Playing Catch-Up

Hola!

The first few days in Mendoza, Argentina have been exhausting but great!  We arrived in Mendoza Tuesday where Bill, Debbie, and their partner Steven picked us up and brought us to the house.  After a few moments in the house, we ate lunch, had orientation, and then headed out.  The "young ladies" (Audra, Sarah, & Heather) went with Debbie and her daughter, Katie, to exchange their money while Diane went with Bill and the boys to exchange their money at a bank.  After exchanging money, Gayle and Bill purchased supplies for us.

After exchanging our money, the whole group (minus Gayle) went to downtown Mendoza with workers Julieta and Eli (pronounced Elly) to get acclamated and see a little of the city.  We stopped in at a mall type place to try a few desserts and order some coffee drinks.  Very tastey!  On the return trip home, we waited on a bus that never came; we ended up taking a taxi instead.  Turns out we were late to our own party at the house!  The ministry workers came over, we played games, and then we ate delicious hamburgers and brats for dinner.  We all had a very good time and had our first experiences with the language barrier.  Needless to say, it was a very late night after about a day and a half of traveling.

The next day, Wednesday, the boys and the girls headed their different ways.  We all started in the barrio where we will be focusing much of our efforts for this trip.  The barrio children and a few parents and workers loaded up into the vans to head to the zoo.  The children were so sweet!  They really are precious and were so well behaved--a pleasant surprise.  What a zoo!  It was set in a mountain, so we hiked as we looked at all the animals.  Hopefully I'll be able to post some pictures soon.   We were all very touched by the mutual love between the children and Julieta and Eli.  We compared their love for the children to the love the Lord has for His children too.

Meanwhile, the boys worked in a very "sketchy" area of the barrio.  This impoverished area has a very dangerous reputation--absolutely no one is allowed their after sunset.  Repeatedly the boys tell us they don't even know where to begin describing the conditions of this area.  Their project was to tear down an outhouse-like structure and replace it with a finished bathroom.  Working in very closed quarters has proven to be difficult, but Dave has been able to engage the woman of the house in some limited conversation.  They were able to lay the foundation yesterday and will continue to work on that today.  They will be pouring a cement floor to replace the dirt floor right now.

We have been impressed by how content the children are despite their deplorable situations.  Although the things they have seen and experience are unspeakable, they are so kind and just melt our hearts.  We have also been filled with a sense of "what more can I do?"  There's just this feeling like what we're doing is just the tip of the iceberg compared to the need we see here.

Please pray that we will be a great encouragement to the workers here.  We don't know what we would do without Julieta and Eli!  They are bilingual and help us so much to understand the language; however, it is exhausting to constantly translate for a group of curous Americans, so they need supernatural strength.  Also pray that we would not be too frustrated or discouraged by the language barrier.  It can be frustrating and discouraging to be unable to say what we want to say, especially about spiritual things.  We need creativity in about sharing God's love with the Argentinian people.  Ask the Lord to give the boys strength and safety where they are working and that He would provide opportunities to engage the barrio people in conversations.

Thank you for your prayers!

Heather