home sweet home

I made it home!!!! So along with all of the amazing things I have learned this summer, I have also realized that am not a very good blogger. To everyone who has been keeping up with this blog, you are awesome! Thank you so very much, especially since I have been so bad about posting regularly. I apologize for not keeping you guys more up to date!
That being said, my last few weeks in Buenos Aires, were packed full of some AMAZING experiences!! I could talk for hours about all of the wonderful things God taught me. However, in order to keep this post shorter than a novel, I am just going to tell one of my very favorite stories from my last couple weeks in Argentina!
One day on campus, we were doing our usually surveys, when we met a girl named Johanna. She was sitting on a bench studying for an exam when we approached her and asked if she spoke English. She spoke almost perfect English, and she agreed to do our survey. When we asked her the first question, trying to learn a little about her life, she told us that she is a christian and believes that Christ died on the cross for her sins. We got SO excited to meet another believer on campus, that she probably thought we were crazy! We spent a few more minutes talking to her and telling her about Vida, but then she had to go to class for an exam. A few days later I got to meet back up with Johanna and talk to her a little more. Come to find out, she has been attending Derecho for 3 years and ever since she started going to school there she's been praying for God to introduce her to a group of believers on her campus. AND on the day we met her she was sitting in a place on campus she never goes, at a time when she is never even at school. God is so so so so faithful!! It never ceases to amaze me. Oh, and remember how we have been praying for women to get involved in Vida and for more student leaders to rise up? Johanna is just as excited about getting involved in Vida as we are to have found her! She has been searching for a group of students to help her share her faith on campus for years.
So in short, the story of us meeting Johanna pretty much sums up much of what God has taught me throughout this entire summer: God is faithful, and God is sovereign. He knew that Johanna would be in that hall that day at that time, and that she would be a translation major and want to practice her English with us. He knew that she was searching for a way to share her faith with other students on campus, and He knew that Vida would be a perfect way for her to do so. He is so so so very faithful, even when I am not. He not only allowed me to see part of his wonderful plan fulfilled through Johanna, He also provided me with a lifelong friend in the process. He blesses me with so much more than I deserve!! I will never understand how much he loves us all, but I sure am glad he does! I am so thankful for my experiences in Argentina! I thank you all SO MUCH for going on this adventure with me and I would absolutely love to tell you more about it!! Thanks for all of the wonderful support you have given me!

I wonder

I've been listening to this song on repeat for the past month!! Cannot get enough!! It totally describes exactly how I'm feeling about this entire summer. Hope you guys enjoy it:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXzhCfQ3GjU&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Catching up

First of all, I am so sorry that it has been so long since the last time I have written!!! Things have been crazy busy here!! Because I haven't given any updates in so long, I thought I would just post some of the main highlights that have happened this past week! Last Tuesday- we had a follow up meeting with one of the girls I posted about before. She has a lot of hard questions and doubts about God and his love and plan. Please by praying for this sweet new friend of mine! Pray that God will reveal himself to her and that she will realize how much he cares for her and wants to have a relationship with her! Last Thursday- one of the best days I've had since I've been in Buenos Aires!! A friend and I were having a hard time finding girls that spoke English and were willing to talk to us so we were just sitting on a bench reading our Bibles when an Argentine girl came up to us and starting asking us questions about who we were and what we were doing there. She ended up eating lunch with us and hanging out with us for a few hours, and it turns out that she is a believer and might possibly get involved with vida estudiantil (the Argentine version of CRU). Please pray that God might give this girl a desire to get involved with vida! Right now there is only one girl on the law campus that is involved and we are hoping to gain at least a few more so that there will be enough students to start a womens Bible study! Saturday- we took a day trip to La Plata!! It was such an awesome city and I fell in love with it!! There were parks and trees everywhere. It was so nice to see some green! Sunday- we had a big picnic event at the park with all of the Argentine friends we have met so far! We played soccer, frisbee, volleyball, and drank lots of mate. It was so amazing to get to spend the day building relationships with these students! Today (Monday)- The best day yet!!! God is so graceful!!! Today he blessed me with the opportunity to share with a girl who decided that she wanted to go home and pray to receive Christ as her savior tonight!! I am so thankful for Him allowing me to see this awesome glimpse of His plan! He is so good!!! Later on tonight when we got back to the hotel some of our Argentine friends taught us how to salsa! It was so much fun!!! As of last Sunday, our group came up with a list of 16 new believers that have given their lives over to Christ since we have been here. And those are only the students that He has allowed us to see! God is so good and his work here in Argentina is so obvious it's crazy! He doesn't need me or any of us to do what he is doing in this city. I feel so privileged to be able to take part in His awesome plan! Thank you all SO MUCH to everyone back home in the states, I appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers!! I am always grateful for your wonderful support!!

Halfway!

So as you might have guessed by the title of this post, we are now just about halfway through our 6 week adventure here in BA! This feeling is so bittersweet!! I am really starting to miss all of my family and friends back in the states, but at the same time I am still so in love with the Argentines! I cannot believe it is already halfway over! Anyway, in order to take a break from the busy city life, our staff surprised us with a day trip to an estancia (ranch) about 2 hours from the city! It was absolutely beautiful! After living in this busy busy down town area for the past 3 weeks I have never been so excited to see grass! There were also horses and we got to take part in a big traditional asada, which is kind of like a BBQ. We had such a fun amazing day! The only down side is that my horse decided to go a little crazy when one of the gauchos whistled and he took off and bucked me off. I fell off the back of the horse, but thankfully I'm okay! Just a little sore but nothing serious. Thanking God that I didn't get hurt! Other than that I had an amazing restful day and am so grateful to have gotten a break from the craziness of city life! Still cannot believe that this trip is halfway through, it is flying by!

Feelings

Do you ever get those weird feelings that you just "need" to do something? Like when you see someone and you just feel like the Lord is telling you to go talk to them or do something for them? Yeah.. I don't. I wish I could tell you what that feels like, but it doesn't really happen to me. I've always been jealous of those people who just "know" they need to say or do something. But yesterday for the first time in my life I had one of those feelings. I was sitting down on some steps in the school lobby when I happened to look up and see a girl that was pretty upset walk by. I really don't know if it was because she was crying or what, but for some reason I just got the strongest feeling that I needed to go talk to her. So naturally I stalked her untill she sat down, and then I made my move. She was still crying when I went up to her and I couldn't think of what to say so I just asked her if she spoke English. When she said yes I pulled out my soularium cards (a collection of pictures we use to give students surveys in hopes of sparking spiritual conversations) and asked her if he had time for a survey. Now I'm not exactly sure why she was so nice to me, because if I was sitting by myself visibly upset and some gringo (foreigner) came up to me asking me to do a survey I would have told them to get lost.. But for some reason she agreed to participate. Long story short we ended up talking until she had to go and she was sooo excited to meet up with me again and hear more about Jesus! She even offered to give me a tour of the city and show me all of her favorite places! Argentines are probably the most friendly and welcoming group of people I have ever met. Today was awesome! Thanking God for all of my wonderful new friends! Galatians 2:22