So we finally made it. The "To-Do" list even got finished. I feel like we worked non stop from Sunday morning until the moment we left, but it finally got done. Sure we didn't go to bed the night before we left, but that's just a minor detail. We met at our church at 4 AM to head to Chicago. That's right, 4 AM. I'm pretty sure us and Jesus were the only ones up at that hour. After some weather delays and a quick flight change in NYC, we eventually made it to Caracas. The missionary that we are working with picked us up at the airport and we drove another hour and a half to get to the town of Cua. Needless to say that after being awake for 43 hours straight, we were exhausted!
Today we woke up refreshed and ready to go. We all stayed with members of the missionary's (Matt Johnson) church, Marlaney and Ismael. The hospitality they showed us was amazing. After a good nights rest they made us a deliscious breakfast with my new favorite food, arepas. It's kind of a corn flour pita pocket that you fill with eggs, cheese, and bacon. It kicks the crap out of an egg mcmuffin any day!
After breakfast we separated our group and went to some mens and womens bible studies. In my mind, I'm thinking this would be a 1-2 hour meeting. Obviously I havent adjusted to the south American time frame yet. Things are casual and time is fluid. This was a 5 hour gathering. It involved bbq'd meat, watching Band of Brothers, and some good discussion on the necessity of accountability with our brothers in Christ. It was midway through the night that the humility began to set in. As I sat there I began to think about what was going on. Here I was, in South America. Very, very, very far from home. I was in a very poor neighborhood sitting in the dirt under a tarp to shield us from the rain, listening to a man speak in Spanish. A language of which I can only understand a few words of. It was in this moment that I realized how small I was. We worship a God who is being exhalted all over the world in thousands of languages and I rarely ever consider this. My world can become very small sometimes and the day to day concerns of everyday life consume me on a regular basis. What a gift this trip is. A chance to step away from my own life and see how big our God truly is.
Tonight we are staying with a different family who will be our hosts for the duration of our trip. Boris and Rocio and their two daughters, Genesis and Anapaola have been extremely gracious so far. They have done so much to try to make us feel at home. It's so humbling to be shown such great kindness by complete strangers. We have already had many laughs together as we try to communicate. It is such a joy to stay with them. We are extremely blessed and are greatly looking forward to the rest of our week.
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