The Lord reign supreme.

Through the Lord's strength walls of darkness are broken down. Through the power of the name of Jesus darkness is cast out. Salvation belongs to our God!! Unto Him all beings on heaven and earth obey. He sits enthroned in power and glory. Praise be on our lips to the KING! Who does not bow to another. Jesus reigns with love and power. He sets the captives free. He delights in his children. His voice is over everything in this world both seen and unseen. His voice breaks the bonds of captivity. In the name of Jesus light shines forth and freedom is gained! All glory honor and power be to the Name of Jesus who reigns above minute humans and the authorities in the spiritual realm! We serve THE KING!! He IS victorious! He is good.

THe LORD reigns! He is the mighty God, the LORD GOD REIGNS! Great is the Lord Almighty He is Lord He is God indeed! Great is the Lord Almighty He is God supreme. He is crowned in glory and righteousness. How honored and blessed we are to be called one of His.

Amen

A Stroll on US Soil

Today we went to the US Embassy in Uruguay. It was really interesting. When we arrived we were escorted by FBI looking agents w/ guns through xray machines and security where they checked the validity of our passports and made sure we were US citizens. We traveled in groups of 5 throughout the HUGE complex. It was like a small, self sufficient city. I think the smells even resembled the US... I wished! We were escorted down to a basement where we listened to several diplomats from differing departments(PR, security, consulate, economics, political relations)speak about their job functions. The room was probably bugged, or at least I hoped it was! The embassy oversaw a myriad of issues ranging from investigating robberies of US tourists on foreign soil, issuing visas to Uruguayans, supplying passport pages, working with schools doing community service, supplying UN troops to other nations, working with dignitaries & supplying them with security, and providing security for all personnel working for the Embassy- whether within the building & on US soil or at home... And the list goes on. I never knew the extent of the embassy's work. It was interesting to hear what the job history of the diplomats and personnel prior to working at the embassy. It ranged from high school teachers, to social worker, to police officer. I spoke to the photographer who worked in the PR department. He went to a Canadian police school and majored in photography. He worked for the police force for several years, retired, moved to Uruguay, and began working for the US Embassy. I think it would be an amazing job. There is so much diversity. pictures: 2 pictures of a private cemetary in Montevideo(we're doing a photo essay). Other picture of Allison, Sarah, and I at a port!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!

So... Tonight we got attacked by some 8 yr. old kids! 6 of us were sitting on a lifeguard stand on the beach and were approached by some kids who looked close to 8 or 10 yrs old. They asked for money or cigarettes, to which i responded "cigarettes my butt!! you're 8!"That seriously was a shocker! We left the stand and went and sat on a bench close by. They followed us and continued to ask for cigarettes. Then one of them came and sat down about 6 ft. away from me and inched his way closer. I looked down and he was holding a glass knife and a broken glass bottle. I decided it was my best bet to move... far far far away, and quick. I did, and alerted the others that about the potential danger! He ended up chucking the glass at us as we walked away. We sat down aways away(ok... why did we do this... we should have walked far far away, because read on: ) They came over and kicked their soccer ball at us like 6 times! i was the appointed goalie and guarded sarah from getting decapitated. you think i'm joking but that little kid was pretty mighty with the ball. the whole experiance was pretty eye opening... I've never been afraid(yes... I was kinda scared) of an 8 yr. old before. picture explanation... so i don't really know WHY i'm putting this one here, cause it's basically the hardest core blackmail you can get... but i laughed, so maybe it will turn your frown upside down too! :( to :)

casa para los jovenes

So today we took a bus ride to a children's center targeting At Risk kids. It was A-MAZING!! I've only gone there once but I think it might be the highlight of my trip!! It's a home that's situated in a poorer community in Uruguay(45 minutes outside Montevideo) and helps out kids and their families who have specific needs. The center provides meals, clothing, education, as well as parental guidance to kids ranging from 0-15 yrs. old. The kids go there for workshops... Ranging from computer classes to learning how to weld. They play sports, games, and make crafts. It kinda reminds me of the Boys and GIrls Club, it seems like this place is more severe in working with the physical needs within the surrounding community. Anyways in the morning they have activities for the ninos(0-4 yrs.) and in the afternoons they have stuff lined up for the older kids. At night, they have the mothers come in and do crafts and things with them. We got to meet the moms tonight and their babies. They want to learn English so I think I'm going to go there once a week and help out with whatever they need. Can we say EXCITED?!?! Cause I'm defiantly totally phyched! We got to met 2 boys and 2 girls, probably around the age of 15, who attend the program. And let's just say our Spanish is going to be hardcore challenged. I'm really excited...
we're going back on Friday. :) X's 100000000000!
this picture is me waving to you from the Lima airport!

spring break 06

here's spring break 06' in a nut shell. we embarked on the adventure on thursday night, when casa acu was closed. 9 of us checked in to a hostel in ciudad vieja in downtown montevideo and crashed there until our departure flights the next day. friday we left in the rain for the airport around 1ish. we arrived, decided NOT to pay US$20 to get our luggage rapped in cerran-wrap(to keep our good inside our luggage?!) and waited in line, went through customs, payed the airport fee(SA airports all charge fees... huge one! to use their airports) and arrived at the gate. we also took a bus from the gate to the airplane. we flew from Montevideo to Santiago de Chile, to Lima, Peru. We arrived in Lima around 10 PM that night. There's a Papa John's in the airport... so if you ever find yourself inside the Lima airport you can camp out like we did in front of paradise. our layover in lima lasted 7 hrs. i believe, so we busted out the sleeping bags in front of the escalator at about 1 AM and slept for 3 or 4 hrs... when we woke up there were tons of people around us sprawled out taking naps too! We left Lima at 6 AM and arrived in Cuzco about 7:30 AM. Cuzco was amazing. the mountains in Peru are worth buying a plane ticket and just flying over them. they're extremely steep and green. it looked like a fairy tale land from princess diaries! looking out the window the agriculture looked like a quilt consisting of green squares. it was beautiful. we landed, got into a taxi and headed to our hotel. at the hotel we were served tea and told to sleep so we could ajust to the altitude quicker. our trek guides came to the hotel about 30 minutes after we arrived to brief us about the excursion the next day. they gave us a map, broke down the 4 day trek to a day by day agenda, told us to sleep, get coca leaves(yes the leaves that create cocaine), and drink lots of water. my body felt like i had flown to china and didn't know what time it was. we slept all day. got up around 4 PM ate dinner, looked around town, and went back to bed. The next morning we woke up early and got picked up by the tour agency's bus at 6:30 AM. we spent 2 hrs. roaming around town picking up other trekers, porters, and guides. we finally departed from cuzco and drove down to another village about 2 hrs. away. Around 11 AM we got to the starting point of the trek in the Andes. we went through a checkpoint to the national park and got our visas, passports, and tickets Ok-ed. Then we crossed a river and headed up the mountain. We passes donkeys, huts, porters, mountain goats, horses, indigenous people, ect. we hiked for about 2 or 3 hours. We came to some of the first ruins and looked down on them from a cliff... it was pretty sweet. At that point we stopped for tea and lunch. Every trek party consists of the hikers(amy, sarah, bryce, jeremy, and me), a guide(Gido), a cook, and porters. we had 6 porters(people who carry the tents, cooking supplies.. they don't cook on an open fire on the trail, they use gas... so the guys carried 2 or 3 propain tanks... pots, pans, ect) each porter carried at least 60-100 lbs. of supplies on his back. they set up camp for us. the first day we had tea(raw coca leaves or anus tea.. ha), crackers, and little sandwiches. then lunch came which consisted of soup and a main course. it was really delicious and considering the porters carried all this on their backs we were really grateful. we always ate lunch in a little tent. then we departed and walked about 4 more hours until we arrived at this beautiful little campsite on green grass and close to an outhouse.

at this point i was tired. i was really worrying about the next day because it was known to be the most physically challanging. we had hiked up the mountain for several hours and i was physically exaustisted. hahaha looking back we TOTALLY should have been running around the city of Montevideo everyday... trying to work up to the inca trail! we passed people on the trail who were comparing their 10K times... so the first night i was honestly hoping something would happen, like i'd break my ankle or something so i wouldn't have to continue.... BUT i did. haha.

the porters had arrived earlier and set our tents up for us. we stayed there for the night, ate dinner, learned how to play "torro" from Gido, and looked at the stars. We went to bed really early. in the morning we awoke and prepared ourselves for the toughest day of the trek. DAY 2. we woke up, were served tea in our tent about 6:30ish, and hot water outside to do.... not forsure what?! we are breakfast and departed on the journey of the day. bryce and jeremy calculated the night before that by every foot we would walk we would be elevating ourselves by 1.7 ft... so it was a major CLIMBING experiance. the clinbing started maybe 20 feet from the campsite. it continued for 3 hrs. until we reached 15,000 ft... or the summit. The elevation was presented to us in steps... like carved out or stacked boulders. these inca's were wacked out when they created the inca trail. we scaled the side of the mountains and stepped up on huge bolders until we reached the top. On this day we were given the gift of rain, which was ususally wanted in cooling off, but the temperatures got colder as we got higher. the higher in elevation we got the more challanging it was to breath, as well as to get warm. when getting to the summet i felt amazing! Gido played his flute. We hiked down the slippery steps on the other side of the mountain to get to our campsite for the night. We ate dinner, and got into our tents on a mudslide. it rained the entire night. we woke up in the morning early and ate breakfast, but back on our wet clothes, and broke out on the 3rd day of the trek. by this time amy, sarah, and i were ready for a helicopter to come pick us up! amy could never get warm. the third day we hiked about 12 miles. it was both up hill and down. it was the longest day of the trek. my hands were so swollen and numb by the end of the day that i couldn't write or hold a cup. haha. and i fell twice... almost off the cliff, but bryce held onto by backpack. thanks bryce. all of us were exausted, cold, wet, and ready to get to machu pichu. we would walk through amazingly beautiful jungle, see ruins, and come accross lamas, ect. but we all were kinda like "lets go!" it came to a point were your body wanted to shut down but you HAD to continue, so you talked yourself out of every ache and pain and sickness mentally. there's no highways, if you turn back... let's just say you NEVER want to repeat the steps you've already taken... so you continue. we stopped at camp on the third day. we were close to a lodge so we paid like $1 to use their showers... which was amazing. and camped out in our tents and tried to stay warm and dry from the rain. that night we said goodbye to the porters and the cook. they were not going to continue with us to machu pichu, instead they were catching a train back to cuzco. they got into their traditional jackets and hats to take a picture for us. we tipped them for all their work, and kissed each one of them. they were amazing. they carried all the crap for so long on their backs... in these dinky little sandles, never showered, and were getting ready to go back to do it again! it was crazy. we woke up the next mornign at 4:30 AM, so the porters could pack up the gear and be on the train by 6. That was an early morning... and all our flashlights were out, so we used amy's camera to put our contacts in!!! we ate breakfast and started treking in the dark towards machu picchu. it took about 1 hr. to get to the Sun Gate. I'll try to put a link or something on here so you can learn more about it... basically it's ruins on a cliff that we climbed up to. it was foggy and rainy so we couldn't see the entire thing, but i'm told that it's huge. it's amazing to me that these ruins are so intact. it's amazing to see the stones... thousands of them in perfect allignment.. the only thing missing is the roof. we stayed at the sungate for maybe 10 minutes and continued to machu picchu. it took another 45 minutes or so. we arrived and i felt like the trek was worth it! machu picchu is located in the mountains, and was built in layers or on vaults(hope that makes sense!). we stood on one of the layers overlooking the city. lets just say i thought it was going to be an average sized site..l. NO! it was huge. you could spend days there and probably not see the whole thing. Gido played his flute again when we got there, and i stepped in lama poop. we hiked down to the city and toured it for 2 or 3 hours. the girls were shot... and didn't enjoy it that much! the boys were taking pictures of bbq bottles and dolls... i don't know, but they were overjoyed. i was happy, but sore. it was amazing the intricacy of the city. Thier water system amazed me... i think i included a picture. another thing they did that was very impressive was numbering the rocks/bricks that they built with. i noticed on the tour some numbers inscribed on some of the rocks and asked gido about it. he said that they would number the rocks so that if there was an earthquake or some sort of disaster they could rebuild the room based upon the numbered stones.

from machu pichu gido took us to a little town called Aguascalientes. It's about 20 minutes down the mountain. we rode a bus, which seemed to be more dangerous than the trek itself! so these busses are pretty gargantuouse.. and i'm not a physics major but the incline of the hill we were going down was pretty dang steep. you could basically tap the bus with your big toe at the top of the hill and wouldn't need any freakin gas at all. ok, so here's where are lives came into play... our bus was pretty much FLYING down this steep zigzag road when we hit a corner and low and behold another bus was trudging it's way back up the hill!! we literally were 1 ft... or .0001 ft from hitting the bus AFTER the brakes on our bus were turned into particles in the atmosphere. then... it gets better, as we turned the next corner on the hill we got inches from toppling OVER the cliff... BUT THANKFULLY the particles from the breaks came back to visit and we again... survived. So i know that God still has plans for the busload. we finally got off the bus when we got to aguascalientes... kissed the ground and rubbed it 5 times(jk). we checked into our hostel. us girls got our own "swiss family robinson" 2 story hut...except.. we didn't have the peephole to look at the stars.. everything else was pretty much genuine. hahs we crashed/dove into our beds for the rest of the day. the next morning we got up and ate at the hostel's resturante and they had this really strange fruit that looked like fish eggs. it was weird, but i ate it! i think i put a picture up. then we headed towards the hot springs right outside the city. so.. by this time breakfast was catching up with me and i don't know why but i got sick... really sick. so i held it in to we got to the city bus station and then let the chunks free in the middle of the station... yep, it was pretty amazing i must say! the people got some real entertainment. the chunks just kept coming up for the next day or two. it was pretty intense. At 4 PM we caught a train back to the villiage we began the trek from, about 2 or 3 hrs. away. From there we bussed back to Cuzco. When we got to Cuzco we checked into a hostel and crashed once again for the rest of the day. the lady that owns the hostel worships this vegetable called San Pedro. when you sit on the toilet you likely could be reading literature about this plant... she had fliers up about it and workshops to go to everywhere. it was so sad. all around the house sat evidence of this religion she was apart of... and the people who stayed there seemed to appriciate her "energy". It amazes me the lies that people can believe. satan is trying so hard to create chaos and damage while he still has the time. it's was so evident. but God's power is SOOOOOOOOOO X's 10000 greater than any lie or scheme stan has. and He will triumph in the end. satan will be crushed, his time is short. it seriously is amazing the crap people can believe. although i was sick and we were in and out of the house there were prayers lifted and God's power called apon to fall on that woman, the house, and the people(cracked out! there were conversations that me and the girls heard from our room that were so bizar and crazy... man these people were hardcore blinded.. like like wool not a sheet is over their eyes!!) if you care to pray for casa de la gringa and leslie(she's the owner). the whole new age mentality is strongly felt in peru. everywhere, our guide on the trek... gido, also talked about some of his beliefs.
the next day we washed our stink bomb clothes(ok mom don't be mad but i unpacked the rest of my clothing from the trek yesturday :0 and the whole hall could smell it!!) and this sweet peruvian girl washed them for us even though i know she probably blew some chunks after smelling them! they were sooo bad. like we couldn't even say the word "trek" for weeks. instead we refered to it as "the T word." all in all looking back this experiance, though i don't want to repeat it, was amazing. i am so happy and honored and blessed that i could go. that i could finish the trek and the trip, although at times i genuinly thought i would not be able to. God was so amazingly faithful and good. without his strengh(literally supernatural at times!) i know that i would be on the side of the trail being eaten by lamas. i wanted to quit along with alot of other people. bryce said something really good in the lima airport when we were coming back. he said that the whole treking experiance up the mountain and down is a great depiction of the church. how some people are super body builders and stronger than others, while others are in the back. encouraging one another, working as a team, never giving up, ect. all contribute together to accomplishing the goal. we HAVE to work together as the body of Christ. so oftain i try to do things on my own. How great a gift it is to have companionship and encouragement. we HAVE to work together to be successful. we are the body. i don't want to be the lonely nose... i want to be connected to the head and smell! haha so, it was good. we all learned alot... at least this week we could talk about it!!

much love, and see you in 4 weeks!!

Connection

We just got back from Buenos Aires! The past week as well as this coming week we're having an intense session(6 hrs. Worth of credit) in Bible and World Evangelism. One of the professors from ACU flew down last Saturday to teach us for the two week period. His name's Wyman Walker. He was a missionary in Botswana, Africa with his family for 15 years and in Argentina for 2. It's been amazing to speak to him about his experiences. I am only taking 1 of the classes... The introduction to World Evangelism. It's every afternoon from 2-5:30 PM. We've had some pretty good discussions in that class, ranging from Church of Christ "theology"(ha yes lets just say that's been heated) and just plain conversations about --God's amazing power... In so many situations... This weekend we went to Buenos Aires to help the church there. The believers are so hospitable and loving. We arrived in BA on Friday about 11 AM and spent the day together as a class. Saturday we went to La Iglesia de Christo and met the church family and were served pizza and cookies. It was so good to be with Argentinean youth! SOOOOOO good! This church is filled with them and it feels so alive. We ate lunch and were given a history lesson about the church in argentina. Next we split up into teams of four or five and took the subway to another part of BA. Another bigger Church of Christ church is there and they were going to head up a huge gathering/festival... Our job was to disperse into the surrounding community and distribute fliers to every house or establishment we came into contact with! We spent about and hour or two covering blocks to distribute the fliers. The cool thing about the weekend was the relationships we formed with the youth of the church... umm and hardcore Spanish usage!! We went back to the church and left around 7PM, with a few of the church's youth, for teatro colon! Teatro Colon is one of the most celebrated theatres in the world. I was shocked. Everything is covered in gold, marble, or some other kind of expensive material. There's painting from the 19th century... I don't know, but it was the most elaborate building covered in riches that I've ever seen. It's really beautiful. I took a few pictures that I'll try to post, even though photography isn't allowed inside the theatre! haha. We sat on the 6th balcony and listened to a symphony. Later that night we were able to hang out with the kids from the church. There's still a lot of missionary families active in BA and one of the girls from the families I got to know pretty well. Her name was Marissa and she was 16. I told her that my sister was also 16! Sunday we went to church. The congregation is fairly small but the population of youth in the church is HUGE! It's so different from the church in Montevideo, where 90% of the people are older than 70. It was good. It was good to be around people who loved Jesus. We were fixed lunch afterwards... Spaghetti, salad, bread, and banana pudding. It was good. Afterwards we split up again and went to a different part of town to distribute more flyers. It's so cool, cause leaving BA I now have email addresses and new relationships with people. Sounds like an answer to prayer I think! This weekend was also a time when I had a God-sent conversation with a Melina. I've believed so many lies. Lies Satan's tried to use against me... Discouragement, doubt, despair, confusion, ect. You name it. As Melina and I talked she kept telling me "Abby, that's a lie" and continued to promt me when I spoke out a lie what the TRUTH was to counteract it. She encouraged me to pray and continue to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal lies in my life, to claim authority, and pray in the Spirit.

Punta del Este!

So today we journyied 2 hrs. to Punta del Este. It's a beach town northeast of Montevideo. Katherine, Erin, Sarah, and I took a bus this morning to the town and stayed till the evening. First we scouted out the scene... the town lies on a penesula so on one side lies the Atlantic Ocean and on the other the Rio de la Plata. We saw the famous "Los Dedos" which means The Fingers in spanish. They're really tall and hard... ha! We layed out at the beach and went "body surfing" which Katherine and I am TOTALLY convinced is the next extreme sport.... YES! We went to a cafe and looked around town for the remainder of the time. We met some people from Houston in the cafe. We got to talk to them about their travels and our experiances while in Latin America... it was really cool. I am continually amazed- daily with the different people that we come in contact with. Though I can't communicate with words all the time, communication definatly comes into play- through our lives. God spoke to me today and said: "Behold, NOW is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation." -2Corinthians 6:2 .... read it!! it's good. pictures: #1. Los Dedos #2. the rocks on the beach #3. my mermaid interpretation with Katherine!! #4. Katherine making me the Statue of Liberty

today PLUS spring break plans

So today was capitol M-arvelous! First, we walked the blocks to Universidad Catholica. While we were walking we discussed with hopefullness(my excitement involved a "happy dance") of the university being closed for the next two days. There were no cars on the street... everything was deserted! There's a national holiday for Carnival today and tomarrow... ummm and WHY doesn't the USA practice this?! so we walked and sang..."Ain't No Mountain High Enough."really loudly and displayed our excitement for the people waiting for the bus. Guess what?! yep, the iron gates were shut and the wooden doors locked. That's when Abby got really excited!! Melina and I stopped at subway on the way back to smell the bread inside. Subway in Uruguay fixes breakfast. THen we walked back to Casa ACU and that's right... mourned the death of class today by looking at the back of our eyelids. Went to chapel. Ate another wonderful meal by Raquel... oh how i love her. Then good ol' classes. I had Humanities at 2 with Dr. McElvain, where he told us pretty much about the rest of our semester(3 presentations and 15 out of class assignments!!) and Dr. Callier's class of grande English. Jeremy and i had presentaitons today. After that we ate dinner and watched "Frieda"... this movie about the artist Frieda Kahlo... let's just say it's VERY interesting. We're having to finalize our spring break plans or Dr. McElvain says he'll kick us out on the curb when thursday roles around. jk cause he's nice... (ususllay... when he gets his ranch dressing at lunch.) We went to the travel agent, Jaqueline, last week and had her schedule a trek from Cuzco, Peru to Machu Pichu. The trek will take 4 days and 3 nights... and consist of walking/"treking" for 27 miles to Machu Pichu. what we want we carry in a backpack. i think it's going to be AMAZING! we bought our plane tickets last week. we'll fly into cuzco on saturday, leave sunday morning at 5:30 AM, hike for the 4 days, wednesday we'll get to Machu Pichu. That night we're going to stay in a little village that's close to the ruins called AguasCalientes. The next day we'll catch a train back to Cuzco and spend the last two days there. Saturday we'll catch a plane back to Montevideo and on Sunday we'll get back to Casa ACU. lets just say that i got the cheapest tickets known to mankind. the catch is that there's a layover in 2 other cities at really stange hours of the night. i think we're in Chile's airport from 1 AM till 6AM haha! definatly taking the sleeping pills. the group going is sarah, amy, jeremy, bryce and me. picture: definatly the Best MExican/only mexican food resturant in Montevideo/the world!!! we ate there last night and let's just say that we ordered at least 8 baskets of chips. mmhmm! it's not tex mex or authintic stuff, but for us severely desperate people it was manna from heaven. #2. girls @ teatro solis #3. interior of teatro solis #4. erin!

hallelujah

some encouragement for the day! i love each one of you with the love that comes only from the Lord.

'Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?' The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. 1Corinthians 15:55-58 NIV

Be blessed! May peace fill your hearts and minds. In the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen

Dose of reality

My expectations of Uruguay have been shaken. It's nothing like I thought it would be. It's hard. The reason I had for coming to Uruguay(or the mentality I had before studying abroad here in south America) was to be in a place and have an upclose experience to that of a third world country- in a missions perspective. That's why I chose to study in Uruguay over Oxford. To live in a foreign country. Not just visit for a week or two. To experience what it would be like to be surrounded by a different culture. Something that I did not realize- CULTURE is a big word. Everything here is different. I don't even know how to describe it... I can't, I think you'd have to experience it personally. The way of life, way of thinking, everything is different. My expectations for this trip were much different than what the trip is becoming. I thought it would be easy and it's not. I thought that learning the language would not be a big issue. I can get around town and survive on my own down here NOW.. With the Spanish that I know. But, I did not realize how long it takes to actually know a language. I'm now realizing the duration of time it takes to learn one. I don't want to know enough of the language to get by, I want to know the language well enough to communicate with people! I want to get to know people! Be able to talk to them... Not just make small talk. The duration of time it takes to learn the language was a shocker!
Another thing I did not expect was the issue of space. Space in the sense of time spent alone. I LIKE to have time by myself to think, pray,ect. The way casa acu and the rules pertaining to going outside on your own doesn't allow for much time by yourself. It's difficult to find a place in the building were you can be by yourself. This is another new experience.
over the past month I've been praying continually. Sometimes hearing His voice, sometimes nothing. Sometimes I'm discouraged. Sometimes I want to go home and be with my family and friends. SOMETIMES IT'S GREAT. Sometimes I want familiarity.
What God's shown me loud and clear... It's not going to be easy. Living in a foreign country is not easy. Being separated from familiarity isn't easy. But it's good. He has good things instore for my life. Daily soaking up His mind, His opinion, HIM is what keeps you going, what sustains life. Without life, without Him in my life I'm dead.. Literally and it sucks. No meaning, no purpose, no nothing... Just dead stagnate life. I don't want that and I don't have to have that. Nobody does. The verse that continues to pop into my head continually is "deny everything(family, friends, husband, wife, house, dog, car, acceptance, everything) take up your cross and follow me." that's the gist of the verse.. ha! But it truly gives life, without an unabashed drive for Him alone there's no life and your soul continues to cry out for more. With everything secondary and Him seated in the first throne of your life there's peace, joy, satisfaction... Everything needed to combat the world and LIVE. This experience of being in Montevideo and south America has torn open areas of my life that I put bandaids over. There's exposure to things that aren't pretty and picturesque. It's draining out the fluff and the fillers I've placed in my life and bringing in the Core of what life's truly about.
it's a dose of reality.
may the medicine and lifesource continue to come.
pictures: 1. self explanitory 2. me and a bird... although i was MUCH closer than the picture looks 3. some" _____________" these guys are cousins to the raccoons! they practically tackel you for your food. there's signs everywhere about not feeding them.

this week's busy

Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not put out the Spirit's fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil. May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1Thessalonians 5:18-23 NIV
picture: Bryce's nose... this is what happens when you don't apply the sunscreen!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Dad!

things i miss from the good ol' US of A...AMERICA! 1.)my beloved family... i miss your farts cat! YES. and i miss your jokes dad and not being there for your birthday. and i miss my talks with you mom. 2.) friends and spiritual family 3.) freakin mexican food! there's not a scrap of it on this side of the border. i'd chop off my leg and sell it on the black market for some taco cabana or las palapas! and queso and chips. ahhhhh queso!! 4.) peanut butter.. 5.) tampons. trying to educate the girls down here about his rare gem(RARE as in they don't sell any down here) 6.) church in english haha... the gang kinda has a pow-wow after church to discuss what "we think" the sermon was about. it's very interesting and educational. every sunday we can understand more of the message though 7.) familiarity

what i love about South America... 1.) it's south america 2.) kissing everyone when you greet them, even the people you don't neccesarily want to 3.) dulce de leche 4.) the unfamiliarity hardcore and completely new experiances 5.) the language 6.) experiancing the same God who lives in the US down here 7.) the people... both in my group, my teachers, and the S.American people... developing new relationships 8.) love 9.) layed- backness in every area of life 10.) walking 20 blocks and thinking it's normal 11.) seeing totally new places and experiancing totally new cultures 12.) pomillo 13.) having to, not wanting to, but having to use and retain words and the spanish language. conversations. 14.) the kids. handsdown 15.) the half naked beaches 16.) the Old City's pier at night.. we go down to this pier at night sometimes and look at the stars and lights of montevideo. it's about half a mile or mile out of the city in the bay. there's fishermen everywhere. there's these 10 foot bolders that you can lie down on and look at the stars slash smoke cigars. it's sweet... we call it out free willy spot. 17.) walking into a resturant in brazil and not knowing a lick of portuguese except "thank you" -obrigada, and trying to order. 18.) i think one of the most amazing things that's happened so far in my south america trip has been talking to the people in my group about spiritual matters. It's so amazing to get to know them and see the amazing things they've been through, where God's taking them currently, what they think about it, ect. ect. I'm excited about it and totally blessed by who God's put on this trip with me. There's a reason every one of us are here. I may be giving my testamony in chapel this week so pray for that please!

Brazil!

2-12-06
We bused to Brazil on Sunday and Monday. The bus ride took a total of 20 hours. Nature. Brazil is filled with lush trees, flowers, grasses, beautiful sunsets, mounds of rocks(very sculpure like!) livestock, and tiny huts. I love it! Currently there's about 150 million people living there. They all speak Portuguese. picture: took it looking out the bus window


2-13-06
I woke up early this morning and watched the sunrise out the bus window. It was the most beautiful thing ever. The full moon was still completely lit on the left side of the bus and on the right side the trees of the jungle where lit up with light. It was beautiful. We passed more huts(like you see in missionary movies... hardcore huts). There were little iglesias(churches) that were nothing more than a roof, concrete, and some chairs on a piece of land cleared of foliage. There were also lots of lumber mills. We got to the hotel about 11 AM. Katherine, Erin, and I shared a room. That night we all went to a Samba show. Samba is a dance that's as popular as the Tango in Argentina. It's an African dance with lots of African music, mostly drums and forms of percussion. We ate a really good dinner at the show. picture: samba show!

Feb. 14, 2006
We all woke up at 7:30 AM and ate breakfast in the downstairs restaurant. It's customary for the hotel to provide at least one meal, usually two for it's guests. We met our guide- Wilson. He led us around the next few days in Brazil. He is a biologist and really knowledgeable about the area. We loved him because his entire tour was in English haha! :) We visited an aviary that housed thousands of endangered birds and other animals. Every year 10 million animals are stolen from Brazil. A European guy built this aviary to protect, breed, and then release back into the wild the animals that were depleting in their natural surroungings. The birds were extremely tame! look at the pictures! We loaded back on the bus and headed to Iguasu National Park. We boarded a double-decker bus(we sat on top!) and drove safari-style through the jungle to the falls. We got off... the first falls we saw were beautiful and as we continued walking what seemed like miles on a qinding sidewalk through the trees the falls got more magnificent. There were tour boats way down in the water guiding themselves through the rapids. It was an amazing experience! We walked up to a point were we were the closest we could be to the most powerful falls. There were drops of water spraying everywhere and the smart people wore swimsuits. After the falls we ate lunch at a buffet. Then onward bound to the Itaibu Dam. It's suppose to be one of the 7 Wonders of the Modren World and is the most powerful dam in the world. It supplies Brazil and Paraguay with power. Only 5% of the total energy produced from the dam supplies power for the entire country of Paraguay. picture #1. Iguasu Falls! #2. Tucan eating Dr. McElvain's shoelace #3. More Falls... notice the boats at the bottom!

2-15-06
Today was my favorite day! We went to the Argentinean side of the Falls. Let's just say amazing! We went on several different paths(there were 3 different levels... depending on the height you wanted to be on the falls). We saw many many new falls from different heights. As we entered the park we saw alot of Gwanah Indians(they were the native Indians living in the area before the portuguese kicked them out... similar to the United States and the Native Americans) They are allowed to sell goods in the park and were not charged. The Jesuits came to the Iguasu falls and to the Indians and created a mighty spiritual uproar. They were missionaries from Europe. They lived with the indians, spoke their language, taught them trades, built missions(look below, we visited the ruins to one) basically let God totally take control, and you can still see the repercussions of the time they spent in the area... hundreds of years ago. the Gwanah were selling little wooden animals, crosses, jewelry, ect.
We took an amazing boatride in the Falls. It was intense! The smart people wore swimsuits under their clothes... i wore jeans and a t-shirt. I was SOAKED! Hardcore!! The driver drove THROUGH the falls. It was amazing! it felt like a 17 year old driving a speedboat! yes!! We then continued the boatride down a rapid-less waterway and did snake moves in the boat. After about 7 minutes of this we landed at a dock. Got off, hiked 500 plus staires up to the roadway and climbed into a safari-mobil! We went on an Argentinean safari through the forest and learned from the bi-lingual tour guide about the plants and animals of the area. we saw a black and white spotted lizard at least 3 feet long. there were signs everywhere in the park about Anacondas, too be watchful! The safari mobil took us to a little camp with places to eat and shop. We had lunch, then sara and i went back to where the indians were. picture: the girls with wilson #2. more falls... on the argentinian side #3. Katherine, Angie, and Jeremy getting ready to get into the speedboat #4. Me, Erin, and Sarah at the Samba show

2-16-06
Today was our free day. We did not have a set agenda. It was really relaxing. Erin and I got up late and went looking around town. Several of the people from the group went down to Paraguay to shop. We went to the pool at the hotel. It's so hot in Brazil! I'd say in the upper 90's and 100's and very humid. We all met up again for dinner in the hotel restaurant. Tomarrow we leave for Uruguay.

FRIDAY, February 17
the Jesuit Mission Ruins & Herocio Karoga's house(famous L.A. short story writer)

Saturday

"Sow for yourselves righteousness; read steadfast love; break up the fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the LORD, that he mau come and rain righteousness upon you." -Hosea 10:12

Today we all(Sara, Katherine, Erin, and I) got up and went to the Supermercado at the end of the block to get stuff for breakfast. It is such a nice day day outside! It's really cool and sunny. Sara found a recipe for pancakes so we bought all the goods(funny story about finding baking soda.. but spanish dictionary did it's job today) and made breakfast for us four and the boys. They got back last night from Punta del Este looking like tomatoes! We had eggs(no refrigeration in Uruguay! they're straight from the chicken!!) we also got some fruit from a outdoor market across the street. today i'm working on a paper for humanities that's due when we get back from Iguasu Falls. May your week be blessed! Seek Him in everything. I don't think i'll be online much in the next week. We're leaving for Brazil tomarrow at 2 PM. We're going to be there for the next 5 day. I love each one of you and know that you are in my prayers and my heart always.

Muy bien

Today was good! haha We didn't have school. Sara and I slept until 11:30! Most of the gang went to Punta del Este this weekend... a beach that's on the Northern edge of Uruguay. It farly inexpensive to bus there. They're going to stay until Saturday. Sara, Erin, Catherine and I were the only ones that stayed here! So basically the house is quite... except for our occational wild outburst of joy! YES! Raquel fixed us another amazing lunch and we talked for a long time in the kitchen with D. Mac (our name for Dr. McElvaine but he don't know) and Dr. Callier. Raqhel invited us to her house tonight for dinner! It's so good. I've been praying that there would be new relationships born through this trip with people from here and TODAY that happened. haha. so we all went and bought her some flowers and we're leaving in 5 minutes to go eat pizza with Raqhel and her family. I'll write about that soon. I love yall and hope all is well. :) LATER: we just got back from Raquel's house and it was great. We got to meet her familiy. Her husband was so nice and welcomed us into his home with amazing hospitality. We also met her two sons... Jose and i forgot the other son's name! haha we also met Jose's fiance. They all spoke spanish obviously, but we understood the majority of what they said and had some great conversations! it's been so cool to watch the progress on everyone's language comprehention soar from three weeks ago. They were so hospitable. Raquel made us some quesadillas... and of course they were the best we've ever had, as well as homemade icecream for desert. Their house is about 2 blocks away on Diez. Her kitchen is very tiny but literally the most exquisite meals come out of it. Raquel and her husband seem to get along wonderfully and he'd call her mi amor and said he was her professioal helper.. he served us our drinks, dinner, and dessert, and cleaned up the entire meal afterwards for her! Her sons were really sweet too and i think Jose knew english pretty well but didn't use any to challange us. After dinner we continued talking to them and then Raquel said "Vamos" and gave us the tour of her house. She took us out on their balcony to see Tres Cruses(an area in the middle of Montevideo that has a huge white cross... i think the pope visited it once), she told us we couldn't see the boys rooms! She also took us up this really narrow staircase to the roof where you could see the city. She is such a sweet woman. God's love totally overflows out of their home. When we left, we all went back around the room and said goodbye and gave kisses to everyone. Raquel's husband said that we were welcome back at any time. Or "Mi casa es tu casa." They walked us to the door and went on a walk together. Katherine, Sara, Erin, and I walked the 2 blocks back to Colonia and Casa ACU. It was a wonderful night.
PICTURES: 1st. kissing a palm tree at the park where i go all the time
these are the girls that are mentioned in the blog today... 1st. Katherine and me 2nd & 3rd. sarah and I 4th. Erin and me

Clearity.

don't doubt.

Speedos & love...

definatly got a show today at the beach with Bryce and Jeremy sporting their new speedos. yes.. that's right. they ripped of their "good" suits to produce these size Small(we were told that was the only size in the store) speedos they'de bought somewhere in buenos aires. lets just say they were in the less than 2% of the beach population wearing one. and it was freakin halarious.
sara, katherine, and i went to the park this morning and ran. then we came back for a Raquel lunch. this afternoon i had a meeting with Dr. McKelvain about "how i was doing," and he thought i had too much positive energy. he didn't think he could handle it but i told him he could. we just talked about classes, spring break plans, expectations, ect. then the whole beach thing happened around 3. tonight we're going to another celebration. we left the house arbout 8:30 PM and traveled by bus down to this huge street. we spent about 30 minutes trying to find a street that didn't have hordes of people crowding the blocking the enterance. we never found a calm place so we just pushed ourselves through the people. then we looked for tickets for about an hour to get seats for the show. the show lasts from 9:30 PM until 5 AM the following day. There we tons of people. i didn't know so many lived in montevideo. We finally found a man who was selling tickets and bought some seats. in uruguay there is not an organized and orderly way of getting to your seats. there are no rows. you polietly ask a person sitting on the front row to move and you CLIMB over each and every row in your path until you arrive at your seat. it was amazing! the parade finally began with fireworks, flags, dancing half naked woman, old grandma's (mama viejas) and grandpas jolting around to the music. the music consisted of rows and rows of men pounding these huge drums. the sounds, dances, flags, everything was really exciting. the thing that impressed me most about the event was the comradery and love the people showed for eachother. there is poverty everywhere in uruguay. 60% of the people here were born into poverty. everywhere you go there are kids that approach you wanting you to give them money, food, or buy something. there are tons of street kids. we were surrounded by people that probably didn't know where their meal tomarrow would come from. they didn't care though.. they were going to enjoy that night like nobody's buisness. these people share and look out for eachother. they are so loving and they have nothing. it was so amazing just to observe. we stayed until 12:30 AM. met Pedro from the church and he bought each of us something to drink. they are SO amazingly hospitable down here. there's not a materialistic flare AT ALL. they see through the fleeting and cling to the important things. it's so refreshing! we talked with pedro for awhile and walked the 18 blocks back to Casa ACU. everyone walks here, rides a bike, takes a taxi, ect. there are not alot of cars. it's good. i love each one of you. be blessed today, you are amazing :)

p.s. i wrote about about this parade a few days ago but i guess the computer erased it! haha so i tried rewriting it today. sorry if it's not very interesting. haha

pictures- 1st. our Shock with the suprise 2nd. the suprise(p.s. mom and dad I did not take this picture... kristen did)

Iemanjah

I went to Iemanjah tonight. It's a festival celebrating Yenja goddess of the sea. It stems from religion practiced by many people around the world as well as a vast number of Uruguayans. It meshes together Catholic beliefs as well as African traditions. In the states we call it voodoo. For one of our classes we were required to go to this festival and observe. That's what I did. It takes place on the beach. We walked down there from our house and were met by many vendors trying to sell us blue or white candles. Blue and white are yenja's favorite colors. People dress in white or blue clothes to please her. We arrived at the beach and walked along the coast where thousands of people made alters in the sand. There were alters everywhere, candles blowing in the wind, watermelonelons (apparently Yenja's favorite food?!), all this crap people dug out to worship their sea god. There were high officials of the faith's priestesses and priests who did little dances around other followers and prayed or did something over them. There were longs lines of people just waiting to have one of these people pray over them. The main objective of the people was to release little boats into the ocean with prayer requests, candles, and other gifts for Yenja hoping to appease her and get their wishes answered for another year. If the boats go out into the water and do not wash back ashore then she heard their request. If the boat returns to the shore she denied it. So I sat there with Catherine and Erin and watched hundreds of these boats floating out into the ocean. Hundreds of people in the water continue hurling them out into the water. Thousands still ashore watching, praying, drinking mate. Why. What is the point of throwing a prayer request out into the ocean once a year and hoping that it does not return? Where is the satisfaction in that? It is so sad to think that these people actually believe that there is a god an Yenja out there hearing there requests. It's such a lie. One that thousands of people believe and live year after year agreeing with. It sucks and the feeling I had down there was not a happy one. They are blinded to the truth. In reality the tide was going out, the wind was blowing in the right direction today. It was sad.. i thought "why God, why does there have to be a beautiful sunset, a tide agreeing with their mindset." Everything looks good from the outside appearances in terms of the Physical. But the supernatural is going ballistic . there is hardcore spiritual oppression and people do not see it. Don't get me wrong... it's not just here in Uruguay it's everywhere. we are in a war. the battle is not against flesh and blood(which totally looks good alot of times) it's against the powers and principalities of the spiritual realm. pray that their eyes would be opened. Pray that our mouths would continue to be loosed to tell these pole or show them the truth we've been given. the languiage barrier, pray for that. the distractions are rampant. Pray that our eyes would be open, our minds would be focused and our hearts receptive to every word that comes from Him. It's real and God continues to work weither we are looking and see it or are distracted by something else. I want to see and have spiritul eyes. please pray that over the entire group. I know that God has amazing things planed for this semesters and for the rest of our lives. WE need to be serious though and not focus on the mediocre.

There was a poor man out in the deeper water moving from boat to boat hoping to find some food. If he found some he'd pop it in his mouth. If he didn’t he’d take all the goods out of the boat and cast them in the water. It was humorous.

argentina

Alas, i have not writen in quite some time. So I'll try to fill you in on BUenos AIres. We left last Thursday at 6:30 AM... yes you read correctly. Made a long hike with our 2 bags to the bus station, and ate at McDonalds for breakfast. Lets just say the McDonalds in South America would shame Ronald in the US. the menu is 100% different in every aspect, but farely cheap.. it was good. Then we boarded the bus for Colonia, Uruguay. From there we checked into customs and got a visa for Argentina.. THEN!! we got on a ferry called a "buquebus." i'de classify this mode of transportation as a spaceship. there's alot of really comfortable seats resembling the inside of an airplane. the buquebus is huge and has windows to look out of to see the water below as well as a resturante and shopping area. it's kindof like a cuiseship but spaceship sounds more adventurous. We landed in Buenos Aires, Argentina around 11AM. The city is huge. I've never been to new york before but i imagine it looks similar. it's very developed, has beautiful architecture, and has the most people i have ever seen in my life. masses of people cross the streets together in big swarms, walk down the sidewalks... there's just people everywhere you look. this is much different than montevideo, where crowds are almost nonexistant. buenos aires felt comfortable. i felt safe, compared to uruguay. i loved the weekend. we stayed at the Rochester Hotel which was really nice. haha i was suprised that we stayed there. sara and i each had our own bed and our own bathroom. and.. the bathroom had a butt washer! picture is shown above. the hotel supplied us 2 delicious meal a day. on thursday we went to the Plaza del Mayo which is a square where a yearly protest takes place by the mothers of people that were abducted during the 70's(i think it was called the dirty war). this protest was of historical importance becasue it was the last one to ever occur. We then went to lunch and shopped for the rest of the day. (Lets just say the ice cream in South America is the BEST! you have to eat it with a spoon becasue they think it's unsanitary to use your tongue.) The next two days we went on tours around the city and saw: the national cathedral, torre monumento, casa rosada(their equivalent of our white house except it's painted bright pink), and we visited this little cafe where some famous writers use to write.. i had chocolate milk. On Friday night we went to a really nice resturant and watched a fantasitic tango show. tango in Argentina is really big. everywhere you go the music is playing. you continually see people on the street playing accordians, i love it. we went to "la boca" which is this really cool neighborhood in buenos aires. it has colorful houses, artists everywhere, tango dancers, winerys, and other vendors selling their goods. it was really good besides the fact that i lost my party. i left the group to talk to one of the vendors and turned around and they were gone. it was the scariest moment of my life... literally!! haha. i wanted to cry but couldn't. the realizaion that i didn't know how to communicate well enough to get help, let alone get home was a terrible feeling. i didn't pay enough attention in our breifing at the hotel to know what streets it was located on. i thought i was going to be left at la boca forever. but amy, my dear wonderful friend, came up behind me. she had lost the group as well. together we got home! coming out of that situation i saw how comfortable i felt around people with the same similarities as myself... americans, english speakers, ect. how complacent i was. that situation forced me to see the dire urgency to make the language and facts MY OWN and not readily rely on others in my group to get by. it was a good experiance. i learned to pay more attention to "useful information" when it's being given, instead of relying on the thought that other people will remember it. maybe knowing where i'm living and the address of that place is a good thing. another thing was the language barrier. learning at least common communication phrases went up to the top of my to-do list. coming back to montevideo from buenos aires i feel alot more confident in terms of communicating with other people. my confidence has gone up.
pictures: 1st. Katherine, Erin, Sara(my roommate) and me 2.Butt-Washer toilet! 3. Rochester Hotel 4. El Boca 5. Statue... you can see the grafiti from the political uprisings. it's not just on the statues, it's everywhere 6. Tango Dancers at the show we went to 7. the casa rosa in buenos aires... it's the equivalent to our white house. 8. Amazing Cathedral we visited 9. a picture I took while running across the largest street in the world... trying to not get hit by a taxi!

Living.

Today was my first day of Spanish at the university. It was pretty hardcore!! Our teacher spoke Spanish and 2 words of English. Our brains were fried by the time we walked out of the 2 hr class because you literally have to hang on to every word she said. Lets just say she'd get a ticket if her word speed was put up to a speedometer. The pronunciation here is COMPLETELY different that anything I've ever been taught in the US! I speak to the Uruguayan people here just common phrases and most of the time they don't comprehend what I'm saying... Not because I'm wrong but the pronunciation is too. That's the same with my comprehension of what they are saying. haha. this spanish class is going to be really good i think. one great thing about taking this class at the university is that it's a wonderful was to actually learn the language. that sounds like such a stupid comment, but i've taken 4 years of spanish in high school and a semester at ACU and CAN NOT carry a mediocre conversation with someone in spanish. that's sad. there's something wrong with the system in the US.. ha! i know how to write and read spanish very well. i know how to conjugate. Basically I just haven't been drilled proficiently enough to speak it well. That's the most important part in my opinion. The fundamentals are great and definitely needed, but words and speech are the things that take you somewhere and make you effective. That's why this spanish class where i understand 20% of what the lady says will be good. just keep telling myself that.
I am so confident though that GOd is doing amazing things here. His continual SUPPORT while i'm here is more than i could express in words. He is my stability. He is my strength. He is my peace. How great is that amazing gift he gives up of his holy spirit. how amazing he is. Nothing can rise up in my path without his consent. Nothing evil formed against me will prosper with Him stablilizing my being. HE IS IT! He is everything. HOw amazing it is to talk and be with God, the creator of the Universe, the giver of life, my best friend, the Lover of my soul... all day long. With the familiarity gone. Everything familiar except the 13 amazing individuals that i call my buddys and my 2 US professors. Yes they are human beings that speak english and are so freaking beautiful! but THEY do not call me by name and whisper words of love and truth in my ear. That person, that spirit, that friend, that husband is my One and Only. He calls my name, and i answer. Be blessed. You are loved and called.

PICTURES:(sorry that they're so random again) 1st. Montevideo, i walk on this street(diez y ocho de julio) every monday and wednesday morning when i go to the universidad catholica for spanish class 2nd. a picture we took before we went to the drum makers' house for Candombe(celebration that goes on here... dancers, mama vieja's and the drummers-considered most importatnt in group- ect. are all part of Candombe which is the African folklore group that makes up Carnival) 3rd Kathrine and me at the tango show in B.A. 4th. the drum maker's house. his wife gave us a tour of his shop, he was in spain