A Week in Paradise

so we have been spending the last week in a little suburb called "Paraiso" which translated is Paradise.
Oh boy did we fall in love with that place and the people there.
On Christmas day we headed out and met a very nice pastor and his family who we stayed with during the entire week. They have a little church that they run out of the bottom of their house which is also their family business during the week.
From monday to friday we spent the mornings going to different families houses visiting praying and building relationships with them. During the afternoons we ran a VBS for the children in the neighbourhood. This part of Bogota is one of the poorest.
The city is split up into two parts; the north and the south.
The north is known as the rich part and the south the poor. They hate each other, people would rather live in poverty and live poor in the south then live wealthy in the north.
Paraiso is in the southern most part of the south up in the mountains.
I will never forget some of the kids, the awesome bed bug bites, the amazing view from on top of the mountain, or my 20th birthday.
Wednesday was my birthday.
i turned 20.
It was a pretty normal day..we visited some houses in the morning then we went to this amazing pizza place and ate WAY TO MUCH (which we seem to do all the time....i can't remember the last time i was hungry) and ate 2 dozen donuts with the mondo pizza. We returned back to the pastors house and did VBS then went to a church service in the evening. One of my team members Ian preached on John 10 and Jesus being our shepherd. WOW it was such a good night. One of my team members Javier injured his back last week using a sledgehammer and has been in a lot of pain, like he couldn't even move. During the service his back got really really hot. After the preaching we were praying for people that wanted more trust and to go deeper. It was really cool how God just opened up the lives of these people before me while i was praying. I could see heartbreak, and things of the past that were hindering this one lady, and i could see a calling on one ladies life for Missions and the fear that was holding her back. After the amazing prayer time i went up to Javier and said his back was healed. He had NO MORE PAIN!!! He bent down, jumped up and down and twisted something he could NOT do earlier that day.
We will never know why God decided to heal him then, in the middle of the church service but honestly we don't care. We just know that he was healed and that God is good. that God did it just because he loves Javier. So good. Then we returned home and ate even more food. The team surprised me with a really good cake made with wine....i know i know not on outreach but the other ones were made of milk and they know that i am allergic. So thoughtful!! haha.
After the cake....which was totally eaten in a very short time the team told me that they had prepared a dance for me. So they went downstairs to practice i cleaned up a little bit and then went downstairs. Dhishan took me outside because i couldn't see the dance. In a few minutes they all came outside and surrounded me in a circle. By this point i knew what they were up to. See i had been informed of a Colombian birthday tradition that involves people throwing eggs, cold cold water and flour at you in the street as you are tied up to a telephone pole. Luckily my team didn't tie me up, but sure enough they all splatted eggs on my head and threw cold water and flour at me. It turned out to be a huge flour fight that consumed the entire team including the pastor who basically started the whole thing.
That was my birthday.
On that i will never forget of course.....now i am 20. No longer a teenager. shucks eh?

So we arrived back at the base today after a long New Years celebration last night....with fireworks going off ALL NIGHT LONG!! We are tired and ready to just rest tomorrow before we start another week.
I am learning a lot, and one things is to take one day at a time. To treasure the friendships that i make and the people that i meet. I am so blessed and i am so in love with Jesus.
Now it is a new year.
One that i am sure will be full of tough times, but more then anything i want to look back on 2011 as i have on 2010 seeing how good God is. That through whatever circumstances that He is so so so good. That he loves me and that i love him SO SO MUCH MORE.

So time for one more story before i head to bed.
I lost my thumb nail on my left hand.
Let me explain.
So when we were in the town of Madrid a week or so ago we were cleaning and painting this house that was being transformed into a christian school. I was cleaning the paint off of the floor one day with a scrub brush. I was so intense into this cleaning job that i didn't see the nail sticking out of the wall. As the scrubbing continued the nail in the wall went right underneath the nail on my left thumb. Yup i continued with some pain not realizing how serious it was. That is until i saw the blood. Ever since then the nail has been trying to heal and not succeeding and finally today i got so fed up with it catching on everything and i realized that it will probably catch on something and rip off anyways.
So i took it off.
My knife and some scissors did the trick. Now i have a little piece of nail at the bottom and my stubby thumb looks even more stubby.
Well that is my story.
And my bed is for sure calling me.
Tomorrow another week begins and it shall be good.
Ciao.
Feliz Ano
Bendiciones

(yes i am getting very good at spanish!!)