So Will I

So I recently found this song, So Will I, by Hillsong United. It's such a beautiful song and the lyrics challenge my heart. In the song there are several lines that speak of the character and actions of God, and the different ways his creation, by design, responds. After each line follows the phrase, "so will I". For us, it's easy to just consider ourselves in daily things, but when we take a moment to realize who God is, it changes perspectives and turns hearts to truly worship Him.

I think it's so important to actually hear and know the words in we sing to God. True worship is living out the words we sing and read in the Word. Does our daily walk reflect that of Jesus? Do our words reflect what is truth? Does our presence show the love that Jesus poured out to save us?

If not... who's word do we follow? What are we living out?

God of creation

There at the start

Before the beginning of time

With no point of reference

You spoke to the dark

And fleshed out the wonder of light

And as You speak

A hundred billion galaxies are born

In the vapor of Your breath the planets form

If the stars were made to worship so will I

I can see Your heart in everything You’ve made

Every burning star

A signal fire of grace

If creation sings Your praises so will I

God of Your promise

You don’t speak in vain

No syllable empty or void

For once You have spoken

All nature and science

Follow the sound of Your voice

And as You speak

A hundred billion creatures catch Your breath

Evolving in pursuit of what You said

If it all reveals Your nature so will I

I can see Your heart in everything You say

Every painted sky

A canvas of Your grace

If creation still obeys You so will I

So will I

So will I

If the stars were made to worship so will I

If the mountains bow in reverence so will I

If the oceans roar Your greatness so will I

For if everything exists to lift You high so will I

If the wind goes where You send it so will I

If the rocks cry out in silence so will I

If You left the grave behind You so will I

If the sum of all our praises still falls shy

Then we’ll sing again a hundred billion times

God of salvation

You chased down my heart

Through all of my failure and pride

On a hill You created

The light of the world

Abandoned in darkness to die

And as You speak

A hundred billion failures disappear

Where You lost Your life so I could find it here

I can see Your heart in everything You’ve done

Every part designed in a work of art called love

If You gladly chose surrender so will I

I can see Your heart

Eight billion different ways

Every precious one

A child You died to save

If You gave Your life to love them so will I

Like You would again a hundred billion times

But what measure could amount to Your desire

You’re the One who never leaves the one behind

July

July went by entirely too fast. I'm now just down to a couple of weeks before I head back to the states.  :)/:(

Here's a few pictures to catch you up!

Rachel and I doing a little bit of painting before the opening of the new El Refugio pregnancy center.

Sometimes, you just need to go to the Taco Bar..

A basket of baby sloths.

Majestic.

Monkeys.

My Tica-bae came back from the States to see me!

Right after this picture, I got schooled in futbol by kids.

Quick beach trip pic :)

This was our van on the way to San Carlos, Alajuela to do ministry and a worship confrence with a local church there. Amazing work of the Spirit- rough ride.

Cleaning and painting the church.

This is part of the group praying and ministering to the folks at the elderly home. It was amazing to see their servant hearts in working with the people there- cleaning, gardening, feeding the elderly, praying over them. 

Kathy striking a pose in the middle of the worship conference.

There was so much more that God was doing this month that my camera didn't capture. From the interns to the teams, I've learned so much. 

Hands and Feet

So as promised (and that promise was mostly for my own accountability) here is my weekly blog post. Just a few things from this past week:) 

We were able to team up with the AIM Passport team for one more day of ministry with Transforma and Metro Ministries. They did lots of work in Casa Transforma. 

Cool testimony: At Transforma, women can take classes to learn skills to earn an income. While the mommas take classes, there are classes for the children to go to when they're not in school. But, Transforma has been growing... a lot. So the Montessori teacher at Transforma was needing more space for the kids and her classroom. The teacher previously told me she was praying that God would give her the downstairs building space that was, then, being rented out by someone else. Next thing we know, the place comes up for rent. The leaders at Transforma ask for prayers that they can afford to have the lower floor, and the next day it's theirs. Within a week they have it mostly renovated. And this past week the AIM team was able to work alongside us with doing some cleaning, gardening, and moving. 

The AIM team helping with Metro Ministries

While we were in the local community inviting the children to the ministry event, we were also able to pass out flyers for the pregnancy center. Within a day of passing the flyers out, we had seven new clients call to set up appointments. 

Niños :)

We were also blessed to welcome a mission team made up of people from all across the U.S.

Micah preaching at The Rock Church (a.k.a. Biker Church)

Bonus points if your church has fruit kabobs. 

So, we did a lot of things with that mission team, but let me tell you about the construction on the new pregnancy center. The team worked alongside several members of The Rock Church to get the new center ready. In a day, we were able to get walls painted, shelves built, cubbies put together, hundreds of baby clothes folded, and decorations hung.

I was finally able to visit House of Raw! House of Raw is a dance studio in San Jose. More to come on this later:)

One last thing: I hate to announce that tragedy has hit Costa Rica. On June 28th, this happened to my lasagna. Heartbreaking guys... So much wasted cheese...

This week I loved being able to see God's people being the hands and feet. They were meeting needs. Sometimes that looked like praying and laying hands on people in the park. Other times it looked like being down on hands and knees scrubbing floors. Either ways, the goal and purpose was always the same: To spread God's glory across the Earth. 

Dance Battles, and Graduation, and Soap, OH MY!

It's almost been a month since I've been back here in Costa Rica..
Sorry I'm so horrible at blogging guys...
But, lemme just tell you, it's been amazing!

Here are just a few of things :)

This is at the opening for the newest location of House of RAW dance studio.

This past week, El Refugio got to see it's first few ladies graduate from the program. They spent a little over a year of faithfully coming to appointments, completing homework, and being discipled. We are also excited to see them now come and volunteer in the center.

I've also had opportunity to work along side an AIM Passport team that is here in Costa Rica for one month. Here we did a little clean up and sanding for a new mission center up in the mountains. This center will be for pregnancy crisis counseling and prevention along with being a center for mission groups to do trainings.

This is a brave soul holding a gross spider....

 

My cons have held up impressively well..

I've recently met up with a few college students and their pastors studying Spanish here in Costa Rica.  They have a similar vision as Til He Returns and even do soap making as ministry. Holla. They were ready to work- whether that meant painting, making some extra soap, or folding and sorting hundreds of baby clothes.

And my favorite little friends here :)

If you've made it this far, thanks! But on the real, I'll try to be better at blogging. Expect a post sometime next week!

Briana Rachel

Hija del Rey

Yesterday was a very successful cafecito. We had wonderful ladies come and participate, an amazing lunch, and a phenomenal mission team working with us. I could not be happier with how everything went. Lots of thank you's to all the help.

Here are some pictures of the event :)