At Pura Vida Church Esterillos, we have been going through a series looking at characters from the Bible. We have been specifically looking at the way God used people not because of how great they were but because of how great He is. How God uses those who are humble and willing, not those who are proud and perfect. God’s redemptive plan is working all around us and as Christians we are invited to be a part of seeing that plan accomplished. Sometimes though, we get caught up in our own insecurities or we are handicapped by the overwhelming need that we see around us. Both of these reactions are normal, we see that even the heros of the Bible had these kinds of reactions.
We are blessed to be able to share with people what God is doing in Costa Rica both through, newsletters like this and when people come down on short term teams to see, experience and share first hand. We had a wonderful family come recently to serve alongside us here for a week. They played soccer, did crafts, taught bible stories and showed the love of God to the children here and I wanted to share with you some words of reflectoin from them about their experience.
As we were landing in Minneapolis on Saturday night at about 10:15pm, we
noticed several fireworks displays going on down below. It felt like one
last little lesson from God: When we are viewing fireworks from the earth
they seem to fill the entire sky with a brilliant display, but from up
above it is just a small round sparkle. In the same way, from our earthly
perspective our Christian work can sometimes seem huge in either an
overwhelming way or as if we are doing such a grand deed; however, in the
big heavenly realm picture it is a tiny sparkle. From God’s perspective,
our work together to accomplish his purpose on earth must look like
thousands of sparkling gems (His light reflecting from us).
I think this is true no matter where we are, or what we are doing for Him. I think it is so easy for us to forget that everything we do has the opportunity to bring Him glory. The famous words from Corinthians remind us that we will not understand everything until His glory comes, because His perspective is so much bigger, but love is eternal and if we love others the way Corinthians teaches us to we can be a part of His redemptive plan. Not because of how great we are but because of how great He is. We can be like sparkling gems reflecting His love in this world.
Here are some of the sparkling gems from the last couple of months at Pura Vida Church.
We celebrated our 8th anniversary this Sunday, with food and family.
Dennis was in England at a international church planting summit, learning and sharing about church planting around the world, to support church planting click here
Dennis was in Panama at a meeting with other church planters who are specifically reaching coastal communities
Please pray
Building space for Esterillos and Parrita churches
Consistent support for Shoreline mission district, to give click here
Dennis and other church leaders will be going to Nicaragua this month for a community based church planting conference, to help get them there click here