Sunday, September 24, 2006

Our team is complete! and other news




Angye and Claudia, two ladies from Maracaibo, Venezuela, have joined us here in Mérida. It is a blessing to have them on the team and to be able to get lessons in 'maracucho' spanish, which differs somewhat from the local dielect. Claudia loves Mad Gab, a game where you say words in a sequence that sound like some well-known phrase or name, 'My coal chore done' is 'Michael Jordan,' for instance.

This was my last week of class at the Iowa Institute, and it consisted solely of reading and discussion practice. I have been blessed with a Christian teacher who is excited about our work. She even offered to do some role-playing. She was a student on campus who knows that Jesus is supposed to be the son of God and that he died for sins, and I started from there sharing the gospel from my bilingual Bible.

We also went sharing on campus once this week- there weren’t a lot of students there yet but we still shared the gospel with several and a couple teammates saw 3 people (2 guys and a gal) accept Christ! I’m looking forward to meeting these new brothers and sister as we start full-time campus ministry this week.

We met with a group of student leaders this week with whom we will be working closely this semester and hopefully throughout the year. They are an awesome group and are dedicated to reaching their fellow students for Christ.

I’ve been driving my moto around a bit (I realized today that it costs about half the price of a bus ticket to fill up my gas tank- aka about 250 bolivares, aka 10 cents) and I’m getting used to the weaving around cars and honking my horn constantly to let people know I’m there. Anyway, it will be very convenient as it is faster than taking the bus and I can get to just about anywhere around the city on it.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Anecdotes

A few very short stories:

Emily forgot her purse on the plane from Spokane to Seattle. Providentially, she was able to retrieve it from the gate because they found it in a cabin sweep.

My dad specifically prayed over me (over the phone at the Seattle airport while Emily was getting her purse) for the first time that I can remember- an awesome blessing.

Imported items are very expensive here- no more Hagen-Daz!

Mayo is the Venezuelan condiment of choice- and they choose to use it a lot!

Just when you think there is no more room on the bus, more people get on the bus.

My job is talking about Jesus. Wow.

Mérida's 'teleferico' is the longest and highest cable car ride in the world- I'll get pictures when I get a chance to go.