VAMOS A LA PLAYA

Vamos a la playa.....A mi me gusta bailar....el ritmo de la noche....sounds of fiesta!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Oq0CPXPtHs&feature=relmfu

Tomorrow morning we are leaving for the playa (beach)!! Bright and early but we are all excited! Due to all of our excitement, and CJ instilling the lyrics into our brains, the opening line has been sung multiple times in the past 24 hours.

Due to my lack of blogging the last couple nights (all for good reason), I will attempt to catch you all up on the past couple days of my life.

MONDAY: Got in a good morning run with Jenna and Courtney which included quiet time at the top of Las Peñas.  Had great spiritual conversations on campus as I went out sharing with Hannah.  We talked with 3 different Christians throughout the day which was cool because part of starting a spiritual movement on campus is discipling the Christians that are already on campus and getting them involved, not just bringing together new believers.  Monday night's dinner included this deliciousness:

a steak sandwich with plantains and avocados on a pretzel like roll with french fries! It is called the Guayaquileño.

TUESDAY: Ran again but minus Courtney so just Jenna and I.  Jason and I have discipleship on Tuesdays so we went out sharing beforehand. We had a spiritual conversation with a guy who chose to accept Christ as his Lord and Savior but the conversation had its complications. He had been fed a lot of different truths from other religions and denominations so he wasn't really sure what he believed.  He only spoke Spanish and was asking questions that would've been hard to answer in English so Jason and I tried our best.  We arranged a follow up to meet and talk more on Wednesday (which unfortunately fell through) but pray that God just speaks His truth to Tony and the rest of the new believers on the campuses.  It is very easy to get deceived or build a foundation of faith on lies during a new and exploring relationship in Christ.  Tuesday night was guys night dinner and then a Bible study that talked about being empowered by the Holy Spirit, our theme for Summer Project.

WEDNESDAY: Ran again (3 days in row...might be a new record!). Sharing on campus was great as Megan and I went out sharing with Carlos Luis and Alex...two of our new Ecuadorian friends at ESPOL.  While we didn't see anyone come to Christ, it was so awesome to go sharing with a student from the campus. Carlos Luis went with me to share and it is sooo helpful to have someone that speaks fluent Spanish and great English, it helps to make the conversation run smoothly! Then later Helen and I did a prayer walk through the campus which was so awesome. Dinner was with co-op groups which basically were small groups split up to encourage closer team bonding.  I was with Ashley and Ann, such a great group!  We went to this bakery/deli/restaurant place which served to our benefits as we had both dinner and dessert!  We spent quality time sharing each of our personal stories, which was awesome to hear how each of us got here.  God definitely picked a diverse team to be here, with all of us taking different paths, but Ecuador is right where we are supposed to be. God is doing great things here and his presence is definitely known :)

THURSDAY (TODAY): Ran some more but got CJ to tag along (I think I can officially say 4 days in a row is a personal record). Piña jugo for breakfast, one of my favorites!  I went sharing with Hannah and Ashley today as we had a conversation with a guy who said he didn't really have any religion. He listened to our Gospel presentation and after chose to accept Christ! He of course had plenty of questions (speaking very little English) but the Holy Spirit has definitely been feeding me the words to say as I have been more and more confident with my Spanish.  Pray that the language barrier wouldn't be an issue in sharing the Gospel, as about half the team doesn't know Spanish or very little. We helped with Daniel's Bible study today as we got to disciple the Christian students who came.  We went through the "millas" (miles) with them which are worksheets designed to help with understanding your personal walk with the Lord.  There are 10 "millas" in total which start with the basics and work up to some more personal evaluations.  The afternoon was well spent but unfortunately included a Germany defeat (sorry Megan) but it was still fun watching the game in suspense.  Dinner was as a team at the oh so wonderful TRES PEY(P)! The night concluded with project fun night which included fireworks, dance party, cards and FARCLE.  A new addicting game that comes with consequences.  It's all in the roll of the die but certain combination give points and last person to accumulate 10,000 pts is faced with a consequence. After losing in a game of farcle on Tuesday, I am now faced with the consequence of only being able to speak using sock pockets for the entire 4 hour car ride to the beach tomorrow....that should be fun! (sarcasm)....the secret is now out but everyone is asleep so they will all be surprised when I bust out my Golem (LOTR) interpretation for the right hand and Smoker Joe (made up character) for the left hand.  There were more than likely be videos...but wish me luck!

It is now time for SLEEP (my favorite 5 letter word besides JESUS)....Goodnight everyone!

Vamos a la playa.....A mi me gusta bailar....el ritmo de la noche....sounds of fiesta!
(check out the song and you can thank me later)