Iguazu!

We´re here! I can´t believe I´m really at debriefing! I have learned to love these people so much and I know it will be so hard to leave them! Last week started off sort of strange because their Flag Day was Monday, so we didn´t go to campus. Tuesday we went and I had the opportunity to share the gospel with four different girls! One was very interested in changing her life, but had so many things holding her back because of what she had been taught growing up. She was raised in a home that emphasized doing good things for salvation, which is VERY common here. Please pray for her as she looks over the Knowing God Personally book we left with her after we shared it with her. Wednesday was crazy because the president, Christina, came to speak in BA, and, after we arrived at the campuses at 11am, we found out that all government-run schools and businesses were closing so that the people would go home and watch the president speak. The president is VERY unpopular here because of the high taxes she is levying on the farmers, so at one of the campuses, a riot broke out, but thankfully, all of our students got out safely and we all caught our different buses home before they closed down! Thank you for your prayers of protection!

Friday night was our goodbye party and so many Argentine´s came! It was so much fun! Please pray for Vida Estudiantil as they try to follow up with the contacts we´ve made and try to gain more members! Saturday night we went out with Argentines and I got to give a KGP booklet to my best Argentine friend here, Mariela! She is agnostic, so please pray that as we talk over MSN messenger, she will have questions about the booklet!

Sunday morning we came here and got to see Kate and Charley from LOST because they were on our plane! One of our staff, Mark, sat beside them and talked with them!

Today, we went to the Iguazu national park and had an AMAZING time, taking a jungle tour, boat ride (that included going ride to the base of one of the falls and getting SOAKED!), and seeing some breath-taking examples of God´s creation. Pictures will be on facebook soon!

Thanks for your prayers throughout this trip! God has heard your prayers and worked in amazing ways in this beautiful country and I can´t wait to come home and talk to all of you in person about it! God bless you!

Only 12 more days!

Hello everyone! I'm sorry that I haven't posted in a while! I've been getting complaints!! Haha, I'm glad though, because that lets me know that people actually read these! :) So, I CANNOT believe that I will be HOME in 12 days! Time has FLOWN and I can't believe how fast I have developed such deep the relationships with the people on this project! Well, now with the update...
Saturday two other girls and I went shopping with a girl we met named Mariela! She is an agnostic and was not really interested in hearing the Gospel when we tried to share it with her. Yet, she came and shopped with us for four hours and we had a blast! Last night she came by the hotel and we made a true southern apple pie (with the crisscrossed crust on top!) and she LOVED it! She is also going to come to our outreach tonight, so, hopefully, as a result of our relationship growing, she will feel more comfortable opening up with us and being willing to hear the Gospel! By the way, our outreach tonight is popcorn and a movie! We're watching the Bourne Ultimatum! Most of the students we've talked with know of the movie, but haven't seen it! All the girls' faces light up when we tell them Matt Damon is in it! :)
Sunday we went to a River (a big soccer team here) game and, we didn't realize it, but it was the game that determined who the champion was going to be! And they won! I have NEVER been to anything more crazy in my life! There were hundreds of streamers flying down from the overhang in the stadium, firecrackers going off everywhere, confetti, and red smoke bellowing from some type of tube that people had! I could hardly see because of all of the choas around me! It was INSANE! It was fun, but also sort of sad, because you could see how much value these people put into these games. As I looked around at the other 60,000 people in that stadium, I could only wonder if there would ever be a day when that many poeple in Argentina will be that excited about Christ. I could tell that these poeple had nothing else to live for, so they put so much value in soccer and their teams.
This week was the last week for the www.cadaestudiante.com campaign and the theme was, "Are all religions the same?" Many students were very interested in this theme, so many spiritual conversations took place this week!
Tuesday, a girl named Maggie, along with Turner, one of the STINTers, got to lead someone to Christ on the Law campus! We were all very excited! God has definitely answered our prayers about preparing the hearts of the people before we got here!
Thursday was also a very exciting day because three people on the Ag campus got to lead a guy to Christ! That makes nine people who have accepted Christ into their lives so far! The STINT team told our team how amazed they are at the amount of fruit that has been produced while we have been here! It was really neat because one of the students who was there, Brett, asked his mom to pray for him from 12:30 to 1:30 that day because he was supposed to be following up with a contact, but he didn't show up. So, he went with two of the women on staff and, during that time was when they were able to lead that person to Christ! That is such a great testimony of the power of prayer!
Also, the past two Thursdays we have had English club on the different campuses and last Thursday we had 4 people show up on the Ag campus, which was a huge blessing, considering no one came the first week! And then, this week, we had two people, one of which was Mariela! Before English club we met with five girls, two of which we knew before and who connected us with their friends! We don't think that any of these girls are saved, so please pray that we are able to follow up with them sometime in this last week!
Yesterday, Katie, one of the women on staff, and I talked with a girl named Maria Luz for about an hour and shared the KGP booklet with her! When we got to the two circles that represent a life without Christ and one with Him, she said that she was the one without Him, but that she wanted to have Him in her life! She has been taught a very works-based salvation, and even though we went back through the booklet and tried to explain the Gospel multiple ways, she still thought that you needed to do enough good to get to God. Eventually, she admitted that she didn't believe in Hell either. Please pray for her as we talk with her next week, that she will look over the booklet and ask us questions about it! I pray that God opens her eyes to the truth of His beautiful Gospel!

Please pray that we will stay focused as we feel pressure because this is our last week here! Please pray that God will help us use the relationships we have built to lead to the sharing and accepting of His Gospel!

Thanks again for all of your prayers! God is moving in amazing ways down here and we are continually amazed at his constant goodness and faithfulness!

Bad news, but God is working!

Thank you so much for all of your prayers! As many of you know, Saturday night I was in a Locutorio using a computer and talking with my parents on Skype when I looked down and saw that my backpack was gone! I had put it beside my feet under the desk, but because I had my earphones on talking with my parents, I didn´t hear the person steal my bag! The main thing that was in there was my camera with all of the pictures I had taken since the trip began! But it has been amazing to see how ENCOURAGED I have been in the last few days! Because of my earthly possesions being taken away (my wallet was not found at the moped rental shop) God has shown me how much I value earthly possessions over Him! God has given me such a peace about this whole situation and I have not had any anxiousness about it! I have never felt the power of prayer more than I have the last few days! When the people on my team say that they are so sorry that this happened, I shock them when I say that I am fine and I am overjoyed to go through this small trial in my life because of all the amazing things God has taught me each time I open His Word! I am growing at an unbelievable speed in my relationship with Him and I know it´s because of my prayers and the prayers of those back home!

PRAISE! Saturday we had a soccer outreach and, even though not many girls came, several guys did! After we played, one of the guys sat down with two of the STINTers and they had the opportunity to lead him to Christ! He was so excited about it, telling everyone he met! It has been so encouraging to see such a drastic life-change! Thanks for praying!

This Saturday, instead of having a formal outreach, the outreach team decided to leave it open so that we can meet in small groups with students we have met and go out to shop, play soccer, drink mate, etc. in the location that is best for the students! It has been really hard to get the students to come to where we live because it is not close to where most of the students live, so this gives us an entire day so that we can travel to where we can meet them! Today, I met two girls named Dolores and Mariela and they both are so excited about showing me and the girls I was with where to shop! Please pray that they and the other girls we invite will come so that we can develop deeper relationships with them and eventually share the Gospel with them! Our team had a meeting about our recent problem of getting off-focus because we have so many events to invite students to like Vida, English club, and the outreaches. We have been making LOTS of friends, but not many of them are deep relationships. We´ve been sending a lot of mass emails and not enough personal ones. Please pray that as we start trying to get reconnected with people we have met, that they will respond to our personal emails and that they´ll want to get together Saturday! Thanks! God bless!

Uruguay!

So Uruguay was SO much fun!! At first, I wasn't too thrilled because we spent 2 of our 5 hours in a restaurant waiting for food! But we eventually got to get out, shop, (I got a really cute Uruguay trinket!), and take pictures in the beautiful town of Colonia! But the best part was, we rented mopeds for an hour and drove them around the small town!! It was SO much fun!! It went up to 50 km/hr!! The good news is, I didn't get hurt, but the bad news is, two of the guys we were with, did!! One guy almost ran into two of the girls on their moped and so he turned really fast and tipped over!! He didn't get hurt though! However, the other guy accidentally went the wrong way on a one way street (they have many of those, and it's hard to tell which way they go until you see a car!) and he ended up finding himself driving toward a moving car coming straight for him! He tried to brake, but he hit the accelerator at the same time, and flew over the handle bars, landing 20 feet from the car who slammed on its brakes! He was bleeding pretty badly from his hands and knees, but he kept riding after that! The REALLY bad news is that both of them have to pay $200 US each for the damage!

Well, I guess the main thing that happened there, concerning me, is that I lost my wallet! It had about $30 US in it and my debit card! I'm 99% sure I left it in the moped rental shop, so I emailed them right when we got back, but they haven't responded yet! Thankfully, my parents were able to cancel my debit card from the US, since they wouldn't let me do it from here! Please pray that the moped rental company will email me back with good news!

Tonight, we had Vida Estudiantil (Argentina's Campus Crusade for Christ) and it was great! I couldn't understand all of what the speaker said, but I got the main idea! The speaker spoke on the subject for this week, "Why do bad things happen?". People had a lot of questions and, from what I heard from the students afterwards, he gave really clear answers! He is a Bible professor at a local university! Also, we had English club to help the students with their English, and I think they learned a lot!

Please pray for the outreach tomorrow from 12-2 pm! The boys will play soccer and the girls will drink mate (a lot like tea...VERY common here)! Pray that God will give us the opportunity to get into spiritual conversations with them!

Also, it's getting REALLY cold here and many people, including me, are starting to get sick! Please pray that we will get to feeling better!

PRAISE! So far, three people have accepted Christ on the college campuses where we having be witnessing! I had the opportunity to share the Gospel with 4 more girls today, so please pray for them, that they will keep looking over the tract (KGP booklet) I left with them and that they will respond to my emails and ask questions! 

Again, I can't thank you enough for your faithful prayers! We couldn't do this without you!

I´m going to Uruguay!

Hey everyone! I just wanted to let you all know what I get to do tomorrow! I have some extra money left over from my per diem that I get for food each week, so I´m going on a trip with most of my team to Uruguay for the day tomorrow! Two of the STINTers have to get their visas renewed there, so they thought that they´d take some of us along! I´m very excited!

Today, we started our campaign for the website www.cadaestudiante.com on three of the four campuses here! The one we are not doing this for is the Agricultural campus, MY campus, so my team gets to switch around among the other three universities every Tuesday and Friday for the next three weeks! This website has really brought a lot of students to Christ in the past because its main purpose is to answer hard questions students may have about God. We´re taking on one question per week on the campuses, by asking students to fill out surveys about them and inviting them to a meeting conerning that week´s issue, where we´ll have a Spanish-speaking guest speaker! I think it´s actually going to be set up as a debate!

This week, the question is, ¨Why do bad things happen?¨ next week, ¨Is there a God?¨and in two weeks, ¨Do all religions lead to the same God?¨Please pray for these campaigns on campus that God would work mightily in the students as they seek the answers to these hard questions and please pray for the weekly meetings we´ll have on each of these issues on the next three Friday nights at 9pm. (8pm your time!) Thanks so much! God bless!

To see the website in English, so to www.everystudent.com!!

Looking back over the first week!

Hello everyone! I am in a Locutorio right now paying to use the internet! It´s so strange!! :) I am continuously in awe of what God is doing on the different campuses here! We have just finished up our first week on campus, and I have shared the Gospel with around 10 students already! Yesterday, my friend Nicki and I shared the Gospel with three girls, one of which said that she was already a believer! She even helped us explain the Gospel to the other two girls! The other two were really interested in what we had to say, and even said that they desired for Christ to be in their lives, but they weren´t sure if they were ready because it was such a big decision. I was so glad to see that they understood the gravity and importance of this decision, but at the same time, I shared with them stories about people I have known who have died unexpectantly at a young age, and I told them that they shouldn´t put off accpeting Christ into their lives because they don´t know when their last day will be. They still said that they weren´t ready, so PLEASE pray that they will respond to my emails and meet up with us soon to discuss the Gospel more!

Also, yesterday and the day before, I came into contact with two different ladies, one was an older woman and the other was a student, and both of them had a very strange belief system that basically claimed that we are one with the universe and that we are not sinful because we are all gods. Please pray that their eyes will be opened to the truth as they read over the Knowing God Personally (KGP) booklet I gave both of them!

Also, please pray for tonight because I am on the Outreach team and we have planned a ¨game night¨ party as an outreach to the students we have met this week! Please pray they will come!

Thank you so much for all of your support! God is doing amazing things here because of your prayers!

First day on campus!

Hello my devoted readers!! So, yesterday was our first day on the college campuses! Our team split up on four different campuses in BA: College of Agriculture, Law, Science, and Architecture! They split the students up into teams and assigned each one to one of the campuses for the entire summer! I'm on the agriculture campus with all of the horses, ducks, cats, dogs, chickens, and, yes, LLAMAS!! The STINT team members (5 recent college graduates who commited to live in BA and work on spreading Campus Crusade on BA campuses for 14 months; they have been in BA since September 2007) and the Crusade staff that came with us rotate which campus they go to every day.

Yesterday was a nerve-racking day since it was our first day to use a survey that starts with general questions about a college student's life and ends with spiritual questions to lead into sharing the Gospel! I was nervous because we had to go up to random strangers who most likely do not speak our language! But God was faithful, of course, and led me and the girl I was with to a fluent English speaker, Nilda, and her non-English-speaking friend, Georgelina (Hor-heh-lee-nah)! So, we started doing the survey with Nilda and she told us that she was REALLY interested in spiritual topics and told us she had grown up in the Catholic church, but was still very confused. To make a long story short, she ended up telling us,"To be honest, I've gone to church all of my life and have heard many priests preach, but I have never understood WHY Jesus had to die and HOW His death cleanses us from our sins!" Well, of course, the girl I was with and I were just about shaking with excitement! I got to sit there and summarize the Knowing God Personally booklet (the tract that Campus Crusade uses) in my own words, trying to clearly explain the entire story from when God created a perfect world, to the fall of man, to Christ's coming, to His death and resurrection, and how all of that applies to us! It was so exciting! Nilda was so attentive and was just soaking it all in the whole time! When I was finished, she just looked at me and said, "I have asked so many Catholic ministers and priests that question, and they have never explained it to me like you just have. I get it now!" We were beaming!! She then said, "Now please translate all of that into Spanish because I really want my friend to know that too!" How cool!! We tried the best we could, but we didn't do too well, so we left a Spanish/English Knowing God Personally booklet with them for her friend to look at!

We planned to meet them at the same spot, same time today, but it was cold and rainy today (for the first time since we got here!) so they weren't out there. Please pray that my friend Maggie and I will be able to meet and talk with those girls more!

Thank you so much for all of your prayers! I know they are being answered every day!!

I made it!!

I'm here! Our trip here wasn't as smooth as we thought though! Wednesday, we sat in the Greensboro airport for 8 hours while our flight kept getting delayed over and over until it finally got cancelled! We were put in a hotel by the airport and the next morning we flew to Dulles and then waited 10 hours for the only flight to BA at 9:45 that night! God was just teaching us to be flexible though! And I think that God had our flight delayed because He had people in mind for us to share the Gospel with. On the plane from Greensboro, I talked with a Polish woman who claimed to be Catholic, but believed that all religions lead to the same God and that everyone will eventually go to Heaven. I got to share the Gospel with her using the Knowing God Personally booklet. She seemed really interested and asked to keep it. Then on the ride to BA, I sat next to a Greek Orthodox man and had a really great conversation with Him about God and he read through the KGP booklet as well. Please pray for both of these people who have a works-based salvation mindset and who believe that Christ is not the only way to God.

When we got here, we were briefed by the STINT team, went back to the hotel to rest, and then went back to their Campus Crusade weekly meeting!

Well I have to go! Hasta luego!

Greensboro fun!!

WOW!! These last few days have flown by in a whirlwind of fun!!! I feel like I've made 50 new best friends as I continue to meet amazing Christian college students every second!! I'm here in Greensboro, NC at briefing for the trip! There are actually 6 different summer project teams here at briefing: BA, Argentina (my group); La Plata, Argentina; Sweden; Central Asia; East Asia; and Lebanon!! Actually, because of the fighting in Lebanon right now, that team is not able to go there, so they're not leaving until NEXT Thursday as their leaders try to figure out where to take them! Please be praying for that!

I cannot believe how much I've learned over the past few days! We have had great people teach us what our spiritual mindset should look like as we enter the different parts of the world! The main point that has been driven home is that we should emphasize to everyone we meet that Jesus is better than anything this world has to offer! We have been taught how to use the culture around us to share the Gospel with the people we meet and have been told to not try to force our customs and culture on the people there! We need to embrace and engage ourselves in that culture completely!

Everyone I've met has been SO amazing and I KNOW that I've NEVER made so many GREAT friends in such a short amount of time ever before!! We have had several team time meetings so that we can get to know the people on our project really well and EVERYONE on my team feels like family already!! We have united SO quickly! Praise Jesus! Please pray for a continued unity as we faced trials these coming weeks and as Satan tries to ruin our witness by trying to create division!! I can't wait to get down there and tell all of you what God has allowed me to do as I participate in spreading His Gospel around the world!!