Leader retreat
On January 11-12 we had our leader retreat in Merida. We had all our leaders from Maracaibo, San Cristobal, Merida and Santa Barbara, our goal was to share some time together, train them but also have fun.

We had some staff encouraging the leaders and teaching them about our philosophy of ministry based on John:15, passage that encourage us to remain in him, to love each other and to witness his love.

We also talked about team work, which I really learned from, Yanina Cubillan taught us about Exodus 18, she reminded us that within a team we need to have our task clear for the whole team, a common purpose and motivation, but also we need to listen to advises as Moses did when Jethro tried to help him, being humble is something important within a team, nobody is ready in the task if somebody of the team have not finished yet and of course the main advice, a good communication.




We did not always studied , we also practice what we learn so we dis some exercises to make sure we understood everything really well ( of course we had fun!!)

El Vigia:

Our church "Nueva Vida" (New Life), invited us to share and spend some time with the college students in their ministry. We spent a Saturday together and had a really good time.

We not only talked about ministry, but we also got to know the students from different towns around Mérida. I would like you to see some picture because they speak more than words:

Here we have Sarita and Ivan having their first Sancocho (a traditional soup from Venezuela with lots of vegetables and meat). Ivan doesn´t speak Spanish very well but he pronounces the word Sancocho perfectly!!

We also had a worship time. It wasn´t planned or prepared but it was so beautiful. Everybody who wanted to sing or play any instrument had the freedom to do it. In the picture we have Adrian with the drums.

To conclude we had some time for sports. Everybody enjoyed it a lot. They played volleyball or soccer. It was so exciting for me to see young people that could enjoy the time together that much, and also remember the reason we were there, Jesus.

By the way, El Vigia, is the place outside of town where we spent the day. Some people from the church own a beautiful house there and really enjoy having people from the church have fun there!!!

Living in a tribe:

That´s what I think when we are all in the dining room together or we all go out. I live in a tribe!! We are six and sometimes if the bus is crowded we cannot fit in the same bus. We don´t all fit in the kitchen either and if we add some good friends to the number things get even funnier. Sometimes when go out we look like a school field trip!!

I am not complaining, it is really fun. Each person in this tribe has a special ability or something like that and they are still learning more. Let´s take a look at the members of this tribe:

First we have Eben Allen a.k.a. Ebencito(little Eben), the rock. He is our cochroach killer, our dictionary (English-English and English-Spanish), bodyguard, sound effects man "paw!! push!! slam!!", and he is our fix-it man too. He eats like ten people and has a lot of stories to tell.

Eben is excited to have his Bible study. He seems like the kind of guy that knows a lot of things about the Bible, that we have no idea.

Ok next, we have Ivan Bucher. He can really manage the only word that he knows in Spanish, "si". At least he can let you know if he agrees or not with something and that is very helpful to the ministry. He can pronounce the "r" really well, which he learned watching our president Hugo Chavéz on TV. He is learning Spanish really fast. When he came here he knew nothing about Spanish.

Ivan is a man with passion for sharing his life experiences with other men. Ivan is a really funny guy and kind. He likes to cook; his special dish is mantaraya (Manta Ray) with mayonaise. When you eat it, it makes your mouth fall asleep. :(

Now we have Amanda, but I call her Amandarina. She is the kind of girl that gives peace to you when you talk to her. She is also pretty funny. She is always available to help. She loves coffee and drinks it in industrial quanties, as does Ivan!!

Amanda loves to spend time with the Lord and she is always learning something new about Him. She really likes to pray and is always taking care of us.

Then we have Sarah or Sarita (little Sarah). She is a sweet, beautiful girl. She speaks Spanish really well but with an accent from Spain, so I make fun of her sometimes. She loves nature and volleyball, but I think she doesn´t know or maybe forgot how to play. hahaha

Sarita is kind and she always trying to learn something about God and ministry.

Also, we have Chelsea Hasenfplug, but her last name is kind of dificult to pronounce so I call her Chelsea Rrrrosa. This girl loves cats.

She was pretty involved with Vida Estudiantil in the USA so she knows really well how ministry works. She came to Merida before with a summer project and she already knows some students. She also speaks Spanish although she says she doesn´t.

Chelsea is always learning slang in Spanish, so she surprises me sometimes and I have to ask where she learned those crazy things!!

Well now me, I am the Venezuelan in this team so I teach some important things to my team, like how cook arepas and platanos (traditional dishes). I make them laugh sometimes with my English mistakes (some of them are inappropriate, which is embarassing for me!!).

Ok now you know my tribe. I want to let you know that this a really fun adventure for me and I feel really blessed.