Tapioca Express

For our regular gathering this week, we've abandoned the comfort of our home and chosen to meet outside a Tapioca Express in a strip mall. The weather was too warm, the chairs hard, the mosquitoes hungry, and the cigarette smokes triggering my allergy. And Jeff, in his usual calm voice, said "this is exactly why we meet here today."

I have to admit I was a bit annoyed when the fly on my arm chose not to leave even after I threatened it with my finger. Yet when I looked around the table, I was overtaken by a sense of closeness to my fellow brothers and sisters. Yes there might be bugs, restless nights, illnesses, and other unforeseen issues on the trip, but I trust God will show Himself mightily with the encouragement and support of our fellow teammates.

During the meeting, we reflected on the notion of humility and of being learners of our new friends and of each other. We were also reminded that it was more important to be relational than to focus on tasks and efficiency (echoing Pastor Dave's sermon on Easter!) We ended the night with some awesome prayers. When we started praying, the world became still around us. We each took a long time praying for a teammate. It was such a precious moment. :)

Thank you for reading thus far. There are many praises shared in the group such as travel safety and good rests. We can feel the power of your prayers! Please continue to lift us up. One prayer request that was echoed this week was time management. Please pray that we'll focus on the essentials (being relational) and prioritize well (vs. non-essentials.) Please also lift up some health issues that some of the team members and families are experiencing. Thank you for your faithfulness. He is good, all the time!

Let's end with this quote that Jeff shared with us: "Attitudes are contagious, is yours worth catching?"

Group picture!

Howdy! At our last team gathering, we took our first group picture! hooooray~ ;) We are excited that you may put names to faces: ladies from left to right-Irene Lin, Joanna Chao, Jean Han; gentlemen from left to right-Ken Cheung, Jeff Fulkerson, and John Hsu.

Please continue to lift us up! One of our prayer requests that echoed in the group was to listen to God amidst all the distractions and busyness. We are also excited to be taking more time to pray for each other, our host, and the people that we will interact with at Costa Rica. It's an awesome privilege to partner with you to experience God's love and glory together.

"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me-just as the Father knows me and I know the Father." John 10:14-15

Training Session

Our team had an incredible training session yesterday. Newsong brought in some phenomenal speakers who covered topics on interacting and engaging with children in songs, art, and activities, and evangelism. For many of us, we don't have a lot of experience in evangelizing to people, but we learned that compassion is a universal language...

We are thankful for the previous time we have together as a missions group, and for opportunity to continue to work in community by relying on the LORD and each other for how He has called us to serve.


How we would like for you to pray for us:

• Please pray that the Lord continues to prepare our hearts to work with the Costa Ricans.
  
• Pray that we will work on God's time rather than our own~and that we can really learn to listen to His guidance.
  
• Ask the Lord to create a close bond within the members of our group, so that we can face the challenges of uncertainty and adversity.
• Also pray that we may surrender to serve where the need is most.
• Finally, that we walk in community with the Costa Ricans, and commit to understanding their culture, joys, and struggles.
  

Thank You!

Hello family and friends!

Thank you for visiting our team's blog. We are excited about creating a forum where we can include you in our mission preparation, our prayer needs, and our journey. Most of all, we would like to thank you for taking the time and interest in supporting us.

We are excited to hear from you--please leave us a comment through our blog, and/or send a team member an email, etc.

In love and faith,

The Costa Rica treX team 2009