Everyday Life.. in Some Foreign Country

2007-10-22T13:03:00.000-07:00

Okay, this will probably be brief, but for the last month, I have been in Puerto Madryn, a little city in the south of Argentina (on the ocean, nonetheless!!) working as a translator/DTS staff member. It`s been a wonderful time here, full of many growth opportunities. I feel so full of life again, so full of purpose and goals and joy.
Last Friday night, I preached at the base meeting... it was my first time preaching ever, and now everyone`s calling me Pastor! So, I`ve discovered that I kind of enjoy preaching. As well, I´m working with the worship ministry here, which has been wonderful.
I have been invited by the base directors to go on the two-month outreach to Peru at the end of December, which is really neat. It seems I`m slightly prophetic, because when I was in Canada, I told my family I`d be spending the holidays in Peru this year instead of going home. How crazy is God!
Basically, I`ve got a lot of decisions to make, as people here on the base have made it quite clear that they want me to stay here for good. The truth is that I`d love to.
Please be praying that God would be revealing His will to me.
Love you guys!

Of El Campo (The Desert) and The New (Unfinished) House

2007-07-19T11:50:00.000-07:00

Alrighty, well, it´s certainly been a while.

Okay, for starters, I´m back home (in Mendoza), and actually have been for a few weeks, but life has just been that crazy. I got back here on Friday, June 29th. I was able to spend a full day here before going to Buenos Aires to meet the team from my church at the airport. I cannot tell you how exciting it was to see them arrive. That evening, we all took the bus back to Mendoza, where we were met with a massive asado and welcome program! It was so neat to see my YWAM family get so excited about my church family.

The next morning, we left for a week and some in the desert, where we visited schools, ran a NIKO camp, built a house, and cleared away bushes to make a road. It was an amazing time, where God just did so much. It was such a huge blessing for me to be able to see Him working in the hearts of these young people. We were blessed so much not only by the actual service that they did, but even more by the joyful attitudes that they had towards everything. As well, it was a lot of fun to get to know them, and have them grow to love the people that I love so much here. When their bus pulled away towards Buenos Aires last night, I have to admit that I was a mess! It didn´t halp that a number of the girls on the team were crying as well, but it was especially hard to have to say goodbye to Michael. I wish that he could have stayed longer, that´s for sure.

Well, I am living in my house at the base... which is quite interesting. All 7 of us are crammed into 2 of the bedrooms right now, as they are the only rooms that have glass in the windows. Let me tell you, it makes for cold nights! We just had some electricity put in a few weeks ago, although it´s not finished yet. We currently have no bathrooms, no plumbing of any sort, no kitchen, no flooring , and, as previously mentioned, no glass in most of the windows. It´s a frustrating thing to have to just wait until more money comes in. Please pray that God will be doing miracles with our house so that we´ll be able to continue on with it. I´d sure like to have a bathroom, at least! That being said, it´s still exciting to be in my own house, as incomplete as it is!

2007-03-17T12:48:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I'm back in Calgary, and it's been a really weird adjustment.

But today I get to meet with the team coming down this summer, which I'm so excited about. Bekah and I get to run the whole meeting, which will be a lot of fun! Then, this evening I'm going to the Flames game with my dad, which is always a blast.

Then, tomororw, Bekah and I get to speak at the young adult's missions conference at our church... and I get to lead worship... in English! That'll be an experience, something I've never done before!

Anyway, I guess that's about it right now.

Those back in Mendoza, I miss you a lot!!

Of Things Supernatural

2007-02-11T08:32:00.000-08:00

Well, it´s been a very interesting week. Very intense, but very good. The last few weeks I´ve felt so at home here in Mendoza, and it´s been a while since I´ve felt that, to be honest.

In the last five days, I´ve done worship three times, had a ton of meetings with my worship team, and been able to translate. It´s been really encouraging, and just fun overall to be able to be doing the things that I´m here for! As well, some new exciting challenges have come up, and it´s just been awesome to be able to see God´s faithfulness through them. I have to say, I´m so excited about all the different dreams that He´s been putting in the hearts of the people on the base, and I can´t wait to swee them become reality!

That being said, please pray for the spritual atmosphere around the base right now. There´s been a lot of oppression. It´s definitely a time of struggle with the supernatural. A couple nights ago, I had been having trouble sleeping – something just didn´t feel right to me- which doesn´t happen all that often. (The last time it happened was very much connected to the spiritual.) So, I got dressed and went outside for a bit. Then, I just felt God telling me to go to the football field and pray for the school (we have a soccer DTS going on right now), so I did. I didn´t really know what to pray, but God just kept bringing stuff to my mind, and finally, after a half-hour, I felt peace with going back to bed. The next morning, my roommate told me that in the middle of the night she had heard a voice coming from a part of the room where none of our heads were. It sounded angry, aggressive, ¨like someone was trying to sound evil¨, and she couldn´t tell if it was female or male. It spoke in Spanish, and she said that when it spoke, she was terrified, and thought to wake one of the other girls, but realized it wasn´t any of us speaking. As well, later that morning, I was waiting to lead worship for the DTS, and I arrived early, so I heard them giving their reports of what they had prayed for during their intercession time. They told us how they´d prayed for themselves, against all kinds of things like frustration and anger... and each one of the things were things that God had lead me to pray for them the night before. The worship time that followed was an amazing time. Have you guys ever had times where His presence is just so overwhelming that you can´t help but cry? It was one of those times for me.

One thing I love about Mendoza is when it rains. For me, having rain when you live in a desert symbollizes change, that the presence of God is falling down on His people. That afternoon, it poured. Although, I can´t say I´m surprised! Every time we sing Haz Llover (Let It Rain), it rains. Praise God!

Anyway, please pray for the spiritual atmosphere on the base. We´re going thorugh this massive time of warfare here, and I feel like we´re about to break through, which is why I think we´re getting hit so heavy right now. Pray for my roommates and I. A couple of us have been having horrible nightmares, which I have no doubt that it´s because of what´s going on at the base. Last night, I had a dream so awful that I was crying in my sleep. Pray that God sends us angels at night, and that we´ll able to sleep peacefully.

Of Moldy Clothing and Burning Roads

2007-01-28T11:23:00.000-08:00

So last week was my first week back in Mendoza, and it was definitely an interesting one!

Well, it rained a few times, and our room has serious leakage problems because of the windows, so we ended up with a whole bunch of wet, and mildewy clothing, which was sweet because I had to send them away to get washed so they don't get wrecked, but the best part is that I have no money to pay for it, so yay!

Then, Bekah and I had ourselves quite the adventure going back to the base from town last Thursday night. Since we live in the most dangerous area of the city, one of the ladies told us we should take a taxi because it was dark already. But being the poor missionaries that we are, we took the bus becuase it's expensive to take a taxi. So, we take the bus and a good twenty-five minutes walk before our stop, the police pull over the bus and mention something to the bus driver. A few minutes later, we turn a small corner to see a large mob of people and the road covered in bonfires.. Apparently they were protesting the bus, and we couldn't drive through, so we all had to get out and walk through the hord of people asking for money, around the fires and past the prison at night in the most dangerous area of the city. In fact, a good half of the road doesn't have lights, so it was quite the experience, that's for sure. That being said, God really protected us.

Friday was the fifteenth birthday party of the director's niece (whose family lives at the base). Here, the fifteenth birthday is huge! It's apparently considered the transition from childhood to womanhood, so it was massive! We had a Hawaiian pool party, which we were preparing for for the whole week before, But on Friday, we got to dress up and swim and just hang out, which was a blast.

My time here so far has been very hard, to be honest. I find that I'm missing home a lot, and a lot of frustrations keep surfacing. I talked to my discipler about the decision, and she's praying about it with me. Bu tot be honest, I just feel really overwhelmed and confused and freaked out and burdened by it. I don't know.

Algunas Pensamientos en la Vida Misionera

2007-01-18T12:26:00.000-08:00

Okay, so sitting at this here table, I've had lots of time to think (and be on the internet as y'all have probably noticed). Anyway, here are some of the conclusions that I've come to:

1. I am tired.
2. I miss home a lot.
3. I feel forgotten. It took a certain friend four months to tell me that he's engaged... after I sent him an e-mail, he told me... in a mass e-mail. But I hate being out of the loop and not being able to hang out with you guys and I hate that everytime I open my e-mail it's basically all junk mail.
4. I have no money and am completely freaked out about coming back here in June.
5. I miss hockey. (had to throw that one in)
6. I miss my roommates.

Okay, I guess that was more of a rant than anything, but it was nice to get it out...

Of Tiled Sidewalks and Other Such Things

2007-01-17T08:38:00.000-08:00

Walking through downtown Cordoba this evening got me thinking on the topic of tile sidewalks. Who came up with the idea? Why couldn’t they just pick out just one style instead of a little of everything? Upon further pondering, I came to the conclusion that it’s one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard, as it was raining (as it often does in Cordoba), and myself, wearing flip-flops, was unable to walk without the help of my friend as the wet tile became more slippery than any ice I’ve ever been on. I mean, if they insist on tiling the sidewalk, couldn’t they at least pick a textured tile so that, when wet, it’s still possible to get traction? Geez people, let’s think this through again please!

But now, speaking seriously…

Could you guys pray for me? I got a bank account update e-mail today, and subtracting money for room and board, bus tickets and such, I have about 10 dollars to buy all the groceries I’m going to need for the next two months or so. So, I may be starting a rather lengthy, involuntary fast soon if God doesn’t do some massive miracle. As if it isn’t bad enough to have to wonder if I’ll have enough money for, you know, food, while I was home for Christmas, the base switched the mattress on my bed so one of the DTS students could use it and, in return, I received what is without a doubt the crappiest mattress of all time! Guys, we’re talking so crappy that I was more comfortable sleeping on my friend’s cement floor with nothing but a sleeping bag.

As well, I have a lot of massive decisions regarding the future coming up. I was asked by a friend who's starting a new YWAM base here in Cordoba to come with them and work at the base here, and I'm just not sure. I'd really appreciate if you could pray for clarity for me.

Anyway, I’d appreciate your prayers and love to hear from you guys.

Okay, here I am back in Argentina!

2007-01-16T12:36:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I just got back into the country after surprising my family for Christmas. After a 3 day trip, I got to Mendoza on Wednesday morning... and before I could even unpack, I found myself back cleaning the pool (for like, the bazillionth time in the last few months - ugh!) Anyway, the next morning, the director of the base asks me to go to Cordoba (a province that's a 10 hour bus ride away) that very night... So I hopped right back on a bus and here I am in Cordoba, at a conference promoting YWAM Mendoza... which means I get to sit at a table for 12 or more hours per day. Thank God for wireless internet networks!

Being home for Christmas was really a huge blessing, and even though I basically have no money at all, I don't regret it at all. It was so awesome to surprise everyone and hang out with my family and friends. It was so hard to come back, even though it's only a few more months before I get home again!!

PS- Bekah and Shelly... I miss you lovely ladies!