A New Stage of Life

Ok, I know, it's time for a major update on this blog!

As many of you know, things have changed substantially here in the Queretaro ministry in the past few months, basically the months that I was not around, so everything was different when I got back! So hopefully this entry will provide some answers to what is going on:

1. Global Grounds Cafe - Yes, Global has closed it's door in the mall across the street from the university. However, we have moved everything to Horizonte church, and are continuing to have our sunday evening college group with the students at Horizonte. We hope to have everything up and running this next week to open as a cafe and a place to have activities for students on Friday nights as well. We are in the planning stages of re-organizing and re-thinking the college ministry. The Horizonte college students are enthusiastic about continuing the sunday evening meetings, and we are making sure to keep in contact with the students who don't come to church, but came to Global. So yes, I DO still have a job here!! We would appreciate your prayers in this transition time!

2. The Wedding - Things are coming along excellently for our wedding! We have a lot of things completely taken care of, and many friends are pitching in a lot too! Here are some of the things that friends have volunteered to provide: our rings, my dress, our cake, the centerpieces for the reception, the food for the reception (cost of food only, labor is free!), the cost of transportation to our honeymoon destination (yet to be determined!), and we have a friend who's volunteered to be in charge of serving the food at the reception and finding others to help serve, for free. By the way, in Mexico you always have food at a wedding, it's pretty much not optional! So we're not doing an extravagant feast! In fact, in case any of you are worried, the total for food for 200 guests is approximately $300. Not bad if you ask me!! :)

3. Jean Paul and I - It's transition time from being two single people to being a married couple... ok, that does NOT mean moving in together!! That will be AFTER the wedding! :) But, there's so much to think about: arranging our schedules so we can have sufficient time together, thinking about renting a house, changing my mexican visa to a permenant resident, and lots of other stuff that you'd never even think of. But it's been good, and my my pastor and ministry teammates have been patient with us as we work out scedule details and wedding plans. Please pray for Jean Paul and I as we prepare for our life together as a married couple!
Oh! This is cool... We've been asked to join a small group for married couples! There's been a group for young married couples at church, and now there's a lot of those couples, so they're breaking it down into young couples with kids, and young couples without kids. Our good friend Ricardo and Ana are leading the non-kids group, and we'll be joining along with 2 or 3 other couples!

And a couple of pictures...

Phil, Jana, Brisa, and Dany (students who attend Horizonte Church) hanging out at tacos:

Pablo, Alma, and Aixa - students who we know through Global Grounds:

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.

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!

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: