Hola! Estoy en Chile!
Somehow I’ve already arrived at month three!
Chile is such a gorgeous country. Everyday I am greeted by majestic mountains and warm sunshine. Chile was a huge reason for why I chose this route, it is so crazy to actually be here!
Chile has brought many surprises. One of them being my teammate, Tori, and I are actually staying in a big house with hot showers and a pool, surrounded by mountains!!! Not quite what I expected when I signed up for the world race! My team and I arrived in Chile with our sleeping bags and pads ready to go. Since there was not room for us to stay at the church, we each are paired together with another person from our team and live with a host family.
Our host parents are the sweetest people ever! It’s so fun to have a family during this holiday season!
My host family only speaks Spanish, so my listening skills are improving immensely! THANK YOU MRS WOODY, I arrived here understanding a lot of Spanish thanks to your classes! My friend Tori lived in the Dominican Republic for two years when she was younger so her Spanish is good! Every day is one big Spanish party!
I’ve studied Spanish in school for four years. While this has been super helpful, Spanish in a classroom in very different than in real life conversation. My family makes fun of me because I understand a lot of what they say, but I don’t talk.
Last weekend, my host parent’s four kids came, three of which are married. Then they had grandkids and the parents of their daughters-in-law came as well. It was so many people and so much Spanish. I was so motivated to come to Chile and learn Spanish, but I’ve become overwhelmed. Sometimes I will understand words, but putting them together into a coherent sentence can be hard. Or often I understand everything, but I don’t know how to respond.
I have such a fear of making mistakes with my Spanish. I want to come in and speak to them perfectly. I want to impress them with my language skills. I don’t want to go through the time of messing up. Like anything in life though, you have to practice it to improve. At the moment I’m learning to find joy in the journey and laughter in the awkward times when people don’t understand me or visa versa!
You may be wondering what my ministry looks like this month. On the race, ministry can look like many things. This month, it is baking Pan de pascua (Christimas bread) all day in the church, then the next day dressing up like an elf and selling it!
When coming on the race, I can honestly say this is not what any of us expected. Sometimes we have these big ideas of what we are going to do for God, and then he tells us to do something totally different, like dress up like and elf and sell bread in Chile. It’s not bad to have big ideas to serve God, but we have to be ready for Him to change our plans. Sometimes in the times when we feel like we are doing so little, God is using us in bigger ways than we could imagine.
Already our hosts have told us how they have been impacted and inspired by our willingness to serve in any and every way. Also, the money from selling the bread is going to go towards a new roof, AC, and heating unit for the church. Although we will probably never see the fruits of our labor, one day with church will have AC, heat, and a new roof because of our efforts now!
One aspect I love about the latino culture is how relational and expressive it is. For example, every time you meet someone, or when anyone new walks in the door, they go around and kiss everyone on the cheek. When you meet people for the first time, you kiss them on the cheek.
I’ve kissed more strangers on the cheek these past few weeks than I have my family members in my entire life!
I am not a touchy feely person, so I didn’t know how this whole kiss everyone on the cheek thing would go, but so far I (usually) love it! I feel like I immediately know people well because we just kissed each other on the cheek. I think what strikes me most about this is that it is such an example of how these people are not shy about how much they love each other. It is so obvious.
It has been a reminder to me of how God’s love for us is so obvious. It is right there. All throughout the bible it is repeated over and over. God is constantly pouring out his love on us. It is unchanging, it is constant.
When I started the month, I asked God if there was a word that he wanted to characterize my time in Chile. I got the word, “Loved.” Immediately, I was skeptical. That is so basic! But then I realized that God is always telling me how much he loves me, but I am often not receiving it. I push it away because I do not feel worthy of it.
This morning in church we sang:
Tu amor nunca falle,
Se acaba
nunca me dejara
(Translation: your love never fails, it never gives up, it never runs out on me)
We ended the service singing this:
Dios me ama, y Su amor es tan grande
(God loves me, and his love is great)
Below is a picture of us going out to sell Christmas Bread:
