coffee beans, coffee farms, cafes, and more coffee
11/24/18
hi!!!
finally!! you find out WHAT we've actually been up to this month in armenia!
We have been living on a seminary school campus called "A.B. Simpson," named after the founder of the Alliance church. We are living with 17 students, training to be pastors and international missionaries in persecuted countries (mainly in the middle east region).
Our days vary, but the majority of the month has been very relaxing with lots of debrief and reflection time for our team.
A standard day looks like the following:
6am: wake pu for an hour of personal devo time
7-7:30: Participate in household chores (usually sweeping and mopping hallways, the library, classrooms, the dining area, the kitchen, etc.)
7:30-8:30, time to tidy the room and prep for the day. Sometimes we use this time to workout too!
8:30- desayuno!!! yay. (bfast)
That's a pretty typical morning for our everyday, but the activities of each day vary. It's been a really good time for our team to spend time with one another and dig deep into discipleship aspects. Some group things we've been doing together are discipleship sessions, reading through/discussing the book of John together, reading/discussing the book "Radical," by David Platt, sometimes walking down the street to the nearby tienda, or just hangout time for our team.
One thing I've really enjoyed doing is religion study together. We've also been assigned various religions to research for a few days, and then present the basic facts and highlights of their beliefs to the team, for the purpose of better familiarizing ourselves with our religions around the world.
Ministry-wise:
Our ministry is primarily through the outreach work of the students. They have planted a church in the nearby town, Sede Circasia, which is about a 15 minute drive from A.B. Simpson. Sometimes, the students will also walk to town instead of drive, which is about a 45 minute hike through the mountains. Personally, I love the hike way more than the drive because it's literally the most BEAUTIFUL view of a walk ever. Rolling hills for miles, with coffee plants all over the mountains. We also walk by fields of cows and goats grazing, and it's just gorgeous. The time passes by so quickly that before ya know it, you're walking right into town. Would highly recommend.
We attend church Thursday night for youth group, Saturday nights for family church night, and Sunday mornings for regular service.
We Linkers have had multiple opportunities to lead church, mainly at youth events. Our first night at the high school youth group, we organized a simple game for them and then had the opportunity to share our testimonies with everyone (Bryan translated into Spanish for us -- not quite there yet on the language ahah ;)).
One of the nights at family church, we led the whole night by organizing a maze activity, in which groups had to walk through a maze blindfolded, with someone giving vocal directions to complete the maze. Afterwards, Esther, Nick, and I gave a message on faith, relating the game to our spiritual walk and how we can't always see where exactly God is taking us or where our final destination will be, but learning to follow him anyways and have faith in where he is leading us. It led to some awesome discussion and personal testimonies from listeners, who had experienced this concept of blind faith & trusting in God's guidance.
Another super cool opportunity we had was street evangelism & community involvement! I've never done street evangelism before, but last Friday we took about 15 people into town and split into groups to build relationships in the neighborhoods. We had about 1.5 hours, and my group visited about about 5 houses, mostly with small families. We had an event coming up the following day (on Saturday), so we invited all of the people we met to join us for the afternoon and for church later in the evening. We got caught in the rain during our time walking, and one sweet elderly woman invited us into her house for coffee while we waited out the rain. We passed by a room with a sick woman in bed, and one of the girls on our team inquired about her illness. We learned it was the hostess' mother, and that she had recently had surgery and was recovering, but was still very much in pain. We gathered around and prayed for the woman and household, for peace, comfort, and a speedy recovery. When we finished, our hostess' eyes were filled with tears, and she hugged and thanked us. It was a small but moving experience of being able to see how God can use street evangelism for his glory!
The next day, Saturday, we returned to the same neighborhood and went to the basketball court, in a central area of the neighborhood. The students set up a sound system and microphone, and started playing loud music and calling all the residents in the neighborhood to join us for what was one of my personal favorite parts of being in Armenia so far: ZUMBA.
Yep, we did exercise outreach with Christian music, and one of the students led all of us in 30 minutes of a zumba workout!! It was SO FUN I was on cloud nine. Didn't realize how much I missed that. We had a pretty good turnout for the event! Then, they transitioned into a short kids' skit and biblical message. Afterwards, we packed up and walked back to the church to get ready for evening church. The whole day was a sweet time of fellowship with the students and church body. It was so neat to see how invested the students had become into the local church, and how intentional they were in the development and engagement within the community.
In fact, our third day in Armenia, all the students and we Linkers went into town to help one of the families from the church. We arrived at the remnants of their house, which had partially burned down recently (they were living across the street with the friends), and we cleared out all of the trash and tore down the weak foundation. We helped cook lunch for everyone who came to help, and the students hope to eventually assist in rebuilding a new, stronger house for the family. It was eye-opening to see the living situation in which the family was in, and yet the joy they carried through it. It was also sweet to see the church body come together to help their family members in need. It taught me about what church family should look like; brothers and sisters coming alongside one another to strengthen one another, and to rebuild broken pieces -- literally.
Our other ministry piece is really just diving into life with the students -- helping them learn some English, talking to them about life in the U.S., to help familiarize them with cross-cultural interactions, and assist them with church ministry needs. I have loved watching these relationships mold as we spend more time together!
And finally, cultural experiences!!
These have been so fun this month! Every Monday has typically been our off-day for cultural experiences in Armenia. Being in the coffee capital, we have been IMMERSED in a plethora of coffee farms, beans, and shops, and I ain't even mad about it. Seriously, it's beautiful here. Full of rich green mountains with coffee farms for MILES. My personal favorite cultural experience day was visiting a coffee farm called "Recuca."
We received a full, in-depth tour of the process of harvesting coffee beans, and producing an authentic cup of coffee. And when I say in-depth, I mean it: our tour guide ensured we received the fullest experience by dressing up in old-fashioned coffee farmer attire from about the year of 1912. But that's not all, oh no it gets better. He then called us up, women first, and then men, to receive DANCE LESSONS in our new costumes. AND THEN played music and made everyone dance together hahahahaha it was honestly so fun I loved it even though we looked absolutely ridiculous. (I may or may not have had flashbacks to all of the homeschool colonial dance camps I went to when I was in elementary school.... yikes)
But after that, we got to pick coffee beans from bushes, learn about the roasting/toasting process, see them grind the beans, try a fresh cup of coffee, see the jeeps that they use to transport coffee to and fro the mountain, and then receive an all-star lunch to finish it off!! So much fun!
---
It's just funny how God works, overall. Upon arrival in Armenia, I was hesitant: unsure of if and when I would fully settle in... soooo unsure of why exactly God has here for, and how he was going to work. And man he changed my heart so much. I have grown and learned so much here -- things I didn't expect, for sure. If nothing else, I've learned how faithful he is to his children and how he LISTENS and ANSWERS prayers so clearly. It's beautiful to watch unfold.
--
Attempting (and rather failing...) at making chocolate chip cookies & improvising without an oven in the kitchen.... turned into some type of scrambled pancake cookies. also fact: cooking bonds people together big time.
We were a little nervous about how our thaknsgiving meal would turn out based on these failures ^ (and also our popcorn record isn't too great. We manage to burn a good bit of our batches. BUT thanksgiving food went much better. probably mostly bc we had the cook help us with all of it but shh thats not important)
we've been planning our thanksgiving meal for over 2 weeks!!!! We've been so excited to cook and introduce our new friends to one of the best U.S. holidays, and safe to say it was a big hit!! We opted out for fried chicken in place of turned (which lets be real.... fried chicken is better anyways..), along with mashed potatoes, green beans, and stuffing. and again, the whole no oven situation was sad for about 2 minutes when we realized we couldn't make apple pie. but then we had the brilliant idea to improvise with APPLE PIE EMPANADAS (al a mode) nd wowowow idk if I'm ever going back. a glimpse of heaven on earth.
If you're willing, please keep our team in your prayers for the following specifics!! :)
- a strong final week in Armenia! We leave for Ecuador on Friday. Prayers that our team would continue to be present here and lean into how God is working.
- that our team would take advantage of the final debrief/time of spiritual rest that we have here in Armenia. Once we move into Ecuador, our schedule is anticipated to become busy again.
- safe travels for us on Friday! We fly to Bogota Friday night, then to Quito Saturday, and then we take a bus to our next long-term destination: Manta, Ecuador. We will be in Manta until early January!
Thank you so much for the thoughts, prayers, and the ways you all frequently reach out and check up on me. It means so much! Also thanks for putting up with these super grammatically incorrect blog posts hahaha I usually write these really late at night when allllll the thoughts are swimming around in my brain, and I try to write them down before they slip away. And then I'm pretty much too lazy to correct sentences that don't make sense BUT I hope y'all get the general point and enjoy at least a little bit of it maybe. Goodnight!!!! mucho amor. <3
hi!!!
finally!! you find out WHAT we've actually been up to this month in armenia!
We have been living on a seminary school campus called "A.B. Simpson," named after the founder of the Alliance church. We are living with 17 students, training to be pastors and international missionaries in persecuted countries (mainly in the middle east region).
Our days vary, but the majority of the month has been very relaxing with lots of debrief and reflection time for our team.
A standard day looks like the following:
6am: wake pu for an hour of personal devo time7-7:30: Participate in household chores (usually sweeping and mopping hallways, the library, classrooms, the dining area, the kitchen, etc.)
7:30-8:30, time to tidy the room and prep for the day. Sometimes we use this time to workout too!
8:30- desayuno!!! yay. (bfast)
That's a pretty typical morning for our everyday, but the activities of each day vary. It's been a really good time for our team to spend time with one another and dig deep into discipleship aspects. Some group things we've been doing together are discipleship sessions, reading through/discussing the book of John together, reading/discussing the book "Radical," by David Platt, sometimes walking down the street to the nearby tienda, or just hangout time for our team.
One thing I've really enjoyed doing is religion study together. We've also been assigned various religions to research for a few days, and then present the basic facts and highlights of their beliefs to the team, for the purpose of better familiarizing ourselves with our religions around the world.
sanding & painting the school hallways
Ministry-wise:
Our ministry is primarily through the outreach work of the students. They have planted a church in the nearby town, Sede Circasia, which is about a 15 minute drive from A.B. Simpson. Sometimes, the students will also walk to town instead of drive, which is about a 45 minute hike through the mountains. Personally, I love the hike way more than the drive because it's literally the most BEAUTIFUL view of a walk ever. Rolling hills for miles, with coffee plants all over the mountains. We also walk by fields of cows and goats grazing, and it's just gorgeous. The time passes by so quickly that before ya know it, you're walking right into town. Would highly recommend.
We attend church Thursday night for youth group, Saturday nights for family church night, and Sunday mornings for regular service.
We Linkers have had multiple opportunities to lead church, mainly at youth events. Our first night at the high school youth group, we organized a simple game for them and then had the opportunity to share our testimonies with everyone (Bryan translated into Spanish for us -- not quite there yet on the language ahah ;)).
One of the nights at family church, we led the whole night by organizing a maze activity, in which groups had to walk through a maze blindfolded, with someone giving vocal directions to complete the maze. Afterwards, Esther, Nick, and I gave a message on faith, relating the game to our spiritual walk and how we can't always see where exactly God is taking us or where our final destination will be, but learning to follow him anyways and have faith in where he is leading us. It led to some awesome discussion and personal testimonies from listeners, who had experienced this concept of blind faith & trusting in God's guidance.
The next day, Saturday, we returned to the same neighborhood and went to the basketball court, in a central area of the neighborhood. The students set up a sound system and microphone, and started playing loud music and calling all the residents in the neighborhood to join us for what was one of my personal favorite parts of being in Armenia so far: ZUMBA.Yep, we did exercise outreach with Christian music, and one of the students led all of us in 30 minutes of a zumba workout!! It was SO FUN I was on cloud nine. Didn't realize how much I missed that. We had a pretty good turnout for the event! Then, they transitioned into a short kids' skit and biblical message. Afterwards, we packed up and walked back to the church to get ready for evening church. The whole day was a sweet time of fellowship with the students and church body. It was so neat to see how invested the students had become into the local church, and how intentional they were in the development and engagement within the community.
In fact, our third day in Armenia, all the students and we Linkers went into town to help one of the families from the church. We arrived at the remnants of their house, which had partially burned down recently (they were living across the street with the friends), and we cleared out all of the trash and tore down the weak foundation. We helped cook lunch for everyone who came to help, and the students hope to eventually assist in rebuilding a new, stronger house for the family. It was eye-opening to see the living situation in which the family was in, and yet the joy they carried through it. It was also sweet to see the church body come together to help their family members in need. It taught me about what church family should look like; brothers and sisters coming alongside one another to strengthen one another, and to rebuild broken pieces -- literally.
Our other ministry piece is really just diving into life with the students -- helping them learn some English, talking to them about life in the U.S., to help familiarize them with cross-cultural interactions, and assist them with church ministry needs. I have loved watching these relationships mold as we spend more time together!
And finally, cultural experiences!!
These have been so fun this month! Every Monday has typically been our off-day for cultural experiences in Armenia. Being in the coffee capital, we have been IMMERSED in a plethora of coffee farms, beans, and shops, and I ain't even mad about it. Seriously, it's beautiful here. Full of rich green mountains with coffee farms for MILES. My personal favorite cultural experience day was visiting a coffee farm called "Recuca."
We received a full, in-depth tour of the process of harvesting coffee beans, and producing an authentic cup of coffee. And when I say in-depth, I mean it: our tour guide ensured we received the fullest experience by dressing up in old-fashioned coffee farmer attire from about the year of 1912. But that's not all, oh no it gets better. He then called us up, women first, and then men, to receive DANCE LESSONS in our new costumes. AND THEN played music and made everyone dance together hahahahaha it was honestly so fun I loved it even though we looked absolutely ridiculous. (I may or may not have had flashbacks to all of the homeschool colonial dance camps I went to when I was in elementary school.... yikes)
But after that, we got to pick coffee beans from bushes, learn about the roasting/toasting process, see them grind the beans, try a fresh cup of coffee, see the jeeps that they use to transport coffee to and fro the mountain, and then receive an all-star lunch to finish it off!! So much fun!
Other cultural experience days consisted of walking around a botanical park in downtown Armenia, sightseeing in some shops, going to too many coffee shops :), and hah... one of the mondays we were all just a little homesick, so we might have possibly ended up going to dominos pizza for lunch.... yes. very immersed in Colombian culture.... anyways...
 |
---
It's just funny how God works, overall. Upon arrival in Armenia, I was hesitant: unsure of if and when I would fully settle in... soooo unsure of why exactly God has here for, and how he was going to work. And man he changed my heart so much. I have grown and learned so much here -- things I didn't expect, for sure. If nothing else, I've learned how faithful he is to his children and how he LISTENS and ANSWERS prayers so clearly. It's beautiful to watch unfold.
--
Here's some other snippets of life here!!
Language lessons! We taught English to the students and they helped us learn Spanish.
We were a little nervous about how our thaknsgiving meal would turn out based on these failures ^ (and also our popcorn record isn't too great. We manage to burn a good bit of our batches. BUT thanksgiving food went much better. probably mostly bc we had the cook help us with all of it but shh thats not important)
just your daily spider spottings :)))) gotta love jungle life
FaceTime calls!!!!! yay!!!!
the largest, most glorious avocado I've ever had the privilege to behold. I pray heaven's are just as big or even bigger.
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THANKSGIVING ::
what a fun day!! I anticipated holidays to be emotionally challenging for me on this trip, but so far, they have been nothing but pure joy. Seriously. So much excitement, laughter, and community on both thanksgiving and my bday so far. 2/2. let's keep the trend going @christmas.
Thankful turkies :) everyone drew one and we hung them on the wall.
FEASTING.
Me and my amiga, Andrea!! She's a hoot.
#LIFELINKED
Seba!!! This dude was a lifesaver on the empanadas. He went to culinary school in Canada for 4 years, and we would have been fr lost without his help. THANKS SEBASTIAN.
----
- a strong final week in Armenia! We leave for Ecuador on Friday. Prayers that our team would continue to be present here and lean into how God is working.
- that our team would take advantage of the final debrief/time of spiritual rest that we have here in Armenia. Once we move into Ecuador, our schedule is anticipated to become busy again.
- safe travels for us on Friday! We fly to Bogota Friday night, then to Quito Saturday, and then we take a bus to our next long-term destination: Manta, Ecuador. We will be in Manta until early January!
Thank you so much for the thoughts, prayers, and the ways you all frequently reach out and check up on me. It means so much! Also thanks for putting up with these super grammatically incorrect blog posts hahaha I usually write these really late at night when allllll the thoughts are swimming around in my brain, and I try to write them down before they slip away. And then I'm pretty much too lazy to correct sentences that don't make sense BUT I hope y'all get the general point and enjoy at least a little bit of it maybe. Goodnight!!!! mucho amor. <3
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