Chile and Early Psalms

I figured I would give you all a little update on what is going on and how I'm doing. First on the agenda is that I arrived safely in Chile. Our flight got into Santiago at about 7:30 am local time (We're two hours ahead of EST here). From there we drove the hour to Viña del Mar. The city is a bit different than I would have expected. It's just not what you see in America. Without sounding like an arrogant American (which I know I still do), it just looks crappy. Like buildings and houses and stuff. They just aren't clean and crisp looking. The majority of stuff looks like it's falling apart. In spite of that (it was just a bit of a culture awareness thing for me), I love it here. Our apartments are beautiful. They are so huge and nice and just ridiculous. I live in an apartment with 7 other guys, 5 of which I've been friends with for awhile now. If you want to see the view from our balcony, look at my facebook profile. Gorgeous. But yeah, that's about it. I love it here. And it's also great just being around friends again. I already have so many here that I like and know pretty well. I'm excited to get to know them a lot better on this trip.

So that's the update on what's happened so far. Now here's the crazy part. We're leaving today. Because of the delay, we missed a week of classes, but the trips are still going on as scheduled. So our 12 day trip to Patagonia (the bottom of South America) starts today at noon. We'll be going to three main places. I doubt you care about what cities they are so I'll just tell you that we'll be spending part of our time in Torres del Paine National Park and part of it in Bariloche, Argentina. I'm pretty pumped about some of God's beauty that we are going to see. Even though I love Ft. Wayne, we don't really have mountains (unless you count the rock quarry on the way to the airport). So I really just can't wait for this. It does mean though, that I probably won't have internet access for those 12 days. So there won't be any updates for awhile. When I get back, I'll post all my updates on the Psalms and give you a brief overview of what went down in Patagonia. Plus you can always look at my facebook pictures.

Now for the Psalms. I finally got started this morning. It was great to finally be able to sit down and just open up the Word of the Lord again. I got through 20 chapters, but I'm not going to give you a full summary of them. There is something worth saying now though. There is so much joy! It has just flown off the page at me, how much joy David talks about in his writings. My two favorite were Psalm 4:6-7 and 16:11. Psalms 4:6-7 says this. "There are many who say, "Who will show us some good? Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord!" You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound." And then Psalm 16:11 says this, "You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore." Those are just awesome reminders of where pleasure and joy is found. It's not found in the blessings of God, the "fun" things in life (like what I am doing right now). Joy comes from being in the presence of the Lord. He is what gives me satisfaction and makes me truly happy, not His gifts. I love that so much. It is so great to know that there is no greater pleasure than praising my God. I love how that truth is so blatantly stated in 16:11.

That's pretty much all I've got. Hopefully I'll be done with the Psalms by the time I get back. I'm not going to rush through them though because I'm very excited about reading them. Anyway, I'll talk to you again in a couple weeks. Chao.

All for His glory,

Mitchell