GOD IS SOO GOOD!

So not 10 min ago I got the news that I have received another anonymous donation and that I now owe $0!!!! AHHHHH!!! I cannot even begin to express how thankful I am and I HATE that the donation is anonymous!!! I want to hug and tackle these people down to the floor, why wont they tell me their names!? God is so good!

So this program is coming to an end and I am ready to go back home. It is amazing to look back and start to see all of the things that I have been learning and that I have been able to experience. I will miss a lot of GMS!!! I have learned a new truth about God's provision, I can't know it. GREAT! Anyway I am still processing what I have learned and see how God wants me to apply it. Thank you all for your prayers, please pray that this last week is glorifying to Him and that I am still receptive to any last lessons that He wants me to learn.

Love you!

Wow, It has been a long time

Hey Guys!!! Soooo I have found no time to update this thing in FOREVER! Well, in a nut-shell "I pray that the God who gives hope will fill you with much joy and peace while you trust in him. Then your hope will overflow by the power if the Holy Spirit." is what I have been learning (Romans 15:13)

Been learning that I must go from fear to trust and in that trust I will be filled with peace. What I am learning now- what does it mean for hope to overflow?

Ahhh! Soo a few weekends ago it was parents weekend (well, parents close enough to drive weekend really) and so I was orphaned. All of the NYU kids were actually! I was feeling really homesick and a few things happened that really encouraged me, Ray (my roommate) and his family as well as Will and his mom, kinda took me in on Friday night and on Saturday night. Then Bart (also on my team) invited to adopt me on sunday, which made me feel soooo loved! Actually I had to decline the last offer because us NYU-ers got to hang out and visit Landon (my mentor from school) and his home church and surrounding area. Great day.

This past weekend was team weekend and my team went to NYC!!! WOOO! and I got to show them around and we got to eat some delicious things and do great stuff. It was nice not living with 55 people again. I love my team. We are making shirts (maybe) here is an initial design... such a simple idea, the trinity is central and we are seeking it together.

Please be praying for these last few weeks, that God would show up in my group like never before and that He would show up in my quiet time also like never before. God is GOOD!

Also HUGE PRAISE.... I received a $430 anonymous donation and I AM SOOOO GRATEFUL!!! This came at a great time because I need to step up my fundraising plans. I still owe some $600, please consider praying about giving!!! Thank you for your prayers and your time! I am so happy to have all of you in my life!

More babies than I can count

Kids Alive, I LOVE IT! Soooo many babies and so much love. They are great and love to be tickled (my favorite past time) and I am really excited to get to know them better this summer, I am excited because I know that as most under resourced neighborhoods, male role models are not abundant (not that I am trying to be a role model, but I do want to be an influence). Today we had our first ever boys group, it was great, soccer with 25 little boys ages 8 to 13.

Steph, from Kids Alive, is SOOO amazing! I have gotten a chance to just talk with her and her heart for these kids is awesome. She spoke at our Salt and Light meeting on Tuesday (ministry training) and spoke about holistic ministry and shared some great stories about what that looks like with her Girls Group. God has shown up in big ways in who speaks on Mondays and Wednesdays, and there is still 7 weeks left!

So God showed up big time in my alone time with Him recently, calming some nerves that came up and comforting me (He is so good at that!). We just finished a study on Abraham and his faith, ohh what a faithful man! There is so much to learn still and I am excited for it! Tomorrow, (assuming God doesn't have other plans for me) will be filled with great fundraising time :). Pray for that, its still very scary for me. Also continue to pray for my team, they are so great and have been teaching me and challenging me in cool ways! This weekend is Men's Weekend, I'm excited, pray for that pleaseeeeee!

BABIES AND JOY

So this Saturday, I got a chance to work with some of the kids of Northern Burlington! It was one of the most enriching times of my stay here. Kids Alive just turned 13 this summer and they had a big blow out party for the kids and a group from GMS was able to volunteer to play with the kids! There were about 50 kids from ages 5 to 13! We played games, gave them candy and showed them love! I hope to see some of thoes kids again as I start to volunteer on a  more regular way with Kids Alive. 

This Saturday night we had 2 friends visit us from the city! It was so fun! On Sunday I was invited, along with my good friend Brendan,  to speak for one minute at a local church by my dear friend and mentor Landon. We ended staying for two services so that we could tell the congregation a little bit of what God has done and how He has shown up in NY. For the second service, my group came out to represent! (so great!) That night we had a team dinner filled with laughter. I am so greatful for my group of guys here. 

I am looking forward to starting to work with Kids Alive and to meet God in the kids of Burlington. Please pray for my heart to be receptive to what God has to say, and continue to pray for my group and the rest of the GMSers.

The Turning Point

So last Wednesday myself and my roommate Ray went out into the town to seek the under-resourced neighbors of Burlington with the idea that we could find someone to invite back to the BBQ that we were having that evening. We first went to a park that another member of our GMS community had told us about. It was a brisk bike ride away but it was empty. We continued to ride around town but with no luck. Finally we decided to call one of the homeless shelters in the area and simply ask them where we could find their guests during the day. Sarah, the receptionist on the phone gave us two locations and we were on our way. The first place she told us to try was a park that oversees the waterfront, sadly this park was also empty. The second location that she mentioned was “The Turning Point” a rehab center in downtown Burlington.

There we got a chance to meet a few great people, that’s where I met Jill. Jill was a woman no older than 45 who told me about her experience in South Florida. She had been down in Florida when she was pregnant with her first son Nathan and was completely captivated by the beauty of a sunset that she experienced. She described it to me in such detail struggling with her words trying to express how she felt. She said that she felt “high” although at the time she was not on drugs, she described it as a higher sense of being. I thought of a specific incident that happened to me my junior year of high school that I thought related very well to what sh

e was saying. It was at a water polo game and I had just scored and had to swim back to the wall, when I came out of the water I happened to be right under one of the stadium lights that lit up the pool at night. That’s when I realized that although my parents had to work and could not make it out to watch me play, God was watching and he wasn’t watching the game, he was watching me. I told her this story and told her how I felt immense joy, and overpowering love. She quickly agreed that that is how she felt watching the sunset. I was able to share with her how that experience is a “God thing” and how much He loves giving us those simple joys.

Jill is one of the few people that I hope to share God with this summer in Vermont. We are going to have weekly BBQ's and I look forward to inviting more people to join us. I need to raise an additional $1,700 to pay for room and board for the summer and am asking you to prayerfully consider funding me to continue my work here.

Also, please continue to pray for my team, they are SOO GREAT!

In Him!

God Works FAST

I arrived on Monday and was picked up by two of the guys who are on my team! Soo exciting! Vermont is beautiful. I will post pictures up when I can. We get to the dorms and I see Allie, Brendan, Anna, Kyle and I feel soo loved! These are all peers of mine who I get to see throughout the year in NY.

Turns out only about half of the 50 some students have jobs so five of us go job hunting on Tuesday, at one of the malls in the area. Also on Tuesday we had "Group Time" where the 5 of us got to hang out and get to know each other a little better. I was able to be vulnerable and they were too, please keep Jon, Ray, Bart, Phil and me in your prayers!

I came to VT knowing that I wanted to work with community development and ministry development, that night Allie introduces me to her friend Stephanie who runs Kids Alive, a program where she gets to hang out with the kids from Northern Burlington, the under-resourced neighborhoods. We start talking and she basically says tells me that if I want to hang out with her I could play with the kids all summer! Then she says that another thing she wants to try to do is get to know the families a little better because while all of the kids know one another, their families do not. These are mostly families seeking asylum in VT. She specifically used the words "community development" when describing what she wanted to do with the families! God showed up big time in giving me an opportunity to meet Him among the poor and the kids all summer! I am really excited for this! Steph is out of town for a week so I will not start for a little bit. That is 2 goals accomplished on the second day of GMS! Being vulnerable and truthful with my team, and finding a way to work on a community development ministry.

A good friend of mine told me recently "His mercies are new everyday!" I am excited to see what else God is going to do! Also, I am currently underfunded, please pray that God will help me trust in Him, I know he will fully fund me but I also know that being worried about it means I am not fully trusting in His power or love, pray for my heart! Thank you!

Only the Beginning!

I am really excited for GMS! I know that God is going to challenge and stretch me more than I want to and honestly, I am a little afraid. Excited, but afraid. I have a feeling that this summer is going to be about trust, and fear. Anyway, this is my first experience with blogging so I am kinda psyched to see how it works out or how it doesn't work out. Thank you for deciding to pray for me and the group of men that I will share my summer with. Pray that they are guys that can shape my heart and encourage me in ways that create strong friendships founded on Him. Thank you for being a part of my life!

In His Love.

Andres