God Calls Kids Too

I don't remember how old I was when I first felt the call of God on my life. My earliest memory of feeling at least some semblance of that call was from back in the 90s. I believe I was 9 years old, but it's possible I was older. Missionaries Neil & Kathy Vanaria, who are now dear friends, came to my church one night to share about what God was doing in Papua New Guinea. I remember feeling like that's what I wanted to do. Even though I don't remember every specific and detail, the point remains the same: God can/does call children too (see the story of Samuel from 1 Samuel 3)! The theme from the weekend was "I'm small but I walk with Jesus" (I'll share more about that theme tomorrow).

Polly and I had the privilege of leading the teaching about missions/evangelism to all the kids. The leader Adriana put together the lesson but thought it would be nice/fitting for missionaries to teach it. We shared the importance of going and making disciples as mandated in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20). After we were finished with the teaching, we had a special time of reflection and prayer. We gave each of the kids an electric candle and shared how we were to carry the light into the darkness.

Adriana had also mentioned the desire for us to have a specific call for those feeling a specific call on their lives, as she was called at the age of 8. After some time of general prayer for all who were ready to bring that light into their world around them, we made that call. Nobody came forward. We just let it be. If nobody was going to respond to that specific call, we were still going to have a nice time of prayer for the general call.

After some time, however, one girl came forward. Our missionary friend Caitlin had already been pouring into that girls life that day so we had her come up and pray over her. Then a group leader grabbed my attention as she came up with 3 little boys who said they were going to be pastors. One in particular seemed very sure about that and was more than ready to pray about it. Finally, Adriana brought me another girl who said she felt God's calling on her life. I prayed over her and really sensed that God had plans for her life.

It was a beautiful time of prayer as we were privileged to have the opportunity to pray over these children responding to the call of God on their lives. How awesome that this church saw the value in this and made it a priority! And we're grateful that they allowed us to be a small part of it.

God has some big plans in store for these kids lives. I can't wait to hear what they're doing years from now.

A Fatherly Embrace

God, Our Heavenly Father

During one of the teachings at the children's ministry retreat we were blessed to participate in this past weekend, Polly and I were asked to go with the 4-6 year olds during the prayer time. The lesson was on fatherhood. There were a number of kids at the retreat without a father so this was a very important and special lesson time. The kids were taught how God is the heavenly father and how He will never leave or abandon them. After the lesson was over, I prayed over a couple kids. I thought we were done, but I was then asked to do the sweetest thing I've ever been asked to do in my life.

A Fatherly Embrace

I was asked to give each precious kid a fatherly hug and pray over them. They brought me the first kid who was clearly touched by the lesson and he clung to me. I clung to him to. I hugged him and prayed over him as he held me tight and wept. I asked God to let him feel the loving embrace of his heavenly Father and that he was always know that God will never abandon him. After a few minutes of hugging and praying over him, the leaders tried to pull him away so they could bring another kid. He wouldn't let go of me. It was one of the most precious experiences of my life.

After that little boy finally let go, I continued to hug and pray over each of the kids, including Genevieve who was with this group. The last kid brought to me was a sweet little 3 (almost 4) year old boy who was brought to the retreat by his aunt and uncle who were helping. As soon as his aunt handed him to me, he clung to me and hugged me tight. I just stood there with him in my arms for a few minutes praying over him. Meanwhile his aunt immediately began to bawl after handing him to me. Polly had the opportunity to pray over her. Afterward I discovered that this adorable little boy was abandoned by his father very early on in life and struggles with it.

While I know that those little kids without fathers still went back to homes without fathers, I was still blessed with the privilege of hugging them as a father would. I didn't deserve that opportunity. More than that, I pray that they had a real encounter with their heavenly Father and that He continues to heal their hurts as they put their trust in Him.

Thankful

I am thankful that God is our heavenly Father and that He will never abandon us. Even as someone who grew up with my dad, I still need the warm embrace of my heavenly Father. And I need to teach my children the value of the same for their lives.

I am thankful that I have 2 precious little ones who I get to hug and pray over regularly. Reflecting back on this special moment, I am challenged to do this even more and to be the best dad that I can be to my children.

I am thankful that I grew up with both parents and didn't have to go through what so many children go through. I don't want to ever take this blessing for granted.

Prayer Requests - June 2015

A huge component to our success in Costa Rica is the prayers of our family, friends and other ministry partners (though if you're praying for us I'd like to think of you as a friend). Sometimes people ask us how they can be praying for us specifically. So, every month I will try to share updated prayer needs and also share when we hear an answer to a specific prayer. Thank you so much for praying!

I will break this down into two areas: Personal and Ministry. I will also subdivide each of those areas as best as I can think to.

Personal

1. Spiritual

• Continued growth in our intimacy with God.
• Protection from any spiritual attacks of the enemy.
• Genevieve understands so much more now and asks lots of questions and has told us that she has asked Jesus into her heart. We pray that she will continue to seek Him out all the days of her life. And that we will lead her and Jonah in the ways of the Lord.

2. Physical

• We seem to be running through colds or allergies one after the other since rainy season started.
• My knee has been bothering me off and on lately which has kept me from doing a lot of intensive exercise. The last few times playing soccer, it's been significantly better, but it's not 100%.
• The kids as they continue to grow and develop (i.e. Jonah's teething, etc.).

3. Relational

• Continued friendships with both Christians and non-Christians among both Americans and Costa Ricans for all of us.
• That we will have opportunities to share Jesus in the context of our friendships with non-Christians.
• For a strengthened marriage, parent-children relationships and sibling relationships

4. Emotional

• As we miss family in the States.
• As we say good bye to friends returning to the States or their mission field (for those from the language school).
• Anything else that comes us through culture shock or life in general.

5. Mental

• Continued growth in our ability with the Spanish language.
• Continued growth in my ability to interpret.
• For the kids to continue to grow and develop mentally (i.e. Genevieve as she learns to read, etc.).

6. Financial

• Among other things, we miscalculated our personal budget in December and are still in the process of working our way out of the slight debt incurred as a result.
• God provides for our monthly ministry need every month through various means. We are still looking for monthly financial partners. 

7. Practical

• Polly and I need to get our Costa Rica driver's licenses very soon.
• We need to finish up with Genevieve's residency.

Ministry

1. Chicos/Chicas

• For favor as Polly helps with the Chicas ministry and as my friend and I continue to pioneer the Chicos ministry in the community of Linda Vista. We have been meeting with the Chicos for about a month now and have really been able to start building good relationships and have had some great discussions and such.
• We also are still praying for the ability to purchase a house attached to the school for Chicos to meet in. We already have money to purchase it (our missionary mentor and area directors have worked all this out) but need the seller to agree to sell it to us and at the right price.
• One of the girls in Chicas, her parents, 3 brothers and sister lost their home to a fire a little over a week ago. We have been helping to get things together for the family and will hopefully be helping to rebuild their home for them. The girl's name is Engel (pronounced like Angel).

2. OneHope Project

• Traveling mercies as we travel throughout the country to distribute these books (they contain a basic plan of salvation and cover some age appropriate issues) to the churches.
• That these books would be useful in young people and their families coming to and growing in Jesus.

3. Children's Ministry

• We have been asked to help teach at a children's retreat for a church we have done ministry with in the past here.
• Other opportunities we have to teach children or train leaders.

4. Bible School

• I have been asked to help with the Children's Ministry track at the local Bible school, including teaching a couple classes a week likely starting in the Fall.

5. Missions Teams

• We have a number of teams coming this summer to help in various projects. Please pray for favor in each of these situations.

A Day in Our Life

A friend recently asked if we had a regular daily schedule for our ministry here in Costa Rica. The easy answer, no. While some days' schedules mostly repeat on a weekly basis, that is far from a hard rule. Sometimes things come up which change plans for that week. And sometimes they change as the day goes along. There is no "typical day" in Costa Rica for us. They vary quite a bit.

But I decided to write a blog following a random day in our life anyway. Knowing we had a number of items on the agenda for yesterday, I figured it would be a good day to follow. So I told Polly of my plan. Little did I know that yesterday was going to serve to prove my point of our daily inconsistency and flexibility I mentioned above. I almost decided against even going through with the blog, but I think it's a fair representation so I decided to go through with it anyway. Some days are calm and dare I say relaxing. Others are...well, you'll see.

Normal Wednesday

A "normal" Wednesday would consist of:

• We have breakfast as a family
• I go to Linda Vista for Chicos from 9a-3p while Polly stays home with the kids
• I come home and play with the kids
• We have dinner together as a family

As you can see, our Wednesday schedule is sort of like a normal work day.

Yesterday's Planned Schedule

With the need to work on our residency and a Children's ministry meeting planned, yesterday already wasn't supposed to be a normal Wednesday. Here's what we had planned:

• Have breakfast together as a family
• My meeting at the Caja to find out how much social security tax I will "voluntarily" pay Costa Rica to be a resident at 9:45
• Polly's meeting at the Caja at 10:45
• Drop Polly and the kids off at home and go to Linda Vista for the 2nd group of Chicos
• After Chicos, come home and pick up the family and go to the Children's Ministry meeting
• Let Genevieve play at the park with the other MKs
• Return home and have dinner together as a family

So, yesterday was supposed to be a little more hectic and crazy than usual. But we would get a lot accomplished, both with our residency and our ministry.

Yesterday's Actual Schedule

Here's how yesterday really went:

• We had breakfast together as a family
• We left at 9:20a for my 9:45 meeting at the Caja
• I went in for the meeting around 10:20
• While in the meeting, they also called Polly back for her meeting
• We discovered that we were supposed to make 3 separate payments to the government
• They told us to make those payments and then come back next Tuesday when we would have to wait until they had an opening to fit us in
• I asked if I could go and make the payment right away and return to finish things up yesterday; they agreed
• Polly and Jonah stayed around the Caja while Genevieve and I went home to get some money, went to the ATM to take out more money, went into the bank to make the 3 payments for each Polly and me, and then returned to the Caja; all this took about an hour
• When I went to the woman who had been helping me, she told me that it was really busy and that we should return after 2p. It was about noon, so we left and grabbed lunch nearby
• While in Subway, it started pouring; we realized we didn't have umbrellas; of course we didn't have umbrellas
• When the rain let up, we left and returned to the Caja
• Finally, a little after 2:00, they took as back; everything went well
• We got in our car at about 3:15, about 6 hours from when we had left the house earlier in the morning; the kids were amazing all things considered, but clearly had enough at that point; so did Polly and I
• We swung by Piedad for the end of the Children's Ministry meeting; we got caught up on the OneHope project I've been working on
• It was still rainy and wet so no park play time with other MKs for Genevieve
• We had dinner together as a family

That's life here for us in a nutshell. Some days are calm, some crazy. Some weeks are extra calm, some are extra crazy. All are worth it in the end. We wouldn't trade any of this.

Thanks for spending a day in our life. And thanks for your prayers. They keep us sane in the moments of insanity.

Start - Finish. The dash matters too!

We've all heard, "It's not how you start, but how you finish the race." While I understand its point I think it's a bit simplistic. How we start can have a huge impact on how we finish. And from start - finish, I believe the dash matters too.

Strong Start

When running a race, a good start can be critical. Especially for sprints. This is why runners start on the blocks and this is why false starts occur. Beyond that, there is a mental component to starting well. When I run a race, I want to start well. It puts me in a good mindset moving forward through the race.

Strong Finish

Our place in a race is defined by how we finish. There was one point late in this year's Boston Marathon when Americans were leading both the men's and women's races. Both were eventually passed by other runners. They ran a solid race. Yet who received all the attention? The winners. How you finish is incredibly important.

So which is more important: the start or the finish? I would pick finishing well over starting well...if I had to choose. But we shouldn't have to choose. We should seek both.

I believe that we usually spend so much time focusing on talking about the beginning and the end that we forget the biggest portion of the race - the middle. What happens in between the start and the finish matters too.

Strong Middle

This is where I think the real battle often lies. This is when you really need perseverance and mental fortitude and focus. Let's face it, it's easy to start well because you're body is releasing so much adrenaline and you're fresh and ready to go. You're usually surrounded by many other runners and fans. And it's easy to end well because you can clearly see the finish line and generally there are so many people cheering you on, giving you the extra motivation. I have run two marathons. The start and the finish of each were relatively easy. What I found most difficult was the middle.

What happens when the initial adrenaline wears off? What happens when the pains kicks in and you realize uphill the battle is? What happens when nobody is standing around and cheering you on? This is where you really need to bear down and fight. The finish may be the most important part but you can never make it to the finish if you don't fight through the middle. The start might be important to build momentum and a positive attitude, but it's irrelevant if you allow yourself to lose the momentum you've built when you hit a rough patch in the middle.

It's easy to focus at the beginning and at the end. The difficulty lies in the middle.

My friend Matt and I are about to start Chicos on a weekly basis. We're fired up and excited to get going. We've planned and prepped. Tomorrow (May 12) will be the first day. I have no doubt it will go well. But we feel that the biggest key will be maintaining our focus and not losing that excitement as the weeks go on. We don't want to get lazy in the middle. We want to treat every week with the same intention and intensity as we do the first.

So, please pray for a great start, middle and end to Chicos this school year.

The Happily Ever After

Every romantic movie follows the same basic story: a couple meeting and falling in love. The pursuit of the relationship is given all the attention and is completely romanticized. However, I argue that it is far from the most important part of the story.

The pursuit.

I was attracted to Polly the first moment I laid my eyes on her. I had butterflies in my stomach every time we talked. I replayed every conversation through my head over and over again. I wanted to be around her as much as I could. I pulled out all the stops, using every ounce of creativity God gave me to romance and woo her. Every time we held hands, my heart skipped a beat.

Our pursuit had all the makings of a romantic movie:

• Boy meets girl
• Boy falls for girl
• Girl falls for boy
• Boy woos girl
• Obstacles and drama are overcome
• Boy and girl end up together
• More obstacles and drama are overcome
• Boy marries girl
• Boy and girl live happily ever after

The happily ever after.

This is where movies leave off, "And they lived happily ever after." This is where Hollywood has it all wrong. The happily ever after is the real story! It appears not to be as romantic. I used to believe that was true. Then I realized that was based on a skewed definition of romance.

Men and women can say nice things and sound sweet but I want to deal with reality for a moment so let's be honest, the butterflies wear off.

I still love waking up next to the love of my life and seeing her beautiful face each morning, but at the same time I have grown accustomed to her being beside me. This doesn't mean that I love her any less. In fact, I love her significantly more. It just means that the credits have rolled on the romantic movie and reality has begun!

Now don't get me wrong, there are still sparks:

• My heart still skips a beat sometimes
• I still smile EVERY time she smiles
• I still get butterflies from time to time

But some things change with time.

A while back a single friend asked Polly and me how to keep that initial feeling of falling in love alive. The easy answer is that while you do work hard to remember that first love and even fall in love all over again, you really don't. The happily ever after is just simply different.

There are new things that I look forward to each day. New little things that Polly does. The romance isn't gone just because the butterflies aren't as prevalent...it's just different.

I love my wife more now than I ever did before. I am in love. It's a matter of accepting the new face of love.

I think many relationships/marriages that fail do so because people get bored and want the adrenaline rush of falling in love again. This is because they have bought into the Hollywood lie and thought that the pursuit is the romantic part of the story. In reality it's not even close.

Crying together, praying together, changing poopy diapers together, experiencing life together (the good and bad), laughing together, snoring together...these are part of the beautiful part of the real story.

In short, romantic movies need more poopy diapers.

A friend of mine always says, "You don't date to marry; you marry to date." The story is not about the chase, it's about the "happily ever after." That's why I love dates with my wife more now than I did back then.

Chicos

"Mike, this boy has a question for you." I honestly had no idea what was going to come next. I looked down and saw this little 5th grader named Dylan looking up at me. In simple words, as directly as possible he began to speak (in Spanish), "I have a question. When are we going to start a Chicos?" Immediately my heart melted. These boys really want this. They're ready; and so am I!

Chicas de Promesa

Even before we knew we were going to be working with missionary Mary Mahon, we knew about her ministry to girls in the community of Linda Vista called Chicas de Promesa and were planning on assisting her with this ministry. This short video explains about Chicas.

While we are moved by this need and the impact of this ministry and have been praying over this need and ministry for a couple of years now, it was another burden of Mary's with which God began burdening my heart: the boys of this same community.

"We're Abused Too"

Earlier this week, Mary had been sharing a little about Chicas with a missions team visiting from the States. While I had heard everything she was sharing before, one thing she said really jumped out at me this time. She was sharing about how a boy came up to her once and said something along the lines of, "What about a club for the boys; we're abused at home too." There is a need for the boys. There is a need for Chicos. They deserve better too!

Chicos

I have known in my heart for some time that a big component of my ministry here in Costa Rica would center around starting a Chicos program. And Dylan's sweet, simple question was just the impetus I needed to take the next step into turning this dream into a reality. I want to share with you the three things that I told Dylan in response to his question:

1. Soon - We would like to start something in January just before the kids return to school.
2. Pray - I told him to keep praying that God would provide all we need to get this going.
3. The last thing that I told him was that I would put his picture online and ask that my friends from the States would pray with us. So here is a picture of Dylan and me.

Prayer Specifics

The thing I am asking for most right now is prayer. Here are some ways you can be praying:

• We would like to do a weeklong "launch" of the Chicos program this January. Please pray that God would give us wisdom as we organize this weeklong event with curriculum, speakers, topics, etc.
• We also need to have a structured plan for curriculum, speakers, topics, etc. moving forward.
• Property - There's a piece of property that we have our eye on which we think would be perfect for this ministry. We are praying that God show us clearly if this is His will and make the property available and allow us to purchase it if it is.
• Team members - we will need other people with a heart for these boys to come alongside us as we look to impact this community.

There are obviously other ways we can be praying. And we need to be praying for the boys in this community. Here's another picture from the other day with Dylan and a couple other boys. The one in the middle asked me about Chicos too. Let this photo serve as a reminder to pray for the boys in this community.