This week marked the half way point here on project. We visited La Plata, which was a huge blessing to see some of my Argentine friends and stinter friends from last year.
It was good week, on Thursday my teammate Heather and I met a girl named Maria Esperanza (Mary Hope). We were able to do the Solarium (a picture image survey, created by Crusade) with her. The first question we asked her was what´s your major, to which she said she was studying biology because she wanted to figure out the meaning of life. (The campus I am on is called Exact Sciences. Many students who study science find it hard to believe that any god could exist. In fact, the more well educated a person becomes the harder it is for them to grasp that One Supreme Being does exist. ) Both Heather and I were really excited, both realizing that this was a divine appointment. We had just prayed for someone to talk to that was an english speaker and that would want to open up with us. She was both open and english speaking. Mary told us that her life had been pretty much complete, until this past month. She felt like every area of her life was falling apart; between her relationship with her boyfriend, her friends, and her family she was really struggling. We got through the survey with her, we were able to see a little bit about what she believed about God and where she was spiritually. She basically didn´t know what to believe, ¨is there a God or not?¨ We were right there, about to share the gospel and her friends walked up wanting to go eat. We are praying that we will be able to meet up with her tomorrow. We have an appointment scheduled, however, some other appointments have fallen through in the past. The girl we were supposed to meet with last week never returned our emails. Please pray that things will work and we will be able to develop a trust with her. Also, that there would be a way to transition into spiritual things.
English clubs went better this week, we had 4 students show up. The week before last no one showed up. They were really excited to meet with us and practice english. One of the girls is a Christian, she came to the table for our everystudent campaign and told us she was a believer. We´ve actually met several believers, which is a huge answer to prayer! We really want to spread the vision of wanting to share the message of the gospel with every student on campus. Another praise is that we have seen atleast 6 people come to faith in Jesus Christ, since we´ve been here. The soil is hard here, but God is working to soften it.
Our everystudent.com campaign seems to be going well. Students are curious why we´re hanging the posters up, asking the deep questions such as are all religions the same. Many people become curious when we foreigners start speaking in spanish, with a strange accent. Please keep praying that the students would desire to find truth and meaning for their lives. So many students are calloused to hearing about God and religion that they couldn´t care less. But, there are a good number of students that will stop and ask what we are doing. (We are allowing them to take surveys about the topics of the week, for a chance to win an ipod shuffle). We have information and articles about the weekly topics. This week were are asking them, ¨Are all religions the same?¨ We´ve seen a good response.
Thank you for your continued prayer and encouragement. I would not be here without your help.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Saturday, May 24, 2008
First week in B.A.
Hey everyone,
How it all started...
I feel like the whole journey here has been quite a whirlwind. Thankfully, all my support came in above and beyond the $5ooo goal! God is the great provider of all my needs! God stretched my faith in many ways by putting my pride and what I wanted to do on the line. He is good and He has in mind what is best for me. Five days before I left for briefing, I had only received about $1,800. My director called and told me I needed to have $4000 by Sunday in pledges and/or support. So, I spent the last few days before I left frantically making phone calls and praying to see if this was what God wanted me to do. Meanwhile, I was busily cramming for 8 exams and preparing to say good-bye to many of my close friends who were graduating. Needless to say I was very overwhelmed, emotionally and spiritually. Even in that overwhelming time, God gave be a peace; He kept reminding me that everything would be ok. But God kept laying it on the hearts of people to give and give generously. Those to which I am so grateful for your gifts and also to those who are praying.
God used that support raising process to show me that He really wanted me here. He wanted me to trust that He would take care of the results. So, I went to briefing and met our great team. We bonded well and quickly. Please keep praying for unity and vulnerability. We are all just very excited about getting to know the Argentines. It´s so encouraging to be around a group of people who have the same purpose and goal in mind. That is to give God all the honor and praise with our words and actions and tell others about what He´s done in our lives!!
Getting there...
So, on Wednesday May 14 we were supposed to fly out from Greensboro,NC to DC and then a straight flight to Buenos Aires. Well, that didn´t happen. Our flight from NC to DC kept getting delayed due to mechanical problems in the plane. We waited and waited and finally about 8 hours later they cancelled the flight. The airport put us up in a hotel for the night and told us to come back tomorrow. We went through the next day fine. We did spent the whole day in the DC airport with a long layover. We arrived in Buenos Aires on Friday morning! We were so thankful to get far away from airports and planes. The Buenos Aires Stinters welcomed us and took us to the hotel we´re staying at in BA.
Going out...
Monday was our first day on campus. Oh by the way, our purpose here is to meet students and help the Stinters (missionaires here for a year or two) get a new movement going in Buenos Aires. It is a brand new ministry here, so they are looking for students who are Christians and want to be involved with sharing Jesus Christ with other students. We are also just wanting to make contacts with people, build friendships, and pray for opportunities to share the gospel through those relationships. One way we´re are trying to do this is through starting english clubs and helping students improve their english. Another way that we are seeking to reach students is through outreaches. We had one on Saturday, where we played games and just talked with the students we met on campus.
Story time...
It has been an interesting week. The people in Buenos Aires are alot more rushed and busy than those in La Plata. BA is a huge city, very different from what I am used too. It is difficult to get to hang out with students, because they often travel 1-3 hours one way to get to school. They are much more dedicated and busy than students in the US. They have to study for hours and hours for their classes and many of them work.
One really cool story happened yesterday. A girl named Leonilla was sitting by herself and my friend Lauren and I decided to go and talk to her. We started talking to her about where she was from and what her major was...one slight problem was she spoke very little english. She probably knew less english than I know spanish. Anyway, my teammate Lauren knows alot more than I do though. So, we kept going on with our conversation and we asked her if she was interested in spiritual things and it turns out she was interested. However, we had a difficult time understanding all she said, so we reverted back to asking her things about her life. Then, she turned the conversation back to spiritual things, she started talking about the ¨Passion of the Christ.¨ So, we are going to try to get together with her again with a stinter.
Climate here...
How it all started...
I feel like the whole journey here has been quite a whirlwind. Thankfully, all my support came in above and beyond the $5ooo goal! God is the great provider of all my needs! God stretched my faith in many ways by putting my pride and what I wanted to do on the line. He is good and He has in mind what is best for me. Five days before I left for briefing, I had only received about $1,800. My director called and told me I needed to have $4000 by Sunday in pledges and/or support. So, I spent the last few days before I left frantically making phone calls and praying to see if this was what God wanted me to do. Meanwhile, I was busily cramming for 8 exams and preparing to say good-bye to many of my close friends who were graduating. Needless to say I was very overwhelmed, emotionally and spiritually. Even in that overwhelming time, God gave be a peace; He kept reminding me that everything would be ok. But God kept laying it on the hearts of people to give and give generously. Those to which I am so grateful for your gifts and also to those who are praying.
God used that support raising process to show me that He really wanted me here. He wanted me to trust that He would take care of the results. So, I went to briefing and met our great team. We bonded well and quickly. Please keep praying for unity and vulnerability. We are all just very excited about getting to know the Argentines. It´s so encouraging to be around a group of people who have the same purpose and goal in mind. That is to give God all the honor and praise with our words and actions and tell others about what He´s done in our lives!!
Getting there...
So, on Wednesday May 14 we were supposed to fly out from Greensboro,NC to DC and then a straight flight to Buenos Aires. Well, that didn´t happen. Our flight from NC to DC kept getting delayed due to mechanical problems in the plane. We waited and waited and finally about 8 hours later they cancelled the flight. The airport put us up in a hotel for the night and told us to come back tomorrow. We went through the next day fine. We did spent the whole day in the DC airport with a long layover. We arrived in Buenos Aires on Friday morning! We were so thankful to get far away from airports and planes. The Buenos Aires Stinters welcomed us and took us to the hotel we´re staying at in BA.
Going out...
Monday was our first day on campus. Oh by the way, our purpose here is to meet students and help the Stinters (missionaires here for a year or two) get a new movement going in Buenos Aires. It is a brand new ministry here, so they are looking for students who are Christians and want to be involved with sharing Jesus Christ with other students. We are also just wanting to make contacts with people, build friendships, and pray for opportunities to share the gospel through those relationships. One way we´re are trying to do this is through starting english clubs and helping students improve their english. Another way that we are seeking to reach students is through outreaches. We had one on Saturday, where we played games and just talked with the students we met on campus.
Story time...
It has been an interesting week. The people in Buenos Aires are alot more rushed and busy than those in La Plata. BA is a huge city, very different from what I am used too. It is difficult to get to hang out with students, because they often travel 1-3 hours one way to get to school. They are much more dedicated and busy than students in the US. They have to study for hours and hours for their classes and many of them work.
One really cool story happened yesterday. A girl named Leonilla was sitting by herself and my friend Lauren and I decided to go and talk to her. We started talking to her about where she was from and what her major was...one slight problem was she spoke very little english. She probably knew less english than I know spanish. Anyway, my teammate Lauren knows alot more than I do though. So, we kept going on with our conversation and we asked her if she was interested in spiritual things and it turns out she was interested. However, we had a difficult time understanding all she said, so we reverted back to asking her things about her life. Then, she turned the conversation back to spiritual things, she started talking about the ¨Passion of the Christ.¨ So, we are going to try to get together with her again with a stinter.
Climate here...
Buenos Aires is very different from La Plata (where I went last year). It is a very big city, people are always busy and on the go. It´s a lot like NYC. It is difficult for the students to have time to meet with us, even though they want to. The spiritual climate here is similar to that of La Plata. People are very slow to trust. It takes a lot of time to gain their trust, in order to present the gospel to the students. Please pray that we will be able to continue to meet and follow up with students.
There is also a great sense of darkness here. Sensuality is present everywhere. Please pray for purity of our minds and hearts.
Also, postmodernism is a very common belief, just like the states. Please pray that the students will see that Jesus is the One and Only way to God.
Our outreach on campus this week is Every Student.com. (Every student.com is a campaign that Crusade does to answer the difficult questions in life eg. Why is there suffering. It has been used across campuses all over the world, many people throughout South America and the world have accepted Christ through this outreach.)We are advertising and doing surveys asking students, ¨Why do bad things happen?¨ So, please pray that the students will be interested and curious about these questions. Pray that the Lord will be working in their hearts, so that they would be ready to hear the truth and desire to accept it.
Thanks for all your prayers and encouragement! I´m truly astounded how the Lord has used you all to show me glimpses of the heart of God and how He will provide for all my needs.
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