My First Thoughts

It is now 22 days till departure and counting down. I am amazed and thankful that God has given me the opportunity to be a small part of what he is doing in Argentina. When I happened to see the notice in the church bulletin for this trip my first thought was “I could do that”. Then I looked at the date September 29–October 7, and said to myself, “there is no way that’s happening” September and October are the busiest months of the year for us at work. The thought never enter my mind again until Pastor Jay mentioned it to me a few months later. By then God had prepared my heart through a study of Knowing and Doing the Will of God by Henry Blackbye. It was at this point that I began to pray and take the trip seriously. I then asked the Executive Vice President at work and to my surprise she was very positive, commenting, this opportunity may never happen again let’s see if we can work it out. Hmmm… God was already at work behind the scene!

The first team meeting was very interesting because we got to meet everyone who was considering going on this trip. It was during this meeting that I learned we each had to write a fund raising letter. I must confess there was a little stress over this letter because I greatly dislike asking people for money and I struggle writing. But with a little personal prodding and many hours of mental sweat a letter was produced and mailed.

Now the ongoing challenge is the language! There is no way this old brain is going to learn Spanish in six weeks. The best thing is to learn a few words and phrases. I have discovered that it’s easier to learn individual words then sentences and phrases. I keep telling myself that God’s love will shine through the language short comings. We shall see.