Worship, what a refreshing thing!

Tonight I came to appreciate singing praises to my Lord and Savior more than ever before. It seems odd to me that a simple song that I have heard many times before brought me to take this oh so regular act of the Christian life to a newer and deeper understanding. In the past the act of singing Hyms or songs in general was quite easy and regular for me. Since I have been in Argentina this has not really been as possible because of the songs being in Spanish; which makes them feel much more like a language lesson than anything else. This caused something I hope to never experience again which is an empty dry feeling that slowly came over me that I was taking as normal, very similar to when you are so dehydrated you no longer seem thirsty you just accept it. I find it quite interesting that me not singing things to God left me unknowingling empty and lacking this part of my relationship with him.

Now that I have lived in Argentina for around 3 months and have been studying I am able to think a little in Spanish. The song that made me aware of my need was "Oh how he loves me", when I started to be able to digest and think of the words that I was saying I realized how much this part of my life had been lacking over the last few months. This ability to express my love to him through song had not really been possible in the past few months. A moment when I quit thinking of myself and focused soully on his love and wanting to know him more. Its not that I had been away from his word or not in prayer but the act of worhip had been missing and this privledge we are given is something I feel we pass over many times in our lives.

I have always loved to grow in my knowledge of God and how he loves us; but one very intersting thing I had never realized was that David a man after God's own heart was a man of worship and praise. Most everything we know about David points to his love of worship and how he did it with such great passion for the Lord he served. I always looked at other charateristics and not that one when I read about David in the past. I feel that many times we sing and praise with no real grasp of just how much of a privledge it is and how much joy our Father takes from it.

The other thing that really struck me was not only how refreshing worship is; but that worship is one way of being humble before God. When we worship we do not praise ourselves or speak of all the great and wonderful things we do. We speak of how Jesus loves us and how we are continously seeking after him and desiring a deeper relationship with him. By vocally proclaiming our love and admiration for God we are honoring him to a place that I feel I fall short of on a regular basis. I began to see that the humble nature that worship brings into our lives also brings us closer to Him. I hope to continue to put Christ in his rightful place in all parts of my life. I hope that being able to worship the Lord helps me to want to serve him more. I hope to always be praising him for all he has done in my life.

Ants

I find the ant to be one of the most fascinating creatures that we take for granted on such a daily basis. These tiny creatures live in huge communities working together to make it the best possible place for them to live. We as human live together in huge cities as well but do not seem to want to work together as smoothly as the ants do. It is difficult for us to just do our job at times. Many times we want to be heard and think that we know a better way of doing things. We as humans and Christians for that matter of fact, like to think of ourselves as something special and needed for the most important task possible. I feel that we are unwilling to be the worker ant doing the same task without some great reward. We feel that we are better than this or better equipped to do other much more rewarding and greater tasks. I feel that many times we would rather be the queen ant or some other more noble ant of the bunch. It is difficult for us to imagine ourselves as a lowly creature that is not in charge. This is where I think we fall short wanting this control causes us to lose focus on the task at hand. We want to be heard and be in control so we do not work toward the task in front of us as hard as we should.

I hope that in the future I will be more like the worker ants. Willing to serve and do what ever task is put in front of me to build up the community of believers I live in. I want to not to ask questions of why am I doing this or why does this person get to do something else. Instead I just want to serve and do so to the best of my abilities. I know that I myself have lost focus of this goal and hope that you all will also refocus yourself to the task that has been put in front of you.

Sorry for the lack of blogs recently. It has been a whirlwind down here and I have been trying to get many things done. We have wrapped up the semester and are now moving into preparing for camp and our project in the south with the Mapuches people. It has been very exciting and exhausting time here in Buenos Aires the last month. This past weekend we had to leave the country to update our visas so we went across the Rio de La Plata to Colonia, Uruguay.

Colonia is a small town on the Rio de La Plata. It is the sight of an old fort with an amazing area north of the Fort that is now a quaint village. The water around the town is quite nice and it is a very calm and relaxing place, quite the opposite of Buenos Aires. We also got to spend time with the the STINT team from La Plata, a city about an hour south of Buenos Aires. It was quite rejuvenating and nice to leave the hustle and bustle of our metropolis for cobble stone streets. The boat ride over I can not say much about since I took a much needed and amazing nap. But on the trip back the boat went through some rough waters and bothered a few of the other people on my team.

I hope to return to Uruguay at some point to see more of the country and to get away from the speed of the city. I am starting to grow more accustom to the rapid pace and mass amount of people that are always nearby. The city is the 11th largest in the world and is one of the major centers of South America. I feel that my time here is helping me to grow and helping me to grasp on more and more to what God wants and desires from my life. It is awesome to see how when doing his work I feel that I am rewarded in many different ways I would have never expected. I hope to continue this growth and my relationship with Christ to continue to learn to love Him more and show others the love he has for me.

Argentine Highlights!

Since moving to Argentina I have enjoyed many aspects of this culture. It runs at a different pace here, which is nice for me to get away from the time structure and constant rush of the US. That is one thing I have began to love about this country is that running late is not some horrible thing that only lazy and inconsiderate people do, it is just a part of life. Another huge difference is that people here are much more willing to share their possessions and willing to spend time with people. It may be because I am from the United States and they would like to learn more about my country but it seems to happen with nationals too. On the mention of the United States, there are basically 4 cities that matter in the USA down here and they are as follows, Miami, New York City, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C. everything else is just open land that is an utter mystery. I feel this is mainly because most shows are based out of these 4 cities and other cities don't make the international news.

Some things that I continue to look forward to yet have not experienced yet are almost to many to count. Hitting the high points there is the Super Clasico which is the equivalent of the Argentine Super Bowl, My Boca Juniors will be playing the evil team of River Plate. From my understanding everything shuts down and everyone is glued to the TV. I am attending a party with my fellow Boca Juniors fans, Xenzenies, I am also looking forward to visiting the different soccer stadiums here to experience all of the different atmospheres that are here. Another thing I have only had a small taste of here in Argentina is their famous BBQ called Asado. It is beef with for the most part the bone is left in. It is a slow cooked meat with tons of flavor. They treat their asados very similar to a good old southern Pig Pickin! These are done in celebration of many events and are also down on Sundays giving the family an chance to slow down and be together.

One of the things I am looking forward to the most is exploring the different regions of Argentina. The North is a desert area that we will be going to, it is not very populated and at night the stars are super bright. The thing that will be amazing will be the fact that there will be different stars in the sky since I am south of the equator, which I feel is going to be quite awesome to see even more of God's great creation. Also there is Iguazu falls which is South America's version of Niagara Falls, but are more of a hairpin shape as opposed to an open horseshoe. Finally there is the south which i here great things about and pictures of Patagonia are so beautiful it makes me appreciate the power of God in his abilities to create nature, and our feeble attempts to build attractive buildings which do not compare. I hope to bring you all more pictures of these things in the future and great stories for e to tell.

One of the beautiful things that I am experiencing here is the teamwork aspect of the work I am doing here in Argentina. I really love how this collection of people work off each and bring different things to the table. It reminds me that not every person is made in the same way but all in the likeness of Christ. That we are of one body, the church, and that we will continue to work together for what is good for the whole body. One of my strengths is my love of details and power of observation in my day to day life. A few of my team mates here in Buenos Aires have commented on this and the fact that they themselves are big picture people and do not notice all the little details that fill our lives. On the same note my team quickly noticed one of my weakness in the fact that I myself am not a neat or tidy person; but that I make small mistakes and leave things not as tidy as they should be. This weakness I hope they will continue to help correct and look to help me with to make sure I accomplish as much as I possibly can.

Another small battle I have taken on thanks to some advice I have been given is to fight and to maximize my abilities and to use my ADD as a gift and not as a deficit to what I do. I made my team quickly aware of this situation and have encouraged them to keep me from chasing rabbits and getting off the main point I want to make. This has started to help me to continue to grow in what I can do and I feel has helped me to communicate better with people. Also I hope that they will continue to help me with other parts of my life that I feel need improvement so that I can better serve my team and thus be more efficient in the work I do here for Christ.

I also hope that I can do the same for them and help them to become better laborers for Christ and that I would be able to encourage them and point them toward Christ as much as possible. I would like to continue to encourage you to take people in your church, friends, and family and to encourage them in areas that they are weak and to help them to become better people and servants of Christ so that they may glorify Him more in everything. Also work for the team that is striving for more people to know Christ as their personal savior. I hope the more you put into people's lives the more they are willing to put back into yours and help you to become more like Christ which is the real goal that we as Christians strive for.

Relying upon God, why do it only when its your only option?

A revelation I have had in the past month is how much I do not rely upon the Lord or live every moment to serve him. One amazing thing about going somewhere that I do not speaks the common language makes me dependent on other people to do simple tasks. Then I realize that I am even more helpless in the eyes of God. God has revealed this to me time and time again here how I prefer to be independent and rely upon myself instead of him. It drives me crazy to have to be the one person at a meeting that someone has to stop and translate for and without that translator I hardly know what is going on at all. Another time where my reliance has been shown is ordering food, sometimes I pull this off well while other times little questions such as, "How would you like your steak cooked?" leaving me utterly helpless and reliant upon someone else.

These things have humbled me and make me aware of how much I try to do with out God. In college most of the time I just let the gifts God gave me do the work for me and never really felt like I needed any help. This is the opposite of what God wants from us. He does not want us to do things own our own, this idea makes the sacrifice of Jesus Christ worthless, it is like saying no I don't need Christ I can do it own my own. This idea sounds crazy when we say out loud or read it in a book; but we continually do this and do not let God have control over our lives. Many times I feel that people decided they would rather keep what they have and continue with what they do daily than to try for more and receive the gifts that God wants for them. I myself after a month am starting to run out of my own strength to do things, which I hope the Lord uses for me to search his will out and to go to him for all I need. Never forget that we are dead without Christ.

My challenge would be that even in your comfort zone to try to do more and ask God to give you the strength to do it. Also I think that many times we are willing to settle for the plans we have for ourselves cause we feel like we can control them and not have to continue to be stretched which is painful but allows us to reach out and do so much more than we could before. I hope that I continue to be broken and stretched by the Lord to accomplish more for his kingdom while I am here.

A few things about Argentina/big city life that I love so far. The way the food works down here is totally different they don't eat hardly any meat for breakfast; instead they eat tons of pastries. The most popular are called medialunas which look like small croissants and are covered in sugar and honey quite tasty. Another difference is the times that they eat the biggest difference is that they eat dinner starting around 9 pm at night which totally throws me off with my eating habits. I currently cannot complain about the food considering I eat quite well for cheap. A very nice meal runs less than $12 American down here and since I still do not have a fridge it seems to be quite a regular occurrence for me to be eating out.

Another big difference is the ministry down here in Argentina. The movement has the same goals as it does in the states of launching movements on every campus and to turn lost students into Christ centered laborers. The difference comes with how student life looks down here in Buenos Aires; the students mostly live at home with their families and commute to school so the students do not live close to the university or have close families. So instead of being a movement of mainly younger students we reach out to an older college student crowd and young professionals. This totally changed my status as the oldest kid in the room that I got used to at ECU and now as staff I'm about the same age or younger than many of the people in Vida Estudaintal(Crusade's name here in Argentina).

One of the major changes that I am still getting used to down here is that I live in such a huge city. I feel like every day I see something that I have never seen before and it is amazing because I have been here all most a month and still feel like I have barely seen any of the city. Being the capital of Argentina politics is always in play and it is fairly normal to see a protest taking up a major city street at least once or twice a week. Another amazing things is the architecture of the city in some places continues to blow my mind with how beautiful it is. Buenos Aires, Argentina in the early 20th century was a very wealthy so there is great architecture from that time period.

I promise that more pictures and details about this great city are still to come!

Ben Anderson

Shmando

I love the verse Jeremiah 29:11, For I know the plans I have for you"-this is the Lord's deceleration -"plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope, but sometimes I feel that the verse loses some of its power and meaning when people just quote it by itself and fail to reveal the surrounding circumstances of the letter that this verse is contained in. The reason for this letter to be sent at all was the fact that many of Israelites that where in Babylon where listening to the good news preached by false prophets. The amazing message that I feel that is missed in this letter is that the nation of Israel was supposed to live in Babylon in captivity for 70 years. Not the amazing quick fix that many of are waiting for. Also the fact that God is also telling them to not look for the quick fix but to settle and continue to live to the fullest even in their bad situation. The Lord tells them to remain fruitful and to continue to multiply and to in a way make Babylon their home. Also the way in which we are supposed to seek the Lord for his blessing is lost when the verse is told by itself.

Right now in my life I feel that Argentina is my Babylon I will be here for 14 months, I will have to fight the idea that I am different here and the sin in my life is only existing because I am not back in the States. I need to continue to live in the time and place that God has placed me in and not look back to my homeland as the answer to what I need to do. I feel that many times in our lives no matter what we are imprisoned by whether it is debt, lying, pride or home sicknesses we need to still look to God and make the best of our situation and trust in him that in his time we will be blessed by him.

The way to receive God's blessing in our lives is clearly stated in the verses following Jeremiah 29:11, You will call to Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for me with all your heart. I will be found by you... Jeremiah 29:12-14a. These verses once again call us to do the same thing we have been told to do yet fail to achieve on a regular basis. We are to seek the Lord in prayer and to search with him with all our heart. I feel that many times we seek the Lord and fail to praise him for what he does in our life. Today is my monthly day with the Lord where all we do is seek the Lord for the day and do what ever we fill necessary to get closer to him. I am so thankful for this day and encourage you if possible to set aside time in your on life to seek God first so that you may find him and be more blessed in him. Please continue to keep me in your prayers that when I feel weak during the coming months I will seek the Lord first.

Ben Anderson

While listening to my favorite praise and worship song, Mighty to Save, in Spanish I was moved to write about where I am at in my life. The line that really touched me was "Savior he can move the mountains. As I continued to listen I thought of all the mountains that are in front of me. There isn't just a mountain I see but a whole range of mountains. The most obvious at that moment was learning Spanish, it is so crazy to be in a country where I can not readily communicate; being the extrovert I am this gets frustrating. I also saw that I am part of a team of 8 that is full of different personalities and ideas that would be meshed together. These 8 are not my blood family but they are my STINT family and we bare that name as group. This group is who I will share everything with in Argentina. Learning to love and work with them for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ over the next year is yet another mountain. Also in the past few days I have taken a few bus rides and walks without the aid of someone to help me to find my way; on one or two of these I have taken wrong turns and had to really focus to find my way to my destination. It amazes me how large Buenos Aires is and how much I am learning about the set up of this city another mountain that lies in front of me. Then I considered how long I would be here and that I would not be able to be with my family and friends and how much I would miss them it is not going to be easy; but at the same time I have to realize the opportunities that I have here in Argentina that would never happen if I stayed in the states and I am encouraged by the students I meet here and that the Lord is letting me serve him full time here in Argentina.

There is a beauty to being able to see these mountains. I now that my God can move mountains and has moved so many mountains in the past. The support raising part of my STINT year was a mountain that the Lord has all ready moved. Now I get the chance to watch him move mountains in my life that seem almost impossible right now; but then I thought about what my mountains looked like in America. I saw that they were just as grand of mountains in America that I just choose to not climb and go back to my comfort zone and sit back and pull the curtains and not try to work with the Lord to conquer these mountains in my life. I feel blessed that I am here where I can clearly see the mountains and have no way to go back; than to be back home and feel that I had the option to not climb the mountains but to remain in the safe valleys of my life. So no matter what there are mountains in your life you just have to trust in God to help you to conquer them and that without him it is impossible to climb them. So as I leave you remember that our God is mighty to save and that he has conquered death so what are a few mountains to our God!

Ben Anderson

aka Shmando

Welcome to Spring! We celebrated the Day of the Student on the 21st which happens to be the first day of Spring here September 21st. It is weird celebrating spring wiht my Birthday still 6 months away since the seasons flip flop here below the equator. I am really looking forward to this season in Argentina; please keep our movement in your prayers as we go through a time of growth and change as one STINT team leaves and another comes in. On another note right now I am taking Castashana( Argetine Spanish) 5 days a week for 4 hours a day. The spanish down here is highly influenced by the huge Italian population that lives here, over 50% of the people here are Italian. A huge praise is my awesome neighborhood called caballito which means small horse, it gets its name from the fact that around 1860-1920 it was an area right outside of town for the horses to rest. It is in the larger part of the city called Capital Federal( the Manhatten of BA). Another awesome praise is all the food, I can drink water from the tap and eat anything without getting sick. There is an awesome resteraunt called El Misquito across the block from our apartment, great steaks for right at $10 American. There are also three good fruit/vegetable stands within in 2 or 3 blocks of us. Also another huge praise is that I will be on the Economics college of University of Buenos Aires, visted for the first tiem tonight more details to come. On a not as fun note I am still lacking some important things, I am still with out a cell phone but should be getting one on Thursday, we still need a fridge which was put on hold since the 1 year old daughter of our campus director got sick and had to be put in the hospital(she got out today praise the Lord) please keep them in your prayers. Also our internet should be here this weekend and so more blogpost and skype dates will be coming! Please keep me my roomate John Mark the team and me in your prayers.

Shmando
aka Ben Anderson

Well training wrapped up on Wedensday night with an awesome commisoning service. Being able to be in a room praying with new and old friends that would be going to all over the world to share the word of God with people was an amazing honor to be part of. During the week I felt like the conference was preparing me moment by moment for my upcoming year. For one I arrived with totally different expectations of the week thinking I would be in the big city of Chicago. Insted I was in the quaint suburb of St. Charles an hour outside of Chicago. Also the resort had problems with their water all week so it ruined our plush surrondings and made us think about the sulfur water that was surronding us for the week. On Monday I had a half day to go to Chicago, the craziest thing that was said was as we arrived to this huge city one of my team mates who had been to Buenos Aires says, "BA is like 3 times bigger than Chicago" this blew my mind. I enjoyed the time in the city; but the really great time was the train ride where we talked to the locals around us then started a dance party once the train started to empty out. I am so ready to really get the ball rolling on this STINT year. I got to meet all the people I will be working with this past week and I feel like we are all ready a family and are all ready to make the most of the upcoming year. Everyone brought there own strengths to the group but we all had common ground. It was kind of a running joke the whole week that we had to be a Latin American STINT team because of how loud and untamed we where. With 2 weeks left before my trip I am trying to finish up my support. I am around 50% but I need all of my money in hand before I get on the plane. I am looking forward to seeing God work through people and churches to finance my trip. Please continue to pray for me and my team as we prepare for this journey. There are going to many trials and obsticales in our way in the coming year and with believers supporting us I don't see how we could fail. Adios mi Amigos!

Ben Anderson

Well my last road trip in the states for a year or two will start today. I will be going to Lake Gaston with the family for some forced family fun for vacation for the coming week. This is sure to be a great time and a super way to celebrate the little amount of time I have this summer without school. After that I will be heading to Asheville to meet with some family and friends and continue on with my support raising efforts. After this the true fun begins when I pick up Jeremy McNeese and one other fellow STINTer, who I have yet to meet, in Johnson City, TN and we start the drive to Chicago. I am hoping that everything goes smoothly as this major leg of the trip kicks in and I visit the second city for the first time. This is looking to be an adventurous 3 weeks that I will never forget and enjoy. Please keep me in your prayers as I travel and raise support.

Shmando!

Hey to all this is my first time blogging, so please bare with my lack of experience. The reason I am starting this blog is so I can share the many stories and adventures as they arise while I am in Argentina. I have greatly enjoyed this summer before going on STINT except for the time spent finishing my Masters and working. Support is still an on going battle at this point, I am still in great need for more people to join my team. I am filling the pressure now that my departure date approaches rapidly and I am still very short of my goal of being fully supported before September 6th when my team is planned to fly down to Argentina. Please continue to keep me in my prayers as I begin to approach my departure date. There are going to many challenges involved with this whole process and I am going to have to rely the Lord for strength and the will to persevere.

I hope to have more news and adventures to tell through this blog. If I fail to continue to post on here while I am in Argentina feel free to drop me messages and harassment to make new post; so that all of you can keep up with all my many adventures in Argentina!