These past few weeks have been really cool. Everything has started to come to a close, and preparation has begun for going home for the holidays. I'll try to organize this into paragraphs in regard to relevance.
Coronado wrapped up and the kids began practicing for their Christmas program that they're performing on the 11th for all the parents. Last Saturday we all got to help them remember where they needed to go. I worked with the main character, a crippled lamb, who is played by a boy named Keylor. He is precious. He's about 7 years old and has grown so much over the course of the Coronado kids club. He loves coming and brings his Bible and absolutely loves memorizing the verses. Plus, he gave me a flower this past week. I was inside helping set up, and he poked his head in the door, looked around shyly, grinned at me, walked over, and handed me a flower. My heart melted. It was adorable. I'm going to miss those kids.
Youth group at El Alto finished up with a Christmas party. This was a pretty exciting night because one of my GAP friends, JR, was going to give the message. Our pastor has called him "Pastorcito" since pretty much the first day we got here, and finally he asked him to give the message. But the catch is, JR doesn't speak Spanish yet. So guess who got to translate? Yep. Me. YIKES!! It was awesome. I was so nervous, but I spent pretty much the entire day of praying for God to give me the words to say. Some of the times when he was talking, I couldn't think of what to say, but when I opened my mouth the words just came out. God is so incredible!! And another awesome thing, our pastor liked it so much he asked us to do it again on Sunday morning. Wow. Even scarier!! But it all went well, and everyone was very gracious with my mistakes. We left the church that Sunday with many tears, and warm goodbyes.. but we'll see them again in January.
For our Villa Church that we have on Sunday nights, we did things a little differently this week. Since it was going to be the last time together, we did what I like to call a Prayer Walk. There were about 7 stations of different things to pray about. Such as: a bowl of water on a sheet where you could confess your sins, wash your hands, and leave them there; a cross where you could write something you adore about God on a sticky note and post it up; a box of sand where you could write out someone you were thankful for, who had left a footprint on your life, and thank God for them; a wall with everyone's name written up to encourage them; a white board to write your goals and pray for God to help you achieve them; and a worship station. It was super cool! We all did this prayer walk for about 45 minutes, and then John preached about how to tell the 'wheat' from the 'tares.' It was perfect for getting ready to go home. We learned how to live like a real New Creation in Christ, and witness to others who need him. It was a powerful message. Thanks John.
In coming back to the Villa, it was about 10 in the evening. This was the start of a 24-hour Battle Cry that we planned the week before. We set it up to start at 10pm Sunday and continue until 10pm Monday. Each of us signed up for a 2 hour shift, and had a specific room set aside for us to pray in during our shift. That way we would all be trying to focus on praying all day, but the real deal was being held in a room with people together praying hard-core for 2 hours. It was so awesome. The main things on our hearts to pray for were: breaking strongholds back home, staying faithful in the Word away from our encouraging family here, living out the changes God has made in our lives the past 3 months, and witnessing to those back home that really need Jesus Christ. Just praying for each other as we go back to our old lives in the States, back to the temptations, habits, and just the different culture, was a really powerful thing to do. It's going to be so different. But at the same time I can't wait.
This week has been filled with finals and packing. It's been super chill though. I've loved it. Even though we've had to study a lot, we've just hung out a ton because our finals are usually finished for the day by 9:30 or so. It's been super awesome. I've spent a few afternoons laying out by the pool in the sun.. needless to say I'm not that excited about going back to Indiana sub-freezing degree weather. Buut I am excited for snow!! And of course to see everyone that I love. Thank you so much for all of your faithful prayers. I could not have done any of this without the help of my All-Powerful God. Give him praise for all he's done this year.
I will be home from December 12th-January 7th. Email me! hannah@roxsoftware.com
