Comfort Zone Ends Here

Saturday, June 7

Well, today was our first full day in Argentina and already I am learning to trust in God more than is usual, and to leave my comfort zone and try opening up to the people around me. Our team is made of an amazing group of people, who all have one purpose in their mind, and that is to serve God in their fullest capacity and be a blessing to the people on the team and the people in this country.

Anyways, after finishing breakfast the team had devotions together and then had training for the seminar that will be taking place on Monday. I found out that I am on games and am totally stoked about this assignment. The time was getting late and people were starting to want food and so we all stopped at a local pizza kitchen and enjoyed some of the best pizza we had ever tasted. Since Elizabeth’s purse had been stolen she desperately wanted a new camera, so we took the time to look around the city for options. After a ridiculously long bathroom break, the team hopped back on the bus and headed to an area that had decent cameras. While waiting for the camera shoppers to make their selection, the rest of our group went to visit a small outdoor shopping center. We were running out of time and so left after a camera had been selected and headed straight to the church.

Now is where a big cultural bang literally hit me in the face. The greeting here in Argentina is a “kiss” on the cheek, but this was totally new to me and I soon became the laughing stock of the team when my face turned bright red after a girl came up and “greeted” me. Another difference for me was how active people became when they would sing worship songs, jumping up and down and spinning around. We had to visit two churches tonight and so the team split up into two groups. I stayed at the same church with a couple of others and after the service, with testimonies and music from the members of our team, the church youth fed us all hotdogs and we had great fellowship with them even though we could hardly ever understand each other. When we finally got back on our bus, we picked up dinner for the rest of the team who had not already ate a meal and got back to the hotel after midnight. But I didn’t go to sleep until three O’clock since Kaytra and Crystal had locked their key in their second story room and a bunch of the guys had to make a “man ladder” to break in through one of the windows. Now I really am exhausted.

David for the Team

Singing in one of the youth services.

Talking with the young people - or trying to, depending on everyone's ability in Spanish.