No llama sightings, sore as all get out, pero canta y no llores!

Oh, Las Yungas. How incredible can it get. This was my most jungleish experience to date, and I'm definitely ready to return. We drove about 10,000 feet down the mountains late at night to get to the youth retreat here in the lowlands where we stayed Fri-Sun. Hilarious company, incredible teaching and worship, unbelievable flora and fauna, and some fabulous futbol. I could've hiked around this place all day. Glorious butterflies and colorful birds, banana and orange trees EVERYWHERE. Discovered it was illegal to pick the oranges a bit too late, alas. :) Great 3hr game of soccer on Sunday. HOT. Mosquitos. Amazing. Not sure what was goin on in this pic but I must've been feeling it! These boys play in jeans and street shoes and are better than any I've seen. SO fun. On the way home on Sunday we stopped in Coroico--a small mountaintop town with breathtaking views--for pancakes and ice cream. DELI. Sorry that all my pics are of mountains. Seriously can't get over them!!

The Lord was kind this weekend and answered many prayers. I went into the retreat praying as I have been for a while that I would FEEL and not simply know his love, that I would be able to love him back with my whole heart and soul and not just my mind. Every session and song kept bringing back this theme! He reminded me that when I am

faithless, he is FAITHFUL--when I lack passion for him, he never lacks

passionate love for me. "I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you" (Jer 31.3). Crazy. And any love I can give back to him is there because he's given it to me--"God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (Ro5.5)--it HAS been poured! The beauty of the tense of this verb. It's there and it's from him and it's for him. I can't love on my own and I can't feel love on my own. This is a work of the Lord. Not something that simply is promised, but something that has already happened--and he will continue to be faithful. Anyways. God didn't just teach me that, but he also gave me an overwhelming sense of love for him! Very encouraged that I am a loved daughter of God. Atrae en mi corazon, Jesus!