Dear Friends,Three Sundays ago, my alarm went off at 2:15 am, signaling the start of my part of the Fall Break Merida trip. Four hours later, I was in the Caracas airport, welcoming Christine and Ashley to Venezuela. Even though their trip had started Saturday morning, they still chose to go to church with us. It was the first of many instances in which these girls from University of Portland demonstrated their character and trusted God with the details. It made for a great week.
Later that day, we had “Christmas in October,” opening the suitcase of rare-to-Venezuela-goodies that my mom had sent down with the girls. We started our week-long study of Galatians, covered schedule details, and then spent some time together as one big team, eating dinner and talking. Monday, we went to Universidad de Carabobo here in Valencia and the girls got their first experience sharing in Venezuela, striking up spiritual conversations and presenting the gospel. During that time, Ashley saw a guy and a girl pray to receive Christ as their personal savior. That night Sarah, Ashley, Christine and I got on an overnight bus and embarked for Merida.
Once in Merida Tuesday, we went up to the humanities campus and met with Keren, one of the student directors of the Merida ministry. After a time of worship and fellowship with another Christian group on campus, we once again went out sharing. Christine paired up with Keren, and while sharing, saw another girl pray to receive Christ. We finished out our day with another student-led activity: a prayer walk around the university grounds. On Wednesday, the girls handed out weekly meeting flyers and continued to meet Merida students during the games, worship time, and teaching time of the meeting itself. That night at a fiesta, after playing games, dancing, and talking more with students, both girls were asked to give their testimonies. Even though it was really impromptu and hard to hear over the torrential rain outside, both did an awesome job of sharing their stories. After a typical round of Venezuelan goodbyes (hugs/cheek kisses to every girl and handshakes/hugs between guys) to everybody in the room, we ran through the pouring rain, crossed a few shallow rivers (aka streets), and finally caught a taxi back to our hostel. Thursday, after an early lunch of arepas with the student leaders (arepa: traditional Venezuelan cornmeal pocket/patty), we went sharing on the technical campus where, as I translated for Ashley, we saw one more girl accept Christ.
Friday morning we arrived back in Valencia, and the girls had a relaxed day as our STINT team met with the student leaders here to plan for a few weeks. Saturday we went to a nearby beach and a spent a little time debriefing about the week and a lot of time enjoying God’s creation. Then, early Sunday morning, we were once again in Caracas, this time to see the girls off to Oregon. As the girls left us to go through security, I felt a deep sense of affirmation that the trip went well. While there were a few learning moments for me, I felt like I engaged and initiated throughout the trip and did not hold anything back. In short, I would not change a thing, and I am incredibly encouraged by the fruit of the trip. Christine and Ashley felt accepted by our team, they connected with the students in Merida, and God changed lives through their being here. I feel like that is exactly what I had hoped to see, and God made it happen. To Him be the glory. In his grip, ~Eben
Please Pray:
-For wisdom and time for filling out reimbursements for Merida trip expenses; that it would process quickly.
-For God’s continued work in those we shared with, especially that they could connect with other Christians.
-For our STINT team as we start establishing discipleship relationships; that what we relay would be relevant, and that we would develop a fully functional method for us and for students to follow up with new believers.
From my perspective, Congreso is pretty well hyped by staff and students that have been before, and I think I went in subconsciously expecting to have an amazing ‘Congreso Experience,’ essentially to witness God work mightily in students lives and learn something profound myself alongside them. However, being there to help run it instead of just attending it (I was pretty much in charge of setting up the stage and supervising the technical aspects of the main program), I felt like did not have the chance to take in much of the content or do much interacting with the students. It actually left me a little frustrated, feeling like it had been busy and stressful work instead of the rewarding, inspiring time I had expected.
One of the most activities that I loved more was the [main sessions]”... “I really liked it because while we were singing those songs we could felt like God's love through us. I also like when we went to the beach to share with other people our faith. At the beginning I was really nervous and worried at the same time because I had not done that before. I mean, I had shared before but not like by myself , I always were the translator so it's easier”… “But when you trust in God you never are going to feel afraid of anything. 
Fortunately, with the guys that I was sharing, they were really good doing it, but I [prayed] and I talked to God in order to he could helped me of not feel any [fear] or insecurity of myself while I was sharing with other people. After I [prayed], I really felt good”… “I did it really natural. I could not believe that I had shared and I was not scared of it. But now I feel confident about share my faith with someone else. I really like that conference. I hope the next year I can go to the following one.” 
THIRDHAND CONGRESO: During our staff retreat after Congreso, I learned that over 20 students had attended a lunch for those interested in either a 4 month or year long full-time ministry commitment. At church the following Sunday, one student, Jesús, talked about personally seeing 15 people make decisions to follow Christ during the 2 hours of sharing on the beach Friday of Congreso. Waleska shared about having her perspectives changed on missions, Yuliana shared how God established the path He wants her on in the future, and Angela shared that it was simply impactful to her that God provided to take her there and that she’d really been ministered to by a staff couple there. Saturday of that week we had time for students to share about Congreso, in which Darwin talked about being challenged to please God in the little things, Leonel said he was able to see how much he’s grown since last year’s Congreso, and Jatniel explained how a workshop helped him see how he can be distinct from the crowd to reflect Christ to them.
