Highs and Lows: Week 1

It’s been a good first week. Very full. Yet a different full than back home.

• Ironically, my watch did not survive the trip. And there is not one clock in our apartment. Time is less important in Latin America. I think God’s trying to tell us something….
• Without a car, every chore means walking, taking a bus or a taxi. Haven’t gotten lost yet. Managing to communicate okay. Everything just takes more time and patience.
• We’re living in ‘The Quad’ – a two-story apartment building with four units. It’s like university days again. Always someone nearby. All three of our neighbors have made meals for us or had us over already. And there are five kids who play in the common courtyard. Really great.

In my last post I said, “It’s a small world when you’re in God’s family” and it got smaller!

Our neighbors downstairs, Marcus and Heather, are good friends with Elysia’s RUF leaders the Clements at UGA (and who’s child was in Jake and Cat’s wedding) and they served in a church plant with a seminary accountability partner of mine, Whit Anderson in the Austin TX area. God is constantly reminding us that He has our back.

 

Adjustments are many but nothing super hard – yet. We’ve been warned about getting hit by cars (pedestrians do not have the right of way), handling beggars, health issues and many more I’ll spare you. It’s wiped away a little bit of the awe and newness but it’s making us trust Jesus in a new way. And we need to trust Jesus more!

Please don’t stop praying! We feel weaker, disoriented and school starts Monday. We don’t take our safety and health for granted. Nor the stress of learning more Spanish when we have been, ahem, out of school for a while.

And pray that we learn new ways to find our sanity in the powerful work of Jesus. Spiritually and emotionally maintaining our connection with Jesus as individuals and in a new community is super important.