Triple Dog Dare...vos sabes?

The triple dog dare is a manipulative tactic used especially by Valerie Hanneken. Don't get it confused with the dare, double dare, or even the double dog dare. These have no effect on me. Dare me to punch a brick wall, I won't. Double dare, I will say no. Double dog dare, I will refuse still. Triple dog dare, however, and I will have to reconsider. I recently told Valerie my philosophy on the different levels of "dare" (bad idea). Today, over lunch, we had butternut squash, a delicacy Valerie enjoys but I do not. I figured Valerie would eat it and so I would not have to. She, however, did not. I made facial expressions across the table to her to eat the food so I wouldn't have to, and she still refused. Then, she looked at me and mouthed those 3 fateful words: Triple dog dare. I looked at her with a look of impending doom, grabbed the spoon, and ate a heaping pile of butternut squash. Thank you, Val.

Yesterday was our first private Spanish lesson. It was crazy! They don't speak Spanish here in Argentina; they speak Catallano (I think that's what it is called). The tu form is not used here. So, all the lessons I learned about tu aren't useful to me anymore. They use the vos form. Not the vosotros form like they use in Spain, but the vos form (a form only common to Argentina). So.....I'm learning a totally new form of Spanish that will no longer be useful once I get back to the states. Gotta love it! Haha! But...now I can say I'm sort of tri-lingual. Maybe that's cheating.

Anyways, the past couple days have been interesting for me. I'm getting to the point where I'm starting to miss home a little bit. Don't get me wrong, I still love it here and still definitely want to be here! It is hard for me right now because I haven't quite discovered my purpose here. Most of the ministry I've ever done has been with little children. That's where I'm comfortable. That's where I feel God has equipped me to work. In BA, I'm working with teens and adults mostly. I haven't quite found how God can use me in this way, and I have to admit that it is a bit discouraging. I want to be used by God in powerful ways. Please keep praying for me. Pray that I will be used in powerful ways here. Pray that I will trust in God's perfect timing and plan. Most of all, pray that I will have a great enough faith to realize that God IS using me even when I feel completely useless.