Back to... Normal???

Hi everyone! I'm really sorry about not having updated this blog in well over a month! It's been crazy around here!

After leaving Oregon the end of February, I returned to Queretaro for a whopping 4 days before leaving again for Honduras. I was able to spend 2 weeks in Tegucigalpa with my wonderful Honduran family there! It was a good time a visiting with everyone there, AND Suyapa, my Honduran mom, made my wedding dress for me! I think it took about 4 or 5 days in total for her to make it! And no, I'm not going to be putting a picture of my dress on here... Many of you have asked about that, but Jean Paul is adamit about not wanting to see the dress until the wedding! So... I'm not posting any picture of it! :) You'll just have to wait too!

The day after returning from Honduras, Jean Paul and I went to Mexico City where his mom is now living. I had never met her before! We spent 2 days with his mom (Judith), and his sister (Yuyita) and niece (Kimberly). And I never thought I'd have nieces and nephews! It was great to be able to spend some time with Jean Paul's family!

Yesterday (Tuesday) I hopped back into work. I knew that there had been some changes with Global Grounds, but I had NO idea what I was in for...

Over the past 3 months, a decision has been made to close Global Grounds Cafe as it has been for the past few years. Finances have been incredibly tight, and the team felt like it's time for a change for the good of the ministry. We WILL continue ministry to college-age young people. We aren't 100% sure of what that will look like at this point, but we are trusting that God will direct us. For now, we are moving all the cafe furniture and supplies to Horizonte Church, where we will continue to have our sunday night student meetings, and also open as a cafe on friday nights. We hope to use sunday nights as more of a time for spiritual growth among the Christian students, and friday nights as a more relaxed atmosphere for those who wouldn't normally enter a church. We especially ask for prayer for our friday night events, as we want to use that time to its full potential - not just as a time to hang out, but also to create opportunities to introduce students to our Faith. We would also like to open up the cafe area (now at Horizonte) on Sundays after the 11:00 service for a time of fellowhip among the college students who attend Horizonte. In the future, we hope to have a space set aside specifically for college students at Horizonte, similar to what we had a Global Grounds.

Apart from all these changes in the ministry, my personal life is changing substancially as well! (Oh really?!?) :) Jean Paul and I are using the afternoons this week (he's on spring break from school) to do a LOT of wedding plans, and also to begin looking for an apartment that he can live in soon, and that will be home to both of us in August. I'm SO thankful for all the friends here who are stepping up to help us with wedding details! We have some friends who are caterers who are doing our wedding meal for us at the cost of the food (working for free!), a friend who is donating the cake, another who is buying out RINGS!!, another friend who is a photographer who is giving us a huge discount... And others who are asking what they can do to help out! We are very thankful for that!

So as you can see, even though I've returned to the same place I've been for the past two years, I've returned to anything but normal! But I know everything will work out for the best!!

Ok, sometime this week I'll try to get some pictures on this blog... maybe some of Honduras, and some of here in Queretaro.

Trip to California

Hey everyone!
I’m back from a trip to California with my parents! We went to Disneyland, California Adventures, and Universal Studios, and had a really great time! Although I felt old… I can only make it about 5 hours in a theme park before I’m ready to go take a nap! VERY different from when I was a kid! Heehee! I LOVED going on the rides that I enjoyed as a kid, and also going to Universal for the first time. I have some pictures in case anyone actually wants to see “family vacation photos,” and if not, I don’t blame you! Those are only fun when it’s YOUR family vacation! But you can see the pictures if you wish by CLICKING HERE.

I’m back to Querétaro on February 28th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chicago and Atlanta

Hey everyone!
I just got back from a good trip to Chicago and Atlanta!
I went to Chicago to visit with the staff from International Teams. I had kind of a debrief time of my first two years as a missionary, and also talked about my future in ministry… and as a wife! It was a really great time… in spite of the fact that I’d never been in sub-zero weather before, it was an experience!

This picture pretty much sums up the Chicago weather... :)

After a couple days in Chicago, I headed out to Atlanta and stayed with Julian and Whitney and their girls. (They were missionaries in Querétaro for four years, and left about a year ago). I was able to visit Buckhead Church, a campus of North Point – the church that Horizonte Querétaro is a partner church of. I also got to visit with several people who I’d met when they came to QRO on short term teams from North Point.

Whitney took me to various places in Atlanta, like the Coke Museum, the CNN headquarters, and other downtown things. I LOVED sampling all the Coke products in the museum!! I also had a good time just being able to chat with Whitney and Julian, and play with the girls.

The Coke museum:

Olympic Park:

Micaiah, Me, and Talya:

The girls with Whitney:

Next week it’s off to Disneyland with my parents! Then on the 28th I’m back to Querétaro!!!

Still Around...

Hi! I'm still here, just not really into blog writing these days... I kind of feel like there's not a lot of interesting stuff to write since I'm taking a little break from ministry, so I probably won't be writing in here much in the next few weeks. But I'm alive and well! :)

Merry Christmas!!

Oregon

I'm now in Oregon, for those of you who may not have known. I'll be in the States until probably some time in March, raising a little more financial support, and visiting with friends, family, and donors!

And missing Jean Paul!

Nativity Set

Once again, here are some pictures of the nativity set in the Centro of Querétaro. I LOVE looking at this – every time I pass through the Centro during Christmas time, I look at it!

Here’s the angel announcing to Mary that she will become pregnant and give birth to the Savior.

Here’s an interesting Mexican version of this… They say that the angels that appeared to the shepherds to announce Jesus’ birth also appeared to guys in charge of watering animals. Here are the guys with their water jugs (it’s interesting to me that all the figures in the nativity set except angels, Mary, and Joseph look like Mexicans! But I know we do that too – the people in the nativity weren’t white either!)

Here’s the traditional nativity scene – sorry it was REALLY sunny out, so the light turned out weird.

And another latinamerican take on the nativity – the three wise men. They have names – Melchor, Balchazar, and Gaspar. One comes on a horse, another on a camel, and another on an elephant. They come from India, China, and Africa. (I probably didn’t get all these facts 100% correct, I’m doing it from memory of what people have told me).

Here’s the actual Mexican Christmas scene – families participating in a traditional posada. At a posada, people sing a song remembering the journey that Mary and Joseph made to Bethlehem. I think the song also talks about the shepherds and the wise men. Then there’s a candle-lighting, and a piñata for the kids. Yummy food is served (in QRO it’s generally small sandwiches of shredded chicken in mole – my mouth waters just thinking about it!!)

Here's the creation scene:

And the hell scene:

Guadalupe

Here in México, December 12th is a national holiday. This is the day of Guadalupe, who is the patron saint of México. I was in the Centro the night of the 11th, and there was a procession going to the cathedral that sponsors Guadalupe. There were a TON of people waiting for the truck with the Guadalupe statue on it to pass by. When it passed by people were crossing themselves, and kids were bringing gifts up to the truck to give to the statue.
Here’s a picture (sorry about the quality) of the truck passing by.

It was very sad to me, because it was like the people were waiting to be saved or redeemed by Guadalupe. It’s so sad to me that many people in México (and around the world) read the same Bible (ok, with a few extra books added in) as I do, yet have such a different concept of salvation and forgiveness of sins. The Bible says that Jesus forgives sins, and that there is no other way to be saved except through Him.

Pray for the people of Querétaro, that somehow, someday, eyes will be opened to true salvation in Christ.

The Pepes

There are two guys at Horizonte church who are both named Pepe.

Pepe 1 (or the first Pepe to start coming to Horizonte) began attending in the following way...
Lalo (a Christian guy at Horizonte) randomly saw Pepe one day by his house. Lalo and Pepe had been best friends in their childhood. Pepe was unemployed, and frequently high or drunk or both. He started talking to Lalo about how messed up his life was, and Lalo was on his way to church to help out on a saturday. Pepe ended up coming to church with Lalo the next day.

Over the course of a few weeks, Pepe found that people actually liked him and cared about him at Horizonte! He began working part time with Lalo in the electrical business, and began coming early on sundays to help set up the audio and video equipment.

Horizonte contracted Lalo to install the new electical system in the auditorium (we previously had 3 fuses and 4 electrical outlets for the entire auditorium, and were running 4 speakers, 3 guitars, 5 microphones, a video projector, two computers, a sound board, a video camera, and all the lights, snd sometimes 4 fans, off those 3 fuses! Talk about NOT OSHA approved!! We now have 17 fuses, and like 25 outlets. Lalo installed 3/4 of a MILE of wiring in the auditorium!!) Anyhow, Pepe began to come during the week to help Lalo. One morning he came in really drunk. He had been sober for several weeks, then one day not. He didn't want to come work at the church because he thought that Lalo and Martin (the pastor) would kick him out. But he came, and instead of working on the wiring, Martin and Lalo took some time with Pepe to let him know that God forgives, and that they forgive too. Martin and Lalo offered to help Pepe with accountability with alcohol, and life went on with a sober Pepe, who now comes to church on saturdays to read the Bible with Juan, another guy at Horizonte.

Pepe 2
This Pepe had been to an evangelical church before, and didn't particularly like it. His wife, Ana, was very interested in attending an Evangelical church, and one day, after inviting Pepe many times to various churches, they came to Horizonte. Pepe actually liked it and felt welcomed, and they even started going to a beginners Bible study that day!
Pepe is a welder. Just use your imagination here as to what the lifestyle of a lot of welders are like in Mexico. Yeah, he went out to drink every night with his other welder friends, and if anyone messed with them, they'd pull out their guns. (imagine hick people getting mad in the States)
Anyhow, Horizonte needed bars put on the windows and doors for security, to be able to leave all that electronic equipment set up over night. Juan (full time maintenance at Horizonte) is a welder, so he began the huge project of making bars for 6 large windows and 3 sliding glass doors. Pepe heard about this, and decided to actually take time away from his welding shop to spend three weeks working with Juan on the window bars. This was without pay!! During this time, Pepe and Juan had a LOT of time (like 12 hours some days!) to work and talk together. Pepe had accepted Christ, but still had (has) a lot of questions, some of which were answered simply by watching Juan's lifestyle, others through asking questions.
One day, just like the other Pepe, Pepe 2 came one morning really drunk. He too was afraid that he'd be rejected by Juan and Martin. Again, they sat down to talk with him about God's grace and forgiveness, and helped him get into a recovery program for alcoholics.

Both Pepes are regular attenders at Horizonte, are enthusiastic about knowing God more, and readinig the Bible, and also use some of their free time to help out in various tasks at church. BOTH Pepes have invited other non-Christian friends to Horizonte!
Lots of good stuff going on that God is doing!!

Below: Martin, Pepe 2, Pepe 1, Ricardo, and Kurt (from NPCC) hoisting a set of bars for a sliding glass door.

Pepe 1 and Lalo working on the electrical system:

Differences of Death

Everytime I encounter things that have to do with death in Latin America, I realize how latina I'm NOT.

I never saw a dead person in my life (nope, not even at an open casket funeral!) until the summer of 2003. I was in the shower at my house in Honduras when I heard a HUGE loud crash sound that lasted for like 20 seconds. Upon gettinig dressed, I went to the front room and Suyapa was calling the Red Cross. There had been an accident RIGHT in front of our house (which is on the main highway through Honduras) between a Mack truck and a littly bitty pickup. The neighbors began trying to get the three guys in the pickup out with garden tools. When the ambulance arrived, they removed on man alive, and one dead. The third guy had died instantly. I unfortunatly got a really good view of that guy's head, which is in terrible shape after having passed through the accident. One of the other gringas was watching the whole thing from her front porch, in tears. What really surprised me was that my little cousins (8 and 11 years old at that time) and some other little children were walking up to the accident and looking in the truck, and no one even thought anything of it.

In early 2006, I went to the Mummy Museum in Guanajuato Mexico. I don't really consider the mummies to be anything super terrible, even though they are real dead people. But what surprised me there was that parents were posing their small children by the mummies to take pictures of them. One family even posed their baby by a baby mummy! I'm pretty sure that if this museum were in the States, there would be an age limit to be able to enter...

Earlier this year, I received a MySpace comment (NEVER do this) from my Honduran brother telling me that our aunt Amalia had died. I had just seen her laughing with grandma and another of thier sisters like a month before. I even remember telling her that she and her sisters were a bunch of troublemakers. She laughed and agreed! Then I get a MySpace comment telling me that she died. It's like people are sad for two days, then life goes back to normal.

This past monday night, a friend of mine, Chelo, was in a bad car accident and died. She wan't a close friend of mine, but I had hung out with her a few times, and she was only 25 years old! It was so sudden, it took all of us by shock. I've never been to a funeral in Mexico, nor in any other latin american country. The funerals happen within hours of the death. I didn't find out about Chelo until about 4pm the day after the accident, and the family had been at the funeral home all day by that time. They buried her today (wednesday) in the morning.

My friend Rebecca, who is from the States and has been here since August, was a good friend of Chelo, and Chelo's best friend Sarahi. Rebecca stayed all day tuesday and most of the day wednesday at the funeral place with Sarahi and family.

The thing that really really tore at my heart, and I can't even imagine, is that Sarahi and Rebecca dressed Chelo's body to be buried. I wanted to ask what she looked like after having been in a car wreck, but am not about to ask something like that so a good friend of hers who dressed her body! I would have thought that one person would identify the body, then she would be put in a closed casket and buried. But apparently, they had her in an open casket for a long time - for funerals here family and friends go sit with the immediate family and the body for long periods of time. I didn't go. I couldn't make myself go. I don't know how Rebecca did it, or especially Sarahi, who was Chelo's best friend.

I don't know if I will ever get used to the different customs of death here. And I know that I haven't experienced the half of the differences yet. I know it shouldn't be a sad thing when someone who is a child of God dies, and I know that Chelo is in a better place now, but the physical part of death still makes me not know how to react or what to do. And some day I'll have to go to a funeral here and actually know what it's like...

Amalia (in the purple) and two of her sisters on the day that I said they were a bunch of troublemakers

Chelo

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!!