I am alive– my squad and I arrived in Mendoza, Argentina safe and sound last Wednesday. Now that I have established that, I wanted to let you guys know that I will have very limited access to wifi for the next couple months, both here in Argentina and later in Bolivia. Our team’s story-teller, Carolyn will be posting blogs for us whenever possible, so you will still be hearing from me. Yay you!
However, WiFi/access to the internet is not that part I am struggling with…
It is all-squad month. Meaning I am living/bumping into 50 other Americans from my squad on an enclosed YWAM base in Borbollon, Argentina (about a 45 minute bus ride from the main city of Mendoza). As an introvert I am struggling with finding my own space. I’ve always lived at home, and even commuted to school during my college years so I am very much a home body. And even communicating with my teammates what this is like is sometimes difficult to confess because I feel so misunderstood or alone in the matter.
But I am learning. With what it means to live with a group of Christ-centered people, who I’m learning to understand and love at my own pace and asking for the time and space I need to recharge. I am also learning how to press into my teammates for help or to simply lean on them. Yay for vulnerability…
Moving forward from those struggles, ministry this past week involved visiting a local town called Santo Thomas and doing a prayer walk. Santo Thomas is about a 20 minute walk down the street from our base and is essentially a slum-like town. Their main source of income comes from collecting and organizing the trash they collect. Often times robbery is done to supplement an their income. While here, my team and I got to visit a daycare center and hang out with some very cute kids. Will you please pray for the people and the brokenness they may be experiencing?
Alongside visiting Santo Thomas, my team and team Radiate stayed on the base over the weekend and helped run a marriage/family retreat. On the base, we helped with a YWAM youth program called King’s Kids. The rest of our squad dispersed into teams and spent the weekend doing ministry in the desert or in the vicinity of Mendoza.
Afterwards my team went out to the main city of Mendoza and helped a local Baptist church evangelize in a park. The church brought a big parachute for the kids to play with and had a table set up to paint nails. We were given the task of inviting the children to come hang out and participate in the activities with them and then perform a skit. We acted out a modern-day version of the Good Samaritan. Let’s just say it went better than expected and that I don’t see acting as a career. Overall, it was really fun and cool to see the kids just have some awesome laughs and smiles. Will you please pray for the people here to know Jesus?
And as always, here’s me ending on a random note:
Current event: Struggling to write this blog at a local Starbucks in the city of Mendoza where the Wifi is free but spotty.
The struggle is always real, but God is faithful. Hang in there folks! I will try to do the same myself.
And last but not least, please feel free to reach out to me with any prayer requests or life updates you would like to inform of. I may be miles away but each one of you guys are in my heart. I am thankful for each of you guys and thinking of you all back home. Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Birthday mum! 🙂
