Dios es siempre Dios. Dios es siempre bueno.

Hello everyone!

On Saturday, we had a really fun free day of getting to see the city. The STINTers organized an Amazing Race for us and sent us all around the city. We saw some really cool things! We went to the President's house which here is called La Casa Rosada (the Pink House) and the President doesn't actually even live there...We saw the widest street in the world, 9 de Julio. We saw the graveyard where Eva Peron is buried. For those of you who don't know Argentine history, she was a very famous first lady of Argentina and a musical Evita was based on her life. She was kinda like the Jackie O of Argentina. My favorite thing was the Hippie Fair. It was just a long road of street vendors selling jewelry, shoes, scarves, etc All handmade and for CHEAP. Definitely going to have to go back there and blow some pesos! It was just a really fun day of being pretty touristy!

On Sunday, we experienced some double culture shock while attending a Taiwanese church in Buenos Aires. Crazy stuff. The preacher spoke in Taiwanese and someone translated it into Spanish. At the end, I was just so exhausted from trying to understand! It was so cool though just to see people from all different nationalities praising the Lord together. The preacher made a really good point of although we may all be from different places, we are all the same in that we all need God. It was really neat to just be able to worship with them.

So, today was our first day on each of our campuses. For me, that was the Economics campus. Our team consists of five students, one staff member, and three STINTers. We went out in pairs and just tried to share the Gospel with as many people as we could! I teamed up with a girl on my team named Taylor. We were armed with bilingual KGP's, Soularium, and English Club flyers. It was somewhat of a discouraging day as we were really having some difficulty finding English speakers on campus. While I am decently able to speak some conversational Spanish, I am in no way prepared to share the Gospel in Spanish, so that was somewhat disappointing. However, after taking some time to get in the Word and really just pray through those feelings, the Lord really renewed my heart. We were able to get a lot of contacts for English Club. English Club is something that Vida Estudiantil (Argentina's CRU) has started on campus to help teach students English and help them practice their English. It's a really great way to build relationships with Argentines and then (outside of English Club so we're not pulling a bait and switch kind of maneuver, haha) share the Gospel with them. So, God really reassured me with the knowledge that He is sovereign and I have no idea, everyone of those people may come to English Club. We could build relationships with all of them and later share the Gospel with them. The Lord really opened my eyes as to how little I can see of the big picture but He knows the whole thing and has it covered. Anyway, even though our pair didn't get to share the Gospel with anyone today, we got a really good reminder of God's sovereignty.

Anyway, God is teaching me so much here in Argentina. Please pray that He would bring English speakers who are hungry for Him our way tomorrow!

¡Hola mis amigos! ¡Saludos de Argentina!

         I am having such a wonderful time! I know I´ve said it 50 times and I will probably say it 50,000 more. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! If I make some kind of weird punctuation error, lo siento. I'm sorry. This Argentine keyboard is kinda crazy! There's an upside down exclamation point and a ñ key though which is pretty exciting.

            So, like I said in a previous post, I'm not much of a blogger and have never had one so not really sure what to say but here it goes. :) Bear with me. Buenos Aires is amazing! We've stuck out so bad, though. We are clearly a large group of gringos (North Americans, they're Americans too!). We embarassed ourselves today in The Coffee Shop but we made an Argentine waiter friend which is exciting. We plan on becoming regulars there. Hahah. The food here is AMAZING. Packing for the trip home may become pretty easy as I might have to chuck all my clothes that won't fit anymore! Seriously, though. The following are some pictures of just a few of the delicious foods I have tried. ¡Que rico!

         Spiritually, this trip has already been amazing. Yesterday, we went sharing at Cuidad Universatario, a university here in Buenos Aires. We used Soularium and got to meet the Argentine student leaders which was so cool. It's encouraging to see how much they do with a small amount of resources. A group of about 30-40 of us (summer project people, Argentine nationals, and STINTers, that is short term international staff, people from the States living in BA for a year or two) went out and shared the gospel on campus. About 50 people heard the gospel, many for the first time, and four students accepted Christ! Wooooo! Definitely a party going on in heaven about that. Please pray that those students would be able to have relationships with the Argentine leaders and be able to grow and be discipled into future leaders. A STINTer and I got to share with an awesome girl named Andrea and it was so encouraging. She spoke a little English, I speak some SPanish, and Morgan speaks pretty good Spanish, so we were able to have a really great bilingual conversation about the Gospel. It was really clear that the Lord has been working in Andrea's heart. She had clearly been thinking about spiritual things (which is not common for many Argentine students who are focused on their studies and live in the here and now). She was so responsive, asked questions, and really thanked us for talking with her. Just a great conversation, such a sweet girl. I'd love for her to be my friend in heaven one day, haha! We gave her a bilingual Four Spiritual Laws book which she was super excited to have, so prayerfully she will really be considering that these next few days. We got her contact information so hopefully she came to English Club today!

            Today, we went to the Vida Estudiantil (the name for CRU in Argentina) headquarters and had some briefing. Three adorable Argentine students gave us historical background about the country and different campuses and we heard about the spiritual state of things. Student leaders are badly needed here, some campuses have no staff at all and only handfuls of student volunteers to reach entire campuses for Christ. Please pray that we would have fruitful ministry and be able to both surface existing believers and win people for Christ. Also please be praying just for the state of the country in general. This country has really been through some difficult times in the past fourty to fifty years and it is still having a huge impact on the students and the people in general. Many of these events have put up huge barriers to students accepting Christ. One of the largest ones being The Dirty Wars. I'm not sure of a lot of the political details but basically what happened was a military coup and many of those who disagreed with the new government were simply kidnapped and either put into prison or killed. All in all, around (probably more) 30,000 people disappeared. These people's families and friends still have literally no idea where they are or if they are even alive or not. A huge problem for many people is that many of those high up in the Catholic church were involved in these disappearances. In a country where many people associated church with God, these people want nothing to do with Him. Please pray that we can show that although churches, governments, and our leaders can and will fail us, God never will!

         Sorry this is soooo long, haha. I am just so excited about everything that God is doing here in Buenos Aires. I'll be going tomorrow to and touring the campus that I have been placed on: Economics. I'm super excited to get out and talk with some Argentines, they are seriously so warm and friendly, and just adore talking with people. It's so encouraging! Please pray for me and my team as we go out and prepare to share the Gospel with these Argentines students!

Personal Testimony

Hey all! So, for project we were asked to write up a short little account of our testimony and I thought that would be a cool thing to share with you all as well! So here it is. :)


Before I received Christ into my life, I placed my foundation of life on things that couldn't bear that weight, specifically the idea of having a perfect family. However, my parents fought a lot  and they were human beings, there was no way that they could live up to that pressure. As a result of this, I was always anxious, scared, and insecure. I spent my life in constant worry. I remember waking up in the mornings with outrageous pain because I had ground my teeth all night because of the stress. When I was around sixteen years old, at the invitation of my two friends, I began attending a before school student ministry called First Priority. It was there that I heard and first really understood about how God sent Jesus Christ to die for my sins because He loved me that much. I accepted Christ into my life shortly after. As soon as I realized the magnitude of that event and really began to grow in Him, my life began to look drastically different. I had a new peace because my happiness was built on something solid: the fact that God loves me and has a plan for me. Philippians 4:6-7 says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." While I still worry and bad things still happen, I know that God will guide me though them and comfort me with His peace which is everlasting.

A Curious Mix of Exhaustion and Joy

Hello everyone!

So, I wouldn't really consider myself a blogger but I thought this would be an excellent way for my supporters to see where their money and prayer is going. :) I want to start off by thanking all of you from the bottom of my heart. None of this would be possible without you and I am so very grateful.

God has taught me so much through this process of support raising. If you had asked me only two days ago if I thought going to Buenos Aires was still a possibility, I would have said no but God has worked so powerfully in the past few days! This has been a tough process for me. I don't have a very close extended family or a really good home church to rely on, and trying to raise support made me somewhat sad as it brought this fact to light.  But God showed me just how well He can fill the "gaps" in my life, through the comfort and peace of His presence and the amazing people He has placed in my life (pssst. that's you!).  He has really shown me just how ridiculously powerful the body of Christ is! I have really seen God work amazingly through His people in a very tangible way. I am so excited to see all that he is going to do in Buenos Aires this summer and can't wait to share it with all of you. :) I'm not sure how often I'll have computer access but I will try to keep you all updated!

Love,

Melicia