Abundant Blessings

¡Feliz Navidad y Año Nuevo a todos!

Apologies to all for not responding very well to emails and not blogging often enough. I´m on a huge guilt trip right now, because I haven´t been good in keeping in communication with people. One of my New Year´s resolutions is to write people and blog weekly. We will see how that goes, but I really need to do it, for my own sake, and for other´s.

These days I have been doing very well. I sort of feel like I (and the rest of the group too maybe), have moved into a new phase of our being here. Two months have passed, and I am finally starting to feel comfortable speaking in spanish, understanding more, making more friends, and feeling more at peace with God and being here. I´ve settled more into enjoying life here, searching for opportunities to see God, receive love, and give love, and not be as restless in asking questions of God all the time. I´m growing to love my host family more, and feel loved by them.

Although I missed my family and everything familiar at Christmas, in retrospect, Christmas and New Year´s here were good experiences of bonding with my family here, and learning how to celebrate Christ´s birth without all the familiar. God is creating some new work in me, and I feel myself growing into a person more rooted in prayer, filled with a deeper thirst to follow God, and desire to give my life over to service in the name of Jesus.

These days have also been filled with more activities (as will the upcoming months), which I think help me from getting bored (which are the moments when I also tend to get more pensive and down). The four of us were helping with the pre-adolescent camp of the church the past Wed thru Sat. We camped out with 54 kids (and many other adult and youth helpers, thank God) in tents on the church chacra (farm) right outside the town. Each day we helped as being team leaders, leading devotion times, joining in worship with the children, helping in the kitchen, accompaning them to the canal where we swam, and playing. It was a joy, and the constant talking with the kids was great spanish practice. It reminded me how much I enjoy working with children, and makes me want to help with kids´ camps when I return to the States. I remember these sort of church camps were formative in my faith when I attended them as a child.

Only one bad thing happened though....Leah got very sick on Friday with an episode of acid reflux/terrible stomach inflamation and pain. This was the third time she has had this type of pain while being here, but this time was the worst. With Amaris Sieber (the pastor´s wife who speaks English), we went to the clinic, and then the emergency room in the hospital. They were able to give her some medicine to calm the inflamation and pain to some degree (as well as an IV later), but it was so hard to see her in such pain. I then spent the night with her in the hospital, which was a bit of a surreal experience. The nurses and doctors were very nice, but being woken up in the middle of the night various times really confused me, and it felt like a dream. But, by Saturday noon, Leah was feeling much better, and we returned to the chacra for the end of the camp. Leah has medicine to take now, and a list of foods to stay clear of, especially the maté. Please continue to keep her in your prayers, for her physical healing. I really hope that the rest of our time here is sickness-free for her (and for the rest of us).

This week, I am looking forward to our trip with Juan Sieber to the nearby town of Belisle , where we will eat lunch, get to know more people in the village, and pray. It is exciting to be starting this new mission work there--I feel like it is something God is challenging me in (because I´ve never been involved in a church planting or such a form of evangelism), and yet is also preparing and equipping us with the tools of language and the power of the Holy Spirit to complete our part in the work of God.

On Friday evening, we will leave with a group from the church for Aguada Cecilia and Pailiman, in the campo, for the viaje misionero. It will be good to return to these places for a second time, now knowing more what to expect, and to build more relationships. The last trip was an eye-opening experience into the greatness of God, in the broadness of God´s love to all ends of the Earth, even to these isolated places. I am learning much about missions from people in this church--the importance of regular visiting and fellowship with new or isolated believers, the power of prayer to transform lives and situations that seem hopeless, involving believers of all ages in the mission work, and much more.

The rest of January involves us going to the province of Buenos Aires for the national youth camp, and the return of Delbert and Frieda. We might start up some form of Spanish classe with them when they return, but right now, we are getting some lessons from Amaris and one of the youth who we teach English to.

I sat outside my neighbor´s house this morning, sheltered from the hot sun by the thick green grape vines, heavy with fruit. In my devotions for the day, I meditated on the verse of John 10:10. "I came that you may have life, and have it abundantly."

God has blessed me more than I can know, more than I can describe. When I come before Christ, giving to Him my burdens and all my worries, letting Him breath into my life, my eyes are opened to how abundant my life is. I give all my praise to God, for God has been good to me. I pray for moments each day when I am aware enough to taste the sweetness.

Abundant blessings to all this new year,

Andrea