Things here have been crazy busy...and I'm loving every minute of it. We've had four teams and three families visit in the past two months! God has done so many great things this summer it's hard to know what to write about. However, one thing God has revealed to me how He is alive and at work orchestrating his perfect symphony in and through our broken lives.
Isn't that cool! The creator of the universe, the almighty eternal one, works in and through broken people like you and me; and He's not just making it up as He goes along! He has it all worked out, the plan is complete...and it's perfectly perfect.
Let me give you just one example of how God has revealed this truth to me. One of our first teams this summer was a group from my home church Cross Creek Presbyterian. The church really wanted to pour a concrete floor in the back of the Juan Pablo Community Center. They prayed and raised funds to go toward the project. This floor would be used to construct a kitchen that would be used to start a children's feeding center, and a worship service on Sunday mornings. However, when they arrived we still had not received permission from the city and the project was delayed. The team graciously decided to take on some other much needed projects, but did not get to see the floor completed. The cool part is that just a few weeks later God sent a team from Michigan who was able to put the floor in the community center of Juan Pablo, which is a huge step toward planting a feeding center and church in Juan Pablo.
Over the past two months God has brought over a hundred people from at least eight different churches and six different states to accomplish great things here in Alajuelita. All of these people were united in a common purpose of serving God. They were busy ministering to the poor, loving the unlovely and reaching out to "the least of these", and Kingdom of God is alive and well...and growing as a result.
As I reflect on the summer a specific text comes to mind...(bold emphasis mine)
Ephesians 2: 1-10
"As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. "
What a great passage! We were dead, disobedient ...then brought to life, not just to live selfishly, but to live for Him and to do the good works, which He prepared for us in advance...for which He receives the glory!
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