What a day!

There are times that I wonder. I wonder if I will ever have a commanding grip on Spanish, I wonder if we are moving in the right direction, I wonder if we are actually making a difference, I look around the table at a staff meeting and I wonder why I am one of the leaders (along with Tracey) when any of the people around the table are more than capable. I wonder. It is what I do, I analyze things and look at them from a variety of angles. Perhaps I over analyze and then I analyze some more.

It is because of my tendency to wonder and to be perhaps a little harsh on myself that I cherish days like yesterday. As I have done several times before yesterday I spent the day taking someone to visit SI Costa Rica's ministry sites. But yesterday was a little different than previous times. Usually I am showing around fellow North Americans. Often with the hopes that they will bring a team back or somehow be involved in what we are doing. Yesterday I showed around a Tico friend named Jonathan Campos. Jonathan works at a church helping to coordinate their community programs. I was showing him around to help him get a better understanding of who we are and what we do, as well as to spend time talking about ways we can partner together.

I was curious about what he would think. He was very impressed with what we are doing, and had numerous ideas for how we can work together. The church he works at is a large church and is very well connected with various resources in and around San José, and he is excited about connecting us with some of those contacts. It was encouraging to get some feedback from someone outside of SI who thought we were on the right path and who took it a step further wanting to be involved with us.

We ended our time together by visiting a house the church uses to host various community programs in a neighborhood called La Capri. At the moment the church's activities are all in the evenings and on the weekends. He invited us to use the house during the daytime throughout the week. This looks like the neighborhood where Dustin, our newest staff member, will begin to invest his time and where we will launch our next ministry site. We are very excited to expand our partnership with this church and to begin a new site. Please pray with us for guidance in this process. That God would give Jonathan, Dustin, and myself creativity, wisdom, and unity as we design and implement various programs.

So at times I wonder, maybe even doubt, and then God gives me days like yesterday. God spoke to me encouraging my heart to press on. He also told me to turn my wondering into dreaming about what might be and then to use the analytical gifts and skills he has given me to help make those dreams a reality.