Movin' Back With the Gringos

As I implied in my blog the other day, my friend Sarah left Queretaro on thursday to move back to Kansas (and wherever college is, I'm so bad, I forgot).

Sarah came here the middle of August for a study abroad semester at the Queretaro state university. The family she stayed with is friends with a lady who comes now and then to Horizonte Church, so Sarah came to Horizonte her first sunday here. Hence me meeting her.

Sarah immediately got involved in the young adults' group at church, and made lots of friends - at church and school. It was great getting to know her and share stuff that I've learned about Mexican culture, missions, and life as a gringa in Mexico. We went to Guanajuato together, went out for crepes or coffee or crepes or ice cream... or crepes... many times, and I showed her how to make Honduran pupusas! Sarah is an amazing Christian lady who I know God will use in great ways, and already has! I was sad to see her leave!

We had a goodbye party for Sarah on tuesday night, at our house. I think there were probably about 30 people in and out of the house that night... And if you've ever seen our house, you know that's a pretty big feat. Especially with the lack of places to sit. hehe

Cinthya, Brisa, Sarah, Ari, and Me (I am SO the old lady of this picture! Everyone else is between 17 and 20!)
Everyone who was at the house when the picture was taken (minus JP who was taking the picture!)

So, we'll miss you Sarah! (jaja, creo que vas a leer esto!)

Being Prepared... Or Not...

This week I saw a side of me that has DRASTICALLY changed in the past several years - planning and being prepared.

On tuesday, we had a goodbye party for our friend Sarah, who has been here for 5 months and just left yesterday. The party was a my house, so I had a LOT to do before it started at 6:30. Thankfully, I had done the majority of house cleaning on monday, but I still needed to bake a cake, make punch, buy paper - cut and decorate that paper for friends to write notes to Sarah on to make a memory book for her, put up signs outside so people would know where our house is, and find some plastic chairs to borrow for the evening. Oh, and I was house-sitting a dog for a few days.

So, by 5:30pm, I still needed to bake the other part of the cake (I made a double layer one, with only one baking pan), put the jam between layers of cake and frost it, clean the mound of lunch dishes that we in the kitchen, rearrange the furniture to accomodate everyone, phone around to see if any friends had chairs to loan, go get the chairs, make the punch, make the "Sarah's party" signs for outside, and find pens, scissors and stickers for people to decorate their goodbye book pages with.

As you may have guessed, it is not humany possible for one person to do all of that single-handedly in 1 hour, which is what I needed to do. It was made even more complicated by the fact that I only had the car for about 15 minutes because JP had to go to his school practicum. But, I located some friends to loan us 4 chairs immediately (thankfully they live close by), threw the cake in the oven, went to pick up the chairs, rearranged the furniture, got stickers etc. for the book, washed all the dishes, took down the dry laundry, put the signs outside (as I found one friend wandering around the neighborhood looking for the signs I said would show the way...) and came back to find Sarah and a few friends waiting outside the house. So, by 7, I finally had the cake finished, and punch made, and was ready to hang out with the 10 or so people who had showed up so far (that in itself was amazing, as for parties like this, many people just come for an hour or so, anytime between 6:30 and like 10pm that they can). And everyone thought it was perfectly normal that I was still working on getting stuff ready for the party.

Yesterday night I still hadn't bound the goodbye book for Sarah, and was at a friends' house until almost 8... Arriving at home, I left to put the book together, and rushed to Sarah's house to give it to her and say goodbye. :)

My week has pretty much been that way... between discipling times, work at the church, housework, (I STILL haven't cleaned the sticky/muddy floor in the house after the rainy tuesday evening that we had about 35 people in and out of our home)... No worries, I was ON TIME and prepared for the discipling times, as those are some of the most important times of my week!

Absolutely Amazing

I've written about "KidStuf" (Cosas de Niños) before, the monthly music and drama program that we do here at Horizonte Church that reinforces the concept that the elementary-age kids learn in Sunday School, and is also an outreach to the community.

Well, in March of this year, we began the second season of KidStuf. Lots of the first season actors and singers were no longer available to participate, so we had a casting. Some kids from a neighborhood close by came to the casting. They are not Christians, but we decided to let them participate anyway, hoping that it could be a way to share Christ with them. There was some controversy in the church about whether or not non-Christian youth should be participating in KidStuf, as it IS a MINISTRY of Horizonte Church. Like, the entire point is spiritual growth for the kids who have a relationship with Christ, and to share the Message of Salvation in Him with kids and parents who don't have that relationship. Generally in a MINISTRY we have Christians doing ministry, for obvious reasons. So this was a big step that we were unsure about taking, but took it anyway.

Over the course of this year, there have been about 10 different young people who are not Christians participating. They learn the Bible verse for the month, and sing about faith in Christ. I've participates on and off during these two seasons of KidStuf, acting and singing, but had to leave it in July because of other activities. But I really love those young people, and they look up to me as well. The girl who leads the choreography is an 18 year-old named Cinthya. (She is a Christian). She's had a HUGE impact on all the KidStuf kids, they lover her look up to her. And she is an excellent example to them of how being a Christian DOESN'T mean you can't do anything "cool" with your life.

This past sunday was the season finale of KidStuf until February or March, when we'll begin the THIRD season. So saturday, the day before the finale, you can imagine that there wer hours of practice going on. I knew that Edith, the coordinator of KidStuf, and Cinthya had in mind to share the Message of Salvation with the young people in a direct way, and give them the opportunity to accept that gift of Salvation and a relationship with Christ. I SOOOOO wanted to be there, but I didn't know when they were going to do it, so I wasn't.

SIX of the young people accepted the Lord on saturday!! Because of their participation in KidStuf, they had a good idea of what a relationship with the Lord is - that it's not really a religion at all, but an actual RELATIONSHIP. And, to top that off, six of the Christian young people (really young, like 13-16 years old!!) met individually with the six new believers to tell their story of what God has done in their lives, and hopefully to begin discipling them! So this was a DOUBLE blessing - to have new believers, and to see our youth begin discipling them!!

I'm so excited to see where this goes. And, if you're thinking "Right, those teens are going to disciple other teens" (which I totally believe is possible!), in case that doesn't work out, there are several of us, like Cinthya and myself, who are totally ready to step in and continue working with the new believers to walk along side them as the grow in their faith!

The end of the good-bye song at the KidStuf finale:


We had hoped to see this day come, when God would touch the hearts of all the KidStuf kids and bring them to a relationship with Him. I am SOOO thankful to see His work in KidStuf!!!