Ecuador!!!

Hey! I'm back from a great week in Ecuador for an International Teams' missionary conference!

We stayed in a great retreat center in the mountains of Ecuador, and enjoyed lots of time to reconnect and get to know other missionaries serving in United States, Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Argentina!

I shared a room with my friend Michelle, who serves in Honduras (hadn't seen her in over TWO YEARS!), and it was wonderful to reconnect with her again! We had some amazing Bible teaching times, and heard reports from all the ministries represented. We also got to do a little tourism around Quito and the mountains outside the city!

I'll just post a few pictures here, you can CLICK HERE FOR MORE PHOTOS!

Michelle and I on top of the big cathedral in Quito:

We went to visit a HUGE rose farm near the conference center:

AND, we went to "the center of the earth" - the equator line!

Lori, Yetzi, Michelle, and I at the conference:

As you can see, we ate TONS of great food:

And we were spoiled with the beautiful surroundings of the conference center!

Passion Mexico 2008!!!!!!!

Warning: THIS WILL BE LOOOOONGGGGG!! :)
Here's what was going through my head last thursday night as I went to sleep:

- We're taking 23 college kids to the biggest city in the world (varies daily), dirtiest city in the world, and most dangerous city in the world.

- Everyone in our group is between 17 and 28 years old (none of which are considered adults here except me, because I'm married).

- No real plan for food for the three days we'll be gone.

- I've been married less thatn 2 months, and I'm leaving without my husband for three days

- I'm CRAZY!!

But things turned out really well!

The Horizonte college students piled on a bus on friday afternoon to head out to Mexico City to go to the Passion 2008 event. If you don't know what that is, see the post below this one, and/or visit http://www.268generation.com/worldtour/high.html

We had with us a 24 year old girl named Alexandra, who I met for the first time the day before we left. She told me she didn't realize Passion was for Christians, that she wasn't a Christian, and wondered if she could still go or not. I told her YES! She should come!! Alex was nervous about going, as she didn't know anyone, and her boyfriend told her that she was too bad of a person to be hanging out with Christians for a weekend, that we'd think she's a bad person. But I encouraged her to come, and she showed up to leave with us on friday afternoon!

Also in the group was another new guy, named Alan, 24 years old. He recently moved to Queretaro from Culiacan (a city a long ways north of here with a reputation for a lot of violence), and doesn't really know many people here yet, but his parents have gone to Horizonte for about 2 years, so he decided to come as well.

Ere, an 18 year old girl who's the cousin of two of our Horizonte students, came as well. Ere accepted the Lord about 2 months ago at the influence of her Christian cousins.

And the rest of our students have been attending the college group and/or church pretty regularly.

We had an absolutely amazing time of worship on Friday night at the event, and a great message about GRACE. The plan of salvation was shared also, which I was glad because Alex isn't a Christian.

Upon returning to the hotel (1am??) I went to my room with Alex and Ere as my roommates. I asked them what they thought about the friday night session. Ere was like, "I didn't even know anything like this ever happened! I just know it was really good!!" And Alex said that she enjoyed the time, that she felt like she needs to "get closer to God." But she also said that she didn't think she'd be able to give up her party life-style and be a good person. She said she didn't want to quit having fun. Ere told her that Christians don't have to stop having fun. There are just things that God convicts us of not to do anymore. I said that a lot of times, those convictions may not even come right away, that it's something that God works on our hearts about. Alex said that it's definitely something that she'll be thinking about.

Inside Passion 2008 at the Palacio de los Deportes with about 6 or 7 thousand other students:

Some from Horizonte:

Saturday, we all woke up tired, but ready for a big day of Passion 2008! The messages were centered around God's grace, and our responsibility of evangelism.

At one point, it was asked if anyone needed a touch from God to be renewed and encouraged in their walks with the Him. A lot of our students raised their hands, that they needed renewal and strength.

Later, a presentation was given to remind us about how much God loves us and that He even sent His Son to die for us because He loved us so much. Impacting.

At another point, the speaker was talking about being a light in the darkness - Christians sharing with their friends in their schools and jobs. The speaker said that if you know you're ready to be sharing your faith with your friends, you should be doing that. And if you aren't sharing, why not? Are you willing to make that commitment to share your faith with your friends? And if you feel unprepared to share your faith with your friends, are you willing to get ready?

This touched many hearts of our students. I was able to pray with Ere, and we're planning to meet for a Bible study every week or 2 weeks to help her in that process of becoming ready to share her faith with her friends. Brisa wants encouragement to share the faith that she's had for years with her new school friends. Ana wants accountability in her walk with the Lord, and also encouragment to share. Fatima wants to renew that faith that she learned about as a child and has been kind of ignoring the past couple years. And I want to meet with Alexandra to see how she's doing and what she's been thinking about this past weekend!

Saturday night we ordered dinner about 12:30 at night, and packed everyone in the hallway and a room of our hotel to eat beef and cheese tacos together, and to enjoy the crazyness of 23 college kids who haven't slept well. Some of the goofyness:

On Sunday, we slept in, and then walked through downtown Mexico City for a while, before going to Semilla de Mostaza Church. This is one of the most well-known churches in Mexico, and probably in Latin America, because of a worship band that is from there. Currently, Fermin IV, a famous rapper from a secular band in the early '90's turned Christian, is the pastor. We know him, the guys from the worship team, and other church members because Semilla is a Calvary Chapel church, like Horizonte. It was good to get to go to Semilla for sunday service, and to see our friends there again. We got back to Queretaro around 8pm, tired as anything, but HAPPY!!!!

Please pray for me as I feel a bit overwhelmed (but in a good way!) about discipling so many girls all of a sudden, and I also want to be sure that I am growing in MY walk with the Lord to be able to help them grow as well. Thank you so much for your prayers!!

See more Passion Mexico 2008 pictures here!!!!!

Clarify the Victory

This past weekend, we had a capacitation (is this a word in English??) for the church staff and volunteers of Iglesia Horizonte. 50 people were invited, from pastoral staff, to parking attendants, to sunday school teachers. The theme was "Clarify the Victory." Making sure that everyone knows what the goal is of Horizonte ministries, and more specifically, what is a "win" in each area of ministry.

We have a very diverse group of volunteers as well... We were all put into teams for the day's events, and here is my team:
Miguel (14 years old, sunday school helper for elementary school), Gerardo (52, small group leader for senior adult couples), Vero (40, sunday school director), Ana (29, sunday morning greeter, and boletin design), Casandra (19, worship team singer), and me (26, university girl's small group leader, Global Grounds cafe, greeter, office help). Not pictured - Nadia (34, nursery staff). Talk about a wide selection of ages and ministries!

And the youngest attendee... SOFI! She's only 6 weeks old, so she accompanied her parents!

Volunteers and church staff listening to Pastor Martin talk about the importance of all volunteers and staff going in the same direction in ministry.

Later, we got into groups with others in our ministry area (sunday school, youth group, small group leaders, etc.) to make sure that we were all aware of what constitues a victory in each ministry area. For example, in the youth group, we want "lives changed by example," or that the teens can see a good example of a healthy relationship with the Lord through the lives of the youth leaders, and in turn, follow that example to have their own growing relationship with Him.

Martin and Brisa show the church's mission statement: "Guide the people to a growing relationship with Jesus Christ." (Guiar a la gente a una relacion creciente con Jesucristo)

A little more than half of the conference attendees at the Hotel Camelinas conference area!

It's the care like this that the Horizonte Church staff and volunteers receive that really makes me want to continue strong everyday in ministry!

Hot Water

This past wednesday through saturday, I went to the city of Aguascalientes (literally means hot waters) for the annual church leaders' conference. It was a good time of fellowship with other leaders of Horizonte and of various other Horizonte churches in Mexico.

The only cost to the trip was travel to get there and back, which was a HUGE blessing! We got most of our meals free and 17 of us from QRO stayed together on the floor of a home that is for sale and has no furniture. It DID have water though for showers and toilet!!

Anyhow, we heard reports from the various churches represented, and also had a sermon series on 1 Thessalonians taught by some pastors that you may have even heard of, like Fermin IV, Jim Foote, Juan Domingo, and our own Martin Macedo from Horizonte QRO!

We also had the wonderful opportunity to spend all of friday afternoon (and WELL into the night!) and saturday morning in AGS downtown. This included - leaving a person behind on accident while he was in the bathroom, trying to smooth-talk a police officer out of giving JP a parking ticket while we couldn't even find JP OR his keys, getting the license plates taken off Martin's car (it's what they do in a parking infraction), walking like 6 miles in the hot sun, eating tacos that were a bit sketchy, and getting up again at 6am... It was a merorable experience!!

A bunch of QRO folks enjoying the conference:

A beautiful building in the cleanest city in all of Mexico (Queretaro is the 2nd cleanest!!)

Ruben, Rose, me, and JP enjoying ice cream in the AGS Centro:

Isamar with a "Jicaleta." This is a popsicle (paleta) of a giant piece of jicama (yes, the vegetable) rolled in chile powder!

A bunch of us enjoying a park in the Centro:

And another picture of a bunch of us...

Isamar and I doing a picture perfect imitation of the statue! :-)

At some rest stop between AGS and QRO on the way home: