apology

Because of an email from a "ragpicker" (as they call themselves) I have been convicted for my initial response to what I saw and experienced that day in Carcova. I'm not sure how he found me, but he did, and I'm glad he did. Joos, I need to apologize to you and ask for your forgivness for the disrespectful things I said in this blog. I tried to go back through and fix a few comments that were totally inappropriate. Thank you for sending me the link and for broadening my perspective of the cartonero movement. (http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0125/p20s01-woam.html) I will continue to pray for the villas here in Argentina, but now it will be will a clearer and more accurate perspective.


So our team joined up with another organization last week and went into the villas. the term "villa" means the slums. however, i´ve honestly never seen anything like it. i´ve seen poverty first hand in central america, but these villas are different. We went into the villas with a missionary from Peru. He is now living among the people and loving them in any way that he can. the small house that we're outside of holds a family of 12 and it's about the size of a bedroom. there are no floors...only mud and dirt...they have tin roofs, one full sized bed. they had some food on the shelves...a few pieces of french bread. it's really impossible to try and explain in words, but it was their home and they were content. the mom you can see on the left is holding her youngest of 7 kids and she's 2 months pregnent. her oldest daughter already has 2 kids of her own...i think she's 18. this is a family of believers. it was awesome hearing their story and being able to love them just by being there and listening to their story. we did bring some clothes from a church here who donates clothing to Andrea and his ministry there. there are 10,000 people who live in this one villa...the name is Carcova. it's one of 5 in Suarez (which is where we live) you see these villas everywhere though. it's the central one in our "town" b-c it's the largest. drugs and prostitution are common within the villas here. kids start using and dealing drugs at the age of 10. girls that are 12 and 13 are involved in prostitution...Andreas was telling us how his ministry reaches out to the youth, which I think is awesome because this is this is a very influential age in peoples lives. He has plans to start up a sports ministry and is in the process of cleaning up two areas that he's like to have futbol fields. All these questions started flashing thru my head...medical care, food, clean water. Where does this come from? That day was very tough. I still don´t think my mind has been able to totally wrap around what it would be like to live in a villa. We have places like this back in the States in every big city. A lot of questions come to mind when I think if different social classes...why did God place me where He did? I don't have the answer, but I trust in His soverignty. In the mean time, all I can do is love people.

me and vero

keep praying for Vero...she's amazing! we´ll be hanging on Thursday and Friday night.

picture inside the villa

villas in Argentina

So our team joined up with another organization last week and went into the villas. the term "villa" means the slums. however, i´ve honestly never seen anything like it. i´ve seen poverty first hand in central america, but these villas are different. We went into the villas with a missionary from Peru. He is now living among the people and loving them in any way that he can. the small house that we're outside of holds a family of 12 and it's about the size of a bedroom. there are no floors...only mud and dirt...they have tin roofs, one full sized bed. they had some food on the shelves...a few pieces of french bread. it's really impossible to try and explain in words, but it was their home and they were content. the mom you can see on the left is holding her youngest of 7 kids and she's 2 months pregnent. her oldest daughter already has 2 kids of her own...i think she's 18. this is a family of believers. it was awesome hearing their story and being able to love them just by being there and listening to their story. we did bring some clothes from a church here who donates clothing to Andrea and his ministry there.
there are 10,000 people who live in this one villa...the name is Carcova. it's one of 5 in Suarez (which is where we live) you see these villas everywhere though. it's the central one in our "town" b-c it's the largest. drugs and prostitution are common within the villas here. kids start using and dealing drugs at the age of 10. girls that are 12 and 13 are involved in prostitution...Andreas was telling us how his ministry reaches out to the youth, which I think is awesome because this is this is a very influential age in peoples lives. He has plans to start up a sports ministry and is in the process of cleaning up two areas that he's like to have futbol fields.
All these questions started flashing thru my head...medical care, food, clean water. Where does this come from? That day was very tough. I still don´t think my mind has been able to totally wrap around what it would be like to live in a villa. We have places like this back in the States in every big city. A lot of questions come to mind when I think if different social classes...why did God place me where He did? I don't have the answer, but I trust in His soverignty. In the mean time, all I can do is love people.

Because of an email from a "ragpicker" (as they call themselves) I have been convicted for my initial response to what I saw and experienced that day in Carcova. I'm not sure how he found me, but he did, and I'm glad he did. Joos, I need to apologize to you and ask for your forgivness for the disrespectful things I said in this blog. I tried to go back through and fix a few comments that were totally inappropriate. Thank you for sending me the link and for broadening my perspective of the cartonero movement. (http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0125/p20s01-woam.html) I will continue to pray for the villas here in Argentina, but now it will be will a clearer and more accurate perspective.

discipling

so tonight Angie and I are meeting with Vero...she's part of the Nav Bible study here in BA. Her and I have so much fun together. She speaks very little English and I speak my broken Castellano (spanish), but we somehow communicate really well! :) We're getting together to encourage her in her walk with God...it's such an amazing opportunity. The "Christian Community" is really non-existant down here, so it's really tough for believers to grow in their faith. I think about myself back in the States and how I have AMAZING friends who love the Lord, and a small group of girls that I do Bible studies and pray with...and my walk with God still is so tough. Please be praying for Angie (girl on my team), Vero, and I as we meet...that God would meet with us and give us words of encouragment for what she's going through right now in her life. It's been awesome seeing relationships form with the Argentines in just the short amount of time that we're here! I'll post of pic of us with Vero soon.

i hate limes

Allison and I in Palermo park the day before she left. It is such a beautiful place! We decided to go on a paddle boat ride for only 10 pesos...$3 US. Anyways, we were saying how it'd be so romantic and were kind of laughing about it...until i got beaned in the forhead with a lime. you guys, it wasn't just a toss...these little punks (sorry mom, but they were!) WHIPPED two of them at us. one missed and the other was right on target. we were peddling under the walking bridge and there were at least 60 other boats that they could've chosen, but no, they went for the 2 American girls. There were guys video recording the entire thing. We laugh about it now, it was halarious!, but at the time I was soooooooooooooo angry.

¡adios...te extraño!

you might be thinking "what a demonic looking bunny!" well, i´m not sure about that, but it's definitely strage. despite...it's the "family pet." allison and i "pet" it once, but were sooo scared when we touched it's tail that we immediately ran away from it afterwards. it's huge, and white...it has red eyes, and 2 HUGE goiters on it. thought you would enjoy the picture.

so today was such a sad day here in buenos aires. 4 of my girls left...heading back to the US. we knew this day was coming, but it didn't make things any easier for us. this morning we went to an English Institute and went into 2 classes. We got into small groups and talked about our different cultures...we asked them questions and they asked us as well. One of my groups was with Martin, who is the head of the Navs here in Argentina. He is so bold for Christ, I just love it. We were talking with 3 girls. Oh yeah, they know English really well, so it makes it sooo much easier for me to communicate. They just want to talk with North Americans so they can listen to us and "hear our accents"...that's the best way to improve their English. Anyways, Martin asked them about their faith how they live it out in their lives. Great question, b-c if they didn't have faith in anything, they could say that, or if they were buddhists they could talk about that. it totally opened up the door for me to share my story...what my faith in Jesus looks like on a day to day basis. I was so encouraged after leaving the Eng. Inst. today.
So we headed back to the chicas casa and had a time to go around and share about what each girl meant, how we saw Christ in their lives, etc. It was sooo amazing, but so sad. There were lots of tears, which is hard to believe after only 6 weeks, and lots of laughs...we were (and still are) a tight team.
I have 2 prayer requests at the moment:
1. The our team will grow closer together in this last month and that God will fill in the gaps that the other girls left with His love.
2. For the Argentines that we are meeting daily, and also the Argentines who are a part of the Nav Bible Study. That we would be examples of Jesus to them and that we would be aware of opportunities to show them His love in a pure and powerful way.

Fiesta hoy!

yeah, so today we're having a going away party for the 4 girls who are leaving us. It's going to be really hard having half our team head back to the States, but the Argentine team needed a smaller team for the last half of the summer. (this has been planned from the beginning.) all of our Argentine friends are invited to come spend the afternoon, and evening (and usually early morning) with us. :) we will be making typical American dishes and they are supposed to bring something really Argentine. It will be a fun day. It's amazing how many relationships have developed in the short time we've been here. God is at work here and is using our team in so many ways...the main way is loving people. That's what Jesus did...he loved everywhere he went. It didn't matter the situation...He lived it. That is a good way to view what we're doing here...living love. Of course it might not always look pretty...we're human, but God is opening doors all over the place for us to love people right where they are. I have a lot more stories from this past week, as well as pictures. I'll try and get those up tomorrow. In the mean time, please continue to pray for our team...that we will be intentional as we go through the day interacting with people, and that we'll rely on God and not our own strength.

Thank you!
Sheryle