Happy days are here again!

Yesterday and today were big days for me.

First of all, yesterday I was well enough to return to my internship and found two more new women upon my arrival! That brings us up to 7 now! When I came, there were 3 and one left! (Continue to pray for Eugenia.) The new women are Carla and Nadia, both of whom are there for consuming alcohol, cocaine, and pills. Carla's only 24. And she wasn't interested much in faith of any kind before entering Maranata. It is custom when there is a new person that they share the Gospel. Carla found hope in it and decided to give her life to Christ! So after my devotional, she asked if I would show her how to read the Bible, so we got to do that together for a little while, and Blanca (who believes God and the devil to be the same) was listening very intently. Later, I saw her reading Revelation on her own. Also, the best moment of my time here occurred Monday morning. When I arrived, I learned Victoria was there (if you remember, that's Ivana's baby). Two weeks ago, Ivana told me that Beatriz would be the godmother. That made me happy. Yesterday, Beatriz told me that the baby still didn't have documentation and did I want to know what they were calling her. I ventured a guess.. "Victoria?" "Noo," she said, "Tracy Victoria!" I looked at Ivana to see if this was a joke. I was kind of convinced it was. But it's not. I never felt like I did much there, definitely not enough to merit a child being named after me! But wow. I guess just being available and loving them without reason is enough. It makes me feel like my humble gift of service is just enough and exactly what was needed, even though I felt useless the whole time.

Today I spent almost 2.5 hours trying to get the extension on my visa. First, I spent an hour reading my toba materials (good use of time, right?!) while I waited for my number to be called. Then they called me up, instructed me to pay my 300 pesos at the bank, 7 blocks away, and on the way back to copy every single (and empty) page of my passport. I spent another 30 or more minutes standing in line at the bank. Then tried to find a place to photocopy the passport on the way back. Then waited for the girl who was helping me. Then handed her the stuffs. Then sat and read for another 15 minutes. Then was called up again. Finally done. What a process. But not too terrible. I will now here here legally until after I leave. :)

And then at 2, I ate chinese food with Dany (my research assistant). Nothing like Panda. But not terrible. Then we formulated our questions to ask Pastor Miguel Medina and his wife Marisa. Then we made our way to the barrio. Not gonna lie. It is pretty dirty and run down. It's how you picture a shantytown. But not the worst of shantytowns. They waited for us on the corner and took us to the church, where we had our interview. They were happy to help and glad that I wanted to know more of their culture. There was a lot of useful information shared in the 2 hours we were together. It's all recorded so Daniela can transcribe it, and I can catch the rest of what I missed. :)

All in all, a wonderful last couple of days. Keep praying. I still have more interviews to try and set up, and I don't know when it'll happen. I was hoping to be done by the end of this week, but it doesn't look like that will happen. Perhaps I'll start writing anyways and keep collecting information as I can, until I leave.

Anyways, I love you for sharing in all this with me, the ups and the downs. Thanks so much friends! But like I said, keep praying! I'm not done yet! :)