Give thanks with a grateful heart.

In the United States there is a very special Thursday in November. Americans set aside a day to give thanks for their blessings. They spend the day relaxing, eating, remembering their heritage, and most importantly; cherishing the special people in their lives. All of those things they give thanks for.

Well this year on Thanksgiving Day things were a little different. I've celebrated 17 of these holidays without really giving a true thought of what it's all about. Of course I know the story of the pilgrims and of course I give thanks to God every year for all the blessings in my life, but until I celebrated a year without those blessings did I really realize my gratitude.

This year I gave thanks to God for my past, present, and future!

My Past.
I remembered all the past holidays running around the house with my cousins and brothers and watching football after lunch. I remembered the days leading up to Thanksgiving, baking and cooking with my mom and sisters. I remembered hearing laughter from my Uncles, Grandpa, and Dad, as my Mom, Grandma, and my Aunts took warm, delicious food out of the oven for dinner. I remembered all the things I've done over the years during Thanksgiving break with my dear, dear friends.
All these memories made it hard to be away from Iowa this year but also filled me with joy at what a blessed background and past I have.

My Present.
Thanksgiving Day 2012 I spent sharing some of our traditions with my "Bolivian sister" as we spent the day preparing an American Thanksgiving Dinner. All afternoon we spent time in the kitchen together trying to get the recipes just right for Sweet Potatoes, Stuffing, Green Bean Casserole, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, & a big ole Chicken (We worked with what we had!).
When all was cooked and ready we slowly heard the doorbell ring as visitor after visitor came in. My "Bolivian cousins" brought Creamed Corn Casserole and Cranberries, a Bolivian friend brought juices, a Bolivian family brought a dessert, and another American stationed here brought homemade Pumpkin Pie! Everyone brought something and everyone loved the opportunity to share and experience a new, foreign holiday. It truly was a Thanksgiving to remember! As we sat in a circle eating, we all shared things that we are thankful for. We didn't just say we were thankful but truly said "Doy gracias a Dios por..." ("I give thanks to God for..."). They said they like that there is day not to ask God for things, not to make your request and issues known to Him but to just simply thank Him. Maybe in the future this tradition will keep going here :)

My Future.
I don't know my next step in life yet. I have a few options and completely different paths I can go down. At times that thought overwhelms and frustrates me...but it shouldn't. Instead I should be so happy with the opportunities that lie ahead of me. So as I laid in bed after a long day of up & down emotions I just thanked God that He knows the plans He has for me.
He held me then. He holds me now. And He will continue to hold me in my future.




Sweet Potatoes!


Posing? Nooooo.


Dinner time!


Enjoying the food?


A great cooking partner :) So much fun!

Give thanks to the Lord, He is good;
His love endures forever! Psalm 118:1

Navidad with the Center.

NAVIDAD!
Keeping in mind that the season are opposite in the Southern Hemisphere, the schools here are almost ready for summer break. With only a week left with the kids until they return in February, we celebrated Christmas with the kids on Friday! (Yes, same day as The Feria…a little crazy!)

As much as it warmed my heart to see these kids blessed by these presents and love from The Center I only hope to be able to share some of that happiness with you all. Many of you who supported me on this trip can be given many thanks! The presents we gave to the kids came from the team’s donations. I was able to give because of all the out pour of support I was given. I can’t thank you enough and stress enough how much that is doing in the lives of the children and families here!

Each girl and boy received a gift that suited their gender as well as a huge inflatable ball. I’m still not sure how they managed to get home with all their goodies from the day but they sure did, with huge smiles spread across their faces!

So thank you to everyone for your support! Here's a few pictures to share!

Feria!

This last week was a busy one. In telling you all about the activities I don’t want to forget anything and will split this into two blogs. I will start with explaining what “Feria” means to my team and I here at The Center.

Feria is an afternoon full of enegery, fun, and blessings for the children of The Center. All year they are given points based on their attendance and behavior at The Center. When a feria comes around they use those points to “buy” (with fake money: premios) food, toys, clothes, and play games. The children are given cards which are marked off by our team once they have passed each station. We want them to use their premios evenly between the four stations of food, clothes, toys, and games instead of piling up on just one.

Our Week
Now that you know that I’ll describe our week! A morning gluing and cutting the cards for every kid, an afternoon making all the premios (fake money), an evening of organizing 20+ garbage bags of clothes, an evening wrapping Christmas presents, and filling envelopes and making gift tags for every kid from The Center. All of that with afternoon center, morning construction, and Spanish lessons. Yes, it’s safe to say we were all busy and overwhelmed all week.

Friday we took the loads of things up to The Center. The kids were waiting outside the gate over an hour early. When we later opened the gates the kids watched a short drama of Jesus and the little children. We then celebrated the birthdays in October, November, December of the kids. They were given presents as the whole bunch of us sang to them (something we do for the kids every three months).  We then lined them up for The Feria. Within minutes there were anxious, smiling faces running from station to station. If you think Black Friday in The States is crazy, you'd have some major competition with these little folks.

At the end of The Feria we asked them to hold up their goodie bags. Black bags full of toys, clothes, and food were held above every one's heads. This picture doesn't do justice of portraying what a success and blessing Friday was for the kids!

Saturday We once again hauled things up the hill but instead of going to the school we went to the construction site of our new center. We invited the families of all the kids to come there on Saturday for a couple reason. 1) The parents participated in their own feria of food and adult sized/baby sized clothing. 2) We wanted to introduce them to the new center and share with them our plans. What we didn't realize was how seeing all the families there at the center would help our vision click in our minds.

Our Vision:  Taquiña is the name of the region we are reaching. It is actually a beer factory set up on the north side of the city, pretty far up a hill into the mountains but they use that name as the reference point. There is a community of people who live there and the children's school is located within walking distance.
In the coming year our team is doing some major changes to help reach out to Taquiña's teenagers, adults, and families. Starting a women's ministry, Bible studies, and other outreaches we are hoping not only to help these people with their physical needs but also their spiritual needs too!
Please Pray
That we would have far more than just a humanitarian effect on these people's lives!

Something about this city.

Last weekend I put on my tourist pants for the first time. I went right ahead and shot for a real touristy day!
The most famous thing about this city is The Cristo de la Concordia, without a doubt. This is the largest statue of Christ (Yes, larger than the one in Rio) in the world. Towering over this city you can see The Cristo from any location in Cochabamba. It is nice and symbolic to think that Jesus Christ is watching over this city or that it is especially blessed because of the statue but that's all rubbish.
    For the first time in my months of being here I saw it up close and personal last Saturday! We rode a cable car/ski lift sort of thing to the top of the hill and there it was. Wow. I've seen many pictures of this statue but standing at the feet is something pictures can't do justice of. We even got a chance to walk inside the statue (10 stories of the 12) and look out at the city of Cochabamba. And that is where my story for today starts....

This is Cochabamba, Bolivia everybody! Beautiful, no? When I stood there looking out on this city my heart was so stirred. I didn't feel like a tourist at all, like I had planned for the day. Immediately this verse came to my mind;

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed." Luke 4:18
  Before coming here I studied this verse with International Teams. Many times you will find in the Bible the emphasis on poor, slave, blind, oppressed (Isaiah 61:1, 35:3-6, 42:7, Luke 7:22). The Bible repeats a calling to bring them the gospel, the hope of forgiveness, food, and freedom, both spiritually and physically. The Lord has put such a strong desire on my heart to serve Him here. This city is full of people who are spiritually oppressed, physically poor, and mentally captive to false preaching and idolatry.

    So as I stood up there under the feet of one of the most famous tourist attractions in the world I was not phased at all. What I was moved by was the site of this breath taking city I was looking out on. A city that I have been brought to for a purpose. I could have gone anywhere but Christ brought me here. I know more and more each day that there is a purpose for me and my life here.

Please Pray that God would continue to show me His plan for me here.
That he would open even more doors for evangelizing and relationship building.
Most importantly, pray that God would do great things in this city and that He would soften their hearts to receive Him!