11 strangers

I feel like this last week the team became… more of a team. I was looking around the table at dinner last night, 11 strangers who would normally have nothing to do with each other who are now sharing a meal somewhere in South America. Each one comes with their own background, culture, language, and story and somehow our lives cross for 5 months. We eat together, work together, live together, and in 2 more months we will part ways and move on to our next step.

We have been molded somehow to one another. I see that very clearly. This time of growth and change has revealed the best and the worst in us and we have seen each ones journey to the point where they are at now. We have walked together with these people through difficult and defining moments.

11 strangers are our family, are the closest people in the world that we have here at this moment.


A scripture that I really feel has defined this time in our lives and one that we claim as a group is Ephesians 4:1-16. (Here is 1-3 from the amplified version)

I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, appeal to and beg you to walk (lead a life) worthy of the [divine] calling to which you have been called [with behavior that is a credit to the summons to God’s service,
Living as becomes you] with complete lowliness of mind (humility) and meekness (unselfishness, gentleness, mildness), with patience, bearing with one another and making allowances because you love one another.
Be eager and strive earnestly to guard and keep the harmony and oneness of [and produced by] the Spirit in the binding power of peace.


Today the team is splitting up into two and we will be working with separate churches. This also means that we have only one interpreter to go with each group. Please pray for me and Verena (the other interpreter) and that our minds would be fresh and we would continue to improve in our Spanish.