Farm Week

The first two weeks of October we had the lovely opportunity to stay in San Jose and work on the Stallings farm with a group from Arkansas.  It was simply beautiful.  The Stallings host groups of kids on the farm for Bible clubs, some of the groups coming from government homes.  On one of my favorite days, the lesson was about how Jesus is our shepherd, and the kids got to pet baby lambs.  Since it was rainy that day, the sheep were very muddy and I got to hold one while the kids pet him.  Lambs in photos are very tranquil and clean, but not in real life- you can see the mud o my arms.

We also got the chance to attend kids groups at the church in San Jose, which I always thoroughly enjoy.  Sunday afternoon, we were invited to have lunch at Nazarena's house for her birthday.  There I met a new friend, Valentina.  From the birthday party, Valentina came with the girls to church, and it was her first time coming to church!  On Tuesday, the group hosted an event for young girls at Claren's house.  Valentina came, as well as a few girls from a government home, and some girls from the outskirts of San Jose, near the farm.  Some of these girls were believers and others are not.  One of the women from the states shared a powerful testimony of abuse in her childhood and what she learned about the love of Christ and forgiveness. 

Further on in the week, we got to do some painting and stenciling on the farm and we got to spend more time with our San Jose friends and get to know them better.  As a bonus, we went to a Upward game, which is an indoor soccer team comprised of guys fro the youth group.  I can safely say that it was the most exciting soccer game of my life.  Our team had three players thrown out, (they say the refs were pulling for the opposing team).  At one point we had two players on the field, versus four, and each of the two guys scored!  Needless to say, we got really loud.  Claren was reminded of the story of Gideon. 

Judges 7:2 The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’

Querida San Jose, estoy enamorada de ti. 



God is bigger than public transport

God is in control of all things- the big and the small. 
On Tuesday, Oct 2nd we found ourselves with three opportunities: evangelizing with the boys from El Ancla, lunch with a friend, and traveling to San Jose for a Bible study at Claren's house.  All of this sounded good until we realized that lunch was across town and we would have to travel across Montevideo twice in a two hour period.  We knew it would be tight, but I diligently looked up different bus options.  We discussed the idea of taking taxis, but going across town twice would get super pricey. 
When we got a text from the boys saying they wanted to meet later than usual, the situation got more desperate and a bit laughable.  We emphasized to them that we had to leave by noon; we knew we couldn't work on Uruguayan punctuality standards because catching a bus to San Jose was at stake. 
But then, I remembered what Allison Pliemen used to say in New York, "God will work it out."  So I stopped worrying.  God knows where we need to be and how we'll get there. 
Due to a highly specialized plan of telling giving everyone a personalized meeting time, we all arrived on time for evangelizing.  (It was raining so evangelizing didn't go too well.)  We arrived at lunch four minutes early, then made the long journey back to our house, got our bags and called a taxi, and arrived at the bus stop with 15 minutes to spare. 
Getting everywhere at least 4 minutes early? God worked it out. 

What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the LORD our God is near us whenever we pray to him?
Deuteronomy 4:7

Spring Break II

Living in the southern hemisphere offers so many strange opportunities: living through 3 springs in a row, an extra switch to daylight savings time, and a second Spring Break '12!
   
We got the opportunity to participate in spring break last weak.  We went to a beach town to do a fiesta de primavera (Spring festival) for kids in a house church.  However, typical to spring breaks, the weather was less than springy and we were greeted in Piriapolis by a tropical storm!  The water came up over the beach, and the boardwalk was covered in sand and sea foam.  Several trees came down and in Montevideo a tad bit of rain came into our apartment.  Needless to say, we didn't get to go outside.  But thankfully, since our God is powerful and faithful to answer our prayers, and the rest of the week was completely sunny and we walked around inviting kids to the party.

The church in Piriapolis is in the home of Myriam and Anibal.  We also became friends with their children, Belen and Nahuel, who are young teenagers.  I loved getting the opportunity to be in a Uruguayan home, and to visit a house church.  It reminds me a lot of Acts, where the believers are always praying and taking their meals together- we did just that.  After the storm passed, we were able to have lunch outside, with a few other people in the church.  On Friday, there was a youth meeting in the garage.  They have decorated it so well and it reminds me of a club house.  We were asked to share our testimonies and we also taught them a game, which was a big hit.  My favorite part was singing songs that work in both Spanish and English and hearing people sing them in both languages.  Being a part of a Uruguayan house church was an amazing experience. 

On Saturday, the party went well and the kids were invited back to the weekly kid's club in the house church.  I got to lead some tag games.  Translating instructions for games is really tricky, so I was thankful for the practice.  The party also included a clown, face painting, balloons, a skit and lastly, a gospel presentation. 

 Acts 2:46-47 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.

A Well Celebrated Birthday

It turns out that Uruguayans enjoy a good party, especially the ones from San Jose.  Since we are blessed to have a big house, we have decided to share it whenever possible.  After some discussing with the San Jose crowd, plans for my 23rd birthday party were in progress.  It turns out that in Uruguay, the birthday person is expected to host a party anyways. 

Savannah did a lot of work planning the menu and preparing un monton of yummy desserts.  We made about 200 oreo balls, chocolate chip cookies with hand-cut chocolate chips, and chocolate cake from scratch.  We also served taco soup, fruits, and veggies, but I declared the theme to be chocolate.
We invited everyone we have met so far in this country, but about 20 people came, including the four of us.  There were eight friends who came from San Jose and several more from Montevideo.  We started out with the game signs, which works super well across languages.  As more people arrived, we broke into dancing.  The party ended at about 1 am, which is pretty tranquilo for this country. 

I was very surprised to receive several gifts, including a new leather wallet from my team that came from the expo that was in our neighborhood all last week.  I also got some jewelry from my Uruguayan friends.  The party was SO much fun for me.  I felt so welcome from the many Uruguayans who have embraced us so far.  Dancing is one of my favorite things so I am extremely grateful to be in a culture that loves to celebrate. 

What's even more interesting is that the party continued to Saturday night, after a large youth event.  Several friends from San Jose had come to Montevideo for this event and were waiting for Lyle to give them a ride back.  They brought yet another party to our house until about 12:30, and we worked on some more dance skills.  Luckily we still had many oreo balls. 

Weeks One and Two in Montevideo: City Life

Our first two weeks had a lot to do with getting to know the city.  The first hurdle was learning how to cook here.  We did not find the grocery store to have the cheaper prices we expect in South America.  Beef is a huge industry here so that is the most popular meat option.  They also have ham and chicken but no turkey.  The most obvious missing items are peanut butter, chocolate chips, and salad dressing variety. 
Popular food items are Italian pasta, beef sandwiches, and a hot drink called mate.  Mate here is like coffee in the states.  People carry around thermoses of hot water and drink it all day long. 

My biggest frustration so far has been with the city buses.  They are not user friendly like the New York subway that I'm used to, which has a map at every station and signs galore.  Here, the bus stops are not always marked with which buses come and it's much harder to know where to get off because the roads names are extremely long and often abbreviated.  We have had some fun missing our bus stop stories.  Buses are usually extremely crowded, but the strange thing is we have had buses pass the stop because they are too crowded to let more people on.  This is not normal for LA I'm told, as in most cities people just push their way on to overcrowded buses. 

First Weekend - Fiestas Galore

Our first few days in Uruguay consisted of many parties.  You see,we spent Thursday night flying from one LA country to the next,we arrived Friday at noon, stopped in our apartment, drove the hour from Montevideo to San Jose, and arrived just in time for a Uruguayan holiday! 
Saturday was Uruguayan Independence Day,but instead of celebrating that, they stay up all night Friday celebrating Noche de Nostalgia. Everyone dresses up in outfits of decades gone by, and we were invited to a party with the young people of the church in San Jose.  The party was Super fun, with dancing, and a midnight barbecue.
On Saturday, we went to a children's group with Claren.  We learned some of our favorite children's songs in Spanish, and played some soccer of course.
Sunday was another party! It was a lunch at the church in San Jose, complete with a band and lots of cake!  There was a huge crowd and it was so fun to see everyone celebrating.

Entrenamiento

I arrived in Bogota, Columbia last Thursday for training.  22 of us spent a week in slightly close quarters learning everything about Latin American culture and sharing our faith.

Bogota is a beautiful mountainous place.  I think we were in the nice part of the city because everything was pristine, with flowers and trees and cute houses.  We spent a little time walking around the city.  We got to meet a lady who wanted to practice her English and took us to get sodas.  We practiced telling our stories and what we believe about Jesus.  We also met some young people who were Christians and talked to them for awhile about their churches.

We went to a church in Bogota called El Camino (the way).  They sang a lot of Psalms and the message was about reconciliation and how our only true ministry is the ministry of reconciliation, to show people that God wants to repair His relationship with them.

While at training I had more types of fresh juice than ever in my life, including Guava, blackberry, water tomato, and strawberry.  There are A LOT of strange fruits in Colombia.  The money there is measured in thousands, and $1USD equals 2,000 pesos.  So a jar of peanut butter was the price of a car in the states ($12,000).

This semester, students from our group will be in:
Lima, Peru
Santiago, Chile
Mexico
Brazil
Colombia
and of course, Montevideo, Uruguay.

After our week in Bogota, we headed to the airport.  My team had three flights, with layovers in Lima and Santiago.  We left at 3:30 pm Thursday and arrived in Montevideo at around 12:30pm Friday.

One thing I learned...
South American cultures often mix religion.  They are Catholic by tradition, but "Catholicism is a thin facade over Animism."  People often mix the story of Jesus right in with their other superstitions.  A missionary in this part of the world once saw a woman selling sacrifices, with a picture of Mary behind her, but she also had a salvation bracelet someone had given to her.  Pray that the people in these countries would realize that Jesus is the Only true God and that there is no other name by which we can be saved.