Well, it's been a crazy week. Due to problems with the Bolivian visa process, Team Bolivia is currently in Argentina, where we will be applying for Paraguayan visas in the near future. Then it's off to Paraguay for 10 months. I suppose I should change the name of my blog.. While it is a disappointment for us not to be able to stay in Bolivia, I think we are all very excited about the opportunities that have opened up in Paraguay. Isaac, a member of the Radical Journey team last year who was planning on returning with us as our leader, decided to stay back and attempt to get into Bolivia with a new visa. He has a very strong connection with the people there and has felt lead to return this year.
Our travels went well. We had no problems going through security in any of the airports and even the Bolivian customs agents didn't give us any trouble. We met some members of the church there, and they took us downtown and bought us a bite to eat. They were extremely nice and very understanding of our poor Spanish. The food was called salteñas, and they reminded me a lot of bierocks, but had a much different flavor.
Argentina has been wonderful. We are staying close to a small church and have met with some of the youth there a few times already. While speaking Spanish is sometimes difficult, I have enjoyed playing music and ping pong with them. The church owns a bass, a guitar and a drum set as well as a homemade ping pong table.
Our hosts have also been wonderful. The boys in our group are staying in one place, and the girls in another. The mom in our house has insisted that we not do any work while we're here and gets angry when we try to help her. They have also been trying to help us learn more Spanish, and they say that Paraguayans speak much faster than Argentinians so we probably need all the help we can get.
Well, I guess that's all for now. I'll try to post some pics later, but I haven't taken any in South America yet. Thanks for reading, and keep sending those prayers!
-Tim
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Orientation
Wow, what a week. It’s gone by really fast, yet so much has happened! I am enjoying being in the company of my team as well as the other Radical Journey teams. This week has challenged us to grow together and share while preparing ourselves for the upcoming 10 month term.
I should probably start with some general information. I am serving this year in the Radical Journey program through Mennonite Mission Network. I am currently at Orientation in Chicago. We are being hosted by the wonderful folks at Jesus People U.S.A. I am on the Bolivia team, and we will fly out of Chicago on the eighth of September.
Team Bolivia consists of myself, Andrew, Riley, Cara, Katie, and our leader, Isaac. Our team is the only one that has a leader this year. I think we are getting along quite well so far, and I’m looking forward to getting to know them all better throughout this year.
Thursday night, the power in the building we were staying in went out. I have often found that power outages cause people to be spontaneous and can end up being quite enjoyable after the initial shock of realizing you won’t be able to do what you might have been planning. This case was no different. We ended up having a small hymn sing/worship session in the dark. We sang 606 as well as some other popular Mennonite hymns and threw in a couple praise songs with guitar accompaniment.
One thing we have been working on this week is the Enneagram Personality Type Indicator. It is a device that splits characteristics into nine different personality types, and then explains about tendencies and characteristics of each type. We took a short test earlier in the week which told me I was a type seven, the enthusiast. While working later, however, I realized that I really did not identify with how they claimed a type seven would think or act. Today I took the long version of the test, which takes about 45 minutes. It told me I was a type two, the helper, which I identify with much more. Type two is one of the most relationship oriented types. It was interesting to read through what they said about my type and realize how well some of it described me. I still don’t feel I fit perfectly into any of the nine types, but I’m sure that’s true for many people.
This may be a short post, but it’s all I can think of to say right now. Thanks for reading, and I hope you continue to check back for more updates!
-Tim
I should probably start with some general information. I am serving this year in the Radical Journey program through Mennonite Mission Network. I am currently at Orientation in Chicago. We are being hosted by the wonderful folks at Jesus People U.S.A. I am on the Bolivia team, and we will fly out of Chicago on the eighth of September.
Team Bolivia consists of myself, Andrew, Riley, Cara, Katie, and our leader, Isaac. Our team is the only one that has a leader this year. I think we are getting along quite well so far, and I’m looking forward to getting to know them all better throughout this year.
Thursday night, the power in the building we were staying in went out. I have often found that power outages cause people to be spontaneous and can end up being quite enjoyable after the initial shock of realizing you won’t be able to do what you might have been planning. This case was no different. We ended up having a small hymn sing/worship session in the dark. We sang 606 as well as some other popular Mennonite hymns and threw in a couple praise songs with guitar accompaniment.
One thing we have been working on this week is the Enneagram Personality Type Indicator. It is a device that splits characteristics into nine different personality types, and then explains about tendencies and characteristics of each type. We took a short test earlier in the week which told me I was a type seven, the enthusiast. While working later, however, I realized that I really did not identify with how they claimed a type seven would think or act. Today I took the long version of the test, which takes about 45 minutes. It told me I was a type two, the helper, which I identify with much more. Type two is one of the most relationship oriented types. It was interesting to read through what they said about my type and realize how well some of it described me. I still don’t feel I fit perfectly into any of the nine types, but I’m sure that’s true for many people.
This may be a short post, but it’s all I can think of to say right now. Thanks for reading, and I hope you continue to check back for more updates!
-Tim
Friday, September 2, 2011
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