Tuesday Tunesday.

With only 5 minutes left in Tuesday, I just remembered I get to share more music with you!

I've bought about 20 songs in the last 2 weeks. I've earned it. Some are Spanish. But 2nd to You Make Me Brave, the next most played song is.....

"Magic" by Coldplay. This CD (or what I've heard of it so far) is so good and has a clean sound. 

Hip Hip, Hooray! I turn 25 TODAY!!

Today, I turn 25. That's a quarter of a century old. I know a lot of people freak out at this, but I want to embrace it. I want to look 25 head on and take it for all it is, because I can say it's the one year that I will live it's entirety in Buenos Aires. How cool is that!?!

When I think back to where I was a year ago, I just feel good about life. Because the last year kind of went as I expected. I mean, yea... a LOT of change happened, but honestly, if I told you that in March of 2013 I had Buenos Aires on my mind, would you believe me? And here I am, over a year later... But I believe that when we are right in the center of God's will, that's how life is supposed to be. How we're supposed to feel. Good.

So, for a bit, I thought about making a list of things I want to do in my next 25 years, like... run a half marathon, read X books, fall in love, but then I realized... all those things are just ideals. What I really want is to stay right in the center of God's will because that is where everything feels so right. And Lord willing those things will all happen because they're not bad, I believe them to be good, but if they don't happen, at least I can say I was still where God had me.

So, today I want to focus ALL my attention to the people who have brought me to where I am and shaped me into who I am. I wouldn't be me without them, so let's celebrate that!

My granny is the wisest person I have ever met. Probably the funniest too. Her Christian influence in my dad's life made an everlasting affect, and she is leaving one in mine, too. I am so thankful for her and this is one of my favorite pictures taken at Niagara Falls. I think I get my traveling streak from her!

My parents, obviously. I don't know how much I need to say here... They raised me, I owe everything I am to them. They never asked much of me and they gave me everything I could ever have needed. I thank God for them daily. He knew just what I needed in parents; it was them.

My prayer warrior, my mentor, my best friend. I think I unofficially called us the Melting Pot Club at one point but it never caught on. These two families are like my own and I am thankful for them both letting me in at any point, for always giving me advice, and just being the best group of girl friends I could ask for.

You can't talk about people that shape you into who you are today without mentioning your college sister, best friend, and mentor. Though we don't talk so much anymore, this girl took a green freshman under her wing and taught me everything I needed to know about my walk on a secular campus. Life on life discipleship. And now she is influencing thousands of others working at Catalyst for the Kingdom.

My family, again. I'm a baby...as in the youngest of 3. I have 3 sobrinos that I love with all my heart and the minute Chandler was born I didn't know it was possible to love that deeply. He made into an aunt, thus changing my capacity to love. I think growing up all over the country my parents gave me a deeper appreciation for my family and I hope to do the same one day.

Encourage.

My heart is so full from all of the encouragement in various forms I've received recently, from people that may not even realize it.  My best friends from home, or across the world, the Argentine churches, and of course, God.

Tonight, it was God the Good Shepherd who sent two people my way to remind me that I'm where I am suppose to be. Over time it can be really discouraging that I still don't know the language around me. I feel like I should know everything that everyone is saying around me at all times, but yet I still find myself zoning out during church services about 70% of the time. It's just not that hard. God knows this and tonight when I was trying to go to a church (my 2nd attempt I might add) I waited 30 minutes for a bus that never came and I turned around to head home to look for another night service I might attend. But, while I was waiting in those 30 minutes, someone came by and asked me how to get to the street that I live on. Nothing big to note, except that 15 minutes later as I was walking to a different church service, a lady rolled down her car window at a stoplight and asked me for directions to a street nearby. If I can toot my own horn, I'll say I am pretty good with directions, and I walked away smiling not because I helped someone, but because I know God is putting people there to remind me that have a purpose here [beyond giving directions].

And my friends, I don't know what I would do without them. This week I talked to two in particular who know my heart so well. And these girls. There is something about Atlanta photographers that make for amazing friends, I'm telling you. My friend told me she is, "so happy God allows me to pray you through this time and be here for you supporting your ministry through friendship." If I didn't have friends like that I wouldn't have made it this far. The fact that she sees our friendship as the privilege it is from God is what I'm most thankful for with her. And for my Thai friend, who challenges me to get out of myself more because she sees my capabilities-- we all need someone like this. And who tells us they love us even when we don't say it back. :)

And the Argentine churches. They constantly blow me away (mostly for the good)! This morning I went to a church that supports missionaries in over 10 or 15 countries! The pastor wasn't even there to preach because he was on a mission trip in Senegal! I keep finding more and more I love about my country here. But what I love most about the Argentine Church is their devotion to prayer. A while back during FPO I wrote a post about prayer and the church in Acts. I feel like the churches here are one step ahead of American churches on that end of the spectrum. Every church I go to here has a night of the week with a prayer service where they are -in some cases- on their knees, praying for their  sick, lost, the needs of their barrio. Isn't this what we saw in Acts? I really want to call America out on this! And I am just as guilty of it to, I have been working on my time in prayer since January. But as a body of Christ, in the state of our nation, don't we owe it to ourselves to get on our knees in prayer? These churches have no idea how much this has encouraged me, and it's something I really hope to incorporate into my schedule somehow.

And last but never least I am so thankful for the encouragement of my supervisor and his wife during this time of transition.  They are so wise and so encouraging. Week after week I feel like this city can be just a bit overwhelming, but when I leave their apartment after my weekly meeting, I feel like I can accomplish the world! And that says a lot for my personality type. They gave me the sweetest word the other day to make reaffirm my calling here and I am so thankful that I have the best team of all imb personnel in the world. Seriously, I know others think their's is the best, but it's not. I think what I also really like about them is that they want the best for me. They really follow the rules. And some can see that as a stickler/bad thing, but I see it as a very respectable and admirable thing because they do it as what's in my best interest for my 2 years here. I'm thankful to have one as my supervisor and the other as my mentor and the encouragement they provide me.

Obedience.

This is Wednesday's reading from a daily devotional I read, "Streams in the Desert." I really enjoyed all of it, so I wanted to share it:

    On that very day Abraham [did] ... as God told him. (Genesis 17:23) 
 
   Instant obedience is the only kind of obedience there is, for delayed obedience is disobedience. Each time God calls upon us to do something, He is offering to make a covenant with us. Our part is to obey, and then He will do His part to send a special blessing. 
    The only way to be obedient is to obey instantly -- "on that very day," as Abraham did. I know we often postpone doing what we know to do, and then later do it as well as we can. Certainly this is better than not doing it at all. By then, however, it is at best only a crippled, disfigured, and partial attempt toward obedience. Postponed obedience can never bring us to the full blessing God intended or what it would have brought had we obeyed at the earliest possible moment. 
    What a pity it is how we rob ourselved, as well as God and others, by our procrastination! Remember, "on that very day" is the Genesis was of saying, "Do it now!" from Messages for the Morning Watch.
    Martin Luther once said, "A true believer will crucify, or put to death, the question, 'Why?' He will simply obey without questioning." And I refuse to be one of those people who "unless...[I] see miraculous signs and wonders...will never believe" (John 4:48). I will obey without questioning.

    Ours not to make reply,
      Ours not to reason why,
    Ours but to do and die.

   Obedience is the fruit of faith; patience is the early blossom on the tree of faith. Christina Rossetti

Adventures in Cooking.

Often times I think "adventures" is a code word we use for things that go terribly wrong, but I haven't had any cooking mishaps here yet! All my experiments have turned out really well, thankfully. I will say I'm on a great team of amazing housewives because they can all cook! One makes cinnamon rolls for every team meeting, the other has homemade pancakes, french toast or waffles made every time we're over, and the other gave me a recipe I'm about to share with you.

America I've learned since being here is the land of convenience. You may think I'm dumb for having to leave the country to figure that out (i.e, convenience stores) but it's true. I miss going to Wal-Mart for all my needs (for the record, there is a Wal-Mart here, I just haven't been yet... it's not too far away though). When I go shopping for groceries, I have to plan where I'm going to get what things. Cocoa and poppyseeds are from the dietetica. Meat of any kind is cheapest at the carneceria. The Chinese Supermercados are relatively cheap and convenient, and the Bolivians have the best fruit stands, for the most part. So, to make most night's dinners I've traveled to about 4 stores to get everything.

I've been asked for 2 receipes lately and I thought if I could make these things here in Argentina with what limited supplies we have, then I'll share them so wherever you're at in the world, you can *hopefully* make them too!

Banana Bread (w/ Brown Sugar Glaze)
-3 or 4 ripe bananas, mashed
-1/3 c. melted butter (76 g.)
-3/4 c - 1c sugar
-1 egg, beaten
-1 tsp vanilla
-1 tsp baking soda
-Pinch of salt
-1 1/2 c. all purpose flour

*Glaze
-1/2 c. packed brown sugar
-1/2 tsp vanilla extract
-2 Tbsp water

Preaheat the oven to 350* (175*C). With wooden spoon, mix butter and bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture & mix in. Add the flour last and mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 loaf pan (or do muffin cups). *Mix glaze ingredients together and drizzle on top of bread before baking. Bake for 1 hour and then cool on a rack.

**Okay, so it wasn't really a drizzle. It was more like dousing it. But don't worry, it will seep around the edges and get to the sides and bottom of the bread and it will turn out like this picture, and taste really good!

 

I made stir fry the other night it was so simple and so fresh! I love experimenting with it because you can always try different veggies with whatever you have and honestly, how can you mess up stir fry? I apologize in advance, I am my mother's daughter and I didn't really measure this stir fry sauce... I kind of made it up as I went along, so bear with me. But take heart, you can't mess up a stir fry!!

Chicken Stir Fry
-Whatever veggies you want! For me, that included: Mushrooms, Broccoli, Purple onion, Snap peas, Cabbage and Carrots. Argentina vendors sell really cool prepackaged shredded vegetables and I was thankful for this. Other wise I would finely chop it up so it cooks through quickly.
-2 Chicken breast
-Cooking oil
-1/2 lemon
And for the sauce:
-Soy sauce, about 1/2 c. more or less. 
-1 garlic clove, finely chopped
-Sugar, maybe 1 tbsp (I think I went back and added a little more though)
-Brown sugar, 1 tbsp
-Dash of white vinegar
-flour, 1 or 2 tbsp
-little bit of water (should be half of the amount of water you add) (to my credit, you are supposed to make this using cornstarch. Without cornstarch, you can use flour and water, so I was guessing for its consistency. If you have it, use 1 Tbsp of Cornstarch).
-1/2 lemon

Ok, if you've stuck with me this far, you're doing great.

For your sauce, you're going to want to mix all those 8 ingredients together in some kind of bottle and shake it up! The point of the flour/water combo is to thicken it, but mine was still watery, so don't worry about it. It's all going to cook into the veggies anyway. And if you think it smells too much of soy sauce, that's what the sugars and lemon are for! Seriously, that's why I don't have a good measure of them, is because I kept added to it. Once the sauce it made, we can move on to the chicken.

With the chicken, cut it into cubes and put it into a skillet with a little bit of oil. Squeeze that half lemon over it and just let the chicken cook for a little bit. Before it gets too white, pour a little bit of sauce into the skillet so the chicken soaks the flavor. Keep it on low heat and then focus on your veggies.

I added some oil to my biggest skillet since I was without a wok and added my broccoli and snap peas since I knew they could be the hardest to cook. Once they're getting dark green but not brown, add the rest of your veggies (and oil if necessary)... and before long you're going to add all your sauce. Let it cook for about 5 minutes, stirring. You know it's ready when the vegetables aren't hard. Throw your chicken into the mix and you're done! Serve over some rice and enjoy.

Blind Faith.

"He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it." 1 Thessalonians 5:24

The weather here has been melanchonly lately and I feel that this fall weather is matching my mood. Yet God keeps bringing this truth to the forefront of mind mind in the last few days as an anchor. Not the part about being faithful, this much I know. But that He will surely do it. I always have faith, that is never lacking. But can I really call it faith if I lack the belief on when it will be done?? I submit not because then I'm trusting in my own time, my own expectations, and that's not what God has called us to do. This is hard for me.

Today marks 5 weeks in country for me. It feels more like 2 months, but really, it's only been 5 weeks. 2 years is a long time. I feel like the first 3 months is going to be the hardest... especially when you're this shy and introverted. I wish my future friends would just come find me here and now.  Life never is that simple though, is it? If you know me well, you know I'm not the type to have 50 different friends. I just can't operate like that. I'd be doing good to have 4 friends. Then I could go deep with those 4. Deeper that I ever could with those 50, and I'd be lifelong friends with those 4. I just wish I knew right now who they are. But I'm only 5 weeks in. And I have 89 weeks left here, roughly. So here's to being perceiving this week and in the weeks to come as to who God is putting in my path.

Those are really all my thoughts tonight. This verse has been a stronghold for me and rather than always leaving you with music, I wanted to give you some idea of what's running through my mind as of late. 5 weeks in, and that's about it. Friendships are hard when you're trying to be intentional. For me, anyway. I'm super thankful for my supervisor and his wife, they are super encouraging and so incredibly wise... I love meeting with them and hearing them talk about anything! They're a great duo.  I'm leaving you with pretty pictures of my city and Pinterest quotes. Have a good rest of the week!

Panoramic view from atop of a co-workers rooftop. One of my favorite views in the city!

One of the most famous cafes in town, Cafe Tortoni

 

Tunesday Tuesday.

You guys, I have so much new music playing in iTunes right now it's not even funny. Thank you to everyone who gave me a giftcard before I left, y'all know that music is my love language!! :) I even have some some music in Spanish!

It was hard, but I picked a song for you to listen to, as I always do. However, I still wanted to share a few others for you to check out because they're so good, and who knows, I may be playing them in future week!

Magic - Coldplay
A Sky Full of Stars - Coldplay
I've Got this Friend - The Civil Wars
I'm a Lover of Your Presence - Brian & Katie Torwalt
Vives en Mí - Evan Craft

And this week's song, You Make Me Brave by Amanda Cook and Bethel Music.

Fall in Argentina, Summer in my Mouth (is that awkward??)

Y'all, I have to say that although it's a steady 60 degrees here and leaves falling all around, I was desperate for one last summer salad. Dressings here are terrible (Ranch is a watery substitute...) and oil and vinegar is okay if you like pure olive juice. So for our team meeting yesterday, I was craving a salad with strawberries and caramelized nuts (which you can find on street corners everywhere here) and behold, I knew this was the perfect dressing for it:




Perfect Strawberry-Poppyseed Dressing
1 clove garlic
1/8 slice of a small purple onion
1/4 c sugar
1/4 c fresh strawberries, raspberries (or 2 T. raspberry jam)
1/3 c white vinegar
1/2 c extra light olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp poppyseeds

Place all ingredients (except poppyseeds) into a blender. Blend until entirely pureed. Stir in poppyseeds. Serve immediately over your favorite salad for store for up to 48 hours.

My notes: What the heck is 1/8 slice of a small purple onion? I do not know. So I used a small amount, maybe 1 Tbsp. of onion. I actually doubled the recipe (except for the garlic and onion) since it was for 12 adults, but there was plenty left over. Probably could have done without doubling it. I also used red wine vinegar. I don't know if that made it more pink or not, but it was still sweet. And since I can't stand a hint of olive, I used sunflower oil instead of olive oil. Basically, make do with what you have and it should come out fine. I love this stuff!!