forgive me!

I've missed the past couple of weeks! It's been a good couple of weeks though. I actually got back from Argentina today. Let me just say that it was a LOT of traveling. But oh so worth it. What that also means is that this may not be the most coherent or grammatically correct blog post I've done.

I honestly didn't know what to expect from this trip before I went. I knew that we'd be working with third culture kids (TCKs) who are kids are not Argentine by birth and are in Argentina because of family situations whether it be parents at an embassy or being half-Argentine and only raised partially in Argentina. We knew that we'd be putting on a retreat for them, but I didn't expect it to turn out as it did.

It was wonderfully. I thought that because they often have a lot (their families are often well off) that they'd find the games and such that we did lame, but they threw their all into everything we gave them and they just had so much energy. That in turn gave our team energy and it was such a fun weekend.

Before I left I was concerned because I was the only girl Kaleo on this ministry trip, but it turned out so well. At the retreat, I got to meet a few girls closer to my age and bond with them in a way I might not have had the chance to if there were other girl Kaleos for me to turn to for hanging out. I made new friends and these girls (and all the kids) have imprinted themselves on my heart.

A really cool moment at the retreat was being able to be out in a big field and just lay there and look at the stars. There was a big group of us and we had our heads sort of all directed towards the middle and just talked of the magnificence of God. To be outside with a group of teens who really don't often get a chance to get out of the city and get to experience God's creation in such a cool way was so amazing. And the stars were out in all their brilliance. And as we laid there staring at the stars, we saw 2 shooting stars! We sang our hearts out to the Lord and I know that He took joy in that sweet sound (even though most of us had lost our voices).

Also as a part of this trip, we got to work at a community center in Buenos Aires called Conviven. Conviven means living together. This ministry is so great. They are not affiliated with any church, but I believe that the man who runs it is a believer. This community center is right next to what is called a villa (pronounced vizha in Castellano, the form of Spanish spoken in Buenos Aires). A villa is what we would know as a barrio or a ghetto. So this center has people coming from there and they have to opportunity to take computer classes, or English classes, or even photography classes. There are many more things that this center does and they don't have much to run it on. So part of our ministry was to go and help them out with an odd job or two. We ended up painting their computer room. The colour we painted it was yellow but the shade was called Shooting Stars. When the name was seen by those who were buying the paint, they had to get that one. It was super cool to see them be so blessed by that simple act of painting a room. The computer teacher was floored. And afterwards, we prayed over the room. The teacher wasn't a Christian but we got an email later saying that he liked the passion behind our prayers and was really grateful and moved.

I will post more later, but right now, I'm fading.