building

these past few weeks have been packed and the next few will be busy. planning, sharing, meeting students. but it should be great.

2 weeks ago was our first full week on campus(is that confusing enough?)
and it was a pretty great one if i do say so.
there are few things that i have found since i've been here that are bigger than any kind of language barrier. one of them has been sports. i had the chance to play some pick up futbol last sunday night at a local park. it was great. there was alittle difficulty getting posisoned at first, but other than that it was nothing afew hand gestures and an push in the right direction couldn't fix. i dunno, there is just something about playing, joking around with other men/boys on a field. you know what the point in the game is, to win and to have some fun along the way. when someone scores a goal, no matter what language you speak, everyone still goes crazy and when some gringo (me)makes a fool out of himself you can still all have a good laugh about it and the game goes on. it was one of the first times i have felt really comfortable around people i dont know here.

another is the Gospel. Love. Hope.
one day i was out with a student, moises, on campus. he speaks a bit of english and i speak almost no spanish. for awhile we talked about our lives and jsut tried to get to know eachother. after that we went out looking to engage other students in conversation about their lives and their thoughts/beliefs about God, Jesus and things like that.
after awhile of walking around, we ran into three students who were sitting outside of a class room, there names(for the sake of telling this story) were vicky, danielle, and jesus.
we walked up and introduced ourselves....they looked at me with smiles and i could instantly tell that none of them spoke any english. for the rest of the conversation i had to talk through Moises and let him do his thing.

we asked them to to talk with us about lives and asked them if we could use a picture survey to talk about it because i just thought it would help me better understand how they were feeling.
we asked them to pic pictures that described their lives and described God to them. after about 10 minutes it was obivous that God had been searching for them and moving in their lives.
one of the students said she had been searching for more, searching for God even, but didn't know how to reach him or if he would even he wanted to know her(which was completely not true, God knows and loves every person in this world and wants to be in a relationship with you). Jesus had mentioned and picked pictures that talked about his family situation, how he felt he didnt belong and wasn't wanted there and didn't feel like he could fit in anywhere. Danielle talked about how she wanted to achieve more and more in life but just felt like it was never good enough and she was never going to be satisfied no matter what she achieved.

after sharing these things moises began talking to them...for a long while. although i could not understand much of what he was saying, i could tell from the look in his eyes that he was speaking from his heart. he was talking of God's love and mercy in his life and how he had experienced it.
after watching him for awhile i couldnt help but look over at the faces of the three young students. tears ha begun to run down one of the girls cheeks while the other had them welling up in her eyes.
after afew more minutes of moises talking with them(and occasionally asking me questions like "they want to know if you think God is real" or things like that) they had said that they wanted this kind relationship with God that was so real and so obviously influenced our lives.
there is something about that kind of conversation that i jsut can't explain. i wish i was better with words so i could tell you all how i felt and feel when i think back to that conversation.
God's love changes lives, and he uses those changed lives to change others lives. Once again i wish i could explain this as clearly as i saw it that day but i just can't. I cant explain how a real, living perfect God uses broken people and the crap of their lives to change others lives forever. Or how Hope that changes peoples lives will eventually change a campus and a city and a country. and this isnt just happening here in Valencia. this kind of Hope is turning this world inside out.


the rest of the week we were on campus meeting students and talking with them about these same things, and this was only the first week.


last week we had the chance to grow together as a team with some team building exercise in Caracas. after that we took another long bus ride up some winding mountains to a place called Colonia Tovar, a german colony in the mountains of venezuela. go figure.
while the ride up was alittle dizzying and frustrating at times, it was beautiful(and cooler, which was awesome...alittle taste of fall for our team)... although as we went up the mountain and saw the places where people lived along the road, it looked like tiny bits of the cities had just been planted in the mountains. it was the same smells and graffiti and broken down cars and buildings. it was interesting, i guess you have to see it for yourself.
once we got to tovar, we spent the next 2 and a half days hanging out with eachother, sharing our life stories, and walking up and down some of the steepest roads i've ever walked on. it was a bonding experience and i think our team will greatly benefit from this past week of togetherness.

now we are preparing for the next few weeks of ministry before we have to leave the country. we are so excited to see how God will use this time. there is alot of work to do.

there has been alot more going on that i didnt mention here and stint life has provided me with other interesting tidbits that im sure i will get on here(maybe even some pictures if i become savvy enough with this website) in the near future.

matt