Psalm 32:8

La Mesa, Cundinamarca, Colombia, is a town filled with so many lovely people. I often have asked myself ¨What am i doing living so close to the equator where the temperature is in the 90´s with high humidity most of the time?¨ The relationships that i am forming make everything worthwhile and i quickly forget about my ¨not liking hot weather.¨ I have had a wonderful time so far and have done so many cool things. I´m going to attempt to explain what i have been doing so far.
I arrived in La Mesa on Friday, November 2nd. We were welcomed by a meal prepared by our host families. The pastor´s wife gave each of us a different Bible verse. The verse i received has been an incredible comfort so far. ¨The Lord says I will guide you along the best pathways for your life, I will watch over you.¨-Psalm 32:8- My family is made up of 5 people, Martin(dad), Elsy(mom), Andres(18), Ana Maria(9), and Stephanie(8). The first night home was a bit overwhelming and sort of an awkward evening. By the time we left the meal at the church and arrived at home, it was fairly late. Hardly any socializing/getting to know you, happened that evening. My first 2 days consisted of walking through the town getting to know where things were located. We also went to the youth group for the 1st time, and attended 2 our of 3 church services. We introduced ourselves to the church by talking and by sharing a song that we had prepared. We sang ¨Great is Thy Faithfulness.¨ My first work week i spent going to the school and meeting the teachers and some of the students. The school is called Colegio Americano Menno, and there are 500 students from Kindergarten to 11th grade.That week was their last week of school and the school was having their time of festivities. Each class prepared something special like a performance, and all the classrooms were decorated in different themes. We definately got to see the creative side of the school. In that week i also got to go to Anapoima. Anapoima is the next town down the mountain where my host parents, Martin & Elsy, are ministering and working at planting a church with some communities of families. Anapoima is a resort town and many people from Bogota have their vacation homes there. It is also a town where there is a lot of money, but there is also the exact opposite which is poverty. There are two communities which are located at the edges of the town. Falling of the cliff is a very real danger. There are many families that live all together and in some cases there are eight people living in one room. Each community is one big family so if something majot happens to one person, it affects everyone. Martin and Elsy have been working with these families and teaching them the gospel. There are two women who were baptized and this Sunday another lady will be baptized. There are many children so we are hoping to begin some english classes for the kids and adults too.
The first week we did many things for the first time but we also worked on our relationships with our families and getting to know them on a personal level. I got to know my family better at times when we are all around the dinner table, as well as when we are playing games together. It has been great interacting with my family and learning their stories.
I had only been in La Mesa a week and i had the chance to go on an eight hour trip to Garzon which is in the department of Huila. There were about 25 people who went, and we stayed at a church in the town. The church had planned revival meetings that weekend, so we helped and participated in those services. The team that went also prepared skits in the parks, and we did some evangelism throughout the town. It was pretty cool at how open people were to talking, and the interest to study the Bible was very high. The hour of skits in the parks brought in many people, both old and young. At one of the parks there were some soldiers that stopped and watched the presentation. Most of the people that watched the skits stayed for the whole time. The response of the people saying how much they liked the skits, and thought it was cool that people did those things was very encouraging to the team.
I am also taking Spanish classes twice a week, and am writting a lot of Spanish. Our group is also teaching some English at the comedor( a soup kitchen for kids) which is a project of the church. We have also gone on some school trips with different clubs at the school. I also spend some of my time translating for some of my fellow group members.
My time over all has been a blessing, and i am continually learning new things every day.

i figured that it's probably time for me to blog...

So i have been thinking a lot about stuff, just everything. I always find myself thinking so i guess that's a good thing. So i just spent 5 days at home. My time at home was good. It was not fun at times, a bit overwhelming, and i also found myself asking where my time had gone. Although it was great because God spoke to me in a way that i did not expect. I found Him asking me to love Him with all of my heart. I have to fall in love with God and i'm not sure if i have yet. Now as i leave for Bogota tomorrow morning, i find myself wanting to love God, and figure out what it means to be a child of God. So that is what i am working on.

Now i am in Miami and these are just random things i am thinking about...
When i was home it was cold. The one night it was in the 40's... yesterday, i spend the day in the beach. I believe that it was 86 degrees out, and i got a tan. It's crazy how different the temperature is wherever you are in the world. Oh and i just checked the weather in Bogota, and it will be in the 60's and high 50's this whole next week.
Last night i went to the Lighthouse which is a small church downtown. The church was great and so homie. The speaker spoke about the Samaritan woman at the well, and he said that we need to take the monkey suit off. He also said that we need to ask the questions, and face the truth, like Jesus asked the questions and the Samaritan woman had to face the truth. This morning i went to a spanish church, which was a lot of fun. The speaker started the sermon by playing the music to Mission Impossible. He said that our mission is not impossible but instead is possible.
Traveling can be tiring. Getting here was quite adventurous for some of us. Rachel had some unfortunate happenings. Both of her suitcases had a painful experience getting here to Miami. Today we spend the afternoon "fixing" them, but we decided that only one was fixable and it would be better if she just replaced the other one. After eating at a Cuban restaurant, we 5 were off to find a suitcase. Walgreens was in sight, so we went in, and found a suitcase! We were happy, and walked out of the store all talkative and joyful. Then.... it started pouring, so we walked home in the rain soaking wet! It was quite the experience. I am so thankful for the friends that i have made that i can enjoy these experiences with, even if it means walking home wet.

moving day/the DOOR van

i love weekends! so today i woke up at 8 a.m. and quickly ate because today was the big moving day for Krista [our director, but really is the DOOR (another program through mennonite mission network) director.] so 4 of us RADers went along with Brian (our downstairs neighbor, and the assistant director for DOOR) and hopped in the DOOR van and headed to Krista's old home. As we were turning to get onto the highway we saw a cop behind us. We kept going and then Brian saw the lights and the cop had pulled us over. I realized i did not have my seatbelt on so i quickly snapped it on. Two cops came up to our van, one on the driver's side and the other on the passenger side. The cop talked very harshly to Brian and told him to put his keys on the roof. Brian put them on the dashboard and the cop sternly said, "Give them to me." This seemed odd to me because i have never heard of a cop asking someone to put their keys on the roof, it was weird. So then the cop asked for liscence and registration. The cop had said that the car screened to be a stolen vehicle. Brian tried to explain that the van was owned by DOOR and that he was the assistant director. Earlier in the spring the van had been stolen but was later found. Krista had previously been pulled over and had gone to court to defend herself and that the van was found and it was not stolen, the court people had said that they were going to change the vehicle's status, but obviously they had not done this yet. Brian called Krista on the phone while the cop was present and the cop decided to let us go. When he decided to let us go, we saw a tow truck pull up behind the cop's car. It was ridiculous that the cop had already called a tow truck to take the van away. As we were driving away, Brian made a comment that he was surprized that we were not arrested and on our way to jail. So we got to Krista and Jim's home and started the moving process. It was really unfortunate that they lived on the 3rd floor of the house, it definately made things more challenging. Oh the staircase was pretty narrow and had some turns as well. We got things moved out and into the Uhaul. Our assembly line made moving the furniture and boxes much easier. So we filled the truck and Rachel, Caitlyn and i hopped in the van with Brian and headed to the new home, which is visible from our house. When we were a block away we saw flashing lights, and were being pulled over by another cop! Now we were all laughing and saying how ridiculous this was. The second cop came up to the window and was much more pleasant. He was very friendly and asked for license and a registration. He was very understanding and just asked Brian to get the status of the van changed. Then he let us go. We eventually finished moving all their stuff into their new home, and finished of the process by eating pizza together for lunch.
The whole being pulled over experience made me question some things. It made me wonder why the first 2 cops were so rude and mean. The second time we were pulled over the cop was much nicer. The first 2 cops were also white, and the second cop was hispanic. Also why did they choose to screen our van? it is an older van but was it because Brian is black, and was accompanied by 3 white girls? Did Brian fit the status as a thief of a vehicle? i don't know it's something to think about...

i don't really know how to title this....

so these are some things that stuck out from reading Blue Like Jazz...

"There are plenty of things that are true that don't make any sense. I think one of the problems Laura was having was that she wanted God to make sense. He doesn't. He will make no more sense to me than i will make sense to an ant."

"I don't think you can explain how Christian faith works either. It is a mystery. And i love this about Christian spirituality. It cannot be explained, and yet it is beautiful and true. It is something you feel, and it comes from the soul."

"There is something quite beautiful about the Grand Canyon at night. There is something beautiful about a billion stars held steady by a God who knows what He is doing. They hand there, the stars, like notes on a page of music, free-form verse, silent mysteries swirling in the blue like jazz."

"I lay there under the stars and thought of what a great responsibility it is to be human. I am human because God made me. I experience suffering and temptation because mankind chose to follow Satan. God is reaching out to me to rescue me. I am learning to trust Him, learning to live by His precepts that i might be preserved."

"Loneliness is something that happens to us, but i think it is something we can move ourselves out of...Jesus does not want us floating through space or sitting in front of our televisions. Jesus wants us interacting, eating together, laughing together, praying together. Loneliness is something that came with the fall. If loving people is a bit of heaven then certainly isolation is a bit of hell."

"If we are not willing to wake up in the morning and die to ourselves, perhaps we should ask ourselves whether or not we are really following Jesus."

"God's love will never change us if we don't accept it."

"I think the difference in my life came when i realized, after reading those Gospels, that Jesus didn't just love me out of principle; He didn't just love me because it was the right thing to do. Rather, there was something inside me that caused Him to love me."

"The first generation out of slavery invented jazz music. It is a music birthed out of freedom. And that is the closest thing i know to Christian spirituality. A music birthed out of freedom. Everybody sings their song the way they feel it, everybody closes their eyes and lifts up their hands."

yeah festivals!

So this weekend was pretty good. There are many festivals every weekend in Chicago, and this past weekend there was the World Music Festival, The Celtic Festival, and a Cheesecake Festival. On Saturday i headed to the conservatory with Rachel, Caitlyn, and Kevin. It is only 5 blocks from my house. I went there to hear a musical group from Africa. They were part of the World Music Festival. I really enjoyed their music, it was very distinct in sound, and just so much fun to listen to. At the conservatory there was also a "country fair," going on and on the banner there was a chicken, but in real life there weren't even any chickens there... but they had some ponies that kids were riding. It just made me laugh at how they tried to countrinize(i'm pretty sure i just made this word up, but don't worry it's ok) the city. I also checked out the European fair at the conservatory, and i bought a few things:)After debating forever on what to eat we chose to buy tacos(i know. i, melina ate mexican.) The tacos were 2 stinkin dollars and they were sooo little. I was still hungry but i decided not to buy any more food because we were headed to the Cheesecake festival. It took us quite a while to get there, because it was way out in the suburbs. When we arrived i signed up to get a free cheesecake, but i was dissapointed because we could only get 1 free. I sort of expected it to be more of sampling different kinds of cheesecake. So after a long day we went home, and watched the first half of Annie. Yesterday was church day. I went to a church down the road, and lets just say it was very interesting... Then in the afternoon i went to Megan's ordination. She is the pastor at the Mennonite church next door. The service was beautiful and after the service we ate an amazing Indian dinner. So that is basically a summary of my weekend. oh i almost forgot... yeah Steelers!!! they won as well...

Slacking at work...

So yesterday was friday...which meant the weekend had arrived! Rachel and I work at the YMCA in the evenings, and help kids with homework after school. Normally there are around 12 kids that come to the club, but yesterday only 2 girls showed up. Mr. Issac (one of the teachers) announced to us that we were going to race. I was a little not sure of what this race was going to be like. Then Mr. Issac and the girls, Erika and Elisha, started bringing out the race track. I then realized that we were going to race remote control cars. The races was wonderful, i was pretty bad, but it was a great way to spend a Friday afternoon.

-ballet-lake-journaling-help the children-

On Wednesday night Rachel, Amy, Stephanie, and I decided to head downtown to watch a ballet performance in Millenium Park. We got there a little late and after only being there for 15 minutes the performers bowed, people clapped, and some began to leave. We were so confused on why the performance was so short. So, we decided to head to the lake, and check it out. We got to see many boats, and the view of the city was gorgeous. When it got dark we decided it was time to head home. On our way back we started hearing music that seemed to be coming from the park. Our curiosity got the best of us and we were quickly drawn towards the music. We then realized that the music was for the ballet, and we had left during intermission. We felt pretty stupid.
Yesterday was Rachel's birthday...Happy Birthday Rachel!!! anyways... Krista had her Dutt's discipline on journaling. She ended up taking us out in the city to 4 different locations. At the locations she read Psalm 30 and we were to journal after she finished reading. The four locations were all very different. One location was at a park, the next was at a train stop downtown, then we were in a food court, and then on a art statue at a farmer's market. Some verses that stuck out to me were... "But joy comes in the moring..." "You have clothed me so my soul will praise you and not be silent..." "You have saved me from those gone before me in the pit..." In the afternoon we worked with an organization that was called Helping Children Of Abuse. Basically we went downtown, stood on a street corner, and asked for money. This was so out of my comfort zone. I found it very hard to do, but it helped me think of my attitude and how i normally react to people asking for money. So... How do YOU react to people when they stop you on a street corner for money?

Stories...

Today was officially my 8th day living in the grand city of Chicago, IL. I feel as if i am getting to know the RAD people i am living with fairly well by just spending time together. Although today i have gotten to know everyone on a whole different level. We spent the whole day telling our personal stories. I was very scared when i first learned that we were doing this because i tend to have a hard time opening up. When i realized that we were all on the same boat, and that it was going to be hard to open up for others as well, then my fear seemed to disappear. It was good to laugh at funny parts in our lives, but i also felt so close to everyone when we cried together. It is great to be living in a house where everyone trusts and respects each other.

hello all!!! as you can see i started a blog. i will be keep posting my different experiences in my year spent with RAD both in Chicago and in Columbia...