Lord Be Glorified

After the last post on Wednesday night, Dustin and I met up with the same guy who was doing tango the night before. But this time, we actually got to watch him tango! What an experience! He was very good, well, I thought so and I have never seen tango before... At one point Dustin got up to get a drink, I was fine sitting there by myself, but then it occurred to me that some man might come ask me to tango too, and I would not know how to refuse, plus, I actually did not see any girls reject any of the tango guys! So I decided I should probably go with Dustin to save myself from sheer embarrassment out on the tango floor!! haha :)

Yesterday I slept in until about 11 in the morning. Was so nice to not have to be anywhere until 3 in the afternoon! I cleaned the apartment, did some laundry, took care of some emails, etc.

I went down to the Kroeker's for Katja's birthday party around 3. We had a great time celebrating with yummy chocolate cake and gelato. Then we played a game, it was nice to laugh with the ladies and Katja.

The birthday girl Katja!!

The Kroeker and Debelak kids at Katja's party.

Janae and I left around 5 to meet up with Gabriela. We were walking around looking for some food and we bumped into some of Dustin's friends from the going away party I went with him to last weekend. I talked to them for a bit and was sad to realize that they are leaving for home (Holland) on Saturday... so I probably will never see them again.

Us girls got some food, then we walked down Via XX Septembre, the shopping street! We went into some big fancy stores, like the ones in Chicago, and we had fun trying on all the high heeled shoes! We ran into another girl from our Italian class while we were in one of the stores!

Then we went to Francesco's (Italian pastor) Bible study at his house. Praise God we found it because none of us knew how to get there, but it was really easy to find. Francesco made us dinner, his wife Claudia lead some worship, which was really fun because most of the songs were easy enough since I knew them in English too, and they had the Italian words written out, so singing in Italian is really not that hard! :)

The Bible study was good, Francesco started teaching from James 2:14-26 about faith without works. He asked us what the difference is between believing and having faith. The answers were pretty interesting. The whole time we were there little English was spoken. Gabriela, Francesco, Claudia and her mother all spoke mostly Spanish, so I was able to follow some of what was happening. Janae, a man named Michael and I sat and listened as much as we could. I asked Michael a few times if he understood what was being said because he only speaks Italian... Gabriela asked many, many questions and Francesco and Claudia were ready with answers and scriptures to back up their answers. I followed as best as I could in my English Bible to try to understand what they were talking about. At one point I realized that the verses they had just lead her through were the Romans Road verses and then at one point I heard Francesco say something about Nicodemus and how he questioned how he could be born again after he had already be born of his mother's womb, at that point I looked at Janae with excitement and told her what I just heard!

Before we knew it, Francesco was praying, then Gabriela prayed, then she told us in English that she had just received Jesus and was now born again! WOW! As Francesco closed the night in prayer, I could not help but to think, "This is how it should be!" Janae and I had nothing to do with Gabriela receiving Christ. We just went with her to the Bible study, God used Francesco and Claudia to share the Good News with her. As Janae and I talked about it after we left, the more excited I became. We don't have many more days here to pour into Gabriela, but she has this connection with Francesco and Claudia now, so they can continue on with her after we leave. Also, because we aren't the ones who shared the Gospel with her, she does not have that dependence on us. And, this was probably encouraging to Francesco and Claudia who are missionaries as well. I am sure they were happy to see a young girl receive Jesus.

Gabriela and Claudia

Our night ended after taking Gabriela home, seeing her mom, talking for a bit, then back on the bus with Francesco and Claudia. What a fun time. It was quite interesting after we left Gabriela because she was our translator, but after she was home, we could only speak Italian or Spanish and wow, we just said simple things I guess!

Today is a slow day. We were going to go out and see this beautiful place we've been told about, but the weather has been kinda dull since yesterday, so Janae and I really slept in. I was able to speak to one of my good friends who is doing her internship in Japan right now, and that was very encouraging.

Anyway, thanks for your prayers. God is doing amazing things here! Continue to pray for my financial situation back home... I have been given a little grace with the payment deadline, but the money is still needed! :) Glory to God for always working things out!