This is a way belated blog that I started weeks ago about my time in Argentina that I am finally posting! I promise another one very soon to invite you all into how I am processing the Race ending and being home, but for now, I want to honor the way God worked in Month 11!
I have to admit, I entered the final month of my Race with extremely mixed feelings. After discussing and praying for guidance on post-Race happenings in Chile, I was yearning for home; I was about to spend the month with a team full of people I barely knew; and to top it off, we had to switch this team’s ministry with another team last-minute.
Normally, I am pretty flexible with these kinds of changes, but something about this one bothered me. Our location was in the middle of nowhere (unappealing after being in the desert), and our ministry was to men. Yay. Not at all what I had in mind. But, as always, God had an adventure planned.
I had to start the month out praying for the Lord to grow dependence in me, as well as for Him to really surprise me, because my expectations for this final month were not high.
I am happy to say that this final month ended up being such a blessing to my soul. First of all, the “middle of nowhere” was a town called Pasman. It is incredibly tiny, and situated amongst farms. The school has produced only 15 alumni! Our location honestly looked very similar to where I have lived in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and we often joked that somehow we were actually back in the States.
I went for a run early in the month and started crying because the landscape was so beautiful – it reminded me of home, and was a breath of fresh air. As my favorite worship band, Rend Collective, sings:
You’ve given my soul the space to breathe.
That is exactly how I felt out amongst the cows, pigs, sheep, vast blue sky, and flat, rural landscape. I went into this month with a plan to look for God’s presence daily, and through the location alone I sensed His nearness.
It was a more typical Race kind of month…. No Wifi access, bucket showers, hand-washing laundry, sleeping in tents, pumping water from a well. And you know what? It was glorious.
Our ministry was also different than expected. We ended up coming alongside a family who had recently just uprooted from Buenos Aires to this tiny farm town. They were still figuring out what life will look like for them in Pasman. This family has taken in a bunch of kids from Buenos Aires who are either orphans or were living on the streets and brought them to Pasman to give them space from the city. The boys are currently living in an old, abandoned cheese factory which they are planning to restore so that the kids can live there. Their living conditions are not great, and they were in need of some laborers!
The cheese factory is where we did a lot of our work. We completed odd projects for them, such as cutting overgrown grass (with shovels…) in the yards, adding a roof to the cheese factory, planting potatoes, etc. We also got to build relationships with the kids (who are amazing by the way) by playing games with them, helping them with their homework, and just being around. Marcos also asked us to take time to share about our experiences in each country on the Race with the kids. This was such a blessing from God, providing space for us to start processing the Race and practice encouraging others with our experiences!
I also thoroughly enjoyed the team I was with. This month was full of life-giving, real conversations, laughter, games of Dutch Blitz, and simple livin’. Guys, I love community! I am deeply going to miss this aspect of the Race.
