Día lleno

1. Escuelita. I woke up a little cansada--tired. We arrived home late last night after a meeting at the church with the youth group, and then going to Maria Elena's for dinner. I.E. a 2am bedtime. Approximately. I might have checked to see if the Rangers were playing or not. Oh, and I read more of Mansfield Park... any way...

Escuelita was interesting. Last week was missed due to the trip to Villa Dolores and I heard there were a lot of kids who came. They came back. Ultimately it was all the kids that have been sort of coming from week to week, now being consistent. I only had to learn a few extra names, and the total had to be around 20 or 25. Great news when we have more leaders to take care of the chaos, but only average as more of the time is spent on crowd control.

We had a small devotional about Halloween, and I as impromptu as you can get, asked to lead one group. "Uhh... sure!

"¿Porqué no?"

The kids helped me with translation, as I told the back story as to why I've never celebrated the holiday. This was actually beneficial as it forced the kids to pay attention to what I was trying to say. We also had two sheets of paper with the information about the dreadful history of Halloween, and one gal in particular was concerned. After all had ended, God provided an opportunity to talk with her more about the choices and convictions we have. On the childish level, she really just wants the candy, but she was disturbed to learn about the Celtic rituals and how scary they truly are.

Sharing the gospel is different here, have I mentioned this? Everything I've encountered thus far is much more straightforward. It reminds me of Peter's sermon during Pentecost. "You killed him (Jesus)," he essentially says. So too, are the Bible lessons with kids, adolescents and so on very much pointing to the sin that brings Jesus to the cross.

I like it because it's true, but I also question the timing. I don't mean to step on toes here because I want to say I will follow my leaders who understand the culture much better than I do. Maybe this way is best--this straightforward, a little scary way of showing people how much we need Jesus/need to be careful about our convictions when it comes to celebrating Halloween.

"Whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached and because of this I rejoice."(?)

Something I'm praying about, nevertheless was blessed by the conversation I had with young Sophia. I tried to explain the verse in Corinthians that says everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial. I have personal convictions that I live by, I told her. "But I don't expect everyone to live the way I do. I choose to do or not do certain things for the sake of others and what will benefit them more than me."

2. Youth group. We (Maria Sol and I) met at 4pm to find that we were too early. I was told to come at this time, and still came a little late to try to stay true to Latin time. Honestly didn't need to come until 5:15pm though. The fairly large group of us set out to a local plaza filled with children and their parents playing and naturally, enjoying maté. The youth group had been all talk about how excited they were about the opportunity, but when we actually came to the plaza they seemed more a deer in headlights.

So I just walked to the other corner and began juggling. In about 15 minutes, I had a small crowd of children around fascinated and it brought two things. First, the desire to be even better at juggling. Second, the rest of the youth group with much more boldness to begin their various forms of sharing the gospel (such as with these cute vests that have the different colors of the wordless book method).

Since they had a good group going, I then went to another part of the plaza and juggled some more. Here, I made a friend, a little guy named Alex. Another young man came, and he brought even more of his friends over. I began to teach them the basics of malabares (juggling), but things were starting to get out of hand. The small group of boys (other than Alex) were starting to throw the pelotas at each other. I began to pray immediately because there was nothing I could do.

Gracias a Dios! Thanks be to God. Right in that moment of prayer, two young men from the youth group were walking by, so I looked at them and exclaimed, "Ven aca chicos, y encuentre mis nuevos amigos! (Come here boys and meet my new friends)." With perfect understanding of their cue, they began to share the gospel with the group that had gathered around me. In that time, I was able to put my things away, and even began talking with Alex's parents who were nearby. I was able to share with them the reason for being in Córdoba (Jesus), as well as other details about life as a whole. They seemed intrigued, but were also hindered because the wife is Jewish and the husband Catholic. If they couldn't resolve their different religions, how could they pick one church to go to?

This made me sad, however, I was still grateful to talk with them about how important Jesus is in our lives and I hope and pray they will make it to a Jesus following church. Thanks be to God once again, as He provided every word, and gave such perfect timing.

Off to part 3 of the day--Luz Urbana.

3. The night was meant to be filled with many college age kiddos who were to enjoy a time of games and short films that centered on a Facebook theme. Lucas, Joy and I had gone to Patio Olmos, an important weekend hangout to invite people to come. Despite our enthusiasm, only a handful came at all.

The upside was meeting Gabri. We played Uno in a large group, and got to talking about his desire to learn English. Luz Urbana happens to have English classes every Tuesday night (and it's expanding to Thursday evenings to have English talks of a spiritual nature), so I invited him to come. He seemed interested. Although he did not come the following Tuesday, we are, haha, Facebook friends now, so I hope there is another opportunity to invite him.

Arrived at home around 2:30am. Welcome to ministry life!