Three Nuggets

Well I’m halfway through the Theoretical Phase of my DTS and in 6 weeks I’ll be leaving on the Main Outreach. I’ll either be going to somewhere in the south of Chile, the north of Argentina, or Ecuador; I also just found out that I don’t get to choose where I go, the directors of the DTS pray about it and then just send you off. After returning from Rancagua I feel like the strictness levels have cooled down a bit, I’m allowed to leave the base on the weekends by myself and I feel like in general everyone is more trusted. After such an action packed mini-outreach I was unsure whether I would feel like I’d be learning anything new but this week I have three short stories for you.

1. I remember back in Santa Cruz whenever I’d hear someone who was bi-lingual speaking I’d think to myself “Wow, that’s so cool I wish I could do that… but I know that I’ll never be able to”. It was just one of those things that I figured would take too much work, or I don’t have a natural aptitude for it so I won’t be able to, or I’ve already let to much time pass and now I’m too old to be able to learn. I really thought about learning a foreign language this way and something that God revealed to me this week is that I had the same attitude about a lot of sin that I struggled with as well. For example pre-martial sex, pride, and lust, I think that I’d just about given up the idea of having victories in these areas of my life. “That’s too hard for me God or, I’ll be never able to do that for so long God and I don’t think I have it in me or, I’ve already failed in this area so many times. But here’s the thing: I’ve had victory here on the DTS so far. In six weeks I’ve done more than not drink a beer or smoke a cigarette, I’ve also been the master of my domain (the longest record I’ve had since I was 18), and at this point I wouldn’t be lying if I checked the box “some” on a grad school application under the question of Spanish competency. The areas of language mastery and living righteously don’t seem to have anything in common but the progress I’ve made in both areas really drove the point home that I can have hope in God. I have a long way to go in all these areas (it has only been 6 weeks) but getting a taste of it has definitely encouraged me that I can go all the way.

2. On the way to the supermarket with my one-on-one pastor Estabon Thursday I was telling him a bunch of details he didn’t hear about Rancagua (he was a part of the other team). After telling him about how much of a blessing it was he told me something about our walk with God that either I hadn’t heard before or had forgotten. He said that after every victory we have in God, we’re tested, and that we need to be aware of this cycle or it can be hard on our faith. Sure enough when I wake up the next day I’m completely sick with a terrible cold. During the lecture my nose is running and as the last of the tissues from my little 10-packs are sullied I’m forced to re-use old ones or resort to my sleeves. I’m feeling miserable and it doesn’t help that the lecture is all about the character of God and about how much He embraces us in His never-ending love. It doesn’t hit me until about 11PM the truth of that statement. I was sick all day but everyone on the team was so concerned about me, I had people praying that I’d get better, someone volunteered to do my work duty for me so I could sleep and the leaders let me sleep through the base church service so I could rest. At 11 PM I went to the fridge to drink from my water bottle when me roommate gives me some medicine our team director gave him to give to me, and while I’m drinking it in the bathroom it hits me. God really does show us that practical “embracing” love through other Christians in our lives (He can use anyone but when Christians are trying to live for God they’ll obviously be more sensitive to what He wants them to do). I woke up this morning feeling so much better and I think that was the lesson God wanted to teach me through this test: that when you receive an encouraging word or a favor from someone it’ s really coming from God, and it’s evidence that He’s with us, because every good and perfect thing comes from Him.

3. About 3 weeks into the DTS it was announced that we’d be purchasing matching uniforms for everyone to wear during our main outreach and whenever we traveled together. We were told the uniforms would consist of 2 T-shirts, a pair of athletic pants and a sweatshirt. This outfit would cost each student roughly fifty U.S. dollars (mine coming right out of my personal money) and that the leader’s would be determining our sizes because we weren’t to be wearing anything that would fit to tight (to call our directors “conservative” would be an understatement.). This entire process stressed me out even more because our directors were choosing all the designs and colors and the theme was going to be black & neon green. I told them I wanted a small sweatshirt and shirts but they told me that they didn’t think that men’s smalls were an option for sweatshirts and that I should get medium size T-shirts so that if my arms were raised no skin would show. My money was accepted my sizes ordered, and I vividly remember praying something like “God I put this whole uniform thing in your hands, please let these clothes I’m going to have to possibly wear every day for 3 months fit me and not be extremely oversized and ugly. You know how insecure I am and I’ll evangelize better if I don’t think I look like a complete fool.” Upon my return from Rancagua the team’s items had arrived from the manufacturer. Well I don’t know how it happened but there was a mistake made that changed the font color on the uniforms from neon green to grey, and when I opened my packet of clothes there greeting me were two size small T-shirts and a size small sweatshirt that all fit perfectly. I saw them write down what sizes I supposed to get myself so I’m chalking this one up as another miracle, Thanks God!


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