la gente

With so much still to process I wanted to dedicate some time to at least give you all as much of a glimpse as I can of the people I have been in interaction with in Buenos Aires. We have met a lot of people in just these past couple weeks, strangers turned into friends. I have been amazed with such warm welcomings we have received. The church community has been excited to meet those of us on the servant team and quickly include us in activities. After church last Sunday we had lunch with the jovenes (young adult) group. Though many of us could not communicate with each other because of the language barrier we were still able to interact well together. I walked to the store with a couple guys to get drinks and while they tried to ask me questions the only thing I was able to clearly say was how difficult it is NOT to be able to communicate because I so want to get to know people. But with a few translators conversation was present even if only minimal. We had a beautiful time sharing a meal of hamburgers and talents through song.
Of course we´ve spent alot of time with the WMF staff here. We are so blessed to have such dedicated and caring staff. I am truly blessed to witness their hearts for the people of Buenos Aires, especially those who are overlooked by the rest of society. I am so looking forward to spending more time with them in the next four months. And there will be more time to write about these individuals later, thoguh I could already share so much.
I really want to talk about our new friends from the street. Unfortunately but understandably we are unable to post pictures of these individuals on the internet so for now I will do my best to convey my initial interactions with these amazing individuals. WMF Argentina has been befriending street youth/ young adults from the transportation hub of Retiro, a barrio of Buenos Aires, for many years now. The servant team went to Retiro for the first time on Monday to meet friends. Most of the time was spent sitting around sharing mate (a popular hot drink consisting of very strong and somewhat bitter earthy leaves. it has taken a while to get used to and is better dulce- sweet)outside of the train/ subway station where some of our friends sell used newspapers. I am surprised at how open the Argentines are to helping the poor. There were many regulars, young and old, who buy the papers or give spare change to our friends that find their profession in begging at the station. On Wednesday we saw many of those we had met on Monday that came for Encuentros, an event where friends from Retiro come to the church to participate in a Bible study, eat lunch, play video games, and simply spend time together. Many of them have young children with whom I enjoyed playing with, a simple action such as kicking a ping pong ball on the terrace outside while the little girl laughed with glee.
On Thursday we went to Bajo Flores where pastor Pablo and his wife Sarah (WMF friends) minister. After eating a lunch of empanadas and discussing possiblities with helping them they walked us around the villa. The villa is basically a community, a little more than primitive, where families throw together places to live among concrete slabs, making walls out of metals and cardboard and sometimes more sturdy materials. The spaces are not very big and they live with very little. I can´t remember exactly the number of people that was said to be living there but it aws in the thousands. We walked through the maze of homes, stacked story upon story, dodging stray dogs and hearing the chatter of family life . We stopped into a few homes of people the pastor knew; everyone was so gracious and anxious to few us or offer us a drnk and place to sit down. At one home we all sat around the table drinking Coca Cola and sat with a lady who told us of her loneliness and worries about her son. One of her sons had died and her other had been in the hospital and was now missing. I had no idea what she was saying exactly but the sadness was so evident on her face and in her voice that my heart was so burdened for her and still is. I gave her a warm embrace when leaving.
Yesterday we went back to Retiro. The boys played soccer in a plaza (park) outside of the station and I along with Jen and Amanda (with WMF) sat with the women and played with the kids. It broke my heart to see some of the people there sniffing glue out of plastic bags. We also sat in the station with ¨the girls¨, a number of girls who are sisters, most with children of their own.
Beyond the hindrance of the language barrier, I am trying to figure out what my role is in being in relationship with these individuals. Alot of the time when being there I am constantly trying to figure out how to relate with these individuals with them and simply offer up my prayers to the God of love for His strength and guidance. And He has responded by placing this overwhelming since of love for each one of them, a love that I cannot explain but only hope that I might be able to convey (as I type with tears in my eyes). That is what I will hang onto day by day.
I have been so amazed by the strength of the poor around us. Many of them have come such a long way from where they were before being in relationship with the Word Made Flesh friends. They live their lives couped up in small places or on the street working as beggars, collecting recyclable trash, or selling used newspapers, raising children, and eatin and bathing when they can.
I´m learning to put aside the reactions of my senses to sight, smell, taste, hunger, sleep, etc and allowing my heart and mind to experience sensations more.

Jason from our team has created a website that has links to other team members´blogs (that include pictures):
argentinaservantteam.org

Hopefully I will bust out my camera soon so you can see my Buenos Aires from my point of view.

Your continued prayers are appreciated. Your support is a blessing to my weary soul.

intitial thoughts

Estoy Aqui!
Im tucked away in a little internet cafe near our home in Buenos Aires right now. Its Saturday, which is our sabbath day so we have a lot of time to be free to do what we need to.
Ive been in Buenos Aires for 5 days now. I met up with my team at the Houston airport where we flew out together. Matt, Amanda, and I found each other pretty quickly at our concourse and so we waited for our other teammate Jason before we boarded the plane. We waited and waited and waited until we could wait no more. He never showed up. Well we found out later that he had some misinformed information about his flight date. So it was just the three of us for a couple days. But we are all together and having a grand time.
I have so much that I could talk about regarding the first few days so it is hard to know where to start. Forgive me for scattered thoughts.
The language: this has been the hardest aspect of being here. I so want to be able to connunicate with the people around me who speak little to no english. I cannot communicate in stores and even when I try funble around with the few spanish words I know and sound very much like a foreigner. I know that it will take time to learn, time and patience, but for the time being it feels very much like a hindrance. Por la noche I am having trouble thinking in English let alone Spanish.I am looking forward to our twice a week spanish classes. Here is a little Argentine language lesson for you- the double L "ll" in most spanish makes a "Y" sound; eg. pollo= poyo (chicken). But in argentina the double L makes a "sh" sound so pollo sounds like poysho y ella sounds like asia. The same with Y and J at the beginning of a word. In case you were interested.
Our "home": we are staying in a baptist church in Barracas, which is a barrio of Buenos Aires. A couple of the girls from the last servant team stayed there and the church loved having them so much so that they wanted to host the group again. They even went as far as to build us rooms (one for the guys to share y one for the girls to share)! A few people from the community also live in the church and we have enjoyed getting to know them and "talking" to them. (I forgot to mention that Amanda is fluent in Spanish so she is a GREAT help!) We ate dinner with the pastor Juan Jose and his wife Lorena last night. Their home is attached to the church. Juan Jose speaks english very well but his wife only knows a few words. They are wonderful people who are very gracious and helpful. We had a good time in community with them. The church has a very good relationship with the Word Made Flesh team here and have been partnering with them in ministry for years now.
Unfortunately I am at a stopping point with much more to say. So please allow me to finish my thoughts sometime in the next week.
In the meantime please keep my team and me in your prayers. And pray especially that God would grant me a quick mind to pick up the language.
God bless and much love!

Waiting

People have been asking me alot if I'm getting excited about Argentina and depending on the moment I might say 'yes' or just tell them that I was the day before when I wasn't freaking out. This time of waiting is somewhat unbearable, especially with a still long list of things to check off my to-do list. I think a couple weeks ago I was ready to just forego all the preparations and this waiting process and jump on a plane.
This past week has been a roller coaster of emotions- it's been filled with a lot of changes and goodbyes. I left Cincinnati where I have been living since April to come back to Indiana to spend time with my family before leaving. I left sooner than planned in order to come back for a funeral of a dear family friend, my adopted grandma Barb. So in one weekend I helped my roommates move to their new house as much as I could, stuffed my car with my own things, said goodbye to newly made friends and my roommates, saw two friends get married, and said another goodbye to my dear friend and her husband who were heading off to Bolivia. I then met up with two other dear friends saying goodbye to them less than 24 hours after greeting them. In order to get to the said funeral on time I woke at 4 in the morning and drove six hours to northern Indiana. Yet another goodbye, to Barb. After hearing the news of her death I picked up a busy schedule, as you can see, so at her funeral I was finally able to mourn and at the same time rejoice that she has been ushered into the arms of Jesus.
I'm home in Indiana now and looking forward to spending some time with my family. Yet now knowing that there are still more goodbyes to come.
In the meantime I am frantically and ironically at the same time sluggishly trying to get things in order, with less than a week left to go. And to be honest I've hardly thought about packing. (My sister Nichole would be mentally packing as of a month ago!)
All this waiting has done two very different things, again depending on the moment. It has made me so excited about this upcoming adventure that I have been awaiting for 4, rather 8 months when I first had the desire to go overseas. And on the other hand this wait has made me anxious about the arrival of what has been still 4, 3, 2, 1 month(s) away.
A few days ago, in one of the latter anxious moments, I was telling God that I didn't want to go simply because I didn't want to exchange my comfort for... well, I guess, what will be uncomfortable. He didn't say anything in response to that. He let me sit in that thought because one, He knows, and He's known that all along... my whole life, in fact. He is good at stirring His children in the comfortable lapses in life. And, two, He's already made Himself very clear with this whole arrangement. He's prepared it. He's benn preparing me for it. He's been revealing bits and pieces of His plan for me these past few months. So I reminded myself of that and let myself sink into a moment of trust.
I'm just asking God to teach me and prepare me in this next week of waiting. Which I can confess hasn't been easy. The enemy counteracts my trust and peace in God with feelings of unrest and lethargy. But God is persistent. It may not be until I'm actually in Argentina when I see how God was working in these months, weeks, days leading up to my departure. Which is just typical with me. Just like it won't sink in that I'm going across the globe, to a different country, to Argentina until I'm standing on South American soil.
Waiting. I have to go through it. But the waiting pays off.