Thursday, January 31, 2008
Como Levantar Finanzas
Some of our students put in some hard work into making a special video on how to "Levantar finanzas" - RAISE MONEY for Congreso....some of it is silly, but there are also some great ideas. We are really proud of our students taking initiative to start raising their money to get to the Congreso (read previous blog!).
Fuuuuuego!
"El oro, aunque perecedero, se acrisola al fuego. Así también la fe de ustedes, que vale mucho más que el oro, al ser acrisolada por las pruebas demostrará que es digna de aprobación, gloria y honor cuando Jesucristo se revele." -1 Pedro 1:7"These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed." -1 Peter 1:7
The heart behind “Prueba de Fuego” is to give students hope; to see students learn to turn to God and depend on Him no matter what circumstance, trial, or challenge life throws at them; to help students learn to praise the Lord at all times; and for God to receive glory through our genuine proven faith
Prueba de Fuego - literally, a "Test of Fire". This is the theme for our national conference in Vida Estudiantil, Venezuela this year. The conference is in March, 19-22. Currently, a huge portion of my (and all the staff in VZ) time and energy is going into prepping for this conference. We are super excited to see what the Lord will do at the conference this year, and the students he will bring....but right now, there is a TON of prep work required to get this show on the road - in about a month! One thing I have to say - MAD PROPS to all the Crusade staff who put on Winter Conference for the Northwest every year - I never realize how intense and how much work they put in to make it such a cool experience. I am working on the team in charge of the "Administration". What does that mean? That involves getting each and every student and staff member registered, housed, fed, etc....As well as raising the extra funds to supplement the money that the students will pay (it's super expensive, so we are trying to raise extra funds to lower the cost for students - let me know if you're interested in helping!) I have also been appointed one (of two) liasons with the Estancia (basically, like a retreat center) that we are staying at in Valencia (another city in VZ, about 10 hours from where I live). I will be venturing to Valencia next week/end to work out details with the Estancia, as well as check out the venue and do some promotion on the campus at the University of Carabobo, in Valencia (the newest campus of Vida Estudiantil, just launched last year). Please pray for that and the finances.
More importantly, please pray for the students. There are so many students in Vida Estudiantil here in Merida and across this beautiful country that would love to go, but there are many obstacles in their way....Permission from parents, MONEY (always), transportation, and many other excuses....We know the Lord is going to move at this conference, and there are so many students who will have the opportunity to have their lives changed here - please pray that their hearts would be burdened to raise the money and step out in faith that this is where they are supposed to - despite the difficulties in getting there.
For any Venezuelans out there who don't yet know the conference details - or for NorthAmericans who want to pray over specific details, here they are:
PRUEBA DE FUEGO
(Congreso Nacional de Vida Estudiantil 2008)
Cuando: Marzo 19-22
Donde: Estancia el Milagro,
Valencia
Cuanto: 245 BsF (Incluye: hospedaje, comida, materiales)
Inscríbete:
Banco Provincial Cuenta Corriente
# 0108-0059-58-0100223300
a nombre de Ninive Rojas
y envia tus datos a ninive.logie@uscm.org
Monday, January 28, 2008
Water Balloons??
Hello friends, both far and near, I hope you'll forgive me for my utter lack of updating this blog as of late. Today I am here snuggled on my couch with my dearest friend Amanda, watching a movie, and felt there could not be a better time than this as to take a quick venture into blog-land. So here I am! Since January hit we have been launched full force back into ministry, but also a rough season for our STINT team as well as for Vida Estudiantil here in Merida. I won't go into too much detail, but I will ask you for prayer for relationships between staff and students, amidst the team, and just overall that we would be able to glorify God to the fullest in the midst of some frustrations and hurt feelings. Actually, right now as I sit here I feel as though I have been through some sort of rigorous boot camp test of emotions, reactions, and behaviors. Physically, our team has also struggled significantly with healthcare since the start of December. We have had a series of various illness, one (insomnia) finally sending our team leader Sarah home to the US for 2 weeks of complete rest and being away from the world and country to allow her to rest. Needless to say, any prayers are appreciated!!
Enough of the downers, what else has been going on lately? We had two staff from the US come visit us for a week for our mid-year visit. It was both a tough week but also encouraging to have reminders of why the Lord brought us here and how to
pursue ministry from here on out. They were nice enough to bring us some goodies from the US: Orbit gum, various candy, and TOILET PAPER!!!! You're laughing, but it's true. We haven't had toilet paper since early December, and even now the paper towels we've been using are almost out....who knows what we'll have to do next ?! Also a blessing, they took us out to a nice dinner - providing this photo op.
Currently, the people here in Venezuela are celebrating "Las Ferias del Sol" - the Sun Fairs, and next week there will be "Carnival". This includes mostly parades, election of the queen of the ferias, bull fights, time off of school, streets blocked off, lots and lots of drinking.....and......water balloons! Young people here roam about the parking lots and streets throwing water balloons (usually filled with water, eek!) or buckets of water, squirt guns, etc....Apparently, there is also the throwing of rotten eggs, which so far, we have avoided *knock on wood* I hope to keep it that way!
Wednesday of this week, I am taking a team of students (well probably only 3) back to Santa Barbara! I haven't been there since the initial time, but I'm super excited to make it out there again. We will be doing a lot of promotion for Prueba de Fuego (our conference) as well as celebrating some birthdays and spending quality time with the students and leaders in Santa Barbara. Please keep us in your prayers! Love and blessings....
Enough of the downers, what else has been going on lately? We had two staff from the US come visit us for a week for our mid-year visit. It was both a tough week but also encouraging to have reminders of why the Lord brought us here and how to
pursue ministry from here on out. They were nice enough to bring us some goodies from the US: Orbit gum, various candy, and TOILET PAPER!!!! You're laughing, but it's true. We haven't had toilet paper since early December, and even now the paper towels we've been using are almost out....who knows what we'll have to do next ?! Also a blessing, they took us out to a nice dinner - providing this photo op. Currently, the people here in Venezuela are celebrating "Las Ferias del Sol" - the Sun Fairs, and next week there will be "Carnival". This includes mostly parades, election of the queen of the ferias, bull fights, time off of school, streets blocked off, lots and lots of drinking.....and......water balloons! Young people here roam about the parking lots and streets throwing water balloons (usually filled with water, eek!) or buckets of water, squirt guns, etc....Apparently, there is also the throwing of rotten eggs, which so far, we have avoided *knock on wood* I hope to keep it that way!
Wednesday of this week, I am taking a team of students (well probably only 3) back to Santa Barbara! I haven't been there since the initial time, but I'm super excited to make it out there again. We will be doing a lot of promotion for Prueba de Fuego (our conference) as well as celebrating some birthdays and spending quality time with the students and leaders in Santa Barbara. Please keep us in your prayers! Love and blessings....
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Leadership Retreat
This past weekend we hosted at "Leadership Retreat" for students and staff from all over Venezuela (Caracas, San Cristobal, Merida (duh), Maracaibo, and Santa Barbara). It was a weekend (well, really only 24 hours, from 12:30 Friday to 12:30 Saturday) meant to encourage older students who are leaders in the movement and teach and equip them more for things like discipleship, movement building, and dealing with problems within the movement.
Amanda and I were in charge of the food for the entire weekend. I'm not going to lie to you folks, it was quite a challenge. We needed 4 meals as well as snacks, and drinks, etc...Fortunately, we managed to enlist the help of several very friendly students who were willing to lend their assistance on the days prior to the events and help us get everything set up. It required many, many taxi trips, hauling large quantities of food, 2 days worth of boiling enough water, and a significant amount of stress, blood, sweat, tears (not really, but you get the point) but with the Lord's help we were able to provide meals for the entire retreat.
The retreat was basically 2 days of teaching and equipping students to understand more about what it looks like to be a part of a movement, how to solve and analyze some of the problems going on within the movement, and brainstorming new ways of bringing students into the movement and how to better minister to those who are already involved. It was a very encouraging 2 days for the students, as well as an enlightening time for us to see how much care the students have for THEIR ministry and how observant they have been of the difficulties within the ministry. I think that every student walked away with the desire to change, and better Vida Estudiantil for the glory of our God! All in all, it was an physically draining, but emotionally fulfilling weekend. Praise be to God for all the of the students that were able to come and we were able to provide for, by His provision. Please pray for the leadership team of students who have a large burden to carry for this ministry, we couldn't and wouldn't want to do it without them!
Amanda and I were in charge of the food for the entire weekend. I'm not going to lie to you folks, it was quite a challenge. We needed 4 meals as well as snacks, and drinks, etc...Fortunately, we managed to enlist the help of several very friendly students who were willing to lend their assistance on the days prior to the events and help us get everything set up. It required many, many taxi trips, hauling large quantities of food, 2 days worth of boiling enough water, and a significant amount of stress, blood, sweat, tears (not really, but you get the point) but with the Lord's help we were able to provide meals for the entire retreat.
The retreat was basically 2 days of teaching and equipping students to understand more about what it looks like to be a part of a movement, how to solve and analyze some of the problems going on within the movement, and brainstorming new ways of bringing students into the movement and how to better minister to those who are already involved. It was a very encouraging 2 days for the students, as well as an enlightening time for us to see how much care the students have for THEIR ministry and how observant they have been of the difficulties within the ministry. I think that every student walked away with the desire to change, and better Vida Estudiantil for the glory of our God! All in all, it was an physically draining, but emotionally fulfilling weekend. Praise be to God for all the of the students that were able to come and we were able to provide for, by His provision. Please pray for the leadership team of students who have a large burden to carry for this ministry, we couldn't and wouldn't want to do it without them!
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Los Llanos
The first week back at "work" (I put it in quotes not because I don't think of it as work, by any means, but more so because even when we are not working - we are still working....we're somewhat in a situation of 24 hours a day work....coupled with working a "job" that doesn't always feel like work.....make any sense? I don't know...). So after being back at said work for solely 3 days so far - I'm exhausted!! I don't know what the heck I did during our "break" but apparently I relaxed a lot. Well, that is true in some senses, we did in fact have 3-ish weeks off of "work". However, the time flew by in a whirlwind of activities (to use a cliche, my bad) as we hosted Eben's parents visiting from Portland, spent some time exploring local tourist activities, shopped for Christmas presents for my teammates 
(and to send home to family!), baking Christmas cookies, reading books, and working on my cross-stich.....up until Christmas day. (which I already wrote about, check back a few posts). 2 days after Christmas we headed out on our BIG adventure of the break.....to Los Llanos! Los Llanos is the "plains" region of Venezuela....that basically looks like pictures I've seen of the African Savannah....no kidding! It was pretty incredible. We spent our first day in a jeep for 6 hours or so heading to Barinas state. We spent our first evening at a 'rafting camp' owned by the tour company we went with. At the camp we got to go on a zip line through the forest and across a river (yikes!). The actual zipping part was a lot of fun, the landings were not quite as smooth, but I survived (although I got dirty, boo....haha). We also went river rafting (my first time!) THAT was a lot of fun. We certainly weren't in any crazy white water, however, for a first experience rafting I had a lot of fun. It's also always interesting to do things in another language - it adds to the confusion and therefore excitement. Along on our trip with us, because it was booked through a tour - were 2 Swedes and one German man, and of course a Venezuelan guide. We laughed that sitting down to dinner felt like a meeting of the UN. The second day we continued the loooooooong jeep ride into the state of Apure, where it truly began to look like savannah - with almost complete flat land, covered in grass, with the occasional lone tree or cow. There were a few near accidents (there's really no speed limit here, at one point we clocked out driver going about 110 mph, roughly calculated from kph), especially when cows wandered into the road. The camp in Apure was literally a farm - there were all kinds of farm animals, and farm hands and farm BUGS and DIRT. Ok, for those of you who know me - I'm really not a fan of the dirt so much, or of the bugs, or of the HEAT which combined with the humidity added a nice sheen to the dirt covered, bug bitten people that we were. However, knowing that this is and was a once in a lifetime type deal - I went with the flow to the best of my ability. :S We slept in hammocks in some sort of hut (literally) that luckily had mosquito netting. Unfortunately, mosquito netting does not keep out mosquitos, or spiders the size of my fist, or snoring Germans.....!! Needless the say, the sleeping was rough. The adventures however, were pretty cool if I do say so myself. We went horseback riding (my only third time EVER, and second time in VZ). Our guide's horse rooted out an ant eater right in front of us! It scuttled its way across our horses' path....cool!! We went on an evening jeep safari. and got to see a ton of local birds (mostly Ibis, herons, and hawks) and a beautiful sunset. We spent one day almost entirely on the river - first taking a boat ride - in the SKETCHIEST of boats I've ever seen. It was extremely long and narrow and rickety! We saw a ton of wildlife, including a capybara family (with babies included!!!!), many caymans (like smaller crocodiles), various birds, river dolphins (which are pink and gray!) and lots of turtles. Our guide was quite gung ho about catching us a cayman...seriously!! He continued to try and lasso one - I have great footage of it I took with my camera, but I can't seem to get it to upload here...I'm still working on it. They also attempted to catch a prehistoric turtle. How, you may ask? Well, by JUMPING into piranha infested (not kidding) waters and trying to hug it!!! ahhh! The first time he jumped off the boat, we had no idea what was happening, it was pretty freaky.......I lost my train of thought writing this blog 3 days ago, so I'm finally going to post it without a conclusion - oh well, it's still got some cool pictures :)
(and to send home to family!), baking Christmas cookies, reading books, and working on my cross-stich.....up until Christmas day. (which I already wrote about, check back a few posts). 2 days after Christmas we headed out on our BIG adventure of the break.....to Los Llanos! Los Llanos is the "plains" region of Venezuela....that basically looks like pictures I've seen of the African Savannah....no kidding! It was pretty incredible. We spent our first day in a jeep for 6 hours or so heading to Barinas state. We spent our first evening at a 'rafting camp' owned by the tour company we went with. At the camp we got to go on a zip line through the forest and across a river (yikes!). The actual zipping part was a lot of fun, the landings were not quite as smooth, but I survived (although I got dirty, boo....haha). We also went river rafting (my first time!) THAT was a lot of fun. We certainly weren't in any crazy white water, however, for a first experience rafting I had a lot of fun. It's also always interesting to do things in another language - it adds to the confusion and therefore excitement. Along on our trip with us, because it was booked through a tour - were 2 Swedes and one German man, and of course a Venezuelan guide. We laughed that sitting down to dinner felt like a meeting of the UN. The second day we continued the loooooooong jeep ride into the state of Apure, where it truly began to look like savannah - with almost complete flat land, covered in grass, with the occasional lone tree or cow. There were a few near accidents (there's really no speed limit here, at one point we clocked out driver going about 110 mph, roughly calculated from kph), especially when cows wandered into the road. The camp in Apure was literally a farm - there were all kinds of farm animals, and farm hands and farm BUGS and DIRT. Ok, for those of you who know me - I'm really not a fan of the dirt so much, or of the bugs, or of the HEAT which combined with the humidity added a nice sheen to the dirt covered, bug bitten people that we were. However, knowing that this is and was a once in a lifetime type deal - I went with the flow to the best of my ability. :S We slept in hammocks in some sort of hut (literally) that luckily had mosquito netting. Unfortunately, mosquito netting does not keep out mosquitos, or spiders the size of my fist, or snoring Germans.....!! Needless the say, the sleeping was rough. The adventures however, were pretty cool if I do say so myself. We went horseback riding (my only third time EVER, and second time in VZ). Our guide's horse rooted out an ant eater right in front of us! It scuttled its way across our horses' path....cool!! We went on an evening jeep safari. and got to see a ton of local birds (mostly Ibis, herons, and hawks) and a beautiful sunset. We spent one day almost entirely on the river - first taking a boat ride - in the SKETCHIEST of boats I've ever seen. It was extremely long and narrow and rickety! We saw a ton of wildlife, including a capybara family (with babies included!!!!), many caymans (like smaller crocodiles), various birds, river dolphins (which are pink and gray!) and lots of turtles. Our guide was quite gung ho about catching us a cayman...seriously!! He continued to try and lasso one - I have great footage of it I took with my camera, but I can't seem to get it to upload here...I'm still working on it. They also attempted to catch a prehistoric turtle. How, you may ask? Well, by JUMPING into piranha infested (not kidding) waters and trying to hug it!!! ahhh! The first time he jumped off the boat, we had no idea what was happening, it was pretty freaky.......I lost my train of thought writing this blog 3 days ago, so I'm finally going to post it without a conclusion - oh well, it's still got some cool pictures :)
Sunday, January 6, 2008
He Never Lets Go
This video is about is about worshiping God in spirit and in truth and not letting anything hold you back. Not standing silent while your spirit cries out! * performed by Olympic Vineyard Christian Fellowship Worship Team -filmed and edited by Seth Schwiethale -featuring "You Never Let Go" by Matt Redman
This video was filmed at and performed at my church in Port Angeles, WA.....I think it's awesome, check it out. It really makes you think....what is holding YOU back?
Shout out to the folks back at home in Port Angeles - thanks for the reminder and the encouragement :)
Psalms 100:4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, And into his courts with praise: Give thanks unto him, and bless his name.
This video was filmed at and performed at my church in Port Angeles, WA.....I think it's awesome, check it out. It really makes you think....what is holding YOU back?
Shout out to the folks back at home in Port Angeles - thanks for the reminder and the encouragement :)
Psalms 100:4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, And into his courts with praise: Give thanks unto him, and bless his name.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Alright, so clearly the last post was unsuccessful as I still, as of yet, have been unable to post any videos.....However, I just wanted to pass along the good news: we got our internet back!!!!!!!! I'm working on a blog about our trip to Los Llanos (the plains) that should be up within the next few days....somehow I haven't had much to write about lately....odd......
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