Thursday, June 24, 2010

O Lord, we ask for the nations...

Hola!

Wow! I can't believe tomorrow is our last day on campus. These past 51/2 weeks have gone by so fast. This week has been so busy with appointments and just trying to hang out with our Argentine friends as much as we can before we leave. Monday here in Argentina was Flag Day so the students had the day off. On our day off we had a service project which was to clean the Sede. The Sede is where the stinters live and where all of the Vida meetings take place. We organized, cleaned, and fixed lights, doors, etc. Monday afternoon we had our usual English club and it was pretty laid back because not that many people came due to the holiday. Monday night we had an outreach at the Sede where we could invite two of our closest contacts and give them a chance to meet the Vida leaders and students so that when we leave they will know somebody within Vida. It was a fun time--we played games, cooked pizzas, and just hung out! Tuesday Dylan and I had an appointment with a girl named Agustina that we have been meeting with who is an athiest. The conversation never got spiritual, but we are going to encourage the stinters to keep meeting with her because we believe she is lonely due to the way she is always so excited to hang out with us. After meeting with her, three of us girls and a stinter went and met up with 4 of our Argentine friends to watch the Argentina/Greece soccer game. We went to a well known bar here in La Plata where MANY people get together to watch the games on a big screen. It was absolutely crazy just to see how passionate these people are about "futbol." We later had Bible study and then for women's night we went to a nice restaurant and had dinner. Yesterday I met with a guy named Juan who accepted Christ sometime last week just to follow-up with him and to do soularium with him (a picture survey). I pray that he will continue to attend Vida and get into a Bible study so that his walk with the Lord will grow! After that meeting I went to campus for a couple of hours then headed back to the hotel. Around 6 Britt and I went to Yanina and Iari's apartment to have merianda with them. When we walked in they threw the La Plata daily newspaper in our hands and there we were, a picture of us watching the Argentina game in the newspaper! How crazy is that? We left there around 9 and came back to the hotel to just relax on our free night. Today we had prayer and then headed to campus. Britt and I got into a 2 hour conversation with a guy who is very confused about what he believes. We discussed everything I felt like. We did soularium with him, shared part of the four laws with him, talked about religion and science, and I could go on. Hopefully he will come to english club tomorrow night so we can talk to him some more. Tonight at 11:20 we are going as a project to watch Toy Story 3 in 3D, so we are all pretty pumped about that! SO, tomorrow is our last day on campus and we are all having mixed feelings about it. We are going to miss the people we have met here so much, but we all know God will continue to work in there lives and will use the stinters to help them grow in their walks by doing discipleship! Tomorrow is going to be a hard day because the Vida students are throwing a Despidida (good-bye party) for us. The Vida leaders, students, and even our contacts will be there to say our last good-byes so be saying a little prayer for us as we do that. I will probably not be writing on the blog again because we are leaving on Saturday and heading to Mar Del Plata (the coast). We will be flying out of Buenos Aires Tuesday night at 11pm and will be in Raleigh Durham at 12:15pm on Wednesday. Please pray for our last day on campus that we would continue to pursue people even though it is our last day and that we will trust that God can still work in and through us. Also pray that our contacts will get connected with Vida students so that after we leave they will continue to grow in their walks with Christ and that they will be surrounded with believers. And lastly pray for us as a project community and for our safety as we return home! Thanks for all the prayers this summer and for being interested in what God has been doing here in La Plata, Argentina!

Love,
Alli

Sunday, June 20, 2010

MY GOD IS MIGHTY TO SAVE...

HOLA!

Sooo since I last posted not that much new has been going on so this post may be shorter. Last week seemed to be very slow, but we are also getting very tired. Thursday we were on campus all day and then that night we were going to have an indoor soccer outreach. The place that we reserved ended up not putting our name down so we headed to one of the parks and some people played around out there until like 12-1 in the morning. Friday morning we got up and had Friday prayer and then headed to campus. After campus we had the normal english club and then our weekly Vida meeting. We, or the evangelism team, put on the Vida meeting so it was a little different. We had one of the Argentines share his testimony and then we showed two videos which enabled us to easier transition into spiritual discussion. During the discussion we had one of our groups to share the gospel with a girl we have been building a relationship with for a couple of weeks and she accepted Christ. We were amazed at watching God work in her life over the past few weeks, so it was awesome to see her ready to accept Him! After the discussion there was the normal dance party! Saturday we went to Buenos Aires. It was a beautiful and big city. We saw some of the main sites and went to the hippie fair which is kind of like a craft fair in the US. We made a full day of it we got there around 12ish and left around 9. We had Hard Rock for dinner and it was SO good! Today has been a relaxing day. We had our normal project church service this morning and then a free afternoon. Some of us went to the hippie fair here in La Plata which is nothing like the one in BA, but still good. Then a couple of us went to the Cathedral to take a few pictures and then came back to the hotel. So here I am sitting here typing this! Sooo...this is our last week here in La Plata--I can't believe it has already been five weeks! These five weeks have been nothing less than awesome. God has been teaching me so many things and I can't wait to share them with you all! Please be praying for us this week. We hope to continue to meet new people, but also have time to meet with the people we have been building relationships with over the past weeks. I hope to meet with Yanina and Iari to follow-up with them and have a time of discipleship. Also pray for our project that we would continue to be there for each other. Thanks again for all the prayers!

Alli

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

GOOOOOOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

Ok so I am going to continue where I left off on Monday...

Friday was a slow day for us on campus, so we left a little early and then we headed to English club. English club on Fridays are always full of people so it is a good time for us to meet new people and to start building relationships with them. I met a girl named Melina and she ended up being a student on the engineering/sciences campus which is where I go every day. I got a chance to do soularium with her which is a picture survey we do to transition into a gospel conversation and that led me to share with her the 4 spiritual laws booklet. We didn't get all the way through it because she had some questions and she didn't understand the concept of having a personal relationship with Christ so I felt like I would give her time to think about it. So tomorrow I will be getting lunch with her so be praying for my time with her! Saturday was a BIG day because Argentina played their first game in the World Cup. We went to the stinters house to watch the game with some Argentines and it was CRAZY but tons of fun! After the game we stayed around and ate ponchos (hotdogs) and just hung out. Later that afternoon at 3 some of us came back to the hotel to watch the USA game and others went to watch the game with Argentines that they have met. Saturday night was pretty much a free night so a lot of us just relaxed. Sunday was a very relaxing day!! We got a chance to go on a midsummer project retreat. We went to a ranch out in the country and it was SO nice to breathe in fresh air and to see cows and grass. We were on Argentine eating schedule while there so we were fed lunch around 1, merianda (their snack time) at 5, and dinner at 9 (normal time for their supper meal). As a project some of us played soccer on one of the fields there so that was a lot of fun. We just stayed one night, but it was nice to get away from the city and to see the Argentine countryside. Monday we got back later than we expected because of the rain so we ended up not going to campus. When we got back we had a short meeting and Kurt and Morgan (our directors) had our favorite american snack waiting for us because our parents got an email asking them what our favorite snack was so they bought them before coming to Argentina to surprise us. I got goldfish and a pack of cherry poptarts!! Monday night we still had english club but not many people showed up because of the weather we think. Yesterday it was back to campus and it was another slow day. A lot of the people sit in the buffet and watch the soccer games and when Argentines are watching futbol you do not talk to them because they are focused so that has been hard. We did talk to a few people, but not a lot of english speakers were in our path. Today was a good day. Dylan and I met with a girl for lunch he had met a few weeks ago on campus. She is a biology major and is an athiest. We didn't get into a spiritual conversation today, but she wants to get together again for lunch so we are definetly going to do that again befor we leave. After that lunch appointment with her we headed to a different campus. The directors thought it would be good for us to have a change in scenary for a day so we went to the Humanities/Economics campus. We handed out english club fliers and talked to a girl at Economics for a good hour and a half. We did the survey with her, but we ended up just talking about the differences between Argentina and USA. Tonight is our free night so I think some of us are going to go out to dinner and then hang out with some of our Argentine friends since we only have a week and a half left here. Please continue to pray for us and the people we come in contact with!

ALSO! Two girls on the Architecture campus accepted Christ on Friday, so be praying for them that they would continue to seek Christ!

Alli

Monday, June 14, 2010

What a week!

Hola all!

Hope you all have had a great weekend! Since I last updated a lot has gone on here in La Plata, Argentina! In my last blog post I mentioned that on Thursday I was going to meet up with Yanina again, so I did just that! Megan and I met with her because Britt was unable to go with me. At first Meg and I were like how are we going to have a descent conversation when neither of us speak a good amount of spanish. So going into the conversation we both had our doubts. Anyways...Yanina usually has lunch with a girl named Andrea, but to our surprise Iara came with her (the girl that was at Yanina's apt last Saturday night when Britt and I went over). So we started eating lunch and were having a normal conversation and out of the blue Iara mentioned that both her and Yanina had had bad days this past week. So I jumped on that transition and asked why. Yanina mentioned that she thought it was something spiritual going on within her and Iara agreed. So I asked them could I share something with them so I went through a booklet that we use in crusade called the 4 spiritual laws. The 4 spiritual laws book is a booklet that breaks the Bible down into 4 key points. So we went through that and Yanina had tears and her eyes. When we got to the point in the booklet where it was asking about a decision they both were like we want to have Christ in our lives but we don't know how. So Meg and I explained to them how and they said they wanted to pray the prayer alone when they got home, so on that day God had two beautiful women accept Him! On Friday we met them to give them each a Bible so that is exciting. We will be meeting with them on Wednesday for a follow up so I will def. update on that.

Soo...I don't have time to write anymore now because today is not a day to be online, but I will def. tell you about the rest of the week and this weekend on Wednesday because there is much more to tell!

Alli

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

His light will shine when all else fades...

Hola!

We are already halfway through another week! This week has been kind of slow, but I will share anyways. This week I have set two goals for myself, not to eat McDonalds and Thiones (best icecream ever) because I ate enough of the two last week to cover me for a while. Anyways...this week campus has been really slow. Because it is getting colder many students are not out and about so we have to walk around a lot to find english speakers and people that will just take the time to talk to us. Monday was a slow day, we had prayer that morning and then headed to campus. We talked to a few people, but didn't really get into any great conversations. English club went well that night though so that is always a plus. Tuesday on campus was really good. We ran into 3 girls that we had met about 2 weeks ago that we had been trying to get up with and we set up a lunch date with them for tomorrow, so be praying for that! We also saw Yanina, the girl I mentioned in my last blog post, on campus and she actually asked us to lunch which was exciting, so we will also be hanging out with her tomorrow, so be praying for that also! Tuesday night we had womens night/Bible study. For womens night we all went shopping. I bought an Argentina t-shirt and I bought a fleece coat...yeah and I am able to wear it here because it is COLD! For Bible study we went to a restaurant called Casa Blanca (which was AMAZING) and had study over dinner. Campus today was another slow day, however, we did run into a lot of english speakers and invited them to english club. Hopefully they will come to english club and we will be able to get into a good conversation there! Tonight is our free night, so 4 of us went to Casa Blanca, yes it was good enough to go two nights in a row, and it was good. So that sums up the past 3 days and i'm not sure when I will be writing again because we are going on a mid-project trip to a ranch about an hour away on Sunday and staying until Monday. I am SO excited to see the country-side of Argentina and to breathe in some fresh air! So until then please continue praying for our team and the students we are working with.

Alli

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Life in the Tina...

So the last I updated was Wednesday night so I will update from Thursday until Today! On Thursday Britt and I headed to campus around 11:45 to meet up with a girl we met last week, Yanina. She is the sweetest girl we have met so far and we have met up with her a couple of times already. By Thursday we had not had a spiritual conversation with her and for some reason we were having a hard time transitioning the conversation. Thursday afternoon I was supposed to meet with another girl, Ailin, but she ended up having to study because she had some exams in the coming week. Friday, we were on campus by 12 and campus time was very slow. Many students had exams and we didn't run into many english speakers. We either have days where everyone we meets speaks english or we have days when we meet hardly any english speakers. Friday night we had our english club which is a club we put on and invite everybody that we meet on campus to come. This english club was the biggest one the stinters have seen. There were Argentines EVERYWHERE, beginners and non-beginners. In my group there was a guy named Fercundo and after english club we started talking and he started asking me questions about the church. Argentines do not have a good opinion about the church because in the 80's the Dirty War happened, which is when a lot of students and people disappeared and supposedly the church didn't help when this was going on. So I basically just told him that we were not affiliated with the church, but we were more about having a personal relationship with Christ. I had the chance to share my testimony with him and answered a few more of his questions but he just said that he was having fun partying or what-not but he knew that only Christ could satisfy him. So that was an interesting conversation and hopefully we will be able to talk with him some more next week. Friday night we had Vida which is our weekly meeting and we put it on instead of the Argentines. We explained why we were here and one of the Argentine girls, Erica, shared her testimony. Then we taught them how to Shag dance and that was hilarious! Saturday we went back to the children's orphanage and it was a success as was last time we went. Britt and I invited Yanina the girl we met on campus to come and she did and it was awesome to see her interacting with the kids and helping us. We had probably 25-30 kids show up and we played games, told them a Bible story, and fed them a snack. When we got back around 7 we met up with the Buenos Aires team because they were taking a tour of La Plata so it was good to see them! After supper, Britt and I went over to Yanina's apartment because we had asked her if she wanted to get supper and she invited us over. We got there around 9 and she had invited a friend over. We had wanted it to be just Britt, her, and me because we wanted to be able to get into a good conversation but to our surprise we believe God placed her friend there for a reason. After chatting a while, Yanina's friend (who spoke only spanish) asked why we were here. We have been asked that many times and I feel like we beat around the bush because we don't want to scare people off but I told Britt (who speaks spanish) to just flat out be honest and tell her. So she did and our conversation went from there. Yanina and her friend had many questions and Britt and I had the opportunity to share the gospel and I shared my testimony. It was AMAZING! They did not accept Christ last night but they are going to come to church with Britt, the Vida Argentine students, and me tonight so that's exciting. We are going to continue to meet with them and we can't wait to see God continue to work in their lives. So after we left we took a taxi back and we were so excited that we even gave the taxi driver a Knowing God Personally booklet...haha! Today we had our regular church service this morning and then the Argentine's prepared an asado for lunch. An asado is an Argentine BBQ and it was DELICIOUS! It is pretty much an all you can eat meet type of BBQ...it was so good! There was about 50 people who showed up so that was good. Now I am about to take a nap and then get ready to head to church tonight with Yanina and her friend and the Vida students!

If you will, continue to keep our team and our time on campus, our appointments with students, and Yanina and her friend in your prayers!

Alli

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Week 3 in Argentina

Hello all! This is my first time having a blog so i'm not sure how it´s going to work out but I will try! If you didn't get the update email from Mom the first couple of weeks were great! Soon after we got here there was a holiday so the campus's were closed so on the first Monday we went to a children's orphanage. We had the chance to play, feed, sing, and to share a Bible story with the kids. After the holiday we then jumped right onto campus. A normal week for us goes something like this:

Monday: time of prayer, project meeting, ministering on campus from 12-5, and then we have an English Club that night.
Tuesday: Campus from 12-5, our project Bible study, and then we have mens and womens time.
Wednesday: prayer, campus, and then free night or if we have made contacts on campus we can get dinner with them.
Thursday: campus time and then community event with our team
Friday: prayer, campus time, and Vida. Vida is the Argentine's crusade which is a time when we meet new people and dance the night away!
Saturday: we have our outreaches on this day and it varies from week to week.
Sunday: church and then a free day. Usually on Sunday's we get together with Argentines and play some futbol!!

As you can see our weeks are pretty busy, but we are trying to make the most of every minute. I got assigned to be on the engineering and sciences campus with 4 other people. On the first day it was very frustrating because we did not come into contact with many english speakers. The rest of that week I was sick with the stomach virus so I couldn't go to campus for the rest of that week (Thurs. and Fri). However, on that Friday God used two of our project team members to lead a girl to receive Christ, so praise God for that! Sunday for lunch we went to McDonalds and it was SOO good to have a taste of American food! Monday I was back on my feet and it was an amazing day! Almost everyone Britt, Morgan, and I came into contact with spoke english. We made many contacts and got a lot of phone numbers. Last night we had Bible study and we focused on depending on God rather than ourselves and then we had women's time. For women's time the stinters cooked us a home cooked meal--tomato soup and grilled cheeses and it was AMAZING! Today we met with one of our contacts for lunch but sadly she had to leave right when we were getting into a good conversation. We have set up another lunch date with her on Friday so be praying for our time with her. We are not sure if she is a believer or not so we are hoping to get into a spiritual conversation and see where God leads us in that. Today was also another slow day on campus. A lot of the students are having exams so not many will take the time to sit and talk, but hopefully tomorrow will be better!

I will try to post every Wednesday and Sunday because those are the only two nights we can be online, but I just ask that you keep our project team, the Vida students, and all the campus's that we are on in your prayers. Just pray that we will come into contact with english speakers and even if we don't that we would continue t be encouraged about what God is already doing in Argentina since we have been here. Also pray for our project community that we would all be encouragers to each other!

Alli