Don't make me use my handbag!
Monday, January 31, 2005
Blog again, or reply to my never-ending list of e-mails?
I must be addicted. Just spend 50 minutes catching up on blogs, and I'm blogging again. Well, that's cool. Today was our last 'official' day with missionary activities scheduled - Claire and I preached at Fuenta de Vida and Fuenta de Gracia simultaneousl this morning, which was a nice way to finish. But it's not over yet - we're still hoping for opportunities over the next four days.
After blogging last night, I spent many hours working on my message for this morning. And I'm not ashamed to say it ended in tears, and I needed help from the team. It was humbling, to be sure. I'm not entirely sure what was wrong, but I was facing an incredible amount of opposition there, for a message I'm still not sure was relevant or effective. Actually, I believe it was effective, in faith, but I didn't see it. Which doesn't matter. Part of the problem was tiredness and stress, but it was more than that. Part of it was probably praying for humility the week before too; I seem to have a history with that. Hehe.
Anyways. Everything's great now, although I'm still exhausted. I loved reading the blogs as ever - great to see Jared's now ONEOFUS, and I'm enjoying Emma's too, though I don't really know her. Abbey's and Kristy's are a little hard to read, cos I miss them, and it's a little stressful reading about job-hunting! But I do enjoy hearing what's going on with them, the good and the bad. And their honesty about their struggles and their faith through this time is really encouraging. There's Bing's too, which is a little short, but that's okay. I haven't launched into Lydia's novella yet, and not many others are updating. There are still people I'm keen to hear from, especially those once-bloggers Jeremy and Becs. But, hey.
So I've hardly mentioned Chile, eh? I guess I'm a little too accustomed to it now. I'm still not even sure I'm in Chile, most of the time. Saw an awesome view of the snowy Andes today, that was great. Will try and get some photos and footage on the way through them on the bus tomorrow. Don't know what to expect in Mendoza - that's kind of the theme of the whole trip, though - but we're all too tired to ponder that!
I don't think I've mentioned here about security in Chile - at least, the tight security in Maipu (by the way, we saw a bus today with "Maipu-Colon" on it, and we thought it should be the other way around! Can't believe there's another suburb called Colon... I must try and get a photo of that bus! Of which there are HUNDREDS... seriously, literally hundreds of different bus routes, not to mention the three subway lines. And they have people coming on board for free with big boxes of icecreams and iceblocks, same on the beaches. I should really leave this bracket-space now, it's getting way crowded). All the houses - all of them - have huge fences around them, with razor-sharp points on top. One has a brick wall with broken glass sticking out of the top. There are no doorbells, so you have to yell 'hello!' - or rather, 'alo!' - and wait for the person to unlock the gate. Also, almost every house has a dog or two as an alarm system/doorbell. And there are dozens of dogs roaming every neighborhood... it's lucky that they're all quite timid, or it would be quite scary.
There. There's your Chile tidbit. Hehe. Fuente de Gracia was pretty cool this morning. They have church in a tiny room, with about 35 people (although it is holiday time), but their size doesn't stop them! I could talk for ages about the people there, but it's probably sufficient to say that I love them all, and I've got some cool footage of them. I've been thinking about making the videos of the Chile trip (especially reading Jared's blog, and Abbey's charming Imovie experiences), and feeling a little overwhelmed... and at times wondering if I have enough footage. I have almost two hours, but it doesn't quite feel like enough, because we've done so much here... and there are so many things you can't capture on camera like that. Oh well, we'll see how it turns out.
Okay, 7:35 now, time to go find the others. I'll probably get to write from Mendoza, in... two days, I reckon. Wednesday your time, I reckon. See you then! Love you lot!
Sunday, January 30, 2005
Why did I get my LAST pair of underpants soaking wet???
Heaven knows. Hey gang, long time no see! You don´t know how much I´ve missed you guys! So I´m sorting through my 35 e-mail messages (well, so, maybe some of them ARE spam, I´m still really popular. And there probably were more that got bounced back cos I reached my limit. Yup.) and the blogs (man, you guys can talk!) and trying to put off writing this baby, even though I´ve been aching to blog for... well, all week. But there´s too much to write about!
Hehe, I should end this blog here. That´d be funny. Actually, I probably should, I´m preaching at church (Fuente de Gracia) tomorrow, and I haven´t got ANYWHERE with my message. Darn it. And I can´t use the internet tomorrow, or Monday... argh! The pressure! Hehe. Camp number 2 was great, and really bad at the same time! No, I won´t leave it there. It was great in the sense of, well, almost everything! But the badness was... well... see, when we were doing Missions interviews with Dave P. and Carmi and Roger Vickers, one of the questions (I bet Dave asked it!) was "What would be the most difficult thing you can think of having to deal with in Chile?" My answer was that it will be difficult for me going out of my comfort zone. This camp dissolved any possible comfort I had remaining after the previous camp. Let me say this: I´m not a camping person. But this, like the movie Catwoman, was so bad it was laughable. For starters, we had 16 guys in a small room, with no beds (later in the camp we got a few mattresses). And boy, could we snore! Worse, did we make a big stink or what?! Then, to make matters worse, the water got cut on day two. So I went through the whole camp with only one shower (and it was a cold´n). But this also meant the toilets didn´t flush, so that was fun (it added to the joy of putting your paper in a bin). So people took to using the small pool to keep clean (and, apparently, wash their hands after using the loo - they told us this AFTER we swam!), and by the end, it was greenish-brown and you couldn´t see the bottom. Of course, it could be worse, at least I didn´t brush my teeth in it, like Dave H.! I should also add that I haven´t slept properly since last Monday, which is almost two weeks. I am EXHAUSTED - these last two days have been a serious struggle in that sense. And everytime I´ve planned to get a sleep in or an early night, something happens - I end up preaching the next day, or I get sent on a special mission... argh! Anyways, that aside (MAN I enjoyed having a shower... first thing when I got back to civilisation. The internet was/is the second thing I did), it was an awesome camp. We got to be such a blessing, and it was a blessing to us in return. I´ll let someone else talk about that, cos I don´t have long. So tomorrow´s our last official day as a mission team - we become tourists on Monday. Technically. We had a lot of discussion about that, and about what we´re doing with our time until Friday, but we decided to all go to Mendoza, Argentina for a few days. We leave on Monday, and come back on Thursday. It´s a 6 hour drive across the Andes, so that should be cool. We´ll see if we feel like doing any random evangelism or anything overthere, we´re playing that by ear. There´s so much more I could say... Prayer requests, I should mention, are for my message (and Claire´s, at Fuenta de Vida - we´re splitting up) tomorrow morning, if you´re in time; for the rest of our time (emphasis on REST, but we want to be open to any more missionary type work too), and for me, I´m still having the odd worry about what´s happening when I get back to New Zealand... we´ve been talking a lot about what we study (it´s strange to think I discussed New Zealand law with an Argentinian law student in Chile... in Spanish) and what we´re doing, which always gets me thinking about stuff I shouldn´t... but it´s not bad. Well, I should end by saying that this trip has been great, although a bit tough some times, but I´m very glad I came. We´ve had a great impact, and made some great contacts, and met some (you guessed it...) great people. I´m too tired to experience any real emotions at the moment, so ´great´ will have to do. I´ll see you guys later, yo! PS - One of my nicknames here is ´Sampo´- very funny. Also, I´ve seen the Oscars noms now, I´ve got a lot of catching up to do! And J, I hope you´re getting somewhere with the script, eh? And Bing, I´ll be praying for your work! Oh, I saw my first movie this year on Monday (except for Sky Captain on the plane, which was great, by the way! And some on the bus, but I wasn´t really watching), Alexander. I enjoyed it. Que más, que más... Kiwis start arriving on Tuesday for Rochelle and Chago´s wedding, but we may not see them. Or we might, on Thursday and Friday... 6 days to go, I don´t know whether to feel sad or relieved! This really shouldn´t all be in a ´PS´! I should stop shouting! Bye! |
Sunday, January 23, 2005
This might be a short´n...
We just got back from the beach camp - yes, we´re all red, even Claire! - and have to practise songs for church tomorrow morning, and then Dave H. and I go to the NEXT camp a day early to help set up... I´m feeling really exhausted right now - prayer request alert! - but really good otherwise. Camp was superbuenopo (which is the cool way of saying SuperCool), seriously the best part of the trip so far, for me anyway.
Why? Many reasons - expect a team blog tomorrow, hopefully - but mainly because we got to KNOW some awesome people and really impact them... share with them, love them... there were so many tears this morning when we had our morning service on the beach (I´d like to think that was the message I gave, but it was actually because we were leaving), which is peculiar after only 4 days together - only by God´s grace. So yeah, pretty busy here, but pretty happy. So many funny stories to tell, so many people I want to talk about (who now have my blog address... if any of you are able to understand this, and are reading ALREADY... bless ya! Comment, please!), so little time. One thing I have discovered is that, in terms of musical taste, Chile is about 20 years behind NZ... it´s so weird when they talk about the music they like, and what´s playing on the radio stations! There´s a little bit of modern stuff, but it´s all ´Shania Twain´ or ´Backstreet Boys´... very amusing! Still, at least the Chilean musicians play more current music. Anyways, if I have time tomorrow, I´ll blog, but I doubt it. My next one probably won´t be until the camp is over, next Saturday. It´s almost the last thing we do as a missions team (probably preaching on Sunday, then travelling for 4 or 5 days afterwards), so if you could pray for this camp, that´d rock. We´re gonna go out with a bang, Amen! Chao, guys, I´m missing you all, of course, but I´m in no hurry to get home! PS - I can´t access the comments at the moment, but thanks to all who commented! |
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Oh no...
I just lost an excellent post. I´m so upset about that. Oh man. It was HUGE, and full of detail. And I was just copying the whole thing to notepad, so I wouldn´t delete it by mistake. And it´s gone. Jeremy, thanks for the news, I´ve seen the Golden Globe winners; Bing, don´t worry about the letter.
I could cry. But I won´t, even though I wasted over an hour in an internet cafe writing a great, choca blog... okay, I´m going to count my losses, and try and remember what I can. Although I don´t have too long to write it, being 10:46pm, and not having had dinner yet! We´re off tomorrow morning to Las Cruces (see the Missions blog Jess has just posted), and I may not have internet access there. But it´s been a real blessing being able to keep communicating with people through this, and really share the experience, in a way.
The internet cafe is now playing "Love Shack" over the stereo. That can lift ANYONE´S spirits. Sorry, tongue-stuck-in-cheek there. Hehe.
How am I doing, apart from feeling frustrated? Well, pretty good, actually. Looking forward to being able to influence people on a more long-term basis on the camp, rather than the wham-bang-thank-you-ma´am that Concepción was (in the sense of only seeing those we met once or twice, whereas we´ll be 24/7 with the campers). Haven´t had a chance to properly speak yet, but it´ll happen. We had a great team meeting this morning, where we talked about ourselves and got prayer. There were quite a few tears, which is always a good thing in this kind of meeting. Personally, I got to share what I was feeling at the time, which was very freeing and comforting. I´ve been struggling more and more with that nagging feeling of God´s distance for some time now, and it´s so good to get that into the open, and get support. Also, to hear from others who have been through something similar. So I´m filled with more hope.
I had some personal comments to say to people... I can´t really remember those. I do remember mentioning how we were watching Escuela De Rock (School of Rock) this evening, on DVD, and seeing some behind-the-scenes footage, and feeling... I guess ´homesick´ is the only suitable word. I do still love filmmaking, no question. And I do enjoy law, too. I can´t wait to see what God´s going to do with THAT pie. Actually, I can wait; I have to! Heh.
I wrote a lot of stuff about Chile, and what I´d noticed - especially for Em, who asked for it, but also for general information. It´s not hugely different, except for some little things. Like how you can´t always flush your loo paper here. And the Spanish language being everywhere. And people´s friendliness. And the crazy drivers, and terribly upkept roads. And the stray dogs that are everywhere (DON´T touch!), and the huge iron bars that everyone has surrounding their house (it´s quite imposing, actually). About the different fast food places, and the urge Chileans have to saturate everything with avocado purée ("You´ll never be a Chileno ´til you love your avocado sauce!") About how confusing it was when Cecilia (Pastor Rodrigo´s wife in Concepción) was telling me that the red stuff on the pizza was capsicum - which in Spanish is "morron." ("Morron, gringo, morron! Morron!")
So, we´re back in Maipú, and loving every minute of it.
Pause for laughter.
Well, I can´t say that I´ve met the AWESOME standard (okay, I might be exaggerating now) of my original post, but I feel better about it. What else was there... I can´t really remember. Prayer requests for Sam - that I´d (we´d) get to really bless the people here, especially in the next camp; that God would give me a deeper revelation of His love, and an assurance that He´s in control of my future; that I wouldn´t get sunburned on the beach! Heh, you know, the usual. :-)
I´d better go now. 11pm, time for dinner. I´ll try and write down anything else I remember, I hope this satisfies you! Big Chile kisses for all of you (we really should do the whole cheek-kiss thing in New Zealand!)... one last thing - the cybercafe is now playing... "All that she wants" - Ace of Bass´ OTHER hit song (wave to Bing).
Chao!
Thursday, January 13, 2005
These cybercafes all play English music from the 70s to the 90s...
It´s quite weird. They´re currently playing ´Candle in the Wind´ - I think it might be the Princess Di version - by Elton John. So here I am, in Concepción, which is nice. I´m surprised that I´m about to blog for the third time in Chile, I didn´t think I´d be able to. Pleasant surprise. Oh, oh, my bad, I just heard "Goodbye, Norma Jean", not "Goodbye, England´s Rose," so it´s the Marilyn Monroe version. Lo siento (I´m sorry).
This city (of about... 300,000 people) is quite similar to Dunedin, actually. Probably because it´s a university city. That´s universities (plural), mind, there´s about 10 of the bleeding things. We´ve only seen the biggest (?) one, Universidad de Concepción, which happens to be the one last year´s Chile team prayed through. Slept on the floor last night, crushed in the corner, which wasn´t good for my sunburn... but that´s my only complaint.
Oh, I want to mention how encouraging its been to get your comments here and on the missions blog - it´s good to know it´s not just the 6 of us in this one! In more ways than one...
It´s also been great to read all your blogs (yes, I´ve managed to keep up with ALL your blogs!), it´s like I never left you guys! Coming to Concepción made me a bit homesick for Dunedin (sorry, Mom and Dad!), and reading blogs helps with that. I love hearing what y´all are doing, or what you´re going through.
Speaking of comments... Jay, I ain´t really sure when I´m heading down, but I can guesstimate that it´ll be around the... 12th of February? That will give me about 6 days in Wellington. I might try and arrive in time for Sunday church, which is... ah yes, the 13th, that would be perfect. But I haven´t set anything in stone yet. I´m a little... preoccupado. :-)
Golly, there are a LOT of e-mails I need - well, want - to reply to. I have more e-mails in my inbox than... maybe ever? I delete ones I have replied to or don´t need. True story.
One thing I´m missing here - aside from you people, and my electric guitar (sorry, Jess´s) - is my room. I never realised (well, I kinda did) how much I liked having a room to call my own, and to manipulate to make it as comfortable as I like it, a place for personal space... so that´s an eye-opener.
And the spiritual update, which I (unconsciously) try to insert into almost every post (because it´s important to me) - everything´s going pretty well. No big revelations or struggles at the moment, except for a reminder of my identity in God (our pastor-host here gave us a short message this morning about how we are no longer sinners in the darkness, but since we identify with Christ, we are holy people who sin) and a reminder against struggling (especially, for me, in prayer... although I´m still working that one through...).
Christian, from Mickey´s church, suggested that I ask God to surprise me in giving me a revelation of His will for my future, which I was planning on leaving until New Zealand, but have decided to spend a small portion of my prayer time on that here. Did I mention how incredibly clear the Christians´understanding of God´s plan for their individual lives was here? Whoa, that´s a bad sentence. I meant that so many people here have distinct, well-defined callings that they are following, which I think is amazing. I´m not being discouraged by that, rather it is spurring me on to pray more on that note.
I think our time is nearly up here... it´s 2:30, and we should go to lunch soon - around 3:30 is usual. Lunch is the BIG meal of the day, and it´s supposed to be some weird pea-thing today. We don´t understand the name for it, so it´s a bit of a surprise.
So, in closing... um... bye.
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Lunes el diez de enero, dos mil y cinco.
I think. That is, my doubt is not about the Spanish, but I´m not really sure what day it is. That´s the way it goes. Hey, guess who´s sunburned??? See, I thought putting on STACKS of sunscreen, wearing a hat, shirt, sunnies and staying in the shade when I can would save me, especially in a country that actually has an ozone layer. But no, alas, four hours in a pool during a 34 degree day has surely taken its toll on my shoulders and their various nerve endings. Oops. Still, at least I found out how vulnerable I am before our week at the beach, no?
Yes.
Sometimes I just seem to LEAP into these blogs, don´t I? No introduction, no ´hi, I´m fine´, nada. Speaking of stream-of-consciousness writing, my Spanish has been going surpisingly well! When combined with my natural patience (hah!) and skills at charades, I´m a non-stoppable bilingual MACHINE! True story. Which I still haven´t learned how to say in Spanish. Probably ´fabrica verdad´ or something like that. Should find out
Tomorrow we head for Concepción, a 6 hour bus-ride south. We´re there for a week, and we have no idea what we´re doing there, bar ´student ministry´. Which is exciting, and hopefully will seem more productive than our work here so far. And it´ll be a tad cooler, apparently. I should say, our work here has been productive, it´s just not very obvious. Talking one-on-one with the youth leaders here, and naturally, Mickey and his family, they seem to be doing great without us. They are. But we do bring a blessing by our presence, we can tell that. It´s interesting how our purpose here is so unclear, but we can all tell that we´re fulfilling it, whatever it is. Driving back from the pools yesterday, I was in the boot of the van with the Daves, and Hawkes mentioned how it was like our trip - looking backwards as we move forwards, having to trust the driver.
Comment comments - thanks for the info, J, most appreciated. And Gail, thanks for your prayers. And Em, that was really cool, what you wrote. It´s actually what God´s been teaching me over these past few days, how brokenness (a good thing) also comes through voluntary self-humbling. It´s only just in my head though, I´ve gotta think on that one some more. But that´s really... relieving, I suppose!
Golly gosh, I´ve been on this for too long! Even though not many people are blogging, the number of bloggers keeps increasing - check the links, now CARMI has a blog! Ay ay ay! Anyways, better split. I actually wish I could have written more, so I´m sorry about that. I´d write about the food, Chilean time, the people, the place... everything. Maybe next time, we´ll have to see. Heck, you´re lucky to be getting this.
Boy, I certainly am a cheeky monkey.
Friday, January 07, 2005
Well, whaddya know. I DO have time to blog from Chile.
But don´t expect a second. Then you´ll be more pleasantly surprised when (IF) it happens, hehe. Yep, I´m here in scorching Santiago, working on my tan... clearly still in a good mood, things are running really smoothly. We´ve really not DONE much, but that´s okay. Yesterday was our day off, and there wasn´t much we could do yesterday. But we should be doing some carpentry (EEK, my CUTICLES!) tomorrow, is the plan, anyways. That may or may not happen.
Haven´t been doing too much thinking, or worrying, in fact, you could almost say I´ve been very extraverted. Possibly because I´m hot, tired and focused. The most introverted thing I´ve been doing (apart from praying, but that´s not really intra...) is eating - which, fortunately, we get to do a LOT of. Mmm good. Pray for our tummies.
One thing worthy of note - that won´t be put on the official blog, no doubt - is the fun we have been playing with the name of the (huge) suburb we are currently in: Maipú. Pronounced My Poo. Oh yes. We have lots of fun in Maipú, Maipú is very beautiful, Maipú is dangerous at night. You get the drift. So far, Maipú hasn´t gotten old.
We´ve been quite social with the locals here, which has been good. My Spanish is pretty good, but Dave has to do most of the talking, naturally. That needs prayer, for all of us. But we´re doing great - confident that, although we´re having a slow start, God is with us and will move through us. Pastor Mickey´s been filling us in on the truly amazing things God´s been doing with his church (there´s a link on the missions blog - Mickey was very impressed that I put that there!), which is really encouraging... but also made us question our purpose here - does God need us? Well, no, but He´ll use us anyway! The hardest thing for us (well, particularly me) to grasp is that it´s not about us, that our abilities are not that important compared to the movement of God´s Holy Spirit.
I could talk for ages - it´s very encouraging - but I can´t right now. Besides, hopefully the missions blog David is writing will tell about all that. Hopefully. As for me (because that´s what this blog is about!), I still have high expectations, and am grateful for the opportunity and grace and... well, everything about this trip, especially your prayers. In fact, I hardly have any time to think about what I´m going to do when I get back to Wellington in 30 days.
Darnit, shouldn´t have said that. :-)
P.S. Note that I have added two new blogs to my list - Nam (I was wondering how long it would take ya, girl!) and Kristy (I´ve been waiting for a long time for this one too!)
P.P.S. Having read blogs and e-mails, and noticing those around me and the news, I have discovered something worth thinking about - I seem to be envying suffering. Which is weird, I suppose, but understandable. Understandable in one sense, because it gives someone an excuse to be weak (take that as you will) and you get sympathy and love (I think I used to use this as a manipulation, which is one reason it seems so despicable to me now), but secondly, because suffering-slash-brokenness-slash-repentance leads to more of God and His works - blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. It seems much harder to be not-suffering, especially when I´m also trying to be not-comfortable. The only solution I can fathom is to mourn with those who mourn - bear their burdens, bear GOD´S burdens myself. And yet, I´m scared to try that.
There´s a good´un for ya´s.
P.P.P.S. Jeremy, I hope you´re keeping track of that movie news for me!!!
P.P.P.P.S. This keyboard has an Ñ button, among other things. That makes things hard to type. Hehe.
Saturday, January 01, 2005
C'mon, Abbey, not even if I had you-know-what? :-)
I couldn't leave without saying a big goodbye (and a thanks to Abs and Aunt Donnave, as well as all the rest of you). Happy 2005, everybody. It's gonna be a good, crazy year. We had a great night last night, and we're about to launch off on our big advencha! In about 10 minutes, actually. So I can't chat.
But God bless y'all (as usual!), I look forward to spending the New Year with all of you - be it in your company, on the internet, or simply in spirit. I love you all, and this is Sam Benton - signing off.