Day 6: *create a snazzy title later, my brain is shut down* (But I Didn't)

I think God likes prayers about rain more than other prayers.

It rained today, but just enough to be fun.

That doesn't really relate to anything, but it felt really important that you know that.

So now you do.

No, I won't type the whole blog post this way, that would take up a lot of space.

I woke up this morning (it'd be awkward if I didn't, though I did get my affairs in order before I left), read some 1 John (I think I'm gonna memorize chapter 4 soon), got some breakfast. We slept in a little bit, so that felt nice after the movie night last night. After our morning worship time, Hugo and Alexis went with Lagos to his apartment to make empanadas for lunch, while the rest of us (Sheryl, Izzy, Katie, Matthew, Sam (that's me)) spent time planning and brainstorming (i originally typed "Brianstorming," unsure what that would entail) for ways to strategically disciple and love the kids we're working with for the next month. Having a plan always feels good. The plans never really match reality, but it feels good to have it anyway. 

After planning, Izzy, Sheryl and I slacklined while Matthew went on an adventure to find grenades and coconuts (or something, idk, wasn't there), then we met a guy named Andres who was walking around the park listening to Russian techno music on a really big bluetooth speaker (as one does).

Lagos and Hugo and Alexis met us in the park with the empanadas they made and we sat at a picnic table and began our feast. It was lovely. Also, we got rained on (finally... I've wanted to be rained on all week), so we scooted to the Lagos' apartment, which is quite lovely (and now mildly soggy), to finish our lunch.

After lunch, we hopped on a bus for the CDI. On the way there, Lagos began to disciple me on how to use a bus. Specifically, what bus to get on and where to get off. My hope, my dream, my wish is that this means there is a plan to let us schlep around on our own over the next month. Scooting around a city alone and unsupervised might be my favorite thing to do. It's part of why my weekly day off during MTD was so enjoyable. Do you ever miss initial MTD? I do sometimes.

We arrived at the CDI as the class for the traditional folklorico dance was ending. This class has been going on for years (in different locations, they just opened the CDI). I'm not sure how it is connected to the church, but it is. The current oldest kids are in college and are winning national awards for their dancing, but they started as 5th graders or something. Anyway, I had an awkward encounter where I reintroduced myself to Brian, who I already met in March, and then my brain shut down and decided I don't actually know Spanish, so I had struggly brain feelings the rest of the day.

Everything with the kids went well today, we danced to some Just Dance videos on YouTube, Hugo led our English lesson and games about colors. The kids really got into it. Who knew "I Spy" was so exciting? We had a shorter time, and the kids didn't have school today, so after our lesson, we just played together without a homework time. Everyone had a good time, and the kids engaged well with the team and each other. 

Tonight, the church here had their weekly service over Zoom, so we left the CDI and went to the hotel to jump online. We were joined by 3 students who are connected (ish) to H@ngout, which was fun. We later found out they meant to just come for dinner, but then found out we were watching a church service together. The service was excellent, they had a guest speaker from the church in Venezuela share his story and some good encouragement about the power of struggle and discomfort in the life of a church. 

We had dinner afterwards (arepas, made by Hugo and Lagos) with the students, and talked about accents and different parts of Latin America. After the students left, we did a team debrief from the day, with Lagos there. He shared some powerful stuff about the difficulties they face here as a church. It was very instructive for us on ways to pray for them, and hopefully cathartic for him.

PRAYER (it's the most important thing you or I can do to help):

- for the church here. It's hard for them to connect over Zoom with students, and their ministry has changed so much over the years.

- for the kids at the CDI. They're growing and they're such good kids, but they have some significant challenges ahead of them

-for the team. Today was our last day as a full team at the CDI. Monday the week-long team will head home. Pray for them to process and deal with the return to the US well.

Fotos:

Matthew hides from the sun at the CDI

Church over Zoom