Standing out

So this summer has really got me thinking and excited about life and trying to live a life devoted to God. There are some things that I really want to do next semester that would really be about being a light in dark places and serving others. I've been reminded by my time here that's it's not about being comfortable, it's about standing out. Being a little over six feet, blonde hair and blue eyed makes you stand out where the average person is 5 1/2 feet, maybe 150 lbs (tops), and has dark hair and eyes. I got to thinking how in Abilene and almost anywhere in the US, I blend in. Well what if that wasn't true? What if I stood out but not because of physical features? What if the reason I stood out in a crowd was because I served Christ and followed him, and in serving Christ to serve others? My dream is to be someone who God uses to help others wether that be bringing peace to war torn lands in the Mid East or central Africa, or at the least being an example of a what a different life can look like.

crazy latino people...

So this past weekend was pretty fun. We had a youth retreat with a bunch of other churches and our group was the largest there (we had 20 kids). It was kinda funny cause the theme was "Your decision, your couple, your destiny". The ironic thing was how insanely this thing caused people to flirt and stuff. I mean I've been to my fair share of youth retreats in the States but they had nothing on this. But it was alot of fun. However, there was a downside. Since Ronald (the preacher) didn't stay but only dropped us off, he put a couple of us in charge. By some twist of fate, my name was the principle name as the leader for our group. I was all good with that until they called all the leaders together at the end of the first night. After the typical "Keep control, don't be too loud, blah, blah, blah" the dude starts appointing "rondas". I had a bad feeling about this, especially when I got assigned the 2-4 shift. After a clarifying question by another dude, "rondas" turns out to be guard duty where we walk the trails making sure there's no one out of the cabin who should be in or someone from the street who should be out. The most eventful that it got was chasing a dog away and eating a lemon, a mango, and a guayava. Boy was the next day running on fumes... A fun experience though was when at 12:30 all the guys cabins go to the girls side for "serenata" (serenade) which means they all sing some cheesy love song. Real funny. Also funny was how absolutely crazy all the girls went. All part of living with some crazy latino people.

I feel like I finally got to know some of the people in the youth group after such an eventful weekend. Only thing is that I only have three weeks left. Somewhat of a bummer. My main thing that I want to do is really encourage the group to be strong because there's not too much else I can do in a short time (not that I could do much with a lot of time). It's such an encouragement to see the excitement that people have about being a Christian. Last Sunday an older lady was baptized. Before getting in she was so giddy with excitement and when she came out of the water she was beaming. It was obviously the happiest day of her life. It was such an honor to be able to see that, not to mention real encouraging to me.

So there's a month left for me here. My prayer is that God will let this coming month be better than the last one. That I will learn all he has for me to learn and that he will teach me what it is to be his servant. That he will build up all those around me and that if I in any way can help, that I will.

Halfway...or just past that point

So halfway. I have one more month left. It's been great so far with some fun experiences and learning a lot. Most of what I am learning is coming from conversations that I have with Wade at the most timely hour of about 11:00 at night...It's been awesome though with conversations ranging from college to sports to prayer to purpose. I'm really learning more about the power of prayer and trying to rely on it more but that can be difficult. My schedule has pretty much stayed the same. We go to Bible studies everyday but Thursdays with language school from noon until about four. I usually do homework in the mornings and at night we usually go to church. My favorite services are the ones at the church plant. It's smaller than the other one and since I have been attending house church for the last while back at home, I'm more comfortable there. Plus there's this little kid who is a goofball that I practically babysit during the services so his mom can pay attention easier. It's pretty fun and a challenge to keep him quiet usually. Being around kids always gives me a greater respect for parents, particularly mine.

This past weekend Wade and I went hiking with one of the men from church named Jose Abarca. He's one of the most legit men I have ever met. I think we hiked about 10 kilometers or so. We went up to this spot where you could see two different cities and then we just kinda kept hiking. We crossed about four or five fences like it was no big. We ended up coming out of the mountains about 30 minutes from where we started so we kept walking. The man asked us if we wanted to run down the hill to go a little quicker, I sadly misunderstood what he was saying and agreed. So when all of a sudden he took off jogging I got really confused and had to step it up. Mind you this is a 70 year old man who just hiked 5 hours in the mountains and now we are jogging and he hasn't uttered a single complaint while me and Wade are not believing the feeling in our hips and knees. It was an awesome time just cause we got to be around this awesome man who just exudes calm and peace and is really funny too.

One of the songs that I have really come to lift up as my prayer while here and that I have just really latched on to is "My Desire" by Jeremy Camp. It really frames what I want my life to be like:

You want to be real, you want to be empty inside
You want to be someone laying down your pride
You want to be someone someday
Then lay it all down before the king

You want to be whole, you want to have purpose inside
You want to have virtue and purify your mind

You want to be set free today
Then lay it all down before the King

This is my desire, this is my return
This is my desire to be used by You

You want to be real, you want to be emptied inside
And I know my heart is to feel You near
And I know my life
It's to do Your will
It's to do Your will

This is my desire, this is my return
This is my desire, to be used by You
Oo yea
This is my desire, this is my desire
To be used by You

All my life I have seen
Where You've taken me
Beyond all I have hoped
And there's more left unseen

There's not much I can do to repay all You've done
So I give my hands to use

This is my desire, this is my return
This is my desire, to be used by You
Oo yea
This is my desire, this is my desire
To be used by You