making friends

one thing our team has been experiencing a lot of lately is just a desire to be friends with the students here, and not just have 'contacts'.. we want relationships with these people! we want to be investing a lot into those we meet with, know them personally, become part of their lives.. and it is something that we havent been experiencing much of..

well today was a pretty sweet breakthrough with this! we invited some students to go to the movies with us.. we watched a (somewhat lame) action movie with vin diesel.. but the point wasnt the movie, it was just to spend time with students away from campuses and appointments.. we had a couple guys show up and hang out with us! it was really cool..

then.. do you remember carlos from my prayer letter? brandon and i met with him a few weeks back.. anyways, he wasnt able to make it to the movies, but he invited us over to his house to watch the el salvador vs. suriname soccer game with him! we ended up going to a restaurant near his house, had dinner with him and his girlfriend, and watched el salvador dominate..

it was a really sweet day.. please be praying that we will continue to make true friends here!

TIHANY!

some of our salvadorian friends invited us to the circus! it was 'two for the price of 1' week, so we couldnt turn it down.. i guess its a show that started in vegas and has been traveling through central america.. it was pretty good! it started out kinda slow (with a crowd of creepy clowns) but it ended up being pretty sweet, and we had a really good time.. i took some pictures, but one of the ladies working for the circus came and yelled at me for taking pictures! ..so i had to sneak some.. more at the gallery

a new friend

i had a really cool conversation today that i wanted to share with you.. we were on matías this morning, pretty much just wandering around, looking for students who were available to talk for a while.. walking through the cafeteria near the arts building, i saw a girl sitting at a table alone with an architectural model next to her! it was soo cool to see an architecture student! i was hesitant to sit down and initiate a conversation with her, because i was nervous about my spanish.. but i told the other guys i would catch up with them in a little bit, took a deep breath, and introduced myself..

we ended up talking for about forty five minutes about architecture, all in spanish! it was incredible.. all my inhibitions about my abilities to speak seemed to vanish, and i felt like i was just having a conversation with a friend.. its hard to describe why this was so significant to me.. i guess the language barrier has been such a huge hindrance in our teams ability to connect with students.. and i feel like today was a real breakthrough for me personally, because i really connected with a salvadorian student in a full-spanish conversation! it was really encouraging at one point, when she actually said i spoke spanish well and she could understand me..

i know this probably seems like a really small thing to be talking about.. and i think it is.. but at the same time, it was huge.. so thank you for rejoicing with me!

welcome, dave!

we received a visitor today in el salvador! his name is dave myers, and he is originally from north carolina.. he has spent quite a bit of time doing missions work, through several organizations including campus crusade, for the last six years or so.. he is currently on a visoin trip through central and south america, visiting different missionaries and organizations and seeing how their ministries are run.. in the next six months or so, he hopes that the Lord would lead him to a ministry where he could dedicate anywhere from the next three years to the rest of his life in full time missions work..

we are so happy to have him with us! it has been a privilege to open our home to him and invite him to be an eleventh member of our team.. please pray that the Lord would give dave direction as to where he is called to give his life in service.. what an exciting time for him! please pray for his provision and safety in his travels as well..

thanks!

dinner italiano

theres this really nice looking italian place right next to where the girls live, and we have always wanted to go in.. well tonight we finally did! we got really dressed up, took a couple trips to get all the girls over, and had a really nice team dinner together! we got a little bit of red wine and white wine (the red wine was much better), i had some dang good pesto, and we had an awesome time as a team! here are some pictures.. theres also more at the gallery..


wine through a straw is classy.. dont judge me..

here we go..

so i finally have a moment to catch you all up on why life has been so crazy the last couple weeks.. we have been all over the place, and ministry has been pretty exhausting lately.. i figured the best way to do this was to put the blog entries in chronological order, so that way there isnt one huge blog you have to sift through.. cause thats never fun.. so yeah, there should be three or four new blogs below, after "im sorry.."

thanks, love you all!

worldwide day of prayer

the leadership of our movement here in el salvador - our stint team, national staff, and some student leaders as well - gathered today to pray for each other, this nation, and the entire world.. it was amazing to realize that the entire campus crusade community in every land and nation around the entire globe assembled in the Lords presence to lift up praises and requests.. it was a very humbling and encouraging time, as we spent nine in the morning til four in the afternoon in prayer.. we prayed for each others personal needs; we prayed for our ministry; we prayed for the students on our campuses; we prayed for the leaders of this country, and the leaders of the united states as well; we prayed for the leaders of crusade movements in the latin america region, and in every region around the world; we prayed for physical needs, spiritual needs, and emotional needs; we praised, we worshipped, we asked boldly of the Lord.. we trust the Lord heard our prayers, and that the Lord will use the prayers lifted up to Him around the world in mighty ways..

thank you for joining with us in prayer! please continue to pray for our ministry here in el salvador, that the Lord would use this year to raise up a movement of passionate students that will long outlast us.. pray for our upcoming Christmas conference, the very first student conference campus crusade has ever done in el salvador! pray that our planning would go well, that leaders would be raised up out of this time, that the Lord would soften hearts and change lives!

thanks everyone..

i'm sorry..

i just want to apologize to all you guys who come here to stay updated regularly on my ministry.. i havent done a very good job of keeping my blog up to date.. we have been pretty bogged down the last couple weeks, and most of the nights i have been really exhausted.. i promise i will update soon! tomorrow should give me some time to sit and write, and fill you in on all the craziness of the last couple weeks.. thanks for your understanding!

feliz cumpleaños

we were tricked! my team of five was invited to a Bible study with a couple students who have really befriended us.. we have been wanting to see ore of what they were involved in, so we gladly accepted (despite being a little tired).. so we show up expecting a quiet spanish Bible study.. but we found out, pretty much once we arrived, that it was a surprise birthday party for a friend of theirs!

it turned out to be a crazy night.. there were about twenty students there, and they were all so hospitable and accepted us as their own friends! we had cake, sang a ridiculous amount of birthday songs (no joke, they have about seven..), and played the most insane round of piñata that i have ever witnessed.. we have some video of it that i can hopefully figure out how to show you all.. it was crazy!

anyways, i just wanted to let you all know that we had an incredibly fun night, and that it is honestly a huge part of our ministry here to just become friends with these students, and tonight was such a sweet breakthrough.. please pray that we would continue to make friends and build strong relationships with students here!

car update

i just wanted to update you all on the car situation here..

we have one car bought and paid for, with registration and insurance! it is a 2003 hyundai elantra, and we got it for a really good deal! praise God for His provision.. it took about a month for the whole process, which was long but worth every minute.. our car has been an incredible blessing to our team, allowing us to meet regularly with all ten of us, drive ourselves to ministry, set our own schedules more or less.. it has brought many blessings to our team, so thank you for your financial support and your prayers!

we are currently still working on car número dos.. a second car will allow us to do things together as an entire team of ten without relying on taxis, which are pretty expensive.. it will also allow us to do ministry without having to ask the national staff to drive us, which will be a blessing to everyone involved.. we are looking into more elantras because they are the best quality for the best price we can find.. we have had some good leads and driven a few around, but it has been hard to find another car that is a good deal and is in good condition.. we really depend on our national director, layo, in the process of searching for a car.. if we went out as just americans, we would get taken advantage of! having layo there means that we will get a fair deal.. this process has been difficult because layo has been very busy (september and october are his busiest months of the year), and he has not been able to help us much in this process.. so please just be praying that the Lord would provide a second car for us!

if you would like to see pictures of the first car, and some of my house, check out my gallery! i should have them up in the next couple days..

http://gallery.me.com/trevor.miller