God's given opportuties...

A few Mondays ago in CaFE y TEologia, Paola, one of the girls who attends, threw out a thought. LEAP OF FAITH. What does this mean? We chewed on this thought for a little while. Then she made a comment about needing to write down what happens in our walk with God. Here it goes; my prayer is that one of these stories will bless you today!

This last weak. (March 19-25)

God, thankyou for the opportunities that You have given me to talk to people about You! I am sorry that I have not taken advantage of all of them! Please help me grow in faith and trust in You!

Living day to day... God has given me two opportunities to talk with two young ladies on the metro on two separate opportunities about Him. We talked about forgiveness, commitment, and radicalness. I do not want to pretend that I made all of the right decisions. I feel as though I said some things incorrectly, but my hope is that the Holy Spirit will work on their minds and hearts- that He will change the "estupidezes" that I may have said into a searing flame to bring them to Him.

This last Wednesday, God had placed it on my heart to buy some bread or provide for someone in need. I was walking to class in the morning, praying that God would show me who He wanted me to give to, when a man literally walked up to me and asked me for money. It could not have been more clear! I ran into two issues, however. I only had a 20 Euro and 6 centimo on me. Do I give him the 20? I said to him " What I can do is buy you some food." He aswered back with "WHAT?!?" So I asked him what he wanted the money for. He replied that he needed a place to sleep tonight. So I (please forgive me Lord!) told him that I could only give him the 6 centimos that I had. Thankyou Lord for answering my prayer so quickly! Help me to learn to give my all. Should I given the 20? Would he have used it incorrectly?

One thing that I know, I have learned many lessons!

Friday night, God gave me the opportunity to share about His compassion and character with the kids at JPC. Thankyou Lord! It went wonderfully! Of course there are always a few things that go wrong (that cause you to laugh later, such as throwing a plastic cup at someone to make them be quiet ;)), but all in all, it ran smoothely. My prayer is that Jesus would draw the kids closer to Him so they can experience His sweet nature. That they may grow in their relationship with Him and through mimicking His character, they would draw others to Him!

JPC... Juventud para Cristo

   This is the place where I volunteer and am able to meet INCREDIBLE people who love the Lord! Every Friday night there is a youth group for two age groups, 14 and below, and 14 and up. I am blessed by being able to help with the younger ones. They are so sweet!  I always learn so much from them: catalan words, smiles, hugs, and trust in Christ!

    Here Below are Pictures of the Prejuvenil Campamento at Berea in which they allowed me to take part as a "monitora" or couselor.

During the first Velada or evening, we had a game night!! This included:  

• Dressing up some of your team members in cardboard.

•  Getting as many signatures as possible on your foot.

•  And popping the balloons off of the feet of those not on your team

I got to be score keeper :).





 

The next morning, we (the counselors) woke up early the next day in order to have a devotional as the leadership group before waking up the kids. After this and prayer, we woke the kids up around 8:45 for the “Buenos dias.” This was the early morning game time before breakfast to wake us up. This morning, it consisted of a few songs as a group (gorilla, and chipi chipi). This got us all moving and ready to eat! After breakfast, we had the first service in which the song leaders (Isaac and his wife Nancy) made a song called Nivel II and in which Isaac preached. He spoke on what Nivel II truly meant for Christians, giving the examples of Moses, Joseph, Paul, and Schumy (fictitious character). He spoke of the difference between our owning our own decisions and giving them completely to Christ. We then spoke about this to our mini-groups. I was blessed to co-lead a group with Joel, one of the youth pastors (Our group: Nerrea, Ana, Adam, Ruben, Nico, and Mircea). The kids in our group were pretty quiet but they were very sincere!

After this service, we ran outside for group games! Here we played the game of Super Berea Bros. (you can imagine what is entailed J). Brew and Jordi set up this group game to be like the Super Mario Bros. video game, filled with levels, lives, and coins to collect. The team that saved the princess and had the most points won. The adventures and challenges ranged from making a cookie travel from your forehead to your mouth with using only your facial muscles all the way to balancing 3 cans of Coke on top of a basketball. If I had to guess, I believe that all the kids had a blast!

• Playing "el gusanito ciego" or the blind worm in which all of the team members have to have their eyes closed (obviously this is not working so well for them) and the last member or tail of the gusanito has to lead everyone through a maze by tapping the shoulder of the person in front of him (tap the right shoulder for right, left for left and so on).

•  Balancing the cans on the basketball

•  Rescuing the princess!! (Which was really the head youth pastor in disguise. It teaches them not to believe in first appearances as well ;) .)

Sick of studying?

Nope, just very literally sick! I had my first case of the stomach flu yesterday right in the middle of class! Not fun! Thankfully, teachers and little old men on the street are very understanding!