Hola mi amigas!
I safely arrived in Arecibo, Puerto Rico on January 9th and will be calling this my stomping grounds until January 31st!
Since this first blog post will be to inform you all of my living conditions, and ministry location, as well as my first week here. I’ve decided to fire some bullet points your way to make it easy since I tend to get a bit long winded about.. well, pretty much everything!
NOTE: **My apologizes for not having any pictures, my blog is having issues with uploading pictures at the moment. If you want to see photos, please refer to my facebook page for now. I will have pictures in the future!****
Sooo drum roll please…
- There are 12 of us here from our Squad, my team of six (Team Fire Starters) and another team of six (Team Salmo 45:11)
- To get from the airport to our location, we piled 13 people in a 12 passenger van, with 12 big packs, 12 day packs, 2 guitars and 2 mandolins
- 5 of the 12 know Spanish and can translate for us which is a blessing beyond words! With that ratio we always have someone to help us ‘spanish noobies’ talk to the locals and it also allows us to sit every other in services and have the entire thing translated, amen!
- I am determined to be able to speak Spanish by the end of this missions trip! I have already more than doubled my vocabulary in one week!
- We are teaming up with Iglesia Viva (Church of Life) which is pastored by Pastor Peter, an extremely welcoming man of God who has already blown me away with his gift of preaching (detailed blog to come!) and his readiness to serve us when we are there to serve him and his congregation.
- Hearing worships songs sung in English and Spanish, at the same time, gives you an honest glimpse of what it will sound like in heaven when every tongue professes Christ’s name
- We are sleeping in an empty children’s classroom in the church. (Thank you dad for taking the extra time to research a comfortable sleeping pad with me, because I have actually been comfortable sleeping on the concrete floors!)
- For those of you who were wondering as much as I was; we have normal sinks, toilets, and showers! Although their septic systems don’t permit any toilet paper to be flushed and their showers only have one setting which is.. ice cold. We are thankful for running and flushing water!!
- An earthquake decided to hit Puerto Rico last week, so we had a nice little rumble before bed. I can check that off my bucket list I suppose
- I thought Americans who have bass speakers in their cars blast their music loud, but they’ve got nothing on Puerto Ricans and their deafening ‘Reggaeton’
- Authentic Puerto Rican food made by locals in the church congregation is delectable
- Within our group of 12, 2 people play guitar and 2 play the mandolin
- Cows like to roam into our yard and greet us in the mornings
- Hand washing your clothes is a skill, one that I have not mastered yet
- Being the team treasurer I have needed to figure out our food budget each week as well as any supplies, or travel costs we might need (so yes, all of you who have donated to my missions fund, or any of my teammates, I am in charge of all that money. No pressure… right?!)
- It’s extremely difficult to shop for 12 people for a week, with a budget (how does Mrs. Duggers {19 Kids and Counting} do it??)
- Our Squad is the first squad that the World Race has ever sent to Puerto Rico, so we are pioneering the way! Woop Woop!
- Some times when you’ve been busy all day and realize you’re too dirty to get in your sleeping bag, but too scared of the ice water showers, you resort to showering in the sink
- Free days and nights getting to know an amazing team of 12 Christians, who are on fire for God is a blessing.
- The weather here ranges from 75 – 88 degrees and is always sunny, with an occasional afternoon rain shower
- A go-to homemade snack for guests here is cheese-wiz and Spam sandwiches on white bread……………
- I have come to realize that I want to play with every puppy I see, and thus I have found my calling; to adopt all orphan doggies! (joking.. kind of)
- We are only a couple miles away from the beach and the water is much.. much warmer than Jersey
- A day of our ministry was cleaning up the church grounds, raking, pruning trees, moving wood ect.
- Manual labor it extremely demanding, but so very rewarding when you see what your team accomplished in one day
- Visiting Christians in their homes in the evenings have been just as encouraging for us as it has been for those we go to sing, pray and fellowship with
- Coconut water straight from the coconut during lunch break is refreshing beyond words
- When you’re moving a trash heap from a back yard, use chopped down palm tree to move a deteriorating, spider infested sofa, that is, if you stumble upon one
- Serving other people makes it nearly impossible to focus on yourself
- Fire ants bite, it hurts, and it itches something fierce
- Climbing trees as high as you can before your knees start knocking together too much and hanging your hammock for an afternoon nap is worth the scrapes you get up and down your legs
I hope this gave you a good taste of my life this month! God is doing big things in the hearts of this Arecibo community as well as the hearts of my team! I am already formulation blogs in my head that will go deeper into our ministry and how God is moving. So stay tuned!
With that being said, this is all I have for you right now.
Stay warm America,
With much love from Puerto Rico!
