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| Some of the men from project! |
Week #1 of Uruguay summer project 2012 is coming to an end.
After traveling for close to 24 hours, it was great to finally arrive in
Montevideo. I am so blessed to be a part of this team. So far there has been
minimal conflict and we all get along really well. It’s great to be with a
group of believers that all are here for the same purpose. “Worship seekers” is
our theme for this summer. “Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church,
worship is”- John Piper. Having this theme for our summer has been a great
reminder of why we do missions and how we should do missions. If we aren’t
worshipping the Lord well in our own lives, then we shouldn’t be doing
missions. Knowing this has helped encourage me to be completely dependent on
the Lord and spend good time with him every day! This week we have been getting
settled in to life here in Uruguay. It’s almost winter here, but it’s been
around 65 everyday so it’s quite mild.
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Jesse and I with some of the Vida Estudiantil leaders
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The food is pretty similar to the U.S.
except I’ve had hardly any fruits and vegetables since I’ve been here and we’ve
been eating A LOT of meat (which is perfectly fine with me), and the people are
great and very friendly for the most part. On Wednesday we toured the different
“faculties” (or campuses as we like to call them) that we would be working at.
Each campus is a different school, so all of the students at one faculty are in
a similar major to each other. That evening we had a welcoming time with some
of the Vida Estudiantil leaders. It feels great to meet brothers in sisters in
Christ who worship the same God as we do halfway across the world! The craziest
thing that’s happened to me so far happened on Thursday. Long story short, I
cut my hand on a bunch of glass and had to get stitches for the first time in
my life. After an embarrassing ambulance ride and an 800 dollar hospital visit all
is good!
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My wounded hand (I can laugh about it now)
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On Thursday and Friday we had the privilege of doing some evangelism
at the universities. My partner, Jesse and I, talked to large group of students
at the University of Social Sciences. The first day we talked to them we
basically just hung out and talked about their culture. The next day we went
back to the same place and met up with some of the guys who then invited us to
watch the Uruguay vs. Russia soccer game with them. While we were hanging out
we were able to share the gospel with them! (Keep in mind this is almost
entirely in Spanish). They didn’t make a decision to trust Christ then, but
they were very willing to talk to us and they might come to the Vida
Estudiantil outreach meeting on Monday night with us! The Lord has been working
in huge ways so far since we’ve been here and I can’t wait to see what else He’s
going to do the next 5 weeks.
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A mate demonstration by Andres (National Director for Cru in Uruguay)
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Berto, thank you for sharing this. It was really encouraging to me. I need to be reminded of why I do missions. "Missions exists because worship doesn't." The definition of worship is living our lives to glorify God. This is more than just singing, of course. Worship means using relationships and the Spanish language to make God known. It means using computer skills to make God known. It means using your money in a godly way, like so many of the supporters I have been privileged to meet. Missions exists because people don't worship God with their money! Missions exists because people don't worship God with their relationships! How cool is it that I get to talk to the 1% of people in the world who worship God with their money. How I wish more people would live this way! This is a small snapshot of what I was thinking when I saw your blog post. Thanks again for the update. I will be praying for you.
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