Day 3 ... Monday (Part II)

OK, so we are back! Happy St. Patrick's Day! So sorry we couldn't update last night, but the evening was full of surprises and a lot of fun. Here we go --

Krissi: Yesterday we slept in and got up for breakfast and a devotion. The day was relatively easy for us - for Connie, it was a different story. That girl can COOK and not only that, but she's hosting twelve new people and is doing an amazing job organizing us and making sure we are taken care of. (Please pray for Connie when you read this and ask God to bless her for all her trouble!) I have to say I have been so impressed with her use of the language and relation to the people here. Go Connie!

Sam: Don't forget to mention the Great Chocolate Incident of 2009. Poor Connie was making chocolate icing in a rush for our party last night. The pot slipped and it spilled all over the floor, the curtains, the rug, her clothes, the cabinet ...

Connie: Yeah, it was all over me and the house. 

Krissi: In addition to the Great Chocolate Incident of 2009, we had some really cool experiences yesterday.

Rebekah: In the afternoon, Sam taught us how to prayer walk by claiming Scripture because you know it's God will. So we all separated and picked out our own personal verse to pray while walking the streets of Trelew. After we came together and discussed our verses and why we picked them, we split up and each group took a street to walk along and pray aloud or silently. While we were walking, my group saw many students - one of which I locked eyes with and immediately prayed for. She had long dark, wavy hair and was about fourteen years old. Imagine my surprise later that night when she showed up to our party at Ted and Connie's house! 

Brice: I really thought that prayer walking was spiritually exhausting. I could see a lot of needs around me and it just wore me out to pray for and think about these people through spiritual eyes. It was a good kind of worn out - like an accomplished feeling.

Amelia: Krissi and I walked by a daycare and decided to stop and pray together for the children in there. It was sad to know that I couldn't meet these kids or talk to them about Jesus - I would just have to leave it up to God.

Krissi: My group also passed through a park and we took a second to sit in the swings and pray for each person walking through the park and for the children that would sit in those swings. Several hours later, when we walked back by the park, there were some kids swinging there and Amelia and Teri and Nolan and I were like, "Hey! We prayed for those kids!" 

Sam: As we were prayer walking, it seemed kind of overwhelming at times because there are so many people here in Argentina. But I really felt like God was teaching me not to be overwhelmed but to be praying for those we were specifically seeing.

Nolan: Prayer walking led us to a downtown area with a pretty park where we took some group pictures for fun. As we were shopping, Chris and I butted heads pretty hard by accident. 

Chris: I could feel his brain when we hit!

Nolan: So I decided to buy a rugby helmet and ball and run around with it on.

Matt: After shopping, Ted and Connie had invited over English-speaking Argentinians where we introduced them to tacos and queso and spicy food. (We also roasted marshmallows and hot dogs again - which we heard they had only seen in movies.)

Brendon: Bruno, Nolan, Chris, Brice, Sam, and I went out back to play some fútbol (soccer) in a little huddle. We kept hitting people, windows, and even almost into the fire several times.

Sam: I got to spend time with one of the men and we talked specifically about Christ and spiritual things. I enjoyed that.

Emily: I met several girls my age at the party last night and found out that it was their school that my group had been praying for on our prayer walk. These girls are no different from girls at home -- they were crushing on boys (even some of our own American boys) and they had read Twilight and said it was very popular here. We had a lot to talk and laugh about.

Chris: About halfway through the party, we were asked to do our skit for the party visitors. It was really good because there were a lot of people at the party who were not believers and we got the opportunity to share it directly through song and actions.

Krissi: After the skit, a man named Javier spoke in Spanish and explained the skit, sort of sharing the gospel and that was really cool -- we were very blessed by it.

Rebekah: We had a lot of fun teaching our new friends games from home -- like the "UH!" game that we eventually changed to the "UFA!" (Oofa!) game and some of us got out just because we were laughing too hard. They taught us some of their games, too, and it was so fun!

Wendy: I talked with Letecia a lot - she was an English teacher. She had a great sense of humor and reminded us of our own Michele Rye. [we are all agreeing here.]  She was very friendly and her English was so very good. She told me a lot of stuff about "mate" - that it's kind of like an art and you have to get your environment ready so that you can share that moment with someone. That's also how people settle their disputes -- by discussing it over "mate" as a cool-down attempt.

Krissi: Wow, I'm so glad to know that stuff has a greater purpose! I have to say that I really had a great time at the party - the first person who arrived was David, who is 18-years-old. He said he learned his English in classes and by listening to Broadway musicals -- well, you can imagine my joy when I heard that! So I was like, "have you heard Wicked?" and he said yes, it was one of his favorites! The funny thing was that I had debated on if I should wear my Wicked shirt to the party or not ... I opted to do it in case it could be a "talking point" with the people I would meet. And then here came David ... a Wicked fan! I felt like I had found a little Argentinian soul mate! We discussed musicals the rest of the night. He is a really strong Christian and I think every one of us got along great with him. I also got along really well with his cousin, Jacqui and her friend, Carolina - can't wait to see them again on Wednesday! Rocio was also there and it was sooo good to see her again. I can't explain it, but I just feel a connection with her and was really blessed when she overcame her shyness and spoke with me in English. 

Teri: I enjoyed watching the kids play their games ("UFA!") and I could see through that that kids all over the world are all the same. Through something like a game, they could communicate regardless of any language barriers and become friends and laugh together. Having the kids do the skit again in front of all their peers was just wonderful. To me, that was God working in something we didn't even have planned.

Rebekah: At the end of the night, it was SO hard to say goodbye to our new friends. [We are all agreeing here.] A few of them we will see again before we leave. Most of them have Facebook, so we agreed to find each other on there - leaving names and email addresses. 

Overall, Monday was just amazing. Today, we will be doing touristy stuff -- driving out to the beach to see penguins! We will update again later tonight. Thank you for the prayers. God is using them and we feel them.