jist a comment about my life

I go to Lebanon on Saturday :)

NEW ADVENTURE

Well hello to all. I am now not in Ecuador as many of you know...but i have left once again for the next 2 months. I am presently in Atlanta and today we begin the one week training session on Islam. The people are starting to arrive but i arrived here yesterday evening. i was blessed enough to fly in and not have to make the 8+ hour drive from Indianapolis! I stayed with a family down there that has two adorable kids, ages 10 and 14. I am so blessed to have this opportunity to spend this summer serving God and learning more about Him and being blessed by many Godly people. i know that He has much for me to learn this summer and i hope and pray for a open and willling spirit within me to learn as much as i can. God is so good and has proven Himself to be loving, faithful and true. I am so excited to experience 3 new cultures this summer and return to London. I will be traveling first to Lebanon, then Cyprus, London and France and return to the US the 12 of july. I will then continue working on my internship in Indianapolis. Forgive me if this is boring...haha! :) I am jist giving ya'll a rundown on my summer i guess.....Please, please keep me in your prayers. I would appreciate them so much and knowing that I am backed up by them means alot. Please pray for this week. This week is crucial for the people that will be traveling this summer to other countries to do His work. It is also an amazing learning week even for those who do not spend the summer in another country. There are many muslims that can be reached simply here in the United States of America. Did you know that the Twin Cities has the greatest Somali population in the US? It is true. So I ask you to pray. And i thank you for your prayers. May the peace which transcends all understanding guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus our Lord.


Serving for Him,

rebecca christine

hebrews 12:1-3

hmmmm...........

Where to begin......well on Saturday I went to the beautiful volcano (an active one that was supposed to erupt years ago and still hasn't and if it does say goodbye to Ecuador, Colombia and Peru) named Cotopaxi. We could not have asked for nicer weather! There was hardly any wind, it wasn't too sunny and it wasn't too cold! And there was snow :) It was a beautiful day. God provided us with perfect weather. Alot of times people cannot hike up to the refuge because the weather is too strong. It was jist a wonderful day all around. I later went to the Liga-Quito game and Liga won 4-0....but there was no fight at the end.....

This week has been full with schoolwork. I had to do alot for this week. I am thankful for the weekend! I cannot believe that I have been here for 8 weeks now. It doesnt seem possible because it seems like i was jist in the Atlanta airport waiting for 6 hours. But it is the truth. I came 8 weeks and 1 day ago. I am already sad cause I only have 11 weeks left here. It seems impossible.....maybe ill be back in 2 years to teach. That'd be great!

I met a very nice couple at church on Sunday. They have invited me to lunch in their house some Sunday. They have a son that studies in KY and two more that still live here. I continue to love my church. It is nice and close to my house and not too big and not too small. Just perfect for me!

I hope that my family and my friends are all doing well. All of you BU kids have a spring break to look forward to very soon! Mine isnt until April 9th! Kinda a late one...but my parents are coming :)

May His blessings reign down upon each one of you all. Grace to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In His never-ending, ever-flowing love,

Rebecca Christina

a tidbit about my life.....

So....here I am with two of my guides on my adventure in the jungle...I am wet as you can tell. The picture below is of a good friend and me after we played with eachother and ecuadorians in the mud and the river to celebrate Carnaval. I want to come to Ecuador every single year to simply play Carnaval. It is so much fun!!!!!!! One of the best times of my life. My white shirt will probably never be white again! Haha! The reason that our faces are painted is because we went to a an indigenous village....well it was a museum that the local Kichwa people have established to teach visitors and other Ecuadorians about their life before missionaries, Españoles...basically we learned about the way that they survived. Interesting stuff.


hope you are all well.


blessings,

rebecca c pedro

lil of this past week

Saturday I ate some most delicious ceviche de camerones. It is a typical dish here in Ecuador. This one was made with onions and some other yummy stuff! I highly recommend trying it! Then I made chocolate chip cookies with one of my good friends here. It is the first time that i have "made" them in awhile! Really my friend made them...i ate them. Haha! But it was good to have a little bit of home again. To be honest, I don't even wanna think about coming home right now. I am going to be so sad when May arrives. The time is flying by. The weeks seem like maybe two days long! Its crazy. And I have made some really good friends here...thank the Lord!
This weekend is Carnaval! yeah! I am going to the Jungle once again...this time only with the kids from my program. The jungle is pretty cool. Won't lie! I am not sure exactly what we will be doing but I do know that we are staying in a rather nice hotel! So that'll be fun!
Last Friday night I went to be my first soccer game here! I love soccer games. Won't lie. Anyways it was La Liga versus Manta (de la costa)....my friend loves La Liga so I cheered for them...we won 2-1 scoring in the last 2 or 3 minutes left in the game! La Liga is from Quito and Quito has another team called El Quito who won the championship last year after not going for the last 40 years. Kind of an accomplishment, huh? Yeah. La Liga is the dominater. I haven't decided yet who will be my team...I still have yet to watch El Quito play!

Love.

So today was Diá de San Valentín.

As the Día de Amor y Amistad comes to a close for this year I challenge you one thing:

1 John 4:18-20 (New International Version)

¹⁸There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

¹⁹We love because he first loved us. ²⁰If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.

LOVE. Sometimes this is one of the hardest things that we are called to do as Followers of Jesus Christ. But we all know who is the perfect example of love: The One suffered on the Cross so that one day we might fellowship with HIM for eternity. This is the One called Jesus Christ, born of the Virgen Mary, of the Line of David. The One who walked on this earth for 33 years before being tortured for us. I think that the least that we can do this year is focusing on loving others. It doesn't always mean that we have to condone actions or even LIKE the person. We are called to love. For you know Who is Love? God. 1st John 4:16 says just this. So I challenge you love. At times I find it hard to love when I don't feel like I am loved in return. Does this make it right? But of course not! God doesn't say "Yeah, Rebs. Love only those who love you or who show you that they love you." Noooooo. He says to love my enemies and to pray for those who persecute me. Woah. But I know that I must. I cannot do it on my own. I constantly need to ask my Heavenly Father to help me do this! I really do. Because without Christ, I am jist a weak little Italian (and Swedish, Norwegian, & English) girl. Also, I challenge you to memorize the Chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians. Good book with some great content and chapter 13 is one of the best. I challenge you to love, really love, somebody that you find difficult to love through, not only words but through actions as well. Remember the old saying: Actions speak louder than words. This is true. And did you know that love is not only a noun but also a verb? Well it is and a verb signifies action. You can tell someone that you love them, but they probably will not believe you until "they see it." Its the truth. So I challenge you love like our Lord loves. Obviously we are human and we can never be perfect but we are called to walk in HIS footsteps and with every footstep of HIS HE loves. He loves us.

Loved by HIM and working on loving through HIM,

the little rcp

i love my life here :)