A Mark In The Making

Costa Rica Journal-June 13th, Wednesday, 2012

The following blog(s) contain a report of the happenings while on our missions trip to Costa Rica.

After almost 12 hours of time in between home and Costa Rica, we arrived in San José at 1:00pm. The airport lost my bag so I went the whole day and the day after without anything out of my checked baggage, which wasn’t fun. :P
After registering for the missing bag with United, we headed to Don Korach’s house for an EPIC Costa Rican dinner and a few hours of meeting about the trip, going over the schedule, worshipping, listening and hearing from God and such, basically making sure that we were all completely focused on receiving from God. :D

At 6:00pm we left to go to Alta Gracia Church, in Heredia, in the mountains, which was 90 mins from where we were staying. Traffic was bad, and we arrived at the church a few minutes after the worship service had started.

I was SUPER blessed to experience firsthand the fact that God isn’t bothered by language barriers. =D Although I couldn’t understand most of what we were singing, worship was SO powerful and God’s presence was extremely tangible in the room =D Then after worship, the pastor asked my dad to come up and minister, for awhile. :) My dad spoke as a father figure over the church, and prophetically spoke into the destiny and future of that church specifically, and it was SO anointed. =D After my dad spoke, Maddie Scott, Natalie Barlow, and Sarah Goin taught, each one building on the teaching that the last person had taught!!! Natalie spoke a word that God had given her specifically for that church, Sarah taught on uniqueness, Maddie taught on trusting God, and my dad wrapped it up with a time of prayer and ministry to specific people groups in the church, specifically: 

-Singles who were seeking a spouse, 
-Those who had been hopeless or disappointed
-Families with kids under the age of 5
-Teenage girls
-A teenage boy who came up when my dad called the teenage girls up. He didn’t know that it was just girls that were called up, but his immediate response to the call showed SO evidently his hunger and thirst for God, and God gave dad a specific word for the boy, and it was SUPER encouraging even as a bystander to hear that word spoken over the young boy’s life. :)

After ministering to the young boy, God started pointing out different people in the congregation that needed prayer. We prayed for ‘em, then the pastor dismissed, and everybody hugged each other =D

As we greeted the people after the service, one of the guys told me and Emmanuel Aviles the testimony of their church. The building they met in before the current one held 40 people, and was a VERY small room. Around the size of an average bedroom. Then they got kicked out of that place, and they had nowhere to go, and no money. A few days later, God did His thing, and BAM, somebody gave em a building that can seat 1000 people and has room for everything a church needs, like offices and children’s ministry and everything!!! Their congregation is constantly growing as well!! =D
The man also told us another testimony of God’s goodness: after they got their new building, the church decided to go to north to Nicaragua and be a light to people :) when they left Nicaragua, only one man had even talked to em. And he accepted Jesus as his savior!! They were pretty bummed because only one guy got saved, but a few months later they heard news that that exact same man was now a pastor of a church, and his church had just hit the 1000 people mark!!! God is SO GOOD. What an amazing testimony!!
After talkin with this guy, we left and went to Mcdonalds for a late dinner. My biggest note about this experience: Mcdonalds in Costa Rica has HUGE snackwraps. Also, their Mcflurrys are actually caramel rolo sundaes, no matter how you order. Don’t be fooled by the name.

Overall the first day was incredible.

Throughout the first day, God never ceased to fulfill His promise in Deuteronomy 31:6. “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
That is the one thing that impacted me the most on the first day. He was with us the whole time, holding our hands. We have never before been alone and we will never ever be alone. Ever. 

Amen.

Day 1. Done.

Dear ______,

(first blog post ever)
HEY Y’ALL! 
So I have this idea, all of my blogposts will be in the form of letters to an imaginary person. At some points in the future my posts may also be written to an actual person given an anonymous identity, but for now the “letteree” (person I’m writing the letter to) shall remain as an imaginary being, whom with I shall share my heart and details about my life.
AND WE’RE OFF!

Dear _____,

In reply to the question in your first letter to me, I’ll begin this one by telling you about one of the things that has been happening lately.

I don’t think I’ve ever been as busy in my whole life as I am now. I’m currently in the middle of CYT Aurora’s rehearsal process, preparing to perform as Joseph in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat! Joseph will be my 5th CYT show, and overall the 8th show I’ve ever performed in. The show has been legitimately incredible so far, and it just keeps getting better! This has been the most challenging, fun, exciting, and inspiring show I’ve ever been in. 
I’m just now finding, glimpse by glimpse, how much of a load this role is going to be. I’m beginning to work my butt off even more than before, as I gain new revelation of who Joseph was and how I’ll be directed to portray him. It’s a learning experience for sure, as everything in life always is. The thing is, I haven’t really ever been given such tasks to accomplish simultaneously in a show.

I’m not complaining, actually it’s quite the opposite. I’m extremely thankful for this opportunity to grow as an actor/singer/man, and it’s really EXACTLY what I’ve been needing: something to really challenge me, test my character and humility and such, force me to grow, something to keep myself occupied and focused on, that will stretch me in my gifts and talents, while having a blast. I’ve never wanted to waste my time entertaining myself and hanging by a thread off of the cliff of boredom, I want to learn and grow up as steadily and efficiently as possible, and Joseph has been/continues to be the PERFECT opportunity and launching platform. Hallelujah, Jesus gave me exactly what I needed!

However, being who He says He is, I am absolutely positive that God gave me this opportunity with the motive of drawing me closer to Him, and pressuring me to rely on Him for everything. And I assure you, friend, His mission is being carried out. I’ve never had to rely on Him as much as I do now, and the journey gets tougher and more testing yet more joy-filled and wonderful at the same time! Perseverance is what I’m working on. However I’m now aware, through trial and error, that perseverance that I attempt to generate on my own is not sufficient or reliable. The only perseverance that I’ve found to last is that which comes from the Holy Spirit’s comfort and His unctions to move forward. =D He’s never failed, and He continues to show Himself trustworthy and reliable. :D I can’t think of a better God than one who puts His arm around His child and whispers “This is what I’ve prepared you for! You’re ready to go, and I’m always with you! Just do what I’ve taught you, and you’ll do great!” I’m SO thankful beyond words to have such a fantastic heavenly daddy. :)

So, ____, there you have a little semi-random snippet of what my life is composed of right now. :)
Until we meet again,
-M@rky 

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