star-light, star-bright

So our team has been torn in two...half of our crew is currently in Uraguay and the rest of us are here in BA. It´s been kind of a rough couple of days. We´ve become so "tight" as a team, that it´s so different now that we´re not all together. It´s so good though. We have our English class outreach tonight...this requires creativity and endurance. Trying to communicate in Spanish for hours and hours can really wear you out! As we go on living among the Argentines and loving them we´ve been able to connect with more people and hang out more one on one with them. I have two girls (same age as me) that I´ve really connected with: Aye, and Yani. *pronounced Ashie and Shani...b-c the y has an sh sound, remember??? Anyways, please be praying for them as I continue to spend time with them one on one.
There are only 4 girls here in BA right now. We had to move into the guys house b-c our house is being used this weekend by some other group...it´s kind of confusing. The point is that the guys house has a sweet roof top deck. 3 of us decided to sleep up there under the stars last night. It was awesome! We had lots of layers on and drug some mattresses up there to help us stay a little warmer. It was kind of an adventure! We saw 2 beautiful shooting stars...so amazing!
Today we´re heading to Ciudad Universidad...I guess it´s the closest thing to a college campus that they have here in Buenos Aires. Then we´re planning for our Eng. class, which starts around 8:30 or 9pm.

Lots more to tell, but it will have to wait until later.

Love and miss!
Sheryle (Anna)

Chipoletti debreifing

so i guess the pics didn't work...hopefully they do today.

Our team met with Martin, the head Nav missionary here, and had a debreifing with him regarding our time in Chipoletti. We talked about what we learned down there, and how we saw God work...within our lives and the people we met down there. Now we are back here in BA and are ready to be used. Please pray for us...the ministry here is very different and challenging. Pray that God will open doors for us here and that we'll be used...even if it's in ways that don't match our expectations.

pictures

Chipolleti

Pic 1:Me and Violeta
Pic 2 & 3: World Cup Day (Argentina won!)
Pic 4: Me and my friends from the University (Celeste is the girl next to me) drinking matte. Matte = Argentina. Everywhere you go you'll see people passing the matte. Don't worry, I'll bring some back for you all to try. :)



Sorry it's been a while since I've updated my blog. A lot has happened this past week, so I'll try to remember all the details.
We left Bariloche last Saturday and headed up north about 4 hours to Chipolleti. We went to a Saturday night service that they had there. I love how they worship...it's so full of life! We spent the week hanging out at the University, with people from the church, and por supuesto (of course), our team.
The ministry at the Univeristy was really hard at first. Like I said, there isn't a Nav ministry in that part of the country yet, so we had to be proactive and creative. We prayed a lot, which is so powerful...I'm being reminded of that daily here. As a result, the Lord began to open up doors for us. A lot of us on the team were getting extremely discouraged at the beginning of the week, but on Thursday night we all had a great time at the University. I met a girl by the name of Celeste...she invited me to drink matte with some of her friends. So I went and hung with them for a couple of hours, and later that night they invited our team to this community center to learn how to tango. A couple girls were able to share their testimonies that same night in a more tranquilo (chill) setting. We invited all our new friends to our fiesto por el partido mundial (party for the world cup game) this past Saturday. You have to understand how HUGE this game was. The country of Argentina has been gearing up for this first game for months. They go CRAZY here! Anyways, Saturday came and we had a great turn out for the game. One girl that was invited by John (a guy on my team) came and her and I really connected. She didn't speak any ingles, but we hung out that whole night. Violeta was involved with gnosticism (a really popular cult here) for a couple of years, but then gave it up. She also has a friend who is a Mormon. She said religion wasn't her thing, b-c everyone thinks their religion is the truth and someone must be wrong. So she doesn't care for any of it. I didn't know any of this until after I talked with Marisol later on that night(the argentine missionary that we're working with), b-c of the language barrier. Despite all that, I was able to tell her my testimony...the little that I was able to have translated to español. She came to church the next day which was really cool. I sat with her and found a Santa Biblia (spanish Bible) for her to use during the service. I prayed a lot as I sat next to her. It's so nice knowing that it's the Lord who changes hearts and nothing that I say or do can affect that. What a relief! I introduced her to some of the girls our age at the church who are so awesome, so hopefully God will continue to work on the seeds that were planted during our time in Pategonia.
A lot more went on, but this is getting kind of long. Today we arrived back in Buenos Aires...it feels like home! It'll be nice not having to live out of my suitcase like I have been the past couple of weeks.
Thank you so much for your continued prayers and emails! (and REAL mail...thanks Tim!)
I miss you all!

Sheryle

the unknown

so we're leaving Bariloche today and heading a few hours north to Neuquen. The Navigators have been praying about starting up a ministry down here for 2 years, so it's really exciting (but scary at the same time) that our team is the first to go into the province of Neuquen. The unknown always seems to create mixed emotions. As I've said before, ministry here is soooo different then the US, so we've had to continually remind ourselves and eachother that it's going to have to be God who works in and through us and nothing out of our own strength. With all that said, please be praying for us these next couple of weeks...that God would cross our pathes with the right people, and that He would begin preparing our hearts, along with the hearts of those we'll be spending time with. Also that we would be open to whatever it is He has planned for our time there, that we wouldn't be closed minded when it comes to ministry, even though it might not look like the kind of ministry that we're familiar with.
Above are some pictures from our time here in Bariloche...Patagonia...the Andes Mts.