it's been a long time...

i can't believe i haven't touched my blog in almost two year! we're now at West Point...i'm working with MWR as the Special Event Coordinator. i love my job, but i really miss Colorado. we also have an AWESOME dog...duke. :)

I'm married!

So it's official! I'm Mrs. Sheryle Miller now! Tim is my husband, for those of you that don't know him. The wedding was absolutely perfect, and the honeymoon was a blast!

Sheryle

I'm back!!!

After 3 1/2 months it's nice being back on US soil. The past few days have been sooo crazy...moving into my apt., finalizing things with the Navigators, and trying to figure out my future. The last is what I'm struggling with the most....I have no clue what God has in store for me. Please be praying with me for this.
I'm leaving today for a little roadtrip with my boyfriend, Tim. We're stopping in Iowa first to hang with his family for a few days, then off to Chicago to hang with my fam and friends.
I'll be back in CO Springs after Labor Day. The first thing I need to do is get a letter out to all you guys filling you in on the highlights of my summer.

This is a pic from when i was in the rainforests in Costa Rica.

from south to central america...

leaving Argentina was so tough...there is definitely part of my heart in that country now. who knows, maybe I´ll return someday...hopefully!
on my way back to the US I took a two week "layover" in Central America...met up with my friend and future roommate, Kyra. We´ve been here for about 10 days and have had a blast! It´s been nice being able to chill...we havn´t had much down time b-c there´s soo much to do and see. Costa Rica was beautiful...now we´re in Panama where it´s been raining since the day we arrived. I´ve had a few "mishaps" since I´ve been backpacking. 1) attacked by a jelly fish on both my legs 2) attacked by about 30 mosquitos the night our hostel ran out of dorm space so we had to sleep in a tent...it was quite the experience. for $5 a night we´ve been finding rooms in hostels that have been decent, but the tent on the beach was a little much for us. 3) woke up with my left eyelid TOTALLY swollen (almost completely shut)...it was gross. this actually happened today, so I was able to experience a Panamania hospital this morning. for $3 i saw a doctor and got a prescription. if you think about it, please be praying for my eye. :)
i don´t want you all to be thinking it´s been only bad stuff that had been happening b-c we´ve had and are having an amazing time! I´ll attach some pics to give you an idea of what we´ve been doing.
I´m still trusting God for "what´s next" with my life...this is a tough one. You can be praying for that as well.

Dios Te Bendiga!
Sheryle

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.