Preparing Hearts: A Journey of Faith and Service

"Thank you, first of all, Marty and Trish, for the opportunity to be here today. But to you as a congregation, thank you so much for your faithful, faithful prayers and your very generous gifts now over these 25 -plus years. We remember back when the first group from John Wesley came down to Costa Rica. They were working kind of in the eastern side of the country in the community known as Turrialba." [00:42:09] (27 seconds)


"And excellent use to this day. And then more recently, we've had the blessing of having groups come and work with us at the Methodist Children's Homes. So thank you, thank you, thank you. As I was talking with Trish and with Marty about this morning, we recognize that it's a unique Sunday. Christmas was a few days ago. New Year's is up there. The missionaries in town. There's so many different avenues of where we could go. And our time is sharing this morning. And so I picked a very traditional Costa Rica analogy to share with you. It's called arroz con pollo. And those who aren't familiar with that particular dish in Costa Rica, it is more than rice and chicken. It has beans and peas and this special orange paste and a lot of different seasonings. So my prayer is that if you enjoy the whole... Arroz con pollo together, well, praise God. But maybe you're a picky eater and there'll just be a piece of chicken or a piece of rice or a seasoning that appeals more to you from our time of sharing this morning. Whatever it is, I pray that it would be a blessing for you. Would you pray with me?" [00:42:55] (77 seconds)


"Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day and for the opportunity to be in your presence. Lord, I pray now that you would take my words and speak through them. Lord, that you would take our minds and think through them. And Lord, that you would take all of our hearts and join them together with yours. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen." [00:44:12] (23 seconds)


"And we actually made it about eight, ten days ago to the very top part of Costa Rica to the very summit of Chiripo. It was there. We had beautiful weather going up and coming down. The day we summited, though. Not so good. We went through rain, sleet, lots of mud. We were cold. And our guide, Armin, who is Austrian, actually, told us we're going to be there for five minutes. So take all the pictures you can in five minutes. And then we need to get back down." [00:46:08] (36 seconds)


"And then he told me something. He actually shared it with all of us. He said, you know, we're not finished. So my goal is to get you somewhere. To get you safely back to the car and to your home. I was like, hmm. All right. We thought all this effort and energy and everything had been to be right there. And yet, you know what? He's right. There is a broader goal. And that's to arrive safely back at home. You know? I could say that I had made lots of preparations." [00:46:49] (43 seconds)


"Despite all the other preparations that we had made, he had a higher goal. A broader goal. A longer lasting goal. Than merely spending five minutes on the top of an albeit cold mountain. As I was preparing for this morning, I couldn't help but read and think, as we've been reading during the Advent season, of preparations of one of the more well -known biblical characters. That being Joseph. So I'd like to read a portion of Scripture as found in Matthew's Gospel." [00:47:57] (45 seconds)


"Joseph, in a different way and yet in quite a similar way to our preparations for our journey up the mountain, I'm sure had been making lots of detailed plans. Entering into matrimony, preparing for a wedding. As a carpenter, who knows, perhaps, maybe he had added a room onto his house. But he didn't. Maybe he had done some remodeling. At least, surely, he had made a piece or two of new furniture. And then there was the wedding to plan for itself." [00:50:13] (36 seconds)


"How did he get to that point? Where did he learn not to strike back, not to post a hundred sad faces? Where did he learn not to seek revenge? And not to cause a spectacle? We don't know. We don't know the name of that person or persons, but we might imagine that he too had experienced mercy and grace who knows how many different times. We've been preparing for Christmas. The question is, how has Christmas prepared us?" [00:54:18] (46 seconds)


"He recognizes not only to have compassion, but when God speaks, he recognizes it as the voice of God. Once again, how did he learn that? Who taught him to recognize the voice of God? Who was it that went through the Old Testament passages with him and taught him the stories of Noah, of Abraham, of Abraham, of Abraham? Who taught him to recognize the voice of God? Of Samuel and countless others. Yet, in his case, it was to be different." [00:55:39] (42 seconds)


"And finally, I would suggest to you this morning that even though those are two good elements, to have mercy and to recognize God's voice, there's a final step. The very last line that we read. Not only did he recognize it as God's voice, but he put it into practice. He obeyed God's instructions. Because he could have just said, yeah, I get that, but I'm just going to stick with plan number one. It was possible." [00:57:21] (35 seconds)


"Now let me take you another step further. we go where can we take them for surely that preparation has a church name it's called discipleship discipling mentoring leading others in their own faith it's not something we can do alone so what we were spending the night at the refuge there up on the mountain we got word that one member of a another group had gotten lost and he was out wandering in the dark for five hours the Rangers had to go out and rescue never good to hike in the mountains of Costa Rica alone it's never good to walk this journey that the Lord has given us alone either may he give us the hearts the compassion and the mercy may he also give us the ears and the eyes to recognize you where and to whom he is calling us and ultimately the courage and the task to complete the calling that he has given us that indeed all would come to know and to love him and be citizens of his kingdom you John Wesley are part of preparing men and women children and youth for that greater journey yes there are practical steps along the way but ultimately each and every one of the ministries that we participate in you are participating them and then to you are preparing people for that ultimate calling like to close this morning just sharing a couple of slides a couple of different areas to encourage you where it is indeed that you are faithfully serving and what you are truly intending to do for the Church and for which we give great things the first there yeah I think we're gonna get these slides up here involves as Marti mentioned our work of training men and women and both for full -time ministry at the Methodist seminary as well as laity who are feel called to simply improve their tasks and talents through work and ministry in the local church. We can just kind of see these next two slides, and we'll go to the third one. I think that has Pastor Onodio up there on it. We can go ahead and move those next ones. We'll go one more. This pastor is from the indigenous area of Costa Rica, way down in the southern part. He came to faith through some Wycliffe missionaries who were in the area translating the Bible into their indigenous language." [00:59:45] (176 seconds)


"And I had the privilege of going up several different occasions, a different hike, a little different weather. But Pastor Onodio now has four different congregations that he pastors. He would hike eight hours down, catch a bus, come into the city, study with us for a week, and then make a trip. And then make the eight -hour hike back up to his mountainous village. The next slide, I believe, shows his congregation, one of the congregations there at his church. I think we missed one, but that's okay. We'll keep on going with our Methodist school. There it is. That's Pastor Onodio's church. Simple, very simple, dirt floor, little pieces of wood sitting up on top of tree trunks. But, y 'all, they worship. The Lord, they love the Lord. Their services usually begin about six in the evening and finish at six in the morning because batteries and flashlights are the most valuable commodity that they have. And so if you're going to come to church, you know you might as well take advantage of being at church. So we'll worship, sing for a while, eat a meal, come back, have another worship service, sing for a while, maybe go take a little nap. It's okay if people sleep during the sermon." [01:02:52] (80 seconds)