Hey my faithful supporter and encourager, thanks for checking in on me today; it feels like I am talking directly to you right now, I can pict

ure so many friends and families from my church and wherever you may be from.  I have a lot on my heart to share mostly because I have grown so much and God has used me in intense ways the last week and a half.  God seems to have crammed in as much as he could with my life before I embark for Costa Rica tomorrow morning at 6:30 a.m.  I cannot wait to share everything with you and can't wait to throw in some prayer requests because Jesus listens and I feel his Powah!

         

         To start, I am going to work backwards going from what is fresh in my mind, backwards to the open spaces and beyond.  Last night, I had the privilege of sharing my testimony in front of a crowd of 30-40 guys and girls ranging from age 8-45!  God put a vision on my heart to schedule a night for the community in Santa Rosa, so I assembled a team--Caleb Spitler, Laura Overs, Melissa Brown, and Mario--and worked to bring things from my heart and head into reality.  I sat down and wrote a schedule, which came surprisingly easy--of course it did though because it was in God's will.  The night planned was:  6:45 p.m: Act Jesus Crucifixion play we learned in Georgia, 7:15: Caleb explains the significance of the characters and shares what is on his heart, 7:40: I share my testimony and invite all to accept Jesus or renew their relationship with God, 8:00: Worship songs by Caleb, 8:15: social time with Picos (amazing bread), and bounce out.  No kids accepted Christ but through our emotions, stories, and awesome worship I know we planted seeds!

 

         Yesterday morning I had a fantastic meeting with the fundraising committee for Vida Joven in Nicaragua.  Things star

ted out a little rough because the President and other members didn't understand the concept of money being raised from a 5k race, but eventually, after we explained all of our plans to raise money:  Factories, Tourists, Radio, Newspaper, Tv, Mayor, Blog websites, international residencees they were pumped.  We have contacts in each category~~yeah yeeeeaah.  After all was said and done I tried to finish things up but they wanted more and actually formed committees amongst themselves and we will meet up the Monday after my Costa Rica trip and see how our progress is.  One guy said in Spanish, "The Mayor is in the bag."

 

          I have been so blessed to be put in many different leadership positions and have such great followers.  Caleb S. and Laura Overs have been so great about following me in our VBS ministry.  I have been learning a lot about what it means to be a leader.  Empowering people I feel is one of the most important things to do as a leader and I learned this because for a while I was trying to do everything myself and being certain and all manly.  Really, it takes more of a humble, discerning heart that is open to different suggestions--I am so lucky to have two awesome friends to have patience with me as I grow.  This week on Tuesday we met with many members of the community and I have been working on learning, "Come, Now is the Time to Worship," on my guitar and I was so amped to smoke the song.  We started out with prayer, explained the agenda, and then I picked up my guitar like a wild man.  I strummed a few awkward chords and started singing in Spanish.  The whole room was quite, no one sang and I got like every chord wrong.  I put the guitar down and sang acappella and thankfully Mario and Caleb joined in and the sweat on my forehead began to cool.  JEEZE, it's hard to lead music--what an aweful experience, at least I tried though, ha.  We then had a time for people to give the glory to God and two great stories came up, and are still fresh in my mind.  A mother spoke up about her son, so thankful to God.  She described her son:  He rode on his bicycle home from work the other night and was traveling on his usual route on a newly paved road.  All of the sudden, he stopped and had an intense feeling like he needed to turn around and go the rougher, more dangerous way.  He did so and apparently there were two men waiting to rob him that night.  They saw him turn around so they went to his house.  When he arrived, one was waiting for him inside and one was waiting for him outside.  My daughter and I saw them and picked up boards and as my son made it to the house we were able to scare them off.  "God protects those that follow him."  Amen.  Another was from the Pastor's wife, Maria.  She told us that her husband, who is never late, missed his usual bus that crashed and flipped over many times--it was all over the newspapers.  He made it home late, but God kept him safe.  Ahhh yeaaah.

         

         Lastly, Monday morning, Caleb, Natalia, Laura and I led our Vacation Bible School ministry in the Barrio Santa Rosa.  I am still in awe of how much Jesus was working through the kids and energizing us.  It was great, at the end I used my Basin Harbor kids skills and wrestled all the little guys (though the ground was gravel and dirt so when they would chase me, my usual jukes would send me straight into the kids so it was more like football).  We taught the story of Shadrack Meshak and intobedwego and had the kids act it out.  We played a game from my old job at Basin Harbor called "Indian Chief."  Also, we did a relay where kids had to hold a cup to their chests and bunny hop to a bucket and fill a bucket.  Everyone got soaked and there was a lot of screaming and cheering.  In this day we broke up older kids and younger kids during the prayer time.  The older kids (8-13) pray more boldly and the younger kids prayed more seriously.  Also, in worship all the kids sang with energy, their voices could probably be heard all over the neighborhood.  That's it, Few~

 

         So, I am so thankful to God for all of my ministries!  This week a new team of college students are coming in and carrying on all of our FYM team's ministries.  THEY need prayer as they take a week off from college.  Please pray God will rock their world.  Pray for Caleb Spit and Baker as they stay back to lead the new team.  Also, I would love prayer too as I grow.  I need to be taught how to be a better leader now and when I return to Vermont this summer.  I love leading things, it is awesome.  I also made it into Cedarville and the coach wants to give me a running scholarship!  My parents helped me out like crazy with all my applications, they are hip.  Pray for next year for direction when I need it.  Also that I will have more and more joy while following God and wont look to other things ever to find my security, wisdom, love, and strength.  That would be awesome!  I will continue to thank God for the Panton Community Baptist Church cats back home, you're support inspires me to run the race for God--Run with me!  Corinne Kehoe, thank you for telling me about the Missions month~that is a really cool thing.  I will keep you John, David, Virginia and Bill O'Neil in my prayers, I will pray he will reveal himself to you all in New York and look forward to hearing how it goes.

      

         Aight, G-slim, it is time for me to rock out in Costa Rica, maybe I will fight a shark or two.  Hopefully I will come back with some scars and tattoos, that would be ideal.

 

-Jose Cartier