Coming to a close

Hey Everyone!
I hope everything is well with you all in Northern Ireland! As the last 3 weeks are quickly passing before my eyes, I find myself at the most busy time of my trip so far! Hard to believe really that i´ll soon be packing my bags for Buenos Aires as it seems like yesterday when I arrived here in Salta!

So much has happened in the last 8 months of my life here in Argentina as you´ve been reading through my updates. As Naomi prepares for her journey home this Sunday, we are preparing the Farewell parties. What we had arranged was a surprise party until the Pastor announced it infront of the whole Church, oh well, it makes it easier to prepare. Also we are having an “Irish Night” on Saturday for the women just to say their last goodbyes to Naomi. This week we will be visiting people and having dinner with them which should be really good fun. Apart from the dinning and surprise parties, we are managing to work. Don´t worry!

In my last update, you may of read about the Natural Disaster in a town called Tartagal in the province of Salta, about 4 hours away from Salta City. The town was destroyed by an unexpected mudslide due to the excess rain which Tartagal had experienced. Aid wasn´t able to reach the victims, as the only enterance to the town was the bridge which was hit. Lives where taken, everyone was evacuated from their homes and many livelyhoods where lost. Where is the light in this situation some people may ask?

This morning we packed 12 boxes of brand new shoes which a local factory had donated to the cause, which thankfully will reach the people of Tartagal on Friday evening. The donations of clothes, food and shelters that have came to the Church has been amazing. In such a horrible situation, i´m glad to be able to say that there is light once again. It was very serial being part of an “Aid Distrubition” process. It´s reassuring that when you give to charity to be able to say, I know that it arrived where it needed it most. Thank you for all your prayers about the situation in Tartagal.

Thankfully my English classes are still up and running and are going very well. This has been a really blessing throughout my time here in Salta. The progress which I have seen through my students has been totally amazing and it will be hard to say goodbye. I will still continue to teach my students for the last 3 weeks and when I am home in Ireland. Please pray for this as it will not be easy, although with some determince and some hard work on their behalf, I have faith that they will continue to learn.

I think leaving here will be a very difficult step of faith. Leaving my friends behind, a culture which I have grown to love and a Church with so much potential. Sounds like home! I have done that journey once and I know that I will have the strength to face it again. I´m really looking forward to seeing you all again and being able to share some of my 10,000 photos that i´ve managed to snap!

See you all soon,
God Bless,
Megan from Argentina

My best evening in Salta

I´m sitting here at 1am writing this blog entry after probably the best night I have had here in Salta. This evening it was just like every Sunday evening where we attend the normal Church service in "El Redentor". Although the difference about tonight was that I saw friends that I hadn´t seen in quite a while and it was really brilliant just seeing them again. Marcelo and Ana were in Corduba studying english translation for a month and it was amazing to hear them come back to Church and speak confidently in english. Their english has always been a very high standard, probably better than mine, but this evening was the first time she spoke to me all in english! It may seem simple but small things like that mean alot! I dropped them home with Pite and Andres who are the most adorable elderly couple! Marcelo made me laugh as he reminded me of a little child. The conversation went as follows.

Marcelo : "I refuse to speak spanish"

Pite : " Yo no intiendo - I dont understand"

Marcelo : " You need to learn english, so i´m going to keep talking in english"

Ana : "Don´t be rude Marcelo"

Marcelo : "I am always rude, why should I start being nice?"

You can imagine me trying to drive with tears in my eyes from laughing at Marcelo refusing to speak spanish and wee Pite not understanding a thing! I think that will be one journey I will never forget! What really struck me tonight was the passion Marcelo and Ana came home with and this is so encouraging to see as he travels to Peru next week to translate Bibles into the local dialects. Please pray for him as he travels without his wife but travels with faith.

Also this evening, I got to see Raul and Maggie, a couple from my Church who I hadn´t seen in a while. Raul was learning english with me and was doing really well and I´m so proud of him how far he has come with his english! They are very special to me and I will miss them alot when I return to Ireland but I have confidence that I will see them again one day.

Tonight, it wasn´t about going out and having a great time, it was about sharing time with my friends here in Salta. These are the moments that I will treasure the most. I know that only a month to go, but so much can happen within that period of time! I plan to spend as much time as I can with the people here in Salta until I go as I can learn so much from them and hopefully visa versa. I feel sad that I have to leave, although I know that God has a plan for me and this is all his hands. I feel that I have learnt so much here in Argentina and for that I have to thank God and the people he has put me in contact with. That was my best night in Salta!

I´m going to go to bed now!

Good Night! Megan x

The Wedding Celebrations

Well, I hadn´t experienced a wedding until I came here to Argentina, however Naomi and Helen tell me a wedding at home is very different! Samuel and Vanina, the son of our Pastor here in "El Redentor" got married on the 7th Feb. It was a very bizarre experience but one that I will never forget. Leading up to the ceremony we gathered a week before, we began cleaning and preparing the Temple for the wedding. The "Templo Nuevo" is a new temple which at the moment you would say was a building site. On the Night of the wedding when the ceremony it had been totally transformed. I had to seat the guests which was a laugh trying to pronounce everyones names as you can imagine but thankfully everyone, I think was seated correctly. Just before the Bride came, some short fused some light which meant we had no light... that didn´t help the grooms nerves. She looked beautiful in her dress and he looked totally terrified. Thankfully when he said "I DO" he began to smile. Samuel had written Vanina a song while he was studying in Corrientes and he sang it to her at the altar. Of course at this point, all the females are saying "Aww..." It was really special because of course, the Pastor married his son. The party after was very different from what I had imagined. We arrived at this center where it had been done up and the basketball nets had been covered. They hadn´t enough tables for the guests which was a laugh so for the first while we sat at the cake table. You cant just imagine how difficult it was trying to keep Naomi away from that! Some of the friends of the couples sang a few personal songs and then our Church band played some worship music. The first dance, well the one and only dance of the night. Everyone of course looked amazing until the girls started pushing and pulling trying to catch the flowers! Then again, the men weren´t much better. Please pray for the newly married couple as Vanina moves provinces to live with Samuel and that the Pastor can relax once again.

We went to a second wedding just a few days ago. The daughter of a friend of ours was getting married. I had never met the woman before but thankfully it was obvious who she was. The one who looked very nervous in the white dress. This service unlike the Garcia wedding wasn´t held in a Church but it was a Civil Marriage. To be honest it was over very quickly and then the photographs began. This wedding did have a first dance that continued after unlike the Garcia wedding. Please pray for Rosa, that her and her new husband would find faith one day and would have a happy life together.

Over all, we had a very good time, but very different experiences.

Enjoy the photos!

Chau, Megan xx

Prayer

May God Bless You

May God bless you with discomfort
at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships.
So that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger
at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people.
So that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears
to shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger or war.
So that you may reach out your hand to comfort them.

May God bless you with enough foolishness
to believe that you can make a difference in this world.
So that you can do what others claim cannot be done.

Please pray for my family of FAITH

Hello Everyone!

A wee prayer request but I´m not going to just tell you what it is...

I would like to introduce you to my Argentine Family. In the photo that I have added as an attachment you will see Abraham and Luz, husband and wife and their 4 children. Yes there are four, if you look carefully at the photo you will spot the fourth. We have Abraham Juan, the twins Gisela and Ian and wee Israel.

I met Abraham when I was working for the "Cruzaders" here in Argentina and thankfully he introduced me to his family. Abraham speaks very good english which came as a real blessing when I needed it the most when I first arrived. Now i´m teaching Luz english and thankfully she has came a long way.

Abraham is from Venazuela where he and his family moved just last year to Salta in Argentina to stay with Luz´ family in her family home. Abraham is a pastor from a local baptist church and works full time during the week to make an income for his family. Luz is a part time nurse and full time mum as you can imagine from the photo of her 4 children... all under the age of 7.

Just 2 weeks ago, her mum and dad asked them to leave the family home after many arguements and even threats to the children. Being Christian in a non christian house and living with a drug addict has brought this situation together. They have been searching for a house constantly and sadly nothing has became available. The problem here in Argentina, they do not have estate agents and hearing about a house is all about what contacts you have. Just yesterday they where told they had to leave now... so its just a matter of time. Luz and the children stayed with me today to try stay out of the house and try to protect the children from the atmosphere which they are picking up on.

What has been amazing throughout the whole situation is the amount of FAITH they have had thoughout the whole situation. Sharing with Luz today she said, "I have to have strength in the Lord for my children sake and I know that God will provide for us" and the only thing she now can do with Abraham is pray.

Please keep this family in your prayers throughout the coming weeks.
Many thanks,
Megan xx

Mudslide envelops Argentine town

A massive mudslide set off by heavy downpours has swept away a railway bridge and swamped houses in the Argentine town of Tartagal. At least two people were reported missing after the river running through the town broke its banks, flooding roads and triggering landslides.
Some buildings were submerged in up to 1.5m (5ft) of mud. The heavy rains come as parts of Argentina are suffering their worst prolonged drought in decades. Torrential downpours caused the River Tartagal to overflow, with floodwaters sweeping away vehicles and inundating roads.
Local authorities said the mudslide had destroyed a railway bridge, making access to the town, which lies on the border with Bolivia, all the more difficult. The governor of Salta province, Juan Manuael Urtubey, said some 10,000 people had been affected by the mudslide and flooding.
Tartagal has been hit by floods before. In December 2005, the town was largely cut off for several weeks. The Argentine meteorological service says the heavy rain is likely to continue through Wednesday.

Please pray that aid gets to the town and to the people where it is needed. Please pray for the clean up process!

Images telling the story!