March.22.twentyeleven

I got thinking of what a middle school student had said. Something along the lines of this: Real Christians show God chapter books of the mistakes they have made in their life and the little things they have done. Christians who put on a mask show God their picture books of only the good things they have done.

It made me think a lot about my self. I need to give every thing up to God. God doesn't want the fun colorful children's book full of pictures and all the great things in my life. He wants my tough things in life. He wants the long chapters of pain in my life and the rough stuff I've been through. I think its just hard for me to take it in sometimes that someone would want all of these things. But then it just takes me back. He died for me and my sins. He didn't just go up and die on the cross for a show. He did it for me. I need to give these things up to him and let them go. i want to be joyful and happy with God because I am a daughter of Christ and was bought with a price!

June 26, 2010

Not much sleep last night so i woke up feeling really groggy. We decided we wanted to take a canopy tour today with our group. Pastor Larry and Eddy went and got everything figured out for us. Kevin decided to join us so we all got ready and got in our van. It was a long drive out there. It was funny to see that Leticias highways is like Kennewicks Locust Grove Rd. Very small and two laned. In Leticia it is also very easy to speed there because there are not many traffic police. When we got to the Canopy Tour or Zipline we walked about 15 minutes into the rainforest. Our tour guides gave us facts about the rainforest and what animals live in it. When we got to the zipline they put us all in harness' which i didnt realize but we had to climb up the 100ft tree.(or atleast it seemed that tall) They strapped us in our climbing gear and the climb was very fun and difficult. Im not very physically athletic but i like challenging my self. The way you climbed the ropes was you sat down stretched and pushed this Kong rope and chest accenders(look on google to see what it looks like) with you hand as high as you can and then when you let go it stays up and then you pull your feet up with the other rope latcher and do it until you get to the top. It was very hard for me but while on the rope any time i felt i couldn't do it anymore i prayed to God, which was more then half the time. God came through though and I made it to the top. My team was very supportive! We reached the top and then they started strapping us in for the zipline. Donna went first, Kody, Kevin, Hillary, and then me. The first zip line was very slow but when i was strapped in for the second zipline oh that was a joy. You could see th eentire rainforest and it was just so beautiful. I just kept thanking God for making something so beautiful. The zipline was short but very fun. When we were walking back Hillary and I walked with one of the tour guides. The rest of the group was behind us. When we were walking the guide stopped us pulled his knife out and stabbed a tree. White stuff started oozing out and from what hillary understood it was a natural antibiotic like neosporn. So we tasted it, and i didn't get much of a taste. We got out of the rainforest and the rest of the group came except Jared Kevin and Jeff. 10 minutes later jeff comes out with Jared and Kevins shirts saying that they were eaten and then the two pop out with leaves covered in them for outfits(above picture) It was so funny. The native people thought it was really funny to. Since our van still hadn't arrived the let us go see the snake zoo for free. I saw a posinus frog, a large crocadile, about 10+ different kind of snakes and i believe thats it. At the end of the snake sighting they let us hold a 10 month old anaconda it was so cool and slimy. We left and when we got back to the hotel a group of us headed to the festival area and cleaned up from last night. It was very windy there but it was fun helping clean. We walked back to our hotel and then after we were cleaned up we walked back to the festival for the last night. I got to see Jacki Valasquez sing. God has defiantly given her pipes to sing. She was absolutly wonderful! When Raza for Christ came on me and hillary had some kids who came to say hi to us. We didn't recognize them at first but then they ended up being the kids from the orphanage. I felt so blessed that they remembered us. We played with them for a while and then right before we left a women approached us asking for prayer. The orphans that were at the festival (4 of them) were staying with her. She treated them like her own because she had no kids, but some people in Spain wanted to adopt the kids, the kids don't want to go and the women wanted to keep them but financially she was struggleing. So we got to pray for her. Defiantly a highlight of the trip. We left the festival and it was about 10 o clock. Our hotel had a huge BBQ for us. It was so much fun. We ate delicious food and the manager of the hotel had dancers and live music. It was a lot of fun. It was sad it was the last night for everyone to be there. I grabbed my camera and took pictures with all of my new friendsl. The best part of the night was the open mic session. We had Michael, Natalie, Lori, Jared, Anthony, Trevor, Ester, and a guy from Raza for Christ all play us some songs. Towards the end Lori went up again and started sining worship songs. We all got in a huge circle and just started praising the Lord. It was so uplifting. My favorite song that we learned there was "Santo, santo, santo, yo quiero verte" which means "Holy, holy, holy, i want to see you" it was so cool just seeing everyone sing!
This is Lori and her son Michael singing.

June 25, 2010

This morning we went to visit an orphanage. Both teams went so we were all together. That was so fun. the kids were so thankful for things like balloons and candy and braclets. It was a lot of fun. I had a fun time sitting with the kids and talking with them with the little spanish i knew. We left and had lunch at the hotel. Kevin, Hillary, Raymond, and I played scum again.

Pastor Larry decided we could go back and visit the orphanage. It was so fun. Hillary and I played tag with them and futbol. They were hard to understand because they spoke so fast but the language barrier didn't stop from us having fun. We were there for about 2-3 hours just playing with them. I met Meredith she is from Texas(woop woop) and we talked for bit. She is actually staying there for a year. She is so strong in her faith its very inspiring.(you can pray for her, she is learning spanish and pray she learns it fast). It was hard leaving the kids but i feel we put a smile on their faces today.

After the orphanage we headed for the fiesta. A lot of people showed up. Raza for Christ was the opening main act. They were very good and pumped you up! During their singing Hillary and I taught a native girl how to dance. It was a gangster kind of move but Hillary called it thug life. It was so funny. We left before Jaci Valasquez sang but we get to hear her tomorrow night which I am excited for. We got to the hotel and Hillary and I played cards with Gregorio(he is one of the hotel workers) He taught us a spanish game and we decided to teach him Scum. Kevin joined us. It was difficult to teach Gregorio the game but very cool when he finally got the hang of it. Gregorio's favorite saying "No tranpa" which is no cheating. Kevin, Kody, Hillary, and I went upstairs after the game and talked for a while. Great conversations and a good way to end a great day.

June 24,2010

Woke up at eightish today that felt great! ate breakfast then headed down to the Amazon River. Hillary and I sat in the very back with Anthony and Christopher. It was fun talking to them. They are both geeky funny in a good way. We were heading to our second village for the Lunch of Hope. The Amazon River is crazy for how many exports there are in it. We got lost for a while and we couldn't seem to find our way there. It took us an 1 1/2-2 hours to get there. Once we got to the entrence we thought "there is no way this is it" all we saw was a docking station and a bunch of mud. We thought we were lost. We hiked up this hill and through mud and then my shoe got stuck. I laughed it off. It was very fun going through it though because we were walking through the actual Rain Forest. I never thought in my life that i was going to be saying that.

When we finally got up to the village all of the kids ran up to us and gave us hugs. They were so welcoming of what we had to bring to them. Hillary and I explained the gospel braclets again. Alot of people accepted christ and I got to pray for two people there. For their lunch I got to serve the rice today. It was fun but it made me even hotter because of the sun and the heat off the rice. When I was done hillary had me try this fruit Guama is what they call it and it had a seed in it. You peel it off the seed and then eat it. It had the texture of a Banana but the taste of a melon. Strange but fun to try new things.

We got back tot he hotel for lunch and then after we headed out to pass out flyers to the Letician People. I decided to go with Eddie because he spoke spanish, it was a lot of fun. One of the things i noticed and learned is that since they are a "warm" climate they are really friendly. They are so welcoming to what we have to bring them. I know here in America if we didn't want the flyer we would walk away or avoid the situation entirely. When passing out the flyers, a lot of people would take them even if they already had one. Eddie and I gave out all our flyers so we got to head back to the hotel. Valerie told me that she handed a women a flyer that was driving a motercycle and breastfeeding at the same time. We went shopping then ate dinner and then we all decided to go swimming.

It was Michaels birthday so we all sang happy birthday and they even brought a cake out for him. Jeff was swimming with us and for some reason was playing with all the bugs there. He was throwing them around and then decided he would go throw them away. I guess my bed was the trashcan because when i got to my room the door was open. I had him go back and take them all out. Now that i think about it its funny but at the time it wasn't.

Later that night i saw kevin playing cards by himself so i went over to join him. He taught me how to deal solitare and then we talked for a bit. Michaeld joined us and we played a game of scum. It was fun we all talked and played for a while. It was getting late so we headed for bed. I waited for ?Hillary and we talked about pretty deep interesting stuff. I love being here. You stink you smell, make friends and friendships grow, change hearts, meet children. All for God. :)

June 23, 2010

Woke up at 5:30 am to take a shower, decided not to. WE went to eat breakfast. Not really my choice in food but they had this Bran cereal that hillary and i found that tasted like cocoa puffs. ver good tasting especially for not liking much of the mian breafast course. I had some pineapple for breakfast and it was delicious! So sweet and juicy the juices just overflowed in your mouth. After breakfast we headed down to the Amazon river to get on boats.

We went down the river for about 2 hours and there isn't a bathroom on the boat. Hillary had drank about 2 cups of coffee and had to pee so bad. She was almost gonna have to pee in her pants but the boat stopped in the middle of the river and she climed off the side to the head of the boat, had everyone turn around and she then did her business. It was a great way for everyone to know her name and she was the joke for the rest of the time. When we got to the village we had a mini-festival. I got to show my balloon making skills which i learned prior to the trip. I made so many some dogs, and a giraffe, and i even managed to make a sword. We met a boy Dario who is about 12 or a bit younger. He could speak little english so it was fun to talk with him. He was very helpful with the kids because he knew how to make a balloon animal and when ever we would hand him an animal he would generously give it to one of the kids who didn't have one. During the festival we couldn't find Kody. No where to be seen. We didn't see him for almost the entire festival and then we all started boarding our boats and still no sign of him. We passed out the lunch boxes and had lunch and he still hadn't gotten back. I was thinking that he got kidnapped or killled and then finally when we were about to leave Kody shows up. Where was he you ask? Watching the world cup.

We left and then our teams split up both heading to two different villages to do a "Lunch for hope" (The lunch for hope was for four different villages. before we arrived in leticia the staff for mike silva gave four villages cows and they prepared meals with them. we went to the first two on wed. then the next two on thur.) When we got there two of our team members shared their testimony(I believe mark and jared) and then hillary and I shared the gospel braclets representation. After us mike did a great presentation on sin. We passed the bracelets out the village and i had brought a bag there. They had called us all to come and serve the lunch to the village but i was still putting the last minute braclets on the kids. bad idea because when everyone left they swarmed me for braclets. The kids thought they were the coolest things some of them having like 6 on there arms. It just makes you think of how much i take things for granted. The little kids were seeing these braclets as treasure when I was seeing them as a mere 2cents. When we were serving lunch i met Anthony. He is from pennslavania(i butchered this i know). We talked about college and life and how he got going with the Mike Silva mission.

We got back to the hotel and had dinner. A group of us decided to take a walk through town. I met Michael who played the guitar our first night there and Kevin. I also met Mary and Natalie they were both fun to talk to. When were were walking we came upon a bunch of kids playing soccer. They were really good and Jeff was telling us that they were playing with a smaller ball that helped with foot work. The ball was moving so fast it was hard to stay on what team was winning and losing. We watched for thirty minutes and then we decided to leave and we left one of our soccer balls that we brang there. One of the boys there kicked it back and I threw it back and told him to keep it. He got a smile on his face, it made me so happy inside :)

June 21-22

First day and a half and the trip here was so long. Houston airport we had a very long layover so Hillary and I decided to go and explore the airport which was really big. We found a D wing that was empty so we sat down and talked and then walked father down the wing. We found some of the walking escalators and we decide to walk the opposite way on one of them. Great way for exersise. Hillary and I couldn't stop laughing from doing it. When we arrived in Bogota it was very confusing. So much spanish I had a very hard time understanding anything. I was very tired so after we checked in we went and found some benches to sleep. I woke up after about an hour or so of sleeping and Valarie woke up at the same time so we decided to go to the restroom. When we were coming back we saw Donna and it looked as if she had seen a ghost. If you know Donna she is always big smile and brightly shining. She came up and asked Val "Have you seen my backpack?" "No, you didn't sleep on it?" "I think someone stole it." Donna went to the bathroom so Val and I searched her sleeping area and no sign of a backpack. After looking all around a police officer had asked us if we had lost a backpack. We said yes and he took us to the police room. They did indeed have Donna's bag and had to search everything in it to make sure it was safe. We realized later that Donna set her bag beside her so it looked "unatteneded" and so it could have been considered a bomb. We arrived in our hotel called the Waira which is really nice. Then had lunch in our fridge for us which was a bologna and cheese sandwhich on a hot dog bun. I ate it just because I hadn't eaten all day but it is defiantly not something I prefer. Later we had dinner and then our team meeting where everyone introduced theirselves. After the meeting our team decided to go out for some ice cream. It was beautiful outside, warm and a lighting storm. We walked three blocks down and three blocks to the right which brought us to a place called "Rosie's Helado" It was really good. I had brownie ice cream. While were getting our ice cream it started raining and Larrissa and Valerie decided to dance in the rain. it was time to head back and the rain was still pouring. It was hard to avoid the rain so I just gave up protecting myself and just started playing in it. It was so much fun. Defiantly one of the best nights ever. God is so good!

Colombia

Yes i am leaving for Colombia in two days. Am I excited? Yes, Nervous? Defiantly. So if you are reading this PLEASE pray for me and have all your friends too! This is going to be an amazing trip where I will be stretched by God in so many different ways and I am so excited for it! I have always wanted to do a missions trip and the opportunity arose so i hopped on the train for it. My team will consist of Donna Grubaugh, Valarie Bensutti, Eddy, Hillary and Jared Gregg, Kody Simonson, Larissa Bay, Larry Regunfus, and Jeff Bennett. So be praying for all of us that God will use us on this trip and that we will be able to speak to the Colombian people.
Thank you :)
love
Sarah