A Whole New World

After a brief look around I notice that I am no longer in the United States (sometimes it just hits me like that). Early Sunday morning my team and I left Chicago and flew to Orlando where we had a seven hour layover. From Orlando we flew through the night to Sao Paulo, Brazil where we almost immediately flew to Asuncion, Paraguay. It was a long two days and it was nice to finally get here. At the airport customs was a breeze. The man only checked my passport and a paper that I filled out (definately incorrectly) on the plane. It took him less than twenty seconds to accept me into his country. After customs we were met by a very excited and warm welcoming party that had made a large sign with all of our names on it in bright colors, it was a good site to see.

After just a few hours in Paraguay I noticed a few things that are different than in the United States. The first is that barely anyone speaks english, the driving is absolutely crazy and there are animals, especially dogs, everywhere. It´s a little different, but I have already grown quite used to it. The people here are also very very friendly and willing to help out in any way possible. They also (normally) speak slowly so that I can better understand what they are saying.

My host family is great. My parents have two daughters and a son, all of whom are fluent in German and Spanish and know a little bit of English. They are very patient and often laugh with me about my poor spanish. I always feel comfortble and welcome in their home which is a very good feeling.

During the day I normally have spanish/Paraguain culture lessons. Even though I have been here for less than a week, I am pleased with the rate at which I am learning spanish. I can normally stumble my way through basic conversations and am learning many new words and expressions every day. At times it can be pretty frusturating having a general idea what somone is saying to you, but having no real idea about the details or specifics. I have become very good at using my hands to talk, a skill that I have never had. I also had a good laugh at myself today when I realized that I was having difficulty counting to 100 when just three months ago I recieved an A in my college level calculus class... it was just a little ironic. Today we were also introduced to the city and how to use the buses, which is a crazy experience.

It´s wierd to me to see how different my life is than just a few months ago. A lot of things have changed, mostly for the better and I am very excited for this next year. Please keep me in your prayers.

Preparing for take off

I have three full days left until my team leaves for Paraguay. I write this with a sense of enormous excitement as the anticipation has been building for almost a half a year. I am also incredibly nervous. These next few days could quite possibly be the most stretching days of my life so far.

My greatest fear is the language. I have been working on a few phrases here and there but I wouldnt say that I "hablo espanol". But people have told me many times that it will come fairly quickly and that communication is much deeper than just the words I say. I'm going to do my best and hope that my host family appreciates that. Another one of my worries is that I am going to offend someone because I dont completely understand the culture, but I think that people down there will be patient with me.

I plan on spending the next few days collecting myself and spending time with everyone that I have grown close to over the past month. I have had an incredible time in Chicago, but I am ready to move on and see what God has planned for my life. Thank you for all of the prayers and I miss you all very much.

An Epic Challenge

On monday we were given the task of spending the day trying to provide hospitality. I really embraced the idea since it is a topic that is incredibly important in the world and I believe its something that can always be improved. It turns out that it's sometimes difficult to go out and look to give hospitality.

The first real difficulty I had was that I have always thought that hospitality involves inviting someone into your own space. Since I am new to the Chicago community and I really dont have any of my "own" space here I felt unable to provide hospitality by my own definition.

But none the less, in order to make a sincere effort, Constance and I headed to Millenium Park where we offered to take pictures of families in front of the "big bean" so everyone could get in the picture. In doing this I felt that I was being nice, but I also felt as if I was going into someone elses space by approaching them and asking if they wanted their picture taken. It just didn't seem like hospitality. After discussing the situation Constance and I decided to walk around down town; where we bought a doughnut and coffee for a man and picked up several dozen magazines that had spilled out all over the sidewalk. After about four hours and miles of walking we headed home.

At the end of the day I felt as if I had done a lot of "nice" things but didn't feel as if I had accomplished my goal of being hospitable. To me it seemed a difficult task and during that time I often thought that hospitality may not be one of those things to go looking to give, the opportunity may just come to you. At the same time maybe I just need to think about or come up with a better understanding of what hospitality really is.

This morning I attended a mega church called Willow Creek Community Church. It was a little different than the church I am used to back home. It seated several thousand and had two balconies. They also had two bookstores, a gym with three full sized basketball courts and eight places you could buy food. The building was about as big as convention center and I felt as if I could easily get lost. At first I wasnt sure what to think but I tried to keep a very open mind.

The service and message was very good. I felt touched by what the pastor said and felt as if his message really applied to my life right now. I am going through many changes and transformations in many parts of my life right now, which is very challenging and stressful. Today I was encouraged to reach new heights in my walk with God and given some advice as to how to become stronger.

The first point of advice was too surround myself with others that have the same beliefs in order to support me. I feel like I am pretty much forced to do this one since I live with 17 other christians in a very confined space and spend a large portion of my day with my neighbors at Jesus People. I have also been very lucky to have a close group of christian guy friends for most of my life. The second bit of advice was to spend time each day in prayer and devotion. This time can be spent as a group, but also should be done alone consistently. This is definately something that I need to work on. I spent my first two weeks in Chicago caught up in the excitment and opportunities of the city, but it is really time to relax and spend more time with God. I feel confident that this area of my christian walk is going to start to pick up soon with the help of my friends. The last point the pastor made was that growth normally occurs when you are stretched in some way. I feel like I have been stretched more in the past week than I have during most years of my life. Not being at home with everything that is familiar to me is hard. Losing contact with a majority of my friends and family has been the hard.

This morning was a new experience and even though I am struggling with many things right now I feel encouraged. I have started to feel God moving in me the last few days and I am starting to understand and look for God in different ways than I have before.

Getting Down to Business

I have had many challenges in my life. Looking back at these experiences I realize that it is my personality to solve these issues by making a multi-step plan. This is the same plan that I have used for as long as I can remember, for school work, sports and even my spiritual walk with God. This process normally works well and has brought me a decent amount of sucess in the past. However, I am discovering that this may not be the best approach toward getting closer to God. Reaching God is not a step by step process and trying to build steps toward God is not going to get me very far. The process of reading my Bible and praying are good and do bring me closer to God, but these ways are the ones I have been taught since sunday school and may not be the best for me spiritually at this point in my life.

Now that I have discovered that the step process has become stagnant in my life, I am looking toward new solutions and feel that I need to try things that I never have before. Although trying new things may put me out of my comfort zone, maybe that is the perfect place I need to be to find a better understanding of God. Instead of having planned steps to find God, maybe I should look to tear down things in my life that are keeping God at a distance. As I explore new ideas and possibilities I hope to discover more about who I am and how I can best relate to God.