Only 4 days left in the outreach.

I’m back in Chile! The team made the return, however unsmooth, and fortunately for me I wasn’t one of the people who got sick and wasn’t allowed to fly out of the country or was in the group that was late to the airport and didn’t get their luggage on the plane. In fact since my last update I really feel like the Lord’s been dumping the blessings on me and this last leg of the outreach; so I wanted to dedicate at least the majority of this post just to the things that I’ve been thankful for. (In no particular order)

1) First off, something I’m really proud of is that the first night here in Santiago all the team presented ourselves for the church’s weekly youth group. One of our leaders asked the team to share some testimonies and I was able to bust out a 5 minute story of a time I had in Quito totally in Spanish. I’m slowly breaking the stereotype that white American can’t speak any Spanish and was received so warmly after the service. Also one big part of our outreach working with this church has been a daily radio show that the team does every morning and I’ve been able to do the whole thing without an interpreter. Just like Estabon said, by the end of the outreach you’ll be able to understand everything people are saying, I feel like I’ve reach another milestone with this language.

2) I received another encouraging word while doing my quiet time that I really needed to hear about the upcoming counseling school.

Hebrews 11:15-16
“And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they came out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.”

This chapter in Hebrews is talking about the heroes of the early Christian Faith. As my DTS is coming to end I have the opportunity to return to my country and no one would look down on me for going back, but the Lord isn’t done with me yet and I know that He’s prepared this next time for me as well.

3) We arrived in Quito from Porto Viejo at 6:30AM and everyone was beat but instead of having to spend all day in the airport waiting for our flight one of the sisters in a church we had worked with previously invited us to her house to relax before our plane left. She prepared an enormous breakfast for us and afterwards she said she’d take us anywhere we wanted to go in Quito. She had two cars and since (apparently) a United States license is valid in Ecuador I got to drive half of the team around. I had 21 dollars that I wanted to spend before returning to Chile where I would just have to sit on it for 6 months but I didn’t want to spend it on junk. When we went to the mall I found a perfectly sized neoprene protector for my netbook and at an artisan bazaar I was able to get a bunch of these really cool handmade Ecuadorian bracelets. (I’d been praying we’d get a chance to return to this particular spot in Quito where they sell all this rad handmade stuff and sure enough). After the shopping the sister took the whole team out to McDonalds for Big Mac Value Meals!

4) For these final 9 days of the outreach I’m staying with the nicest family. They really care about me, and when I told them that I was a little cold sleeping in the bed they had for me (Autumn nights in Chile are freezing ) they borrowed a bunch of heavy wool blankets from a friend for me and gave me a wool beanie. The dad of the house works as a bus driver for a Chilean transit service named Express de Santiago and he gave me his old waterproof work jacket (complete with sweet embroidered logo) that’s going to be perfect when I wear it over my Patagonia fleece in the upcoming rainy winter months.

5) I had a really positive conversation with one of our group’s leaders about so rules that our leadership had been breaking and it couldn’t have gone better. Because I wasn’t bringing it up I believe that the devil was using my desire to not be confrontational as ammunition against me, because even though I wasn’t bringing it up with them I was talking to other members of the team about it and holding it against them. Although I don’t know if the conversation changed anything yet, I was able to communicate what I was seeing with love and I was able to apologize for grumbling about the leaders behind their back. Everyone was really humble about the whole thing and I was even thanked for bringing it up.

6) As this outreach comes to an end I’m reminded of some important things that I’d prayed for before we left. One, that I wouldn’t get sick and two, that I wouldn’t lose anything. Well I had a cold here a there but nothing that required me to go to the doctor and the most valuable thing that I lost was forgetting a pair of Baymonte Christian School (my Jr. High School) gym shorts that I was still wearing at one of the host families houses. Also I think that it’s a pretty huge testimony that I’ve been able to update this blog consistently every week even though internet can be pretty tough to find!

7) In our second to last day in Porto Viejo the Pastor wanted to bless the team with a trip to the beach about an hour away, we took the bus there and I found a sweet backpack I’d been looking for only 3 dollars. When we got to the beach I got permission to just walk along the coast and listen to music since I wasn’t in the mood to play soccer in the sand. Unlike any beach I’d been to in California or Chile this Ecuadorian beach would be a goldmine for any jewelry maker. There were an incredible number of shells and polished rocks everywhere and what was so special about them was the fact that the majority had natural holes created in them from the surf (perfect for making necklaces). I scavenged a bunch of the best ones for future gifts when I get back home.

The trip back from the beach however was less than perfect than the trip we had there. To save less like 8.50 in bus fare the whole team plus a few teenagers from the church all crammed into the back of a truck one of the brothers of the had. It was a pretty uncomfortable hour and fifteen minute ride and as the sun was setting I was regretting that I hadn’t packed anything heavier than a T-shirt. Something God spoke to me in the back of that truck was that even though He’d been blessing me so much recently and even though I’d had enough Spanish to do everything I’d needed to do that day I still needed Him, and that I’d always still need Him. Something I’d asked my Dad over Skype a couple weeks ago was if he thought that my time here in South America was in a way punishment from the Lord for not living the way I was supposed to in Santa Cruz. At the time I was feeling like I was being punished because everything I was living seemed extremely difficult, but I received a verse last week that shone some light on my question and maybe someone reading this will be able to relate.

Hebrews 12:11-14
“All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make strait paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.”

“The peaceful fruit of righteousness” I like the sound of that.

Another warm welcome. This last church has really been amazing and the family that have taken me in especially love me. Out of all the churches in the outreach I feel like I’ve been able to share the most with this one.

This church has a radio station inside of it and every morning we do a show, where callers call in with questions and blessing, it’s been really fun.

I think by now I’ve graduated to “conversational” Spanish ;)