After 2 weeks in BAQ :)

"The preoccupations of a teenage girl, her looks, her clothes, her social life, don't change much from generation to generation.  But in every generation there seem to be a few who make other choices.."                                    -Elizabeth Elliot-

As I sit here trying to take all that has happened and put it into writing, I am somewhat overwhelmed.  I guess I will give you a detailed list of events which would be:

I cleaned at the farm the rest of July and august (since my last blog) and at the farm we would have random little excitements -such as finding  a family of rats in one of the closets and watching Luis smash them all with a machete   -or there was the time El and I woke up to someone putting a 2 1/2-3 foot long iguana in our bedroom floor -and knowing there was only one person there to have done that I returned the favor and left the same iguana on the persons bed.. unfortunatly the iguana thought that persons bed was the perfect place to leave his droppings and did so before the person found him. (yes I do have all these events on video =) )

Elizabeth and I had a weekend in Pereira with some friends on one of those weekends and that was a blessing. 

Mom came down to visit and on the weekend we had a evangelistic event and Mom spoke at the youth meeting- it was awesome and we had several over the weekend give their lives to Jesus. Oh and she just loved the big spiders that we had saved for her :) and if you want to see them she made it through customs with them and I believe they will be in Joyannahs or Muffins bug collection that they are putting in the fair. 

We got robbed- about $240 from me, Mom and El and my phone. but never the less God is faithful.

We missed our flight to florida on the way to Barranquilla but we just ended up with one extra night with good friends and the next day flew to BAQ without any problems - Only God knows the plans.

We started drama practice about 3 hours after we got to Barranquilla :) and left for a week and 1/2 trip to Carmen de Bolivar (another city about 3 hours from BAQ) 3 days after we had been here.  Carmen was absolutely incredible. We ministered in 6-8 schools per day - about 16000 students in all and about 12000 of those gave their lives to Jesus. One day we got to go in the university to do the dramas and minister. What an opportunity. The whole week was just a blessing- I have no idea where our food came from or who payed for the hotel but these people brought us food and drink 3 times a day and something refreshing mid morning in between schools and the hotel we stayed in was great. And I had a blast doing my laundry in the shower at night because we wore our green or yellow BAQ shirts every day for the week and I had 2 pairs of jeans -we had just packed in our backpacks -  so all my frontline mission trip homies think about how gross you get doing dramas 4 maybe 5 times a day in the dirt, so sweaty that you look like you jumpd in a pool and imagine wearing that shirt everyday for a week and doing enough dramas for 2 weeks in one- then thank God for your 40-50 pound suitcase, thank him for your new shirts that you have for everyday and next time you go on mission trip and think you feel gross and smell bad- just know you could be a lot dirtier ;) - I think one of my favorite days was when it just poured down rain and the streets looked like rivers and most the team just stood soaking in the water and watching the dirt run off our clothes -it was more than refreshing. Or the day we drove up to the school in the mountains about 30 min from the town- it was cool, a nice break from the heat and there was just a perfect breeze and looking at the mountians just made my heart sing- it was absolute beauty. I loved everything about Carmen- and I loved riding motos or riding 12-15 of us in this jeep thing, or rather on top of the jeep ;) I loved the adventure of eating yuca root for breakfast or the chuso off the street- I loved that nobody except El and I spoke english (and we don't have anyone here in BAQ that speaks it either so when El leaves I will be COMPLETELY immersed)  and to top it off, everyone in Carmen thought I was famous it was hysterical- it was as if the entire city knew my name - we would drive down the road and those on the side of the street would start yelling my name and trying to say things in english - or I would be at the panaderia and would hear whispering behind me and turn to see kids pointing at me and telling there friends "Look, there's Jessica from our school'" or "Look, look at her blue eyes" and then if I went and talked to them they would get all excited. It was pretty great. 

We have been back in BAQ a few days now and most of that time we have spent running errands with Pastor Luis and yesterday we went with him up to Tubara and then to the beach- it was storming most of the afternoon - but even then Tubara is in the mountains and it was one of the most beautiful storms. The white color clouds come down on the mountains raced all through them and then you could see all the layers of darker clouds and then the straight down lightning and the almost constant quiet, deep roll of thunder.  Then the sounds from the wind and the rain hitting the tin roof- As I watched that I could do nothing but stand in awe of God.

                So I have to say I have felt more alive these last 3 1/2 months than any other time in my life. I am learning about my relationship with Jesus more than I ever have. I know He is the only one who can satisfy me. He is real. I am learning to be completely content with just me and him. There is a constant urge in my heart to fall deeper in love with him. I know he is pulling me to himself. 

During this trip I have often thought about my life, my future and eternity. I realize that most of us live here and now and yes we want to make good choices that won' effect our future in a bad way such as good choices in relationships, in school, in work- you know what I am talking about. But I want to know what choices I can make that will effect more than just my future here on earth. What choices can I make that are going to effect my eternity with Jesus.   I don't want to go on living my life just to make sure of a better future here on earth, besides I know only in Gods plans will i find true joy so as long as I walk with him all my days why should i worry about the future? But I want to have an effect on eternity. Maybe that doesn't make sense to you or maybe you agree. Maybe you have different views on eternity, on life and our purpose here on earth.. but I challenge you to think about this when you die there is eternity with Jesus or eternity in hell. You may have lived a good life, had a great family, you stayed married to your husband, you were probably a really good person and did really good things. You may have even been babtised into a "religion" but there is more to life than that -do you have a relationship with Jesus? Have you given your heart to him? If so I rejoice with you and I have no sorrow because I know in eternity we will be together. If not, my friends, my family- I pitty you on judgement day. I feel sorry that you will have to stand there before him and say "But I was a good person.." and I pray with everything inside me that you will make the decision to follow Jesus before it is too late. Maybe my words seem a little to bold to some of you but I would like to take the opportunity to be even bolder and downright honest and say there are those of you that I have been praying for since I was 5 years old.  I would rather die now knowing that I have eternity with Jesus than to see you die knowing the opposite.  Jesus died for you because you are a sinner. We are all sinners, only to be saved by grace. Now, while you are still alive you have the opportunity to submit to Him. It's not too late right now- but none of us are sure to have tomorrow. If I didn't love you and if I didn't really believe this with my ENTIRE heart.. then I would say nothing. But how can I knowing how much Jesus loves you and wants you.

                Well maybe that turned out to be a little more than just a list-  But I would rather have shared my heart with you than have only given you a list anyways. =)

So now I have about 6 weeks left here. in a week we are leaving for another little town close to Carmen to do work there for a week then when we get back El will be returning home. She has just had a really hard time with her health this entire trip and needs to be at home to get better. So pray for her health and safe travels in the next couple weeks.

-God is Faithful.-