LifeChange

Costa Rica - Itinerary

As I mentioned in my previous post, tomorrow morning our team leaves for Costa Rica.  Thanks in advance to all of you that have supported us and will support us over the next several days through prayer.  I want to give you some guidance as to our itinerary and what we will be doing so you can effectively pray for us:

July 16th. Wed. - Team arrives in San Jose, Costa Rica

July 17^th. Thurs. - Orientation & Work day

July 18th. Fri. - Travel to Limon - Cienaguita church outreach at 7:00 p.m.

July 19^th. Sat. - Victory Church 10:00 a.m. Children’s outreach & Envaco Church outreach at 7:00 p.m.

July 20^th. Sun. - Casa de Oración Church at 9:30 a.m. and soccer game from 3:00 – 5:00 p.m.

July 21^st. Mon. - Fun day/Zip lining & shopping

July 22^nd. Tues. - Work day at Casa de Oración & trip debriefing

July 23^rd. Wed. - Return home

Our flight itinerary is as follows:

Departure

July 16   2:25PM       From:  Indianapolis      To:  Dallas, TX            Arrive:  3:35PM

July 16   6:00PM       From:  Dallas, TX           To:  San Jose, Costa Rica Arrive:  8:55PM

Return

July 23  8:55AM    From:  San Jose          To:  Dallas, TX             Arrive:  2:05PM

July 23 7:52PM     From:  Dallas, TX         To:  Indianapolis, IN     Arrive:  8:45PM

Pray that we will be available and flexible for all God wants to do in Costa Rica.  Pray that we have the hearts of servants and love for Dan & Cindy Salas and the Costa Ricans we come in to contact with.  Pray that God is glorified and His kingdom advances.  Pray that those in our team will have an encounter with God and His work in the world that will take them deeper in their walk and service to Him.  Thank you in advance for your prayers... we need them and God will use them.

Tomorrow - We Leave for Costa Rica

Tomorrow our mission team leaves for Costa Rica!  As with the last trip I'll be posting updates (if we have internet access) at our Costa Rica Google Group.  If you'd like to sign-up for the group and automatically receive an email when a post is made you can do that in the form below.

Subscribe to Costa Rica Mission Trip

Email:

Visit this group

Be praying for us.  Pray that God's Kingdom is advanced and that the team (the adults and kids) all have an awesome experience and that their relationship with Christ is taken to the next level.

Last Night with the Choir

Tonight is the last night the Ugandan Orphan's Choir is staying with Life Church.  It's been an amazing weekend with them.  Here is a summary of all that's happened:

• Friday- they performed at our LifeKids camp at the Boys and Girls Club.  The host families were introduced to their children.
• Saturday - there was a big cookout for all the host families and the choir at one of the host families' homes.  It was a lot of fun!
• Sunday- the choir performed at both our services and then hung around afterward for lunch.  It was a powerful morning. Second service was overflowing with people.  People were reminded of their freedom in Christ as people watched these beautiful Ugandan children and the hope they have discovered in their lives through their relationship with Christ and the ministry of Childcare Worldwide.  People were also given an opportunity to sponsor a child... my parents felt God leading them to do this as they sponsored a little boy from India.  They couldn't stop talking about it all day Sunday!
• Monday- the choir spent most of the day preparing and packing for their flight out tomorrow.  Tonight we had dinner with another host family and their children.

We didn't have any children stay with us, but we did have one of the chaperons Sylvia.  She is a wonderful young lady that loves Christ and is very open about her faith.  It has been great spending four days with her as she's challenged me in my relationship with Christ.  It's also been good for Noah to be around these African children.  Courtney and Sylvia have really hit it off as well (right now they're watching a romantic comedy together.)

This time with the choir has also reminded Courtney and I how much we love Uganda and the people of East Africa.  God has put a special connection in our heart with these wonderful people.

Lessons from the Lake - One Word

This is the last lesson I learned over vacation... Words are powerful.  All it takes is one word from God to change a person's life.  I can point back to several instances throughout my life where God gave me a word and things changed forever. 

This past week I experienced God speaking to me on frequency that I never have before.  However, every time it happened in a way or time that I wasn't really expecting it.  Here are some examples:

1. Through a fiction book I was reading
2. Several times while observing nature
3. At my parents church, after having difficulty focusing during the time of worship and feeling really tired

This taught me to live my life with expectancy of God speaking at any time and in any way, instead of just setting expectations for him to speak when I think it makes sense or is appropriate.

Do you believe God can speak to you at any time and any place?  Are you living each day with expectancy of Him doing this?

I got it... the iPhone 3G

See that green circle, that is highlighting my head.  That's where I am standing with my friend Matt at about 7:30AM this morning as we waited for the new iPhone 3G to be released.  It was crazy and I kept telling myself how there were much better ways I could be spending my day off... like sleeping.  It was fun.

So I got it... and it works great.  I haven't really played around with it much yet as the Ugandan Choir came in to town tonight and I've been with them most the evening.  I'm excited about diving in to it.  I'll write more in the future.

Also, if you're one of the people that are responsible for me getting the iPhone then I say Thank You!  I don't know who you are, but I'm sure you do if you were part of the plan.  I've been very blessed.

Lessons from the Lake - Endless God

Lake of the Ozarks is a beautiful area.  Not only is the lake itself great, but around the lake are endless hills and forests.  I was overwhelmed as I thought about the large amount of trees, and never ending land.  Then I thought about all the people I saw and how we would drive mile after mile and see boats, cars, stores, homes and how each one of these belonged to someone.  Someone's life was represented by each of these items.  Then I realized that this is just one small area and one lake, in a country of thousands of lakes, that is just a small part of the world.  Around each of these other lakes in the world are towns, villages, homes, cars, boats and stores that represent millions of other people and their lives.

It blows my to think that there is a God that is involved, aware and available to every person, everywhere, all the time.  While I can't fully understand or grasp how this is possible, this is something I known and accept.  What I saw with new clarity last week was that God is not only involved, aware and available to every individual, but He is FULLY involved, FULLY aware and FULLY available.  Not just a part of him, or one section of His mind, but ALL of Him.  A.W. Tozer said it this way:

"An infinite God can give all of Himself to each of His children.  He does not distribute Himself that each may have a part, but to each one He gives all of Himself as if there were no others."

Lessons from the Lake - Jet Ski

Some of my favorite time was taking Noah out for a ride on the Jet Ski.  Last year he would fall asleep on the jet ski, this year he enjoyed it more (even though he always wanted to hit the RED stop button which would cut the engine.)  Courtney and I went out a few times together which was also a lot of fun.  Most of the time however I would go by myself... there was something about taking a machine at 50 mph across the open water, with the wind in my face and then finding big waves from boats to jump.  It was a great time.

However, I also realized something... when I would go out by myself I would often times come back to the dock where everyone was, or see if Courtney or Noah wanted to ride with me again.  However, when they were with me we would be gone for long periods of time without returning.  I realized that even though I couldn't jump big waves or go extremely fast with Courtney or Noah, that it was much more fun and rewarding sharing the experience with someone else. 

God created us to be in relationship... with Him and with other people.  It's not possible to fully experience life without relationships.  I see so many people that have many acquaintances but very few people to share their life with.  Perhaps it's because of past hurts, failures, broken trust, let downs, or just never having a healthy relationship with God or another person modeled, people would rather keep others (including God) at a distance then to engage others and risk opening up their lives.  Just like riding the jet ski by myself, this type of life may initially seem easier and allow you more freedom, but in the long run it will leave a person empty, lonely and never fully experiencing the life God has for them.

How about you?  Are you riding your jet ski alone or with others? 

Lessons from the Lake - Complete Trust

This isn't something I was going to write about until I saw this picture of Noah.  I think this is a picture of what we look like when we fully understand and live out Proverbs 3:5 that says "Trust in the LORD with all your heart."

This was Noah's first time in the water not being in his blow up tube that he would sit in.  At first he was scared being in the water in just a life jacket and held very tightly to me.  Over the next few minutes he started to relax and let go more trusting that he would not go under the water.  Eventually to my amazement he even started leaning back, closing his eyes and sucking his thumb.  All the time thought I would hold his legs and keep contact with him.  In the end he would lean all the way back in the water, closing his eyes and I could even let go.  He trusted me completely, that I was near by and everything would be OK.  This is how God wants us to trust Him in life.

Are there areas in your life that you don't trust God with?

Lessons from the Lake - Learning to Ski

When I was very young I tried to ski once, I was not successful and never tried again.  Before I went down to the lake this time I was determined to learn to ski.  This was one of the most frustrating and rewarding experiences of the whole trip.  Here's how it played out:

• Day 1 - Tried to get up on my skis (the first picture is a good example)... failed every time.  Never even got close.  I did get very sore though.
• Day 2 - I got most of my body out of the water on a few attempts, but never got up.  Even more sore then day 1.
• Day 3 - After several more attempts I did get up on a few occasions for about 5 seconds each time.  I was exhausted and called it a day.
• Day 4 - Got up on my first try for about 10 seconds!  Over the next several attempts I got up on multiple occasions, one time for several minutes.  Later in the day I went back out again, tried two times and made it up both times with good runs... going over wake and back and forth behind the boat.  It was a good note to end on.

Failure was a requirement for me to learn to ski.  If I never failed, or if I gave up after my first day of straight failures, then I would have never made it to the last day which was very rewarding.  It's easy to see someone do something well and then attempt it ourselves only to get frustrated because we're so far away from the goal... what we often times don't realize is the work, pain, failure and countless attempts it took that person to get to the level they are at.  God can work in all things in our life, including our failures. 

What are you not doing because you're afraid to fail?

24 Hour Email Rule

Today I received an email that sparked strong emotions and I immediately wanted to write back expressing my frustration.  However, I really felt God telling me to walk away and come back to it later.  Which is what I did.  After a few tense hours everything worked out, actually better then it was initially.  I never had to send the email, I talked to the person on the phone.  It was a good reminder to continually trust God regardless of what happens and to not act just based on my emotions as they can be misleading.

This is the first time in a while I had to remind myself of my "24 Hour Email Rule" that I use when writing emails that express strong emotion or could be taken the wrong way (probably a good rule for blog posts also.)  The rule is:  "write the email and then come back to it in 24 hours, read it and if I still feel the same way and the email reads OK send it."  I've heard some other variations that people use:

• One person told me to print out these types of emails, wait a few hours and then read over the printed copy.  It's amazing how things sometimes read different on paper.
• One person told me that they schedule (a feature some email clients like Microsoft Outlook has) their email to send to themselves later in the day.  They then receive it and read it like the person they're going to send it to would read it as it appears in their inbox. 
• One person has a trusted friend they send these types of messages to.  They let their friend read it and provide input on anything that is too extreme or inappropriate.

Working at TI for five years, I saw many instances of people receiving information and then sending a message based purely on emotion or their initial reaction, only later to regret sending it and wishing they could take it back.  Unfortunately, you can't take messages like that back.  The other bad thing with emails is they seem to have legs and easily travel to other people then just the person you sent it to.

How about you, any rule or practice you use when communicating electronically to make sure you don't say something you regret?