eyes .

Miercoles, 26 de noviembre


Today was the last day of my seguridad ciudadana clase, well actually my last day standing walking through the edificio of la escuela de gobierno y gestion publica. Sighing with relief at the completion of the nearly done semester I suddently felt my eyes, like magnets, becoming attracted to all that surrounded me. The building with bright yellow paint, old 19th century architecture. The one I once called feo. The creaking, old, dark, wooden stairs that I had always run up in my haste. The sharp sweet smell of disgusting cigarettes lazily floating in the damp air near the copiador. I had so habitually walked through this school without giving any attention to it. I probably had looked at it a few times but intentionally decided in its ugliness not to pay anymore attention to it. But today, today something hit me and my eyes were open to this strangely beautiful run-down building that was my academic home for 4 months. As I walked out of the massive wooden doors my heart secretly waved goodbye.

I walked to the right, as I always did, towards the San Martin Metro station. The construction that was there when I first came, the construction site that forced people to detour onto the street, yes that same one that nearly made me get run over by a bus, was still there. The same sounds of jack hammers, the same paint and dust covered construction workers with eyes that wandered. As I crossed the street, I saw the same sight I had always seen. The long line of unhappy looking Santiaguinos waiting to get home in the hora of suckiness and tacos, aka. 5pm-8pm. Oh Transantiago. I made my way towards the open mouth that would led me "under the skin of Santiago" into the metro station, but as I did, I heard something that I had never heard before--or possibly had, but never had noticed it. It was the loud deep clanging of the church bells of the bright orange Catedral San Martin. I stopped abruptly and just stood there staring a the massive church, listening and listening to the bells that roared while a pack of pigeons flew chaotically over my head. Time seriously seemed like it stopped and people seemed to stop. I noticed a few suit-cladded Chileans looking at the Catedral too. I looked back at the Catedral, ella que nunca yo había visto por tanto tiempo. It was old and significant in the Santiaguino urban landscape. It had massive and smooth pillars that soared high up and meet with the edge-filled features. Huge wooden doors welcomed its visitors. Above the door was a metal star with rays shooting out from its sides. The steeple sat high above and on top of that was a metal, near black, cross with rays emitting out from the circle that was in the middle of the cross. It was simple, but beautiful.

The first time I passed through this part of Santiago central I only fixed my eyes on the dinky sprinkler they called a fountain in front of the Catedral. I often laughed to myself at how sad that fountain was. But behind me loomed this massive structure. The thoughts of how I had critized Santiago for its lack of Latin American flavor rushed back into my mind and a voice in my mind poked me and said, well here you go, Latin flavor.

Somehow all of these things reminded me of God. How it takes a massive ringing bell to make us notice the grandeza and belleza of God, or merely His presence. How we walk by everyday, knowing vaugely that God is with us . But we forget to just stop and look at Him, beholding Him for who He is. We often, like I did many times with the dinky fountain, look at our surrounds and critize the lack of this or that, critize the dinkiness of things. God forgive me. Help me pause more to behold Your majesty and beauty.

I walked towards the metro station, more slowly than normal, pesnando en estas cosas. I pulled out my 100 pesos and gave it to the Chinese woman who laways stood in front of Santa Ana at this time. And she gave me in return a friend MSG packed spring roll that was her source of material bienestar. As she handed it to me, for the first time I looked at her face, at her eyes as I said "Gracias". I walked down the stairs wondering how my days would have been if I payed this much attention to everything around me. But no regrets. God give me eyes.

please disculpar my lack of writing juice

I realize I haven't written in a while. Partially because I've been busy, but that word doesn't necessarily mean the same as having a lot of work. When I say busy, I could mean busy sleeping, busy chatting, busy cooking, busy doing homework, and maybe busy studying. It's understandable though. I have less than a month here in Chile and I'm trying to savor as much of the remaining time left. It's been a bit hard to do so though because in the back of my mind I know I should be focusing on finishing strong at school. But I want to say that I've learned/ am still learning, that school isn't everything, and relationships with people, and God is way more important. Of course I should study, and I am still studying (Mom I promise!), but it's not my biggest priority really. God somehow blesses me with the strength to memorize things, cram study, and even retain all that in my mind. So thank God!

Um. So I love my church here. And I feel so loved by them even if they do do crazy things to express their love. Such as drench the gringos. And chuck the Korean boy up and down. But in all honesty, like Andrew said in his farewell letter-speech-thing, this church, ICLAM, truly esforzarse to become a church the way God intended it to be, and it shows! Love, generosity, humility, family-likeness, and all that jazz is so evident in that church. And of course the people in there aren't the most perfect people in the world, pues nadies es, but they are certianly a group that is willing to stand up for Christ, live for Him, and find His heart. Small, but happy family. =)

I'm really mixed though in how I feel about wrapping up this experience. I want to come back and visit them. Really. I know that if I came back, I'd have open arms waiting for me. But at the same time I'm so darn excited about going home and sharing all of these stories about God moving to all my friends, family, and .. dogs? And yes, I do miss home (finally right?), and San Diego and people there. It's strange to have a life in 2 worlds.

I'm sort of brain dead from sleepiness, and I just took a prueba today, so I shall give a more intelligent-sounding.. jk. more profound. update soon. with pictures and all.. but for now. Good day to you, 24 de noviembre. Que te vaya bien!

despedida =(

um how time flies. and how painful next week is going to be. but after that. we're freeee!!!!

BLEEEH

i haven't been this sick in a long time. BARF.

30 horas en los zapatos

The World Vision event organized ICLAM's youth group GX was similar to 30 hour famine except we didn't fast.. nor was the event for children in Africa but rather for Chilean kids in poverty.We were supposed to experience being in poor people's shoes, while at the same time raising money for un hogar por niños con menos recursos. Although Chile is one of the most "developed" Latin American countries, the rate of poverty is still pretty high. Outside of Santiago there are still millions living in conditions that are cosidered "inadequete for a dignified life". Many can be fooled by the seemingly affluent urban landscape of Santiago, but the hard truth is that many are still making barely enough to suficiently provide the basics to their families.

A colegio en Peñalolen, a comuna on the outskirts of Santiago with a mix of rich and poor, acted as our homebase. From there we debriefed about the purpose of the event, had jammin worship, and prayed for the event, the churches in Chile, Chilean kids, and a bunch of other things. Although things apparently didn't go as planned (as they planned), God had His plan, and ultimately people were blessed.

We raised a total of 81,000 CLP doing all sorts of things such as playing/singing on the micros, selling used things, doing acrobatic tricks and juggling on street corners, taking blood pressure, selling a species of popsciles, washing windshields, etc. etc. Praise God!

Later, we went to another school to put on an event for the kids in the neighborhood. Although they expected more kids to come, the 40 some kids that did come had a blast playing games, pegging Emily with a waterballoon, watching the GX kids do "hi-ho" (hip-hop), eating a mountain of sweets, and watching our little skit ("you are special" by max lucado). The whole day was non-stop moving around so when we regrouped in homebase, everyone was already exhausted. We were supposed to bring friends, but unfortunately not a lot of friends were able to make it.. but the night was nevertheless sweet and beautiful. After a nice dinner of pasta and viensa-tomato sauce, we had more worship... Leah rockin' out on the drum set, Fernando on the keys, Felipe on the electric, David on the bass, and Gabby singing, and all of GX (for the most part) jumping up in down, moshing to the melodies of "El es el Rey" and "One Way" spanish version. My legs were already super sore running around catching micros and afirmaring myself on the micros while playing guitar, but somehow God energized me enough to participate for a little while in the moshing smoshing. We had more typical G-X games.. and after a night of rememberance of God's role in this world, in social injustice. The night ended at around 2 am.. and the boys and girls were separated in their little rooms. Of course the night was still young for them Chileans--the girls were chatting up until who knows when, and the boys were being boys. We slept on the hard ground as to try to experience sleeping like many poor people sleep, but la verdad es que I slept super well.. sleeping on a hard surface was quite nice (although I can't imagine sleeping on the ground everyday like so many people do). Perhaps it had to with the combination of fatigue and the indifference held to being dirty since I was already dirty. We all gradually fell asleep.

We woke up and packed our things together, cleaned the rooms we used and headed to church to finish off the 30 hours. Pastor Toñio spoke about el amor. A really touching and good message. I seriously love Pastor Toñio's messages. Not only is he gifted in preaching, he is a Chilean crazy for God. He has really been an encouragement and figure of influence here in Chile.

Apuntes (Pa ti, Grace M. Wu):
(Gal. 5:22)
1) ¿Qué es el Amor? (What is love?)
-Lo que no es es: Afición, Sexo, Enamoramiento, ni Romanticismo
(Love is NOT Affection, Sex, "falling in love", or romanticism)
a) el amor es dinámico:
- el amor busca cambiar a otro por lo mejor
- la natrualeza : es bella, pero también funciona, tiene un propósito.
- la creación muestra el amor de Dios.
- no está sentando esperando, sino está adelantando, fluyendo.
b) el amor es concreto:
- el amor actua; no es una idea, concepto, una palabra; sino tiene ojos, brazos, orejas, etc.
- amor sin frutos no sirve para nada.
- Juan 3:16
- cumplimiento de una promesa- eso es el amor de Dios, a pesar de lo que hemos hecho, Él todavía cumple su promesa a nosotros.
- ser capaz de tolerar; muchas veces una persona dice "no puedo amar a ella o él",pero eso significa que ella no entiende lo que es el amor. El amor es esforzar, es ser generoso, es ser un sacrificio, es lo que vemos en Jesus.
c) El Amor es constante
- Ex. 34
-Salmo 33
- todo las historia de Israel en el antiguo testamento lleva el mismo tema: que Dios es
constante a pesar de lo que había hecho Israel, a pesar de su desobedencía, su pecados, su rechazo de la palabra de Dios, su ignorancía, etc.
-El amor verdadero prevalece por todo, en cualquier situación
- The lack of forgiveness asphyxiates love.

-the parable of the prodigal son-

fernando y nico debrief worship band algunas chicass jaja pastor toñio is strange. (i don't know to flip pictures still.) Julian practicing for this juggling act on the street corner (to raise money) la cenaa sleepy time!

in santiago. we watched.