Do you want a date.....?

WITH JESUS?! That's right. We are doing at outreach at Hechicera (the sciences campus) tomorrow, it's called - "Quieres una cita...?" We will have a big sign with those words on it, and when students come up to see what's going on we're going to explain to them prayer and what it looks like to talk to God, and how they can accept Jesus into their heart. We will also be handing out fliers for our weekly meeting, English club, retreat, etc....The most important thing is to get some people who are truly curious about what a relationship with Jesus looks like. Please be praying! Pray not only for the event itself, also pray that the Vida Estudiantil students who have volunteered would actually show up and that there would be more who are willing to help, especially with translating and that they would have the courage to share Jesus with their peers themselves. We are excited for this first major outreach of the year - please join us and support us in prayer! I'll let you know how it goes!

P.S. Last night for family night, Eben and I were in charge, so we decided to go all out American style and CARVE PUMPKINS. Well, that's not exactly as easy as it sounds. They don't have pumpkins in Venezuela! After traipsing all over town, we discovered the closest thing to pumpkins (they were greenish gourds of some sort) right at the store next to our house - duh!



Not only did we set up pumpkin carving, we also decided to do carmel apples. However, since we can't eat the skin of fruits we peeled them, and rather made carmel apple fondue, of sorts (we even unwrapped like 200 little carmels to melt!) This was Claudia's FIRST ever pumpkin carving experience....I'm pretty sure she liked it, although she did try to steal the pumpkin to make soup instead of carving it...haha. Sarah and I carved our pumpkin to look like Ivan (the jefe), and it came our pretty darn good! All in all it was very entertaining, and a little taste of home that goes a long way to rejuvenate our spirits and lighten our hearts. We love and miss you all at home soooooooooooo much! Thank you for your prayers!

La Culata

Yesterday being Saturday (our free-ish day of the week) we were invited by my beautiful friend Lucia to take a trek into the Andes for the day. So after a little coercing on my end (nature and me, we normally don't mix) and a bucket full of excitement from everyone else we met at 7:30 (ON SATURDAY MIND YOU) A.M. to head off towards these so called Andes. The ride up there was quite entertaining. We were precariously situated on the seats of an old 12 passenger van careening around turns in the road - it would have been an opportune time for the game Jello, had I not been consistently being poked by my van-mates. That is something that has come about as of late - people have discovered my ticklishness and the fact that I tend to let out some sort of squeal-ish noise when poked. This is quickly becoming a pasttime of my team and even some of the Venezuelans! Taylor, you'd be proud. Anyway, so we careened up into the hills for about an hour, keeping ourselves entertained with poking, telling stories from the past week, doing imitations, and flailing about the van at every hairpin turn in the road (there are no seatbelts in Venezuela). We finally arrived up the mountain, only to find, to our dismay that the restaurant at the top (where we would get some breakfast) wasn't open yet! Boo. Poor Angela practically died of hunger. We waited a half an hour for them to open, playing some football (American style, not soccer!), giving massages, and generally keeping up a witty banter until they finally opened. We dined on Pepsi and Pastelitos - little friend pastry type deals with meats and or cheese concoction in them. I don't remember the last time I had meat mixture for breakfast - but it was good! We also paid to use the bathroom - I know!! We PAID money to use the bathroom....silly huh? Well in Venezuela there is no toilet paper in public restrooms, neither is there soap. At this bathroom, it cost us 400 Bs (roughly 15 cents) to use the bathroom, however we were provided with toilet paper as well as soap - sweet! After all of the pastelitos and bathroom fun, we finally headed up into the mountains. It was a nice walk, the views were incredible and it was very quiet up there (with the exception of a few cows, cow pies, and random horses in the road). We found our way to a big boulder which half the group decided to climb. (I opted out, remember - I'm not nature girl, neither did I have any desire to re-injure my knee....) After that we decided to head back down to a little river we passed by. The team was of the mindset to cross it. I personally was not. (Again, bad knees and slippery rocks are not a good plan). However, they weren't havin' it. Eben, the Rock, made it his personal job to make sure I got across the river. Boo. That was scary. We walked up to an observatory point and could see a great view from the top. We headed down again and lunched by the river, all sitting on the one mat brought by Lucia. This took a significant amount of coordination, and eventually, once all of the lunch products had been consumed decomposed into a big pile of us. We spent a while resting there, laughing our heads off, and staring into the sky before it was time to head back and catch the bus back to Merida. On the bus on the way home, we were rather sleepy and SUNBURNT! I nodded off a few times myself I know. All in all, despite my own insecurity in being around nature, it was a great day with great friends and it was cool to be able to just stand there in the midst of God's beautiful creation and enjoy it. Who knows if I'll do it again....we shall see, my friends, we shall see......:)

ham and green cheese, mmmm

Every day there are things that I'm just amazed by/amused by/ enthralled by about this culture that I want to share with you all....I'm going to list a few more, but I'll be adding as I remember more.

Toilet paper goes in the trash, not the toilet.
Public parks get significant staff to take care of them and make sure they are properly maintained (in fact if you step where you shouldn't the blow their whistles at you).
Garbage just goes in any hole that will have it. Trash cans are obselete - whether it be a hole in the sidewalk or a plant - put your trash there, it works.
Everything, and I literally mean everything is fried.
Giving kisses (on the cheek) is normal for hello and goodbye (and if you don't, you're a snob!) P.S. I love this, it's so good.
Reggaeton (basically Latin hip-hop) is everywhere - busses, grocery stores, in cars, in taxis, in the parking lot, etc...
People hang out EVERY night of the week, I don't think weekends really mean much.
Carrying vinegar with you in case of a tear gas explosion is normal.
HAM AND CHEESE is on everything (you eat it for breakfast, in your lasagna, for dessert, it doesn't matter!)
You say hola to everyone and anyone who looks remotely familiar.
Texting is a way of life - no one pays for actual cell phone minutes they just buy texts (i'm getting better at it!)
The men always want you to walk in front of them, or on the side of them if you're by traffic.
People say exactly what they think, there's not a lot of censorship (you just call people fatty, blacky, etc...)
Coffee is only the size of a shot! And that's the "grande" one.
I-pods are virtually unheard of, people are amazed that I have one.
Arepas (basically cornmeal cakes with stuff in them) are an every meal experience.
There's never any guarantee of what will be in the grocery store. Sometimes you have to go to 3 stores in search of milk, before giving up.
Sometimes they have whole aisles with only one product (not even like any variations on the product), just one product.
Being on time is a very fluid concept.
Physical affection is not weird (also something I love!)
It doesn't matter if you hardly know someone, once you meet them once, you're friends for life.
Plug ins only have 2 slots.
They are taught British English, not Amerian English.
They don't wear flip flops.
Clothing - the tighter the better, even for men (ugh!)
Washing fruits and veggies in a bleach/vinegar mixture is a daily occurrence.
Dancing is simply a way of life.
Walking up to people and talking to them, asking them questions is perfectly normal.

Ok I have a million more, but I have to go send some text messages now ( I know right?!) haha.....goodnight folks, I'll pick this up later!

Love, Tear Gas, and .....

It's been a while, yeah? Things have been rather crazy the past week. Life is GOOD. I've found more and more just how much I love these people and this culture. In a moment I'm actually going to write a blog about funny/interesting differences here that I've noticed (I keep thinking of things I want to share but haven't, we'll see how many of them actually come to me while I'm writing it....).

I really do love these people and culture (to reiterate that). When imagining spending a year in Venezuela, I'm not going to lie, there were definitely some things that I was afraid of (bugs, sickness from food/water, Chavez (haha), etc....) and a lot of comforts that I realized that I was going to have to do without. Oddly enough though, I've discovered a love for these people and this style of life that I truly believe is supernatural. While the bugs are still an issue, the food is not quite always what we might have wanted and/or expected, and the world here is not sanitized to perfection the way we do things in the states, I think I've fallen in love with Venezuela. How is that possible you ask? Right, because I was already here once and by no means did I fall in love with it then....I'm really not sure, divine intervention I'd say. I know that this is the place God has for me, right now, for this year (and maybe more! as my beautiful amiga Lucia keeps hinting at) and for that He's given me a heart for these people, and the eyes to see their great need for Him.

Anyway, aside from that. What has been happening? Well looking back over the past week. Sunday was a great day of church (Nueva Vida) and then going to Aura's (a great lady from church) house for lunch (not only us, but also a group of Vida Estudiantil students and various youth from the church). She's a great cook! This was actually our second visit at her house...she has promised to teach me to cook Venezuelan food sometime - I'm excited! Monday consisted mostly in staff meetings, sharing, and a servant team meeting. On Tuesday, the day began normally. We went to the medicines campus in the morning to go sharing. In the afternoon Amanda and I had a meeting on Humanities so we left after lunch and headed there.....It was not to be a normal day after all. We got text messages from various friends during the day telling us of troubles with the bus system, due to some gas problems in Caracas or something like that (I'm really still not sure). We should have been tipped off when our bus went the back way to get to campus (rather than the normal route it's scheduled for). We got to campus and spent some time working on things for English club and chatting with a few Venezuelan friends. We had our meeting to plan for English club in one of the buildings on campus. By this time students had started telling us that there were riots happening out in the street (the reason for the bus confusion) - however, for these students riots are simply a way of life....they told us there was nothing to worry about. After our meeting, Leonel, Amanda and Teo stayed inside the building to chat and I left to go look for some friends. I came across one friend who invited me to sit in the grass with him and his friends. As we sat there listening to one of the gentleman play the guitar, with shouts and shots in the background, suddenly I realized that I was crying and my throat was burning. What?!?! One of the students jumped up, and suddenly people were pouring out of buildings, and covering their faces with clothing. That's right folks, TEAR GAS. I never thought I'd be saying "hey I got tear gassed today". But yes, it's true. It's normal here apparently. The students riot and throw rocks - the police respond with tear gas and rubber bullets. Needless to say the campus was evacuated (through a hole in the fence). Fortunately for us, we were with several Venezuelan gentleman friends from Vida that made sure we got home safe and sound. Apparently the solution is to put vinegar on a cloth and hold it over your face - dang it, how did I not know that....?!?!?!

On Wednesday, we proceeded with life as normal and had our weekly meeting. After significant technical difficulties, we got the show rolling. They made a quick video about my trip to UNESUR, so I actually had to speak at the meeting....though I got scared so I spoke in English and Clau translated. The meeting went very well. Afterwards there seemed to be the beginnings of another riot so about 330 we went home. Today, I got to meet with Lucia this morning and chat about our bible study that begins next week - yay! We also went to Subway for lunch (I know, right?) it's not the same as the US, but it was good. In the afternoon we had English club! This week I actually got to be there and participate - yay! We taught some American slang. Examples: Hey dog, where's the john? I want a cup of Joe, you're over the hill, want to catch a movie? sweet ride, "hitting on", etc.....Hitting on was definitely a favorite.

Anyway, to sum up - it was good week. I have spent a significant amount of time with students this week - despite the chaos and upset over the riots. Tomorrow morning we are going hiking at 7:00 in the morning -eek!

UNESUR.....

I realize that a few days ago I posted my worries about my trip to Santa Barbara. Well, now I've had a few people ask how it went.....so I thought I'd let you know....I WENT REALLY WELL! Praise be to the Lord. I went into the trip with a lot of trepidation and worry, however, it was all completely pointless. I was very well taken care of and blessed to get to spend time with and get to know the Vida Estudiantil-ers in Santa Barbara. The day began at 5:45 AM catching the bus at the Terminal across the street from my apartment with 2 students from Mérida´s Vida Estudiantil - Neptali and Jonas. These students were such a blessing to have with me on the trip, they never left my side and made a huge effort to make sure I knew everything that was going on and was taken care of. Jonas even carried my backpack for me - how nice :)

We arrived in El Vigia, a town about 45 minutes away (also where the airport is) and waited in a Plaza there for about 30 minutes or so. Deisy and Alvaro met us there. They are the two professors who are involved with Vida Estudiantil at UNESUR. How cool!! I've never heard of having professors who were interested and/or a part of the Campus Crusade movement before. It was really exciting to meet them, they are both very positive people who are passionate about the Lord's work at UNESUR. They were already giving a ride to another of their professor friends, so we squished into the car (Jonas, Neptali, and I) as well as this other man in the backseat. That was....interesting, albeit a little painful. It was good though. It was a blessing to be driven in a car rather than continue taking the bus allllllll the way to Santa Barbara (it's in another state than Merida). Along the drive, there were some interesting sights to behold, including pig flesh and pig heads hanging along the side of the road. Which, of course, everyone in the car excitedly pointed out to me, eager for my reaction - ewwwwwwwww.

We arrived in Santa Barbara (which by the way is much more hot and humid than Merida) fairly early. Deisy went in search of the students for the leadership meeting and then led us on a tour of the campus. There were fun hedge sculptures along some of the roads and walkways, meriting these pictures of course. The students (and professors) were all eager to have their picture taken. In fact, I didn't take a single picture the whole time, and yet somehow when I got home I had 40+ pictures on my camera!! That was pretty sweet. We also got to tour the walkway where Vida Estudiantil is going to get a piece of wall to paint a mural on. How cool is that!!? They are still determining what to paint, but I know they want to put the Great Commission verse on it, should be awesome.

We finally began the meeting once all the students had arrived, in a very air conditioned part of the library (I think). It was so air conditioned in fact, I had to wear my fleece! That's a first since being here! Once the meeting began, I was soooooo grateful for Nepatli. He took charge completely, he had brought hand-outs for all the students, information and fliers about the retreat, sign-up lists, and absolutely had taken care of every detail. I didn't even really do much, except for listen, add a scant amount of comments, and pray! Neptali is very excited and passionate about the movement, and it was so cool for me to get to see him in action and motivating the students at Santa Barbara. It was truly a blessing to have him in charge. Basically, although they kept referring to me as being "in charge" Neptali did all the work and I just smiled pretty and got to make new friends!

After the meeting, we went back to their office for Vida Estudiantil and they cooked lunch. It was arepas (which is I haven't explained before are like fried corn patties) and carne asada (bbq-ed steak of sorts). Neptali, Jonas, and I had a lot of fun trying to eat with our hands (Something I NEVER do!). It was quite entertaining, they were especially enthralled with my fear of the fat on the edges of the meat and my trepidation at eating with my hands. However, all in all, it was really yummy. The boys also tried to convince me that I was eating dog meat, however, I didn't buy it. I really hope that's not true!

The trip home was longggggggg. However, I used it to teach the boys valuable phrases like "How are you?, What did you do today? I ate dog meat and arepas. I drank coke (this one was my favorite, it was difficult for them to say, it came out more like I dracht cupt)" their favorite was "Just kidding!". Anyway, all in all, I had a great trip, although exhausting. By the time I got home at around 8:00 pm (making it a 15 hour day) I was completely ready to crash. It was a great trip, very encouraging, and I am so excited to see what the Lord is going to do this year at UNESUR and how He is going to use me, and the more importantly the students and professors there for His glory. Thank you so much for any and all prayers, things went far better than I even hoped for. Praise be to God!

New Pics.

Just a couple pictures to accompany my last post.....

Salsa and Merengue are norms here.














Jatniel and Nepatli are great emcees, they really go all out in their excitement and enjoy entertaining the crowds.






Claudia giving her testimony....















Working hard at a servant team meeting.

It's been a bit since I wrote, so I'm just checking in to let you all know things are going well-ish here. A quick recap of the last week or so.....

Last Saturday night, we had our first fiesta!! Eben and I are in charge of the "socials" team, so it was definitely a challenge and there was a lot of confusion, but luckily we have great students working with us that showed us the ropes and the best ways to get things done. We had a quite a few people show up at the fiesta, which was exciting! We danced (here, salsa and merengue are the norms of what people do at parties), we ate snacks, we had a dance competition, and Claudia shared her testimony! She did a fantastic job, we were very proud of her. I spent a majority of the evening trying to learn these dances, which simply eluded me. I discovered that, in fact, like most "gringos" I do not have much rythm. Oh well! I'm sure I will have more fiestas to practice at in the future.

Yesterday, we had our second weekly meeting of the year. This one was actually on campus, and there was quite a crowd of students that showed up and packed into the small room. Things went smoothly for this as well. We spent some time in worship, Sarah shared her testimony (all in Spanish! she's very brave), and students were shown a video and encouraged to sign up for the Retiro (Retreat) that is happening in November. Afterwards we served everyone lunch, and hung out and chatted with students for quite a while.

Other events this week have included spending a signicant amount of time planning with Amanda and Leonel for our first meeting of the English Club on Friday. Basically, we simply sponsor/lead this group that allows any students who want to practice and/or learn English with Americans to come, play games in English, and learn some simple phrases and stuff. We have spent a lot of this week making fliers (it's so much harder than in the US!), coming up with games, and making "lesson plans". This happens Friday at 3:30 in the office of Vida Estudiantil, so pray that people will come!

On another note, my major stress for this week, and the main reason I need prayer is the following. When the team jobs were divided up a week or so ago, I was given the job (and actually asked for the job of) the Catalytic ministry. What does that mean? Well, essentially, a catalytic ministry is one that has no staff on its campus. A few hours away from here there is a city called Santa Barbara, its university is called UNESUR (the one in Merida is ULA). I am making the trek up to Santa Barbara tomorrow for the first time. I'm going to be accompanied by two students who have been there before (praise the Lord!). Although I have been in contact with the main leader at this campus, he speaks no English, and I'm not sure my Spanish has been quite capable enough to truly comprehend everything he has told me. So, I am somewhat blindly walking into this situation. All I know at this point is I need to catch a bus (with my two gentlemen tour guides) at 6 AM!! and head towards a city on the outskirts of town, where I will meet up with Alvaro (in charge of the movement at UNESUR). If you know me at all, you know - I'm not exactly a "fly by the seat of your pants" type of gal.....! Needless to say, I'm a little bit frazzled this week. This is my main prayer request - confidence, some more answers to questions, and the Lord's hand in all of this despite my own chaotic approach, at the moment.

That's it for now.....hopefully after I make it home tomorrow from Santa Barbara, I'll have a much more excited blog for you to read about how well it goes....for now, keep praying! Besos.

Qwhat?!

Something I find amusing although I suppose not too surprising, here in Venezuela are the mistranslations that seem to occur from time to time, when anyone goes through the effort to translate from Spanish to English. This really doesn't happen too often, but every once in a while. We went to a nice restaurant a while back called "La Abadía" (I'm not exactly sure what it means, it's something along the lines of a convent or nunnery maybe). Anyway, this place had gone through the effort to translate their menu into English, which we really appreciated! There was something on the menu however, that didn't exactly sound appetizing. "WEEDS!" or maybe you'd prefer some "Lasagna of Meat" ?????

Eben and I wandered into a T-shirt sort of store in search of, can you guess? T-shirts. However, the one we found (with English writing!) didn't seem to make any sense. "The Ultimate Sentation?" What does Sentation mean?

Finally, (although there are more that will be posted here eventually), I just want to know what is wrong with the arms of this man who is crossing the street!?!?! Is there a reason they look like noodles and/or are longer than his legs?

Mmmmmm.....

Alright, this harkens way back to one of my first VZ stories. I just wanted to share a quick picture of the "devil ray".

And, here is a picture of Ivan "enjoying" it.

The Cuteness

Happy Birthday Jennifer! I love you and miss you.

Phillip

The Aforementioned Phillip with his mountain horn instrument.

First Meeting!

Today was our first "reunion semanal" (weekly meeting) of Vida Estudiantil at ULA. It was a very odd (as opposed to what will usually occur) meeting because the school was closed today. The school was closed because tonight is the inaugural festival (parade, or something along those lines) of the university games between the universities in Venezuela (which we will be attending, perhaps I'll have more stories about those later....). Due to the school closure, we couldn't get a room on campus in which to have our weekly meeting - so we had it in the office (which is just across the street from campus). We did a mad scramble yesterday evening (because no plans had been finalized until then) to invite as many people as we could and email and text as many people as we had numbers for to tell them to come.

Our mad dash efforts, and God's providence (of course!) brought a ton of new people to the meeting (and of course, many "old" students as well). We ran out of chairs and a majority of people had to sit along the wall/edge of the balcony.











At the meeting, we had some get-to-know-you fun game type activities. 2 great emcees, Andrea and Jatniel, and one brave student (he's also on the servant team) Jesús who gave part of his testimony, for the message. He did a great job. I was impressed and really appreciated getting to hear part of his story.

For a big finale we did some acoustic worship. Keren and Llanira led us in a few "alabanzas" (Spanish worship). I didn't know the words, but I had fun clapping along and enjoying the joyful atmosphere that these students create in their praise of the Lord.

All in all the meeting went great! We always provide lunch after the meeting (we have a great friend named Sonia who works at the church CENFOL and she helps us out by making a huge amount of food). People stayed, ate, and chatted until we finally left at 3:30 (the meeting started ast 12!). Anyway, it was encouraging and fun - praise the Lord!

A side note: 1 of the 3 delinquent supporters is no longer delinquent, keep praying about the other ones, it's really important! I can't do God's work here without you all and your support. Thank you everyone!

Please Pray...

Hello Friends, I need your help/prayers!

I'm here in Venezuela, as you know if you have been following these entries, doing my job working with Vida Estudiantil. One problem, I have 3 supporters, who committed monthly amounts to support my being here - and they are not keeping up with that promise - I was $300 short for the month of September! Therefore, that is my urgent prayer request at the moment - pray that these people would come through with their promised amounts and/or I would find some new supporters who would be so generous as to pick up where these folks are lacking. If you yourself, or someone else you know, might be interested - let me know!

On a much more excited note - ministry here has been going really well! It took me a while to get back into a groove of sharing the gospel on campus for 6 hours a day.....but now I have seen the Lord really at work and it's simply exciting. We have seen 4 people accept Christ as their personal Lord and Savior in the last week (I personally got to witness two of those!!). We have only been sharing on the campuses for one week, but already we are trusting the Lord with big plans. Previously, the STINT teams have worked on the Facultad Humanidades (Humanities, because that's where the language students are and many speak English!) and have done a little work on Hechicera (Sciences campus, very few English speakers). Yesterday, we took the opportunity of a few willing Vida Estudiantil students as tour guides to take us to the Faculties of Medicine, Odontology and Music. We spent some time sharing the gospel on Medicina, and praying over all three campuses. These are just a few of the wide spread ULA campuses in the city. We are lifting them up in prayer to the Lord and trusting in Him to raise up movements on each campus. It's going to be quite a stretch for us humans, but for God - it'll be the blink of an eye!

More later....

2 new brothers in Christ!

Dearest Friends, today I have the best news to share with you! Let me backtrack a bit first.....yesterday, we spent our first day on campus. This included many introductions with students already involved in Vida Estudiantil (including many hugs and kisses, as per the norm here). After a few rounds of handshakes, cheek kisses, and translation confusion between Spanish and English, we paired off (some with Venezuelans, and some of us with each other) to go SHARING. For those of you unfamiliar with Campus Crusade lingo - sharing involves going up to random students on the campus, asking them if they'd give you 10 minutes of their time to talk about religious things, and proceeding to do so. There is a also a booklet that can be used as a tool when talking about the gospel, some people use it, some people don't - it's really a great tool for people who are more visual learners though. Basically, our afternoon consisted in meandering the campus and chatting with several friendly Venezuelan students, talking about religion, sharing the gospel, and inviting them to our weekly meeting (which is similar to a church service for youth). Yesterday, I was introduced to Rosemar (also known as Patricia, not sure why) - a student who is very involved in Vida Estudiantil already, and has no fear whatsoever of going sharing. She also speaks nearly fluent English (she studies modern languages at the university). She and I went sharing together and talked to several students - an Italian Catholic who is already involved in another movement, 2 guys who couldn't chat for long because they had to leave for class, and one girl (oddle enough named America) who we talked to for the longest. She believed in almost everything that we said to her, but she had a very hard time getting past the idea that God's grace could cover everyone the same, that she could be on par with murderers and thieves. She had a hard time understanding that "doing good things" didn't guarantee your eternal life in heaven. We left her with the booklet to read over again when she has a chance. I hope we planted some seeds in America's life, I'm pretty sure we did, it sounds like she really desires to live a good life and to be in harmony with Dios - there are just a few things in her way. Please pray for America!

Today, we went up to a different part of the ULA campus (it's about 20 minutes farther north of Humanidades). Hechicera (the sciences campus) is much bigger than Humanidades, but is also harder to "share" at because none of the students (or hardly any speak English). Amanda and I spent the morning sharing together (she doesn't speak a ton of Spanish yet, so I spent a good portion of the time translating, but we worked well together as a team, she is a very eloquent and wise speaker in English, and I was able to translate, for the most part). We even shared with the lady who sells phone calls (that's right, you can buy one phone call or one text message from a lady with a cell phone on the street) and cigarrettes. She was enthralled by the book, and so grateful for the work we were doing on campus. She told us that she had received Christ long ago, and was so excited that we were telling people the good news, because she thinks that there aren't enough believers who actually share their faith. We also spent a while talk to two incoming freshman who were still trying to get life at the university figured out. They actually had already been shared the 4 Laws with by a missionary from Colombia - cool!

In the afternoon, after a questionable lunch of mystery meat in brown sauce, we exchanged partners and I got to hang out with Llanira (pronounced Ja-nee-ta). Llanira speaks no English, so it was a test for me not only to communicate with her but to also not have anyone to look to if I needed a word translated that I didn't know. Luckily, we serve a God is who SO GOOD. God was able to use my confusion in Spanish, and stumbling through the gospel presentation, along with Llanira's flawless presentation of the booklet to bring the first guy that we talked to into relationship with Him!!!!!!!!! Carlos received Jesus today with us in the Ingeniera (engineering) building. We basically just asked him, if he had the chance to be in a relationship with God, would he want to be.....he said, of course!! We got his contact information and we're really hoping to see Carlos at the first Vida Estudiantil meeting next week :) Our second new friend was Jose, another young student of Quimica (chemistry) who happened to be waiting on a friend and have just the right amount of time to talk to us. We shared the gospel with him as well, and after a lot of contemplation - he also prayed to receive Christ into his life! What a day!

Things to pray for:

a. Pray for America - that the seeds we planted will be watered by someone later on, or that the Lord would bring us back into contact with her.

b. Pray for our new brothers - Carlos and Jose! Pray that they would show up to do follow ups for learning more about Christ and learning what it means to be a Christian.

c. Continue to pray for the health and unity of my team. We have only been here for 3 weeks and have only been doing our "actual work" for 2 days, but we are already run dowwwwwwn. We are (espcially myself) simply exhausted by the length of the days and the amount of mental capacity it takes to translate every word of every hour of every day. Yesterday, I thought I felt the flu coming on......pray that it stays away!

d. Pray for our hearts, as we're pouring out so much every day on campus, it's easy to begin to see this as a job rather than as a privilege. We want to do this each and every day out of love for Christ alone, this ministry should come as an overflow of that love in our hearts.

e. Administrative details - there are a lot of details, I won't even begin to go into them.....but pray for them, there are a lot of silly little things to worry about, that could easily distract us from ministry and God's will.

Thanks so much everyone!

A Few Photos

Mis chicas en La Plaza Glorias Patrias







....we've discovered that there is no guarantee of what items will be in the stores from day to day. We spent days without milk (putting yogurt on our cereal) and when we did find milk it went bad in less than a day....what can ya do! Needless to say finding fare here can sometimes be interesting.


The team hangin' out in front of church.