Monday, September 2, 2013

Costa Rica


Our journey began in the capital city of Costa Rica, San Jose. There is a thriving YWAM base there of about 30 YWAMers from all over the world. Our first week there we had the privilege of serving at a conference for there base. For our team it was a joy to serve the people who are doing the work of the Lord in Costa Rica. Also that week we had the opportunity to minister to a youth group in San Jose. The kids at this youth group reminded me a lot of our youth group at Belmar. I had the chance to pray for a bunch of different guys in the youth group and we saw some really good breakthrough for some of the teenagers there.
The next week the adventure really started. We took a five hour bus ride to the southern tip of Costa Rica near Panama. We stayed at the house of pastor Elias in Talamanca-Suretka an indigenous village. The pastor's house sits along the banks of a massive river. The spot he lives is a port of sorts, where the plantain farmers bring there crops down river to load them into semi-trucks for sale. God has placed him in the center and heart of his community where he sells gas and fruit to all the people of the village. Pastor Elias and his wife Marybelle taught me and our team a lot about what it means to serve God with your life. This is a couple who from sunrise to sunset serve there community and family through the small businesses they run out of there house. Their doors are constantly open to everyone in the area for meals, gas, fruits, vegetables, and whatever they can provide for there family. In the evenings three times a week they run church services in the temporary building they have constructed near there house.
While we were there we got to help with the construction of a new church building that they hope to have completed for Christmas services. The process for building a new building in Talamanca was drastically different from any construction I had seen. For starters the first day we hauled the wood for the new building out of the rainforest as the men cut planks out of recently fallen trees. We helped dig holes for the posts to be started and the frame of he building begun. Some of our other ministry included working with a nursing home and the school in the area that pastor Elias lived.
Talamanca was a humbling experience in many ways. For starters the way they live and work for everything they have made me think about the smallest things I take for grated. Beyond that the people that are serving there are giving of themselves daily in a fashion that puts to shame even my best service experiences. Their heart and work ethic toward the calling that they have been given was a truly eye opening experience. There hard work and joyful attitudes toward everything they have flow from there love and fear of our God. They embody taking up your cross daily, and losing your life so that you may have true everlasting life.
Overall my time in Costa Rica has taught me about service especially that service which flows from the healthiest fear of the Lord. Next its off to England for eight days. Please pray for guidance and continued unity throughout our team. Thank you for all your support and prayers.

Monday, August 12, 2013

An Adventure In Relationship

A Parable...
     At first I saw God as my observer , my judge, keeping track of the things I did wrong so as to know whether I merited Heaven or Hell when I die. He was out there sort of like the President. I recognized his picture when I saw it but didn't really know him.
     But later on when I recognized God, it seemed as though life was rather like a bike ride, but it was a tandem bike, I noticed that God was in the back helping me pedal.
     I don't know when it was that he suggested we change places, but life has not been the same since. Life with God, that is. Talk about excitement!! When I was in control, I knew the way. It was rather boring but predictable. It was the shortest distance between two points.
     But when he took the lead, he knew delightful long cuts, up mountains, and through rocky places and at break-neck speeds. It was all I could do to hang on!! Even though it looked like madness, he said, "just pedal!".
     I worried and was anxious and asked, "where are you taking me?" He laughed and didn't answer, and I started to learn to trust. I forgot my boring life and entered into the adventure. And when I'd say, "I'm scared," he'd lean back and touch my hand.
     He took me to people with gifts that I needed, gifts of healing, acceptance and joy. They gave me their gifts to take on my journey, our journey, God's and mine.
     And we were off again. He said, "Give the gifts away. They're extra baggage, too much weight." So I did, to the people we met and I found that in giving I received, and still our burden was light.
     I did not trust him at first, in control of my life. I thought he'd wreck it. But he knows bike secrets, knows how to make it lean to take sharp corners, jump to clear high rocks, fly to shorten scary passages.
     And I am learning to shut up and just pedal in the strangest places, and I'm beginning to enjoy the view and the cool breeze on my face with my delightful constant companion, with the God of my life.
     And when I'm sure that I just can't do any more, he simply smiles at me and says "just pedal...".
-Author Unknown

Relationship with God is all He desires from us. He desired it so much He allowed us to murder Him so that He could meet us where we are. I have let the Trinity meet me here and the adventure has just begun. A life of adventure with God is a life you can never come back from, you will forever be changed and it won't be easy. But don't take my word for it. In the immortal words of Ellie Frederickson in Disney Pixar's Up "Adventure is out there!".

Friday, July 19, 2013

Who is God?

     "For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like. We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God. This is true not only of the individual Christian, but of the company of Christians that composes the Church. Always the most revealing thing about the Church is her idea of God."
–A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy 


     The most important aspect of any person is what they think about God. This statement is changing my life. What are the first words to come to your mind when you think about who God is? Do you get a mental picture of Santa Claus in all white with lightning instead of presents? Also, why did God create people? Was it because He was lonely or wanted to be worshiped? I did not have a right view of who God was. At very best I had a conflicted view between a loving God and a wrathful one. My mind began to be renewed when I read this in Ephesians 1:3-6 


      "All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure." (NLT)

     God wanted me and you to be redeemed to Him through Christ Jesus before He made the world. Jesus was not plan B from God! Also what does it mean to be redeemed through Christ Jesus? John 1:1 tells us Jesus has always been with God and is God. Jesus has been in relationship with the Father forever. When we are redeemed through Christ that means we get, not a relationship with God and the Trinity, but Christ's relationship with God and the Trinity. We are redeemed into the perfect everlasting community that is the Trinity through Christ and God designed it that way before we sinned. 

     This radically shifted my view of God. He is community, relationship, and love within Himself, but He doesn't stop there He created a way for us to share in that community. God created us to be in perfect relationship with Him. He wants to love us and out of that we worship Him, praise Him and live for Him. 


Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Testimony Time

As I arrived here at YWAM last Monday, among the nerves and excitement of this new chapter in my life, I felt a strong sense of joy. It was hard not to, every person I passed on campus was smiling and everyone I conversed with jovial. I thought on this atmosphere of joy for some time before I found the reason behind its existence. This answer became clear to me during a time of sharing for the students and staff involved in my Training School. We all had to share our testimony. During this time the realization came upon me why so much joy was present in this place. In every testimony was an individual story of God's redeeming love. The atmosphere of joy was formed by a focus on God. When a group of people get together to learn, experience and know God there cannot help but be an ever present joy. And so I have come to the conclusion that the most efficient way to connect with someone and form immediate friendships is to have the common joy of sharing in the redeeming love of Jesus Christ.

Monday, June 24, 2013

First a Letter of Gratitude


I would like to thank all of the individuals and families that have contributed through prayers and money to my upcoming journey. I gladly bear the responsibility of your investment into my life and pray that God will help me as I seek to capitalize on all the opportunities I receive. During the upcoming months I will be entering prayers, stories and photos of my jaunt around the world. My hope is that you will join me through your prayers.
Today I begin my adventure with a humble and gracious heart. Over the next 8 weeks I will be at the Youth With A Mission training base in Arvada, CO. Please pray that my mind and heart will be open for God's instruction. 



With humility, thanksgiving and excitement,


Ty Gautier