First Day of Work

I still owe the readers of my blog posts on my time during the Mapuche Project and Vacation. But today was a milestone day, so I'm interjecting a post before I get to those.

Today was our first day of "work" in the sense that we (Myself, the other 7 STINTers, and our Argentine staff leader) got together and began to plan for the coming year.  The students in the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), the University where we will be working, are still on Summer Vacation.  So, the month of February will mostly be planning for the year and preparing things for the arrival of students. The first day of work was great.  We meet in a building called the "Sede", which means headquarters, which is about 30 minutes from my apartment via subway. We started the day in prayer and then began to discuss our goals/expectations for the year, some needs of the ministry that we need to address, and some details about who will be working on what campus.  The UBA system has several different individual campuses spread out all over Buenos Aires. We will have a presence of the Agriculture, Medicine, Economics, and Law campuses.  I'm still not exactly sure where I will be working. We are praying about sending Tiffany and me to the Law campus full time.  She and I would be "pioneering" a movement there because there hasn't been anyone going to that campus full-time recently.

The task of planning how best to launch a spiritual movement on a college campus is daunting.  But our team is fervently praying for wisdom about how best to proceed. I'd greatly appreciate you joining that prayer! It's an exciting challenge, one that I'm so happy to have the opportunity to be apart of. I'll keep you posted about our plans as they continue to unfold.

In other news, I joined a gym today. This was the result of several things.

1) In the past month, I have consumed many of these:

Source: http://www.solodulces.com/medialunas/

Medialunas. Delicious crescent roll pastries with a variety of sweet toppings.

2) I live in the heart of an enormous city. While I am fortunate enough to live near a small park, this place isn't as conducive to running, my normal means of exercise, as lovely Clemson, SC.

Because of these two things, I will be working out. I've always been a slender fellow, so my roommate and I have determined to make this STINT year a Skinny Guy Bulk-up year.  Workouts 4 days a week, increasing caloric intake to 3,000 calories per day...the whole nine yards. 

On another completely unrelated note, today was my first rainy day in Buenos Aires. Nothing draws your attention to how much you walk like a little downpour courtesy of Mother Nature. I walk to the grocery store, the laundromat, the bus station, the subway station, the bank, etc. I walk everywhere.  I shall now learn to enjoy walking everywhere in the rain!