Feeel The PowAH

         Heyyy my brothers and sisters at PCBC and friends reading! It baffles me that it is December 6^th already-time has flown by. I was just discussing the fact that it seems like just yesterday I was praying with Caleb Spitler and my leader Jamie at training camp about getting rid of sin in our lives. Yet, when I think of all the awesome experiences I have had and all the ways that I have been able to serve God and grow in the process it definitely seems like 2 months and 21 days to the full, ha. I am so glad to have people supporting me through encouraging posts, financially, and prayerfully. Quite recently I received a few anonymous donations and another from a friend and also, almost forgot, I have been praying and relying on God for spending money for Christmas gifts and guess what?? I received two letters in the mail yesterday with 30 dollars total in them, few, fam I guess your getting Christmas presents, niiice. I cannot wait for Sunday the 21^st of December! I am getting my pictures together for a slide show and I have some stories racked up that I feel you guys will love-. To those of you who haven’t heard, I am planning on hosting a little Sunday night dinner at my hometown Panton Community Baptist Church at 6:00 pm and everyone is invited who wants to come. If you would like to bring food it would be Great! I am going to try and get together a classic Nicaraguan style meal, lizard probably, maybe a few pig ears on the side as an appetizer-but if you have heart problems or are suffering from bronchitis or you don’t know that the lining of your esophagus can be worn down or if you aren’t on the purple pill called nexium, ask your doctor before coming, there are rare but serious side effects (head trama, shock). Anyway, I cannot wait to see you guys and share in the joy that God provides.

            So, our group put on play #2 for all the kids that help with the trash clean up program we support in the neighborhood. It was really great and I thank God for speaking to Annie Vee and Laura Oh about how we should share the Good News with the neighborhood. The message this time was the parable of Shepherd and the one lost sheep. I was the Shepherd, Annie was the lost sheep, Caleb A., Laura, and Amy were the other three sheep and Jennifer Springston was our narrator and our translator was Natalia. The message was that we are Christ’s sheep and when we stray off in our walks of Christianity, even though we are one in millions, God is completely distraught and longs to bring us back to safe ground. We also played many games and one, blob tag, had to be stopped because about twenty kids were bleeding including our translator, Mario, and teammate Baker. After games we spent to rest of our time running around with kids on our shoulders and sharing God’s love.

            This week I realized just how powerful God is. It feels as if I have put God in a little box my whole life and through a sermon by James McDonald my box was cast away. Isaiah 40 speaks of God in a way that we should all view God. It speaks of a loving, tender God in verse 11, “He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those who have young.” Also, another aspect of God is spoken of later in verse 12, “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?” What a powerful and awesome God that describes and yet, another aspect is part of God as described in verse 14, “Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding?” Saying that God is knowledge. This God of Tenderheartedness, Awesomeness, and Wisdom gives a promise to his sheep at the end of the chapter that is very encouraging and definitely expands my box. Chapter 40: 29-31 promises, “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not grow faint.” Wow, I will try never to forget this passage. All we have to do is hope in the Lord and not constrict him to a toaster box and we will be blessed with energy and wisdom/power that comes from the one who invented it!

            Hey, I hope you are encouraged by that this week. So you know, we just found out recently that the rest of our time here until Christmas is going to be spent on the beautiful island of Ometepe! We are staying at an orphanage and there are many ministry opportunities waiting for us, and also a massive lake at our doorstep, I can’t wait to go! I will come back with some tribal stories I am sure, probably involving a fight against monkeys or something. Men’s Bible studies have still been happening Wednesdays and Fridays in the mornings and it continues to grow and draw lost people. Yesterday, Charles Kaye, our head missionary down here, raised his hand and said, now who here has been to jail-everyone raised their tattooed arms and us pale, Bible-loving gringos kinda slinked down in our chairs. It is awesome that God can bring such lost people to hear his truths and dramatically change lives. Oh jeeze, and we stopped by to see Andy and he was in a motorcycle accident and he is pretty cut up so he wasn’t able to go to church, please pray for him. Also, when I return to Nicaragua in January, I am on my own to start ministries or choose them, wherever I feel God leads me. Right now I am feeling led to run a jail ministry but I am praying that I keep my ears open to his voice. Please pray that God will rock my world with a calling to where he wants me to serve him and that my heart will be open as well. That would be huge, and thanks for continuing to remember me in prayer, it makes a huge difference, more than we all will know I am sure.   I can’t wait to see what is next!

~Jose Carter