Day 7: Living My Best Life

I started to write this post, but then I accidentally clicked the Twitter shortcut on my favorites bar and spent 30 minutes reading titles of Babylon Bee articles...I regret nothing. Well, not about that 30 minutes.

Today was lovely. I think I feel sad right now, but I don't know why, maybe we'll figure it out together.

Like I said, lovely. Slept well, read some more 1 John and talked with God a bit, had breakfast (still magical). Our week-long teammates went with Lagos to get COVID tested so they can fly back to the US tomorrow, and the four of us that will be staying went to the park to worship and pray together.

Matthew invited Andres (our Russian-techno friend from ayer) to come worship with us, and he did! Worship was really fantastic. Matthew played his guitalele (guitar that is a ukulele or something like that) and introduced us to a wonderful song, "Christ is Mine Forevermore." I loved it. I actually bought it and am listening to it as I type. I liked Matthew's version better, but this is good too. We had some good time praying and sitting with the Lord, and Andres even prayed, at Matthew's prompting. It was a really good start to our day.

Lagos dropped off two of our week-long compatriots (they all tested negative), and he and Hugo went to make us lunch (gracias chavos). We chilled for a minute, and then Rodrigo and Tania (remember them from yesterday?) joined us to walk to the park to eat lunch. Their nephew or cousin or some such relation joined us, too. His name was Carlos (because why not add another Carlos?), and he was 9. I was really glad Carlos was there. I wasn't feeling super up to engaging with full-sized humans today, so getting to play soccer and climb trees with him and have my head chopped off by ~~the stick he found~~ his lightsaber... was very welcome. And Carlos being my friend made it easier for Rodrigo and Tania to be my friends too, so that was cool. We played and hung out and hung out and played, and then it started raining, so we went inside.

It didn't stop raining for a while, so we effectively hung out together all afternoon. We played miniature Uno and a game called Chancho (means pig), which was magical anarchy and fun (maybe Rollin was right about the chaos thing). I'm definitely playing it with my homegroup when we get back. By the end of playing Chancho (I still hold I was done dirty), Rodrigo and I were friends, which is exciting as we move forward over the next few weeks. Lagos made us coffee! It was really good. Rodrigo and Tania and Carlos left and we just chilled some more. Lagos and Sheryl and Hugo went to make dinner (hot dogs!), which left those of us remaining a chance to talk about some heavy stuff one of our team was experiencing. They were vulnerable and let us pray and listen to the Lord for them, which was beautiful. Many much good.

Dinner was hot dogs (my best life). After dinner we had another debrief time, but for the whole week. I really am very proud of this team and so grateful that God pulled us together. I think maybe some of my sadness is that they're leaving, though I'm also excited for the transition to our rhythm for the next few weeks. After our debrief, we had some time to pack and then watched an episode of The Chosen together. I was nervous about it, but I really did like it!

OREN, POR FAVOR:
- for our team as they travel home tomorrow, for no complications or trouble
- for our team as we adjust to being small and to having a different living environment (AirBnb)
- for us to connect to Andres and connect him to the church here
- for Rodrigo and Tania to connect to the Lagos and H@ngout
- for our team members who are hurting right now
- for Jovany to be healthy and us to relate to him well
- for Ana and Carlos (Lagos) to feel encouraged in their ministry
- for Katie and I to adjust to leading in a new team dynamic
- for the CDI ministry to thrive as it shifts gears next week

Y'all know that prayer is the real reason for this blog, right? It was originally a proof-of-life thing, but now it's all about prayer. Please take like 10 minutes when you read this and really pray through these requests. God is moving through us here, but prayer is really and truly the thing that matters.

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