Our first week in Chile!!

Hello! Sorry it's been so long since I have wrote on my blog! We have finally arrived in Chile! It has been absolutely beautiful!! The weather is wonderful (it's summer here) and the people are incredible! We arrived in Santiago on the 13th of January. We stayed at one of the YWAM bases for a night then took a very nice charter bus to the current city were in now, talcuhano! We are staying at a lovely families house who used to be involved with YWAM years ago. The mother has 2 daughters and they are 19 year old twins! They are the sweetest girls ever! We have only been here a few days and were all great friends! It's going to be hard to say goodbye in a week when we pack up to go to another city. They speak English so they are somewhat our translators. It's been such a blessing. Their mother is so sweet also. It's a bit harder to connect with her because of the language barrier but we communicate as best as we can. She is an amazing cook though! We all had the mindset of "on outreach we are all going to lose so much weight!" but at this point we feel like were gaining some! Ahhh! Here in Chile they treats their guests VERY good! Our plates are full of delicious food and sometimes it's too much food! We finish it as best as we can! So far during the day we go to a town nearby (we walk so we can burn off of all the food we eat) and we have been going to a coastal neighborhood that was affected by the earthquake and tsunami from about a year ago. We've been going into the houses and praying for the families and people there that either are in pain or lost a family member in the earthquake/tsunami. It's been interesting and sad to hear all the scary stories from how far the water was in the town and how high it was and how it completely destroyed everything people had. The group before us who helped out in the town helped rebuild houses and build new ones. They did the construction part on the outside were coming in and doing "construction" on the inside of the people hearts. It's been really amazing getting to know the people. The language barrier is no fun but we do the best we can with our translators. It makes me wish I would've paid more attention in spanish class freshman year!! Haha! We went to the school in the town and did a short drama for them and played with them during recess. They were SO CUTE!! such sweet kids! One kid had a shirt that said Arizona on it! I was like I live there!! I don't think he understood me very well, he kept looking at me like I was a crazy American! Haha Yesterday we went with the kids of the neighborhood we have been working with, to their local pool. It was so nice! Nicer than a lot of our local pools! It has trampolines on green grass next to the pool and ping pong tables and a soccer field! It was cool. We hung out with the kids and exchanged facebook names also. We watched The Social Network on the plane ride over so we have all had a new appreciation for facebook and think it's just so cool it's world wide!! At least I know I do! Lol it was a very fun day to say the least! We all got sun burned really bad tho! I didn't think the sun was that strong out here! I'm glad I brought sun block! I'm going to VERY tan when I get back and I'm very excited about it!! :))) today we helped the most precious lady paint her house. A very bright orange color! It was fun! I've been wanting to build or paint something and today we finally got to paint! She was so grateful for us! Being out here has made me appreciate my home in America and simply America itself! It's so hard to believe people live like this out here. We are so extremely blessed in America!!! I got the same reality check when I was in South Africa 2 years ago. I think everyone needs to get out of America at least once in their life to see how incredibly blessed we are. 2 of our team members, Yvan and Owen got really sick at the beginning of this week with a stomach bug. Something they ate must've not set well. Yvan went to the hospital but Owen was ok. They both are back to 100% now but we were all were praying we wouldn't get sick as well and so far we have been doing great! We can't drink the water here unless is bottled so brushing our teeth in the morning is fun using a water bottle.... Haha! It's quite a challenge to literally think about if what you're putting your mouth is safe! I pray over everything I eat!! I don't want to get sick! I have been getting so extremely close to God as well. My quiet times with Him have been amazing. I can't wait to get back home and see all that he has in store for me! It's hard to not to get anxious about the future because I know God has me here right now for a purpose and I need to enjoy every moment I have because before I know it, it will be over and I'll be back home in reality! I can't wait to see what else God has in store for our team the rest of this week, and month! Keep us in your prayers that no one else gets sick and we can keep showing the people of Chile Gods amazing love!! I love and miss you all tons!!! Xoxo.

Jeremiah 29:11
Jessica