Ana and Diana

I have about a half a jillion pictures that I could post on this blog today, but I'm not going to - that will have to wait until maybe friday or so once I am in Oregon and somewhat rested!

We'll start with the best first:
Sunday evening, I went to the Centro with Ana for crepes. (I seem to be going for crepes a lot lately!!) Here's the long version of Ana's story that she told me... Ana moved to QRO the middle of August to find a job in industrial engeneiring (QRO is the place to come to find that kind of job!), and was living with a lady from her home town who had also moved to QRO and wanted to rent a room to her. After about a month of job searching, Ana was getting sick of hearing that all the companies want a man, not a cute little 25 year old girl. Her money ran out, and she didn't know how she would pay the lady she lived with rent for that month. The lady said that if she couldn't pay, she'd have to leave in 2 days. Ana is from the state of Mexico, so it's not like her parents can drive across town to come get her and her things and take her to their home. Ana's time at this house in QRO had been anything but pleasant, but she was super unsure about what to do, only having 2 days to find a place to go! During her evening devotions, Ana read a passage in Proverbs that says "I will deliver you out of the house of the woman of strange words, who has forgotten her pact with God and abandoned the man of her youth. In her house there is death." Woah. Out of the blue, a friend who Ana didn't know was still living in QRO called her up and asked her if she wanted to move in with her! So she packed her things and went that very day! Right after that (like a matter of days) Ana took a part time job at some telemarketing company to earn a little money while looking for that industrial eneneiring job. Somehow the Lord spoke to her and told her that she needed to enroll in the Horizonte school of evangelizm at my church (Ana has been attending our chcurch since she came here). So, 3 days before school started, she enrolled. During the first week of classes, Julian and Whitney were getting desperate about finding a young lady to live in their spare bedroom and help with house cleaning and taking care of their girls. They met Ana. Ana needs a part time, super flexible hours job. So she is moving in with them in like a week!

Now to this past saturday night... Ana went home from youth group tired and needing to finish her homework. She came home to find her roommate drunk (which NEVER happens with thie girl). The roommate had just broken up with her boyfriend, and was really sad and decided to bring home a bunch of alcohol to help her forget about everything. Ana talked with her for a little bit, then turned on some worship music while doing her homework (which was for school of evangelism, where the text book is the Bible). Her roommate commented on how the music made her feel better, and Ana read to her out of the Bible what she was studying for school. Her roommate hinted around that she would really like a Bible. On Monday, I brought a Bible to Ana that we have at the cafe for just such and occaision. Her roommate was really excited and wants to start reading a book about Jesus (one of the gospels)!

This is the second roommate that Ana has shared the Lord with - a few weeks ago, she brought another girl who also rented a room from the not-so-pleasant lady to church, and we gave her a Bible, and she really enjoyed coming to church, but her work schedule hasn't permitted her to come back.

Ok, I know this is rediculously long...

Diana, Alma, Aixa, and Pablo have been coming to the cafe for several months, and have become good friends of mine. Diana is a Christian. She met the others at their university, as they are in the same major. Aixa and Pablo are a couple who plans to get married in the near future. Alma is extremely interested in the Bible, and "religious things." As many times as Diana has asked her if she wants to become a Christian, she hesitates, and decides no.

Yesterday, Diana came into the cafe, almost in tears, but happy. She said that that day, Aixa decided to begin a relationship with the Lord!!! VERY exciting!! But, Diana is moving to Monterrey in about 2 months, in fact she left for there today for two weeks. So she is concerned that no one will be there to help Aixa grow in her faith, and to keep working with Alma and Pablo. That's where I come in, she said. I will be here (unfortunately will be gone for a week). I talked with Diana about a study that we have here that explains what the Bible is, why we read it, who God is, who Jesus is, what salvation is, and why we need salvation in Christ. Diana thinks that both Aixa and Alma may be interested in doing that study with me (and probably Lluvia).

Today, Alma, Aixa, and Pablo came into the cafe. Lluvia immediately invited them to the 3-part marriage seminar that will be starting at Horizonte this week. Aixa and Pablo are very interested in attending, AND, we found out that Aixa lives in the neighborhood right across the street from Horizonte! They (Alma, Aixa, and Pablo) also invited me to go to Toluca with them for the day (about 2.5 hours away) because there is a place by there where it snows, and the girls have never seen snow... I hope I can go, I think it would be a good way to get to know them better, because I really just know them from hanging out at the cafe.

So, this was a long and possibly confusing, but I have a really hard time expressing my thoughts in an understandable manner... heehee

Next up, PICTURES from last saturday's wet and crazy youth group, and from today's adventure to Bernal with the school of evangelism students.

Independence Day - Part 2

PICNIC!!

Saturday, after sleeping in until 10am (some of the church staff slept until after 12!!), the church staff headed out to the town of Tlacote, where Edith lives. We brought all the leftovers from the Friday night party at church - three flavors of tamales (including my favorite - sweet tamales with pineapple!!), quesadillas, tostadas, and 10 gallons of "agua" - pineapple and horcahta (we had 20 gallons in total the night before, wow!)

After a good big meal and a game of 3 on 3 basketball, Martin headed up some picnic games.
Recognize this? -
This time, we threw wet sponges, and it was supposedly at the birthday people! Justin and Edtih both had their birthdays on September 16, so that was another reason for the party. But, seeing as Edith is a woman, and turning 58, they decided to give her a break and let her pick someone else to get sponges thrown at them in her place, so we didn't get to throw them at Edith, but at JP insead.

We also had a water relay game in which my jeans got completely soaked, and american football with water balloons!!

Here is the whole group of independence day picnickers:
Justin and Edith with their birthday cakes (Justin turned 30!!)
And Justing after his "mordida" (every birthday person has to take a bite out of their cake, and 99% of the time, someone smashes your face in the cake while you take a bite. However, after 58 birthdays, Edith has learned how to bite her cake and avoid getting her face smashed in it... I was really looking forward to seeing that...!)
It was a beautiful day for a picnic... until about 7pm when a cold wind started blowing and we frantically threw everything in the house and left for QRO, but enroute, we got in a torrential downpour - couldn't even see past the car in front of us on the highway. But we made it home safely - still wet from the water games, and then from the rain - but safe and happy!

Independence Day, Part 1

So, September 16th is Mexican independence day, and we at Horizonte took the opportunity to have an outreach event on the night of the 15th (which is when everyone starts celebrating). We held a traditional Mexican carnival, complete with lots of games, piñatas, and a TON of FOOD!

We did have a little glitch though... Here's me in the kitchen about an hour before the event started:
Yeah, you know you have problems when you are in the kitchen, under the roof, and are getting rained on! We had a small waterfall of water coming in the wall behind the stage in the auditorium too...

Here's the enterance to the church, with Schultz attempting to unclog a drain: (you can't really tell that there's a step up where the pillars are...)

We had a smaller turn-out than we had hoped, but it was still great!

Here are Justin, Lluvia, Nadia, and Adiel in their Mexican garb (wow, can you tell who is the gringo?):

Me, Micaiah, Whitney, and Nadia looking cute!

So we decided to have a "throw a pie at a member of the pastoral staff" area, not knowing if people would pay money to do that. We sold tickets for 5 pesos (like 50 cents of $), and they sold like hot cakes!! (we are raising money to buy a drum set for the church - we have been borrowing one for a long time, but now have to give it back)

I personally think that this picture of me throwing a pie at JP is priceless... especially since, after I posed for the picture, I totally cheated and ran up to smash the pie in his face! It was a big scandal because it was the rule that you HAD to stand behind a certain line to throw... heehee! He deserved it!

Schultz after getting pied - look, he's a reverse Michail Gorbechev... white spot on dark head instead of dark spot on white head!

Soon it was my turn...

JP, Schultz, Kike, Joanna, and Dani all ganged up on me and got me good.

Here is Mauricio giving "el grito" which is a long string of one person saying "Viva Miguel Hidalgo!" and the crowd says "VIVA!" "Viva Ignacio Zaragoza!" "VIVA!" Viva Morelos!" "VIVA!" and "Viva Mexico!" "VIVA!!" There are a lot of names that they go through. It is in rememberance of the people who had a part in the Independence of Mexico.

And several guys in costume prancing around on stage.

So, that was Independence Night for me this year, it was a blast! And I ate wonderful home-cooked food, including corn on the cob covered in mayonaise, grated cheese, chile, and lime - very traditional, tostadas, arroz con leche, taquitos, and jello.

Next to come - pictures of the PICNIC of Independence Day!!

Board Meetings?

I have heard many people call church board meetings, "bored meetings." This is not the case for us! It seems that every week, apart from hearing a brief from each person who is in charge of a ministry, we end up telling funny stories too! We have an amazing group of, well, young people who make up the church staff of Iglesia Horizonte. It's been a huge blessing to work with them!
The Horizonte church staff with the ministries that each person leads in italics: (back row, L to R) Sara - school of evangelism (also high school girls leader, and office help, production), Lluvia (Global Grounds, and university girls leader), Justin - Global Grounds university ministry (university guys leader), Me (Global Grounds, university girls leader, cleaning/projects), Nadia (junior high girls leader, cleaning/projects, nursrey/preschool ministry), Jean Paul (university guys leader, projects/construction, production, school of evangelism), Mayte - Sunday morning produccion (marriage counseling, family ministries, school of evangelism), Martin - senior pastor (school of evangelism), and Edith - family ministries (office help, community groups, womens' ministries, school of evangelism), (front row) Julian - community groups (young couples' ministry, office help, junior high boys leader, school of evangelism), Adiel - youth pastor (projects/construction, production, school of evangelism), (Gerardo - Adiel & Nadia's son), and Juan - projects and construction (junior high boys leader, production). Wow!

There are lots of other people who help out a lot with various ministries at Horizonte, but those of us who meet weekly are full-time.

Did I mention that our church staff is a barrel of monkeys?!

Staff meeting gone ary

THIS Close...

Well folks, it looks like this is as good as it gets:

Circumstances didn't allow that I go to the Chivas v. Gallos game tonight in QRO... Chivas (of Guadalajara, my FAVORITE soccer team, with my FAVORITE player OSWALDO SANCHEZ) were in QUERETARO tonite to play the QRO Gallos.

Here's the whole story... I found out like 2 months ago that Chivas were coming to QRO today. I got together with Rubén and Job from church (also avid Chivas fans) to see about all of us going. So the plan was in action. But, Saturday, they both said they didn't have money to go (we hadn't gotten tickets yet). I wanted to cry. I can't just go to the stadium by myself for a game... So that was that. Then, this morning while working at church, I mentioned to Alex (Rubén's brother) that Oswaldo Sanchez was only a few short kilometros away from church right then. He said, oh yeah, Rubén went to the hotel where the Chivas were staying last night to meet them. WHAT!?!?!?! And he didn't tell me!?!?!?! He ended up going to the game tonight too - some friend had pity on the poor guy and paid for his ticket. I watched the game on tv at a taco restaurant. :-( They tied. That's okay though, a tie is good because it makes for a better chance of Gallos staying in the big league so maybe Chivas will return here next year...

Horizonte

Here is a lovely picture of all the adults and young people (missing the majority of the kids who were in class still) last sunday! I am guessing there are about 200 people in the picture... I know we have 180 chairs (I set help them up every saturday!), and they were all full so some staff members stood during the service... then we add some kids who left class for the picture...

And we're all decked out in the sanctuary for Independence Day - This Saturday the 16th of September. Actually, the celebrating starts Friday night. I will be at Horizonte, we are having a carnival, along with various traditional Mexican games, and costumes. We hope to leave there by 2am! Then Saturday is picnic day - most families gather together to eat the left-overs of the previous day's feast. I'll be at Edith's house (a Horizonte staff member) with the rest of the church staff and their families.

La Pachanga

Wow, the past few days have been a blur of lots and lots of stuff going on! After recovering from the little friends that were swimming around in my stomache, I dove into normal life... which just keeps getting busier every week! In July, when we had short-term-team followed by youth camp followed by another short-term-team, I remember thinking that when all that was over I'd have lots of time to relax. But that just never happened... I LOVE what I do though, so even if it is sometimes exhausting, I still enjoy!!

Last night may possibly have been one of my favorite days ever. Now, I DON'T make a habit of riding around with a car full of boys, so yesterday was an exception, and besides, Ana was going to come but ended up not...
So, me, JP, Schultz, Dani, and Aron all went over to JP's house to watch a movie. It was the one about a lady who got kidnapped and miraculously reaches some random kid's cell phone by re-assembling a broken phone in the room she's locked in... Not sure what went wrong here, but the movie kind of turned like that dumb TV show "Mystery Science Theater" (not even sure that's what it's really called!) where two puppets make funny comments while watching movies. The movie really isn't a funny one, but there were times when we were just dying laughing because of all the crazy comments. It was so bad, in fact, that Alex, Polla, and Sayuri came over about 15 minutes into the movie, and decided to leave because they thought we were too over-the-top!

After the movie finished, we wanted to go downtown. It started raining. No one had hardly any money. But we went and walked around, soaking wet in the Centro, got stuffed churros (about 50 cents each), pizza and pop, and stood outside the pizza booth (you can't enter the building, you just walk up to the window and order you pizza slice and go sit in some plaza or something) eating and making up ridiculous dance moves to the Mariachi music that was playing in the pizza booth. The few other people who were actually out in the rain walked by pointing and laughing. We proceeded to the car and woke up one of JP's neighbors (hey, it was only like 11pm!) from singing too loud in the car (ok, "singing" is a stretch, more like screeching).

And now, I am procrastinating. I have to finish translating another chapter of small-group material to take to church with me at 8:30 tomorrow morning, plus I need to get stuff ready for my english class and my spanish class (I am going back to school!!), and here I am writing this dumb journal entry. heehee!

We Have a President!!

I'm pretty sure the Mexican presidential election this year took even longer to decide who is the president than the US presidential elections in 2004. Since July 2, it has been up in the air. I think it was Sept. 5 that they actually pronounced a for-sure winner. Felipe Calderon will become the next president of Mexico in December.
He beat Lopez Obrador (pictured below) by... 2000 votes! TWO THOUSAND VOTES. Millions of Mexicans voted (even some who died years ago voted... hmm) I don't even think that CAN happen in the US, with electoral college and stuff. Anyways, it probably wasn't a perfectly fair election, but I would've voted for Calderon, and not this guy:
So Calderon will succeed Fox:

Yay, elections are over, and we didn't have riots in Queretaro. Of course, most of this state supports the PAN, the political party of Calderon, so the only demonstrations that I heard of here were in favor of Calderon. In other parts of the country things are a bit ugly at times because of unsatified citizens.

In other news, it looks like I will be going to a Guadalajara CHIVAS v. Queretaro Gallos Blancos soccer game this wednesday!!! It's my first EVER professional soccer game, and my very favorite team (Chivas!) with my very favorite player (Oswaldo Sanchez, the goalie of Chivas and the Mexican national team) are playing in MY city!! Yay!

Sick. Mnah.

Ok, I am now passing through my first non-self-induced stomache sickness since being in Mexico. Self-induced?!? Well, the other two times I've been stomache sick was because I ate things like: choriqueso (greasiest food you can possibly eat), pork tacos, two bowls of beans, a liter of strawberry juice, and a chocolate drink all in one meal. When you eat like that, you're just asking to be sick! (Now, I realize that, and have refrained from eating like that!)

So, I've had a bacterial infection twice before (strangely, both times involved travel between Honduras and El Salvador...), so I know the symptoms, which I will spare you from reading. I knew monday night that after slurping down a few limes with baking soda and I still didn't feel better, that I had a bacterial infection. I am now on meds, so hopefully by tomorrow I'll at least feel better.

Another post with no pictures (what, do you want a picture of me looking pathetically sick? heehee!), but I just haven't been taking many lately. Everything is back to "normal" for me, so I haven't been carrying around my camera, but hopefully later this week I'll get something on here for you all...