Por Que Continues!

On last tuesday (yeah, I've been really busy to write!) we had a little follow up meeting/party for the Por Que event, for the Horizonte folks who helped out with the event. The purpose was to thank God for what He did, to thank those who helped out, and to hear any stories the teens had to share about what God did in their lives or in the lives of their friends.

We broke out all the coffee stuff from Global Grounds, and brought a couple of cakes. We had a time of worship with Ruben, Phil, Job, and Alex:

The kids really got into it!!

Even the moms and not-so-young volunteers came:

And later, EVERY teenager, and person under the age of 25 shared in front of the group their thoughts or feelings about the event, or what God did in their life or the life of a friend they had invited. Many great testimonies were shared, but I'll just tell you one, the one that impacted me the most!

Alan, pictured below, has grown up in church with an awesome Christian mom (he's the little brother of Mariana who I disciple). He's pretty mischeivious, but what 16 year old boy isn't?? Anyhow, about two years ago, Alan invited his neighbor friend Eliu to start coming to youth group with him. Eliu came, and liked it, so he kept coming. He started making good friends at youth group, and started coming on sunday mornings too. Alan shared that ever since he'd met Eliu, he'd wanted him to know the Lord. Now, Eliu, his mom, and his sister Alma come to church just about everytime the doors are open, and the mom is in a womens' small group and has accepted the Lord!

Then Eliu, pictured below, got up to share his side of things, more specifically having to do with the Por Que event. About a month ago, Edith, the leader of family ministries, asked Eliu if he would be insterested in helping lead a small group of 9 and 10 year old boys during sunday school. Eliu was honored to be asked, and all the little kids really like him, but he mentioned that it would be a huge responsibility, and that he was scared that maybe his life didn't reflect Jesus as much as he felt it should to lead young boys.

Anyhow, during the Por Que event, more specifically the question and answer time, Eliu felt impressed that he'd never actually said in his heart that he wanted to follow the Lord; he just showed up for church and helped out a lot, but hadn't taken the step to let the Lord be number one in his life. Eliu accepted Jesus at the Por Que event!!

Something good is happening among the junior high and high school students at Horizonte. God is touching hearts and lives, and we pray that the kids don't let that die! Please pray for the college students, as we don't see the same fire in them as in the younger students. Please pray that God can use us (the college ministy team) to encourage the college kids in their relationships with the Lord!

¿Por Qué?

This past Saturday was our big outreach event called "Por Que." (Why? in english). We had first an excellent turn-out of students from Horizonte who came to help set up as early as 10am.
Here, the students are in a short pre-event briefing so we're all on the same page during the event:

It had rained every day for over a week before Por Que, and several times it even began raining in the early afternoon (which is unusual). We were very nervous that it would rain on July 5th, and we didn't want new students staying home because of the event, or leaving early!
But it didn't rain!!
Here, some students are enjoying the volleyball tournament:

This was an outreach event for junior high, high school, and college students. We had many different activities going on such as the climbing wall, a room with three video games on big screens, the volleyball tournament, ping pong, Global Grounds cafe, and a graffiti contest. We also had live music performed by Job, Phil, Alex, and Ruben from Horizonte, along with several other young adults from other Churches in Querétaro and even from Monterrey.

We had quite a good number of students come to PorQue who were not from Horizonte (the whole point was to INVITE those who don't go to church!). I was a little disappointed at first at the small turn-out of college students, but we do have some good stories... Keep reading...

The band "Juan," which is part of Semilla de Mostaza in Mexico City came to play in the evening, and Kike from Semilla Cuernavaca and the band guys took questions from the students about Christianity, God, and life in general. Kike has a TV show that deals with tough questions and Biblical answers for young people. The show airs every Monday at 7pm in Cuernavaca and I think Mexico City. Horizonte Querétaro will be on the show this coming week!

Some of the students left after the outdoor activities had ended. But the ones who stayed for Juan and Kike got a good message... The group answered questions like, "How can I know that God really exists?" "Why do Christians hate homosexuals?" "Is there really a heaven and a hell?" "Why is there so much crime and sickness in the world?" And of course the token mischievious question, "Why are Alma Rosa and Jana so weird??" (obviously written by one of the Horizonte girls in the junior high group that Alma and Jana lead...!) The group had some amazing responses to these questions and more, answering straight from the Bible. At the end of the night, the group gave an invitation to accept the Lord (explained really very well!), and approximately 10 people raised their hands to make a first-time decision to follow Christ!!

About 4:30pm, a young man about 20 years old, Jorge, came into Horizonte. He works at the car wash across the street from Horizonte and saw the activities when he got off work, so he came over to see if he could play ping-pong and volleyball for a while. Obviously we welcomed him in. He played with us for a couple hours, then stayed for the Juan concert and question session. He accepted the Lord at the end of the time! We found out later that Jorge had been attending a good evangelical church near his home for about a month, and had a lot of questions, but something inside him told him that Christianity was good. So he made the decision to follow Christ! He will probably continue to attend the church near his home, and I believe someone from Horizonte is going to talk with someone in leadership at the other church so they know about Jorge's decision, and have someone available to disciple him.

Also, Bere, my friend Ana's niece, came to the event. Bere is in high school. We've been praying for Ana's sister (Bere's mom) for a while. Bere also accepted the Lord at PorQue!! Her mom, during the PorQue event, was in a pretty nasty car accident, but wasn't drastically hurt. Bere and Ana were able to share with the mom about God's protection. We hope that soon Bere's mom will come to believe as well!

I know there are other stories of PorQue, but I'll have to share those later!!

Thank you to all who prayed for this event, and we hope that you will continue to pray for the Horizonte students, and the students of Querétar in general.

If you want to see more pictures, click HERE!!

The Few, The Proud...

The............. Horizonte teens!!

On Wednesday night, we held a prayer and worship time for the youth and youth leaders of Horizonte, to pray for the Por Que event that will take place this saturday, July 5th. (If you're wondering what that's all about, you can read a little about it HERE).

It was pouring down rain, and a lot of people at Horizonte don't go out much in the rain (especially teens who don't have cars!!), so I was discouraged about the meeting, and almost didn't go - I was ridiculously tired from inmigration/moving JP's stuff to his house/running errands/Por Que preparations/etc.! But I went, and this is what we saw:

Kids joining together in praise and prayer to our God who we love and serve. Pretty much, we had a good core group of teens - ones that come faithfully to events and are not apathetic toward their relationships with God. I was very blessed to see true worship from the hearts of these kids, and around the bonfire (it quit raining for about 2 hours, and we prayed around a fire that was made in the yard!), several of them prayed for their friends' salvation, and that God would use the Por Que event to bring more youth of Queretaro to Him.

We trust that God has great plans for this saturday! Please pray with us for this event, the teens who come, and the leaders!

Prep Time for Por Que

Of course for an large event like Por Que, that will be this Saturday at Horizonte, you've got to have a good amount of preparation time. And if you live in Mexico and go to Horizonte, that prep time MUST include food!! And a lot of it!!

The past 3 weeks, the college group (those who are available at lunch time) has been meeting on thursdays for lunch and to plan for Por Que and Infusion (our new group for college students who have an interest in "spirituality." It will begin on July 17th). Today, Lluvia, Phil, and I made a Chinese-type stir fry. Man did it turn out goooood!!!!!!

Lluvia and I with the woks:

Some of the students who came (more came later, as work schedules allowed!)