Ah…blessed 80′s

A few student from my journalism class showing off their 80's gear

The last few weeks I have been slowly transitioning into a new role I will be taking on next year as the new student council sponsor. To help share the load of a responsibilities another fellow English teacher has promised to serve as a co-sponsor, and together we will rally the troops for 2012-2013.

For now we are finding ourselves sitting in our pep rally meetings and offering creative input when we can. Our last few meetings led the students of AAI to birth an awesome, no! FANTABULOUS idea for an 80′s themed pep rally, paired with an 80′s themed dress up day.

Yes please!!

This event called for me to turn my closets inside out and find something to rock for this iconic decade. Calling all bangles and scrunchies! Come forth! I managed to find an 80′s style dress to wear over some skinny jeans, with a pair of grey flats, big hoop earring and about 20 bangles. Add some pink blush and blue eye shadow for effect. But the icing on the cake? THE HAIR. I blow dried my hair out pretty big….scrunched it pretty good….gave it a little tease and 70 sprays of hair spray. And voila!!

Looking in the mirror I was more than convinced…. that with the hair God gave me…I was born in the wrong decade. For realz. Well that and my love and appreciation for Bon Jovi….and Michael Bolton. Yes. Michael Bolton.

I would have to say the day was a major success…minus a few students asking what high school was like for me in the 80′s.

Um….I’m not sure…but the FOUR years I spend in the 80′s were pretty nice…

Christmas in the dump!

 

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Last weekend I had the chance to be a part of Christmas celebration that will top any others I’ll take part in this year. An organization here in Quito called Extreme Response puts on an annual Christmas party for 300 employees who work in the largest dump in Quito, as well as their friends and family. About 2500 people show up for the party. Most of the individuals live an hour or more away from the dump and bus in daily to work in one of the most disgusting places in the city. The day of the Christmas party is quite a different bus ride than the one they’re normally accustomed to. There is a buzz in the air and an excitement to arrive early in order to enjoy all the festivities. I actually had the opportunity to be one of the workers that welcomed all 2500 of the people in with a hug/handshake or greeting. Upon arrival I was astonished by the line that measured several hundred yards down the road. A reflection of how this event is a highlight in many of their lives and allows them to enjoy a Christmas in ways they ordinarily aren’t privileged to.

Now, you’ve probably got the idea that we put on some sort of an Oprah Christmas party combined with a day a Disney World, but you’d be mistaken. You see they will ride a bus for over an hour, wait in line for nearly an hour, and literally run up a hill to a party that most of us wouldn’t even get out of bed for. They’re idea of an awesome party and ours is completely different. It took me a while to understand this. I think when it hit me the hardest was when I leaned over to ask a buddy if they were misunderstood by what they were rushing into…I mean you really would have thought they were winning a new car or won a luxury trip to the Caribbean (Thats the kind of award it would take for us in order to evoke the excitement I saw in their eyes) . I even had some people shake my hand and thank me profusely over and over as if I had just given them a lump sum of money. But they simply are just so grateful to be able to spend part of a day playing some makeshift games, winning candy, sitting on “Santa’s” lap, and taking home a few very small presents. That was it. There was not a grand show  or money given away but rather just a few hours with a smile on their faces (in what for them is a very hard life) doing things that they rarely get a chance to do.

There was really something in all of this that grabbed my heart. I’m really not sure if it was the great efforts they went to in order to be a part of the celebration, or if it was their deep gratitude for us putting on the party, or if it was a smile that I’ve rarely seen and cannot be described. Or possibly it was all of this combined with the fact that I can in one day experience more than many of them can in their life but yet I still I don’t get it. I don’t understand grace, the Lords goodness in my life, and even more than that, the fact that I simply don’t deserve any of it regardless to how much my prideful heart argues against it. I’m still processing that day, but I’m super thankful that I was able to be a part of The Christmas party in the dump!

 

engage

i think most of you know by now that i have begun to work very closely with our church down here to begin a college and 20something ministry, which has been a void the church has been praying over for nearly a year now. for several years previous a couple from the US had organized a ministry with this age group, but when they returned to the states there was no one to take over. this left a large group of students and young adults without a bible study or a way to share in community. un benounced to me the Lord had been setting the pieces in place for me to pick the baton back up and provide a much needed source of community and spiritual authenticity for this age group.

the group currently has the name “engage”. we’ve just met for our fourth straight week. there has been a wide variety of people that have come, from upper 20′s working professionals (this doesn’t necessarily mean white collar professionals) to fresh out of H.S. college students. we’ve also had a few people from the US and Europe come, however the most predominant group are Ecuadorians who speak anything for no english to those who are fluent. its quite interesting, and at times requires a good bit of patience. however, if many of you remember in my previous experience with YWAM…i had a translator at my side 100% of the time to communicate what was being said. needless to say, i’m more than willing to have a little whispering of translation go on to make sure people don’t miss out. as irrelevant as numbers are, we have had a group from between 15 and 30 each week. currently we are making our way slowly through James. i’ve personally found much needed guidance and direction from the book of James over the past year, so given that and the fact that James talks a lot about spiritual maturity, i thought it’d be a great book to start with.

currently i’m trying to meet up with many of the guys throughout the work week to get to know them better. i’m so relieved to be able to communicate my heart and the Lord’s through me in my own native language! i can’t tell you what a relief that is. however, i’m also enjoying being challenged in my spanish, having conversations of depth with those who don’t speak much or any English. i’m supposed to meet this week with one of the guys who doesn’t speak any english. he also briefly told me this past week that he had only planned to come to engage as a support to his sister. but as he’s been coming the last few weeks the Lord has really been working in his heart in some tough but much needed areas. he thanked me for being a part of that. comments like that are the entire reason i want to be here, to have the Lord work through me and the passion he’s put in my heart. it’s encouraging simply knowing that God’s words are being spoken through me, but also in his case, the language isn’t a barrier. God is far bigger than a language. one because he created them and two b/c we see this in the example of the revelation of the Holy Spirit in Acts and the speaking of tongues, where everybody understood what was being said.

thats just to give a few tid bits of the last month and whats beginning to stir among the college and 20something “engage” ministry. thank you for all your prayers while the Lord has been preparing our hearts and those he’s brought to us.