traveling South for next 3 months

Hola mis amigos!
This may be my last blog for the next 3 months as I will be traveling for the outreach portion of this school. I don't know if I will have any computer access, or how rural we will be at times.

The pictures some of what life is like here at the base....kitchen duty, making bags of soap and sorting clothes to distribute to those in need after the earthquake, sleeping outside after the quake. After the earthquakes, there are so many physical needs for the people in this Country.  This mission base is putting together resources and teams to help repair or build replacement homes people here who lost their homes.  Also we have been receiving and distributing basic needs...including food, clothes, toiletries etc...

We continue to experience many aftershocks here, but the last earthquake of 4.8 was 6 days ago (march 11) around noon, and the epicenter was just 1 1/2 hrs. from here. We thought is was another aftershock, but it got stronger AND continued...one of the desks even flipped over from the movement when we were trying to get out of the building. We lost all electricity for the next 28 hrs. and there were some good cracks in the ground afterwards, but once again none of our homes or buildings were damaged. PRAISE GOD!!! We spent the next 2-3 nights sleeping in tents again until things settled. (if you know me very well, sleeping in a tent is something I like ALOT). It felt like a bomb went off at the end of the quake...so strange. I never felt very afraid mentally, but I have to admit that I felt restless inside after the 2nd one.....can't really describe it. THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE PRAYERS!
      Several of us from my school at the beach 2 days ago so we took this "pyramid" pic!  This is such a beautiful place where there a beach that is so close to pine trees as well.  With school there has been no time to enjoy the beach, but I was blessed to have time to go for long runs on Sundays after church...the only free day we have. The penguin pictures are from last Sunday when I was on a run with 2 friends. This little penguin was trapped in this orange plastic....after wrapping t-shirts around his head so he couldn't bite again, he was freed, looked at us is saying "thanks",  and waddled to the water, dove in and swam away....wow! Poor little guy.....wonder how long he had been like that???

I just finished the "theory" portion of this Discipleship training school, and will be leaving in 2 days for the outreach for the next 3 months. We have 3 different teams. One team is going to Venezuela, one to North Chile and North Argentina, and my team is going to Southern Argentina and Southern Chile. This is when we will be living out many of the things we have been learning...things from the topics I listed a couple of blogs ago. We will experience times where our faith and dependence on God will certainly be tested, and I know He is going to surprise us in many ways during this tiem. We will be serving and sharing God's love in a variety of ways! Please pray for the safety and unity of each team, and that God's love will impact the lives we will be spending time with.
There are 8 of us on my team, and we are from 5 different Countries. (Columbia, Switzerland, Brazil, Chile, Argentina and the United States.) We will be traveling by bus to 3 different places and we will spend about a month at each place. We will travel South in Chile and then cross over the border into Argentina and end up Bariloche, after about 24 hours. After Argentina, we will travel back into Chile to a place called Osorno, and then to a place named Puerto Mont. We aren't sure of the destruction in these areas after the quakes, but we know there are many hurting people and many needs. We'll be hosted by churches and helping serve in many ways......in schools, hospitals, churches...wherever God leads us.

These 3 months of outreach are a time when we will each individually continue to grow in knowing God in an intimate way, and to bless places as we share His love ..by being  His hands and feet by loving and serving. We will We will also be sharing about Jesus and His love through teaching times, drama & dance.
Please keep us and Chile in your prayers.  There are so many whose lives have been severly impacted from the earthquakes. I will send out a blog if the opportunity arises....
In His AMAZING love,
Holly