Awesome week

Once again, another week down here in Puerto Rico. It was a great week. God is continuing to teach us a lot along with watching Him move through us in the Puerto Rican community. On Monday we went to do community service at the high school. We were suppose to paint rooms however the school didn't have the paint yet, so a small group walked across the street to the University to do a prayer walk while the rest of us played basketball and volleyball at the school. It was quite funny watching everyone play volleyball. I remember one time I had the perfect set up to hit the ball up and over my head...yeah, I swung a little to late and the ball just ended up bouncing off my head. Bible training was very interesting on Tuesday because we took a break from our normal study of Genesis and bible studying methods to talk about how we got the bible that we have now and dismissing several of the myths of how it came out like how the council of nicea didn't make the bible. It was very interesting learning about how we got the biblical canon. Wednesday was excursion day and we were suppose to go to the beach but it was raining so we ended up going to the mall and doing a video scavenger hunt. It must have been funny to see a bunch of Americans running around the Puerto Rican mall doing stupid stuff like saluting people walking out of Old Navy and doing leap frogs by the elevator. It was great. Thursday continued our evangelism training and outreach at the University which is always interesting. Had a long conversation with a two different guys which was encouraging. We had the outreach social that evening by the soccer fields and had an awesome time playing with folks on project along with UPR students playing ultimate Frisbee. I had a blast just fellowshipping with folks. Friday wrapped up our week with community service again. Painting in the Puerto Rican heat is a little more taxing than expected, but it was definitely rewarding getting to serve the school. That afternoon was filled with one-on-ones with folks and this interesting game called man ball. Man ball is a game played at the pool where you have to get the ball in the goal area and hold it on the side for at least two seconds. The only other rules is no punching and if you're holding the person underwater and they tap you, you gotta let go. So, it can get very intense at times. Finally hit the rack early. It's definitely been an awesome week so far and God has been showing all of us so much stuff.

God is doing some awesome things in PR

Wow, the amazingness of our God just leaves me speechless sometimes. It's amazing to see what God is doing here in Puerto Rico. From challenging me in my faith by asking the tough questions, to watching people witness at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) and developing relationships to seeing everyone having fun and growing as a community, it's been awesome.
     This past week we did our first two community service projects at the school, one on Monday and the other on Friday. From cleaning up the leaves to painting classrooms, it's been great to see everyone serving the school. I wasn't in a great mood Friday morning, but God really worked on my heart about it by the end of community service. It's going to be great to see how God continues to use us to show His love to the school.
     Tuesday and Thursday were our first two days doing Evangelism at UPR. It was a little nerve racking, but  God quickly took away that fear as I started to talk to a guy named David. He's studying some sort of science at UPR and definitely agreed with me about how logically, it seems impossible for everything to happen by chance (using the same argument that other scientist use for evolution which was really encouraging), but still wrestled with certain stuff. We had a great conversation and he agreed to meet up later on while we're still here in PR. God's really placed him on my heart to continue to develop a relationship with Him and just to be a light to him. The second day we were there, it was just amazing to walk around and see all the conversations PRP was having with the students and the encouraging stories we had later on. It was just awesome to see God doing some amazing things on campus here. It's also interesting (in a good way) to see how open people are here in PR. They don't mind having a conversation about things, looking at both sides even if they don't agree with you. Just the willingness to be open and talk about God. That has been awesome to me. Evangelism training at UPR has really placed a burden on my heart for Puerto Rico and especially the students there. We're barely half way through the trip and I already want to go back next year. It's just so amazing
    Wednesday we went up to the rain forest in the mountains and hiked up a river to a spot where there is a rope swing and just slightly farther up is a place to jump off a cliff and where a natural water slide is (pictures to come when I get them from people who had the water proof camera). It was fun being out there and just experiencing God's awesome creation. On the walk up, Diego and I decided to try and go up all the mini water falls and rapids instead of the easy course which was pretty fun. It was a great time.
    God is doing some amazing things here, even today, but I'll save that for tomorrow. Keep praying for everyone on this trip that we will continue to be used by God and that His kingdom would continue to advance.

Weekends in Puerto Rico

Give a bunch of college students some free time and interesting things happen. Give a bunch of Campus Outreach students free time in Puerto Rico, then you go coning. Coning is a difficult art. It requires the ability not to laugh in a hilarious situation, to step completely outside of your comfort zone and to look like a complete idiot, and yet everyone gets a kick out of it. Coning is when you go through the drive thru, normally a McDonalds and order a single ice cream cone. When you drive up to the window to get your ice cream, you grab the ice cream instead of the cone, and drive off. Well after having dinner with one of the local families from the church, our van got the bright idea to do that. So Saturday night, we went coning. Our fearless van driver Joel was the one that performed the hilarious act. We ordered the ice cream cone, everyone was trying not to laugh as we approached the window. The sweet Puerto Rican lady at the window held out the cone and Joel takes his finger, scoops out some and tries it right there. The lady was shocked. Joel tries another little scoop then offers some to the lady as we're dying in the back. Finally Joel attempts to grab the ice cream but the cone falls off unto the ground and we drive up. It was probably one of the funniest moments so far on Project and boy did we have a great time doing it.
Now on a different note, while on Project during the weekend, we get a descent amount of free time, especially Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. One of the big things that we like to do on Project during the free time, is to have one-on-ones with different folks to get to know each other better, hear their testimonies, encourage them at Project and to pray. Over the course of the past week and a half, I've become really close to DK. Well, Sunday lunch before church, him and I went to Subway to have another one-on-one. It was great getting to catch up with him and just talk. It was definitely the most interesting one-on-one I've had yet because in the middle of us eating, all of a sudden in the middle of Condado, there was a gay pride/gay rights parade. It was definitely unusual. But it was great talking with DK again and then getting to head over to La Travesia for church.
Saturday night before our lovely Coning extravaganza, several of the D-groups went and had dinner with a local family from La Travesia.  It was great getting to see Puerto Rican life. Even though it was a missionary family that grew up in PA, they've lived in Puerto Rico for around 7 years now. It was great having Puerto Rican Lasagna which has platanes instead of noodles. Of course, then we went coning haha.
One of the biggest things God has been showing me and that has been awesome is the community that we have here on Project. Growing close to folks, especially our D-groups, hanging out with people that come from different backgrounds, going to lunch and talking about life, struggles, relationship with God. It's pretty awesome how strong community in the body of Christ is especially with such a diverse group of folks we have here.