Day 5: Have Pictures, Will Spam

...but not until after you've heard about my day! I know you all live for the random, overlong accounts of what we do.

Alternate title: Talking with Jesus

Today is Wednesday. The day started with most of our team going to the park to worship together. This park, La Sabana, is located about a mile from us and is right in the middle of the city. It used to be an airport, but decades ago, was transformed into a gigantic park and museum area. It's very nice. Worship was quite lovely, Matthew played his guitalele.

After some shuffling around, we grabbed our nacho supplies and took an Uber to campus. The driver was friendly and we chatted a little bit. Traffic was rough, but we got to campus when we needed to and then did H@ngout. Basically, students drifted in, ate nachos, and sat and talked in the grass. Every few weeks, a new person or two will show up and get connected to the group.

The philosophy behind H@ngout is: create a chill environment where people can spend time together, eat free lunch, and be loved. Then, make connections with those people and follow-up with one-on-one meetings to share the gospel and dig into spiritual conversations. It's starting fresh, since the campus only just re-opened after COVID. I am so excited to see the long-term impact of this ministry model. It focuses on a few lives (I think we had about 20 people today (including 6 gringos + Lagos and Ana Raquel) and works to create multipliers.

After H@ngout, we... well... hung out more. Jose Carlos, who everyone calls Jesus, offered to show us around the campus. As we walked and explored, we got to have some really fun and increasingly deep conversations. We talked about Missions, Church Planting, Professional Ministry, and Calling, along with conversations about culture and nature and that good stuff.

We left campus after a couple of hours and went to a hipstery fancy coffee shop. I had a papaya smoothie, but it was actually just papaya juice with ice cubes. It was really good. I drank it really fast, even though I was trying to sip slowly. While we were walking to the coffee shop and while we were there, I got to have some really good pre-gospel conversations with Jesus. Jose Carlos is not a believer, and seems very uninterested in expressing or asking about spirituality. But, we have 10 weeks.

I got to talk to Izzy some about our role here. Part of what we get to do is come in and stir up the pot with the H@ngout students. We can ask hard or awkward questions, and, if they feel a little less comfortable with us...it's ok! Lagos and Ana Raquel are building long-term, deeply-impactful relationships, so us being here can help speed things up a bit without damaging the safety they work so hard for.

We rode the bus home, which was nostalgic. Then we ordered a few tacos for dinner (yes) and hung out a bit as a team.

Today I feel all right. I am tired and I really want soda, lol. It was fun to interact with college students. I have a permanent insecurity about being here; I want to do everything I can to make our time here worth the energy, giving, heartache, cost, prayer, hurt, and everything else that goes into it. I really enjoy our team dynamic. In 4 days, we'll be a different team and learn a new dynamic. I feel some worry about that, but God's got this.

PRAYER (please do pray for us)
-for us to trust God and walk in the Spirit
-for us to draw near to God and rely on him
-for the impact of our time to be because people encounter God's love
-for the students we met today to have open hearts
-for the students we met today to be challenged
-for the kids we'll hang out with tomorrow to have a foundation formed in Christ
-for Lagos and Ana Raquel to be blessed in every possible way
-for good team dynamics

Ok, many much pictures: