More Cool Stuff

So this past week has been pretty incredible. We've been on campus each day Monday to Friday to meet new students, explore their spiritual lives, and tell them about Vida Estudiantil and how they can both meet new friends and be challenged in their faith at weekly meetings and Bible studies. We knew that Matias has 2 separate campuses, but since coming here we have discovered that students only have classes in one or the other depending on their major, so half of us have been going to campus 2 every day, and I am in that half! It's pretty cool because we're kind of launching a new movement on campus 2 as well as being a catalyst on campus 1. Each day has been a new experience, with both challenges and blessings. All the students I have talked to have some kind of spiritual belief, yet some are more secure in their spiritual life and destination than others.

As well as just sharing our faith, we also advertised to each student we talked to about the first weekly meeting of Vida Estudiantil (VE) on Campus 1 which we had on Thursday. It really was just a party to start the semester off for them. It was kind of a stretch to get students from campus 2 there since it was about a 15 minute walk, yet still a bunch of students came, and there were at least 50 new students from both campuses at the party which was really exciting for us on project and the Matias students. It was a great time of meeting new people, sharing what the mission and vision of VE is, and hanging out with the students. I would say there are roughly 20 students actively involved with VE, mostly from Matias campus 1, and Manuel and the other staff told us that if we could help them get about 15 or so new committed students to this ministry, they would be ecstatic. Already this week there have been at least 9 students who made first time decisions to put their faith in Jesus. I had the privilege of witnessing this first hand with 2 guys that I and my friend Clay got to talk to. Each day this week seemed better than the last. Though some of us on the project have had some tough times with students either with language barrier or disinterestedness, the day we had the party was a huge boost of encouragement, and God was definitely doing awesome things through our conversations. I think we all felt great about this first week.

We also had the opportunity on Monday and Tuesday morning before going to the campuses to hang out with students at a christian school. Monday we were with students grades 7 through high school to do Soularium, a picture survey that is a great tool for making conversations about life and spiritual things both fun and comfortable. I was surprised at how vulnerable these students were to talk about what is good in their lives and what is hard. Many of the ones I talked to wished that they had a better family life. On tuesday all of us guys did a pretty ridiculous dance routine for a while to a crowd of younger students, which was such a blast. Then we just played basketball and soccer with a bunch of kids. Definitely a fun and great experience to see the joy these students had when us big kids came to hang out with them.

Last night we went to Benihana's for Jamey and Lauren's birthdays which were the last couple days. I've never been there, but it's so entertaining to have the chef cook everything in front of you. After that we all saw Inception. Amazing. My mind was blown as I'm sure is true of those who have seen it. Don't miss that one.

This next week the Matias students have a vacation. Seems early after only 1 week into the semester. Since we won't be on campus, we will be able to do both some service projects and some fun things which I look forward to telling you about!

I feel like the longer I'm here, the better it is. Praise the Lord for that.