Kids Stuf!

Well, it's been about 3 weeks now since we last had a Kids Stuf drama presentation for kids in Horizonte and the community. In fact, the next presentation is next week. But I just wanted to throw in some photos...

In June our presentation was about Gratitud. The elementary-aged kids at Horizonte Church learned about gratitude throughout the month of May, so at the end of their study of the "virtue of the month," we have Kids Stuf to further drive home the point of learning the virtue.

This was my last month participating, for a while at least, so I can focus more on young adult ministry and youth camp. And I was drafted (possibly out of lack of anyone else who can somewhat carry a tune??) to sing for the presentation. The singers usually participate in the correography as well, but the day before the program it was clear that I could either remember words to the songs, or the motions - not both! So that's me singing from the top bunk bed:
Roberto and Gaby (my little siblings here, since I lived with them for my first two years here) doing an excellent job portraying siblings in the funny drama...

Alma and Arturo presenting the mini-comedy show:

And some of the high school girls selling popsicles after Kids Stuf to raise money for youth camp that will be July 16-18.

The Projects

I have been very encouraged by our group of young people at Horizonte Church. I had mentioned in a previous blog that the young adults expressed a desire to do something to both serve out community and share the message of salvation with those around us. I mentioned that they thought of six different projects that we could potentially begin that would help accomplish those two desires. After much thinking, organizing, planning, and praying, we found that three of those projects have the most potential to meet needs in the community and share our faith with others.

Several students, including myself, plan to visit the state physical rehabilitation center to visit and play with the children who have handicaps. We actually had our first event – a short music and drama presentation – planned for April 30th (which is children’s day), but that was postponed until further notice due to the flu outbreak. We hope that through small drama presentations, the children and parents will come to know the Lord.

Two young ladies have been raising money, by selling homemade cookies, to buy healthy snacks and small toys for children on the streets. The plan is to talk with the kids – and their parents if available – and hopefully continue to take time to play with them and chat with their parents on a regular basis (most children and families are at the same intersection begging every day). The girls who are organizing this project and those who will go with them to talk with the kids and families hope to form relationships with them that may lead to the children and families knowing the Lord.

The third project is a little more complicated, and I will talk more about it in a future blog, as it has several purposes!

Please pray for our young adults to continue to be excited about the ministry projects and to have courage to share their faith. Pray for those who we will meet through these projects, that they may choose to follow the Lord!

And some pictures so you have something to look at! Heehee!

Alan (from the high school youth group) and I acting in Kid Stuff - a once a month music and drama program for the kids at Horizonte Church. This is what we were (and are, once the quarentine lifts!) going to do at the physical rehab center for the kids!

The musical part of the kids' program... :)

Easter

For four weeks here at Horizonte Church we had a wonderful series about the glory of God. It ended on Easter Sunday. The series involved paintings being done love on the stage during the sermon (those of you who have been at North Point for a while, it was the “Canvas” series). It’s hard to describe the sermon series, but the paintings had everything to do with what Pastor Martin was speaking about. On Easter Sunday, all the paintings were put together and made a representation of God’s gift of salvation to us through Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection. (I’m being kind of vague here because I think you should find the “Canvas” series from North Point Ministries and watch it in English!)

One of the artists who painted during the service was Rafa. If you remember, he’s the young guy who is paralyzed from the waist down, and only has partial use of his hands and arms. Rafa arrived at Horizonte about two and a half years ago, and was very shy and rather depressed because of his physical situation. He’s since slowly gotten involved in the young adults group at church and, while still rather reserved, considers us his friends and it’s embarrassed to have to be lifted out of us chair to go to the upstairs room for young adults group, or to come to the water park with us even though he doesn’t go in the water.

Anyhow, the Easter service was very impacting for probably most everyone present. Even Arturo (a young non-Christian guy who’s been helping with our monthly children’s theater and song presentation) was touched. While he still doesn’t want to be a “religious” person, on Easter he took communion with us after saying that he believes that he’s a sinner, that Jesus is the Son of God who died for our sins and rose again. I really don’t care if Arturo identifies himself as being a Christian or not; he believes! And we want to help him grow in those beliefs and begin to live a life pleasing to God! (I hope you’re reading this from C.R. Phil!!!)

So pretty much, besides being a great sermon series because of the content and paintings, this past month has been amazing to see Rafa step out of his comfort and even more, seeing Arturo accept the Lord!!

My picture of all the paintings didn't really turn out, but so you can get a little bit of an idea...

And It's Dawned On Them

We've recently had some interesting conversations with some of the people in our young adult's group here at Horizonte Church. A little over a month ago, Maricela (remember her?) asked to meet with Justin, Lluvia, Phil and I. She came to the church one weekday morning with a list of ideas for the young adults' group. Among the ideas were ways that she felt we could reach out to not saved youth in a relevant way. Maricela is a GREAT person to share these ideas, as she came to know the Lord about a year and a half ago herself. She has an amazing gift of evangelism, and even though she is rather shy, has a huge passion to see other young people know the hope that she has found in the Lord.

Some other ideas that Maricela shared with us were possibilities for raising funds necesary to begin constructing a youth building here on the Horizonte campus. The idea that really peaked my interest was an art expo where we could display photos, paintings, drawings, videos, and musical productions made by youth from Horizonte and around Queretaro. We would charge a small fee, a contribution to the new youth building.

Later...

Last Thursday, after we (Justin, Lluvia, Phil and I) returned from Ecuador, we decided to share a little bit about the ministries we visited in Ecuador to let our youth see some of the creative ways that others in Latin America are reaching the unsaved. This sparked a conversation about how, as young people working and going to school in Queretaro, we have a responsibility to share the message of salvation with other QUERETANOS in the environments that we are in NOW. Ana (who I've begun discipling, and who had mentioned this same thing to be before) told about all the humanitarian aid programs that are being done by college students in Queretaro - good things like habitat for humanity, and food banks - and that we can do those things too, but even more effectively because we have the message of salvation in Christ! So, why are we not doing anything? Why do we just come every week and be "fed" and not share with others? Ok, no one was saying that our weekly Bible study time is bad - it's necesary for us to grow spiritually! But we shouldn't stop there! We're called not only to grow in our own relationship with the Lord, but also to help others BEGIN a relationship with Him, and grow as well.

Several ideas were mentioned last Thursday night and throughout this week as to WHAT we could do to meet both physical and SPIRITUAL needs in Queretaro. Among those ideas were: go to some of the hospitals in the city to pray for the sick; go to the railroad in town when the trains come by and talk with the Central Americans who are arriving illegally to Mexico on their way to the US (as you can imagine, this one really caught my attention!); make sandwiches to not simply hand out to the people asking for money in the streets, but to sit and talk with them while we eat sandwiches with them; bring some guitars and just have a worship music time downtown (young Queretanos are very in to live acoustic music); and us the art expo that Maricela mentioned as an outreach - the artists would be present with their artwork at the expo, and people would probably take the opportunity to talk to some of the artists about their work, some of which may be descriptive of our faith.

Anyhow, I've really been encouraged to see how some of the young people at Horizonte have finally caught onto the importance of growing in their faith to be able to share it with others!! And the ideas have sprung from THEM, not from the leaders of the group, we're just there to support, encourage and help them develop and begin these ministry opportunities, and to care for them spiritually in the process.

I'm thankful for the opportunity to walk along side thes wonderful young people as they reach out to the community!

Just a few random youth group pictures...

Maricela, Ingrid, Carlos, Adam, and Ana being silly:
We had a team building exercise where we build the talles tower possible with marshmallows and un-cooked spaghettis... Phil (not supposed to EAT them!), Job, Adam, Alan, and Mark attempting to get a tower together:

My team WON the contest (out of 4 teams)! Carmelita, me, Edith, and Ana hoping that our tower doesn't fall before the others see it:

Max and Julia

I met Julia the end of September when she's signed up to go to Passion Mexico City 2008, but then ended up not able to go. I knew she lived on the military base of Queretaro, and thought she was the girlfriend of Alan, a young guy at church who also lives on the base. Alan later told me that they were't boyfriend and girlfriend, they just know each other. So, since Julia is 23, I figured she lived with her family, and that her dad was a soldier. At church on Sunday, I was talking with Julia (first actual converstation with her!) and noticed that there was a young man hanging around her, and I figured he was her boyfriend. Julia mentioned that that young man, Max, was in the military, and that in January they may move him to a different city. I asked why they don't just get married so she could go with him. That's how I found out, after like 2 months of greeting Julia at church on Sundays, that Max and Julia ARE married! Max is in the military, and they've been married for FOUR years!!

Anyhow, I started hanging out with Julia a couple months ago. We learned that Max and Julia started coming to Horizonte Church at the invitation another military couple who attend Horizonte. Julia asked me if it was ok that her and her husband kept going to church even though they weren't Christians. Of course I said yes! Jean Paul and I have had some interesting conversations with Max and Julia. They are very open to hearing about God and the Bible, and have lots of questions. We hang out with them as much as possible (between JP's work and school schedule, and Max's military trips out of Queretaro), and we always have a great time! They're our age basically (Max is 31 and Julia 23), and we enjoy the same types of things. We went to the fair, to a Christmas play, and tacos a LOT, as the four of us can't get enough tacos!

Right before New Year's, Max was put at a small base just outside of Queretaro for two weeks. That meant that Julia would be at home by herself for New Year's. But she had a plan and I got involved in helping...

On the 31st Julia came to my house with a big smoked turkey that the military had given them (and the houses on the base don't have ovens! smart). We cooked the turkey (first turkey ever for either of us!) made salads and other food, and loaded it all up into my car.

Julia with our turkey (but leaving the house, it only had one leg! She insisted we keep a turkey leg for helping out!):

JP drove us out to the small military base where Max was stationed for two weeks. Julia said it would be fine for her to go visit, Max is a leutinent, and the "in-charge" person at the small base. We arrived and Max came out with a big surprised smile and met us!

We even got to go into the base (which I'm pretty sure it's not allowed for me, being a foriegner, to enter!) and JP played with Max's uniform and artillery...

Above is a picture of JP holding a real gun for the first time in his life... Not so exciting for me - I'm an Oregonian. But it was cool for JP!

Anyhow, that's the scoop on our new friends, who we hope WON'T get transferred to another city soon! We're thankful for new friends, and for the opportunity to share God's love with them!!

¿Por Qué?

This past Saturday was our big outreach event called "Por Que." (Why? in english). We had first an excellent turn-out of students from Horizonte who came to help set up as early as 10am.
Here, the students are in a short pre-event briefing so we're all on the same page during the event:

It had rained every day for over a week before Por Que, and several times it even began raining in the early afternoon (which is unusual). We were very nervous that it would rain on July 5th, and we didn't want new students staying home because of the event, or leaving early!
But it didn't rain!!
Here, some students are enjoying the volleyball tournament:

This was an outreach event for junior high, high school, and college students. We had many different activities going on such as the climbing wall, a room with three video games on big screens, the volleyball tournament, ping pong, Global Grounds cafe, and a graffiti contest. We also had live music performed by Job, Phil, Alex, and Ruben from Horizonte, along with several other young adults from other Churches in Querétaro and even from Monterrey.

We had quite a good number of students come to PorQue who were not from Horizonte (the whole point was to INVITE those who don't go to church!). I was a little disappointed at first at the small turn-out of college students, but we do have some good stories... Keep reading...

The band "Juan," which is part of Semilla de Mostaza in Mexico City came to play in the evening, and Kike from Semilla Cuernavaca and the band guys took questions from the students about Christianity, God, and life in general. Kike has a TV show that deals with tough questions and Biblical answers for young people. The show airs every Monday at 7pm in Cuernavaca and I think Mexico City. Horizonte Querétaro will be on the show this coming week!

Some of the students left after the outdoor activities had ended. But the ones who stayed for Juan and Kike got a good message... The group answered questions like, "How can I know that God really exists?" "Why do Christians hate homosexuals?" "Is there really a heaven and a hell?" "Why is there so much crime and sickness in the world?" And of course the token mischievious question, "Why are Alma Rosa and Jana so weird??" (obviously written by one of the Horizonte girls in the junior high group that Alma and Jana lead...!) The group had some amazing responses to these questions and more, answering straight from the Bible. At the end of the night, the group gave an invitation to accept the Lord (explained really very well!), and approximately 10 people raised their hands to make a first-time decision to follow Christ!!

About 4:30pm, a young man about 20 years old, Jorge, came into Horizonte. He works at the car wash across the street from Horizonte and saw the activities when he got off work, so he came over to see if he could play ping-pong and volleyball for a while. Obviously we welcomed him in. He played with us for a couple hours, then stayed for the Juan concert and question session. He accepted the Lord at the end of the time! We found out later that Jorge had been attending a good evangelical church near his home for about a month, and had a lot of questions, but something inside him told him that Christianity was good. So he made the decision to follow Christ! He will probably continue to attend the church near his home, and I believe someone from Horizonte is going to talk with someone in leadership at the other church so they know about Jorge's decision, and have someone available to disciple him.

Also, Bere, my friend Ana's niece, came to the event. Bere is in high school. We've been praying for Ana's sister (Bere's mom) for a while. Bere also accepted the Lord at PorQue!! Her mom, during the PorQue event, was in a pretty nasty car accident, but wasn't drastically hurt. Bere and Ana were able to share with the mom about God's protection. We hope that soon Bere's mom will come to believe as well!

I know there are other stories of PorQue, but I'll have to share those later!!

Thank you to all who prayed for this event, and we hope that you will continue to pray for the Horizonte students, and the students of Querétar in general.

If you want to see more pictures, click HERE!!

5th of July

On July 5, we here at Horizonte Church be holding an outreach event for the youth (ages 12-25) of Querétaro. We aim to invite non-churched, non-christians, especially the friends of the youth at Horizonte. We plan to follow up on the new students who attend the outreach event, and are planning regular events that cater to the needs and desires of non-christians who have somewhat of an interest in spirituality.



PLEASE PRAY for this event that God will use it to bring more students to a growing relationship with Him, and that we will be able to follow up with all the new students.

New Arturo

I think "Arturo" must be a common name here in Mexico, as this will now be the third Arturo who I've mentioned in this blog!
Ok, so, in preparation for the "KidStuf" that I mentioned in the previous entry, we needed a little bit of help with the acting part of the production. Someone in the church recommended that we talk with a guy named Arturo, who is a professional actor in Queretaro, and is also studying for a Masters degree in Theater. Arturo, who is 24, was very happy to help out with KidStuf, even though he's not a Christian and didn't really have any interest in church.

Throughout the KidStuf rehearsals, the other actors (young-adult Christians from Horizonte) began to hang out with Arturo outside of rehearsals. He invited everyone to his house a few times for snacks and a movie, the Horizonte actors went to one of Arturo's plays, and they all began to have a good friendship.

After the first KidStuf, Arturo volunteered to continue helping with future productions, and the leader of KidStuf felt that it was a good idea. Last week, Arturo showed up at Horizonte for the 11 am service. He hadn't actually attended a church service before, but said he felt comfortable at Horizonte because he now has a lot of friends here.

After the service, Arturo was talking with some of his friends - Phil, Sara, and Alma Rosa. He told them that the music at Horizonte had some really interesting words about loving God and knowing Him, and he didn't really understand what that is all about. I wasn't there, but one of the people talking with Arturo said that he almost seemed a little bit irritated to be thinking about God, but at the same time, he knows that there's something different about his new friends from Horizonte. These friends worship God, but are also really cool and fun to hang out with. So we know God is working in Arturo's life, and I believe that soon he too will have a relationship with God!

I didn't have any pictures of Arturo, but I found this picture of backstage after the first KidStuf on Phil's website, so I stole it to show to you all! Arturo is the smiley guy in the middle.

Buckhead KidStuf

It's been a while since I've written, but we've been busy... Getting KidStuf going at Horizonte!

KidStuf is a musical and dramatic presentation for elementary school kids and their parents. KidStuf goes hand in hand with the virtues that the kids are learning in their sunday school classes, and helps to reinforce them.

A team from Buckhead Church (and other North Point ministries churches) in Atlanta came to help us get the stage set up and get KidStuf underway. The team and Horizonte staff worked hard all week (even staying until after 3am on saturday night!) to get everything in order!

Horizonte girls doing the opening song on the not-quite-finished set on friday:
I think we had a good response from the families at Horizonte and some new families that came to KidStuf (Cosas de Niños).

We'll be back with more KidStuf once a month!

Amanda, Deborah, and I at the celebration for all involved in KidStuf on sunday night:

If you'd like to see ALL my pictures from the week, CLICK HERE.

Pepe - Part 2

In a blog in the beginning of December, I wrote about two guys named Pepe who had significant life changes and accepted the Lord in the past year. (You can read that here)

Well, last Sunday, Pepe (the one referred to as "Pepe 1" in the previous post) publicly announced his faith in Christ through baptism at Horizonte! Baptism is a big step for a lot of people in Mexico, as many of them were baptized as babies as "assurance of salvation" in the Catholic Church. Many Mexican families don't want their family members to be baptized in an Evangelical Church.

Here is Pepe in our little baptism tank!

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:

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:

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!

Faith Like Rafa

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

And the Stories Continue

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

Daniel and Family

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?!

Yaneth

Ok, here's the pictures I had promised from Yaneth's house... Yaneth is the young mom with cancer from Iglesia Horizonte who we (the college group) helped paint their house.

Yaneth (in the wheel chair), her mom "Mama Tere" behind her, her husband Javier, and son Emilio.

The outside of the house before:

And after! Yep, we just said "no" to pink panther pink, and put on a nice green instead... good choice Yaneth!

Brisa rolling on some fresh white paint on the inside of the house, with Jimena, Yaneth's little daughter watching. Jimena actually helped a lot with painting inside! And she's only 7!

As demonstrated by Jean Paul and Dany, it was all hard tiring work, with no time for fun and games... heehee!


Marly, Brisa, and I get in on the fun...

Mmmm, chilaquile day! Chilaquiles = fresh tortilla chips dropped into boiling salsa until they get soggy. I LOVE Chilaquiles, and I made these ones... from scratch! No canned salsa in my house, this was cooked tomatoes, tomatillos, onions, jalapeños, and epazote!

(In the picture from left to right - Dora (Yaneth's sister), Dora's daughter, Mama Tere, Emilio hiding in there, Dora's son, Yaneth, Jimena, Jana, Dany, me, Marly, and Elise.)

Jean Paul trying out the paint for the outside of the house:

Even Jana's dad Pepe (a roofer by profession) got in on the painting action, with JP looking down from the roof:

You THINK I'm standing on a ladder, but I'm really standing on the decorative metal bars that protect the window, holding on with my right hand leaning over to reach all that I can... having only one small ladder available meant lots of climbing window bars and leaning over the roof!

Dany finishes off the outside-back of the house...

Tuesday through friday we worked on the house. It was really rather tiring, but WELL worth the blessing we received, and I hope that Yaneth and family recieved too!

Horizonte x2

It's official, Horizonte Church will now have two morning services! We are at about 80-90% capacity in the auditorium, and have actually have new people come into the church and leave because it looks like there are no available seats!! We DON'T want that! There are of course going to be people who are reluctant to change to two services, as in all churches when it's time for a change. But this is being presented to the church like this:

Our goal is to reach more people in QRO through our morning service. In order to to that, we need to have enough seats for everyone so no one leaves from lack of a seat. In order to have more seats we either need to: expand the auditorium (can't exactly happen due to lack of money), or have another service. It's all about reaching more people!

Please pray for us during this transition. As of now, we don't have two sets of people to cover two services, so many will be serving during both services (worship team, greeters, sound, etc). We also want to offer sunday school classed (UpStreet and Waumba) during both services, so we'll need more sunday school volunteers so each set of teachers can go to a service as well.

We will be doing vision-casting services for this soon, and a celebration service because God has allowed us the opportunity to grow and reach more people! The first day of double services will be September 30.

Oh, and I'll be in Salem (and Willamette Valley area in general!) Sept. 5-12, so if anyone wants to get together, let me know!!