So those of you who have been following my adventure in Buenos Aires are probably beyond confused, and those of you who just see random pictures probably think I’m on vacation. Plus I inundated you with blogs last month and now I’ve been silent for two weeks. Mer. What’s up.
This past month my team did a thing called ATL, or “ask the Lord.” As one might assume, we were supposed to live this month asking the Lord what He wants us to do. The issue was we were in a huge city with no contacts, no friends, no ministry, no place to stay, and a MAX of $10 a day – food, lodging, transport… all of it. As a kicker, we weren’t supposed to do any research; none. Does some of this make sense now? Good. Because this month was beyond crazy. This is only the first 24 hours of it.
We found out during Swaziland we were going to have ATL this month and I was PUMPED. I’ve been wanting to work on listening to and responding to the voice of God, and (as the faithful of you have noticed) I just came freshly off this fast of only spending time with Him. I was nothing but pumped. I felt a smidge inadequate, my Spanish is a lil rusty, and that rustiness is still more than the rest of my team by a long shot – automatic translator? Hola. Mucho gusto. Danielle (one of our other teammates) lived in Spain for 5 months so she’s pretty good, but she was still in the states recovering from surgery. Again, translator job? Hola. Mucho gusto. Plus Argentina is known for their incredibly fast speech patterns and their singular usage of the form “vosotros” – which I singularly glossed over in college. (Along with “usted”… because you can just say things nicely! Good call, Mer.)
So we show up at 9pm on Saturday night. If you can’t tell, I’m a pretty big fan of Hillsong Church, so I pestered our team leader to letting us go there the next morning. It’s late, we’ve been traveling for 40 hours, so we blow up our sleeping pads and crash in the airport. Seriously. Here’s proof
We got up, washed our hair in the sink, put on our “church clothes” and took an uber to Hillsong Buenos Aires. We showed up with our backpacks laden with stuff for a year to a CHURCH and, despite our plans to show up early and network, we arrived just in the nick of time for the first service at 2:30. (Just as God would have it so HE received all the glory. A’aight God. We’re listening.)
So we showed up, we checked our bags in a coat closet, we got to go to the service – jumping up and down up front with the teenagers – and got to sit and listen to the service. (First step, worship.) Well how else would God have it but to show us love by giving us a pastor visiting from Australia – who speaks English. The service is translated by one of my favorite singers from the Hillsong Español cd (yes, I’m a nerd, I know those things) and we understand ALL of it. For the next service they asked us if we wanted to serve with Young and Free, their youth service, we gladly said yes, and we go across the street after worship to meet and connect with their youth group. (Worship, then serve.) After that Erica, this beautiful woman who speaks English that everyone had referred us to, has her off service and invites us to hang out with her. (Worship, serve, connect) We spend that service laughing with her, hearing her story and sharing ours, and after that we all go to the last service together (worship, serve, connect, worship.) When that service is over everyone gets together and within minutes we have 4 houses to stay in, each one taking some of us. We really felt like we were supposed to stay together, and this precious, sweet, beautiful woman names Pricila, who was our age, invited us all into her house to stay as long as we needed to. We also found an NGO we could volunteer with in the city! Before we went home to crazy, we were invited to a birthday party for one of the guys who became one of our best friends. We were out until 3am with Mori and his friends who immediately accepted us as part of the group and loved us like we’d been there all our lives. If that isn’t a lesson in community (as well as a lesson for me in receiving…) I don’t know what is.
My friend Paige made a video of our first week here and all the ways God provided for us. For a more in depth peek at that, click here 🙂
So this is just a peek into our first day; our first 12 hours with God in this country. It was terrifying, it was empowering, and it absolutely rocked the way I perceive God and the way He speaks and wants to work in our lives. The rest of the month looked just about as crazy. We got to work with street kids and distribute clothing and toys to families in slums, we shared love and hugs in the park, in hostels, encouraged and prayed for believers in restaurants, on the streets, and developed relationships with people that we got so close to only the Father could have bound our hearts together so quickly. I love these people and my time in Buenos Aires. There’s another blog coming about the things God taught me there, but just getting out of the way and watching Him move was life changing. I could get addicted to this life… I think I already am.
