This week I have enjoyed the abundant riches I have found in letting go. On Wednesday, I went to el Juventud para Cristo, a sort of safe haven for youth in a rough neighborhood. I was invited to take pictures of the daily activities and also of the young girl and her daughter. I began taking pictures in a cooking class (they were making pasta from scratch), then of some of the older kids about my age painting a golden-yellow room, a small class of 16 year-olds learning about, um, I think it was about healthy work habits or something related to getting into a career, and then finally of the mother and her daughter that I wrote about earlier. The mother of 17 years has a daughter who is 2. The father does not support the two of them in any way and used to beat the mother. The police aren't doing anything. The mom works a job,is going back to school, and goes to this center which has been supporting her the whole time. She wrote a biography/testimony of her experience which is being published and the organization was collecting pictures to send in. It was very humbling to take pictures of her and her daughter and to play such a small role in her getting her voice heard. I returned the next night without my camera, this time to take part in the bible study offered every Thursday evening. A friend of mine who I met at a bible study, Ana (not the one I live with), leads the group and invited me to come and share with them. After we same some songs led by Nicolas on the guitar and Javier on the bongos and I heard from all the kids (ages 15-19), I shared from the passage in Matthew 10:39 that says "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." I told them about how recently (since Sunday) I've been learning the lesson that it isn't until I die to myself and my plans and self-seeking goals that I will find life in God. By the grace of God, I talked about this in Spanish for about 5 minutes or so. I was both nervous and calm. I was nervous because I've never been around a big group of kids that age here (most of the time they've all been older than me and some spoke english), and I felt like I was being stared at, like that they expected me to be a certain way, or perhaps the very opposite, that they had no idea what to expect. So that was strange to feel, but hey, I'm learning what being a minority is like. But thankfully I was not nervous to speak, that came with such ease! Normally when I'm in a group that size here, if I dare say anything in Spanish, I can feel my face turning red. Thankfully that isn't happening as much now, haha.

I actually got to take pictures of the trash place, sorry, I really don't know a more politically correct way to say that. The pictures aren't great in terms of lighting and composition because I couldn't go inside and the sun was really harsh, but it still tells a bit of a story. I was driving with my friend Luis and he got out of the car and asked a man living there if I could take pictures and he was fine with it. Luis is in charge of Juventud para Cristo and CAIF which is the center for new mothers and their babies. He's kept and is keeping me busy in terms of photography! I accompanied him to a meeting that educated a lot of social workers and such about healthy family life, sexual abuse/health, etc, at this beautiful camp that's among farmland that he and others helped to build years and years ago. Fue relindo! (Very beautiful). There were about 30 people there from Uruguay, Argentina, Brasil, Bolivia, and Chile for this 3-day conference/meeting. It was so fun taking pictures of them and chatting with some of them. Luis and I have grown pretty close…he's a great, intelligent, humble man with a huge heart!

Saturday night I went out for the first time like the rest of the young Uruguayans. First I went to a pub to hear my friend's rock band play in this stone room that was underground…you can imagine how loud that was! The concert didn't start till midnight, so I took a bus into the city along with many rambunctious, fully pre-gamed kids and my friend Nicolas who speaks close to no English. The concert was so great although I didn't understand many of the lyrics. The band is a group of 3 Christian men and they often play in bars and such to spread their message of hope to that crowd. I apologize if this is really choppy…I'm exhausted and still recovering from going out that night. So I left the concert with some friends to go to Ciudad Vieja, or Old City, around 2am to find a club and didn't leave until almost 6. Ay! The buses start to run at 6am, so it was a convenient time to leave so we didn't have to pay for a taxi. So it was 7 by the time I went to bed, and I woke up at 10 to go to the house church around the corner to teach Sunday school…good plan, huh? Then after a 3 hour siesta and another café con leche, I went out to another church where one of the friend's I went with goes, and his dad is the pastor. It was hard to understand much of the sermon since it was a man speaking very fast Spanish (men here are so hard for me to understand), but I got the gist of it since I was familiar with the passage (Romans 8).

So yes, last week was full of opportunities as is this week as well. However, I know that Satan is right around the corner and wants to trip me up. I can see it several different areas as some of my friends here are feeling the same. Uruguay is such an interesting place with their beliefs. It is not common to find a practicing Christian here, so when a church or organization is doing great things to further God's kingdom, I'm pretty sure that gets Satan pretty pissed, and thus, I see him at work. But it's not ju