Cool story

I am happy to say that I've moved in to my new apartment and have started fixing it up a little. The youth ministry, skate ministry, and house church have all been going well. Here's a story I wanted to share from a few days ago.

My last night at the hostel, I came home sort of late, and hungry. I was looking forward to cooking some dinner, but noticed that the kitchen and stove were occupied, so I went to my room to wait until it would be freed up. Two minutes later, there was a knock on my door, and a young professional Costa Rican (just arrived) introduced himself as Pablo, and asked me if I was hungry. I said yes, but told him "I can cook something after you are done." Instead, Pablo offered his own food to me, and I accepted. As it turns out, he was just putting the finishing touches on a huge pot of fettuccine in a wonderful creamy mushroom sauce.

As I prepared a little salad to share, we started talking, and one of the first things we discovered is that we are both Christians. Pablo told me that he plays bass at his home church in San Jose, and loves to do outreaches with their church band in different parts of Costa Rica. He prayed over our meal, then I noticed he was playing some Spanish worship music off of his laptop in the kitchen, and so we started talking about our favorite Christian bands, then favorite Christian books (his is the Purpose Driven Life, which I'm currently reading).

Pablo suggested that perhaps his church band could come down and play a concert at the skate park. I loved the idea and got his contact info in case we could set something up in the future.

The next morning Pablo headed back to San Jose, but as he was leaving, he handed me a little note. He said he felt God had given him a verse for me, so on the paper he handed me was Romans 8:28: "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose."

The verse really spoke to me, as just that morning I had asked God to let me know whether a certain relationship in my life was pleasing to Him, whether it was part of His plan, or whether it was just something that I wanted for myself. As he drove off, I couldn't help but think God had set the whole meeting up as a way of speaking to me, encouraging me and him at the same time. Why was Pablo cooking that huge pot of pasta, when he was there alone, and leaving the next morning? Why did he have the boldness to knock on my door and invite me to eat with him? God is so amazing!

I have started to paint the walls of my new apartment...bright yellow!

P.S. yesterday I mysteriously chipped a tooth. A fairly large piece of one of my lower front teeth (thankfully, the back part of the tooth) just disappeared as I was eating. It may have been the cap of a root canal that came off. So if you could pray for that (or for my dentist!), I would appreciate it! Thanks.