Monday 11 June 2012

THE END OF THE WORLD

After a month of travel exiting and re-entering into Chile and Argentina about 6 times, thus far. We left our knew families in Punta Arenas Chile on a cold dreary Saturday morning and headed further south! All the way to the The southern most part of the world! Our 12 hour bus arrived in the beautiful, but very cold Ushuaia on the Island Of Tierra Del Fuego around 9 pm. Once again we had no idea where were to go or where we were going to stay, but one thing that was on our minds.... Food. As always we thought it be best to find a place to eat and then find a place to stay for the night. Luckily for our sake these southern most areas have built a culture around night time living, everything is open late and everyone stays up late. The 3rd meal of the day in the south instead of supper they have what they call “Once” (pronounced Own-say like 11 in Spanish). Which is basically just bread tea and coffee after 8pm. After we had prayed and we begin to walk away from the bus stop a man runs up to us and asks us if we are the missionaries coming from Punta Arenas. To our surprise we were being waited for by a church that was contacted by someone from the last church we were at. They had accommodations and food waiting for us just a few blocks away! God is so Good and definitely takes care of us. Trust God people because he Knows! They set us up in these beautiful cabins used for church retreats in the woods for 2 nights. I had some good quality God time in those woods even though it was freezing cold. Our first day there was a Sunday and they had asked us to Preach. So we, like usual, didn't plan just waited to see what Holy Spirit wanted. Breck one of the men on our team says he has something on his heart to share after a few others had shared about who we are and what we are doing. The usual. What Breck shared was amazing and God used Breck to not only touch the church, but I am pretty sure more than half our team was crying as well, including myself. Well what we didn't know was in the crowd there was a few YWAM people visiting that church. So after the church we were able to have lunch with them and meet with them and through that they offered for a few of us, if we wanted, to stay at their base for free and even teach in there DTS (Discipleship Training School). After those two nights in the cabins and church members driving a church van to pick us all up and take us to there church to do ministry and services we were moved to a ladies home and a few of us moved into the YWAM base and a family offered a free stay at their bed and breakfast. I was staying at the YWAM base with 3 other team members and 6 YWAMers. We were a full house, but were so blessed with food and free lodging we didn't mind! We got to teach 2 of there classes on Identity! It was amazing I was able to share and when I teach I learn do much more for myself. God really showed up for all of us. The YWAMers were amazing and showed us so much Love! Ushuaia is amazing and beautiful we got to climb a mountain to a glacier over all a 6 hour day of hiking up and down one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. While on the mountain we took communion and worshiped God in the high places Covered with Snow. We also were able to go to the National Park in Ushuaia that is considered the complete end of the world. You can go no further south than that point. It was only an hour away from where we were staying. After many days of Treasure hunting, ministering with the church seeing God show in people lives like never before, it was time for the first time in the whole 8 months so far, to start heading north. As we headed north God allowed us to stop in Punta Arenas once again to visit and be blessed by the Grace and Peace Church that had blessed us so much just a few weeks before. Just like before they welcomed us back into their homes and families. We were able to speak in their beautiful church once again and just simply be apart. Our last Sunday visiting with this church they washed our feet and prayed blessings over us. We have never been held up in so much honor. Then we were able to pray over our families and bless the people that housed each of us. It was a very special time for all of us. They taught so much about true hospitality, honor, and family. Through all that we were able to really be united as a team! We left our new found families once again with high hopes of someday coming together once again. Back to Santiago Chile to finally reunite with our vehicles, Suitcases, and 2 new team members Nicole (Harvest school 15 from the U.S.) and Carol (Harvest school 14 from Brazil). As a girl on our team said “living out of a backpack really makes you miss living out of a suitcase!” Overall, our time throughout Argentina and Chile consisted of 6 ferries, 14 buses, and 8 border crosses between Argentina and Chile. Which over all comes to 154 hours of just travel time alone! Back in Santiago we stayed at the church that hosted us before for a couple of days. We were so honored to have, once again free meals, a place to stay, and being surrounded with a community that is so loving and generous! Finally We left there to get back to the YWAM base we had stayed at before an hour outside of the city. Where our vehicles had been parked. We took a few days there to “down size” and re-pack things and just be with each other praying and taking time to seek for more of God before moving on to our next country or city, which at that point we were not sure where that was! God has been doing so much in me and in this family we are more of a family than ever before. For a traveling Iris base, as we are that works the way we do this is huge. He is bringing us up and showing all of us what it looks like to live like what we say we believe. Thank you all so much for the prayers and all the support I have gotten. I would Love to hear from any of you that would like to share with me what is going on in your lives and anything I can be praying with you for! Also if there are things from my journey that you would like to hear more of please let me know. I tend to leave many things out in efforts to not make my blogs like books! The Much Love and Many Blessings, Rachael Michelle

1 comment:

  1. I don't know how I read all this, but I did. I don't understand so many things of the English, but I remeber yall, and I remember you, and I have a question to you, what do you want to obtain to the end of all this, what are you waiting see or what is your desire about all it?

    ReplyDelete