More College Group Fun!

Semilla Escogida, the Horizonte college group, is going quite well! We had our fourth meeting this past Sunday. We had 9 young people, and had a lesson on worshipping God. We are trying to involve the students in programming and giving the lesson, so Ulises, one of the students, helped give the study.

Here is Vicky, Lluvia, and Ahide hanging out after group time:

We also want to privide lots of opportunity for fellowship in the college group, so we went out for tacos at night! Ahide and Brisa enjoying pork and beef tacos:

Jana, Ulises, and Juan at the taco booth:

Please continue to pray for Semilla Escogida, that it will be a ministry that helps the students grow in their relationships with the Lord, be a good time of fellowship between the students, and also have an impact on those who don't have a relationship with the Lord!

Engaged!

Yep, Jean Paul and I are getting married! Most of you know that by now, but here's just a couple pictures for you, and the story!

This past sunday after church, Jean Paul and I went to eat at an italian restaurant. He was kind of distracted, and kept getting phone calls from one of his friends from school. I was getting a little irritated with this friend for calling so much, and finally Jean Paul said that his friend was outside the restaurant wanting to talk to him - that the friend was having a rough time with some stuff. So Jean Paul left for a few minutes, leaving a somewhat disgruntled me sitting alone in the restaurant. After several minutes, a stuffed cow comes walking into the restaurant, greeting all the people. While this isn't the strangest thing ever, I had a feeling he was there for me! Sure enough the cow had a laptop with him and set it down on my table. He had a presentation that begun like this:
"Hello, my name is Happy Cow." "Are you Jessica Stoner?"
I said yes.
"Someone who loves you very much has a question for you. Are you ready?"
I said yes.
The cow took off his front feet and his head, and sure enough it was Jean Paul in the cow outfit. He pulled a ring out of his sleeve and asked me if I would marry him! I said yes! We are praying about possibly getting married in August of 2008. The wedding will be in Queretaro at our church, Horizonte.


And the picture of the ring that some of you had asked about:


Thanks for your support in our engagement and our future together! I'll post more details as plans come along, I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!!

Semilla 2

NOTE: The picture of me in the blog is a DISGUISE, it doesn't reflect my true state of being...

That being said, let me explain the fun that was had last night!
We had our second meeting of Semilla Escogida college group, and decided to have a fun night that would help people to get to know each other a little better. We decided on a photo scavenger hunt in the Centro! We took pictures earlier in the week of some obscure things around Queretaro's downtown, printed the pictures, and each team of students had to find the things and take pictures of them. They also had to look for me, Justin, and Lluvia, but we were dressed rather differently than normal...

Come on now, who's going to think that some pregnant lady is ME?! I thought it was pretty good, despite the fact that I couldn't find a cheap wig or glasses or anything to REALLY disguise my face. I did stick the blondest part of my hair (the top layer that's always in the sun!) under my hat, and used the miracle of concentrated NesCafe smeared on my face to darken my complexion a bit! One team of students actually DID find me!

Afterwards we went out to dinner. Here's what some people ordered... it's called penca, and it's a gigantic nopal (cactus) leaf with a "guisado" inside. I make guisados a lot, they're generally some kind of meat boiled together in maybe a tomato or pepper sauce with vegetables. But this one was mostly nopal... Because I know most of you haven't tried nopal to know why it grosses me out, I'll describe: when cut up and cooked, nopal looks like green beans soaked in snot. The texture is terrible. But lots of people like it, and I've been about to handle eating it when served it at someone's house...

Some of the students hanging out in the restaurant:

Who looks better in Justin's wig??

Dany (Daniel):

Juan:

Or Dany (Daniela)?

The "What Do You Believe In?" Card

A few months ago, a random student came into Global and gave me a small square box of cards. She told me she'd like to give it to me for if we wanted to use it for English classes. I accepted the box and looked at the cards inside. There are maybe 50 square cards, each with a nice black and white photo on them, and they each have a question or phrase to finish (in english). They are sentences such as, "I think television is..." and "What is your favorite taste?"

The box sat in the Global office until the end of September, when Rebecca decided to use the cards as a way to make conversation with her english student, Arturo. They talked for a few minutes about things like, "What do you do for fun?" and "Why is the past important?", then, the next card in the pile asked, "What do you believe in?" Arturo told a bit about his beliefs, which I believe included unbelief in God or any god. Then he asked Rebecca what SHE believes in. I was amazed at hearing her basically tell the plan of salvation to Arturo, all because the "What do you believe in?" card came up! She invited Arturo to church, and he came once, although I think he's a bit skeptical... He came to Semilla Escogida (see entry below) last Sunday, and seemed to hit it off well with the guys from Horizonte, and I think he's interested in coming back!

So today, I had my english class with Mariana (a different Mariana from who I've mentioned before). She's a 19 year old student who I'm helping a bit with english. I took the box of cards with me and purposely put the "What do you believe?" card as the second one down. We did touch on that, although it didn't have the same astounding results as with Arturo and Rebecca. But now I know that Mariana does believe in God, and that He's good and loves people, but that she doesn't want anything to do with church because it's boring and doesn't add anything to her life. Her dad is catholic, and as far as I can tell, Mariana's only ever been to catholic church. I'm inviting her to Semilla Escogida, and hope that she'll come and find that God/the Bible/Jesus really ARE relevant to our lives, and also be able to form some friendships with other students who live out their faith in a relevant way! Please pray for Mariana and our classes over the next 6 weeks that I'll be in QRO!

Semilla Escogida

This past Sunday marked the beginning of the new youth group spefically for college students. It is for students from Horizonte church, and students who don't go to any church. Previously, we'd been having the college kids on saturday nights with the junior high and high school kids, but that wasn't working out so well. So we've created a new environment for students between 18 and 25 years old! It's called Semilla Escogida [seh-MEE-yah es-coh-HEE-dah] (chosen seed, in english), seed is for growth in Christ, and chosen is because we're God's people! It does sound a lot cooler in spanish... The students picked the name on sunday.

Here are some of the students who attended:
We want this group to be a place where students experience spiritual growth, community within the group, and impact on other students outside the group. We also want the sunday night meetings to be a non-threatening place to invite friends who are not Christians.

Our first meeting was a kick-off party. We had a TON of snack foods, games, and lots of time to hang out and get to know people who you didn't know before!

Here's one of our crazy games (my idea!) - Arturo and Rebecca trying to feed Dany and Lluvia donuts hanging off strings!

Too much donut, no use of hands!

Another game - the other Arturo feeds Chalio baby food!

We had 12 in attendance (not including leaders). Three of those don't regularly attend Horizonte or any church. They all said they liked the group and plan to come back!

Please be praying for Semilla Escogida that it will be a group where the students WILL experience spiritual growth, friendships, and impact on other students. Pray that non-believing students will feel included and want to come, and that they'll come to have a relationship with Christ! Pray for wisdom for the leaders, that we'll see the most effective way to minister to the students!

ROJO!!!!!!

Last friday, we took several of the youth group kids to a concert of the band Rojo here in Queretaro. It was a benefit concert for Pan de Vida orphanage!

Getting there was interesting though... The concert was held in a really really big meeting room in the Hotel Real de Minas, and for those of you who are familiar with QRO, you know how that area of town gets on friday nights... On the same side of the highway all clumped together are: the hotel where the concert was, Cuernos Chuecos rodeo and the bull ring, the movie theater, the casino, and three popular friday night restaurants. There was NO parking anywhere, we ended up parking in Jardines de la Hacienda (a neighborhood not terribly close to the hotel).

Anyway, despite the crazyness outside, the concert was wonderful, and I think all who went really enjoyed it!


For me, one of the highlights of the concert was when they played "Never let go" by Matt Redman, but in spanish. You've probably heard the song in english:

Oh no, You never let go
Through the calm and through the storm
Oh no, You never let go
In every high and every low
Oh no, You never let go
Lord, You never let go of me

Here's Andrea, Julieta, Alma, and me enjoying the concert!

And after the concert, all the girls, plus Paco who needed to be in every photo!

The Styrofoam Church

I go to church in a styrofoam building.

You think I'm joking, don't you?! Nope. The church auditorium at Horizonte is made out of wire mesh and styrofoam, covered in a layer of concrete. It's been there for like 10 years, so apparently it's not as flimsy as it sounds, but we DID have a rather large problem... for about 8 years!

I remember for independence day (sept. 15-16) 2006, I was one of the first people to arrive to set up for the festivities, and it happened to have been raining rather hard. To my dismay, the stage had a big pool of water on it, and the green/white/red fabric decoration on the back wall above the stage was soaked. Water was leaking in the wall like a small waterfall.

What happened when it rained was that, the part of the back wall that is styrofoam had basically been washed away with the rain. There was no concrete on the outside of the back wall. Only the top half of the back wall was styrofoam, the bottom being concrete block (the normal building material here).

Well, in the sunday morning services, we are studying Nehemiah. Chapter 2 talks about how the people of Jerusalem had gotten used to the city walls being ruined and it didn't really bother them much any more. Of course, the main point of the sermons on this chapter were "what things in our lives have we gotten used to that are hurting out lives." But Martin also used that chapter as an opportunity to do something about OUR broken wall. He did the first sermon on Nehemiah 2 in August, then went on with a completely different series of sermons that had to do with evangelism. We came back to Nehemiah 2 the middle of October, and in that down time, a family in the church volunteered to pay for the fixing of the wall.

So during the sunday morning service, we did this:
In the picture above, Jesus, Juan, and Levi are taking out the styrofoam part of the wall... Quite a shock to church members! But it's for a good reason!

Here's the new wall going in - the top is now made out of bricks!

The construction part of the wall re-building is done... just waiting for the concrete to dry to paint it!

Anyhow, it was (still IS actually) an interesting sermon series on fixing the broken parts in your spiritual life. And with such a shocking object lesson, I hope people won't forget the point of the message soon!

Santa Rosa

Ok, I'm WAY behind on blog updates... Just wanted to share a few pictures of the Horizonte youth group trip to Santa Rosa (a town just to the north a Queretaro) to help paint a the Horizonte church there!

Jana and Alma Rosa looking enthusiastic! -

Gaby (she's my mexican sister, we live together), me, and Alma showing off our handiwork!

Horizonte kids and Sta. Rosa church members at the end of a long day of painting sunday school classrooms and the outside of the church!

This was a good time for the Horizonte youth to step out and lend a hand to other instead of just participating in "fun" activities like bowling or going out to pizza. It was rather hard work, but everyone said they had fun doing it!

Kata

Kata is an older lady who goes to Horizonte church. She walks from her home quite a long ways to be able to catch a bus that drops her off about half a mile from the church. She had been living in a Coke stand (it's like a metal booth like you'd see at a fair where they serve elephant ears or something; here they're used as taco stands) WAY outside the city for a long time. She recently came and said excitedly to another woman at church that a relative had given her a place to live a little (but not much!) closer to the city, if she would be in charge of his land for a while. She accepted. Now Kata lives on a large piece of land with corrugated metal strapped together to make a shelter to live in. It's really cold here this week (drops down to about 45 degrees) and for a place that has no indoor heat, it's really difficult at nights. I'M cold at night because there's no heat in my house, and I live in two story, middle class house with a bed and good blankets and everything! I can't imagine what it's like for Kata. I asked her today if she is cold at night recently and she said that she is. Rebecca and I are going to find a nice warm blanket to bring her.

But the really amazing thing about Kata what happened just a few weeks ago...
Kata never went to school. Ever. There's a lot of poorer people who went through 6th grade and no further, but she never went to ANY school. So, as you can imagine, Kata can't read. She has been part of a womens' small group here at Horizonte for about a year now. It must be frustrating to be handed a group lesson and only be able to hear what the other ladies are saying about it because she can't read for herself. But a while ago, with her Bible in front of her on her lap trying to follow along, she actually understood what she was reading! She looked at the words and was able to read them silently in her head and understand! She couldn't read for all her life and then just one day she could read the Bible! And, from what I understand from her saying is that the Bible is the only book she's been able to read! She wanted sooooo badly to be able to understand the Bible for herself, and God opened her eyes and mind to be able to do just that!

The Cake Incident

Ok, this is completely random, but here is a brief, somewhat amusing story with pictures!

The cake above was a wonderful carrot cake from my favorite bakery, made in honor of five members of the Horizonte church staff who all had birthdays around the same time. Lots of us gathered at Martin and Mayte's house to have a hamburger dinner (with fresh cut vegetables and hommade ranch dressing, a surprising treat thanks to Rick and Deyis who used to live in Texas!)

So we pulled out the cake to do the traditional "mordida" (when the birthday person bites the cake, and normally gets their face smashed in it). Since there were 5 birthday people, we decided not to do any face smashing, as there would be no cake left to eat... Two people took a little lick of the cake, and Justin, the third person, was about to take his mordida when Rick decided to do a little face-smashing, but from the other side of the table (note to self, this is a bad idea). Rick pushed the cake, which was sitting on the table, in the direction of Justin's mouth, which was hovering above the cake for the mordida. Justin backed up and the cake didn't stop.

The result is pictured above. However, that wasn't the END end result... Martin and Mayte have two little dogs...

who I think were at the cake before it even hit the ground. We tried to hold the dogs back while Mayte tried to scoop up the part of the cake that hadn't touched the floor.

We ended up actually eating the cake! It had no frosting on top (that stuck to the floor and the dogs ate it), but it was still yummy carrot cake!!

Yep, I really AM going to talk about it...

IMMIGRATION

There, I said the... lets see... 11 letter word that no grino wants to mention in front of me.

No worries, I'm not going to get into details of laws, my thoughts on laws, illegals, and the like. Just my personal experience with the INS.

Many of you know that on September 17, Jean Paul and I took a little trip to the US Embassy in Mexico City. It was a loooong day, our bus left QRO at 2:30am, we, along with about 50 other visa seekers, were dropped off at a hotel about 3 blocks from the Embassy, and we waited there for litterally several hours. I slept in a chair in the lobby. I also met a girl from Celaya Guanajuato who is now studying at UW in Seattle. SHE got a visa.

Jean Paul's appointment was at 10am, so about 8:45 we headed over to the embassy. I was not allowed to enter with him at all. However, I unfortunately got to see over a fence at what goes on in the first waiting area. Oh, first, you have to leave everything but your paperwork outside the embassy, can't even bring in a bottle of water, and of course there's none available to you for the 3-4 hours that you're in there. I don't believe there's bathrooms either. (I now understand when my friend Edith said she doesn't want to apply for a visa again because she doesn't like being treated like cattle). Everyone is crammed under a tent for an hour or so with a couple of metal benches to sit on. Officials walk in circles around the tent making sure everyone behaves, while yelling at them with loud speakers (the kind they use at youth camps) about how if their application isn't filled out correctly they'll immediately be turned away.

So, I decided to leave. I walked to Chapultapec park and back to kill time, then decided to settle into the Starbucks for a hot chocolate and to read my book. I honestly think that particular Starbucks gave me the biggest cultural shock I've had since I've been in the country. Ok, I've gone to Starbucks in Salem Oregon, and many other US cities lots of times. Being a 26 year old girl, from middle class USA, and pretty ordinary-looking, I'm the kind of person who goes to Starbucks. Not THIS one though. I was wearing jeans and a sweater (a little causal I guess) and was WAAAAAAAY out of place. Everyone stared at me when I walked in. And I seriously doubt that it had anything to do with my skin, hair, or eye color. Not even with my height. Those are usually the reasons for which I get stared at here. No, all the women, and many men, in THIS Starbucks were white and blonde-ish. (In general, people with lighter complexions here are rich people). It was because I am not part of corporate rich snobby Mexico. It's because I'm the kind of person who cringes to think of paying almost $10 USD for a hot chocolate and a blueberry muffin (is it that expensive in the States now?!) But I stayed, surrounded by tall, skinny, blonde ladies in suits that would make the Hilton family think twice about the price before buying; and tall, in-shape men in pink and purple buisness attire (PLEASE don't tell me that THAT is a fad in the States!) Anyhow, more about this in another post...

Upon returning to the embassy to see if JP was out yet, I saw him exiting the building to look for me. Immediately he told me that they denied the visa! We had EVERYTHING possible for him to take in with him. The embassy wants proof that you're going to return to Mexico. We brought: a letter from his work (which happens to be an international bank), a letter and grades from his college, a letter from our pastor saying that he volunteers at church, a letter of invitation AND ability to pay his expenses from my parents, his bank statements with a rather large sum of borrowed money in it (didn't mention the borrowed part to the embasssy!), the exact address and phone number of my parents saying that that's where he'd be staying, we even brought in MY Mexican documents as proof that, as his girlfriend, I am a leagal resident for Mexico and plan to live here. And he didn't get the visa. The lady in front of him in line, for the question, "Where will you stay in the US?" put, "Maybe L.A. or Miami." We put my parents' address. For the question, "How long do you plan to stay in the US?" that lady put, "However long they let me." That's pretty much TELLING the embassy that she's not coming back!! JP put 15 days, with the exact dates that he planned to be in the States.

No visa.

Why do people go illegally to the US?? For many many reasons of course, but one of those reasons is that it's next to impossible for a law-abiding mexican with a job, who's a student, and has sponsors in the States to actually GET a visa to go leagally. And that was for a TOURIST visa. Imagine if someone actually wanted to WORK leagally there... they might as well forget it. Then there's the issue of how the mexicans are treated once inside the Embassy. If a government agency in the States disallowed US citizens to bring water with them for a 4 hour wait, and didn't provide bathrooms, they'd have a huge lawsuit to deal with. So how about they put a goverment office in a foreign country and treat the people in a way that they could never get away with in the States. Apparently it seemed like a good idea.

Anyhow, pretty much the only way JP will ever go the the States leagally is if we get married... And let me tell you, we'll have a really good immigration lawyer with us every step of the way! (Thanks to Rebecca for free tips and the names/numbers of the laws that we need to be aware of!!)

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! :)

Dany and Ili

(See blog below for more details...)
Jean Paul and I are going out with Dany and Ili this sunday after church. They've been coming every sunday since I mentioned about independence day and everything, and I think they started taking the beginning Bible class! I'm excited to get to know Ili better, and to be a part of God's impact on their lives!

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!!

Pastor in Training?

Two weeks ago, Toño (worship leader at church) and his wife Elsa left Horizonte church on a Sunday afternoon after the soccer tournament and lunch, to spend the evening with their boys, helping them with their school work. Around 6pm, about the time they were setting down into the homework routine, there was a knock at the door. It was a young couple who had just begun attending Horizonte. They were having some pretty bad problems with their marriage and thankfully, rather than just give up and separate, they decided to first go talk with Toño and Elsa about their problems. The two couples talked for a couple hours, then went to the store to buy supplies for the boys' school projects (together, so they could continue talking!). The young couple stayed with Toño and Elsa until about 2am! It didn't turn out to be the relaxing evening that Toño and family had imagined, but it ended with the young couple willing to start working out their differences and begin meeting regularly with Toño and Elsa.

This past weekend, Martin (the pastor at Horizonte) and his family were in Mexico City visiting relatives. They were going to come back to Querétaro on saturday afternoon, but that night Toño received a frantic call from Martin saying that his father in law was in the hospital and that they wouldn't be able to come back for the Sunday service! He asked Toño to preach. This normally wouldn't have been such a big deal, but we are in the middle of a 4 week sermon series that Martin is preaching, using sermons from Andy Stanley (in English!) as his outline. Martin had his sermon all planned out, and basically preached it to Toño over the phone!
On Sunday morning, Toño clamly preached the message, and it came out just how Martin would have done it - same basic principles and ideas of the Andy Stanley sermons (I translated those for Matin, so I know what the originals were!). They day went really well despite several set-backs: Those of us who arrived at 8am found the church courtyard flooded, water entering the auditorium, and more water coming through the back wall onto the stage. Juan, who usually helps with maintenance and cleaning on Sunday mornings awoke to find his car filled with flood water and wasn't able to come early to help clean up the waters at church. Sara and Fer, two others who usually come early to help set up were respectively sick and in Mexico City. Martin and Mayte were in Mexico City. The rain had flooded the soccer field and we have a soccer tournament going on for 6 weeks.
Things were really looking bad for the day, but all turned out really well! Toño's impromtu sermon, new volunteers who arrived early to help clean up all the flood water, Mauricio who stepped in to organize the communion service, and good attitudes from those who had come to play soccer and didn't get to this week...

Anyhow, I think the point of this was orriginally about Toño... It's been really amazing to see how God has used him as an extension of pastoral ministry in the church, and opened up Elsa's heart to be willing to serve and support Toño in what sometimes seems pretty crazy.

Another example of how God is working in the lives of His people through Horizonte!

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!