Rodeos and Retreats!

Saturday, we had the opportunity to go to a rodeo (with the emphasis making it sound like... ro - day - oh) It was fabulous! We went out to the middle of this small town where all the guys were competing. It was this rickety old ¨stadium¨ that you weren´t quite sure if you were going to fall through the wooden seats or not. The ¨cowboys¨were dressed in their ponchos and hats and rode two by two in competition with one another. Couldn´t really explain what all they were doing, but a highlight for me came in taking pictures afterwards. I went on a photo hunt with our photographer gal and we ended up meeting a dear man who dressed us up in his poncho and hat and let us ride his horse so that we could have good memories of him and our time in their town. It was awesome! Our bus driver taught him how to ask us in English ¨where do you come from?¨ Now I know how I sound trying to speak Spanish! Afterwards, we went for Empandas at a restaurant out in the middle of nowhere. 15 white American women walking through the door is quite a site I´m sure and we got royal treatment. We ate outside under an umbrella and were accompanied by a lady singing some Chilean music for us with her guitar player. Fantastic day of Chilean culture for sure!

We began our retreats Sunday afternoon and I´ve started with a bang... or really a bug. I´ve finally caught the cold I´ve been fending off the past couple of weeks. The good news? God still does amazing things! I was so disappointed to realize I wasn´t going to be much good singing with the group I´m leading, but it´s given me new opportunities to see how God works. I ended up leading a worship set Sunday evening... which was to my surprise. I didn´t know it was expected of me until about an hour before it happened. I did my best (led the flow of our time but didn´t sing much) and the women loved every minute of it! There were lots of tears and for those who know me well, I count every single tear as precious and a very good thing! A couple women shared that one of the reasons they came was for the worship/music and were already feeling like they got what they came for. All glory to God!!

In fact, the gal that we borrowed the keyboard from originally told me we could use it through Saturday because their church would need it back on Sunday. After we finished up last night, she came and told me that we could keep it through Sunday after all. She felt so blessed by our worship time that she wants us to continue to use it to bless the missionary ladies for our entire retreats. I asked about her church and she said they could sing accapella on Sunday, it´s more important for us to use it for the missionary ladies. God is good!


More later!