But I did. I did cry. The closer I get to home the harder the goodbyes are. Its less than 100days until home and counting.
WELCOME TO SOUTH AMERICA!
First off, it took 5days to get to Argentina. We flew from the Philippines to South Korea, to Australia, to New Zealand, to Chile, to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Then took a 24 hour bus to our ministry in Jujuy Argentina. All in all we were tired but we made it!!
We had an incredible host family that took us in and treated us as if we were always their own. Its such a family oriented culture and I realized how much I love that! This family is seriously the best!We had our church fam that would come over during the week and eat dinner with us, which by the way was at 11pm every night. We ate loads of empanadas and had the best views of the mountains.
Ministry was so many different things this month but all SO good. We made posters for the church, hung out with some awesome kids at schools and festivals, went to a youth group, we did a skit in Spanish and spent time with the homeless where we cooked, gave them food, and worshipped together.
My favorite ministries were the ones I honestly didnt think I would enjoy. We did streetlight evangelism and handed out bibles at schools. Let me tell you for YEARS I avoided “those people”. You know the ones I’m talking about. They hand you little flyers on the corner that say Jesus loves you. Well I was totally one of those people and absolutely LOVED it. It actually wasnt as awkward as I thought it would be. We stood in the cross walks when the lights were red and had different skits that say Hey Jesus Loves You. It really is that simple.
We also handed out bibles at different schools and I was blown away by the kids. They were SO excited to receive bibles. Kids would run up asking for another one for a friend or sibling. They would even grab a friend and bring them to us so they could get a bible too. I’ve never seen kids do that back home but they were so grateful for something as simple and so readily available in the States as a bible.
We also had prison ministry which I was pumped for. The guys were 18 years old to early 20s that had been sent to prison for all kinds of reasons. We did a bible study with them, shared our stories and how God has changed our lives. They asked a ton of questions about God and life and we just got to talk with them and pray with them. It was incredible and those guys are amazing! These guys got it. What you’ve done doesn’t disqualify you from Gods love.
AND
When went back one of the guys surprised us by making us bracelets (out of trash bags): one with our names on it and the other that says dios te ama (God loves you). LITERALLY MY FAVORITE GIFT! It was really sweet how God used us to encourage them and remind them how loved they are and in return be reminded of how loved we are.
Argentina is a favorite and God is doing big things through the church.
Team #getPsalm
Now on to Chile!!!
