Volunteering and traveling in Argentina to proclaim God's great love, and hopefully not getting sick along the way.

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Saturday, March 19, 2011

One of the best days

I have to be honest, I've had a lot of "best days" in Argentina; days where I look back at all that happened and I think, "Wow, God. You've done it again." The crazy thing with God though is that he always surprises me. And I'm one that's not easily surprised. I can usually predict what people will do, particularly how they will act in a given situation especially when they may be trying to surprise me. I have to try and limit my guessing skills in order to take more pleasure in the given moment, if that makes sense.

But with God, he gets me every time.

So yesterday I was asked to lead a devotional for a Christian school. The second half of the day is for the high school group. Obviously, I was excited to lead because I still love that teenager group. And obviously, I was nervous, because while I enjoy giving talks of all kinds, they always make me anxious.

But the Lord has put an important word on my heart as of late, and that is the word freedom. I rejoice in the freedom we have to choose Christ, to choose Love (to all those dedicated 4Cs readers out there)--that we are not forced to follow God or even live like him. This is true, un-obligating, unconditional, love. I shared this with the students using the story of the Garden of Eden where one of the first rules the LORD God gives Adam is the freedom to eat from any tree in the garden. As Paul writes, "Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial." So I continued to explain how Adam was free to eat, but that death lied on the other side if he chose to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

So the applause from these teenagers is natural. I had experienced it the last time I shared with them in the spring (whoa, how the seasonal differences are so strange here). What was unnatural was to hear a few "Amens" from the crowd, and that was really neat for me. The director of the school said I was welcome any time to come back and share.

But then something else happened. Some of you may remember my story about Noemí. If not, you can read here. Any way, I had met her at this school, and I was so happy to see her again. We talked after the devotional and she shared with me some of the greatest news:

1. She has a boyfriend!! I've been praying for her as she is much older and I imagine it's discouraging not to be married by this time.

2. The boyfriend's name is Cristian. Okay, it's more than that. It's that he IS a Christian! And even more important, she kept telling me how much he loves the Lord! "He loves God so, so, much," she said.

3. She went to a retreat over the summer.. about being a missionary!! And her boyfriend has a heart to be a servant for God as well. She told me, "Cristian has told me that if we are going to think about marriage, I have to start praying about my willingness to go wherever God calls as well."

4. As a result to these things, she said she has been reading her Bible and praying every day! She said that she wants to make sure she is in the middle of the will of God.

She started to cry as she told me about all that she is learning and doing. I cried from joy with her.

Seriously. How. Cool. Is. That? Ahh!! I skipped on my way home, and couldn't keep from smiling. The way God answers prayers (because I know I wasn't the only one that was praying); the way God can move in someone's life and in only a few months!

We will be continuing our meetings together starting next Wednesday. Please pray for me to encourage her as best as I can.

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I came home to watch a little bit of March Madness and nap. Then I made my way to Raúl and Andrea's church for youth group. About 20 kids showed up, and we started with a giant game of Mafia. I happened to be one of said Mafia, along with Chichilo and Juliano. Oh, how I'm even chuckling thinking about it. I played the quiet innocent one while Chichilo played the backstabber. Ha. We won in the end, and it was just so great to confuse the whole crowd with who was guilty and who was not. Truly fantastic.

Went to Maria Elena's afterward, followed by 5 of the youth and 2 of the leaders. She had prepared meatless pizza for me, and then the boys spent most of the night talking about the ridiculous game of Mafia. It was the most that I've ever heard Juliano talk, which was very encouraging to me. He's always been fairly quiet, but he's come out of his shell a lot more. He's also one of those kids that you can tell has great potential for leadership, so I look forward to watching him grow.

Maybe it had something to do with the beautiful fall weather too, but the night was absolutely linda. Full of laughter, learning new things (thanks Fernando for teaching me the two-finger whistle, even if it did almost start a gang fight. Wait, what?), and a very good nights sleep before the first Escuelita of the school year!

Chau.

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