New prayer requests

This will be a quick post. Please contiune to pray for my health. I have bronchitis and a sinus infection that are really trying to take their toll on me. Pray for the final process of packing today and tomorrow. Saturday I leave for Guatemala to translate for my church's team. Please pray that team of 11 of us. Please pray for the emotional side of this journey for me. I can't even begin to wrap my mind around the fact I'm leaving. Thanks for your prayers! I'll be on contact once I'm back in the states after the 28th.

Oh How He Loves Us!

I wanted to write a quick post to update you all on how it is going here in warm, sunny Costa Rica.

I sit here amazed at how God is loving on me in His own personal way; rainbow, my life verse, favor with people. It's really only a God thing. I am enjoying every moment I have here and am glad to be home even if it's to say good-bye.

God contiunes to give me strength even in the middle of this bronchitis and sinus infection. He gives me a good balanced time with friends, packing and sitting. He have me just the sweetest time with my girls on Monday. I just couldn't ask for more.

I can't wait to sit down and just write about all that God has done this week (and it's only Wednesday!) Thank you for all your prayers, I can tell people are praying. Please continue to pray for my health, I'm on 3 different meds. Pray for the packing; I have way more than 100lbs of stuff and need to get that downsized. Pray for the remainder of the week to enjoy and for Saturday when I actually leave.

Check out this song,Oh How He Loves Us or El Nos Ama, I can't quit singing it. (Though I only know the spanish version which I included.)English version

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxTOsQ3LDE4

Spanish version - the only way I know the song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LBYHZei51A

Many Prayers Needed

I leave tomorrow, Sunday the 15th, to go back home to Costa Rica to begin the packing and goodbye process. I need a lot of prayers. Here are a few specific ways you can be in prayer for me throughout the next week.

1- Monday the 16th, I will spend the day at work saying goodbye to my girls. This will be the hardest day of all. Pray for strength and that I can show them Christ even through the unexpected goodbye.

2- My health. My body is trying to fight off something. I can't get sick.

3- Emotionally. It's just gonna be hard and I need a lot of prayers to be able to get through it.

4- Getting everything done and saying all my goodbyes in the 5 days I have.

5- No lost bags.

6- The actual leaving of Costa Rica on Saturday, the 21st.

Thanks for your prayers.

God's Purrfect Timing

Today is a sad day for me as my kitty, Jasper, will be going to a new home today. When I left on 30 November, I did not know that was the last time I would see him. The couple staying at my home in Costa Rica, who have fallen in love with him, have been able to find him a perfect home. There is a lady whose cat of 14 years just died and she will be the new home for Jasper.

I love how God has provided her with sweetest cat she will ever meet in the time of her sadness of the lost of her cat. I am overwhelmed with sadness for my lost but am joyful that Jasper will be able to love on this lady and looks like will be with her for many years to come. God is perfect in His timing.

A New Beginning

Today I write this post with much sadness but trusting fully in God as He shows me daily His unfailing love and His faithfulness.

As you may know, I am currently home in Missouri for Christmas. I came back with the intention to return to Costa Rica in February for another year. However, under the wise counsel and support of my church and pastors, LifePoint Church, and through much prayer, God has shown me that my time in Costa Rica has come to an end. Therefore I will begin my transitioning phase back into life in Missouri.

I will return to Costa Rica 15 January for a week to settle my affairs, pack my bags and say goodbye to my girls and friends. On 21 January, I will join my home church on a mission trip in Guatemala for a week to serve as a translator and return to the states with them on 28 January. After this I will transition back to Missouri and re-establish myself into life here and begin the job search.

I have asked my financial supporters to give for the next six months as I transition back to the states. This will allow me a time of transition, during which I will be supported through my fundraising dollars and with the help of my home church, LifePoint, working closely with them for accountability. If you would like to give you may do so through LifePoint Church; make checks payable to LifePoint Church and mail to 51 Riverdale Road Ozark, MO, 65721, and write in the memo line “Sunshine Loveland”. Please do not send support to Christ For the City International.

Some special needs I will have during this transition include a place to live, furnishings, a car, and a job. If you are able to help out with these or know of anyone who can, contact me at sunshineloveland@gmail.com. The most important to me is finding a car. I can’t get a job without a car and I’ve got some good leads on job opportunities.

Thank you for your prayers during this time of transition. Thank you for supporting what God has been and continues to do amongst my girls at Renacer and for your continued support as I transition back to the states.

I will continue my blog to encourage others as God takes me on this journey. I will also be post my prayer requests in the next few days.

“I am overcome with joy because of Your unfailing love, for You have seen my troubles, and You care about the anguish of my soul.” Psalm 31:7

Living Examples of Beauty for Ashes

Wow this blog is way overdue. I kept forgetting to write it in the midst of the chaos with coming home.

On Friday, 18 November, eleven girls graduated from the rehab program at Renacer. This group has been the most special group by far. I have worked first hand with all of them; they have trusted me with things that they wouldn’t tell the social worker or psychologist. I have cried with them, laughed with them, prayed over and with them, shared life with them as we grew ever so close to them. Several of the girls even saw me as a mother figure to them and had asked if I would adopt them (half jokingly.)

These eleven girls have inspired me, pushed me to be better, taught me, showed me God’s personal pursuit of us, and are my heroes. I wish I could share all of their stories with you. Their stories are ones that show the reality of my life verses and ministry verse of Isaiah 61:1-4.

1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,

These lost and scared girls came into Renacer brokenhearted; captives to abuse, addictions, hopelessness, fears. They have lived out their shell of a life from the prison bars with the lies of Satan guarding their every move so they may not know the freedom that Christ paid for them with His own blood and body.

2 to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, 3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of His splendor.

They have spent 15-18 months beginning the transformation process, which is a life long process that we all are in. They have learned about and have experienced the Lord’s favor first hand, through His protection and bringing them to Renacer for a second chance. They began hopeless but end with a renewed hope that the Lord is for them and on their side. They have found comfort for their shattered world. The have begun to see that God can, wants and is taking all the burnt up pieces of their lives (the addictions, the prostitution, robbing, satanic worship, abuse, the list go on) that have filled their once numb, cold and lifeless heart and turn them into a fruitful and endless forest breeding new life not only in them but to all those around them. They have found laughter, joy, hope and praise for the Lord and how He has saved them.

4 They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.

They have returned home, to places where life looks eerily the same, as if time almost stood still waiting to put them back into that familiar prison cell. The temptations are ever present and even stronger than before. But they have been planted and God will continue to grow them, nourish them and prune them as they show His splendor in the darkest of ruins. Christ has come to restore and renew not only themselves but their families and their future families. Generations will be forever changed because of what God has been doing in their lives over the past 15-18 months and the many to come.

Sadly as I write this a month after graduation, one girl who graduated and was living at Renacer (because she had no place to go, no family and is only 13 yrs old) ran away this week. We’re not sure where she is but most likely she has returned to the streets as this is the only place she has. Please be in prayer for her and all the others. This is not an easy process.

My girls face things that most of us can never imagine. They also have radically changed, one wants to be a missionary, and they return home to families who are cynical about their change. The families look for just the first little glimpse of the old life, a wrong look, a wrong word, or action is all it takes for those around them to tell them that they knew she didn’t change. She’s not worth anything. She’s always going to be the same.

The ground has been worked; the seeds have been planted and tended to. Now they are no longer with us at Renacer but God has not forsaken them and He continues to tend to them and grow them in His love if they allow Him to. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of His splendor.

I'll Be Home for Christmas

I have always loved the song I’ll Be Home for Christmas. I always just sang it without really thinking of the words until I moved here to Costa Rica. “I’ll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams.” For the last two Christmas’ these words have ached my heart as I longed to be celebrating with my beloved friends and family.

This year will not be the same because I WILL be home for Christmas. In fact I will be home in 2 weeks!! 30 November my feet will touch the good ole’ Ozarkian Missouri soil! I will be there until 1 February.

It’s been so fun to see how God has provided for my entire tickets and beyond. He is so gracious and I can’t believe how much He has loved on me. I can’t wait to see many of you and get to know new people.

Please be in prayer as I still am trying to find someone to stay in my house and take care of my cat. Also I need to try to find a car I can borrow for the whole time or for part of the time as I need to make support meetings with people. Please let me know if you know of anything. 15 days and counting…

“I’ll be home for Christmas and not only in my dreams. Lalalala”