Thursday 29 March 2018

Day 6: Día de Descanso - Cameron and McKenna!

¡Hola hombres y mujeres! This is McKenna and Cameron comin' to you live all the way from Santiago, Chile. We are excited to share about our wonderful experiences through our day of rest and highlights throughout the trip so far.

So today we took a 2 hour bus ride from the Hotel to the beach at Viña Del Mar. The bus ride was really sweet and had some breathtaking views. When we arrived at the beach, we went to Soul Surf and got ready to go surfing. A lot of us had a hard time getting the wetsuits on, especially me (Cameron) because there were some shoulder straps in the wrong places. After a long time of getting ready, we finally made our way to the ocean, carrying our surfboards on our heads. We had an on-land training session and warm-up before getting into the (very) cold and (very very) salty water. At first, a lot of us had a hard time getting up and actually standing on the board, but eventually we were all pros at surfing, becoming one with the waves. Time flew by, and before we knew it, it was time to go in for lunch (which also included a beautiful warm inflatable jacuzzi). Before we had lunch, we all got to experience the wonderful event of taking off wet wetsuits, which for some of us was a rather horrifying, difficult experience. For lunch, we had Empanadas made for us in giant ovens which were delicious. After lunch, Juan Carlos pointed out a large number of navy boats riding up to shore on the beach right in front of us, doing a practice run of something. They all had guns and were probably pointing them at us, but I don't think they were loaded (hopefully). We then left and went sight seeing at Valparaiso, Sotomayor Square. We went to a market that had lots of souvenir stores and then went up a steep windy road and got a nice view over a shipping yard/dock and Plaza Sotomayor. Finally,
we started our journey back to the Hotel. We saw some llamas on the way and took pictures with them, and they were threatening to spit on us. Thankfully they didn't. For dinner, we walked to Burger King and had some good ol' burgs. To finish off the night, we are writing this blog post for our fantastic viewers ;)

A huge highlight for this trip so far for me (McKenna), has been going to all the schools and seeing the excitement in the kids eyes as they receive our free gift (the hope magazine) and listen to what we have to say. You can tell they are all crazy for Jesus. They also all have huge smiles on their faces just seeing us, since they wonder why we came all the way from Canada just to see them and give them a free gift.

Something that has impacted me (Cameron) has been talking to strangers in different plazas and seeing how open they are to talking about religion and what they believe, and how open they are to new ideas. At first it was really difficult for me to do, and I was very tentative about going up to people, but after talking to so many people, it's getting easier and easier to just go up to almost every person I see, wanting to share the Gospel with them. It has been especially inspiring to see both guys and girls my age wanting to commit their life to God after talking to them.

God is saying that we have to continue being bold, and also that as we hand out magazines and talk to strangers that we can't judge people by what they look like or what they are doing. I think it's easy to judge people based on those points but we have to realize that everyone has a story and comes from a different background and there's nothing that makes them unworthy of God's love or having a relationship with Him. We have to let God lead us into conversations and opportunities that we might not been able to do ourselves, even if it may seem uncomfortable to us.

Pray for a strong finish as we go into our last few days of the trip and that we focus on sharing God's word.


Thanks,
McKenna & Cameron

3 comments:

  1. So glad you are having a great time. We are praying for you to continue to be bold and to let Jesus shine through you. What a great team you are!

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  2. You are an amazing group of youth and leaders! Your willingness to be open, share, and love the people of Chile is fantastic! So proud of all of you!

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  3. God is going to use your work in mighty ways for years to come. We will continue to pray that the seeds you’ve planted will be fruitful and multiply. May you all be inspired to use these experiences to witness to those around you back in Canada.

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