18.3.13

I didn’t get much time to write this week- it seems like life just keeps picking up, spinning faster and faster. But there are some breaks inbetween all the busyness, and they are so sweet. Haha. A couple of highlights from this week:

·         We went to a huge public market on Wednesday, to ask for food donations for the orphanage. We broke into two groups, and would ask each vendor we passed if they would like to donate some food to feed our kids (and us ;)). Some people said no, some gave us money (six pesos, hahaha), others gave a couple onions or avocados, and some people gave really generously, like a whole bag of carrots or a crapload of fruit. It was neat to see just what asking a simple question does, and it was okay to be rejected- not everyone had surplus that they could give.

·         On Saturday, we had our “Extreme Challenge” (like we always do), and this weekend, instead of a physical beating :P, it was a ministry challenge. We were told to break into three groups, mixing boys and girls, and we were given five hours to complete a list- kind of like a scavenger hunt, but with people and goals. One of the things listed was to worship on a public corner for 8 minutes (one of my personal favorites- it was raining, and I didn’t know any of the songs very well, but we sang at the top of our lungs and clapped and danced anyway); seek out a police officer and thank them for the work they do, and ask if we can pray for them and their protection; locate someone from Africa, Europe, or Asia and share the gospel with them and pray for them (this one was neat, because we spotted foreign people on a tourbus, so Gustavo tried to talk to them in Spanish but they didn’t understand cus they were German, so I prayed for them in English cus they understood that, and translated for Gustavo, and yeah! It was neat to use my native tongue :P); enter a coffeeshop, and ask God for a specific word of affirmation or encouragement to share with someone. This last one was neat too, I was praying but not really receiving anything, so I went to the bathroom. The bathroom was in a dark hall, and the bathroom was even darker, like I could even see, and I was kind of afraid cus I don’t like the dark in general, so I had to slide my hand all over the walls to find the lightswitch- which I finally found, and then I could see clear. When I came back to our table, I wasn’t really sure if that was a word from God or not, or if I was trying to pull random things out in my desperateness haha, but anyways we got up and shared with a young woman what we thought God had put on our heart. Gustavo had seen something to do with a son, and Brayan had gotten something about family or wanting a family. I told her that sometimes in our lives, we have parts of ourselves that are super dark and obscure and we have no idea where anything is, and we have to be brave enough to reach around and find that switch, so we know where we are and what we’re doing. The girl told us she had found the light a year and a half ago, and her dad had died a year ago, and that she didn’t have a son but yes wanted a family one day, and that her sister had slipped into a deep depression after her dad had died. Anyways so we chatted for awhile, prayed with her, and told her we’d pray for her sister as well. That was neat. Other groups came back with stories how they walked the whole time because none of them had money for bus tickets, another girl had gotten a word from God telling her to tell this young man “don’t worry about your upcoming trip- it’s going to be fine, and you’ll be safe”, so she walked up to the this boy the word was for, shared it, and he was dumbstruck cus she was right on. He said “Wow.. I normally don’t believe in God or things like this, but maybe I should! Thank you!” One other thing we did that I really liked was get on the public bus, and all of us prayed silently for the bus driver, and wrote down on a piece of paper what we felt like God wanted to tell him. Well while we were doing this, a man dressed as a clown got on, and started talking and SHARING THE GOSPEL! We were like “awesome!” So we talked to him afterwards, and asked him if he wanted to come with us for a bit, and he did! It was really neat.

·         One day, we went to Naciones Church to do cleaning for FOUR hours. The church has flags of practically every country hanging from the ceiling, so the boys put together scaffolding, and we had to push them around so they could take down the flags, then washed the flags, then put them back up! It was a lot of work, considering the ceiling is like forty feet high. Not complaining ;)

·         I have had quesadillas twice from street vendors, and I am officially announcing that I am breaking vedge to indulge myself. I believe that street vendor meat is more local ;P, and the food is just too tasty to pass up!

That’s about all I can sum up! I hate to write novels for my blog posts unless I really need to. Hope this week is lovely for you readers, and this week I challenge you to break out of your comfort zone, to ask God to give you something out that challenges you. Don’t just ask Him once, and without commitment- keep asking till you get it! He will come through for you, sometimes not always in the ways you expect, but He’ll come through, He won’t leave you dry and empty-handed.