Strong Enough

Good day to all of you back home in the United States. I hope you are all doing fantastic!! Today was another great day; we were joined by a few more preachers in Costa Rica for the Gospel Meeting this morning. It was great meeting them and working with them. This morning we were on the bus by 6:45 am to go to the church for Breakfast. This morning we had rice and beans (pinto) and cheese and of course the best coffee ever!! (Starbuck don’t stand a chance!!) After breakfast we had morning devo. Nick Brosous gave us encouraging word this morning from Philippians 3:16. All of us know what is said in this verse. It reminds me of a song by Matthew West. I would like to share the lyrics to the chorus with you.

I know I'm not strong enough to be

everything that I'm supposed to be

I give up

I'm not strong enough

Hands of mercy won't you cover me

Lord right now I'm asking you to be

Strong enough

Strong enough

For the both of us

Sometimes, I believe we forget just how strong our God is. Sometimes we think we are not strong enough. Nick also shared with us 1 Cor. 10:13. God will not allow us to be tempted by anything without a way of escape. He will never give us more than we can handle. At age 17, Nick presented us with a great lesson. Thank you Nick.

After our devotional our VBS team went to a school to do lesson two. We had 250 kids in attendance. They participated and interacted with us. Kim Fussell has done an excellent job with telling the stories and Terry Reeves skits are unbelievably inconceivable (yes that is suppose to be funny). Terry did a wonderful job on the skit and has done a wonderful job leading our team.

While VBS was being conducted there was also a ladies class and a Men’s training class. Joe Roberts and Thad (sorry do not know the last name still working on that) conducted in the men’s training. Forgive me, but I am unsure who lead the ladies class. I promise to get that information and relay it to you all. There was also a group that stayed to fix lunches due to the ladies class.

At about 12 we met at the church for lunch. We had sandwiches and fruit. We were able to fellowship with all the brethren for a while before we divided up in teams to go door knocking. We had about 6 or 7 teams (maybe more) that went into the communities to study and invite the community to the meeting. We were able to knock doors for about one hour to 1 ½ hours before the rain came. It rains just about everyday, but we have been lucky. Today was the first day it rained during the day for a long period of time. So we went back to the church to wait until it stopped; however the end did not come. We were able to mingle with others, so that was a blessing. We shared a lot of laughs and made more memories to cherish. We came back to the hotel to clean up and prepare for worship.

We made our way back to the church for supper at 5:30. For supper we had chicken, rice and beans, and corn pudding (yes corn). The food has been so amazing. After supper we had worship. Rafael Barrantes prepared a great sermon. He taught about the mercy of God. He taught us not to think we have sin that cannot be forgiven. He discussed the love of God and said that, as our Father, God will always forgive us if our heart is right. God knows our hearts and knows if we are sincere when we ask for forgiveness. It was a very good lesson. After worship we greeted our brothers and sisters. We then had closing announcements and came back to the hotel. We ended the night earlier than usual so each person would be able to complete their Journals and truly reflect on all that God has done.

The work in Costa Rica has been awesome!! Personally, I have enjoyed the evangelism. Please continue to pray for the work and for the Gospel meeting. We have had four baptisms thus far with two more nights of the meeting left. Remember to keep not only our travels in your prayers but also the preachers that have traveled throughout Costa Rica to be here to help. Good night to you all!!

In Him

Brandy Barnett