Monday, March 30, 2009

ECA Spring Retreat 09

liver, coca-cola, sardine, tuna, intestines, milk, and ground beef shake anyone??

So the first buisness that I got right down to was going on ECA´s high school retreat!! The theme of the trip, as planned by Viviana, was Fear Factor. As you might imagine, the games weren´t exactly clean...

So I arrived at the Retreat location, Tobia, early with the planning committee. On the way there, on a public bus, we started discussing some of Antho´s fears. He mistakeningly told us his biggest fear was, of all things, spiders. Vivi couldn´t help herself. She started asking him ¨what if¨ questions that ultimately resulted in a very panicked Antho. Of course it was all in good fun.

Well I´ll just give you an overview of the weekend. Antho and Nathan were INCREDIBLE retreat speakers. The games were absolutely revolting. The fellowship was inspiring. The weather was hot. And the white water rafting was refreshing.

I think what I loved about Nathan and Antho apeaking side by side was the diversity between the two. I never felt overwhelmed by either style of teaching and they complimented each other very well. Nathan would speak emotionally and passionately and tug at your heart strings. Antho would start with a joke and speak rationally and make you think about how to apply what he was saying to your life daily. Neither was more important than the other, nor tried to be. I loved when they spoke about waiting for God´s best. I think there are times when I have settled for the good because it is here now and I didn´t see why I should pass it up. What I realized is that there has always been a deeper motive for why I have settled in certain areas of my life. I let lies seep into my heart. Lies that say I don´t deserve any better, or a hidden uncertainty on whether or not I truly believe God has a perfect plan for my life. I feel that in the past I have acted out in desperation, instead of waiting on His timing. All in all, I looked forward to session times to hear what truths they would reveal about the God we love.

Now, on to the games! I´m not sure how to segway into such a disgusting topic so here I go. Each team had 3 players. The first game involved one person being blind folded, one person could talk, and one person held open a plastic bag. The blind folded person had to use their hands to dig through a bucket of noodles and intestines, and the mouth had to tell them when they were touching a green noodle so they could put in in the bag. Needless to say I voted myself NOT to be the blindfolded intestine toucher. Now I was lucky enough that my team got out in the first round. HOWEVER Antho´s team lost a player, so I was dragged into the game again. The next round we had to drink curdled milk. Yes, you read me right. Curdled milk. You are probably wondering, wouldnt everyone get sick from that? Well apparently that didn´t matter to Vivi. So each team had a cup of milk with lemon squeezed into it so that it curdled and each person on the team had to drink and cup. The last teams to finish were out. Unfortunately my team moved on to the next round. The next round included taking raw meat and feeding it through your shirt and then yoour shorts and passing it to the next player. Now I can´t even cook raw meat, much less put it through my clothing. Thankfully this time my time lost. No more messy games!! The levels just got worse and worse until in the final round the teams had to drink a shake. But not just any shake, mind you. A shake with milk, coca-cola, intestines, liver, ground beef, tuna, and sardines. The smell itself could make you sick to your stomach. This is where the messy games basically ended. Finally.

Besides messy games, we just spent time enjoying each other. We went on a beautiful waterfall hike and went white water rafting, just enjoying the time we had together. There was one night that in the middle of the session the power went out because of a huge thunderstorm that had rolled in. Instead of cancelling the night and heading to bed, we took up a worship time. The rain was falling and it was pitch black, except for the occasional lightening, but we poured out our hearts to God. During worship, I stepped out from under cover, into the rain. As the rain beat down on me I marvelled at His power in the storm. The lightening would flash and for just a moment, the sky would light up for a split second and I could see for miles. Then the world would plunge into darkness once again. It was a time of genuine worship, rejoicing for His blessings, and crying out for His touch.

Then there were the pool games. Pool games in their origional context should be fun and light hearted, just something intersting to do to pass the time. And they started out that way. Yet as the week progressed, competitions began to arise. One afternoon, it became guys against girls in making human towers. It began light hearted but turned into a full out race. Finally, Antho calls out a challenge. He gives an ultimadum. The race is to see who can stack 3 people high first, guys or girls. He declares that if the girls lose, that Allison (thats me!) must drink one of the fear factor shakes if the girls lose. I don´t know how or why this dare became about me, but I accepted the challenge on 2 conditions. One was that if the guys lost, Antho had to drink the shake. The other was that the 3 people all had to be standing on top of one another. Antho accepted and the races began. What the guys didn´t realize was that the girls had already stacked 3 high standing, and they had never even attempted. Still, I was nervous. We had a few judges for fairness, and the intensity was high. I did NOT want to drink that shake. Both teams were doing well, and the judges were making sure both teams played fair. At last, the girls stacked their 3 high, and the guys were defeated. They tried for awhile to convince us of a rematch, but the damage was done. Antho was drinking the shake. So Antho was made to drink the liver, sardine, milk, intestines, ground beef, tuna shake. Really he just barely tasted it, not even swallowing 5 full sips. It was satisfying, though, knowing that I didn´t have to go near it. Nathan was also fully amused by the situation Antho had gotten himself into.

The last thing we did was go on a zipline. But not just any zipline. It rose 600 meters high!!! This zipline went from one mountain, over a valeey, and connected to another mountain. It was insane. The reason we were able to go on the zipline was because we didn´t fit into the vans that were supposed to take us home. So Viviana, Nathan, Antho, some teachers from ECA, and I all decided to go on this zipline before we caught another bus back to Bogota. It was incredible!!

It was a great retreat. It is so good to be back in Colombia. God has taught me so much while being here, away from home and out on the mission field. I have experienced rough patches while here, but God has never left me. He continues to build on my character and continues to mold me into His beautiful creation. I enjoyed this weekend of relaxation, and cheerfully welcome the work that is to come. God is good!

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Back to Colombia!!!!!

So... I am back in Colombia!!

I left quickly and I wasn´t able to tell many of you much details about why I´m back.
So I was home for about a month and a half, working. I also was a jr high leader and attended the college age bible study. I actually didn´t plan on coming back, at least not this soon.
So it all started when I found out that Nathan and Antho were going down. It reminded how much I missed Colombia and wished I could go back. So I started making some phone calls to see how possible it was, and looked online for plane ticket prices. I thought about it, prayed about it, and it was actually a hard decision. I just got back home and started getting used to my schedule and friends and family. I was comfortable. But where was it ever written that we should strive for comfort? I took this year off to explore missions, and I love doing it! So why not continue? If I go to school next year, who knows when I will get an opportunity like this again. But I still struggled with what decision was ¨right¨. I knew that I wanted to go, but I felt I had some unspoked responsibility to continue working and saving money.

Then I came across a verse as I was reading Matthew: ¨No one who leaves is home or his mother or father or brother or sister or his fields, for Me and the Gospel, will fail to recieve a hundred times that in this age and in the age to come¨ Matthew 10:29
This verse cut the last thread that was holding me back.

So I am here, in Colombia, again. These first few weeks I am devoted to studying Spanish. I am set on being able to communicate properly! Then I will be working with a day care program that Fundacion Internacional Maranata is starting. I will teach English and possibly music or art. I don´t have a whole lot of details but I will let you know more as I find them out!
Thank you to anyone who is wanting to support me, but since I worked while I was home I am tight on money, but financially pretty stable.

I ask that if you were thinking supporting me financially to keep it for another time. I´m sure there are more missions trips in my future. I do, however, ask for your continual prayer support. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!