El Señor es El Mejor!! (It ryhmes)

I’ll give you a run down of the month, you guys don’t have to read it all lol it might get kinda long. Ugh that’s why I should write more often, forgive me L.

First we went to Chiloe which is written below on that other blog

Than the next week us, E, J and they’re family all went to the mountains to hang out with people up there.  Now I thought Chiloe was in the boondocks, this place was about 100 miles past the boondocks lol nah but for real its quite a ways from any town. To get there we took a big greyhound like bus for like 3 hours, and the last end of those three hours we were like on this little tiny dirt road flying around the mountain like we were on highway 70. Than we got to a dead end like a beach type thing haha funniest place I’ve seen a big bus like that. Dropped all the passengers and all their stuff off on the beach, then we waited for a ferry boat to bring us down this other river thingy. So we all piled on and took the ferry for like an hour. The water was beautiful crystal clear, and great scenery. I was overwhelmed with the creator, and His creation.

Anyways we got to the other side which was just as rural as the other side. There was a bus there to pick people up, but it couldn’t fit all of us, which is a pretty big deal, because if you know Chilean buses there are always piles of people way more than it is meant for. So the bus driver says I’ll come back and get you guys in like three hours. So we all just kinda planted ourselves and all our stuff on this dirt road by the water. In the mean time, another guy was there, and E got to share the gospel with him. Awesome! Also Kirsten,  Nacho, and me went swimming in frigid crystal clear water.

That was fun. Anyways then before we know it after about an hour, we were throwing our stuff over a barb wire fence.

E and J, know the owners of this cabin and have stayed in it before.

So here we are, standing outside of the cabin, all of our stuff in a heap on the ground, and right away E and Jeff got back on the bus and are off figuring out stuff and getting the keys.  It all happened so fast lol.  We just chilled for awhile.  Pretty much all of us were just ready to settle in, eat and sleep.

Finally, we got so sick of doing nothing and waiting that we checked all the windows to see if we could get in.  And wouldn’t you know.  On the second floor and window was cracked just a little bit.  So I climbed up the rickety ladder we found, and tumbled into the hosue with a THUD. :p

So, we began making dinner and finding dishes to eat with and putting up the tents while it was still light outside.  By this time, about 2 hours had passed since we first got there and we still didn’t know where E and Jeff were.  So we decided to just sit down and eat.  When we were basically done, a truck pulled up and Jeff and E hopped out.  I was thinking, “Oh good.  Finally we can relax and go to sleep.”  Nope.  They came flying over to us to tell us that we weren’t, in fact, allowed to stay there, and we needed to leave right away.  That was crazy.  All of the sudden we were running around, tearing down tents, washing dishes, and throwing all of our stuff into the pickup.  No one really talked.  We just did stuff very fast. hahaha

Then, as we were all squished in the back of this pickup, heading to another house, it hit me.  We just broke into a house, made a fire, and ate dinner.  WHAT?!  I mean, how would you react if you came home to a heated stove and a pot of spaghetti?  I think I would be freaking out a little.  But luckily, everything turned out ok.  No one was mad, and the couple enjoyed the leftover spaghetti :]

So we got to this other house like 10 minutes away, and by this time it was pretty much dark.  So we reassembled all of our tents as fast as we could in the pasture area of the yard and then of course went inside to have some mate with the family.  At this time, I was pretty wiped out and ready to just crash, so we all squeezed into our cozy tents, and before too long I was out. 

Anyways, that whole process was kinda fun for me, I love things like that flying by the seat of your pants, having adventures and stuff. Anyways we visited like 5 houses, Just telling people about the Love of the Father, and hanging out with them drinking some mate. This seems like the cultural way to win souls around here.  I like it a lot its relational and personal.  We walked a lot a lot. The main house we went to that E and J knew pretty good. We stayed there for most of one of the days. This family (Mom, Son, Daughter) had an autistic daughter 8 years old. Their house was horrible living conditions, real poor.  Although such a happy kid, she would get these pains all the sudden and start crying, her Mom couldn’t really do anything about it I couldn’t really understand what it was from but something to do with her autism. So all she could do was hold her while she cried. With my family we could just go buy some medicine and take the pain away. I got to share a word with the Mom, (who is a Christian btw) out of Joshua 1:5b-7 the I will never leave you alone, I will never forsake you, I’m always here one. Actually I think it was Joshua. Shes a strong woman for sure, I guess she kinda has to be.  It was a real good conversation and I got to learn a lot about her and the struggles she faces.  She hadn’t left their property for like 2 years. Day after day in that house with her daughter.  Also she has a husband whos an alcoholic, and works somewhere far away and comes back every couple weeks. Sometime they don’t even know when hes getting back.  Sometime I feel so helpless in those kinda situations, I don’t really know what to feel,  like “God what can I do for them!” He’s like, help them understand the hope that you have in me.I’m definitely still learning about this big world and what God’s doing in it.  Basically I was just overwhelmed with the blessings I have. All my brothers and sisters are healthy, they live in a good house with everything we need. Ya know?  Since I’ve been here I often find myself asking God why? He has to keep reminding me that sin causes these unfair things in the world. Ugh it breaks my heart.  Anyways now they’re son is living with our family here for the school year because obviously there are no schools out in ten buck two. So its been cool getting to know him a little bit too.

Anyways the week after that, we went to Argentina to renew our visas, and take a little rest for 6 days. So we stayed at a hostel in Bartiloche. Personally I feel like I rest different than other people, I just can’t seem to feel that rested when Im just sitting there reading a book or something haha. Actually there were a lot of English speaking people it was like the first time we’ve spoken English to more than just each other for a long time.  I've decided I love hostels :).  They're like all younger people, who are either backpacking or just having adventures traveling around. So I've also decided that basically I'm going to have to travel a country or continent or something someday and meet a bunch of cool people, and sleep in weird places, have crazy stories... ahh someday.  While we were there I got to talk to a lot of different people in my own language which was a little easier for me to share exactly what was on my heart to them about Jesus and stuff. We met a pretty cool girl from Austrailia and she might be visiting us here pretty soon because shes passing through our area. Anyways we got to hear her story and about the things shes struggled with and stuff. Right now her heart is searching so so much. Isn’t that true with a lot of young people.  I hope to get to talk to her more about those kinds of things when she passes through here.  While I was there I felt like I had way to much time to think. For me when I stop moving is when I think lol. So many of those things have been flying through my head lately, Thinking about what are the next steps God wants me to step this coming summer and all that. Basically too much time to think and my mind was flooded with all kinds of things, the past the present and the future. So I’m happy to be back in the zone again, trying to stay focused on the moment and where God has me right now.

This is getting kinda long but I have one more thing to tell you. This last week we went to Chiloe again, all of us except our leader. Lately I have been praying for our team to use more of the power of Christ through the Holy Spirit, and that we could acquire more boldness.  We’ve also talked about it quite a bit. I think we’re all on board that we want more and more of the Holy Spirit. I think the things that are holding us back is fear in our team.  Please pray for us again for more and more of the Spirit.  Anyways while we were there we visited a guy who is basically on his death bed, and not a Jesus follower. We knew that before we got there so we started praying that He would poor out His power on this man when we lay hands on him, that Jesus would heal him. This is kinda a step for some of my team. So I was really encouraged. Than we got there and prayed for him with boldness and pleaded the blood of Jesus over his body, and that through the power of Jesus he would be healed.   Than he gave his life to Jesus! Praise the Lord! The next morning we had a church service at his house, with him and his wife and two daughters who I believe are Christians. He was up walking around and he looked very peaceful. So I don’t really know what happened in his body but I’m still claiming in my heart that hes healed right now.

This week for us has been quite the week. E went to Santiago to do a funeral and be with that family, and we stayed back and are doing stuff in Alerce. Yesterday some of us visited some people and it was sooooo good. God was working like crazy.  Lately everyone is taking turns getting sick it seems. Also we think I broke my thumb lol. I was messing around with the kids yesterday and did fell back on it. Anyways it hurts pretty good. But this whole week we have been spiritual warfareing like crazy the devil dosen’t have any victory over us! Thank you for listening and I’m excited to see you all in may, and swap stories about our Father. Grace and Peace to you all.      

Hola mi amigos!!

People of the World!!!  How are you!??  Time is flying by for me. We’ve been here for little over two months and it seems like it’s only been a week! But also at the same time is seems like I’ve lived here for a long time.

This last week we went to an Island called Chiloe. Quite the adventure you might say.  Before we even left last week, P-stor told us we should probably come prepared to share the word.  So the day before I left I was flying through the Bible asking God what He wants to share with His people. I was mainly looking at two chapters. Then later that day Jeff gave me a sweet, little, encouraging, note thingy, with one of the same verses in it! Crazy! Anyways then that night I had a meeting/one-on-two kinda thingy with P-stor and his wife. The first couple minutes we were talking he opens the Bible up to the exact other spot I was looking at in the Bible. So basically God layed it right down for me. Sweet! Two chap. Were Heb 12:1-11, Phil 2:1-5.

Anyways then we left the next morning at a wopping 7 in the morning. Got to Chiloe like 3pm or something, you’d be surprised how far out into the wilderness a bus will take you.  We hung out at the other P-stors house there. That night we had a itty bitty church service thingy. Jeff and Beth lead their worship in Spanish, what beasts J.  Then we all were split up into different houses, so my perspective of the story will be a little different than my other teammates but you can ask them if you wanna know more :p. 

Then on Wed. we woke up and me and Clay were so blessed to have hot shower! I was like score!! It was such a cool little contraption thingy to get hot water over the fire. Real cool, anyways  just thought I’d throw that in there.  So after breakfast we started off to a bunch of houses. These trails we were taking to get to peoples houses were like the jungle! They knew those trails like the equivalent to someone knowing  the streets of NYC their whole life.  So we stopped at a lot of peoples house, like way way back in the sticks super rural. Basically Clay, Camila and I did most of the talking at the houses. Our host knows the Lord also but she didn’t do much talking (btw these are all people she knows, except for like 2). That was pretty challenging for me, with my not so great Spanish skills lol. Clay would have to translate my Spanish sometimes. Plus I think that people in Chiloe have a little different dialect.  This was definitely a time when I had to really really trust the Lord, with what I was going to say for God, and how I was going to do it. Usually we have Pastor close by or someone that can kinda pull us out of a predicament if need be. I realized how much I’ve gone through my life and really don’t “have” to trust God that much ya know? Like especially as Americans, what do we really have to trust God with? A lot if you think about it, but if ya don’t think about it like most of us do most times, we don’t really. Anyways all that to say, this was one of those times, I was quite nervous, but also felt quite reliant on God, I realized I like this, that’s how I always want to be. Anyways He definitely came through and showed Himself to a lot of people through us. We got to pray with almost every single family that we went to and shared the gospel with them.  There was one family imperticular that really stuck out to me. They’re house was awful living conditions. I didn’t see a single stitch of food anywhere and the kids were basically wearing rags. They had 4 kids, of which one was in the hospital. They’re one year old daughter has severe down-syndrome and some other problem that I couldn’t really understand, and was pretty much living at the hospital. I don’t know how they were paying for it. But the Dad kept saying he thinks its his fault that his daughter is like this, that G-d is punishing him or something. So after we talked with them for a while, we prayed for them, and the spirit was moving and working there. Afterwards we were sitting there, and I felt a burden to give them 10 mil, which is equivalent to 20$, no more no less, that’s just what G-d was putting in my brain. But I was like why would I bring my wallet on this hiking all over adventure, where am I going to get 10 mil G-d? Then I’m like “Clay,” but then I was like nah he prolly was thinking the same thing as me about caring your wallet through the jungle lol. However, I was wrong! He pulls out 10 mil, and we got to bless the family with it (after asking Camila if that would be offensive of course).  I still have been thinking about that family a lot. If you think about it please p--y for them.  Other  houses, we could just feel a heaviness of spiritual warfare. Our host said that in the country like this there are lots of witchcraftful things happening out there.  After learning that we prayed the blood of Jes-s over every house. One house we were in, we were all praying and just as I was saying in the name of Jes-s be gone from this house any evil spirits, and pleaded the blood, the door flung open! There was like a dramatic amount of wind that came with it also. Crazy stuff G-d was doing! I saw Him working a lot. Also we got to witness three people get bptzed. It was beautiful picture. 

Like I said the rest of my team has a different story because we were all spread out, but you’ll have to ask them. God is working here, He’s been teaching me so much, this has definitely been the most…different for lack of a better word, experience of my life.  Sometimes it’s the hardest experience, sometimes it’s the best, sometimes it’s the most I’ve learned in the past 10 years lol. Language is coming a lot better for all of us I think.  I was talking with Kirsten about when we get back to the States, we are really gonna try and take advantage of knowing the language. We have no idea how much of a blessing words are. Sometimes I think if I just knew Spanish I could describe the Father and His love for them so much better (and faster for that matter :p).

Well I think that’s enough for now, but be blessed, and have a wonderful day.  He is still on the throne!!  

Whats Crackalackin!!>>>

Hey guys!

Sorry it’s been so long since my last blog J I’m not very good at this blog thingy. However, it’s only because I’m not a very good writer, not because I don’t wanna talk to you guys. :p I miss everyone at home a lot, and love to hear from home.

Yesterday was our first once a week kids club type thingy. It went soooo good I loved it. It was kinda like a day of VBS except not at a church or anything it was at our Coordinator’s house, which is a perfect place to do it, because they live smack dab in the middle of a zillion houses (exaggerating a little :p). We had a lesson about John the Baptist which I didn’t really understand all the way lol, but the kids did, our Coordinator did that part. Then we had snack which was a ton of fruit. Then it was on to our part, games, woohoo! We started with musical chairs in the middle of the street :p, so a couple times someone would yell “Auto”!, and we would all grab the chairs and step off the road haha. Then we played more typical American VBS games, it was fun stuff. So that was kinda our tester Saturday, because we didn’t totally know what to expect. Ya never know around here :p. Glory to G-d!

Today was ch-rch!  It was so good! Our ch-rch is pretty tiny, but the walls were bursting at the seams! Glory to G-d! We had communion and feet washing too, which quite different than I had seen it before, only washed one foot haha. Anyways the Sundays before this one there has not been many people at all. Our team and Coordinator and his family were all very encouraged. Actually today was a really great day. The day started out with our team starting fresh, and unified which is about the first time we’ve had a talk like that and made a conscious effort to be one. It was a big deal for our team.

We started this new book study thingy. All the teams are required to do it throughout outreach but we just started this week.  Anyways it’s so good. First let me tell you about our new schedule I’m getting to ahead of myself. So as you know last month was like learning month and getting to know the language and culture. So this month, our schedule has changed pretty drastically. First we wake up at 6 am do quiet time until 7, then we go over to the other house and do devotions with the rest of the family and the boys. Then we eat breakfast at 8, and be back at the house at 9 to do like lessons on m-nistry in Spanish kinda things. The rest of the schedule is not that solid the rest of the day, usually after Spanish stuff we might go to someone’s house for a visit, or to work. Then we go back and eat lunch, then work projects for the rest of the day until 6. Then usually there is some random thing we do in the evening that has to do with m-nistry.

So with all that being said, Experiencing G-d (which is the workbook we’re doing) I usually do in the morning along with my quiet time. This first week it was talking about how we’re always looking and waiting for God’s will in our lives. “God, when do I go? Where do I go? How do I do it? Who will I be with?” I don’t know about you but those words have definitely come out of my mouth. In the book it says God may be first saying enter a love relationship with Me, Get to know me, adjust your life to me, Let me love you and reveal Myself through you to a watching world. That is what I have been learning this week. All the sudden I gotta go quick but I love and miss you all! God Bless you!