Sunday 28-9-14

I have officially been here over a month. It makes me sad that time is going by so quickly. This week has been very good though. I was able to visit two of the ministries a second time. One of which is where i plan to serve for the rest of the year. My roommates and i were able to tag along with some a group of missionaries that were visiting from all over south and central america. They were awesome and very funny. We had a lot of fun with them. We were sad when they left because we enjoyed hanging out with them.

Tuesday 23-9-14

I cannot believe one month of being here quickly is approaching. Just three more days. It is going by way to fast. Life here is amazing. The people here are awesome. My spiritual life here is great. I cannot ever have enough time with God but here i am getting close to having a satisfying amount every day. I love being with Christians who are in the same place spiritually as me. I love when others share what God has been teaching them in their quiet time, but i love our tuesday prayer groups even more. We pray constantly here. It is awesome.

I spent all my free time in the afternoon doing my homework. It paid off. I had all my homework done long before anyone else so i had no idea what to do for the rest of the evening. There is a marriage conference going on here for some missionaries, who are from all over central and south america. A few of them of them have children with them so while the parent were in the conference the kids were being babysat by some older missionary kids. Two of them live here at score. Their names are Julieta and Lucia. Julieta is fifteen and called me by name the second time i saw her even though the first was in a group where a bunch of people introduced themselves at once. I was very impressed. I am surprised how quickly people here pick up my name and remember it. But back to the missionary kids. I am not sure how old Lucia is but she is younger than Julieta. Since all my homework was done i went over and joined them playing with the kids. We played four square for awhile, which was a lot of fun. Then we colored. I joined Lucia and another girl who were drawing with chalk. I was drawing a flower when the girls both got up and ran to chase the four square ball or something. Then the intern walked up and asked if i was having fun sitting there drawing all by myself. Ummm. So yeah, i had a great evening and am so glad i was able to have all my homework done so early. This is just small piece to my wonderful day. When i journal at night, I can look back over my day and see so many God given blessings. God is good.

Saturday 20-9-14

This has to be one of my best days here so far. We all had a great time today. What was originally planned as just a fun day, was changed to a ministry day. We took a field trip to some historical caves that have indian cave drawings inside them. It may or may not be where Jurassic park was filmed. But the best part was that we took five children from Emanuel's house, which is one of ministries. These five children have sponsors who gave money for their birthday. Their teacher had tried to decide what to do with the children to make it a special for them. Most of these children have not been out side their very small community. It almost equivalent to someone never traveling outside of Tully. Our leader had come to us and asked if we would be okay if they came with us. Everyone excitedly agreed. Well at least I did.

God was with us that day. The five children had a great time. Everything went smoothly. At least from my point of view. There was one girl who usually gets very car sick. Jaime, our leader, said don't worry about because i have been praying about it for days. She was right, God heard her prayers. And I am very thankful to God because she sat next to me. :)

After our trip to jurassic park we stopped at a store so the kids could finish spending their birthday money on some items they needed. My roommates and i had a blast. After one little boy had picked out a pair of shoes, article of clothing and a toy ( all under $15) we kept busy by racing around the store in the kart. He was giggling so loud. Yes i am that crazy american. I never go unnoticed over here :)

Tuesday 16-9-14

I love tuesdays. This the day we meet to talk about the schedule and plans for the week and then break into our prayer groups. There are two others in my prayer group. Amanda who is the oldest student and is in my apartment. She is very motherly to my roommates and me. The other person in my group is Jaime our leader. I have really spending time in prayer with them, even though i dislike praying aloud. Next we will switch the groups up and i will miss praying with them a lot.

This weeks Bible class has been on apologetics. The class has been awesome. Today we talked some great apologetics and Ravi is at the top of the list. I watched a lot of his Utube videos right before i came so for the first time i felt comfortable enough to speak up in class. We have a new class subject and teach every week so it is hard for an introvert to participate. The teacher used to be in the military so he makes fighting analogies. I have started really missing boxing. After class i spent some time teaching my roommate how to box. We had fun and i enjoyed being back in the defensive mode for a little while. I miss boxing but i am very happy here. No mater how much i miss stuff back home it will not over power my joy of being here because life here is just that amazing.

Sunday 14-9-14

I love attending the spanish church here. I do miss my American church a lot but i enjoy worshipping in spanish more than I thought i would. I was allowed to work in the nursery. There were several crying kids. A couple of kids fought. The room was very small. But i loved it. I miss my younger siblings and i do not have the chance to play with kids all that much.

Sunday evenings, us students hold a little english service. Some of us shared our testimony. I was really excited to share mine. I ended up going second and cried through it because i had already started during the first girls. Hers was really good. We ended with singing How He Loves, which has become like our theme song. After we finished, we met in our leader's apartment for milksakes. It were so good. I enjoyed hearing everyone's testimonies (those who shared them) and it was just a great day all around.

Saturday 13-9-14

After lunch, the boys from one of the ministries came over to score to swim. We all went over and joined. It was a great time playing with the boys and getting to know them better. Last time, when we visited them, i only was able to get to know a few boys. I now six of the boys' names down, which is half, so i am doing good. They are very well behaved and a blast to play with.

Thursday 11-9-14

Today is a big day for everyone but to my roommate it is just her birthday. We celebrated good. She was given a brownie for breakfast. Our leader gave a birthday hat to wear all day long. We decorated our apartment. One of the guys had made a cake a couple of days earlier so we ate it while it was fresh and celebrated the three birthdays in this month. After eating the cake, we played games all night.  Which of course ended with someone in the pool.

Wednesday2 10-9-14

So they us in the beginning that seeing tarantulas was rare and they did not see to many scary things last year. In our first two weeks we have seen two tarantulas. One very big water spider. Last but not least one centipede. A couple of nights ago a girl woke up with it on her face. We have not been sleeping well since. Well some are not. I am too tired at night to even care, except I do shake out my blankets every night. We have lost just a little faith in our leaders. Some even asked if they had told us that these big bugs were rare to see just to keep us from being frightened.

Wednesday 10-9-14

Our ac broke in the main part of our house. I am actually very thankful for the inconvenience. Like cory tenboom i want to be thankful for the " fleas." I am thankful for the broken air conditioner because for the first time since being here i feel like i am getting a good taste of what it will be like as a missionary. I am thankful for my mosquito covered legs, again for the better understanding of what a missionary has to deal with. I am thankful for tarantulas because, when dead, they are great for pranks, laughes, and some screams. I am blessed. Life here is amazing because i am with Christians who put God first in their lives and as comunity put God first. My apartment has started praying every morning before leaving for breakfast and has made a huge difference in how i view my day.  Prayer works.

Monday 8-9-14

It has officially been two weeks away from home, which i think is the longest it has ever been. My apartment mates and i are starting to deal with some stuff. Not with each other but internally. Everyone seemed to be dealing with something so we sat down and spent some time praying together. It has definitely made a difference. Such a great group of girls God has given me to spend these months with.

Sunday 7-9-14

It is a special kind of  worship when you feel moved by a worship song that you are singing in a language you do not quite understand yet.

First complete week

They told us the american styles and trends completely changes every 16 months. I was listening to klove today for the first time since being down here. I have listened to four songs so far, two of which are new and i have never heard before. It is happening already. If i were to come back today i would already find it hard to adjust back and it has only been a week. I was never very american anyways. :D It just makes me want to stay here all the more.