Quilted Cultures
Like a quilter carefully places finished quilt blocks on a design wall, arranging fabrics, comparing colors, shifting – rearranging – so our God strategically connects his people together drawing their hearts to where he wants them to serve. Such was the case with Amy, a woman of faith and obedience walking out God’s plan a thousand miles away from the Ministry Center in San Jose, Costa Rica.
Amy was an artist working in a mime ministry in Guatemala when she felt the tug on her heart to get involved in Costa Rica. She visited the ministry and instantly felt connected but was hesitant to relocate until a friend, who didn’t know the desires in Amy’s heart, spoke life over her, encouraging her to follow God’s plan – even if it meant making a move. God was rearranging the quilt blocks of Amy’s life and piecing together a beautiful plan.
“I came to Costa Rica in January of 2021 just wanting to know more about the ministry and find God’s will for me here and my role. At that time, I didn’t know anything, just that I loved the place and the people and I knew that somehow my heart belonged to this place,” said Amy. “I was just planning to come and serve but then my dad got sick and I couldn’t return until September of 2021 but by then I knew that I was needed to serve here as a pastor.”
Now, Amy serves Til He Returns as Pastor and Director of Economic Empowerment, a division of the ministry designed to restore one’s relationship with creation through job skills training, general financial courses, and small business programs. She walks with love alongside her friends giving them the “hand up” they’ve been looking for and allowing God to lead them from a life of dependency to dignity and away from short-term hand-outs to lasting transformation.
This role suits Amy beautifully and while life often feels crazy, she is adapting, growing in her faith, and walking out a calling that has been in her heart since she was a little girl. Obedience is powerful, it changes people. It changes the servant and the one being served. For Amy, obedience has her in awe of how God brought her from where she was to where she wanted to be. He pieced together a beautiful plan and He’s using the patchwork of Amy’s life to cover this ministry in the warmth of his love
