Lives Changing...

There's been a TON of wonderful things going on here with the ministries of Iglesia Horizonte QRO, and I'd like to share just a few of those with you...

Dustin and Cecilia
Yesterday I went to the UAQ (State university of QRO) to hand out flyers for english classes that we offer at Global Grounds Cafe. While I was there, a young guy (Dustin) came up to me and asked if I teach the classes and if I am from the States. I said yes to both, and he excitedly started telling me how he recently moved - permanently - to QRO from Atlanta. His girlfriend, Cecilia, came up and joined in on the conversation. It turns out that Dustin has Mexican family members who live in Apaseo el Grande Guanajuato (about a 40 minute drive from QRO). He came to visit his family last Christmas, met Cecilia through his cousin, and really liked her. He decided to drop everything in the States and move to Apaseo! Here's the thing - Dustin barely speaks spanish, went to college in Atlanta, had a really good job, and is clueless about Mexican culture, much less small-town-Guanajuato culture (which is vastly different from life in the somewhat lage city of Queretaro).
Dustin and Cecilia came to Global today. Brisa, Lluvia, and I were talking with Cecilia which Justin was talking with Dustin. Cecilia told us girls that she feels so bad because she thinks Dustin moved to Apaseo to be with her, but she really isn't interested in him, and he left his life in Atlanta to come here! At the same time, Dustin was saying to Justin how he wants to build a house in Apaseo or maybe QRO, and marry Cecilia! Now THERE'S an interesting situation...
I hope to be able to build a friendship with Cecilia (especially as I more or less understand Central Mexican culture, and kind of Atlanta culture, and am in a cross-cultural relationship myself). We are also inviting the couple to the soccer tournaments that are going on at Horizonte church on sunday afternoons, and Dustin really like soccer.
Speaking of the soccer tournaments...

Karla and Family

A few weeks ago, a young girl (maye 14 years old?) was walking down the street on a sunday morning, passed Horizonte, and happend to notice a poster in the church entryway about a soccer tournament. Karla LOVES soccer, so she asked for more info, and found out that the tournament started at 1pm after the church service, and that they still needed more men and women for the teams. She went home and got her dad, and both attended the morning service (which happened to be a Salsa praise concert) and played soccer. The mom came to watch them play. They hadn't gone to evangelical church before, but kind of liked it! Karla, her mom, and dad all returned at 10am the next week for the service and soccer. But this past week, only Karla and her dad were here. When someone asked about the mom, they said that she had decided to go to the church across the street (it's a Jehovah's Witness place!!) because she liked those people better, but that she'd come to watch soccer. Oops! We are now worried about the mom, and want to make a huge effort to reach out to her, befriend her, and love her with the love of God, so she will know and accept the Truth!

Yaneth

I'd mentioned Yaneth in a previous entry, she's the young mom/wife with cancer that we painted her house. Well, the last two weeks, Martin (Horizonte pastor) has been talking about investing in peoples' lives, and inviting them to church. We want our sunday morning services to be a welcoming environment to those who are normally scared of church and Christians, and that to do that, we're starting 2 Sunday services (to be able to reach more people), and we'll need more volunteers to be able to have 2 services.
Yaneth went to the church during the week (getting from the truck to her wheel chair by herself! Something that she hasn't been able to do in probably 6 months!) to talk with Martin and his wife Mayte (MY-tay). She said that Martin's messages had really touched her and that she was ready to serve wherever needed! Martin says that if this isn't a wake up call to all the people who sit on their butts every sunday and never help out with anything at the church, to actually VOLUNTEER, nothing will probably get them in gear! So, Yaneth will be joining the welcome team on sunday mornings helping us pass out boletins, and helping visit the sick people of the church during the week! Isn't it amazing to see a woman in a wheel chair who has a good deal of pain on a regular basis still want to serve God in the church wherever needed?!

Hurricanes in Queretaro??

Since last sunday, when we heard that a hurricane was coming toward Mexico, I heard lots of people say that we don't need to worry because hurricanes never come to QRO.
On tuesday, we got a call from an International Teams' supervisor in Costa Rica wondering if we were going to be okay here. Immediately after that, we got a call from North Point in Atlanta wanting two guys who were helping us out that day to go back to Atlanta (they stayed here). Wednesday, it rained all day, but not really very hard. I left the church at about 7pm though, and there were NO busses running. In fact, a lot of stuff had closed down for the evening. The hurricane was projected to hit wednesday at midnight. Schools and many jobs were cancelled for thursday. So we all hunkered down in our homes for the night. I even moved everything that could be ruined if wet off my floor and onto my desk, put towels under my window and by the doors of the house. (My window leaks lots of water if it rains and is really windy). I was pretty nervous about our "skylight" in the stairway that is corrugated plastic. But I went to be about 11pm, and it was just raining a little bit. I didn't wake up until 7am, and everything was fine! The ground had even started to dry from the rain the day before.
So, my first hurricane I guess wasn't exactly anything to worry about. But, hurricane season has just started...

A Day in the Life

Just wanted to add a few pictures of "normalness" that I rather enjoy here in Queretaro!!

A group of us hanging out at Global:

Chalio and Daniela at a taco stand:

Chalio, Dany, Me, and Brisa with Elotes (corn on the cob smothered in mayonaise, rolled in cheese, and sprinkled with lime and chile):

Making full use of car space to get everyone to the Centro:

And me, enjoying a street taco: (I have a LOT of pictures of food, don't I. Hmmm, you just can't beat Mexican cuisine!!)

Daniela and the Others

Divine appointment? I think so. Here's the story of how we met Daniela and the others.

One night, Rafa (a Christian kid who doesn't really have anything to do who's always in Global) was walking in the Centro about 11pm. He passed by a restaurant that was closing, and a girl randomly came out, looked around, saw Rafa and asked him if he's walk with her to her house, which is on the other side of the Centro so she didn't have to walk alone at night. (I personally think that if I'm ever stuck in the Centro alone with no money for a taxi and no phone to call someone I know, I'd risk walking along rather than ask a guy that I'd never met before to walk me home! But not to worry, I always have my phone with me, and I don't exactly find myself alone in the Centro at 11pm...) Anyhow, he agreed and walked her home. Upon arriving and her house, Daniela asked Rafa if it wouldn't be too much trouble to come by the next night to walk with her again. He agreed.
The next night, Rafa asked Elise (a girl who was working with us for 2 months) to go with him to walk Daniela home. She went, and hit it off really well with Daniela. She and Elise began getting togther for lunch and stuff.
Ana (one of the many!) is a girl who cleans house for Jesus and Lucero, the couple that Elise lived with. Ana is 24. Elise invited Ana to go out to lunch with her and Daniela, and the three became friends together, despite the fact that Ana comes from a much different socio-economic background than Daniela.
Maren is a German girl who moved in with Jesus and Lucero about a week before Elise left. She's 21, and is in Mexico for 3 months working at the company that Lucero works for. So Elise took Maren pretty much everywhere with her for the first few days. She is now good friends with Daniela and Ana.
Toni is a guy who just moved to QRO from Zacatecas to study law at the state university here. Rafa saw him by himself one day, and, seeing as Rafa only has like 2 classes and not much to do, and Toni didn't know anyone, the two became fast friends and also hang out with the three girls mentioned above.
Wow. So here we have some definite ministry opportunities. These four young people are all betweem 21 and 24 years old, didn't really know many people in QRO, and therefore became good friends together. None of them are Christians (that I know of) and I really hope that we (myself and other Christian friends) will have many opportunities to share the love of God with them through the friendships that are beginning!
Please pray for Daniela, Ana, Maren, and Toni!

Here are Chalio, Daniela and Elise hanging out at Global:

Enthralled by Rain

After living in Salem Oregon for 24 years, you'd think that I wouldn't be very amused by rain. I'm really not sure why I am, and this is probably like the 4th journal entry I've written about weather since I've been here, I guess it's just an interest of mine!

Here's one day in July (supposedly not rainy season yet) in the Centro. This was not even FIVE MINUTES after it started raining!! The drainage system leaves a lot to be desired...

And here's my foot in the grass in our back yard, I think this was in June. I didn't even know there COULD be such big puddles in grass!

Yaneth

Ok, here's the pictures I had promised from Yaneth's house... Yaneth is the young mom with cancer from Iglesia Horizonte who we (the college group) helped paint their house.

Yaneth (in the wheel chair), her mom "Mama Tere" behind her, her husband Javier, and son Emilio.

The outside of the house before:

And after! Yep, we just said "no" to pink panther pink, and put on a nice green instead... good choice Yaneth!

Brisa rolling on some fresh white paint on the inside of the house, with Jimena, Yaneth's little daughter watching. Jimena actually helped a lot with painting inside! And she's only 7!

As demonstrated by Jean Paul and Dany, it was all hard tiring work, with no time for fun and games... heehee!


Marly, Brisa, and I get in on the fun...

Mmmm, chilaquile day! Chilaquiles = fresh tortilla chips dropped into boiling salsa until they get soggy. I LOVE Chilaquiles, and I made these ones... from scratch! No canned salsa in my house, this was cooked tomatoes, tomatillos, onions, jalapeños, and epazote!

(In the picture from left to right - Dora (Yaneth's sister), Dora's daughter, Mama Tere, Emilio hiding in there, Dora's son, Yaneth, Jimena, Jana, Dany, me, Marly, and Elise.)

Jean Paul trying out the paint for the outside of the house:

Even Jana's dad Pepe (a roofer by profession) got in on the painting action, with JP looking down from the roof:

You THINK I'm standing on a ladder, but I'm really standing on the decorative metal bars that protect the window, holding on with my right hand leaning over to reach all that I can... having only one small ladder available meant lots of climbing window bars and leaning over the roof!

Dany finishes off the outside-back of the house...

Tuesday through friday we worked on the house. It was really rather tiring, but WELL worth the blessing we received, and I hope that Yaneth and family recieved too!