Hace mucho...

So, I keep telling myself that I need to write an update, and then I keep refusing to do so. I don't even know how long it's been since I wrote last and am afraid to check because I might decided to wait to finish this post until later. So I'll do my best to quickly update you on the happennings over the past week and a half or so.

In general, there have been much less days that I've just sat around the house. One of the families that I'm friends with moved to a block away from me, so I can walk over to hang out with the mom and crazy 3 year old whenever I feel like it pretty much, which is rather wonderful. Every time I ring the doorbell, the little boy yells, "PAPI!!!!" and acts mad at me when he sees that I'm not his dad, while trying to hide a smile. He is a terror and completely precious at the same time...and such a boy, but he still needs to learn play fighting versus really punching someone hard (well, as hard as a 3 yr old can punch) and to tone down throwing everything in sight.

I've spent a lot more time with another friend from Carcova, either walking with her to and from kindergarten, or in and out of the villa, or hanging out at her house or the shop/house of her friends. We watched the final Argentina game together, the first time I've even been inside of the villa on an Argentina game day, and we blamed her husband for the loss since he watched the game at another house and not with us.

The last few days have been incredibly warm and beautiful! Thank you Jesus! But since I last blogged, its been back and forth and pretty cold at times, especially in the evening, even with a very strong sun during the day...typical winter days I guess. Thankfully it's only snowed once in the last 30 years or so, so I don't have too much to worry about with the cold.

What else? I've had the opportunity to talk with more women from the church, at their homes, and actually ask them questions to gather specific data, PTL. It's beginning to feel like com dev work. I've been realizing lately how many things God has been teaching me here, not only an abundance of lessons in my personal walk with Christ, but also an incredible amount of learning is taking place every day that I am here, even if it feels like I haven't been doing much work. I've been attending a weekly women's Bible study for the past 3 weeks now and consequently invited to other events and now, I even attend events (alone) that I haven't been explicitly invited to by someone. This really excites me because it makes me feel like I have a little more freedom. And the people are just as welcoming and when I'm not at a church event later ask me why they didn't see me. Also, I was invited to join the praise team practice tonight so I could learn the songs as they practice. I'm so excited to go! Normally I try to at least understand what they're singing...there are no overheads of the music or programs or songbooks with the words that they're singing..so it has been very hard for me to worship with them in singing.

I also met with another church, in the Bajo, and we had a meeting the past Monday so that I could share with them and know them in a more intimate setting. That meeting ended up being almost 4 hours, whew. I had no translator, as normal. But my accent was so terrible for them, I think my nerves were getting the best of me, that one woman who did understand me would translate my badly formed words of castellano into their castellano. And just when I thought my castellano was improving, it's really much worse than I ever thought. Awesome. But really, it wasn't that bad. And my 'translator' explained it much bettter than I could, and exactly in the way that I wanted to, but couldn't.

Things at my house have improved immensely, praise the Lord. But I've noticed that I am feeling pretty homesick at times, because returning to the house here, where I still have to understand and speak castellano, doesn't quite have the same effect as returning to my hall at Covenant or to my home with my family. And I miss that. A lot. Not to the point where I feel like I have to come home right now, but I just miss the little comforts of home and being surrounded by people who have known me most of my life or just know me well and whom I know well.

I wish I could share pictures with you. I have a number on my camera, which I finally figured out how to make the charger work a while back...but I don't have the right connection to my computer with me. The card won't fit and I forgot the USB thing. So you might have to wait until I get home for me to post them, but I'll try to figure out a way to upload them while I'm here.

Praise:

-God is with me every step of the way. He's already provided immensely and continues to do so!

-Flu season has kinda started here and I am not sick...even with all the Mate drinking!

-The beautiful sun and the discovery of stairs in the garage that lead to a place where I can sit and work in the sun. :)

-People are very welcoming.

-I have friends here and no longer have specific boy-issues (yay! some of you no what that means, if you don't just know God steered me through what we'll call a potential problem).

-God's opening my eyes to many things and teaching me an incredible amount.

-The blessing of days like today that are rainy and cold, meaning I can stay inside, rest, and write.

Prayer:

-That I'll continue to keep my focus on Christ alone, trusting that he will guide my works and my remaining days

-That I will have wisdom when not to drink Mate and will stay hydrated and well rested.

-More beautiful days and opportunities to walk around Carcova.

-Continued guidance and wisdom in frienships...to not be naive if someone is trying to use my friendship or take advantage of my time or possibly money and if so not to judge, but to handle the situation with wisdom.

-That I will apply the things God is teaching me and that I will take note of it all.

-That I will write all that I need to and include as much as possible and be able to sift through all of the information to find the underlying truths.

-That God will give be more opportunities to interview (formal/informal, whatever) people: man, woman, Christian or other.

-That He will strengthen me for all the He has for me in the remaining time that I have here.

Wow, this post turned out longer than I thought. And now that I'm in writing mood, I'm going to work on other things as well.

Thanks for reading and for your prayers.

Love and miss you all!

Claire