11 Things I’m Taking Home from Argentina or…. 11 cosas que estoy tomando hogar de la Argentina. HOLA AMIGOS! BIENVENIDOS DE SOL AMERICA
1. Buenos Aires Adventures: Well, our squad had QUITE the travel day. We started by leaving Swaziland, driving across the border to South Africa, went to the Johannesburg Airport, took a flight to Dubai, then to Rio and then finally arriving in Buenos Aires at 7 PM. Because it was a holiday weekend, lodging was definitely not within budget so we had a fun little sleepover at the airport. LOL I bet that was a sight to see! 50+ Americans rolling out their sleeping pads and bags out in the middle of the Buenos Aires International Airport.
My team didn’t have to catch our bus till 10 PM the following night so we woke up early and decided to explore BA in a day! It was crazy. We did everything from tour the Recolata Cemetery, spend hours exploring at the street market, Zack playing guitar with some local vendors, traveling to the “bean,” took restaurant advice from a local and ate A LOT of meat, went to a Fine Decor museum, then ended crossing the street to an Italian festival, spending hours at the Fine Arts museum. It was a jam packed day but we were so blessed that we had the opportunity to get a little taste of the capitol of Argentina!
2. YWAM Mendoza: Samson’s Mullet partnered with YWAM Mendoza base this month. YWAM, Youth with a Mission, is a global missions organization that is “dedicated to serving Jesus throughout the world.” Their core purpose is to know God and to make Him know. They have over 1,100 locations in over 180 countries.
According to the GCC (The Great Commission organization), only 6-8% of the Argentina population are practicing Christians. Our host told us that sometimes people will respond to their outreach with, “We don’t need your prayer, we have Mary,” and a large part of the country is practicing the religion without the relationship found in Christ. Knowing this, we knew evangelism was going to be a struggle but good thing we had the best partners this month ever!
I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVED my host, Brenda. She was our #1 translator for testimonies, didn’t hesitate for a minute to save us when Ty and I got lost on the Mendoza bus system, and just loved each and every one of us so well. I will always remember the night we were “taught” how to make empanadas by hand. It wasn’t just that… it became a fiesta! She invited us over to her house, shared Cokes, and had her roommates teach us how to Salsa and some other Argentine dances. Brenda definitely became the 7th person on Samson’s Mullet. Some of us were lucky and had the opportunity to celebrate her 21st birthday in the city during debrief!
3. Español: I’ve gotten about 7 solid phrases down. Somos misioneros de Estados Unido con World Race. Viajamos once países in once meses. Antes Mendoza, estuvimos en Africa por 3 meses. Y antes africa, estuvimos en Asia por 4 meses. Llegamos a Argentina hace 2 semanas y estamos con Juventud con una misión este mes. Venimos para bendecir tú país. Cómo puedo orar para tú? Lo siento, mi español es muy malo. Yo estudié español por 4 años in secundario pero no recuerdo mucho. Oh… and yo necesito ir al el baño.
Fortunately, I’ve got those phrases down. Outside of that, my español has not been doing so hot. When I first arrived to Buenos Aires, I accidentally told my taxi driver that I have one daughter instead of “I am my parents only daughter.” Oh. And the best one: There’s been a receptionist at our hostel that helped me plan a squad brunch. He told me his name is Poncho… that some people call him Ponchito. Easy enough right? I use poncho all the time back home! Well another receptionist had to come up to me and tell me that I’ve been saying his name wrong the whole time. It’s “Pacho” or “Pachito”…. because poncho means hot dog. Which means I’ve been calling him “little hot dog” for a whole week…..
4. Literally, a little bit of everything: Our set up sheet listed off about 30 things our team would be doing that month for ministry. Well.. it wasn’t lying. I could have a whole separate blog about all the different ministries YWAM has at this specific Mendoza base. The ministries our team got to participate in included: King’s Camp, Leadership and Team ropes courses, school field trips, soup kitchens, construction for their new Day-Center, preaching at churches, teaching and sharing health presentations at local schools, evangelism in the desert (El Campo ministry), evangelism and organized trash picks in local neighborhoods. We woke up every morning and didn’t know what was next on the agenda.. it definitely kept us on our toes!
5. El Campo:This is by far one of the coolest ministries I got to do on the race. For 2 nights, our team got to head to el campo (the desert) for evangelism. We drove a few hours into the desert, but then had to all jump into a truck with 4 wheel drive to travel the rest of the way. We got to meet with about 5 different families and share a little about what we believe. Some of these houses JUST put some sort of electricity in their houses within the last 5 years. Can you imagine that?
Unfortunately, from what I’ve heard/translations… many of these families in this area either have rejected Christ entirely or mix Christianity with other superstitious religious activities, including animal sacrifices. Because they have been self-sufficient for generations, they don’t see the brokenness and need for a savior. They just prefer to do what their ancestors have done for generations: ranch for a living, and possibly practice superstitions and witchcraft.
Also, I loved all the animals in the desert! It’s funny that God had to take me all the way out of Texas and into Argentina so that I could ride a horse for the first time haha.
6. Engagement Ring Revelation: God really rocked my last two months after a discussion about engagement rings. It was easy to leave for The World Race and live a “life of abandonment” because I knew it was all waiting for me back home. To read more, visit my Engagement Ring blog.
7. Adventure Days: Mendoza had quite the list to offer when it came to adventures and what to do on our free day: Aconcagua Mountain (the tallest mountain outside of the Asian continent), a Wine and Olive Oil tour, and a Natural Hot Springs visit.
8. Syrian Refugee Family: If you know me at all, you would know I have a huge heart for refugees… especially because my father was a Vietnamese refugee in America. Actually, before I even knew about The World Race.. I was applying/interviewing for positions in Europe to solely work with Syrian Refugees. That’s not exactly where God wanted me at the time but He sent me on the World Race instead. God still filled my heart by letting me meet my brothers and sisters in Christ, Faten and Bashar, this month. One of our YWAM hosts befriended a refugee family that relocated to Argentina in December. They were extremely vulnerable about their transition to another culture and missing home/family. It absolutely broke my heart to see Faten and Bashar tell us their lives before the war, the separation from their family, the struggles leading up to their relocation and the difficult transition into a foreign country. Praise God for their faithfulness in Him and their ability to bring a piece of Syria to Argentina. They now run a successful Syrian food catering business!
9. God uses Instagram Hashtags too: 2 weeks ago, I posted this Instagram.
Coming from Asia and Africa for the last 7 months, our squad was definitely not “clothes ready” for the upcoming cold winter in South America. But not to worry, God provides. Here’s my short story about how God answered prayers through an Instagram Hashtag
10. Month 8 Debrief in Mendoza: N squad had our month 8 debrief in Mendoza. It was a time for much needed processing and rest. Our squad mentor, coach and 3/4 old squad leaders came from America for this week. I learned a lot from their talks, especially about resting well, finishing the race one day at a time (even when you return home as well), and about the differences between faith based decisions and decisions based off of convenience, expectations and comfortability. It was great to hear from our old squad leaders and what it was like to transition back home… especially because that time for us will be in exactly 3 months. 
So we were packing and getting ready for our month 9 in Chile. Our squad has the rare experience to host a program called Exposure. People from this program technically don’t meet the age requirement for The World Race, nor are they able to give the full commitment to a Gap Year program. Exposure allows these fellow Brothers and Sisters of Christ to come into the field with us for a month and to see what life on the race would look like…
Welp…. the night before we leave, we find out that the mountain pass/border is closed due to snow! OUR SQUAD WAS SNOWED IN. … and in typical world race fashion, anything goes! The exposure kids arrived to Chile the next evening and we weren’t there to pick them up! Talk about exposure, am I right? 🙂 Everything worked out well though. A host picked them up from the airport and then we finally made it to Chile the next evening!
11. BIG NEWS: MARK YOUR CALENDARS MIS AMIGOS, en 21 DE AGOSTO, ESTE CHICA IS COMING BACK HOME TO LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS. Sorry for My Spanglish: Aug 20, I’ll be taking a night flight from Peru to Fort Lauderdale, and on August 21st, taking the earliest flight from Fort Lauderdale to HOUSTON, TEXAS!!! Get mis padres, Mia, queso, The Porch and Chick-fila ready for me!!!! And if you’re one of my faithful followers and made it all the way down to the end of this blog… I also have some big news coming up about what God is calling me to after the race! Want a preview? Visit this past blog: 11 Things I’m Taking Home from Cambodia.
