Santiago

 Our last day in Santiago, and our impending return home seems very near.  The individual teams spent the morning debriefing th trip, reviewing what was learned and how that learning can be carried forward as we return home.  There was then some time for individual personal reflection.  By then it was lunch time, after which people spent the afternoon with a combination of shopping in town or swimming or or just hanging out and enjoying the hotel grounds.  After dinner w had another team gathering for worship and teaching.  Majo, one of our Guatemalan translators, referenced 2 Timothy 2:3, Philippians 2:5-11 and Hebrews 5:8-9 and talked about how if we truly want our lives to reflect that of Christ then we should expect hardship and challenges.Then William, our evangelist from El Salvador also talked about how the students should expect to suffer for their faith and what that means in practical terms.  His primary text was Hebrews 11:32-34 and Luke  18:27.  He finished with the reassurance (and admonition) from John 15 that "if a man remains in God] and [God] in him, he will bear much fruit.  Apart from [God] he can do nothing." The main point was that we need to stay in the Word and in community so that we can draw on God's grace and power as we each face our respective challenges as we return home.

Tomorrow we are up early to hit the road for Antigua (where we will spend the afternoon shopping and exploring) and then Guatemala City for our final night of OCA 2012.  I will close with some pictures from Santiago and some of the learnings the team members shared when Mark opened the floor to input from the students and staff during the worship time:

God is: present, humbling, encouraging, one who meets our needs, love, able to break down barriers of culture and language, powerful to bind he agents of Satan, present in His word.

We learned:
- physical disability is not a limitation to living faithfully
- God knows what we need
- God knows how to get to us
- work for God, not just for output
- need to be all in, not just luke-warm
- need to read/experience God directly and not just through others
- need to listen for and listen to God's voice
- God's blessings may look different tahn what we expect
- we can't do it alone; we need His strength, and we need accountability
- true trust/faith is not relying on what we have; we need to develop a sustaining hope in eternity (true, motivating hope, not wishful thinking)
- we need to reach out to everyone; it will be harder at home than where we are strangers
- faithfulness is a lifestyle, not a series of mountaintop experiences
- at the end of the day, GGod has us all in his hands
- how much bigger and more powerful God is than we often give him credit for
- our lives are in God's hands before we even realize we need him
- we can trust God to carry us through when our strength fails
- we need to stretch our comfort zone of prayer and allow ourselves to experience his faithfulness
- God answers prayer even when we don't really know what it is we need
- the valoue of Christian community, for support and accountability
- parallax: when we focus on ourselve we cannot see God
- God gives us glimpses of what he has planned for us in order to stir the passion to pursue his plan
- the value of reading the Bible
- God is constantly providing physical/perceptual reminders of his love for us
- God provides opportunities for us to learn that our understanding is often too narrow and self-centered; we need his perspective

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