This month has been a great month with lots of opportunities to translate for short term teams. I got back a week ago from translating in the small town of Cot,Cartago for a couple visiting from the States. I was with them there for a week as they shared their testimonies and ministered to the people in the local high school and community.

It was a neat experience translating for Donald Nalley as he shared about his life and how God helped him leave drug trafficking and drug addiction after 34 years of being involved. What a testimony he has! The purpose of this trip was to do different sessions and conferences in the local high school reaching both students and teachers. He would share his story, give information about drugs and how it really was trafficking drugs, and share with the teachers some ways they could prevent drug issues in their school. Of course he shared about how God helped him out of his past life as well.

One of the many student sessions we did!

When we weren't at the High School, we were visiting homes, praying over people, and preaching and sharing about God. It was an intense and tiring schedule but I felt so blessed to be able to see how God uses people's worst life experiences to reach and identify with others.

Although the week went well, there were some struggles along the way where I was forced to pray and ask God for guidance. It was nothing serious but more of a question of what my responsibility is as a translator. Sometimes its hard to translate, especially when you don't particularly agree with what you are translating. What I realized is that even though I am translating for Christian teams, at any point I can run into translating for Christians that share different ideas than I do.

I started praying about it and God brought these thoughts to mind. We are all a part of the body of Christ....Christ is about unity not about division. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter what our views are on speaking in tongues, healings, etc. The most important aspect we share is believing in Christ as Lord and Savior. As Christians we need to focus on what we do share and focus on bringing glory to God. So I gave over my translating to the Lord and trusted Him with it. It's not about my opinion, it's not about what I think....as long as I am not translating heresies, the responsiblility is not mine but the Lord's. My part in spreading the gospel many times is being the voice for those who come to share Christ and what He has done in their lives so that others may come to know God. I trust that His truth will stand and that His Spirit will speak and that he uses all different churches/denominations for His glory. I will stand for unity.

This next week I will be translating for another team who are going to serve in both the slum where I worked before and this same community of Cot Cartago. Please pray that God would give me the words to translate and encourage both the team and the locals. This team is going to be a team of 30 high school students, so I imagine it will make for an interesting week!

Also, tomorrow morning I will be saying Goodbye to my friend Stephanie :( Stephanie has been living with me and shadowing me in ministry for the last 9 months. She has been such a blessing and I will miss her! She really has a heart for God and reminds me so much of me when I came to Costa Rica the first time 8 years ago. She is praying about returning as a long term missionary one day. Please pray for her if you remember that God would be with her in these next steps, in readjusting to Canada, and in her plans to come back in the future.

I just wanted to let you all know how much I appreciate your prayers and your support. More than anything I thank God for your friendships. I pray that God blesses you all as you finish up this week and that God would use you to reach in your homes and work places. Please let me know if there is anything I can pray for on that end!