Argentina!

Since I've last written, I turned 22. Spent my birthday traveling to Argentina. Spent the next 10 days in Argentina. Encountered God in some new amazing ways. Learned some very important lessons. Made some wonderful new friends.

Seriously--God is GOOD!

I have a ton of stories to share from Argentina, and I will try to post them periodically over the next few weeks.

But for tonight, I'll just share one. On our first ministry day in Argentina, our team's bus driver got confused and took us to the wrong place...then we got back to the church that was our meeting point and were going to have to wait for a translator before we could do anything. So, we're sitting in the bus chilling out, and Mario (our coordinator) comes up and apologizes for us having to wait. All of a sudden, one of the people on the team goes--well Toni speaks Spanish. And...all of a sudden, I was a translator.

What an experience! It was crazy, but I think it actually went okay. The students totally seemed to understand what I was saying, and what was even more amazing--every time I couldn't think of a word, the kids knew exactly what word I was looking for. There is no way that they all were that fluent in English, so I totally think that God performed a miracle, so that these kids could learn more about Him. I couldn't be more excited or humbled to be used by Him in such a way! Thank you Lord for the chance to serve you, it is an incredible priviledge.

Lord I believe, help my unbelief

It seems that one of the only consistent things about myself is that I have trouble believing. I moved home, then worried life was passing me by. I decided to go back to school, but worry maybe I should have pursued a job. I got a job, and I'm worrying that I settled and that I could be much better off if I hadn't.

And although my life is full of stories of God doing incredible things, and reminding me to trust Him over and over...this still seems to be one of my life's biggest struggles. I signed up to go to Argentina with my church this summer. I waited and waited to get going on my fundraising--lazy, I know... But then, I found out I had missed apayment deadline--I needed $600 in 2 days before I found out, and sadly I only had $145 raised. And not only that--a week later, another $500 was due. I FREAKED. But after I calmed down, I decided that I was going to trust God and get to work on raising funds and just see what happened.

A mere THREE weeks later, God had paid completely for my trip! Not only that, I was able to give money to other people on our team to help them in their fundraising as well.

You know...I think that I let my mind run away with me sometimes and it helps my heart forget the lessons it has learned.



I guess it's more of a process than I used to think. :)