Paraguay

After a two hour delay in Chicago, 6 hour layover in the Orlando Airport, a basically sleepless 9 hour red eye flight to Brazil, and another short layover in Brazil, I arrived in Asuncion Paraguay yesterday at about 1030 am. A very friendly group of people from the church I will be working with met us after we got off the plane, and took us back to their house for lunch. After we ate I found myself saying goodbye to Jono and Daniel as I was being ushered into a car without seeing Rose and Naomi. This was mega scary for me. I got to my host family´s house safely though and was met by a wonderful woman named Lida, she is my host mom. I have one sister named Raquel, and a father named Alberto. All very wonderful people, and remind me off my parents in Canada. They have a beautiful house, very different then Canada though, as most of the outside walls are just like fences with curtains infront because it gets so warm. My first night was good, although very hard to communicate. Raquel and I can use a mixture of spanish and english to talk to each other, but my parents speak no english. God provided me an angle though, in the form of a middle age british woman who just happens to live right above us in an apartment. Her name is Bobs and can speak fluent english and spanish. The 5 of us start spanish lessons with a lady named Laura tomorrow, and I have yet to find out what I will be doing in the church. This is ok though, as I would like to learn the language abit first. This is a beautiful country to live in. It´s very different from home. They have cobblestone streets, giant frogs and dogs everywhere. This morning I also saw a random cow and some chickens walking around in the street. Now that I am here and have a family, a friend and less unknowns I am so much less worried then I was 36 hours ago when I started travelling here. God really does provide!

oh crap

We leave for Paraguay in under 2 days now, and today I had what we like to call around here an "oh crap" moment. This is when I come to the realization that I am truly leaving and that I will be gone for 10 months. The root of this moment came when I read an email from our contact person in Paraguay. It stated that Rose and Naomi were working together somewhere, Daniel and Jono were headed of together, and Ruth is by herself working with children. Now if you know me well you will know that I don't really like children - infact I tend to call them "little people" not children. I have very little patience with them, and things that most other adults find cute, I find quite annoying. Now there is the odd one that I will take a liking to, but not many. So as I was sitting there reading this email, I began to question what on earth I am doing here. Paraguay was not my first choice of country to go to, and working with children was definitely not in my top three things to do. I held it together for awhile, until Rose came up and asked me how I was doing. Then the tears came. Now I know as my mother reads this she will want to come to Chicago to hug me, but thankfully Rose and my other teammates filled in. I just can't stop thinking about what God is going to have instore for me this year, as it must be huge because of where he is sending me, and what he is having me do. I finally got over my tears and kept telling myself to "suck it up and serve the Lord" (one of our favourite sayings at the flat). I will continue to keep you all updated with what God does have instore for me as he reveals it over the net 10 months.

6 days and counting

In 6 days I will be on my way to Paraguay. Right now I am feeling both a mixture of excitment and nervousness - which people keep telling me is normal. I don't think that I have come to the total realization yet that I am going to Paraguay for 10 months, and I probably won't fully realize it until I am standing on Paraguayan soil. I keep asking why am I here? Why not at home in my normal house, with my normal routine. The only answer I keep coming up with is God. Only he truly knows the plans he has for me and what I am going to encounter over the next 10 months. He has guided me through this first month of orientation, and will be with me for the next 10. The pastor at the church I attended yesterday preached on Psalm 91 - this passage is one I know I will be looking at frequently as I embark on this new adventure.

I thank everyone for their prayers so far and will continue to appreciate them over the coming months ahead!

Silence.

This past Thursday, Krista had us participate in a 5 hour silent retreat. Now for most people this wouldn't be anything difficult, but for a chatter box like me it wasn't the easiest thing in the world. I knew that in order for me to be able to do this to the fullest extent I would need to get out of the house where I would be tempted to talk. I headed downtown to Millenium Park. Well I couldn't find it so I ended up sitting under a shady tree in a different park for awhile. We were supposed to spend this time reflecting, reading our bible, journaling, singing or anything else that came to mind as long as we weren't talking or surrounding ourselves with noise or technology. I didn't mind this activity, but it wasn't my favorite thing in the world either. I was able to concentrate on reflection, journaling and reading for about half of the time, but then realized I was getting bored. So I continued my silent retreat while walking around downtown Chicago. The part that was hardest for me was while I was on the EL. Usually I like to talk to others around me, but on this particular day I couldn't. At one part of the day, I found myself down near the beach. It was a beautiful sunny day and the water was super blue as I looked across Lake Michigan. This was my favorite time of the day, as I was able to stand there in silence and marvel at God's great works. As much as I didn't enjoy this activity, I think it was a good thing for me to do. It slowed me down, made me think, and gave me time to myself which is a rare thing to get in a house of 18 people.

Free Water

Labour Day was not a holiday for me this year. I found myself up at 6:30am for a jog, shower and breakfast and heading out the door at 8:30 to go meet our leader Krista at Union Park. This morning we talked about hospitality. Our task for today was to go out alone or in groups into the city to preform hospitable acts to others around us. Now when I think of hospitality, I think of bringing someone into my house, serving them a meal and letting them use a bed for a night if needed, not walking around a city looking to do something for others. I set out with two other girls walking around trying to smile and say hello to people we passed. This was actually harder then I thought it would be. Not many people make eye contact in the city, and some look at you as if you are crazy if you do. So after a while of this we decided we needed a new plan. One of the girls tried to buy a lady a coffee at Starbucks, but was turned down. So we kept riding the bus and thinking. Something my mom said to me came to mind. She had suggested we hand out free water. So we headed to Walgreens, bought a case of water and started walking. Now when you aren't looking for homeless people you see them on every corner, but as soon as you begin to look for them you can't find any. Slowly but surely our case of water diminished. It was a fairly warm sunny day in downtown Chicago, and our water was well received for the most part. We received many heartfelt thanks, and even a couple "God Bless" which we gladly returned. This wasn't something I thought I would ever see myself doing on a Labour Day Monday, as they are usually spent getting ready to start school the next day. For once it was spent helping other's who needed it way more than I did. At one point when we were walking around and I had one water bottle left, I couldn't find someone to give it to. I was hot, tired, thirsty and super close to opening the bottle and drinking it right there. A couple minutes later I found someone to give it to. I'm glad I didn't drink it because after we finished handing out the water we stopped at a restaurant for lunch, where I promptly bought a bottle of water. Something I could afford, but the person who I gave my last bottle to couldn't.

I think this was a great way for us to spend our holiday - using it to help others instead of lazing around our flat, or spending the day for ourselves. It showed me that I don't have to invite someone into my house for a meal or to use a bed, but that I can walk around handing out something as simple as water to those in need. I saw many smiles that day that might not have been shown if we had thrown a couple dollars into all the cups being shook. I know they appreciate the money, but this was our way of showing the homeless that we cared.

Poverty

Yesterday morning Krista lead us in a discussion about poverty. She had us participate in an activity that really opened my eyes to poverty in the world. She had us all line up in a row outside on our lawn facing a brick wall. She then began to ask us questions. For each question you either had to take a step forward or backwards as stated, but only you answered yes to the question being asked. Eventually we were all scattered at different places around the lawn. Some farther ahead, and some way behind. Eventually after the last question she asked she told us to race to the wall. Since we were all at different places it took us different amounts of time. Some got there very quick because they were close to the wall, and some people it took longer. This is the way society works. The people with "better lives" get things before the "poor" people. I had never thought seriously about this before, but after the activity we broke off into pairs and discussed what we were feeling. I don't think that many of us had ever thought about it like this before, and some almost felt bad about our lives. How come we were chosen to have the lives we have, while others have to suffer going to jail just for sleeping on a sidewalk? How come we were given stable families with jobs to support us? It was a very moving time. We also read an article about how you have to be rich to be poor. Most people like to shop at big box stores because stuff is usually cheaper at them. Most of these places are located not downtown, but either a car ride, or transit ride away. People living in poverty often times don't have the money to have a car, or even get a pass for transit, and are therefore left to do their grocery shopping at convience stores located within walking distance to them. Often times though, prices at these stores can be almost twice as much as they are in the big box stores. What is our world coming to when suddenly you have to be rich to be poor. It's the same as houses. It is often cheaper to buy a house, but since many people can't afford the down payment they end up renting apartments which is more expensive in the long run. All of these things gave me something to think about, not only yesterday, but I think it is something that will help me when I get out into the world and actually begin working with people in poverty. I also think it is something that everyone should keep in mind, and maybe one day can be changed for the better.

Church on Sunday Morning

This past Sunday I had the opportunity to worship at Uptown Baptist Church, and what a wonderful experience that was. I have never really worshipped in a place like it. I really enjoyed the music, and the pastor delivered a good sermon. It was nice to sit back and watch the way all of the people interacted throughout the service - it was not a quiet service whatsoever. People would speak up if something was printed wrong in the bulliten, and there were many "amens" and "halelughias" passed around throughout the service. This was a large difference from the church I have attended most of my life. Not only has church been like this, but my day to day life since coming here. There have been more than one time that 5 or 6 of us from our group will be on a bus and be the only white people on it. Or visiting one of the 77 communities in Chicago of which many are Indian, Spanish, Mexican, African American etc. It is experiences like this that open my eyes to the fact that there is a bigger world out there than the small town where I come from. JPUSA (Jesus People USA) is another example of this. You will find people from all walks of life in this place, yet they all share one common thing - Christ in their lives. I have really enjoyed beginning to get to know some of these people, and they are just so charasmatic and so full of fire for God that they make me look back on my life and think that I could do so much better in the way I live out my faith. I hope that over the next 11 months that I will be able to start living my life more like them.