Last weekend I made a visit to Montevideo, Uruguay to meet the family that I will be staying with during the upcoming summer break (or winter break up north). This was a wonderful experience. For one, it was my first time really traveling alone internationally. I took an omnibus from Retiro, BA in an 8 hour overnight drive to Montevideo, the capital of neighboring Uruguay. I had been emailing pastor Mark for a few months before this weekend but had not actually met the Richline family. I had no idea before coming just how good and how eye-opening it was going to be.
I arrived smelly and exhausted Friday morning at the bus station and the first thing I saw was Jeni with a sign with my name on it and welcoming hug. Accompanying her were the two youngest kids Julia (12) and Isaiah (10). There had been a little confusion about the time difference (Argentina doesn't have a time change, as opposed to the majority of the world) and they had been waiting there and hour extra without any contact information or knowledge of what I even looked like. As she was recounting to me all that she had done to find out about where the bus, I knew it was going to be a good weekend.
Because it was reformation day and the kids all go to a christian school, they had the day off and I was able to spend Friday getting to know them a little bit. Sabrina (16) and Josh (14) are the other two. Sabrina and I hit it off pretty quick and I soon began learning about some of the struggles and joys of being a missionary family completely removed from a normal suburban life in California and transplanted 6400 miles south to what has been called the most secular country in the world. To read a little bit about their story in more detail you can find their blog here: richlinesrock.blogspot.com
One of the things that amazes me the most about this family is how united they are in their purpose of being in Uruguay. They know that they were called to give up their life in the US and as a family they serve God in their church in Uruguay. Another thing that really made me happy to be with this family was when I heard about their method of getting involved in the culture change. When they first arrived it would have been very easy for them to be comfortable, live in a more wealthy, American-like neighborhood and get help from other expatriates from the US. Instead, they chose to rely on the family of the other pastor of the Presbyterian church in which they would be working. Mauricio and Sandra are Brazilian and speak Portuguese and Spanish, but little or no English that I know of. Mark and Jeni decided to take the harder route and live in a Uruguayan house and neighborhood instead of an expat neighborhood and got to build a strong bond with Mauricio and Sandra by asking them for help in the new culture, despite only a year in Costa Rica of Spanish language training. This amazes me. It also lines up with so much that I have learned in my intercultural studies classes at Grace about how to immerse oneself in the culture of the people with whom you are working and serving. When in a new culture it is so important to identify oneself with people so better feelings of trust and codependency can be established. This kind of immersion is also the goal of Grace's study abroad program. As students we live with only Spanish speaking host families and try to only speak Spanish with each other, as well as eat and do other daily life things with and like our host families.
It was almost like a vacation to spend a weekend with an American family like this. We spoke English (sorry Profe!) and reflected on and joked about all the cultural differences between life in the US and life around the Rio de la Plata. Saturday morning we also had waffles! (the first breakfast besides medialunas that I have had in months... they even had syrup that a new missionary family had brought!) The connection I felt with them was amazing. It was also indescribably awesome to have psuedo-siblings after spending 2 months as an only child living with grandparents. While I absolutely adore Maria and Jose, I didn't realize how much i missed sibling interaction. Two weeks before I visited the Call family had also arrived in Montevideo, They had spent a few years in Mexico and a southern California border town before coming south. I am looking forward to getting to know them better as well.
Sunday I was able to witness the baptism of one man and three people officially becoming members of the church. This was really cool to watch. I have no idea what my role will be in this church when I return, but I am pumped to have the opportunity to serve them.
Sunday night came around and I was not ready to leave this beautiful family yet. Thankfully, God had other plans as well, and because of a mistaken date on my bus ticket, I got to surprise the family and stay another day hanging out in their house doing homework that I would not have had time to do had the original plan happened. This extra day was such a huge blessing. I already love this family so much and feel so incredibly welcomed and loved by them too.
During the three months that I will be in Montevideo, the Richlines will be spending 4 weeks in the US (the first time in 2 years) and Mauricio and Sandra and their family will be leaving for furlough in Brasil. This leaves the members of the church in Montevideo, me and the recently arrived Call family. This is a huge prayer request, that God would make it clear what my role, and the role of the Call family is going to be in this church while they two original pastors are gone. Please pray for God's grace in giving us humility and clarity in this situation.
Thank you everyone for all of the little notes of encouragement, I even received a few birthday cards from halfway around the world! Your prayers and thoughts are so appreciated!
Besos,
Allison
