saludos y besos from the Campo

Alright, this post might be a little tricky, because the PVC team that went down in February (if any of them are reading this blog...maybe that assumption is presumptuous on my part) will already know about things.  Dona Teresa, Letti, Juan and Claudio all raved about you guys, and how much it meant to them.  They wanted to give you kisses and greetings from Las Bajadas.  They remembered you all and asked about you.  I am proud to be from the same church as you all!

So, for all of you who don't know....

Las Bajadas is an hour outside of Cordoba, way out in the country-- it reminds me of the way I would imagine a hacienda in a spaghetti western.  Every other Sunday Roman and Bethany host a house church out there.  Yesterday was the day :)  We got there in the morning at about 9am and left at 8pm.  Not a single word of English was spoken.  I. Was. Exhausted.  But, it was extremely rewarding on that front. 

[Argentine Spanish is very distinct, and quite hard to understand if all you are used to is academic professor speech.  They aspirate their "s", they have Italian influence in their inflection, and of course they use the "zsch" sound in place of every "y".]

There was a group of about 20 people who all gathered at Juan and Letti's house, which is actually Roman's, willed to him by his father.  Letti is Roman's niece and she lives there now.  We all talked and drank mate (one cup that gets passed around....broke down some of my barriers) and ate sweet breads until lunch, then we ate grilled chicken and salad, then we had church, then we drank more mate and talked some more.  I had one child or another on my lap almost all day, never mind the 80 degree weather.  I actually really appreciate this physically demonstrative culture.

Ezekiel in his Rural King hat :)

Ezekiel is a 13 soon to be 14 year old boy with a lot of reasons to be angry...and he is.   While Bethany was teaching the children's group and Roman was with the adults I took out a screaming baby to bounce around the yard on my hip for a while.  Ezekiel was also there, and I talked to him some...I also made him laugh because I claimed I could juggle and then proceeded to prove myself wrong with a few fallen oranges.  He is heavy on my heart.  If you wanted to pray for someone....He is Alejandra's son (Ale is getting married to Danny in about 2 weeks)

Side note:  I am going to be the photographer at Alejandra and Danny's wedding.  They joked about how fancy of an event it was to have flown a photographer in all the way from the US.

Everyone kept laughing about how my dad was the one that said when the baby was crying "give me the baby, I have experience" and then proceeded to walk for over an hour with no success....unfortunately I think I have the same luck with her...must be genetic.  I tried, Dad.

Elli took this picture of Brandon, Abbi and I.  'AT&T... more bars in more places.'

It hasn't rained since March

Letti and Juan...I snuck a picture.  I don't want anyone to feel like they are a bug collection with how many pictures I wanted to take.

This is the moment that I showed Allen a picture of my dad.  He ran over to his mom and hid his face in her apron...so I wouldn't see him cry at all.

Allen wanted me to take this picture, "your dad will like it" he said :)

At the end of the day we dropped off the 50 lbs of Bibles that filled Erin's suitcase #2.  Alejandra and Danny's house just made me think:  God is so big that He sees all of this, and everyone in the world all at the same time.  He hears their prayers for their needs and my prayers for mine.  By comparison, how big of a God He is that He still cares about mine.  Did that thought make sense?  Maybe not.  Point being, He is so far beyond my understanding, and I am SO thankful for His love, and that He meets each of us where we are at.  How kind.  How...just wow.  God is big.