so perhaps it was a big joke to think that i would  update this consistently.

here i am, 4 weeks in and i´ve written next to nothing.  i really do love to process what happens in my life but there´s this sense of brevity that´s been chasing me down this week.  i think i´m realizing how short 2 months really is, but yet....i am so glad i´m here.  this has seriously been a gift from God.  a friend of mine told me a couple days ago that i´m going to miss fresh fruit and movie scenes happening in front of me.   i think he´s right.  don´t get me wrong......i´ve had plenty of opportunities to realize how much home really is home.  but today is beautiful.  now is beautiful.  here is beautiful.  yes, in the sense of buenos aires and the 21st of ??? years of my life and argentina and things like that.

but also now...this moment of life that God has given me.  these people i may never see again. (that one gets me unlike others)

so what about abraham?  the pastor in church was talking about abraham and about faith.  the guy got up and went when God called him on out of his house to hit the road!  and he didn´t have the sovereignty to say, ¨just a few more hours God.¨  (come to think of it, i think Jesus talked about that once and gave a few examples of dillydallyers who weren´t ready to go when God called them) anyways, in between my distraction and my limping comprehension of this man´s spanish, i caught something about turning off the lights and shutting the door when God says it´s time to go. 

and somehow it hit me a little harder than normal.  the reality of it? or maybe the very practical ¨this is what it comes down to¨ sort of thought...

when i hear His heart communicated...what He really wants of me, is the room dark and empty and the door shut?  am i on the sidewalk or on the couch?

what kind of life am i living? what kind of praise am i offering Him? am i seeking His will for every part of my life? 

  i want my heart to be with Him.  wherever that is, wherever He says....a dirty street in south america or an apartment in indiana.  wherever He is...wherever He´s off to next...even if that´s on a plane home.

Hebrews 11:8-16

34º south and 58º west

it is true.  i am in south america.  so much has happened in one small week.

funny though, God lives in south america.  i was on the ochenta (the bus that we take to school) with kelly my roommate and marcela our host mom.    marcela was showing me the book she was reading and we were chatting a little bit as we waited out the bus ride. at one point, kelly told me to look and up above the driver was a sticker or something that said ¨Jesus.¨  i told her He was on the bus and she said she was thinking the same thing.  i asked her playfully which one He was, looking around and we finished our trip to the university.  when we got there, we had to change our classes (both of us) because of a problem.  this proved to be quite the experience as we ran around the school, talking to person after person, hoping to understand their spanish, trying to resolve the issue or get the information we needed.  the woman we needed to speak with had just experienced the death of her mother and wasn´t in the office so her secretary was helping us.  finally he left, essentially telling us that he couldn´t change the classes and that we had to wait for the director.  however, we weren´t entirely sure what was going on and i was certainly stressed.  kelly and i prayed that God would help us and probably less than 5 minutes after we finished we saw ashley house (a student from Grace who has been in argentina since january.)  she went in to speak with the man and we got everything straightened out, even ending up together in the same class with megan koval.  blatant.   it was so very blatant that God heard and His presence was with us.  i was reminded of that morning on the bus, talking about Jesus being there and...(because God has a sense of humor?) i remembered that the book marcela showed me on the bus was the spanish version of ¨practicing the presence of God.¨  how funny. 

 ...so God lives in south america, as it turns out.

elusive.  i was thinking the other day that my photos are not doing justice to this place and there´s really no way i can fully communicate it to each of you...surely this has been written in a thousand letters to a thousand loved ones from a thousand countries. (surely more) ...but i´ll write it just the same.

so i´m taking it in. 

the elderly man walking with a cane in the street, chattering something and walking away; the pigeons that bumble around the city; the fruit stands and the vendors; the sky rise apartment buildings with laundry hanging out to dry; the crowded city buses shoving every ideal of personal space; the cobblestone-esque brick streets and the 6 lane highway; the bakeries and cafés; the laughter and the language and the life.   i like it here.

love and prayers.