This Thanksgiving I had the incredible opportunity to travel to Machu Picchu, Peru with three study abroad friends. I had never thought about traveling outside of Argentina, but the opportunity presented itself and, oddly enough, I really felt the Lord saying I shouldn't pass it up. So I jumped on board.

I could talk for days about the whole trip. It was INCREDIBLE! The mountains in Peru are stunning and Machu Picchu of course is amazing! We did a four-day hike to Machu Picchu that included everything from crazy van rides, hot springs, biking, and zip-lining to hiking. We were part of a group that included, two cousins from France, two Canadians, two Spainards, an Irishman, a guy from Switzerland, and of course our trusty guide Abraham.

Before leaving, I had been bathing the trip in prayer, praying that the Lord would present spiritual conversations along the trail. I am still amazed at how the Lord answered my prayer. Three conversations occurred and never once did I have to bring them up.

Day one, Thanksgiving Day, we arrived in Peru and treated ourselves to a nice Thanksgiving meal. After going around the table sharing what we were thankful for for the year, my friends began a spiritual conversation where the Lord gave me the opportunity to share what my faith meant to me.

The next conversation was 3 days into the hike and continues to leave me singing praises at how great our God is. Here we are walking along and one of our friends from France just begins asking me about Genesis. He was raised in an atheist home and had just decided to start reading the Bible. He was full of questions. He is such a smart guy and Genesis was really giving him a run for his money. So for 2 hours we talked. He had some great questions that were really making me think as well. By the end the Gospel had been shared and he told me that this was the first time he was able to talk so openly with someone about religion. There was so much that occurred throughout this conversation, but there is one thing that the Lord began showing me that continues to weigh in my mind.

All throughout our conversation, my French friend displayed how lost this world is. The idea that merely being a good person and doing good deeds for others not being enough to go to Heaven was something he just could not grasp. He wants to know the truth. That is why he decided to start reading the Bible. He is in search of the truth. But he isn't the only one. He showed me that everyone is wanting to do good and is in search of the truth. The problem is us. We have made a million different religions and everyone is telling a different truth. No one knows what to believe. We have taken what we like from different religions and adapted it to fit our lives. The truth however lies in God's living Word; not in the ideas of man. But even we, as Christians, have driven people away, made people question the truth of Christ due to our actions and allowed tolerance to spread in a way that downplays and negates the truth of Christ. Don't get me wrong, I am definitely not promoting anything harsh or radical. However, I am beginning to see a desperate need for the truth to be spread. People are lost and hungry for spiritual guidance and I am kicking myself in the butt because I am not saying anything. I am so afraid of making someone angry or loosing someone's friendship, that I choose not to share the truth I know and love.

Having these conversations in Peru encourages me that a spiritual conversation doesn't have to be hard or something you loose friends over. And I have no power over whether someone chooses to believe. That is the Lord's job. He just asks us to share so all people will have had the opportunity to at least hear the good news of the Gospel.

"I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ." Philemon 1:6

I would challenge everyone to open the Word and read it with an open heart, allowing the Spirit to work. Once you experience the love of Christ, you will never turn back.

What a blessing. Today after 2 hours in the post office, I received my first and probably best package. The wonderful girls in the Bible study I co-lead last year sent me a box full of encouraging letters, candy, random jokes, and Christmas decorations. I couldn't believe it. I thought I was going to cry.

Tomorrow is my last day for the semester. Just one more final and my first school semester is finished. It hit me last week how exhausted and in need of a break I was. Well today when I opened that box to find an explosion of red confetti paper and colorful letters I got the energy I needed to finish up the semester. I feel so incredibly blessed by these wonderful friends. Last year was my favorite year on campus! These girls had entered my life and been such a blessing and now they are continuing to bless me in South America. I was overjoyed and over whelmed because I didn't do anything be so blessed. That is the beauty of the Gospel though right?

Thank you girls!! Love and miss you!

"The Lord is my shepherd, I have everything I need." Psalm 23:1

Since arriving in Argentina, I have recited this verse over and over again. The last couple of weeks have been challenging. A good way to describe it would be an emotional roller-coaster. Some days are really great and then the next day you find yourself asking what you are doing here. I have been having a hard time trusting the Lord. There has been a lot of wrestling between us.

It isn't that I don't like it here or that I am having a bad time. Overall, I am loving it! This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I feel so blessed to be able to be here, living in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The Lord knows me, better than I know myself, and he knew that this was something I always wanted to do.

The issue is that I am being stretched. Living abroad is a time of growth and let me tell you, the honeymoon is over and it is time for growing. I am being challenged but it is good. When I look at just these past two months, I have really had to rely on the Lord in a whole new way. That is really exciting! I seriously can't wait to see what he has in store, but it is a daily struggle. This past weekend was really refreshing. I spent a lot of time in the Word and was encouraged and reminded of God's faithfulness. I don't have it all figured out but God doesn't ask me to. It isn't always easy but praise the Lord, I don't have to live on my own strength.

I forgot to add pictures to my last entry!

Here is the Buenos Aires skyline from a beach we went to on the river. Crazy, but this is not even all of it.

This my school. 19 stories. Pretty different from the states. Wish I had a better picture.

The AG campus!! O how I love AG. This is where a cat peed on my backpack. Yes a cat peed on my backpack. Good times. But really, I love AG.

Me at the National Flag Monument in Rosario.

And this is Cordoba where we had our retreat last weekend. Me gusta!

And here is the Buenos Aires Vida Estudiantil group! :)

If you want to see more check out my facebook!

So I am a little late in posting this entry and I am going to be all over the place, but I am excited to finally get it up. This last weekend I went with Vida Estudiantil to a little pueblo outside the city of Cordoba for another retreat. This retreat however was with students from all over the country who are involved in the movement. Pretty sweet. We left Thursday night on an overnight bus (double-decker and much better than an airplane) at 11:20 pm and arrived the next morning at 11ish. A pretty different way to travel for us US folks. It was a really good experience though. I enjoyed it mucho.

There was around 90 of us and we stayed in the Casa Grande Hotel. It was super fun! I loved getting to meet students from all over the country and see God's movement not only in BA but all over the country. Although my spanish is definitely improving, let me just say that there are so many different accents and some are so difficult to understand. Do not even try to understand jokes in spanish. When everyone else laughs, just laugh.

It is such a blessing to be able to participate in ministry here while I study. I have been able to make so many Argentine friends that if I was only doing my program, I would not be able to meet. Also, it is so encouraging to see the Lord being praised all over. For me, it is so easy to only think of the Lord in the US because that is the only place I have seen him. I know he is everywhere but it takes on a whole new meaning once you get to experience seeing him somewhere else. It is such a blessing to have spiritual community in a foreign land. It is challenging enough to be living in another country, but if I didn't have this community to lift me up and be the reminder that God is here in this huge city and country, where finding people who care about Christ is difficult, things would be so lonely. And for this, I am so thankful to be a part of this community.

All this to say the retreat in Cordoba was wonderful.

In other news, God is really working in my heart. I recently just finished a book by Henry Cloud that God has really been using to speak to me. Let me say this, I am really excited to see the Lord changes and grows me over these next 9 months. He has showed some of the things we are going to be working on and I am excited. However, here comes the hard part. Once you see and understand what needs to be done, it is time to get to work. So here we go. The hard part. But, exciting none the less!

My prayer - "For God wants you to silence the ignorant talk of foolish people by the good things you do." 1 Peter 2:15

My question - What does that look like for our lives?

This weekend, Vida Estudiantil Buenos Aires hosted the annual CCVN retreat. CCVN is a leadership retreat for students and professional who are involved in the movement here in Argentina. The Gringos were warned that this was going to be an exhausting weekend as there would be many students and various classes and activities; all of which would be in Spanish. Although the first night was a little frustrating because of the language barrier, I had an amazing time this weekend! I absolutely loved getting to know the students more and meeting the other students and staff members from La Plata!

We started the retreat Friday night and by the end of the night I was frustrated. I wanted to befriend everyone the way I knew how in the states. I kept thinking I didn't know what to say or how to say what I wanted to say. This all lead to a frustrated me who ended up not talking much. When I got home Friday night, I recognized that my exhaustion from Spanish overload was a huge contributor to my irritation. I also recognized that I could not befriend anyone with a bummer attitude and it is going to take more than my own efforts to learn this language. However, the truth is no matter what the language, people are people. It is not a science. Love em. Again, I surrendered over my attitude and expectations to the Lord, asking him to fill me with his Spirit, let me relax, and wake up with a new attitude. Saturday was wonderful! Even with a full day of evangelism training, talking with friends, and going out to the park to share the Gospel, all in Spanish, it was wonderful! I wasn't tired and was truly just enjoying it. Praise the Lord.

One thing I still can't get over is when we had worship. In Spanish. It was beautiful. I had never worshiped in another language. It was amazing to think of all the other countries worshiping in their native language. It really put into perspective God's presence in the world. There truly are people all over the world who have experienced the abundant love of God and can not help but worship him. It was a small room but our voices were loud.

The Lord is at work here in Argentina. My team and I can not wait to see the Lord continue to work through out this next year! Last week we were assigned the campus we would be working on all year. It is only fitting that I can happily report I am on the ag campus. :) I am pumped! The men's movement is really flourishing here but the women's side of things is in need of leaders. This year we are asking God to raise up 7 women who are on fire for Christ and have a desire to lead on the campus. We are also praying that someone on one of the political Groups, Nuevo Espacio, would accept Christ. The political groups have a lot of power on campus so think of the effect it could have if such a strong natural leader were to begin following Christ. If you all would please join us in praying for the Ag campus's women's movement and salvation of students, especially from Nuevo Espacio, that would be wonderful! God is big my friends and his work goes beyond where our daily lives lead us. Join me in praying for those around the globe and here in Argentina.

Today I literally found myself laughing out loud (in a good way). Today was my first day on campus doing ministry. The school system is different here than most universities in the states. Here public universities are free. You might think that the education would be bad right? Well it is actually better than private schools (college at least). Furthermore, there is no such thing as dorms here. You only go to campus for classes. The University of Buenos Aires, where we are doing ministry, has several different campuses all through out the city. The campuses are specific for each major - law, medicine, agriculture, philosophy, etc. Most campuses have around 30,000 students.

Ok so knowing this, guess what campus I go to today.

Agronomia. Aka - agriculture. I am stoked. The campus is about 30 minutes from where I am in the city. When I stepped off the bus, I saw pasture. This is not your typical campus. I literally walked for ten minutes next to fences of horse, llamas, goats, and ducks. One horse had a buzz cut! No mane. There were maybe 3 buildings that semi looked like classes could be help there. As I was walking around I literally said "I can not wait to take pictures of this". I loved it. It just made me laugh. It was not at all what I was expecting.

As for actual ministry, Morgan and I were able to do solarium with one girl. There is a lot of spiritual activity on this campus which is really neat to see. Most all of the "gen-ed" classes have to be taken on this campus so we get to interact with students that will eventually go to the medicine, law, etc campuses. That is really neat because then the other stinters working on the other campuses meet students who have already had seeds planted. I was told several great stories of how Cru was granted favor on other campuses because of the work on the ag campus.

Hopefully some of this makes since. I just thought me on the ag campus was worth sharing but I really need pictures to accompany this so you can somewhat picture this. I will work on getting pictures up soon!

HOLA!

Tomorrow marks the one week mark in BA (Buenos Aires)! Que lindo! (How great) My mind is constantly in Spanish mode even after such a short period of time. Before I got here, I was told that a lot of sleep was going to be necessary because it is exhausting translating from spanish to english back into spanish. I will attest to this statement - it is truth my friends. Exhausted would be correct. However, I love it! I love the fact that I am actually getting to use Spanish on a daily basis and will one day be good at this language! This might be a good time to mention that my host mom, Inez, does not speak a lick of English. We communicate though and it is great! She tells me all the time to relax and it is not important if I don't understand.

Inez is precious! She is the cutest little thing. She is 72 so she is kind of like my argentine grandma. We live on a really busy street - 6 lanes or 8 if you count the area where cars park/ the crazy drivers here drive in anyway. Seriously, I was warned by Mrs. Uhlig that when you are riding in a car here you would cross your fingers and say ," Lord if this is my time.." and it is true. It is as if the big white lines in the street do not even exist. It cracks me up. I was in a taxi the other night and could not help but laugh and think of Mrs Uhlig. And I am not sure if this is true but so far I have not seen a speed limit sign...

Continuing on the subject of cultural differences, here is a list of the things I have noticed so far:

• They love bread. Bread is a staple at every meal. I swear I do not understand how they are all so small because they eat bread like it was going out of style. Although I would not be able to pass up the bread either when you pass by a bakery in the morning. Smells wonderful. One look in the window of the bakery and you want in.
• Currently it is spring which means shorts in America. Not here. They are still rocking the boots and coats thinking it is cold.
• O I like this one - Bidets. I had never seen one before so when I had my first tour of the house I asked Inez what it was. Our apartment is pretty small mind you - think New York - so why you would waste space with such an object I do not know. I probably don't want to know.
• Turkey is an unknown meat here. There is no such thing. Ham, ham, ham, steak, salami.
• Dog poop=EVERYWHERE. If you dream of being a professional dog walker, this is the place for you! Seriously I have seen so many! As many as 10 dogs at once. I saw a man this morning with a belt on for dog leashes. Priceless. I thought that only existed in the movies.
• On the outsides of the windows there are these cool dark wooden blinds. From the street it gives a really neat look.
• Garages are super neat! Most everyone lives in a apartment here. There is one garage door and a pole with a green and red light on it. When the light turns red, a loud beeping sound warns pedestrians to stop on the sidewalk because a car is about to come out. All the cars for that apartment are kept underground. They just go right over the sidewalk and onto the street.
• It is very italian based. Pizza, ravioli, lasagna, gnocchi, etc. Also, green olives seem to be big. Every slice of pizza has a giant green olive in the middle of it... The spanish they use here, Castillano, has a lot of Italian influences. Chau, buenisimo, etc.
• Everything takes a lot longer here. Lines exist but not everywhere. And where there is a line, it usually moves really slow. Earlier this week when we were trying to set up our phone plans, we went into the same store three days in a row, twice a day for at least an hour and half each time.
• Do not, I repeat, DO NOT cross the street when the pedestrian sign says stop! Buses and cars will literally run you down. There is no concept here of pedestrians having the right of way. They do not stop.
• When I went into the supermercado (super market) I had to get my backpack zip tied while I was shopping. I might add I forgot to take out my wallet before hand... dummy.

Ahh there is so much I don't even know what else. Plus this post has already become pretty long. We have all year though right? haha. right.

This week has really just been a week of me settling in. I started classes on Tuesday and it is going well. (Did you know public universities are free here?! But hard to get into.) My stint team came on Wednesday. They are wonderful! Looking forward to spending the year with them. There are so many things I could go into but I will spare you from reading a novel. I had been trying to blog all week but was having issues logging on. Now that it finally worked I am unleashing the thoughts I had been storing up.

Tune in next week! This could get interesting my friends! As they say here - Chau! (Cha-ow)