How strange, I am back in my home culture now. I have the foods, bedtimes, and bathrooms that I am used to; I can speak to everyone without screaming for Jennie, or stressing out every single one of my brain cells to conjure up a single sentence, and best of all? Lots of down time and peanut butter with a spoon. I should be completely blissful at the moment right? Well, it is probably not the best time to ask such a question as I am not completely coherent at the moment due to a tidal wave of fatigue that pounded my senses this morning. I was doing fine since we returned on Friday, but now it all suddenly hit me and I am really tired. At any rate, I have to say that I miss Argentina very much. We made many great friends and got to see a beautiful side of the world. I plan on going back someday, hopefully soon.
To finish up the last week in Argentina, we spent as much time as possible with people from the churches we worked with. Monday morning we went to the Supermarket and stocked up on maté, dulce de leche, and chimichurri. Tuesday we went back to Lanus to say goodbye to everyone there, and we concluded our time in South America with a big presentation on Weds. night. We spent most of the day inviting people and practicing new dances which we performed with the Jesus Group. Because of the rain, we did not have quite the attendance we were hoping for, but we made the most of it and the evening was so much fun. It was our last time to dance and perform with them, and some of them had to say goodbye that night, so it was a night of many emotions. Afterward, we went back to the house we were staying in and stayed up joking around for awhile as usual. Thursday dawned as any other day, except for the fact that this day involved meticulously cramming all our junk into suitcases (yes it is an artform), trying to figure out how to make room for several Kilos of maté and dulce de leche, and stuffing our faces with the last tastes of Argentinian bread. A decent group of people came to see us off. We left the church in a van, but then our friends decided to make the last possible goodbye in the airport so they followed us by taking the train. 5 minutes before we had to go through security, they all came running through the doors and we spent several moments cheek-kissing and hugging repeatedly until everyone had watery eyes and sore arms. As I rounded the corner to customs, I looked back to wave one last time and completely broke down, I was very sad to leave all of them. The officer at the desk probably thought I was loca as I handed him a tear stained passport with a picture that hardly matched my marcara-marked face. After that dramatic exit, we had quite the trip ahead of us. It was still uncertain whether or not the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave would accept our dear leader onto it's soil since he is still in the process of renewing his visa. Our first flight was to San Paolo, Brazil where we spent two hours in the airport, finally getting to make fun of Jen being lost in translation as she was startled by a security guard shouting in Portuguese. The next flight was to Atlanta, Georgia where we arrived after a 10 hour flight of no sleep (but there were personal tv screens at each seat so that was a bonus, at least I was entertained). From there, God miraculously brought all 6 of us through security, customs and all that with about 10 minutes to spare! By late morning on Friday, we touched down in NYC, where we were all blissfully enjoying the cool air on our sun-torched skin until reality hit and we shivered the whole 3 hours back to Coatesville in our t-shirts sitting in a car with no heat.
Now we are staying in Lancaster and commuting regularly to Coatesville. We are having team sessions to talk about what God has done in our lives and how to now readjust to America. Now I am faced with the questions of "what is next?" and "can I really sleep in a room by myself now?". I dont know what God has in store for me now, but I am excited to see where life will go now that I am ready and willing to listen to His voice.
I will probably write once or twice more to keep you all updated on transitional stuff. But for now, I will say that my graduation will be on Friday night at 7pm, here in the Coatesville Neighborhood Center. You're welcome to come if you so desire. Also, I once again want to thank all of you for your prayers and support, it was all much appreciated!
Monday, March 16, 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
The last two weeks of foreign-ness
Once again this update is late, but there is much to describe and I am writing in short increments at a time because I am using the internet at random times in the evening (like midnight or later). But since I will be returning home soon and can give you all a nice long description of Chile, I will spare the novel that is in my brain at the moment. Suffice to say, last week was awesome. It was different from what we have been doing, but I really enjoyed this, it kept the trip interesting thats for sure : ).
We arrived in Puerto Montt late at night on Saturday and the next morning we decided to visit the church that Axis and Aarons DTS had stayed in when they were in Pto. Mtt. the year before. Upon arrival at the church it didnt take long for the people to decide that since we were such ¨honored guests¨ we should run the service for the morning. By now we are rather accostumed to last minute planning so we presented some dramas and Aaron preached one of his sermons from the church before. It went well all in all, and afterwards Hugo treated us to a lunch by the harbor in one of the main plazas of the city. Later, this would be a place where we would do the majority of our evangelism. Afterward, we went back to the house and surprised the family by finishing a painting project they were hoping to have done soon. That was fun because we got to do some manual service which we have wanted to do for awhile. Normally, the people here never want us to do anything for them no matter how much we protest.
Monday was probably my favorite free day of the trip thus far. Why? Because it was completely and totally free! We had no obligations to fill, mental notes to make, or guests come to visit. It was also a beautiful, temperate day in Chile. We went for a walk around the city and just soaked in the views of the sea and the mountains. It was a great time of relaxation and preparation for our trip to Tabón, which started the next day.
If Chile is hard to describe with words, Tabón is pretty much impossible. It is a sparcely populated island of about 450 people, definitely different from how where we have been staying. To get to the house where we spent 4 days, we took a bus, a boat, then walked for 30 minutes with all our luggage. It was quite the squeeze to make room for all us in the tiny house, but they were more than obliging to accomadate us. Our first few hours on the island were spent being captured fy Gods awesome creation. Seriously, Tabón is the most beautiful place I have ever visitted. The sunset would stretch all the way around the horizon, uninterrupted by anything manmade, simply the sea and moutains on other islands. There was a volcano nearby that recently ¨hiccuped¨ so to speak, and people were worried that it might have a full blown erruption soon...one of those ¨dear mom¨moments. But it looked so cool set to a sunset of brilliant colors. I think God invented some new colors for the sunset that night....just completely breathtaking! There were also cliffs, fields, flowers...this place had it all. At night we could see galaxies of stars. And there were a few times we had impromptu prayer and worship services with the family.
Our time on Tabon was spent doing chores for the family we were staying with, and being creative with how we did evangelism with the rest of the people on the island. The first day we walked all over the island doing house visits. Basically, we just spent some time with people in their house, talking with them, ministering or witnessing with them, and praying for them. We also were inviting people for the event we had planned for the next day. This event was supposed to start at 3, but being how the weather was crummy and we are in South America, we didnt get started until 4 and even then there werent that many people. We were pretty disappointed, but we did our presentations anyway, then spent some time with the kids. I know God can use whatever we give Him, so I am praying that the few people that came were impacted by what they saw. Afterwards, we went back to the beach where we liked to spend the majority of our time. Even though it is summer and we are in South America, Chile is relatively cool, and the ocean water is freezing. However, Aaron and Darrio decided to prove their manliness and go swimming. They lasted about 10-15 minutes, all the while trying to convince us that the water wasnt that bad. Being as how I am a lifeguard, I had the responsibity of looking out for sudden emergencies of muscle cramps, or Elias (who cant swim) being anywhere near the water...so of course I had to remain dry and alert : ).
Friday morning came early, we awoke with the sun then set out to catch the boat that would take us back to the mainland. It was a long walk, but there is no other place I would rather walk for an hour than on that island. The sunrise was just as beautiful as sunset. Arriving in Pto. Mtt. was almost disappointing, even though the views there were also spectacular. We had time to eat a quick lunch, then set out right away for evangelism in the plaza. The afternoon was interesting because although we had good conversations with people and they were all friendly and wanted to talk, no one was very open to the gospel. They all acted perfectly fine with their beliefs and their lives and nothing we said really made a difference. The next day was similair, we went out to the plaza in the morning, but didnt have much success. On top of this, many of us felt a kind of spiritual...something. Its hard to explain, but the place just felt really weird. There was a large group of gypsies in the plaza that day too, perhaps that had something to do with it. We also managed to end up talking to people with some really unique ideas. Jen talked to some Jehovahs Witnesses, Fallow found a ¨Roman Apostolic Christian¨(whatever that means), and I talked to several Catholics who didnt believe in a ¨god¨persay, just an energy that encourages those who live on the earth....???? I think I need to learn a little more about what other religions believe to help with this process. However, needless to say, we felt a bit discouraged as we went back to the house for lunch. THe plan was to go out again with some dramas after lunch, but in the afternoon we were hit with a mini typhoon. I think Hugo felt we needed some cheering up so he took us out for ice cream, which was nice, but I think we were all feeling a bit discouraged.
Sunday brought church again, though no surprise sermons this time. Once again, we planned to do presentations later, and once again it rained. So we waited out the rain and went to plaza again to do personal evangelism. On the way back, Elias decided to be our guide and ended up taking us hiking up a literal mountain through the city, around the city, criss-crossing through the city....an hour and a half later (being women) we ¨cowardly¨ asked for directions and eventually made it back to the house after dark (another ¨dear mom¨moment). We made it back just in time to help the family stack wood for an hour. By the time I went to bed I was beat!
The next day, Hugo told us that he was going to stay in chile for a few more days to work on visa stuff, so the rest of us headed back to argentina without him. The trip in total ended up being 37 hours! Our connecting bus left an hour late, and I soon discovered that the return trip would not be as comfortable at the first. We lovingly named our bus the Titanic because we travelled in the rain and the windows were not sealed on the top so a few hours into the trip we were ¨sinking¨ rapidly. Also, the meals on the bus were few and far between, by the end of the trip we were so hungry and thirsty that we practically inhaled the soup served to us. On the bright side (since I like to look for it) we got to watch ¨Happy Feet¨, ¨Over the Hedge¨, and ¨Superman¨in Spanish : ). We also met two really interesting couples who talked with us for hours. One couple was from Israel and they were taking a ¨long honeymoon¨in South America...they were on month 6. The other couple was from Holland and they had decided to work for several years, save up lots of money, then take a trip around the world. At the moment they were on month 11 of their journey and had visitted something like 20 countries.
In the end, when we finally staggered dramatically from the incarceration unit that employed the Chinese water torture technique (or the ¨bus¨ if you want to be technical), the poor people of the church were there to welcome us after waiting 3 hours in the bus station. Thus began our second week. We were divided into 3 houses this time instead of staying at the church, which was weird because we are used to being altogether all the time, but it worked out. I got to practice my Spanish since Jennie wasn´t with me.
This church was a bit different than the others because they already had a pretty strong evangelism team. Nevertheless, we still taught dramas and ¨way of the master¨classes. The nice thing was, since they were more experienced than some of the other churches, they knew of good places to go to present and to attract lots of kids. Hugo had been planning to teach a seminar that week, but since he wasnt there, he passed the reins to Aaron. Both services went amazingly well. As always, it was a pleasure getting to know everyone in the church. It is amazing to me how attached to someone you can become in a week. They offered us the chance to help with their ¨cafeteria¨for the children of the street. All we did was serve food and try to talk to them a bit and they became our best friends. I saw a few of the girls later when we were doing an event on the street and they all ran over and didnt leave my side until we were done. It makes our time here very special, I just love the kids!
Speaking of children, this past saturday, we did a presentation at an orphanage nearby. We stayed for lunch and played with the kids as well. I didnt even know the names of some of them, but they grabbed my hands and begged me not to leave when we were getting ready to go. It was heartbreaking to see how much they wanted to be loved and to have attention. At least the orphange was decently nice. The staff genuinely loved the kids and took care of them well. It was also a christian place so they were taught about Jesus. Even so, I wish I could give them all a family.
Well, today is our last free day in Argentina...and I finally took my turn of being sick. How annoying. I will survive, its only a cold and probably due to lack of sleep. The plan for this week is to get some shopping in before leaving, and to say our goodbyes to all the people we have gotten close to over the past 2 1/2 months. I dont know how I am going to do it. At any rate, we will be leaving this Thursday, which is crazy to me. I cant believe we are leaving in a few days! Thanks for all the prayers, and please continue to prayer for us as we prepare to come home.
We arrived in Puerto Montt late at night on Saturday and the next morning we decided to visit the church that Axis and Aarons DTS had stayed in when they were in Pto. Mtt. the year before. Upon arrival at the church it didnt take long for the people to decide that since we were such ¨honored guests¨ we should run the service for the morning. By now we are rather accostumed to last minute planning so we presented some dramas and Aaron preached one of his sermons from the church before. It went well all in all, and afterwards Hugo treated us to a lunch by the harbor in one of the main plazas of the city. Later, this would be a place where we would do the majority of our evangelism. Afterward, we went back to the house and surprised the family by finishing a painting project they were hoping to have done soon. That was fun because we got to do some manual service which we have wanted to do for awhile. Normally, the people here never want us to do anything for them no matter how much we protest.
Monday was probably my favorite free day of the trip thus far. Why? Because it was completely and totally free! We had no obligations to fill, mental notes to make, or guests come to visit. It was also a beautiful, temperate day in Chile. We went for a walk around the city and just soaked in the views of the sea and the mountains. It was a great time of relaxation and preparation for our trip to Tabón, which started the next day.
If Chile is hard to describe with words, Tabón is pretty much impossible. It is a sparcely populated island of about 450 people, definitely different from how where we have been staying. To get to the house where we spent 4 days, we took a bus, a boat, then walked for 30 minutes with all our luggage. It was quite the squeeze to make room for all us in the tiny house, but they were more than obliging to accomadate us. Our first few hours on the island were spent being captured fy Gods awesome creation. Seriously, Tabón is the most beautiful place I have ever visitted. The sunset would stretch all the way around the horizon, uninterrupted by anything manmade, simply the sea and moutains on other islands. There was a volcano nearby that recently ¨hiccuped¨ so to speak, and people were worried that it might have a full blown erruption soon...one of those ¨dear mom¨moments. But it looked so cool set to a sunset of brilliant colors. I think God invented some new colors for the sunset that night....just completely breathtaking! There were also cliffs, fields, flowers...this place had it all. At night we could see galaxies of stars. And there were a few times we had impromptu prayer and worship services with the family.
Our time on Tabon was spent doing chores for the family we were staying with, and being creative with how we did evangelism with the rest of the people on the island. The first day we walked all over the island doing house visits. Basically, we just spent some time with people in their house, talking with them, ministering or witnessing with them, and praying for them. We also were inviting people for the event we had planned for the next day. This event was supposed to start at 3, but being how the weather was crummy and we are in South America, we didnt get started until 4 and even then there werent that many people. We were pretty disappointed, but we did our presentations anyway, then spent some time with the kids. I know God can use whatever we give Him, so I am praying that the few people that came were impacted by what they saw. Afterwards, we went back to the beach where we liked to spend the majority of our time. Even though it is summer and we are in South America, Chile is relatively cool, and the ocean water is freezing. However, Aaron and Darrio decided to prove their manliness and go swimming. They lasted about 10-15 minutes, all the while trying to convince us that the water wasnt that bad. Being as how I am a lifeguard, I had the responsibity of looking out for sudden emergencies of muscle cramps, or Elias (who cant swim) being anywhere near the water...so of course I had to remain dry and alert : ).
Friday morning came early, we awoke with the sun then set out to catch the boat that would take us back to the mainland. It was a long walk, but there is no other place I would rather walk for an hour than on that island. The sunrise was just as beautiful as sunset. Arriving in Pto. Mtt. was almost disappointing, even though the views there were also spectacular. We had time to eat a quick lunch, then set out right away for evangelism in the plaza. The afternoon was interesting because although we had good conversations with people and they were all friendly and wanted to talk, no one was very open to the gospel. They all acted perfectly fine with their beliefs and their lives and nothing we said really made a difference. The next day was similair, we went out to the plaza in the morning, but didnt have much success. On top of this, many of us felt a kind of spiritual...something. Its hard to explain, but the place just felt really weird. There was a large group of gypsies in the plaza that day too, perhaps that had something to do with it. We also managed to end up talking to people with some really unique ideas. Jen talked to some Jehovahs Witnesses, Fallow found a ¨Roman Apostolic Christian¨(whatever that means), and I talked to several Catholics who didnt believe in a ¨god¨persay, just an energy that encourages those who live on the earth....???? I think I need to learn a little more about what other religions believe to help with this process. However, needless to say, we felt a bit discouraged as we went back to the house for lunch. THe plan was to go out again with some dramas after lunch, but in the afternoon we were hit with a mini typhoon. I think Hugo felt we needed some cheering up so he took us out for ice cream, which was nice, but I think we were all feeling a bit discouraged.
Sunday brought church again, though no surprise sermons this time. Once again, we planned to do presentations later, and once again it rained. So we waited out the rain and went to plaza again to do personal evangelism. On the way back, Elias decided to be our guide and ended up taking us hiking up a literal mountain through the city, around the city, criss-crossing through the city....an hour and a half later (being women) we ¨cowardly¨ asked for directions and eventually made it back to the house after dark (another ¨dear mom¨moment). We made it back just in time to help the family stack wood for an hour. By the time I went to bed I was beat!
The next day, Hugo told us that he was going to stay in chile for a few more days to work on visa stuff, so the rest of us headed back to argentina without him. The trip in total ended up being 37 hours! Our connecting bus left an hour late, and I soon discovered that the return trip would not be as comfortable at the first. We lovingly named our bus the Titanic because we travelled in the rain and the windows were not sealed on the top so a few hours into the trip we were ¨sinking¨ rapidly. Also, the meals on the bus were few and far between, by the end of the trip we were so hungry and thirsty that we practically inhaled the soup served to us. On the bright side (since I like to look for it) we got to watch ¨Happy Feet¨, ¨Over the Hedge¨, and ¨Superman¨in Spanish : ). We also met two really interesting couples who talked with us for hours. One couple was from Israel and they were taking a ¨long honeymoon¨in South America...they were on month 6. The other couple was from Holland and they had decided to work for several years, save up lots of money, then take a trip around the world. At the moment they were on month 11 of their journey and had visitted something like 20 countries.
In the end, when we finally staggered dramatically from the incarceration unit that employed the Chinese water torture technique (or the ¨bus¨ if you want to be technical), the poor people of the church were there to welcome us after waiting 3 hours in the bus station. Thus began our second week. We were divided into 3 houses this time instead of staying at the church, which was weird because we are used to being altogether all the time, but it worked out. I got to practice my Spanish since Jennie wasn´t with me.
This church was a bit different than the others because they already had a pretty strong evangelism team. Nevertheless, we still taught dramas and ¨way of the master¨classes. The nice thing was, since they were more experienced than some of the other churches, they knew of good places to go to present and to attract lots of kids. Hugo had been planning to teach a seminar that week, but since he wasnt there, he passed the reins to Aaron. Both services went amazingly well. As always, it was a pleasure getting to know everyone in the church. It is amazing to me how attached to someone you can become in a week. They offered us the chance to help with their ¨cafeteria¨for the children of the street. All we did was serve food and try to talk to them a bit and they became our best friends. I saw a few of the girls later when we were doing an event on the street and they all ran over and didnt leave my side until we were done. It makes our time here very special, I just love the kids!
Speaking of children, this past saturday, we did a presentation at an orphanage nearby. We stayed for lunch and played with the kids as well. I didnt even know the names of some of them, but they grabbed my hands and begged me not to leave when we were getting ready to go. It was heartbreaking to see how much they wanted to be loved and to have attention. At least the orphange was decently nice. The staff genuinely loved the kids and took care of them well. It was also a christian place so they were taught about Jesus. Even so, I wish I could give them all a family.
Well, today is our last free day in Argentina...and I finally took my turn of being sick. How annoying. I will survive, its only a cold and probably due to lack of sleep. The plan for this week is to get some shopping in before leaving, and to say our goodbyes to all the people we have gotten close to over the past 2 1/2 months. I dont know how I am going to do it. At any rate, we will be leaving this Thursday, which is crazy to me. I cant believe we are leaving in a few days! Thanks for all the prayers, and please continue to prayer for us as we prepare to come home.
Monday, February 23, 2009
It really is chilly in Chile...I want some chili
As you may have guessed from the title, we are now in Chile, a land of absolutely spectacular landscape, blessedly cooler weather, and drivers who actually stop for pedestrians! Last week was a time of waiting for the right moment to leave for Chile and having a blast with the youth in the church as always. They almost didnt let us leave, even went so far as to barricade the door : ). It was really hard to leave them though, we had all gotten attached to each other. Its amazing how close you can get to someone in a week and a half even when they dont speak your language. They ran after our van waving until they couldnt see us any more. It was really touching, we are hoping to return to them for a few days after Chile. Actually, we had better return to them because at the moment they have possession of my (and Axis) suitcase. We decided that our suitcases were too big for the travel so we left them at the church. At the moment I am living for almost two weeks out of a backpack. Hallelujah. It is a good thing though because between all the car and bus rides I am glad to not have to worry about my suitcase.
So it took us about 30 hours to get here, 22 hours on a bus, then the rest in a car. The bus ride was glorious! 22 hours to rest, write, and sleep! The best part is that we rode a double decker and got to ride on the top, another one of my life goals accomplished! (haha). It was better than riding first class in an airplane. Plus, the scenery as we were crossing the Andes mountains was absolutely breathtaking. I tried to write about it so I will share some of it with you, but words just dont to it justice...."The farther we travel into this range, the views get more and more spectacular. Rivers and lakes of pure glass that reflect the splendor of the mountains with their carved edges and rising slopes that reach up to scrape the sky. Everything just fits, the sky seems even more beautiful when sprinkled with clouds and seemingly suspended between heaven itself and Gods own masterpiece of Earth. How lovely. I wish I could capture a piece of it and save it in time. But a pen and words are inadequate, I am not artistic at all, and a camera cant catch it all. So I am going to pray for these images to stay locked in my mind, for these are the times when I feel closest to God; when I can see His splendor and greatness reflected in His creation. When I can whisper any prayer and it just seems to swirl up to His ear with the warm, dusty wind. I know He is nearby at all times, but in some moments He just feels more accessile. Maybe that is why Jesus always went out by Himself to the mountains to pray...maybe He felt the same way."
Well, anyway our trip was for the most part enjoyable until we got stuck at the border because the officials thought Jennie was illegal. Apparently at the airport when we first got here, Jennies visa was stamped with the date 2008 instead of 2009. So it looked like she had been here for a year illegally. This caused a bit of tension to take care of, but thankfully everything got worked out to the tune of $. Tomorrow we are going to the island of Tabon for a few days, which I am very excited about!
Thanks to God for all of His provisions even when we dont ask, I will have many stories when I return. For now, thanks as always for the prayers!
So it took us about 30 hours to get here, 22 hours on a bus, then the rest in a car. The bus ride was glorious! 22 hours to rest, write, and sleep! The best part is that we rode a double decker and got to ride on the top, another one of my life goals accomplished! (haha). It was better than riding first class in an airplane. Plus, the scenery as we were crossing the Andes mountains was absolutely breathtaking. I tried to write about it so I will share some of it with you, but words just dont to it justice...."The farther we travel into this range, the views get more and more spectacular. Rivers and lakes of pure glass that reflect the splendor of the mountains with their carved edges and rising slopes that reach up to scrape the sky. Everything just fits, the sky seems even more beautiful when sprinkled with clouds and seemingly suspended between heaven itself and Gods own masterpiece of Earth. How lovely. I wish I could capture a piece of it and save it in time. But a pen and words are inadequate, I am not artistic at all, and a camera cant catch it all. So I am going to pray for these images to stay locked in my mind, for these are the times when I feel closest to God; when I can see His splendor and greatness reflected in His creation. When I can whisper any prayer and it just seems to swirl up to His ear with the warm, dusty wind. I know He is nearby at all times, but in some moments He just feels more accessile. Maybe that is why Jesus always went out by Himself to the mountains to pray...maybe He felt the same way."
Well, anyway our trip was for the most part enjoyable until we got stuck at the border because the officials thought Jennie was illegal. Apparently at the airport when we first got here, Jennies visa was stamped with the date 2008 instead of 2009. So it looked like she had been here for a year illegally. This caused a bit of tension to take care of, but thankfully everything got worked out to the tune of $. Tomorrow we are going to the island of Tabon for a few days, which I am very excited about!
Thanks to God for all of His provisions even when we dont ask, I will have many stories when I return. For now, thanks as always for the prayers!
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Feliz San Valentinos Dia!
Once again, you will have to forgive the lack of writing for two weeks, we had another week of almost no free time. Last week I had an update all ready to type up, but the only hour we had availale to visit the internet cafe turned out to be during a time when the internet was down for the day. Anyway, you can read last weeks update below.
So much has happened this past week that I am not sure how to summarize it for you, but to start, we moved to a church in Claypole on Monday. The church we are living in is a sister church of Emanuel, the home church of the hip-hop dance team we have worked with a few times before. Here we are basically working with both churches and it has been an absolute blast! Once again, the people are just so great to be around. The district of Claypole is a bit farther away from La Luz, where we had been doing all our work up until this point, so we left all the friends we were used to seeing everyday, but made new ones really quickly. The congregation of Emanuel is supposedly around 500 people so its quite a bit larger people wise than we have been used to, but this is useful for times like Kids Club because we get a lot of help! Speaking of KC, that started on Tues this time, due to the extensive outreach we had planned for the end of the week. Because of the extreme helpfulness of the church, everything ran reasonably smoothily, even when we were informed at 12am the night before that it was going to run for one more day than we had planned. I am a little worried about returning home and not knowing how to function with-what is that thing called?- oh yeah...a schedule. Surprises have become the spice of life here.
Like normal, after KC we had training time for the youth of the church. Now, usually (and quite preferably I might add) we have maybe around 25 people, at most, come for practice in the afternoon. Here, the first day we had about 30 people, the next day we had 45! Not only is that really hard to organize, but on top of this, Aaron was told he had to preach in the evening so he left to prepare. Also, there has been a bad cold going around so Axis and Fallow couldnt talk, and Hugo wasnt here. Thankfully, Dario-from Oscars church- ws there so we had one bilingual person, one spanish speaker, and three english speakers with less than stellar voices....to teach 45 people. Yeah, it was slightly stressful. But this day ended up being extremely bizarre in an amazing way. We started the afternoon teaching The Way of the Master evangelism concept which follows a series of questions that you ask people when you talk to them about the gospel. When we finished the lesson, Jen led a sample conversation with a volunteer, then we paired everyone into groups to practice amongst themselves. After about 15 minutes we were about to bring everyone back together when someone informed Jen that there had been a few non-christians in the room for some reason and what we were teaching made some much sense to them that they wanted to accept Jesus! Some of the practice conversations had been real! Talk about devine appointments! Now, we had to decide how to decide how to teach evangelism to the recently evangelized! Finally, we had everyone divided and were about to start drama practice when a few of the ladies of the church pulled us aside and told us that they felt there was a major issue of fear with the youth that was keeping some of them from participating and we needed to address it. Well, if anyone has authority on talking about conquering fears, its our school. So once again, we brought everyone together and talked to them about who they are in Christ and how He can free them from fear. Theres a drama we do called Masks (some of you may know it by King of Hearts) that represents different mask people wear to cover up a negative heart condition. This was the drama we were planning to teach and many of the youth identified with the characters in the drama and they wanted to be free of their masks. So we had an awesome time of prayer and by the time we actually started practice, it was almost time call it a day. Like I said, bizarre, but amazing! That night, we led two songs of worship and Aaron preached. In the beginning, he honestly stated that he had maybe half a page of notes for his sermon, but that he was going to be open to the Spirit and see what happened. Well, the service ended 2 1/2 hours later, complete with an amazing time of worship in Gods presence. Aaron had preached about faith and stepping out into what God wants for you. In the end, it was beautiful to see people give themselves completely to God. By 11:30, the end of the service, we cleaned up, fellowshipped and finished the day with dinner after midnight.
That was one day out of this week, believe me now when I say it was very busy? I would love to go into detail about the rest, but it would just take too much time, so here a brief overview. In the days after KC, we had a street presentation every day, sometimes twice. It was nice having an extra group of performers and Spanish speakers to help us. They would do their dances and we filled in the missing pieces. It was very hot and humid the last days of this week so we mostly did outreach around 11am or 10pm when everyone was out. Because of Valentines Day, there was fair in the area all weekend so that set things up nicely for us, lots of people were already out. I felt all the days went really well, everyone from the dance team got to share the gospel and there are getting excited about it. It is really encouraging to see them use the thins we taught them. Saturday was special because, being how it was V-day, there was a dinner show at the church. They told us they were planning for 1,000 people! While I dont think there was quite that many attending, there were a lot of people in that church. The night was nice though, different groups from the church performed dramas, dances or music and we got to do a drama too. The purpose of the dinner was to raise money for a missions trip, and to bring non-christians into the church. I believe the night was a success both ways.
One thing I have learned is that after this week I am not letting anyone know that I sing because if I hear, -Amanda, cantar! cantar Alleluia!- one more time, I may never open my mouth again. The night of the dinner, we went onstage to thank the church for everything they had done for us and they shoved a mic in my face and started chanting for me to sing. Awfully embarrassing. Right now I couldnt sing if I wanted to because my voice is sour and tired from being made to vocalize opera several nights in a row after midnight. Sheesh.
Anyway, as far as Chile goes....it looks like we may be leaving later than we had planned and no one from this church can go with us, which makes me terribly sad. Only two people from the other churches are going with us. We are praying for more because we really want to do a lot of outreach and having only our team makes this hard.
So thats about it for now. Please pray for our health, for some reason someone from my team has been sick at every church we have stayed at. So far I have been fine-nothing majoy- but please pray for the others.
As always, I miss and love all of you!!!
So much has happened this past week that I am not sure how to summarize it for you, but to start, we moved to a church in Claypole on Monday. The church we are living in is a sister church of Emanuel, the home church of the hip-hop dance team we have worked with a few times before. Here we are basically working with both churches and it has been an absolute blast! Once again, the people are just so great to be around. The district of Claypole is a bit farther away from La Luz, where we had been doing all our work up until this point, so we left all the friends we were used to seeing everyday, but made new ones really quickly. The congregation of Emanuel is supposedly around 500 people so its quite a bit larger people wise than we have been used to, but this is useful for times like Kids Club because we get a lot of help! Speaking of KC, that started on Tues this time, due to the extensive outreach we had planned for the end of the week. Because of the extreme helpfulness of the church, everything ran reasonably smoothily, even when we were informed at 12am the night before that it was going to run for one more day than we had planned. I am a little worried about returning home and not knowing how to function with-what is that thing called?- oh yeah...a schedule. Surprises have become the spice of life here.
Like normal, after KC we had training time for the youth of the church. Now, usually (and quite preferably I might add) we have maybe around 25 people, at most, come for practice in the afternoon. Here, the first day we had about 30 people, the next day we had 45! Not only is that really hard to organize, but on top of this, Aaron was told he had to preach in the evening so he left to prepare. Also, there has been a bad cold going around so Axis and Fallow couldnt talk, and Hugo wasnt here. Thankfully, Dario-from Oscars church- ws there so we had one bilingual person, one spanish speaker, and three english speakers with less than stellar voices....to teach 45 people. Yeah, it was slightly stressful. But this day ended up being extremely bizarre in an amazing way. We started the afternoon teaching The Way of the Master evangelism concept which follows a series of questions that you ask people when you talk to them about the gospel. When we finished the lesson, Jen led a sample conversation with a volunteer, then we paired everyone into groups to practice amongst themselves. After about 15 minutes we were about to bring everyone back together when someone informed Jen that there had been a few non-christians in the room for some reason and what we were teaching made some much sense to them that they wanted to accept Jesus! Some of the practice conversations had been real! Talk about devine appointments! Now, we had to decide how to decide how to teach evangelism to the recently evangelized! Finally, we had everyone divided and were about to start drama practice when a few of the ladies of the church pulled us aside and told us that they felt there was a major issue of fear with the youth that was keeping some of them from participating and we needed to address it. Well, if anyone has authority on talking about conquering fears, its our school. So once again, we brought everyone together and talked to them about who they are in Christ and how He can free them from fear. Theres a drama we do called Masks (some of you may know it by King of Hearts) that represents different mask people wear to cover up a negative heart condition. This was the drama we were planning to teach and many of the youth identified with the characters in the drama and they wanted to be free of their masks. So we had an awesome time of prayer and by the time we actually started practice, it was almost time call it a day. Like I said, bizarre, but amazing! That night, we led two songs of worship and Aaron preached. In the beginning, he honestly stated that he had maybe half a page of notes for his sermon, but that he was going to be open to the Spirit and see what happened. Well, the service ended 2 1/2 hours later, complete with an amazing time of worship in Gods presence. Aaron had preached about faith and stepping out into what God wants for you. In the end, it was beautiful to see people give themselves completely to God. By 11:30, the end of the service, we cleaned up, fellowshipped and finished the day with dinner after midnight.
That was one day out of this week, believe me now when I say it was very busy? I would love to go into detail about the rest, but it would just take too much time, so here a brief overview. In the days after KC, we had a street presentation every day, sometimes twice. It was nice having an extra group of performers and Spanish speakers to help us. They would do their dances and we filled in the missing pieces. It was very hot and humid the last days of this week so we mostly did outreach around 11am or 10pm when everyone was out. Because of Valentines Day, there was fair in the area all weekend so that set things up nicely for us, lots of people were already out. I felt all the days went really well, everyone from the dance team got to share the gospel and there are getting excited about it. It is really encouraging to see them use the thins we taught them. Saturday was special because, being how it was V-day, there was a dinner show at the church. They told us they were planning for 1,000 people! While I dont think there was quite that many attending, there were a lot of people in that church. The night was nice though, different groups from the church performed dramas, dances or music and we got to do a drama too. The purpose of the dinner was to raise money for a missions trip, and to bring non-christians into the church. I believe the night was a success both ways.
One thing I have learned is that after this week I am not letting anyone know that I sing because if I hear, -Amanda, cantar! cantar Alleluia!- one more time, I may never open my mouth again. The night of the dinner, we went onstage to thank the church for everything they had done for us and they shoved a mic in my face and started chanting for me to sing. Awfully embarrassing. Right now I couldnt sing if I wanted to because my voice is sour and tired from being made to vocalize opera several nights in a row after midnight. Sheesh.
Anyway, as far as Chile goes....it looks like we may be leaving later than we had planned and no one from this church can go with us, which makes me terribly sad. Only two people from the other churches are going with us. We are praying for more because we really want to do a lot of outreach and having only our team makes this hard.
So thats about it for now. Please pray for our health, for some reason someone from my team has been sick at every church we have stayed at. So far I have been fine-nothing majoy- but please pray for the others.
As always, I miss and love all of you!!!
Update for two weeks ago
We have retuned to our first home church this week, De la mano con Jesus (Pastor Oscars church). It was crazy how thrilled we were to be back, this building is nothing special, we dont have a seperate room or hot water, but in this church is where most of our friends are. Its also the church where we feel theres the most passion and spiritual outpouring. I wish you all could attend a worship service here. Its like killing two birds with one stone, you get an amazing time of worship and fellowship, and your complete calistentic worship for the day : ). People here just seem to be so driven to learn the things of God. The youth in this church follow us everywhere, evangelize with us and we have pretty much taught them everything we know as far as drama/dances are concerned. Of course, this also means we are never alone, but we are used to this by now. This past week has been a week of prayer for the church which is something that they do every month. For seven days they meet together at 7 am to pray for an hour. This is a lovely concept, excluding the fact that going to bed at 2am and arising at 6:30 does not make an all too effective prayer time for me, at least not at first. By the end of the week I learned to push past the fatigue because time with God has become a necessity for everyday and the morning is usually the only time I have. Anyway, usually when the service ended most of the people stayed to spend time with us and prepare for kids club (once again), after KC is training time, then we do some type of ministry/evangelism in the evening. So its pretty much the same schedule as always, -up early, then busy, busy , busy til 10, then party all night : ).
There were a few special highlights to the week too. On weds. we went to pastor oscars house for a Columbian meal, cooked by the two young columbian guys that are staying with him right now-Manuel and Christian. It was really good food, though personally I think Sounth Americans could get more creative than meat, meat, bread, meat, meat, rice, meat, chicken etc. : ), but I digress...its delicious! Thurs night we ate at the house of a young couple of the church who are both hilariously entertaining and they made pizza for us, so you know...instant friends, haha. Friday night was a dinner for the youth. We had a huge barbeque outside that lasted til the wee hours of the morning. There was also dancing (I tried my feet at Salsa) and freestyle rap and reggae from three guys of the church and Aaron who has to try everything at least once (including the cow intestine that was served that night...mmm).
I feel I should also mention that I now have four kids. It started out at Fernandos church, there is a baby there that Aaron and I were always holding so some of our friends called him my hijo (son). There is also a 13 year old girl named Sophia who calls me her mami and she basically lives with us, shes here so much. Her best friend soon caught on, as did the little boy who lives next door and smothers me with kisses. So my family is steadily growing. It has gotten to the point where I answer to Mami and have received so many gifts of stuffed animals, pictures, and cards that I am going to need another suitcase to come home!
All in all time flew this week and its time to move on yet again. I cannot believe that our trip is now past the halfway point! After next week, we are leaving for Chile where we will spend two weeks. I can look back on the past 5 1/2 weeks and laugh at how I have gotten so happy about the small things - like adequate hydration and reasonable hygiene. I can also say that there has never been a time in my life when I have needed to live outside of myself and rely on God as much as here. I am excited for the next half of the trip!
There were a few special highlights to the week too. On weds. we went to pastor oscars house for a Columbian meal, cooked by the two young columbian guys that are staying with him right now-Manuel and Christian. It was really good food, though personally I think Sounth Americans could get more creative than meat, meat, bread, meat, meat, rice, meat, chicken etc. : ), but I digress...its delicious! Thurs night we ate at the house of a young couple of the church who are both hilariously entertaining and they made pizza for us, so you know...instant friends, haha. Friday night was a dinner for the youth. We had a huge barbeque outside that lasted til the wee hours of the morning. There was also dancing (I tried my feet at Salsa) and freestyle rap and reggae from three guys of the church and Aaron who has to try everything at least once (including the cow intestine that was served that night...mmm).
I feel I should also mention that I now have four kids. It started out at Fernandos church, there is a baby there that Aaron and I were always holding so some of our friends called him my hijo (son). There is also a 13 year old girl named Sophia who calls me her mami and she basically lives with us, shes here so much. Her best friend soon caught on, as did the little boy who lives next door and smothers me with kisses. So my family is steadily growing. It has gotten to the point where I answer to Mami and have received so many gifts of stuffed animals, pictures, and cards that I am going to need another suitcase to come home!
All in all time flew this week and its time to move on yet again. I cannot believe that our trip is now past the halfway point! After next week, we are leaving for Chile where we will spend two weeks. I can look back on the past 5 1/2 weeks and laugh at how I have gotten so happy about the small things - like adequate hydration and reasonable hygiene. I can also say that there has never been a time in my life when I have needed to live outside of myself and rely on God as much as here. I am excited for the next half of the trip!
Monday, February 2, 2009
Side note
By the way, I thought it relavent to mention that keyboards here are different than what I am used to, therefore please excuse my terrible punctuation in the updates...I havent found all the correct keys yet.
February now!
Happy February everyone! I cant believe our first month here is over already! This week we have been staying at Darios church (he is one of our Argentine friends who is always with us helping in anyway he can, he also learns our dances/dramas insanely fast) which has been an interesting setup. The church only has one main room and then Dario and his family live upstairs. So we girls sleep on the stage and the guys take the rest of the sanctuary. Due to the lack of readily available showers I am not going to mention how long it has been since I have been completely clean, but I am learning to live like a missionary : ).
This past Tuesday we got to take a short sight-seeing trip to the main city part of Buenas Aires. Our friend Diego gave us a tour around the club soccer stadium, the harbor, and lots of creatively painted houses (by creatively I mean with as many colors as possible). That evening we traveled two hours by bus to a tiny newly planted church to do a presentation and pray for/encourage the people there. Wednesday we joined with our Impact team and went to present with another church which has a hip-hop dance team. We combined our three teams and minstered together. It was a cool evening, everything went well and many people came back with testimonies about how God used them to llead others to Christ. We may be working with this church again later, which I would love, they are a lot of fun.
Thursday brought the inevitable Kids Club again, and quite a bit of stress for me. I was team leader this week (we take turns) so I was in charge of the planning and preparing. It really wasnt that bad except that the first day, none of our helpers (as in people who could speak Spanish to the kids) showed up until half an hour after we started..and then there were only three of them. At least we only had 45 kids, any more than that and I dont know what we would have done. The rest of the week ran like the others, Kids club on Thurs, Fri, and Sat. until 1pm, then teaching evangelism to the teens of the church. Friday we did some street evangelism with them and got to have some interesting conversations with people. Since we break off into groups we always gather together at the end and share about what our experiences were like. There is always a mixture of people who received the gospel and those who just wanted to talk, but for the most part everyone loves to hear what we say - which surprises me in a way.
Yesterday we had a big event in another plaza. We spent the afternoon doing evangelism in the street and inviting people to the event in the evening. We did some presentations, talked to people, and then played Chronicles of Narnia with a projector on a sheet in the middle of the plaza. All in all the evening went well despite some discouragement after our earlier presentations in the afternoon each had something go wrong. We were all rather distracted that night or something, but after lots of prayer, we approached the evening with new attitudes and everything ran smoothly..for the most part (it would be nice if we could control when the stray dogs decide to perform with us or keep them from marking all of our equipment!).
Today as always is our day to relax as much as possible in the presence of lots of guests at the church. Sadly, Jen is not with us at the moment in the internet cafe because she woke up this morning feeling very sick. Hugo was sick earlier so she might have caught what he had. Please keep our health in your prayers, it seems like someone is always sick with something.
This past Tuesday we got to take a short sight-seeing trip to the main city part of Buenas Aires. Our friend Diego gave us a tour around the club soccer stadium, the harbor, and lots of creatively painted houses (by creatively I mean with as many colors as possible). That evening we traveled two hours by bus to a tiny newly planted church to do a presentation and pray for/encourage the people there. Wednesday we joined with our Impact team and went to present with another church which has a hip-hop dance team. We combined our three teams and minstered together. It was a cool evening, everything went well and many people came back with testimonies about how God used them to llead others to Christ. We may be working with this church again later, which I would love, they are a lot of fun.
Thursday brought the inevitable Kids Club again, and quite a bit of stress for me. I was team leader this week (we take turns) so I was in charge of the planning and preparing. It really wasnt that bad except that the first day, none of our helpers (as in people who could speak Spanish to the kids) showed up until half an hour after we started..and then there were only three of them. At least we only had 45 kids, any more than that and I dont know what we would have done. The rest of the week ran like the others, Kids club on Thurs, Fri, and Sat. until 1pm, then teaching evangelism to the teens of the church. Friday we did some street evangelism with them and got to have some interesting conversations with people. Since we break off into groups we always gather together at the end and share about what our experiences were like. There is always a mixture of people who received the gospel and those who just wanted to talk, but for the most part everyone loves to hear what we say - which surprises me in a way.
Yesterday we had a big event in another plaza. We spent the afternoon doing evangelism in the street and inviting people to the event in the evening. We did some presentations, talked to people, and then played Chronicles of Narnia with a projector on a sheet in the middle of the plaza. All in all the evening went well despite some discouragement after our earlier presentations in the afternoon each had something go wrong. We were all rather distracted that night or something, but after lots of prayer, we approached the evening with new attitudes and everything ran smoothly..for the most part (it would be nice if we could control when the stray dogs decide to perform with us or keep them from marking all of our equipment!).
Today as always is our day to relax as much as possible in the presence of lots of guests at the church. Sadly, Jen is not with us at the moment in the internet cafe because she woke up this morning feeling very sick. Hugo was sick earlier so she might have caught what he had. Please keep our health in your prayers, it seems like someone is always sick with something.
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