Some Updates, Finally!

(I started to write this 3 days ago, but the power went out, as it has frequently in the past weeks, and with it went the internet... so this is a bit delayed!)

I'm SO sorry about not having written in FOREVER! But, you can probably imagine that things have been busy since we got married!! Busy in a good way, of course! :)

I just want to give a little update about what the Lord is doing in the lives of some of our college students...

I don't remember if I've mentioned Maricela before... She's a 25 year old girl who we know because she's been spanish teacher to some of our short-term missions girls, and she used to attend Justin's english class. Lluvia (Justin's wife, both work with students at Horizonte) began to have a Bible study with Maricela about a year and a half ago. I think it was about 10 months ago that Maricela accepted the Lord! She was always nervous about coming to any church because she'd always had bad experiences with churches in the past. But, in May, Maricela began attending sunday service at Horizonte! She's come regularly ever since, and come to thursday night college group when her work schedule permits.
Last thursday, Maricela called Lluvia after college group that she attended, and explained that she was really enjoying being a part of the group, especially this past thursday, as we had an awesome time of worship and opportunities to spend a lot of time in prayer and reading the Bible. Maricela said that she plans to invite her sisters, who are between 18 and 24 years old, to this week's meeting, which happens to be specifically for inviting non-Christian friends. It has really been amazing to see how Maricela's life has changed in the past several months. We doubted for a long time that she would ever start attending church, and now she's even inviting her sisters to come! We thank the Lord for His work!

Here is Lluvia with Maricela (yeah, I stole the picture off Lluvia's blog...):

Brisa is a 19 year old girl who just entered college at the State University this semester to study foreign languages and linguistics. I've known Brisa the entire time I've been here in Mexico, she's Lluvia's little sister, and has grown up in church. She's also quite shy around people she doesn't know, so I knew it would be interesting to see her form friendships with her new schoolmates. Brisa has said that she feels like she needs to get her act together as far as being a Light for Christ to her school friends. I'm very encouraged to hear her desire to reach out to those in her class who don't know the Lord! We're looking for an open space in the week for me to go to her school for a little while each week to pray with her and any friends that would like to join us!

Brisa at a birthday party...

Rafa is our friend who is 24 years old, and has been paralized in a wheel chair for 7 years. He's VERY shy, but has opened up to Phil and Justin (two missionaries who work with college students) more and more in the past months. When we closed Global Grounds cafe in the location, we were nervous that Rafa may stop coming to college group. Why? Because the only other apt place to hold the group was UPSTAIRS in Horizonte Church. And no, it has no wheelchair access. Rafa didn't come for about 6 weeks after we changed locations, but decided to give it a try one day. Two guys lifted him up the stairs and two other brought his chair. Rafa has come very regularly ever since! He also has been sharing with Justin about his relationship with the Lord, and his struggles in life.

Along with Rafa comes his 17 year old cousin, Hector, who helps Rafa's mom take care of him (Rafa's dad passed away 6 months before he became paralized). Hector rarely talks. For a long time, he would just help get Rafa into the college group area, and sit by himself and not want to talk to others, even though several guys made a good effort to involve him in the group.
In our recent few group meetings, Hector has opened up a bit to Justin and Phil, sharing about his recent trip to the beach, and also asking for prayer that he would be able to follow Christ more effectively! As far as we know, Hector has not accepted the Lord, but wow, he's heading down the right path!!

Rafa at his birthday party a year ago...

And finally, Mariana. My little girl grew up and went away to college!! I feel like a mom saying that. Mariana has been out of high school for a little over a year now, living in Queretaro with her mom and brother, taking intensive English classes (I think she speaks better than I do now!). But in August, she got the opportunity to study Bilingual education at a college in Puebla, about a 6 hour drive from here. So my wednesday nights from 7-10pm seem quite vacant now without looking forward to meeting with Mariana.
However, Mariana has come home a few weekends since she moved away. She's asked prayer for her relationships with ther classmates - that she can have a good friendship with them while keeping moral limits (the classmates like to party a lot). This is also Mariana's first time living alone, and 19-year old girl living alone here is not very common, so it's a BIG adjustment.
So far, all is good, and very busy!, in Puebla, and I trust that they Lord will help Mariana develop healthy friendships and thrive in her new school and living situation!

Mariana and I...

Faith Like Rafa

There's a 23 year old guy at Horizonte church named Rafa who I think has more faith and perseverance than anyone I know.

Five years ago, Rafa graduated from high school, and went out with a few of his friends in the new car that one of them received for graduation. You guessed it, they got in a really bad wreck, and Rafa was the only one who survived (there were either 2 or 3 other guys who died). Rafa was in and out of the hospital for a year, and ended up in a wheel chair with no use of his legs, and very limited use of his hands and arms. His condition is degenerative, meaning he's gotten worse over the past 5 years, and will likely continue worsening as time goes on.

Rafa came to Horizonte with his mom and cousin Hector (Hector goes everywhere with Rafa and takes care of him) a little less than a year ago. He loved the sunday service and youth group, and began coming regularly. He made quick friends with Dany (who's always gone to church, not the Dany mentioned below) and Jean Paul.

We began to learn more about Rafa, and found out that he's very artistic and attends art classes at one of the universities. He also does quite a bit with computer graphics. When I said he has limited use of his hands, I mean he has REALLY limited use - like it's hard to hold a pencil! And he does art by hand and computer!! Then in one small group time for the college guys, he mentioned to Dany and JP that he'd like prayer... not that he's one day walk again, but that God would give him patience to be content how he is now until God lets him walk again. Wow.

Here's some pictures from Rafa's 23rd birthday party a couple weeks ago:


Taking the traditional "mordida!" (Biting the cake)

Great sense of humor: posing for the picture arm-wrestling with Juan! Juan is the biggest guy ever (for a mexican)! And look, Rafa is winning! :)

And the Stories Continue

Another photo-less blog... Oh well, it's the content that counts and for you die hard blog readers, this has good content if you can wade through my wordy writing...

Daniel and Family

A few years back, Jean Paul (my boyfriend, works at Horizonte Church) met a neighbor named Daniel. They were about the same age and became good friends. I'm not sure if they met before or after JP became a Christian, but they point is, at JP shared with Dany about the hope he has in Christ. Dany became a Christian, began attending Horizonte, and about a year later enrolled in the school of evangelism. During that year in the school he always said that his greatest desire was that his family would become Christians and attend church as well.

The school of evangelism ended, and Dany didn't exactly make some good choices, and the next thing you know he and his very young girlfriend were expecting a baby. During this time, Liz, Dany's older sister, began to take interest in Christianity and began attending Horizonte. Shortly after, their mom came too. About a year ago along came the dad to church as well. All three of them - Liz and both parents - accepted the Lord and began to get involved in small groups at Horizonte, and the mom even teaches a childrens' sunday school class. Dany's whole family became Christians and were attending church, but Dany wasn't there.

Every saturday morning for as long as I've been here, JP has asked for prayer for Dany in our weekly prayer meetings. So we all pray for him.

About a month ago a young couple at Horizonte got married, and Dany came to the wedding, as the groom was a friend of his from the school of evangelism. At the wedding was the first time I met Dany (he'd been a good friend of JP).

Last saturday was independence day, and I went to Liz and her parents' house (Liz and I are in the same small group) with the single ladies' small group and the single guys' small group. Dany and his now wife Ili, and their little daughter were there. Ili was very shy and was in the house most of the time that the rest of us were outside BBQing, but Dany spent pretty much the whole night talking with Juan (another young guy from church).

The next day - Sunday morning - I was pleasantly surprised to see Dany, Ili, and the baby come into church. After the service ended, a lot of guys played soccer, and Dany and JP went to play, and since I was the only girl at the church that Ili had ever met, she came and sat by me and we talked a little. Later that afternoon, Dany was talking to Juan again and said that he'd decided that he needed to start going to church again and starting living to please the Lord! After well over a year (probably more) of praying for Dany, then seeing his family come to know the Lord, it's amazingly wonderful to hear that Dany wants to serve the Lord again, and hopefully Ili will be in it with him. I definitely want to make it my goal to get to know her better and introduce her to some other young moms at Horizonte... We'll see what God has in store for this young couple!!

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:

The Good Old Days

Those of you who have been here in Queretaro know that I don't see a lot of poverty on a daily basis. Yes, there are the homeless people asking for money in the streets, but hey, I worked at Great Harvest Bread in downtown Salem, I think I now see about the same amount of homeless people per day as when I worked there. My friends here, as well as the young people with whom I work, aren't starving to death by any means. They have a moderate array of clothes to choose from everyday, and can generally scrounge up some money to go to a movie or grab a coffee. The people that I am with on a daily basis are your basic middle-class Mexicans.

My friend Mariana is included in this "middle-class mexican" group of friends. Mariana is an 18-year old girl who just graduated from high school. I've been meeting with her on a regular basis since the beginning of the year. Her house is small, and nothing extravigant to be sure, but they have everything they need - food (really yummy food too! her mom's an awesome cook!!), enough clothes, money to get to and from school, money to enter college in august, a roof over their heads, hot water showers, etc. And I know that if Mariana or her brother wanted a candy bar or something, they wouldn't be denied that from lack of money.

The other day I was talking with Mariana, and she was telling me about when she used to live in Ensenada (about 2 hours south of San Diego CA). After Mariana and Alan's (her little brother) biological dad died, her mom got remarried, and later THAT dad died too, so they moved to QRO about 5 years ago to be close to the grandparents. I'd known all that since I've known Mariana. But it's always interesting to me to hear more in depth about what life was like in Ensenada...

Silvia (Mariana's mom) and her husband began to build a large house in a nicer neighborhood in Ensenada when the kids were young. I don't know what happened exactly, but the money dried up and the house was never completely finished. The family was stuck with a big house (owned by the bank because of loans they couldn't pay off) and no money to eat, buy clothes, etc. In fact, they didn't have cupboards or furniture in their kitchen, and got used ones from a rich friend who remodeled her kitchen. But the cupboards went in the bedrooms to make closets for the kids. And the countertops that they had in the unfinished kitchen were plywood; the kitchen floor bare concrete. Mariana told me that she remembered that right before her dad (second dad that is) died, a team of people from San Diego came and put a countertop in the kitchen, and tiles on the kitchen floor, and patched up holes in the non-waterproof roof. She told me about receiving a basketball from a team that came to help at their church, and she was SO happy to have the ball, she and her mom cried because Silvia couldn't have afforded to ever buy Mariana a basketball. Mariana and Alan remember receiving "Operation Christimas Child" boxes from Samaritan's Purse, and Mariana even told me with a smile on her face that she was so happy to open a box that had a doll, gloves, and toothbrush and paste in it! They even received their clothes from people from the States who gave away their used clothes. (Mariana and I wonder if they ever got MY clothes, we think it's funny that I went to Ensenada in 1999, and they were still living there, and were poor then!)

It's so hard for me to imagine all this for this family. God is so good; once they moved to QRO, Silvia's sister gave them a house, and Silvia got a good job, and they are now on their feet financially even to the point where Mariana will even enter college soon. Mariana said she was amazed, even as we sat in a coffee shop together drinking milkshakes, that it's hard to think that 6 years ago a milkshake was only a dream, a 50 cent chocolate bar was even out of reach for them! And today those things are a part of everyday life, just like they're a part of everyday life for you and me. It's amazing the miracles God works in peoples' lives...

Ana and the Deer

A couple months ago, I spent a week at Julian and Whitney's house while they were in the States. Ana lived with them and didn't want to stay by herself for a week, so I stayed there too. Anyhow, one day, she came home from school and we decided to fix something for lunch. I found some beans to cook up, and was looking for other food to eat too when Ana told me "Oh! My aunt gave me a cut of meat the other day, we'll eat that!" And she proceeded to pull out the giant, round, dark red, inch-think chunk of meat out of the freezer. "It's deer," she told me. This slab of meat was so big, it even had a big indent in it where it looked like Bambi's backbone may have been. Ana tossed the whole thing in the mircrowave for a little bit, then told me to cook up half of it. Ok, I'm from Oregon, so eating deer isn't abnormal. But I've NEVER cooked it, and had NO idea how that works! So I cut of half of it, cut that half in shishkabob-sized pieces and tossed it in a fry pan with a little oil and whichischire sauce. It was a little rubbery, but it tasted alright.
Later, Ana thanked me for having cooked up the deer, as she didn't have the foggiest idea how to cook it! Now we both know how to improvise when cooking a slab of large forest-dwelling animal!

On to a more serious note, Ana has joined my english class for this semester. It's always weird for me to have friends in my english class, but this has turned out really well... Wednesday was the first class. One student - Noemi - accidentally came an hour early for class. She sat and talked with Ana and Raquel (another girl who works at the cafe) for quite a while. During class, I asked each student where they go to school or work. Ana said she goes to the Horizonte school of evangelism. That sparked questions with Noemi about what in the world IS a school of evangelism, and why would Ana go there?? So Ana and Noemi are getting together this weekend to go out to coffee and get some of Noemi's questions answered.
I don't think I've ever met another person who just has so many evangelistic opportunities dropped in their lap!! SOOO many people just ask Ana out of the blue about the Lord - her sister's boyfriend, a taxi driver, a girl from her high school who she hadn't seen in like 7 years... Wow!

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.