Another Page Turned

Okay so I am really sorry for not keeping up with my blog but I promise, this will be worth it! This is will go over EVERYTHING that has happened within these past few weeks!

Camp was definitely more interesting than I expected! I didn’t work with the campers, I didn’t work in the food lines, but I worked in Vestuario.  Vestuario is where all the supplies for games are made, all the outfits and costumes, all the stage set ups and so on.  There were good days and bad days but I was really thankful because there were not many people who could speak English, which pushed me to speak more Spanish! That was a huge blessing because I really feel that my Spanish as increased since I started! It’s getting easier to listen and its getting easier to respond more calmly.  I get so nervous sometimes and I don’t know why L I guess that comes with time! And look at this! I even sang a Kari Jobe some IN SPANISH with one of my friends! I was so nervous but it was an awesome experience and we got to sing it twice! J

                I honestly have to say that the last few weeks were preoccupied with thinking about serving in Chile and traveling and all that fun stuff! Although, there was quite a turn of events.  

                Sunday night.  The night before the last week of camp. We are all saying goodbye to all the friends we had made and were packing all of our things on the bus.  Our leader calls us out for a quick meeting so we can wrap things up.  Funny thing is while we were waiting to get everyone together, a girl jokingly says “watch, he is going to tell us we aren’t leaving till tomorrow…” So we get all together and we were told that there had been quite a big storm in the mountains and had cause twenty mudslides around the border that we needed to cross, over the course of the three previous days.  We had a missionary driving in that area and had to hold off a few hours to get a call from him to tell us if it was okay to travel up that way.  A few hours pass and Lucas tells us that we are staying the night and will meet again in the morning.  So all of us, just taking our overnight bags to our rooms that we didn’t not look forward to going back to, and we all eventually go to sleep.  The next morning, we meet and are all waiting to hear info on when we are leaving and what we have to do before we leave.  Then the big boulder of disappointment hits.  “The Chile portion of the trip is cancelled and so is the camp that we were going to help out with…” WHAT? God, what are you doing?...We all had those thoughts!  After getting the bad attitude out, talking with my mom and getting things resettled into a new room with all the gringas, I truly realize that we are not leaving.  I realized we had to stay for kids camp.  I realize that we are going to have to be here for another week.  What the???  My mom encouraged me to remember that God obviously has something greater for us here in Monte.  I said that I really want to know what exactly that was!  You know what?  Even though they have been pretty much all personal reasons, not as a whole group, I definitely have seen what we were  meant to stay here.  I will tell you in number form J

1.       Obvious reasons, He kept us safe from being in a mudslide! Saw the damage it did and was really thankful because some people in normal size cars were stuck for days waiting to get lifted by helicopter!  Another natural reason, I heard from a friend that her family lives in Chile and she told me that there were multiple earthquakes in that time.  Go figure! Coincidence, I think not!

2.       Okay so this is where it starts getting cool.  So if you remember, last semester I took pictures of a missionary couple who were engaged and my counselor’s family.  After that, I asked God to use this gift of taking pictures as a ministry and for HIM to use it!   Another missionary approached me this week, who is from Word of Life Romania, and asked me if I could take a video of her to send for an even that they are having there this weekend.  Random but I was like sure! Then another missionary wife asked me to make hers too! I was walking to her house to do so and it came to me that this was an answer to prayer! God was using me with this camera to help not only missionaries here but to help people all away around the world.  How cool! If we would have been in Chile, this would not have happened!

3.       Another prayer request of mine was for God to start preparing me a ministry to work with, someone to minister to, someone Spanish preferably so that when I come home, I can continue to speak and really just to keep growing!  You know sometimes when you are continually praying about something specific and you don’t see anything for a while, you just don’t always have your head up to really see what’s going on until it hits you in the face!  There is a girl back at home whom I have been friends with for quite a few years, but never really got super close to, but she is Cuban and I had just messaged her a while back just to see how things were going.  Well after conversation over a few weeks, I had been helping her with something and I totally came to the realization that this is the “ministering” God had given me to do right now!  How awesome though because when I get back home, I have a good girl friend to speak in Spanish with! God is so good! It’s incredible how He works and I LOVE being the one that He uses!

4.       Lastly, I have had some hard times here fitting in with our group of Americans.  But this week, I realized that when something goes wrong, it doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world!  It doesn’t mean that I can’t keep going! In 1 Corinthians, it tells us that we are ambassadors of Christ and even though all these girls are believers, I am still in charge of my own heart and still in charge of representing Christ with my own life! How am I showing others here that I have Christ in my heart if I am bitter every day because something didn’t go the way I wanted or how am I representing Christ if I hold grudges or am careless of how I say or act.  Christ has given me multiple reasons to sing and have joy and I AM the one missing out if I choose to not be joyous and have a good attitude about my daily life.  1 Corinthians also says that if someone has wronged us, it is our responsibility to forgive, not to be forgiven, and if we don’t forgive, it’s only hurting ourselves.  You know, I just really love the bible!  And in these past two weeks from being here, I have been so comforted by the Word because God knew that I had to get to a certain point in order for these things to really catch my attention that I needed to change.  I realized that His purpose for me here is not to make more friends with Americans and just get caught up in more drama, but to come here, learn Spanish, learn immense things from His word, and continue on to do His work.  Paul was so right, I AM the one missing out if I don’t keep my head up to see all the wonderful things that God is doing, not just my little problems that can be so easily forgiven and forgotten.

All in all, I am so glad that God kept us here.  I can honestly say I have grown closer to Him in this time and He continues to bless us because we are headed to Pichi Traful this Saturday.  It’s a beautiful Word of Life owned Hotel that is located in the Patagonia Region of the Andes Mountains.  It will be cold but from what I hear, “magically breath-taking.” And then!! Drum roll please! We come back for a day, turn around, wash and pack warmer clothing because we are going to URUGUAY!!! AHHH! J  I am so excited to see what God plans to show me there and thank you for joining this journey with me!

 

Prayer Requests

1.       Safe travels to Pichi and Uruguay.

2.       My heart and attitude would reflect Christ at all times.

3.       Future ministries and people to be involved with here and in Clearwater.

Where Did The Time Go???

This past week, Joe Jordan was our predicador, or preacher, for camp and it was a blessing because he is American and speaking Spanish.  What does that mean? That means he speaks slower and clearer than others would!  I was able to listen and comprehend what he was saying and he definitely brought the word! He took the campers through topics about salvation, our savior, and even his return.  I loved being able to see these people narrow in to what he was saying and it resulted in the testimonies on Saturday morning of individual rooms standing up and sharing how God changed their lives this week.  I love listening to them and some are so real with it! They flat out say I received Christ into my life because I knew with my sins, that I couldn’t get anywhere!  Awesome week!

            On Monday, I felt really tired, but had to remember that we were almost halfway done! Two weeks of camp left, then Cordoba, Chile, and Pichi! Speaking of this trip, we leave February 10^th to Cordoba, which is a province in Central Argentina for a few days and will pick up some other WOL people to travel on the 12^th to Santiago, Chile!  We will be helping out the Word of Life Chile for a week or so, which will be awesome! Getting to serve in another country and also see some of our friends from school that went home for the summer! AND WE CAN STILL SPEAK SPANISH! I am really at the point where I will do anything to learn this language! It’s frustrating, to be quite honest, a lot of the time, because I feel like I should understand more than I do.  The Lord is teaching me a lot of patience because I NEED IT!

            Tuesday, in my quiet time, I tried out a new place on campus. I thought it would be quiet and it was for a while.  As soon as I got into it and was spending some great time with the Lord, trucks started driving by, birds were freaking out, etc.  Satan really didn’t like that, obviously!  Later that day, one of my friends who had a trilingual bible and I started looking at some of my favorite verses in Portuguese and Spanish as well.  Anyway, so I started to drift to the Spanish side and happened to go look up Jeremiah 29:11.  Most of you know what that verse is, but then I read the Spanish side and it read (translating) “For I know that plans I have for you very well….” How awesome is that! It just adds a whole other dimension to the verse! CRAZY! I love that the verses are same concepts but in both languages, but in Spanish, and english sometimes, somehow seems to be a little more touching.

            I have been struggling with my allergies here this summer, unfortunately, and its partially because there is no air condition in our rooms and only inside the cafeteria during meal times.  There is no steady heat temp here so the constant “getting nicer outside” to “getting really hot” doesn’t help at all! One morning, I was so backed up in my sinuses, sneezing constantly, eyes itching like no other, I was about to just throw the towel in.  I was about to do my devotions and decided to try to concentrate to see what God had for me that day.  Even though it had NOTHING to do with my allergies, the Word just comforted me, even though I couldn’t read two sentences without blowing my nose!  The thought came to me that it was up to me to let Satan have my morning or to start out my day with the Lord in His word and kick Satan to the curb.  Let me tell you, my morning and my day was great! J

            Looking back on high school, I tell myself so many things like “I wish I would remember this! I wish I had paid more attention here! I wish I would have actually cared about Spanish!”  That wall hit me this week.  We started a lot of heavy duty grammar in Spanish and I just remember saying “I remember learning this is English and hating it! Now I have to learn it in Spanish!!!” Well, just means I have to work that much harder!

            Fast forward to this week, Thursday morning, my friend Abbi and I sang….IN SPANISH! It was AWESOME! I have so much fun! Definitely not something easy to do! Although, the Lord was right there with us! Can’t wait to do it again! There were over 700 spanish speaking people, and here Abbi and I, two gringas. Thank you Jesus!

            ALRIGHT! So I have some news here.  This is blogger reader classified information until more details squared away but……..through the Lord leading me to look around at some schools in Florida for this coming fall, I applied to Clearwater Christian College before I came back to Argy, through a lot of prayer and continued prayer even after it was sent in just to make sure.  As of this week, I was officially accepted! SO if you would be praying WITH me to have the Lord’s provision, that would be GREAT! OJO! This is blogger classified information! ;)

Prayer Requests:

1)   MY ALLERGIES- such a distraction and spiritual warfare!

2)   Last week of camp for the PBBers before our adventure!

3)   Pray for the opportunities that I have (like working at an orphanage over my break before school starts)

4)   CAMPERS! CAMPERS! CAMPERS! J

5)   Health!

6)   The Lord’s for me after Argentina

I choose Him.

Wow! This week! I need to start writing specific points down as they happen because I always think I won’t forget all the little things and then I end up forgetting them all! I can’t believe I made it through another week! Thank you Jesus! Even though this camp is for nonbelievers to come and find Christ, He works in all of our hearts as well! So let me take you back to what He did in MY heart this week!

            I had been reading into 1 Kings, which is where the Word of Life Quiet time books are going through in this moment in time, and I was starting to get a little discouraged because it was a lot of historical facts about Soloman’s temple, meaning it wasn’t a convicting passage like I was hoping for.  The next day, I get to chapter 8 where God basically says “do not do anything because whatever you do on your own, is going to fail.”  Intrigued and so I was encouraged for the day! Later on, I met with my counselor Lyndee and we had been praying about something to study for a week together.  I had read the book Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers but never read through and studied the book in the bible, Hosea (or Oseas, in Spanish).  So that became our study of the week.  I look at it, perfect, two chapters a day, ready and really excited for my quiet time the next day!  Now, we had prayed that even though our lives were not very relevant to this book of the bible, that God would still show us something to help us grow closer to Him.  Let me tell you something, the first two chapters were exactly what I needed to hear and be prepped with for that day!  They talked about God being in control no matter what and how we should continue to follow His will, even though it may not make any sense.  Still, that He is in COMPLETE control!  I have been back in Argentina for 2 weeks now, feels like forever almost, and of course I am missing home.  Some of you don’t know but I am praying about switching schools after July, somewhere else versus Liberty.  With stress from this situation, being reminded of God being in control of every situation was the most comforting thing that I could read for this time of my life! Sometimes my days here are crazy and most of the time it’s just because my flesh wants to make it seem like it’s the end of the world.  I just have to keep lifting my head, heart and eyes, up to Him for comfort and for encouragement.  Thank you Lord for Your Word and for Your love that saves me from sin and death!

Hello! We are so blessed to have a way to SEE and READ His EXACT WORDS! They don’t change! They are written down! They were inspired by Him! We have a beautiful way of meeting with Him because of Christ’s death and the tearing of the vail.  We can walk into His presence and be renewed everyday through His word and through His listening heart.

One of my favorite parts of Chapter 2 was verse 7, talking about how Gomer will always revert back to Hosea, because she knows he is better.  In our life perspective, that is us and choosing sin!  WE WILL ALWAYS BE DISSATISFIED WITH ANYTHING OUTSIDE OF GOD’S WILL!  I don’t want to outside of His will!  I want to enjoy this life He gave me to live, but for Him!  I choose Him.

The Lord has done amazing things this week, like numerous salvations in the 629 campers that were all here! Today they leave and tomorrow we get a fresh batch of hungry hearts! I am so excited to see what the 3^rd week brings! Please keep them in mind because the equipo (working team) like the students, volunteers and missionaries that are putting all of this together each week, are growing tired! Pray for energy and for extra love to give to the campers!

Prayer Requests:

1)   MY SPANISH- it’s crunch time!

2)   Campers-leaving back to their homes, and the new ones coming in!

3)   Patience, in my own life.

4)   Energy and rest for equipante.

5)   Ashley Hiers in Africa (missionary)

6)   For the Lords will in my life after Argentina.

7)   My allergies, unfortunately still a daily struggle.

***OJO! Please send me prayer requests! J I want to hear from you! My e-mail is sirkmaggie@yahoo.com if you do not have a Facebook or are not friends with me! I don’t care if I don’t even know you, I would still love to be in prayer!

Oh Here We Go Again.

   So I'm here again in Argentina! It's crazy to think that December is passed already! I enjoyed my time  immensely for all who were wondering!  I knew coming back that things were going to be different, seeing how it is summertime here and we are putting on summer camp for 6 weeks.  Just in the first week, God has worked incredibly on just this campus.  I can't imagine what He is doing right now with those campers that are home talking with their families about what they did and what God has done in their lives!
   To start off, I arrived on Thursday and hit the ground running! I was already working on Friday, cutting letters, painting things for the stage set up, and just trying to get used to being back again! Sunday night, we had un fogón (bonfire) for the students and volunteers of camp.  It was to start our summer camp season and the best part was when we got little logs to throw in at the end to just surrender all in these next few months or so.  To surrender sleep.  To surrender energy.  To surrender food choice.  To surrender space and comfortability.  To surrender time.  Most importantly, to surrender your heart for all the wonderful things that God was going to be doing in all of our lives and all that challenges that we can't endure without Him! That night I went to sleep with no expectation of what was going to happen the next day and not to be prideful in any way but that was one of the best decisions I have ever made!
   Monday came along and campers started to arrive and the campus was getting pretty full.  We had the opening ceremony at night and it was a joy to see all of the weekend work that Vestuario (where I work) had put in that finally paid off and looked awesome!  Being in the behind the scenes crew is actually really cool!  Anyway, that night was the night the Andreas, our director, was going to start of with the bang and preach the gospel....23 salvations that night! The Lord did NOT waste any time!  Monday night was a great way to start off the week!
   Over the week, Mufa Pufa (super fun game time), the pool, testimonies, and all, you could just feel God moving in and through this campus and it was awesome!
   Last night, we had the closing ceremony and rooms (that were on mini teams) stood up together and would one person would share something that happened that week.  Camper after camper stood up saying that they received Christ as their savior and what was so crazy about it was that they wouldn't just say "Oh I became a Christian"...they would say "I received Christ into my life and I knew that I needed Him because of sin and I can't live without Him."  There were also a lot of people who said that they thought they were Christians before and realized that they weren't really living a true Christian life devoted to Him, so they changed.  How incredible is that?! This was the first week!? There are 6 more of these!  I can't wait to see what's going to happen!
   PBB (my program) will be missing the last week of camp because we are heading down south to Pichi Traful, which is a cabin hotel owned by Word of Life, which is in the Andes Mountains and has beautiful lakes and such!  It doesn't look like I am going to be getting much rest until then! After those two weeks, we are possibly crossing the border of where I will reveal later and after I have more details as to what we are doing!  After our vacation, I am hoping to translate for some missions groups that come down here so if you know any group that is coming down here to work, LET ME KNOW!
   The Lord has truly shown Himself this week as a fast mover and its a blessing to see Him do so!



Prayer Requests:
    1) Not that this is a priority, but please pray for good night sleeps because we do not have the    blessing of air conditioning, only a fan, and it cuts off some sleeping time.
    2) That I would be able to keep my studies up for I still have spanish class all summer.
    3) For the Lord to reveal His plan for me really clearly for after I am finished here in July.
    4) For God to work in the campers lives and to keep us safe here because there are a lot of people coming from a lot of different places.  They need Jesus and they are in the best place to connect with Him!
    5) Ashley Hiers who is continuing the Lord's calling of mission work over in Africa.  She is such an inspiration in my life just by being where she is at.
    6)MY SPANISH! I want to translate for trips my end of March!


Please let me know of any prayer requests that you would want any help with!

1/3: Done!

I can’t believe this is the end of the first part! I can’t believe that I am actually leaving for the states tomorrow! I just want to scream in happiness and joy and in praise to God for all that He has done! It has been incredible!  Just when I thought that I had not learned anything, all this Spanish and bible starts coming out of no where! It’s awesome!

I first want to give all the glory to God.  I couldn’t not have taken these first steps without Him, nor can I take the next steps without either!  HE has done all the work here. HE has allowed me to learn Spanish.  HE has allowed me to retain all this wonderful information about His word.  HE has given me the desire for the Spanish culture.  HE has given me the desire for missions. He has provided a way for me to be here and me to survive!  I remember from the first month, I just could feel God putting a pillow under my feet at every moment!  If you have not experienced this kind of proximity yet, let me encourage you to talk to God because there is nothing like this!  I am so blessed to have this opportunity to study in a foreign country (where I am the foreigner (extrañjera)) and praise the SAME GOD! Different culture, different language, SAME GOD!  And He hears all of our praises.  He hears all of our prayers and needs.  He still sees what is going on.   And He loves us the same.  He truly loves the world and has wonderful plans for ALL parts of it.  He has orchestrated my life before Argentina, JUST FOR Argentina, and NOW it makes sense!  Imagine heaven, where ALL will make sense.  Isn’t that awesome?  We won’t question, we will just know! Something else I have seen here is how much the States needs Christ, something that I already knew but was reminded of in a big way.  When you get the chance to step back and look at your country, it looks so different.  Although, I am so incredibly thankful for the country that I have been born and raised in, and don’t think otherwise.  This whole first part of my experience here has only left me wanting more!  God is opening doors now for His future plans for me and I love that!  He already knows every detail of my life, because He is God and He doesn’t miss a thing, He doesn’t miss a thing.  He knows me!  And I can’t wait to see what all those details unfold to be.

I woke up this morning thinking, “is tomorrow really December 3^rd?” I was filled with joy but at the same time, “where did this time go?”  I remember the first night I spent here.  I didn’t know why I was here! I honestly didn’t know what I was doing!  My mom asked if I wanted to come home and as much as Satan was nipping at my heart, I knew that God wanted me here and this was just Satan trying to stop a REALLY good thing from happening.  And guess what? I have lived that really good thing.  It was awesome! It still is awesome!  And there is still more awesomeness to come!  In our orientation time, I also remember them mentioning that Satan is going to use past experiences to tear us down.  Past things we have struggled with, people from the past, things back at home, other people here, and the list goes on.  That was so true!  But when those things happened, I stepped back, and looked to God, asking Him to pull me out of these things, help me be slow to speak, and that I wanted to bring glory to Him through this situation!  He also used other people for the good, like my counselor, Lyndee.  Por ijemplo, advice she gave me for when the showers were only cold water, or constant changing from hot to cold, she told me to just think of things you can thank God for while taking a shower.  “Lord thank you for a shower! Thank you for ________(Something that He did that day), etc.” So just little things like that! God has done mighty things here and I can’t wait to see what He has next!

For now, I am going to focus on this last day of the missions conference (which has been awesome!) and focus on the time I have left with my friends before I leave!  I am so happy that everything played out how it did!  Would not have had it any other way! 

Prayer Requests:

1)   My path home (Buenos Airesà Sao Paulo, Brazilà Miami, Florida): travel to Buenos Aires, safety, getting where I need to be in the airports,  SAFETY!

2)   Over the month of December, that I retain all this Spanish and bible and that my Spanish gets better at home knowing that I have a lot of Spanish where I live! (not a coincidence!)

3)   The students not going home for Christmas, latinos and gringos.

4)   My sisters trip to Haiti! (for the people they will speak to, for themselves, and the experience they will have.

5)   My time in December, that I can use it wisely J

I WILL BE HOME IN WITHIN 48 HOURS!!!