Home again! It's been an incredible time home with friends and family, I've been hanging out with my mom and sister lots, I got to go to Disneyland with the Duddy's, have lots of hang out nights with my San Diego friends, Tricia came down to stay with me - highlight was going with Trish Jessi and baby Owen, Jessi's 5 month old, to the zoo! can you say panda? the slobbering camels were actually the surprisingly cool animal... my computer stayed in Chile to help out the base communications director, so I dont have any of my pictures with me now, but I think there's pictures of some of this fun stuff on facebook, and from the end of my time in Chile, which included two weddings! Amazing!
As I look back on the Counseling School I just completed before coming home, I am honestly IN AWE of my God, how BIG He is, all the miracles He has done in my heart and in the lives of others around me, all the ways He has been pushing me, stretching me, comforting me, giving me new dreams. Really it was a time of falling in love. With Him, with His Word, with Spanish, with worship, with worship IN Spanish, with Chile, with His dreams and plans for my future. He is so good, always, in all ways, all the time. At the end of the day, He is all that matters and He is all I need. I have so much to process and journal still, so when I have time I will try to be less vague. Or should I stay all vague and mysterious? It's kind of fun.
So news about my nose. Yes, my nose:
Long story - basically I got punched in the face in Chile doing a drama and messing around with friends, one guy "pretend punched me" in the face, and everyone thought it was very realistic because I swung around "acting"... but when I came back up covered in blood, I was like "guys, I'm not that great of an actress! this is reeaal!", of course he felt SO bad, but it was as much my fault as it was his.. so I got some x-rays, basically it was fractured and wasn't healing right, so when I got home for some amazing Christmas family time, I went to a doctor here who told me I needed surgery. More specifically, I needed rhinoplasty to correct the deviated septum and nasal passage... yes, rhinoplasty! Sorry YWAM, can;t go back out on the missions field cause I'm getting a nose job! Haha but its so great I was here and able to get in to Dr. Stephen Cohen, one of the best nose surgery doctors in the nations, last minute. God worked every detail out.
I actually just got home from the hospital a while ago and feel good. It was a 3-hour surgery, I was nervous about going under for so long but it went smoothly. Now I just have to rest and heal for the next ten days so I can head back down to Chile Jan. 10th. I will not be joining my team in Bolivia; I will be back at the YWAM base in Pichilemu, which is super full and busy during the summer (their summer is Jan-March), and I am still praying about where exactly I'll be serving, but the options are working with a new DTS, King's Kids summer camp, women's counseling, interpreting, worship, all the summer sports complex outreaches, and possibly helping with a German-Spanish counseling school (the students who speak German all speak English too so I could help interpret there also). All of these options sound amazing to me, and I am figuring out where God might use me until March. When I come home again for Tricia and Ryan's WEDDING!!! Whoo hooo!!
Keep praying for guidance for me.. I want to be flexible to serve the Lord at the base wherever He leads me. I am excited to go back and see my friends, learn more Spanish, and pour back out on the base, which has been such an amazing place where I've grown in my faith and learned SO much. Vive Chile!
Also pray my nose heals quickly and won't be a burden when I go back - I can't run, swim, lift anything over 5 pounds (including baby Elisabeth! ahhh not fair!), sneeze out my nose, go on roller coasters... hmm what else? Mostly just take care of it and be mellow, so pray I remember all the instructions and be a good little nose job post-op patient :) Thanks!
