Ministry videos!

Just a brief update since the last blog, we're good, I finished washing the last of the smokey-smelling clothes today, it went fast thanks to the great clothes-drying weather! We're very thankful to have to wash half of the clothes we own... it could've been a WHOLE LOT worse!!

Ok, I'm not good with computer stuff, so I'm not sure how to actually put a video ON this blog, so I'll just put a link...
This is a video for young people who are potentially interested in serving here in Queretaro short-term. (I HATE hearing my voice recorded...) It was made by a guy at International Teams who goes to colleges in the US to talk about ministry opportunities with I.T. in Latin America. Check out the other videos of the other I.T. Latin American ministries off to the right!

HERE'S where to click for the videos!

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.

North Point June 2007

Ok, I finally posted my pictures from the NPCC team that was here earlier this month. However, it's a lot easier to post them on FaceBook and not on this blog, so here is the link if you'd like to see the transformation of our children's environments at Horizonte, made possible by 14 wonderful folks from Atlanta! Click HERE!

The team came to help with decoration of our children's ministry areas, as well as do a training session and an example Sunday School class for our teachers, and to throw a thank you party for those who volunteer in Sunday School at Horizonte.

Birthdays and Stuff

I'm starting to get bad about taking pictures. We just had three wonderful ladies from NPCC in Atlanta come this week to help Iglesia Horizonte launch a new childrens' program. I think it will be wonderful once we get it off the ground! I also had my first taste of what it's like to be THE translator for a group of people. Two full days of constantly translating between the NPCC ladies and the Horizonte people, it was difficult. We have FOUR more teams scheduled to come this year, and are looking into a fifth one!

Yesterday was JP's birthday! Yes, he is THREE days older than me. We didn't have a cake or party or anything though, we are having a "TripleCumple" or tri-birthday party, this saturday - JP turned 26 on the 20th, I turn 26 on the 23rd, and Adiel (the youth pastor) turns 29 on the 25th. And we may possibly have a party on this friday night too, we'll see!

Ok, I feel like life will fall into a somewhat normal routine here this coming week... for a while at least. I like the feeling of "normal." Although, the School of Evangelism folks are off to Chiapas this monday, so I will lose Ana for a month, and we'll all need to pitch in extra with cleaning and maintenence that the students usually help with. Please be praying for the youth group trip to Chiapas, as we are wondering if we will even have enough people to fill a bus to be able to go. The next intern to our ministry will arrive in a little less than a month from Australia. And I'll be off to Aguascalientes for a conference the beginning of April. That's a little bit of what is coming up for a while.

Happy birthday to all the people I know who have birthdays this week (which is like 7 people!!)!

Part Two

Another full week with a short term team from NPCC in Atlanta!

This team from North Point helped us host a "GroupLink" which is a large meeting of people who are already involved in a small group, and those who are looking for a small group - so those who are looking can find a group that's right for them!

Here is a small look at the conference:

Here is the small group that I am a part of (not the one that I lead), with our new members. We are: Liz, Ana, Claudia, me, Edith (the leader), Sandy, and Sara. Silvia is missing from the picture. Liz, Sandy, and Claudia joined our group during GroupLink.

Every vacuumed grass?? I have! NPCC bought us a blower vac for the buildings and grounds, and I was using it to suck up the sawdust...

The team also helped us put 4 sets of stairs on the stage (stage was unfortunately not ready to be carpeted as we had planned...)
Jan (aka Juanita), me, and JP modeling a new set of stairs.

Here's the whole team: Liz, Jim, Andy, Jan, and Diane.

And me with the ladies at their goodbye party

Then we had a birthday party for Aaron, a Horizonte staff member:

Wow, aren't we mature?! The guy with his tongue sticking out, that's the youth pastor! hahaha!

And Aaron after getting his cake smashed in his face (anyone who is familiar with my blog knows that this happens at EVERY birthday party!)

Last but not least, yesterday we had a pizza and movie afternoon for the university age small groups from Horizonte! Mmmm, pizza!

After moving WHILE the short term team was here, and all the other activities of the last two weeks, I'm grateful that today is a national holiday, which means that I don't have to work either!

Happy Thanksgiving to all! Please eat some pumpkin pie for me, as I can NO WHERE find canned pumpkin... and if they think I'm making a pie from a real pumplin, well, I'm not! Have a good one!!

A Week in Pictures

First, here is a picture of a bunch of people who came to Yetzi's birthday party. Yezti is Martin and Mayte's daughter, shi is the girl toward the right in the black sweater.

Another team from North Point Community Church in Atlanta came to Queretaro to work with Horizonte. This was a team of 9 adults who came to help us start a small group program at Horizonte and build a new stage. We had a weekend conference at church to kick-off the small group program.

Martin teaching at the conference

What kind of conference is this?!? A fun game to start things off... !

Guys from North Point doing a skit about small groups

The NPCC team also started work on a new stage for Horizonte

Here, Ruben, John, and Geremy are cutting wood for the stage

The stage almost complete (except for putting the carpet on)

The North Point ladies - Sue, Merriam, and Lacey.

Wednesday night, we had a goodbye party for Kristen and Lauren. They had been here two months, and left Thursday.

Me, Leslie, Rebecca, and Kristen at the goodbye party for Kristen and Lauren

Kristen, me, and Alma Rosa

Fany, Kristen, Alma, Lila, me, and Lauren

Leaving the party - Lila, Lauren, Rebecca, JP, Kristen, Dani, and me

The Rest of the Story

Here are some more pictures of the short-term team that came from North Point in Atlanta:

Rubén, Job, and Peter playing guitar before youth groups started

Rubén, Job y Peter tocando y cantando antes del grupo de jóvenes

Alyssa, Katherine, Nora, and Lila after youth group

The worship team at Horizonte while the NPCC team was here - both mexicans and gringos! El equipo de alabanza el domingo que estaban los gringos - ambos los de Horizonte y los de North Point tocaban.

The team from North Point. El equpo de Atlanta.

Suzanna, JP, and me

Nora, me, and Alma Rosa

Bryce (a.k.a. YMCA), Chalío, and me

Rebecca, Blake, Micaiah, Chalío, Rubén, Julian, and Dani. A bunch of us from Horizonte accompanied the NPCC group to Bernal, a big rock outside of Queretaro.

Algunos de nosotros de Horizonte fuimos a Bernal con los de North Point.

Edíth, Liz, Brisa, Me, and Kent on the bus from Bernal to QRO

Brisa, Kent, Rubén, and Dani

Episodes From a Short-Term Team

As I previously mentioned, we have a team of high school students from Atlanta here working with us this week. They arrived on Monday evening.

Orientation
I was working on preparations for our upcoming youth camp, and got a call from Whitney that we needed like 12 2-3 liters of pop for the orientation meeting. I got the call about 30 minutes before the meeting started, and I was already on the bus. I was thinking, "wow, how am I ever going to get 12 big bottles of pop from a store to the hotel..." So I called JP. It turned out that he and Adiel were just leaving the church, which is a few blocks from a grocery store that I was passing at that very moment on the bus. So I got off, grabbed all the pop, and they were there by the time I paid. I LOVE Mexico, I hardly had to carry anything because here, the guys have to do stuff like that for the girls! So I got off easy!

The teens from Atlanta aren't nearly as scary as I had imagined. They're actually quite nice and cooperative! (not that I had a pessimistic attitude to begin with or anything...) I got my first round of translating WHILE someone is talking. Julian was giving the orientation, and since we were only 3 who don't understand english, he didn't pause to let me translate to spanish, I just sat in the back with Martin, Adiel, and JP trying to listen to english, think, and speak in spanish all at the same time. To anyone who translates like this on a regular basis - I now have TONS of respect for you!!

So, I woke up Monday night with a bad stomache ache, and ended up spending a couple hours in the bathroom. I was so worried beacuase I really needed to be with the team on Tuesday. I started feeling better in the morning, so I just arrived like an hour late to the church... Not sure what that little bout of sicknes was...

The Soccer Field
At the church, the teens (both gringos and mexicans) are putting in a soccer field over the bumpy dirt area where we normally play soccer after church. Wow, is it ever a big job!

Here is some of the dirt that was delivered to the church to cover the bumpy hard dirt with so we can eventually lay the grass. We spread it all by hand (picks, shovels, and rakes).

Sarai, Chelo, Kristen, and Lauren hanging out after working...

Lucy (organizes the awesome food for everyone!), me, and Brisa...
Day Two

I am learing more about cultural differences, and that NOT everyone has the same feelings and ideas as me!! I translate between the english speakers and spanish speakers during the work at the church. Martin, Fany, Chalio, and JP also speak english, so that helps a bit, but when bigger decisions are involved, the leaders come to me. Ok, that's fine, that's what I'm here for. But translating attitudes is really difficult!! At one point, the Horizonte leaders thought the leader of the Atlanta team was angry with them, but he was only trying to figure out the most efficient and simple way to make the field as good as possible. Other times, the gringos just didn't understand why we can't: get a big machine to level the field, get the dirt and grass to come at the exact time we need it, and things like that. I am in an interesting position as I can see both sides of things like this. It's definitely a good learning experience.

Here is a picture of the field at lunch time of day two...

Youth Leader Training

I spent the late afternoon with the other Horizonte youth leaders meeting with the youth leaders from North Point (Atlanta). They explained to us their model of small groups in youth ministry and how they create relevant environments for youth of Atlanta. They have 500+ teens that come weekly to they giant church, so we are definitely working on a different scale than they are, but the concepts that they have shared are very helpful. Meetings like these, as interesting as they are, make me feel like I have ADD - having everything translated doubles the time on everything. Julian translated the entire meeting, and it had to be super frustrating as most of the mexicans understand some english, and "helped" hime choose the right words... Julian will not be at the second half of the meeting on thursday, so I am the translator. If anyone is actually reading this and you think about me about noon tomorrow, please pray for me: that I can pay attention, correctly relay the information being given, and not get terribly frustrated when people correct my translation! I am excited to get help on organizing our youth group a bit more effectively through these meetings!!

Random Pictures

Here is a picture of some yogurt that Brisa's mom bought for her adult children who live at her home, and made them each drink one... Yep, you are seeing the picture correctly on the yogurt label - pineapple, cactus (nopal), and celery. In yogurt.

And here is a picture that we made for a 6-week youth group series: cuerpo o puerco (body or pig). It sounds WAYYY better in spanish, it was a series on how to honor God with our bodies (using our hands to help and not hurt, guarding our eyes and hearts from things that make us stumble, etc) so that we have good bodies and not pig bodies. (The words for body and pig are kind of similar in spanish). So we decided to take funny pictures of the youth staff and put our heads on pig bodies...
Left to Right: JP, Aaron, me, Jenn, Julian, Adiel, Nadia.