//: Missions Trip; Costa Rica

Hello friends&family!

I am writing this blog post because Ben and I are taking a group of our students and leaders to Cartago in Costa Rica for a missions trip this year! Our church (Parkway Road) has recently partnered with a couple that are down there doing some amazing ministries with the people around them. And we couldn't miss out on giving them a hand and a bit of community as they truly do the work of Jesus.

I am not writing this to go into detail of all we will do in Costa Rica, but rather to share our hearts with you and hope for some partnership with us in this trip. As Ben and I got to know each other and developed our relationship the one thing that really drew us together was our mutual desire to serve and the need we saw to live selfless lives. We have dreamed up and struggled with the ways in which we could really live the radical way Jesus taught and lived out. It always seemed like something that was far away or in our future that we needed to work things out (finish school) to do first- but on our missions trip the dreamcenter in Los Angeles last year, we both had a realization that God was calling us to important work here and now and asking us to be selfless in the things we do on a daily basis, first. For me, working as admirably and diligently as I can with people with disabilities and for Ben (and I) to really teach the ways of that radical hippie, also known as Jesus, and show our passion to the students of Parkway. One way we have really sparked that passion in them is with these short term missions trips. We are now seeing a difference in their lives, hearts and even futures as they come back seeing the impact practical servanthood in the name of Jesus can have. We now are seeing students that are becoming full time missionaries as they leave highschool and one girl that is going to serve at the dreamcentre for the next year or two.

I have been doing some overnight shifts at the group home, and they have become my "inspect who Jesus really is.." nights. I have been overwhelmed and completely convicted on how much Jesus talks against the luxuries I so often feel I deserve. His whole message was about serving, specifically the poor and giving up all worldly possessions. As I read things like "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God" and the times Jesus asks the rich men to first give up their wealth before they inherit eternal life- I just felt so heavy as I realize I am the rich man in these stories. As Henri Nouwen often states (in multiple forms): I need the needy as much as they need me. I always sit around thinking everything God has for me is in the future, but he has already told me what I must do (serve the "least of these") and when I must do it (well, now).

As we go on another trip and learn from some amazing people down in Costa Rica I hope you will pray for us. As we look upon the many faces we will see down there and as we become, for a time, friends, mentors, moms or dads and as we are able to share Abba's love that brings peace like no other and get to serve in a way that can change perspective and be carried back, I hope you will be there with us as brothers and sisters in faith. It is great to have passion sparked and to see the students hearts as they really just want to gain another brother or sister, or they really want someone else to feel the grace and love they have been blessed with in the Divine.

Financially Ben and I realistically can't do this trip alone. (Trust me we didn't chose ministry and the developmental field for the paychecks). So I will put a link to the website where you can donate online and specify who it is for. There you can also get more specific details on what we will be doing. I am trusting God for all the things of this trip to come together as I become more and more excited!

http://www.mosaic2013.com