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.