It is finished and His promise was kept.

     When God called Abraham out of his homeland, do you think Abraham had a clue what was going to happen? Absolutely not! The whole road wasn't easy either, and God knew that He was going to mold and shape him into something beautiful and all the things along the way were for His glory.  But one of the most important things was that God made a promise, and always did, no matter how many times Abraham failed, messed up, didn't like God, etc, God was ALWAYS faithful and never abandoned him.  I held onto this story in my journey through Argentina.  I even have a sticker of the Argentine flag in Genesis 12 so that every time I got frustrated and wondered why God brought me there, I would go back and see that flag to remind me that God made me a promise.  And you know what? He fulfilled it! He gave it to me! I am back home, I can speak spanish fairly well, I am closer to Him than I ever have before, and that and so much more is what God promised me to get to July 10th.  What an awesome god our God is :)  If you think that God leaves you, if you ever have a doubt for where He has you, think about what kind of distance you are away from God first before you start blaming Him for your life circumstances.  I am so blessed to have been part of this experience and I can't even provide enough words to do so, so this blog may not be extremely long!  I want to thank the Lord first of all for carrying me through and keeping His word in entirety! I want to thank my parents for supporting me through love, prayer, finance, and just setting that good example before hand to help me make the decision to go!  I want to thank my sisters for praying for me and just being there for whenever I needed to talk!  I want to thank my boyfriend for sticking with me throughout our first year of dating and growing with me through prayer and conversation, because we are closer than we have ever been and we both know that this is how God wanted our first year to be, and we are content with that!  I want to thank the church body for first: PK and youth group for taking me to Argentina all the way back in April 2012 and second: the church body for support through prayer and finance because I could definitely feel that from Gods hand! I want to thank Lucas Fernandez Paz (head of bilingual program) for being our shepherd throughout the whole experience and taking care of all of us as our temporary father!  And the list goes on but people like all the people who were my roommates throughout the time, my friends that I learned so much from, even the people who challenged me to get along well, THANK YOU! Because of this, I am who I am now! Highs AND lows! They were all part of God's plan and who am I to argue with that?  Even though some of you may not see the fruit of your work now, the Lord will reveal it to us all one day, and we will all be like "ohhhhhhhh! OKay!" haha

          I honestly couldn't have asked for a better year!  Never in my life would I have thought of Argentina!  You've probably heard this before but if I were told before last April that I was going to go to Argentina for a year, learn spanish, and be changed forever......I would have been like um no way. haha But you know what, that's why God doesn't tell us things before hand and makes us wait for His timing for things! A lot of the times, we would try to avoid them! Even when we find out what He wants, we try to avoid it anyway!  I am excited though to see what He has next!

     As this blog is called, "A Year/Life of Surrender", it is not just this year now that I have finished that was in need of surrender for what God was going to do, but now its my whole life! Whatever He has next, I need to surrender whatever my story is, for His!  As hard as it may seem, its the best and what I plan on doing!  I am already getting things ready to work with the spanish ministry at my home church, found out a few spanish churches close to my college, speaking spanish with whoever I can, and continuing this journey, because its not over till He calls me home and I plan on living it for Him POR SIEMPRE (forever)!  Thank you to all who have been continual in reading this blog! I love that you have kept in tune and your prayers have reached me! If you could continue praying for me and what adventures He has next and that I would remain to have the same spirit of surrender and readiness! 

Love you all and it is now finished.

     -Maggie :)

T-20 days and the ball is still rolling!

         I am so glad to be writing to you to tell you that I WENT TO THE JAIL YESTERDAY!!!! FINALLY! God opened the door and it was GREAT!!! :) Thank you to the people who have been praying and I ask that you CONTINUE to pray because God is working in the hearts of some of those women there! I am sad because I can only go for one more week because the week after is testing day and the last Wednesday that I will be in Argentina, BUT I am going to use it for God’s glory! So I am going to tell you a little what my experience was like! First: for anyone who does not know, I was given the opportunity to be a part of the Women’s Jail Ministry and is just me and 3 other women from Word of Life.  We go on Wednesday afternoons and have a bible study with one area of a women’s jail, in a different part of the Buenos Aires providence.  When I first heard them talking about it in chapel, I could feel God calling me to ask about the ministry.  A little after that, I got a little bit of training and was told that there is a need of people in women’s jail is because for example with the men, most of the time they have wives, family, kids, etc, that come and see them for visitation.  With the women, if they had a boyfriend or husband, they usually didn’t stick around, family is ashamed to see them, and they themselves are ashamed for their children to see them.  What a heartbreaker, right? A month or so ago was my first chance to go, we drive the almost 2 hour drive there and we weren’t able to get in.  I thought it was God shutting the door, and it was! Little did we know when we pulled up that there was a conflict going on in the inside that became very dangerous because some police were getting there things ready to go in, ambulance was prepared, and it goes on! I didn’t see all of this, and that was God protecting my eyes and heart because He had a plan for me to go back and knew that if I saw those things, I wouldn’t want to! Anyway, God REALLY took care of us! Imagine if that would have started while we were on the inside! Praise God! Then, the week after, we get notice that the station “made up a rule” that we had to have legal credentials to enter.  One of the other girls in the ministry has been doing this for over a year and doesn’t have those credentials and just some odd day they decide! Who knows what happened but we just kept praying for the opportunity while the other two women continued going.  So finally! This week! We were allowed to go! And here is what happened…

            I already knew the route to get there, so once I started to recognize that we were close to arriving, the nerves started kicking in.  I couldn’t think of an exact verse to keep whispering to myself for strength but I remember that a friend reminded me at school of how God protected us last time, what’s stopping Him from doing the same today? So I decided to say “I’m trusting in you Lord! I’m trusting in you Lord! I’m trusting in you Lord!”  The door opened, we were going in, kept saying that to myself.  Each door we had to wait to go through, kept saying that to myself.  We finally reached to the last door before our designated area and I was honestly scared, in my mind that is.  We entered, and it was just like a dorm room type of set up.  There were 24 rooms, 2 levels, and a middle area with tables and an area to talk! I tried to keep in mind all the things I was told to and not to say or do and keep a smile at the same time.  I was known as Margarita, just to make things easier and the women that were there at the moment were very receptive and smiled right back! As the rest that wanted to come to the bible study started to come out, I was just observing the area and trying to talk with some of them.  They were so nice! I was able to sing to start off worship and we brought the lyrics so that they could keep them and read along.  Joy overcame my heart when some started to sing once they started reading the words of the song.  A woman even started to tear up!  What a sight to see! The song spoke of God loving us like a father, like a brother, like a fierce lion, like no other person and how He looks for us with strength to hug us and He wraps us in His love!  How perfect was that for those women! More of an impact than I expected!  After the bible study was over, the women that began to cry started talking with me, and she just kept talking and talking and talking.  And you know what? I was totally okay with that! I realized that they just need someone to talk to! I was asking God in those moments to give me a good ear to understand everything she was saying (because it was in Spanish) and so I can give her encouragement afterwords!  In this moment, I totally forgot that I was even in a jail.  I looked at her while she was talking but looking through the eyes of Christ, I am NO different that she is! I have as much sin as any other person and the blessing of knowing Christ is that when we stand in front of our Heavenly Father one day, is that those “mistakes” are not seen….all that is seen is Christ standing in front of me!  I won’t share everything she said but if you all could be praying for Monica and that God would bring her comfort and joy just by knowing Christ!  I shared with her that parts of the bible were written while the writers were in jail! And that jail now is A LOT nicer than they were then! But also, those writers were probably the closest to God than ever in those moments because all they could do was rely on Him and call out to Him for comfort!  What an encouragement?!  You could see God really start to work in her life and it hit me in the face when I realized what a blessing it is to be in a bible institute where explanations of the word are fed to me and how I can just use a commentary or look something up on the internet when I don’t understand a certain part of the bible!  Monica cherished her bible and I could tell that she didn’t always understand everything and that is why it is OUR responsibility to go reach the people in the jails.  The bible even says that! It is written quite a bit “Remember those in jail!  Don’t forget them!”  They don’t have those luxuries of studying the word, so I need to follow what the bible tells me and go TO them, and explain!

 I could make this blog go on forever of how much God shared with me yesterday, but I wanted to give you guys a little taste of what happened and share that I am so excited for the next week and how I hope to get involved in a jail ministry at home!

PLEASE BE PRAYING! Pray for more students here to have the desire to get involved! Once I leave, they are looking for two more girls to come along! Pray that God can make this a strong team and that He would just make their path wide open to bring His love into this jail!

And She's On Her Last Lap!!!

So I know this blog was supposed to be written more often, but I have been involved with so much since the Bible Institute started that I have not had much down time! Hence the reason for me being sick a lot! Here is to catch you up a little!

I am in my last month here in Argentina! Can you believe it? It’s so bittersweet! It’s like I don’t want to leave everyone here but at the same time, I miss home and everything about home SO MUCH! I know God has something for every day left and I can’t wait to see them! Right now, I am talking Clubes Biblicos, which is basically “youth group” and it wonderful! Just teaching us how to properly run a youth group, bible club, college group, etc.  I am also taking Synthesis of the Old Testament, which the teacher talks really fast, but I am enjoying it so far!  In another week, my Bible Club class will switch to Bibliology for the last two weeks of class.  After that, I have exams, then my parents arrive, and then I go home! How crazy is that!?! I can’t believe where we are right now!  I keep hearing from everyone to not wish the time away and to focus in this remaining time.  I am trying to remember that but at the same time, there is nothing wrong with being excited to go home! I miss home so much!  Also, I know God has fulfilled His purpose with me here, and that’s one of the biggest reasons why I am excited to see what He has next for me at home and at Clearwater Christian!  It’s the next part of Gods plan that He gets to reveal to me! I can’t wait!

I want to thank the people who have been reading this all the way from the first blog! It was quite a few and I know I have started writing much less, I apologize! Haha It’s been crazy!  On the weekends every once in a while, I leave all day on Saturdays to do evangelizing around Buenos Aires.  Last Saturday, being after exams, mentally and physically exhausted because I don’t think I have ever studied like that before, wanting to sleep, I did NOT want to go! And I had a bad bad bad attitude about it! It affected my whole day! So, this weekend, God gave me another chance.  It started with Friday, in the legality building, asking for an extension of my tourist visa so I don’t have to pay a ridiculous fee to leave the country…I was able to talk to a girl from Germany, that was studying in Buenos Aires and knew English from living in the states for a year.  I was in a loss for words, don’t know why, and did not get the chance to share the gospel with her because of timing, but I got her name and got the chance to ask if I could pray for her in any way!  She was very sweet, and very shocked to see a random American girl asking a question like that! She said she was good for now, “been pretty lucky lately” and she left.  I went back to a friend waiting in our group, and after being frustrated cause I couldn’t find the words or the chance to share Christ, Casey reminded me that we don’t know who has spoken with her before, or who is going to talk with her in the future, so we must just be willing to speak for Christ in every moment possible!  1 Corinthians 3:5-on says that perfectly and explains how we are just called to go out! The next day Saturday, with this mindset, in my devotions didn’t even ask for a salvation but just for the chance to talk to someone! Even though the neighborhood was very closed off, we were able to talk with quite a bit of people and me and another kid in my group, led 3 little boys to Christ, in a park using the evangecube! HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD! He is always with us and working more than we can ever see! I am just so blessed by all the opportunities that I have had while being here!

Speaking of opportunities, I have yet to go to the jail! The first week, we got there and couldn’t enter because of a conflict inside and then the week after and after, spiritual warfare of stupid rules made up for people who don’t have certain documents! So if you could be praying that I get the chance this week or if not, that the truth would be brought to those women some how, some way!! :)

I am so excited for what is to come, back in the states! I can’t even explain what all God has done here! I will be writing my last few blogs here soon, and of course one to wrap up this chapter! I am so thankful to have had this opportunity and to have seen how God has grown me to be who I am now! I was thinking about when my parents come in just a few short weeks for graduation (sidenote: WHICH YOU ALL CAN WATCH ONLINE! IT WILL BE JULY 6^TH AT 10 O CLOCK AM ARGENTINA TIME, WHICH IS 9:00 AM IN FLORIDA!), its going to be a whole new part of me that they haven’t seen yet! I can’t wait! AHHHH!

Prayer Requests:

1.     FOCUS! FOCUS! FOCUS!

2.     Anymore opportunities for evangelism

3.     Go to prepare me for what He has next!

Keep Your Head Up, I Know It's Hard...

Hello my readers :) I am so excited to tell you what God has been doing lately!            First of all, we started the institute! I can’t believe it! The first week, I was like “this is great! I am understanding things and I am so happy!” Week 2, “I can’t pay attention for more than 30 minutes straight! Being bilingual is hard!” Week 3, “Oh my word, we have a week till exams in total Spanish! I AM FREAKING OUT!”  Over each month, we have two classes that are for three weeks, and a week of testing.  Our first two classes were Evangelism and Christian Life I.  They were AMAZING! Definitely encouraged me to get out there to reach people!  For Christian Life, we had to read a whole book (in 3 weeks) and memorize 14 verses, but had the option of doing so in English or in Spanish.  In my mind, of course it will be harder in Spanish, but more importantly, it’s going to hurt me if I don’t continue to practice these things in Spanish.  I was so blessed by choosing to do all in Spanish!  First, I read Gates of Splendor by Elizabeth Elliot (Jim Elliot’s wife), which tells the story in the best way, straight from the diaries of the men, their wives, and just all the inner details that we miss by the movies and word of mouth.  The whole time, it was really encouraging me to be all for Christ! Be all there! Be ready to do whatever He calls us to do and do it with EVERYTHING!  In the last chapter, she noted a quote from Jim Elliot that will ring in my heart for the rest of my life.  Translating it to English, it said, “When you arrive to the time to die, make sure that all you have left to do is die.”  How profound is that?? What this means to me is that I need to always be walking in His will and not waste ANY time so that when He does call me to go home, that I don’t look back and say “oh..I wish I could have done more!”  Relating to me now, I must think that in my time left here.  I don’t want to get on that plane the 9^th of July and leave saying “hmmm. I wish I could have given more.”  I am so happy to say that this past Saturday, I was able to go evangelizing in Buenos Aires, and I got to see the fruit of all the things that God has been doing these past 7 months!  I talked with a women who did not believe that there was a heaven or hell.  In Spanish, I was able to use things that I JUST learned in my classes with her, and God was speaking RIGHT through me! It was INCREDIBLE! She did not receive Christ, but we definitely planted a seed in her heart, and only God may know what happens after that.  I am so happy with that! I really didn’t even want to go yesterday because I wanted to sleep in after our exams and not doing anything, but at 5:00 that afternoon, I was hit in face by God saying “Alright Maggie, see what I wanted you to get up this morning? I had Kristina for you! Thank you for doing this for me! Love you! Keep working! I’m here with you!”  I just love God and all the strange but beautiful ways that He works!

I don’t have much more to say than I have only 2 months left, I can’t believe I am almost done here, but I know that this is just the beginning of what God has for me! :)

One important thing that I want to be completely real with and so also you could pray for something I struggle with day to day.  Coming here, I knew I had to surrender how I look (as in weight), because we don’t have really an option of what to eat, it is just what food is provided.  Missionary life! I knew that coming in, and now that it has happened, I hate it!  If you could pray that I don’t focus so much on that and just enjoy the time I have left because Satan uses that so much to knock me off my feet and makes me want to go home now!  I have to remind myself that I have learned a language in 9 months, I am closer to God than I have ever been in my life, I have survived living in Argentina for 9 months, and I am fulfilling the will of God! Why am I so worried about what I look like??  So please! Pray! I am excited to get home and start living healthily because I am just not feeling well in general (health wise)! :/

Prayer Requests:

1)   Focusing on the 2 months left!

2)   My Spanish, to continue to increase!

3)   My mind of weight and that life is so much more than appearance!

4)   I am helping out with Sunday School and next week, I teach the lesson! Pray for the kiddos and for me to speak with my whole heart!

5)   My parents are traveling here for graduation, (July 4^th, they will be traveling) pray for traveling mercies!

So I Did.

So what a time I have had! Thank you for reading and staying with me! We are almost there!

            As you know, I was planning on going to an orphanage.  Didn’t happen!  I am so happy of how intimate my relationship is with the Lord is right now because I was so disturbed by SOMETHING that after praying and help from my mom, I knew I shouldn’t go! My passion was translating.  I didn’t know what that meant, but I knew that I needed to stay. So I did :)

            Thursday morning comes (I had decided to stay the Thursday before), and I get a text asking if I was ready to leave tomorrow for a week to translate.   I was floored! I was in my mind “YES YES YES!” but I immediately sat up, and put the phone down, and prayed! I wanted to make sure this is what God wanted and if this was really happening!  I felt the necessity to say yes, so I did!

            I got the info I needed, told my family, Micah, and asked them to pray for strength! I soon realized that it was going to be the SAME exact week that I was here last year, frustrated because of the language barrier, and was waiting to see what God was going to do in my life by bringing me back here!  I was enamored with that thought of what God has done in this year!  I was ready to go! I knew God had been working up this whole year for this week, and it was an awesome feeling!  I was scared, but knew that He would be the one speaking through me! It was now Friday, I was packed, we had to leave, so I did!

            14 hours later, back in South Argentina, I woke up to colder, yet beautiful weather, and I was in Neuquen, Argentina.  We were there to rest for a little and then go door to door ministry, inviting people to an event.  I happened to be with the mission pastor from the church that came down, scared out of my mind, but reminded myself we are just translating to get people to come to a service.  That afternoon was AMAZING!  It was so much more than just an invitational, there was a man named Daniel, that thank the Lord we had a native from the area that he talked to him for the most part, but was very hard on the outside, looked very disturbed and just very closed off.  After a conversation, using the Evangecube, he came SO close to giving his life to Christ. We came to the part of the cube where you can choose Christ, or you can choose eternity in hell.  His eyes were set fixed on the hell portion, the fire, the eternal suffering.  He did not give his life to Christ that moment, as far as we know, but a seed was DEFINITELY planted!  The first day of my trip last year was the worst day ever! It was what started to break down my wall of God’s true will for my life.  The fact that all these amazing things that God were all in one day, and I could help facilitate it, WHAT A GREAT FEELING!  We had to return to church, and with a splitting headache cause I had never spoken so much Spanish in my life, I walked away with a smile because of how in awe I was with God in that moment, so I did. :)

            More great things happened in the week, I could feel my spanish increasing rapidly, and so of course, Satan started to bring in the battle.  I was reminded this week of how beautiful mercy, forgiveness, and most of all redemption is!  It was Wednesday, I wasn’t in the greatest mood because of the distractions Satan had drawn in, and we were visiting schools.  After translating for some of the students all morning, we are close to leaving and so I sit on the stairs to rest.  A girl comes up and sits next to me, starts talking to me, and asks for me to tell her my testimony.  In my mind, I say “God, is this really happening? God! Open her heart and give me the words to speak!”  Now, I had never lead anyone to Christ by myself in my whole life.  I have always been in groups, but never had been because of my direct words and testimony to anyone, remember that. It was loud because everyone was talking and so she asks to go into a classroom, and it literally was like God giving me this opportunity on a silver platter.  God said to me “here you go Maggie! This is to make up for how you acted yesterday!”  So we continued to talk, she was very receptive, and through God using me to speak to her, she received Christ! HOW AWESOME IS THAT! I was over joyed! I stopped for a minute and was like “are you sure? Do you really meant it?” because I was just so floored how fast God moved and just the fact that He used ME! Of all people? Especially after all the things I have done, He still wanted to use me!?  I was so ecstatic!  After we left, we were on the bus, and the missionary that was in charge of the ministry we were working with was proud of me and he reminded me that even though I’m not perfect at Spanish, when I let my heart speak and I lay everything out about my life to someone, God uses you in BEAUTIFUL ways!  He told me to not hide behind the language, just let my heart speak to the person.  That was so true, that was exactly what happened!  God gave me a huge reason to smile, so I did :)

            We finished the week and I was just so happy and blessed with what He had done in this week! What’s even better is that there were so many other great stories from all the other students that came!  I was so blessed by this mission group that traveled this way and will be eternally grateful!  I honestly believe that this past week was one HUGE reason why God brought me down here!  He worked all the way in April of 2012, to prepare me for the same week in April of 2013!  It’s incredible!

            We started the institute this week! Crazy to see how time flies!  It is going to be awesome but please pray because homesickness is setting in! But I will continue on, because my return home is a lot sooner that I think! So I WILL! :)

Prayer Requests:

1)   The people we reached in Neuquen.

2)   The bible institute! (For understanding, and retaining for tests and LIFE)

3)   Homesickness! It’s one of the worst illnesses!

            

Recap to Preview.

Hello my sweet followers!

                Please, sit back, maybe grab some water, tea, or mate J and read the recap of my life the past few months!

                We had planned on going to Chile, but God turned those moments into something much greater! Two weeks later, we left for Pichi Traful! You all have heard of the Andes Mountains, right? Well they are mainly in Chile but they end up in South Argentina and so there we went! Word of Life owns a hotel in the mountains and even though the drive there is about 20 hours, it was so worth it! The fact that I was driving through the land that you see in magazine stories, billboards, textbooks and foreign vacation sights! Most of the drive was flat plans, but then gradually grew to plateaus (which are super cool, never seen in real life), rolling hills, and finally beautiful and might I add HUGE mountains with animals and lakes and one giant mountain with a huge snowcap on it! How could you drive through there and NOT believe that we have a wonderful maker? It’s impossible! If you don’t see that, you must be sleeping!  We finally reached our destination, got off the bus, and it literally felt like it was some hidden land that people come to rest and stay for safety! (Obviously that is not the case but that’s what it felt like)  Our friends from school that worked at the summer camp there all summer coming running to the bus, everyone with huge grins our their faces, and just a heart to serve us in these upcoming days.  The days consisted of hiking in the Andes, visiting beautiful lakes, rivers, and resting sights.  Pictures are to come, I am just waiting to get my computer back! But I was just so happy to be there!  Now, at school, its very hard to find a true “quiet” place to be.  In the middle of the week, the Lord just prompted me to go sit outside, seeing how we were surrounded by mountains and beauty.  I sat outside and began to pray.  I realized that this was a gift from God because I literally could not hear one thing move, not even everyone inside!  It was such a blessing! It was a bit chilly so I went back inside and sat by the fire.  We left a week later, drove through the night, got back to school, washed our clothes and later that night, ventured on to another unknown land, all in the same day!

                The next stop was Uruguay! What was so funny about the border was that we didn’t even have to wake up, get checked or anything.  Lucas got up and brought all of our passports, we were checked, and we made it to Uruguay!  Once we started to wake up, the sun was rising and we made it to Blancarena (white sand), which was the campground we were going to stay at for the week.  So this camp was a little different scenery, we were at a beach! The water was the river that separates Uruguay and Argentina (for the most part cause we drove), but it is possible to take a ferry all the way across! Although, the place we were was surrounded by NOTHING and NOT ONE PERSON around, and we were at the wide part of the river where you can’t see Argentina.  On Wednesday, we went into a place called Colonia which you can tell by the name that it is an older city, where all the old factories of Uruguay were from years ago, the ports for commercial things and the ferry to go to Argentina, and touristy things! We did not see much of Uruguay but just being there was nice because it made me feel like I was at home, the warm sun, the beach, wearing my bathing suit all day, just simply beautiful J The last day, we headed to two different beaches, and the second being a huge tourist and world known landmark (to some people) called Punta Del Este, or East Point.  It’s almost like a Uruguayan Miami beach type of place.  Lots of high rises, places to eat, shop, walk, and a huge beach! What is unique about this beach is that there are fingers coming out of the sand, as if someone was holding the beach and sand in their hand.  It is a big tourist attraction and people pay thousands of dollars to travel to this place and we just traveled a few hours north for a week to just chill!  We were all just so at ease and relaxed because of the two weeks we just had! 

                We got back to school and started out last week of Spanish class ever!  It was a bittersweet thing because yes I am very excited being the end of the second third of my time in Argentina, but at the same time, our teacher Laura, she is like our mom, and she has poured SO much into our lives! We are going to miss seeing her every day and spending the time!  I can’t believe how far we have come but definitely content and happy where I am!

                I had mentioned earlier that I was going to an orphanage for our week break.  Two days before I was supposed to leave, God said “STOP! Listen! Do not go!” I was not sure exactly what that meant but after prayer and wisdom from Mom and Micah, I knew I was to stay.  My mom had asked me in our conversation “what is your passion? Because if it’s not to help those kids, then do not go.”  I realized that it wasn’t to help the kids! It was to prepare to translate! Staying here and practicing more Spanish and translating back and forth, was what I was to do.  After I made the decision, I realized that I would not only be able to work on my Spanish but I would also get the rest I need before the Institute starts and I get back to the early morning/ late night schedule, but also I am able to meet with the wife of the church I hope to do ministry with on the weekends this semester!  We have been trying to get together for a long long time and now we can!  I know there are more things that I will see that confirm my decision but I am very content and ready to keep going!

                So March 15^th had come around, a day to recognize my 19^th year of life and it could not have been better!  It started with on March 14^th with my teacher making me a cake and then that night, after I had finished with my work, I went back to my room and was not allowed into my room.  I had seen a balloon on the door and just had a big smile on my face!  So we brought in the 15^th of March with another great cake and by watching The Vow. That morning, I woke up to a rainy, cold day, but I was still excited for the day! I got to breakfast and my boss for work had made banana pancakes for me and the people I work with!  Lunch time came around and I had been waiting for Lucas to come back with my packages because he had gone to Buenos Aires in the morning.  I get a call and he said to me is normal “I  have good news and bad news…” and then I see him with two packages in one hand.  He says to me “Good news, I got your packages.  Bad news, (as he holds up a Starbucks bag with a muffin in it) the coffee didn’t make it!” I WAS FILLED WITH JOY! The day was just getting better and better! I now had my lovely packages and my love from my family back at home!  As I was taking things out, Kara comes up (fellow PBBer) and said “I will take all those for yeah” for all the decorations for a party.  I wanted to keep everything a surprise so I just told my mind to stop figuring things out!  So some girls and I went to town that afternoon and got ice cream to celebrate and I get surprised with not just that, but a dulce and peach waffle, a mocha, AND A COKE LIGHT!  I was in heaven! But my stomach was definitely full!  Later on that night, I had a meeting planned with my counselor, and it ended up being a surprise party with her and my girlfriends! They were standing in a semi-circle and opened up to Micah being on skype to be at the party too!  I cried of course, but we just talked and talked and talked, and ate more cake!  I was so happy with the day and just reminded of how awesome God was to bless me all throughout the day!   Just when I thought the party was over, the next night, after dinner, while skyping with Micah, a friend from work comes over and says “can you hang up the phone” very nicely and I looked over to see that my boss had put together another party with cake and coffee!  I honestly can say that this had been the best birthday of my life!

Last but definitely not least, I miss home!  Being away for the second birthday and just being gone for this long, is hard!  My family went to the Kari Jobe – Chris Tomlin concert and I FaceTimed for a little.  When Kari Jobe started singing, I started crying because of how much I miss home! But then the song “You Are For Me” started playing and with the chorus, “I know that You will never forsake me in my weakness…”  I realized that is was God just reminding me “Maggie! You are here for me, I am going to take care of you like I have been from the beginning!  Don’t worry! I love you! You’re learning Spanish! You’re preparing for ministry! Keep going! You got this! With me!”  You would never believe this, but once I calmed down and kept listening, Kari Jobe started second verse, but singing it in spanish.  I was just floored.  I just knew god was there and He was just giving me another reason to love Him and feel His presence….and cry. J  

I am just so happy to be here and I am so thankful for all the love and prayers from back home!  I couldn’t do anything without Christ but also without you all and the support that is evident!  So KEEP GOING! WE ARE ALMOST THERE! Thank you J

 

 

Prayer Requests:

1.       The orphanage, kids, even though I'm not there!

2.       My Spanish.

3.       Ministry to be a part of on the weekends.

4.       THE BIBLE INSTITUTE and SPANISH BIBLE CLASSES!

5.       Strength to finish strong!