I survived the "jungle"

Hola mi amigos!

 Well I thought it would be a great idea just to let you all know that I am in fact alive and well... and in the UNITED STATES!!! With English speaking people!!!!! Crazy I know!! There is so SO much to tell. The first being that I've literally had no time to write because after jungle week we had to pack and say goodbye and all that stuff. THEN, as soon as I got back I had to start work again... and I was too tired to write anything. Mi mal. :P So I figured I'd give you little snippets of jungle week whenever I had time this week. Sound good? Great!

  What first? Well we finished our last week of classes with our wonderful teacher Yasmina, sad time for all of us, and then made our way into the jungle. I've just gotta say, I appreciate moms so much more now. I was in charge of the meals for jungle week and let me tell you, it's something else getting a meal ready on a firepitish stove. But that's moving too far into the story. Getting back to the meals. Right before we left Max and John had gone past a steak place and tried some of the steak which they said was delicious. WELL, I thought that they had actually gone in and had some to which I was extremely put out. I mean, Max and I had said sooo many times how much we love steak and wanted it... AND THEY WENT WITHOUT ME!!!! I mean come on! This was the cause for some grudging am I right? Well I then found out that while I had been holding a grudge on them for a day they actually had only had a sample. Talk about humiliating. Anyways, after that John said that we would have to try to go to it when we got back from the jungle.

  I got to the store and was trying to figure out numbers when John gave me one and said "Ok. This is the number for this week... but if you stay below THIS number then we can go to the steak place." To which I was like Heck Yes! So as I'm shopping I'm literally praying "God please help me to stay below this number!" I mean it's steak we're talking about people! And pesos are a ton harder to figure out than dollars! Praise God I got to the front and I was right on the money! BOOM ROASTED!!! Steak here we come!!... in about a week. :P

  We loaded up all our supplies and off into the wild blue yonder we went. Without translators... all... on... our... own. Talk about needing to rely on God! Well there it is. The little snippet I promised! I'll write more when I've got time. For now... look forward to more. You never know when it'll be!

Ash-Bash

I swam with CROCS!!!!

It's been about a week since I last posted! Crazy! Time goes by either super quickly or agonizingly slow. I find that at the start of the trip it was the later and now its the former. Weird I know! But you all will just have to accept that I'll write when I can now. Not necessarily every day. I'm trying to dig into my Spanish studies since it's our last week of classes. Really I was gone from Thursday morning- Sunday night so I've got a bit of an excuse. Anyways, that's how it's gonna be from now on. :P

  So! Where to begin?! We left Thursday morning early on a bus to a city to meet up with some people before going to the Bible school.  It was SO much more comfortable than the comi! Everyone got to stretch out and chill. We then agreed that from now on this is what we were going to do. :) After arriving we then shopped for food which I was like "People, 15 minutes then we are gone!" What can I say? I shop with a purpose. :P We then made the long trek to the school. Once we got there... lets just say it wasn't really what I was expecting. The people were great... just it was very... rustic. :P Like, holes for windows and an outhouse with no toilet seat and a hole... yeah. God really worked on me thats for sure! Sad thing was Kim got sick that night... and I didn't hear her! Sleeping right next to her you would've thought that I would hear something which I did. Not 15 minutes later at 4:00 AM a stupid rooster starts to crow every 5 minutes. THAT was a growing experience. I joked to the guys that we were having a change in the menu. Instead of cereal for breakfast we were having fried rooster and Max was going to kill it in preparation for his ALERT training. :P

   Oh I skipped a part! Thursday night we went into the town and put on a program in the park. Me and an honorary team member played violin and guitar to draw in a crowd. And boy did we! Then Max shared his testimony... IN SPANISH!!! I was so proud of that kid. I mean really. Coming from nothing to sharing your testimony to a large crowd? Yeah. He OWNED it. After playing some more we got an even bigger crowd. Then it was my turn to share my testimony... in Spanish. Yeah, it went ok. I wasn't really nervous about the words to much but just the inflections. But by God's grace it was heard and 2 of the kids that were there accepted Christ!!! I couldn't stop smiling! <3

  Friday was the day that we shared with the students how to share the Gospel with kids. I took story telling and songs, John memorizing scripture and culture, Max games, and Kim crafts. Over all I think we did very well! They loved the story that we put on and once John was finished with his presentation of Nigeria they had a ton of questions. They asked if all of us were missionaries and what we did normally which in Spanish was a bit difficult. But the guys there were so passionate for the spreading of the Gospel! They live at the school then are able to go home one weekend out of the month or go to a church and preach. Most of them choose to preach. I couldn't imagine living the way they do and not seeing my family. God has given them much grace!

  Saturday morning we left at o'dark thirty to go do some sight- seeing. Once we got there it was quite an adventure! Before I go on let me tell you that I am usually a very strict person when it comes to being on schedule for things. In Spanish speaking Countries they are very much laid back and chill. Takes some getting used to! Anyways, I go barreling down the path to get to our boat while the others are just walking and chit chatting with each other. As the first one to the boat I got my pick of the seats which I didn't really care... til later. As we started down the river I told everyone that we HAD to see a monkey or else. It was the very first thing we saw!!! And we saw at least 5 of them!! Being fully contented I said we could go to which everyone laughed. I didn't see what the big deal was. I mean what other cool things could there be to see besides Curious George? Right?

    We saw a ton of wildlife. Tucans, Crocodiles... and bats. Yes bats. There is a story behind this. So, there happened to be a huge fallen tree in the middle of the river. Our guide said, in Spanish, to look at it. We did and saw at least 7 bats on the log. Well... lets just say I've seen Batman and I don't like bats. As if our guide hears my thoughts he starts steering the boat towards them... on my side. Meaning I'm the closest to the bats. I start freaking out and saying how they're going to fly out in our faces. Knowing this was going to happen sooner or later, and not wanting them to land on me, I leaned over and put my face in Kim's lap and covered my hair. We were about 6 feet from them when, not 10 seconds later, they flew away and literally in everyone's face. Everyone was laughing at me for being so freaked out about it but hey! They didn't get me so I saw it as a win!

  We went further down the river seeing other wildlife and got to this little island where our guide said we could swim. I didn't believe him. I mean we had just been seeing crocodiles so there was bound to be some were we were at. But I believed our guide when he said that there weren't any and they don't bother humans. So we splashed and played around for 20 minutes, talking, swimming, skipping rocks, before we got back in the boat and continued our journey. Not 50 meters up the river there was the biggest crocodile we'd seen yet!! We were all like "Are you kidding me??!! We could've been eaten!" Kinda funny... now. :P Our guide was truly the greatest though. He loved us and when we asked him if we could go up a small waterfall one more time he did it! Fun, fun times.

   Another funny story. They always seem to involve me somehow. On our way back, Max spotted another crocodile but this one had it's mouth wide open. Well of course our guide started getting closer for us to take pictures. The seating was Ron, Max, myself on the left side and Andy, John, and Kim on the right. Well of course it's the left side that is closest to the crocodile. We're all taking pictures and wondering if it's dead because it's completely still. But I saw it breathing so I knew it wasn't. They way that it was sitting was on a log and the only way for it to get out was to either go backwards... or straight for us... 6 feet away. I saw this and started to get nervous and Max then said what I was thinking. "If the Croc moves it's gonna have to go straight for us." Not even a milasecond after he said this the Croc lunged into the water towards us! All of us on the left side yelled and jumped back to the right side causing them all to yell too! Our guide was laughing pretty hard which afterwards it was funny! Everyone kept saying that they should've put a camera on me the entire trip cause I had the best reactions to things. Whatever. ;)

  We got back in one piece then took the journey back to see a waterfall. If you all know what the Incline is in Manitou Springs CO then just envision that but way smaller. The steps were the same though. It was about a half a mile and the view was pretty cool! I loved the bridge at the end though were we took yet another team selfie. We really like those in case you all hadn't noticed. :P We made it back to the house were we all got nice warm showers and clean beds. It was... an ahhmazing feeling to be sure.

  Sunday, Monday, Tuesday... same old same old. Classes, Studying, eat, sleep, repeat. But now it's push time. To get everything prepared for our last week. Jungle week. All I can say is that I've already started praying for that week. If this last week was any clue to how it's going to be... I'm going to need a TON of prayer. I want to be like Christ. To give up the comforts of my everyday life for Him and for His glory. This may come easy for some. I can tell you right now, it doesn't for me. Hopefully though, one day I'll be able to say easily "Anything for you Lord Jesus."

  God taught me a ton about gratefulness on our little venture. About being content too. There are so, SO many things that we take for granted. Think about it. Would you give up your nice fluffy bed to sleep on wooden boards? Would you give up your luxurious bathroom for an outhouse? For the sake of Christ?? These questions you may be saying well of course naturally but it really caused me to think. We were only there for barely 2 days. Would we be willing to put up with it for whoever knows how long? For Christ?

  Please continue to pray for us. We're in our last week of school before we go into the "jungle" on our own with the Spanish that we have. Pray for strength and rest. For health. For endurance and wisdom. Finally, for God's love to shine through us.

Ash-Bash

Terrific Tuesday!

Hey All!
  I decided that to make things more interesting from... tomorrow on I'll be posting a little something in Spanish so that you all get how I'm doing in it so far. :P Sound good? Great! Good talk.

  Today was a normal day. Uneventful besides the fact that Max and I are actually making an attempt to get along. ;) In this mornings lesson I learned about Irregular Verb Past Tense... yeah. Long and rather mind boggling especially when you put in future tenses both regular and irregular which was one of my exercises. My mind was about ready to explode! However right after lessons I like to get my homework done straight away. Today I decided to go to the park to get a bit of sun before going to my coffee shop for wifi.

  So. Here's what happens at the park. We call it the kissing couples park because they're always there making out... as Kim says "Awkward". Anyways, Max figured out that if you get there before 1 then they won't be there because they're in school still. Well, as most things, I didn't take what he said too seriously. ;) I went to the park around 12:15 and was there for about an hour when, sure enough, 3 couples came into view and... well... started doing their... yeah. I took that as my cue to leave.  I then walked to my coffee shop, they know me well there now, and finished my homework and had a lovely long chat with my mom. There's just something about a mom's words that make everything better. Not even her words but seeing her face. Just brought so much more peace to my heart. And my sisters aren't bad either. ;) The guys texted me saying that they wanted to meet me for lunch in the square. They also said they were going to be a little late but I didn't mind. I went to the square of the cross, sat at the foot of the cross and had a great time with Jesus.

   As I journal I like listening to music like most everything I do. However, Hillsong songs have been my go to music for awhile now instead of Classical or Pop. Anyways, I was pouring out my heart to Jesus. Just not really understanding why my heart still longs for more of something. I couldn't figure it out. And then I figured that of course. Duh! Our entire lives we're going to be longing for Christ. We will never be completely satisfied. There will always be more that He's showing us. So I told Jesus that I wanted my heart to be His and His alone always. And to still my heart. I happened to be listening to the song Lead me to the Cross at the time I was writing about how I felt kinda like I was grasping for something... and looked up. There I was. At the foot of the Cross. God made it so abundantly clear to me that the cross is enough. It WAS enough. That He is enough. He is all we need. Now and forever. It was like a lightbulb went on in my head. What an interesting thought! ;)

  The guys finally picked me up an hour or so later, but like I said I really didn't mind... priorities and all that :P, and we went to this great Hamburger place that brought us a little taste of home. The ketchup even tasted like it was imported from the US! In order to get to know each other better we all called for a honest moment and chose to ask each other questions. Silly, serious, didn't matter. It was great! Of course my life is an open book so nothing interesting there. :P Afterwords we went back to the hotel, finished up homework and watched the Prestige. It was awesome seeing the looks on the guys faces at the end lol! If you haven't seen it, it's something else. Directed by Christopher Nolan you know its going to be good.

  Well, it's a bit short today but who says its gotta be long? Not this kid! Hope you enjoy my ramblings!

Ash-Bash
 

Friday, Saturday, Sunday... MONDAY!

Que Tal!!

Sooooo I almost always start off with an apology. I should really get out of this habit. :P However, I did tell you that I was going to be gone for a few days so to not expect anything. So. I'm not in the wrong... somehow still feel guilty. Hm. Oh well.

  So first Friday! That's when we left to go serve with the missionaries about 2 hours away from our current location. They have 4 small boys, 9, 7, 3, 2. Oh my word. I felt so at home with them! They boys reminded me of my boys that I nanny for. Needless to say it made me miss them all the more but also helped me not miss them too. Kinda weird but it worked whatever it was. :P I found a new little buddy in their 3 year old Judah. His personality was so similar to my buddy Hank's that's why I think we got along so well. He even wanted me to sit by him everywhere instead of his dad. There's love right there folks.

  After getting all situated and eating dinner I went out with Ivonne and Andy to get the food for this next week when we're at the Bible school... that was an adventure too. Lol oh how I love miscommunications! I thought that we wouldn't be able to use the kitchen... turns out we can. And I didn't know that I'd be cooking for 2 more too. That made things more exciting for sure! So anyways, Ivonne is a GEM. I took whatever advice she gave on meals and what things to get. Andy and I hit it off as well. Bouncing things off each other, sarcastic remarks. I felt like I was back home with my bros. :P Oh! Short funny story!

   We got to the register and the total was in the quadruple digits. I almost dropped my card! How in the world had I gotten the numbers wrong! I had done everything in my head properly and with Ivonne... how could I have been so wrong by so much! Then I realized. Oh wait. It's in pesos. PHEW! I almost had a heart attack. For those of you who don't know, like I didn't, 14-15 pesos is about $1. So that makes a lot more sense.

  Saturday morning the rest of the team got up and went to a soccer practice with David, a missionary here, while I stayed back and rested as I'm STILL not feeling my best. After a jam session with Andy on Guitar and lunch we went up to the place where we were going to put on the kids program. Max was in charge of the game, Kim craft, John story... and yours truly with music. Meaning teaching the song. Needless to say I was a bit nervous that I wasn't going to pronounce the words correctly. But God was so good to me and to the team. It went without a hitch... except we started like 30 minutes late because no one was there and we had to go look for them but minor details! :P

  Another story. Not exactly funny but a story nevertheless. So I had totally forgot we were supposed to be teaching a song until the day before we were supposed to leave. So 30 minutes before we left I texted Liz and asked her about them. She quickly responded back and sent me an email with all the songs in Spanish. So I'm trying to memorize them and pronounce them correctly in order. I get to the Gratitude song and I'm like... holy cow! I know this one! I never knew it in English but when I was in Ecuador and Liz would teach the kids I'd go off the sounds that she would make... and to my surprise I was like 95% right! I then decided that was the song that I was going to teach them. When we got started I just thought "Be like Liz Fox. You can do it!" Andddddd... I think I may have stunned them with my energy just a little bit. :P Anyways, thanks "mom" for being such a great example to me!

  I was so proud of the team. They did such a great job for the first time doing a program all together! Of course there are little things that need work but hey! Isn't there always? Afterwards we went back to the house and went over the game plan for this upcoming weekend when we'll be at a Bible School. We have to give our testimonies in Spanish... yeah. That's rather intimidating so pray for that!

  Sunday morning we got up and took a early combi back to our Hotel but went straight to church. Afterwords, we went back to the Hotel then to what has become one of our favorite eating places. This time for me was absolutely delicious even if they didn't have Mora. :P Kim and Max then went to the market to look around while John and I went back to the Hotel to get some much needed rest. Later we went back to church and I taught more violin lessons. One thing about that is that in Spanish they use Solfege instead of note names... THAT was confusing! But God in His grace and mercy worked it out so I was able to understand and explain the notes on the violin.

  It was so exciting this week in church because I was actually able to understand most of the sermon! I talked to everyone else after and they said the same thing! It's starting to really click for all of us! All those times studying in the park, hotel, or coffee shops have been paying off. All the late nights trying to memorize verbs and writing sentences have been paying off. All the listening to the most ridiculous songs in Spanish (Frozen) have been paying off. I can't tell you all how very encouraging this was to us. Now, putting it into speaking terms... thats an entirely different story.

  God has been so very good to us in giving us this opportunity and placing these people on this trip to encourage and help us in this learning process. It's very different than any other trips I've been on. In the sense that our free time is spent on studying instead of doing kids programs. It's taken some getting used to especially to us who are used to being on the go all the time. But I must admit I really appreciate all the free time. It's helping me to really get my Spanish in concrete and ready to use. I remember my first missions trip to Ecuador and wanting so very badly to communicate with the kids there. God used me despite the language barrier and used me through His grace. Now I know God can use me no matter what the circumstances, whether language barriers or anything else, but having the words now... it's an incredible gift that I won't take for granted. Ever.

   Monday, today, was a very low-key day. Normal normal. Which is a good thing. Lessons have been going very very well for me now that I'm separated from everyone else. Verbs are much better! And cong. even better. Finally getting down the patterns! It's so exciting to recognize words and sentences when just a week ago you couldn't.

  We got some great team bonding time in today though. We all decided to go to a coffee shop though couldn't really figure out which one to go to then I put in my two cents. I really wanted to share this one place to them that had, what I thought was, great wifi, great coffee, and the people now knew me.  We start walking over there, keep in mind it's about a 7 minute walk, and talked to each other, tried to do homework, and caught up with our families. The guys decided it was a great coffee shop... just not great for wifi and weren't coming back. I was kinda pleased in the sense that I could have the place all to myself but sad that they didn't really like it. Oh well. Everyone's tastes are different. :P We then went to dinner in which case there's another funny story.

  When we were talking about what to do for dinner John suggested the steak place which Max and I were all over that idea. Tortillas and Tacos get tiring after awhile. Well... we get to the place and discover it's a taco place... a steak taco place. Max and I look at each other like "what the heck just happened?" and ask John. He's all like "Oh yeah! That's what I meant." O.....k? Well... I was personally looking forward to steak but... I'm grateful for any food to be honest. I'm not picky. ;) Anymore. During dinner I got this great idea from my dear friend Amanda Forman to look on wikipedia for the most random questions to ask people you know. Through that we had a pretty great time and learned more about each other than before.

  We're starting our 3rd week. In many ways it's gone by very slowly but also SUPER fast! It's not all that I expected but I'm coming to realize rarely in life are things what we expect. However, it's what God planned and ultimately I want to be in the center of His will. That's the best place to be. I mean, would you rather you be the one in control of your life? You who doesn't know that future? Or God who has your best interests at heart and who knows everything? Yeah. That's what I thought. God has been slowly showing me that many times what I think is best for me... really isn't. I've come to the end of myself many times already this trip and it's only by the grace of God that I'm still alive and conquerer through Christ. He has shown me many of my weaknesses and oh how many there are. However, He has also showed me that I am a new creation and He is molding me into a beautiful being. Even in the midst of my many failures God continues to use me. My prayer always is not me but Christ in me. The all consuming hope of glory.

 I have a very big prayer request. I've really not been doing well physically. I don't know if it's just spiritual attack or what. But it's been extremely difficult for me to function well this entire week. Please pray that I would be restored to full health and would continue to be able to serve God without hinderances. A praise report was that this weekend, when I was in a lot of pain, I prayed that my pain would be relieved enough to do the kids program... and it was! I was in pain before and after but not during. To God be the glory in ALL things.

 Ash-Bash