We're Moving This Week!!!

Greetings from a rather frazzled missionary!!!

As you can see from the title...Chelsea and I are moving this week...actually tomorrow...hence the delay in my up-date this week as it has been a VERY hectic week. I have been actively trying to get things packed up into boxes, make arrangements for help from the missionary community, and balance ministry at the same time! Needless to say, I'll be thankful once we're moved in and I can actually work at a slower pace, unpacking and really getting settled! I am taking tomorrow off of school in order to organize the move. Then we are off of school on Thursday and Friday for a national holiday...giving us a long weekend to get ourselves settled before starting back to school next week! Praise the Lord for such a positive and supportive response from our SAM missionary community! Many have volunteered time and vehicles to help us move and clean the house tomorrow, getting it all ready for us. I am so thankful for that! I have also had several from church and school who have volunteered to pitch in where they can...tomorrow and/or over the next few days, helping to unpack or purchase/loan us things that we will need in the new house! It has been such a blessing and encouragement to me!

Thursday is "Santa Cruz Day", which basically is the day to celebrate the department of Santa Cruz. It is of course a local holiday and my church will be taking a day trip to a nearby river for a picnic lunch and baptismal service! It's always LOTS of fun! Pray for safety as we travel about an hour out of the city in cars and bus. Also, pray that I will be able to rest and enjoy myself, without spending the whole time concentrating on the boxes awaiting me at home!

I had an exciting experience tonight that I wanted to share with you. A friend of mine from church, whom I will call Jose, called last week and asked if I would help him and a friend of his from the university (whom I will call Ana) with their English homework. They came over and spent a couple of hours with me that afternoon. As it turned out...Ana lives close to the SAM base where I'm currently living (for one more night). She also discovered that I enjoy drinking mate (pronounced ma-ta, short "a" sound at the beginning and long "a" sound at the end...a social herbal drink, similar to a tea, which is extremely common in Argentina and also parts of Bolivia and Paraguay). She then said she would like to come again and drink mate with me. I talked to Jose over the weekend and asked him if she is a Christian. He said that to his knowledge, she isn't, and then went on to describe a few more things about her and her family. Next weekend at church we're having an evangelistic service...so I suggested to Jose, that I would like to invite Ana to be my guest for that event...and then maybe all of us could hang out for a bit afterwards. However, I figured it would be easier if we had visited a little bit more first. So, before moving...I invited Jose and Ana over to the house so that we could drink mate together. I then had the chance to invite Ana to the service on Sunday. She not only accepted my invitation, but also when I took her home (so that I would know where her house is in order to pick her up later)...she invited me in and we sat and talked for another hour or so more. Praise the Lord for this new relationship that He is placing in my life. Please pray not only for Ana's salvation, but also that God would help me take time to be diligent in following up with her...in mentoring and discipling roles. I'm excited about the opportunity to serve the Lord in this way. Also continue to pray that nothing will come in the way of her attending the service with me this Sunday!

Well...it's getting late and I still have some more packing to do! Thank you so much for your prayers this week! The joy of the Lord will be my strength!!