The Costa Rica Mission: Puzzle Pieces

Day 10: July 21, 2012

Today was a pretty normal day. Our next team from Concord United Methodist Church arrived and all seemed to go well. I enjoyed helping Christine with her weekly trip to Cinco Esquinas. We had a different team help out and it was a lot of fun. It’s so fun to watch Christine with the kids because she is so passionate about it. It’s inspiring. After Cinco Esquinas I went back to the church and Anna and I spent most of the day cleaning an office that had been disassembled so that some construction work could be done while Victory team was still here. After that I helped out with office work and some secretarial stuff like making copies or making corrections, etc. That’s what I spent most of my day doing.

The highlight of my day was my devotions. I’ve been reading through Acts and today I was reading chapter 9. I went into my devotions with the spiritual attack that’s been happening to our church on my heart. I read the story of Paul and the start of his ministry, and the story of Peter healing Aeneas and bringing Dorcas back to life. There were a lot of shorter stories all packed into one chapter of the Bible.

I started thinking about how this might apply to me or to the spiritual warfare we have been undergoing. And I realized that they were all events that God eventually orchestrated together to form one big event. Each of those events were just one piece of the puzzle that came together to make the big picture. And all of those events in that one chapter of the Bible started off in a bad way. Saul was on his way to persecute all of the Christians. Aeneas had been paralyzed for eight years! Dorcas died! These are all really bad things!

But God used all of those bad events and used them for his glory. Saul was converted and became a great missionary for Christ. Aeneas was healed from his paralysis. Dorcas was brought back to life. God had a plan for each of these bad events. They were all puzzle pieces that came together to form the big picture. God does the same with some of the bad events that happen in our lives. When we are undergoing trials and stressful times, it’s important to remember they are all part of the big picture.

After reading Acts 9, God also gave me this prayer for Leaders for Christ Costa Rica based off of the chapter. “God, raise up strong leaders among us. If there is anyone who is paralyzed in their faith and feels stuck, mobilize them and pull them closer to you. If there is anyone who feels dead in spirit, restore life to them. And work all of these pieces of puzzle together for your good.”