amazing how much God has used them to encourage me, to remind me of my calling and to hurt and share Christ with my own people Colombian people. They are so simple, loving and sold out for the Gospel and for the Colombian souls that it's truly challenging just to be around them! It's crazy how I met them and how God has used them for me and me for them, it's definitely His way !!!. They don't know any Spanish, except for Lois, who knows just a little bit to get by, and have no language support or local people guiding them in anything, so they are truly depending on the Lord. It's been so so hard for them to start this building project because of the language and also to support and minister here because of the culture and the language, but it's clear that God brought them and He will do it!. I have served them in different opportunities, translating for them, counseling them in terms of the local culture and way of doing things, explaining so many things they don't understand and also encouraging them when they feel frustrated or unfitting to be here. I would kindly ask you to please pray for them and for the vision that God is giving them... may He bring more people that speak English to help them adjust to this big change as a family and may He use them to bring many to Christ in this town. Here is a picture with them when they came for Christmas Lunch!

With the Hartman's - Missionary Family in Medellin !!!

In addition, I had the opportunity of visiting a new Calvary church plant in a town, close to my home town, it's called Capilla Fidelidad and it was planted by Hernando, who used to be the assistant pastor of my first Calvary in Cali, Colombia. Him and His family are very dear to me and the church is only 3 years old. I was invited to share about Costa Rica and what God is doing there and I also decided to share about dad's passing and the lessons that God has revealed to me in this time. It was so so sweet to be there ! It's a small church but a solid and grounded one! The teaching and the people were such a blessing to me and I had the opportunity to talk to a couple at the end that has not accepted Christ but has been attending for like a month. Their names are Cindy and Jairo (I think, don't remember his name so well), and I shared a couple of verses and a testimony of mine encouraging them to accept Jesus into their hearts and to make a life decision before year end. Please pray that they feel that imminent desire and need to follow Christ so strong that they can't choose otherwise and pray that Hernando can come alongside to disciple them and love on them. Here is a picture with Pastor Hernando, his wife Claudia and his kids: Gabby and Mateo. Please pray for them and their ministry in the town of Jamundi as well.

Im holding Gabby and next to me is: Hernando, Claudia and Mateo-Dear Family!

I promise this is my last prayer request ; ) . The Lord has opened the door for me to attend the 2013 Calvary Chapel Mission's Conference in Murrieta, CA and I am so so grateful and excited for I know that It will be a wonderful time in the Word and getting His vision to go back to the Mission Field again. My heart is truly craving this conference and the encouragement that God always brings to me with all the people there. I will be traveling on Jan 6 to be there Jan 7-11 so please pray for the trip, for me saying bye to mom, for my heart to be soft and ready and for divine appointments in His will with other missionaries and ministries. I will travel back to Costa Rica on January 12, so please also pray for that and for adjusting back to normal in San Isidro! I am so excited to go back though I will miss mom for sure! But I also miss the team, the girls and the kids and I know the Lord has wonderful plans for 2013 mom and for me and many souls in His heart to save, and grow in Him !!!! May we walk in obedience and faith in Him and Him alone !!!!

Thanks once again for your prayers and support, and for your gestures of encouragement for me and my family. May the Lord bless you and use you, wherever you are for His kingdom.  HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL !!!!!!

Love in Christ,

God gave and God took away.................... Blessed be His Holy Name !

".....so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.For to me, to live is Christ,

and to die is gain" 

(Philippians 1:20b-21)

Fun time with dad , last year in Florida right after my brother's wedding !

Dear Family and Friends in Christ Jesus, 

Sorry to not have happy news from the mission field this month, but I think that it's for His glory to share what has happened and praise Him in at all times, because the Lord gives and He also takes away, and likewise because I want to share my need and how fragile I feel now, asking for your prayers for me and my family in this time of need. I'm sorry it's almost a month after this happened, but it's been pretty crazy and busy for us in the past three weeks!

As some of you may already know, my dad, Gustavo Rojas, without any sickness or pain, suddenly suffered a brain stroke on his left hemisphere on October 17 early morning. This accident paralyzed him on his right side of the body, left him without speech and had him be hospitalized in the Special Care Unit in Medellin, Colombia for 10 days. He had the grace of being conscious and fully awake, listening to us and responding with moving his hand for 9 days. Even though his neurological condition was fairly stable and acceptable, his kidneys and lungs started to fail more and more until the Lord called Him to His presence on Friday, Oct 26 at 6 pm.

It was really hard for me to receive this news but God in His grace surrounded me by prayer, and support not only of my team of service in San Isidro, Costa Rica but also of my pastor in my sending church in New Jersey and all the body of believers that got the news. God provided for me to travel to Colombia and arrive to meet mom, dad and my brother and sister on Saturday October 20. That night I had a very special moment with dad at the hospital. He got so happy when he heard my voice and he smiled feeling me next to him, and hearing me praying for him and encouraging him to hold on to Jesus and to trust Him completely in this time of trial. That Sunday, we praised and worshiped the Lord before going to the hospital and read the Word together, as family, and it encouraged us to trust and wait on the Lord Jesus in this situation.

During the next days, we would take turns to be with him all the time. God gave us the blessing of telling him, once again, how much we loved him, what a great dad he had been in the power of the Lord, how much he had impacted our lives with his love for Jesus and how he taught us to love Him not only with his word but with his life, and how proud we were of him and grateful to God for giving us such a father, so in-love with Him and His Word.  We also read to him his favorite verses and chapters of the Word and we sang to him his favorite hymns everyday. In the middle of the pain, the Lord gave us multiple opportunities to share His love and word with nurses and doctors. It was awkward but cool, to be able to feel God's love for them, reaching out to them thru us, in spite of the situation. His love cries out, we just have to listen to Him to be able to see pass thru our needs unto their greatest need: JESUS

This pic was taken for their anniversary on October 10th. 39 years of purposeful and God-glorifying marriage!

I want to truly thank each and everyone of you that knew about this for your prayers and encouragement. The Lord truly was responding to your prayers giving us strength during that week to suffer the situation but at the same time love daddy in his last days on the earth. I stayed with dad over night for 4 nights, and one of those I was outside of the room, crying out to the Lord, like at 3 am, and a sweet nurse came to me to comfort me. Her name is Andrea. As she was giving me human word of comfort the Lord was speaking to me and telling me: tell her about Me, she need to know real comfort from me!. Don't know how, but I heard and obeyed and so in the middle of my tears, I shared the gospel of Jesus with her and she was shocked listening to me and she just nodded with her head to all I was saying. We could not pray for she had to go take care of a patient but please pray that God allows me to go back to that hospital to see her and take her a Bible and some written material for her faith. It's amazing how our Lord can glorify Himself in this way! All glory to Him!!!

Dad's last day, he was in a deep sleep and not awake at all or feeling much. As the day progressed his condition started to get worst and God allowed mom to be right next to him when He finally called Him to Himself to rest at  6pm, after 70 years of life, 39 years of marriage and 39 years of knowing, loving and walking with Christ Jesus. "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away;

Blessed be the name of the Lord." (Job  1.21). He finally went to be with his beloved Savior and Lord, and God gave us His great peace and unspeakable joy to have that certainty in the middle of the pain of this loss.

His funeral was the next day and it was an amazing song of praise for His life. Testimonies and message of the Gospel were used by God to touch hearts, specially of those that were there and did not know the Lord. Dad's life yelled "Jesus" and his death did too. So many people talking about how he shared the gospel with them, how he discipled them, how he encouraged them , or prayed for them. It was God's glory being shown and giving us comfort in that moment. My family and me were really sad, but had the strength to praise the Lord and sing to Him in the middle of the tears and praise Him on that day for Dad's life and testimony, and also for his death, for our Lord is ALWAYS good and ALWAYS faithful and perfect in all of His ways, even when it's painful or we don't understand.

The following days and weeks have been hard as you can imagine, we miss him so so much ....Nevertheless, we feel and see God's mighty hand carrying us, and comforting us and giving us peace that surpasses understanding, specially to mom. He's reminded us of His promises that sustain us and reestablish us when pain comes and we can simply cry and burst out in thankfulness to Jesus for dad's life. I really thank you for your continued prayers for me and my family as we seek Him and His Word daily, remembering the great lessons of passion and humility that dad left us.

It's incredible how my mission field changed suddenly and radically for a few weeks. As all my family lives away from Medellin, and everyone has their jobs, God allowed me to stay here, ministering and taking care of mom. I'm supporting her physically (with the house and driving her everywhere she needs to go), emotionally (just being there to cry together, to hear her comment about dad every single minute) and spiritually (praying with her and reading the Word every morning). WIth God's grace and the support of my team in San Isidro, the Lord aligned it all for me to be able to bless mom during this hard time for her, so this is my main ministry for a few weeks. There's a lot of legal matters and papers to take care of and I can be of help here with her. I plan to be here until Christmas, being faithful in the ministry of my family. I am of course in touch with the team in San Isidro thru email and skype and with the people I was discipling too. It's God's work and He's orchestrating it and sustaining it during this time of transition for my family. I pray to fly back to Costa Rica the first weeks of January, so please pray about mom, and God to direct us on deciding what and where is best of her, where He wants her to serve Him. 

With my parents at a friend's apartment in Fort Lauderdale, FL 

Thanks once again for your prayers and support, and for your gestures of encouragement for me and my family. The pain is great but our God is greater and He shows us His love thru You all. May the Lord bless you and use you, wherever you are for His kingdom.

Love in Christ,

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,