TWIM

This week in ministry includes some greats, some not so greats, and some randoms.

1. Boys Institute: Spent the morning making the gospel bracelets that have the five colors (yellow, black, red, white and green) together. Rodrigo, Rodrigo uno I might add, gave me a HUGE hug when I entered the room, and get this:

HE SAID MY NAME.

Ok, he called me "Sha-raid-rah," but that's close enough. I wasn't greeted with the usual curse words, but with my God given name. ish. The first time I've even heard any of those boys try to say it. AND, we worked together to make his bracelet. There was even a point were he accidentally messed up and asked forgiveness from me. Say wha--?

2. Girls' Institute: Well, Tuesday was okay. I focused this time on Maria Luz, one of the children of the teenage mothers. We just played together, while the others worked on something on the computer. General hang out.

Thursday was very unusual. We had planned to watch one of Nati's movies, one that she had showed excitement about on Tuesday to watch together. However, she didn't come. She just dropped off the movie with us while I sort of watched with one of the other girls, and then another came for about 10 minutes and left again.

I must say that life in the girls' institute is simply unpredictable. Sometimes one girl comes, sometimes another.. perhaps our problem was starting so late in the year, but I'll get to that in a moment.*

3. Escuelita: So we show up to Escuelita to find out we're taking a bus. Then we find out that we're going to the other side of town to play with the kiddos. We're in the bus not knowing where we're going until we get there. Talk about being flexible. My insides tell me that my former boss at 4Cs Amanda K. would have cringed a little by the lack of organization.

One of the leaders turns to us, "Do you have any game ideas?"

Umm... sure?

At the very least I got to share my testimony (don't worry, I had a days' notice that I would be sharing this), and Sarah and I both shared the gospel message! It was so neat! Seriously, nothing like being able to really share the story of Christ in another language. I smiled a little bigger when one of the girl's recited the gospel message to another adult at the end of our time together. Something stuck, now we can pray for God to continue His work in her heart!

*So... it's the end of the year here. I was telling Sarah that it's much easier to have summer time December-February because then you're school year is just one year and you don't have to get confused. You know, "What year were you a Junior in high school?" "Uhh.. 2003-04.. or was it 02-03? Bah!" Maybe that's just me..

The point is, weekly ministries will be coming to an end and I will have a completely new tale to tell. Summer ministry looks like some long-er short term mission trip(s), specifically to the north of Argentina. I hope I'll also get a chance to visit the OM team in Santiago or something, but we'll wait before anything is definite. The word for that here would be, "Puedecer..."

Chau!