Independence Day... A Tad Bit Late

We just want to share a few pictures of this years' Independence Day celebration! We begin celebrating in the evening of Sept. 15 (the official holiday is the 16th), and this year we went to Horizonte Church for food, fellowship, fun, and MORE food!

Pile of three different nationalities! Marica (Costa Rica), Jessica (USA, STILL not a mexican), and JP (Mexico)... Oh! And that bluish-colored tamal* is blackberry flavored! VERY yummy!!

Ladies serving up pozole, tamales, elotes, tostadas de tinga, fruit cider, and lots of other Mexican foods, especially typical of Queretaro!

Face painting and goofing off! (Hey look, I'm not the blondest gringa here!)

My friends: Sarah, Amayrani (have fun pronouncing THAT name!), Brisa, and Ana!

It was a great night!!

* "TAMAL" is the singular for TAMALES (tah-MAH-lees). So just one tamal is "tah-MAHL." Oh the fun facts about Mexican cuisine... :)

Stay tuned for: Adventures in Discipling (the good, the bad, and the well, less than desireable...), A short trip to Mexico City to visit JP's dad, Young Adults' ministry... etc.

Camp!

The other week, we had youth camp for ages 12 and up. I have to admit that I was extremely skeptical about having jr. high and high school AND young adults in the same camp. But it actually turned out REALLY well!

We had some huge snags in our plans on the first day (camp was thursday thru saturday) that had to do with the facility that we were renting... We weren't given our rooms when we arrived, there was a huge group of teens that should've left in the morning that was still there when we arrived, lunch was 2 hours late, etc. But, we went ahead with some activities that we could do on the lawn, like games and a devotional; and enough kids brought lots of snacks that we were able to stave off the hunger with Cokes and chips. Everyone had incredibly good attitudes despite plans not going, well, as planned.

Our camp theme this year was "My Identity In Christ." We had some great times of worship, some activities that related to "my view of me," and "God's view of me in Christ." We had two guest speakers (adults from Horizonte Church) and a few people from the young adults group share Scripture and experiences related to the theme, and encouraged students to think and pray about what actions or steps they need to take in their lives once they begin to discover an identity in Christ.

The worship group: Ruben, Alex, Job, and Chino is hidden behind Alex


Students participating in the worship time:

Some of the young adults sharing experiences and Scriptures:

Girls hanging out! (Ana, me, Aurea, Brisa, Lluvia, and Amayrani)

And we had some weird fun times... This was in a photo scavenger hunt in downtown Tequisquiapan (a town about 1 hour away from Queretaro), one of the things we had to take a picture of was our team with weird hair-do's. We had four teams for all the games and activities at camp, this was my team, the red team... They're awesome (Back: Alan and Abdiel. Front: MariJo, me, Amayrani, Mary, Dirce, and Justin was taking the picture.)

And a terrible picture of me and Ana after a game... We always seem to get our picture taken together at our worst!

The camp turned out very well, and the students wanted it to last longer! Maybe next year we'll shoot for 4 or 5 days... I feel like the students really learned more about their walk with the Lord, and they definitely built stronger relationships with each other as well!

Quick Update...

Wow, I haven't been good at writing in my blog for quite awhile...

We've been pretty busy... Jean Paul has finished with the political candidates' visits to his school (see previous entry), and is busy with another semester. He graduates in August 2010!

Oh, speaking of August, we received a large enough financial gift from a generous person to be able to go to Oregon THIS August!! We still haven't bought tickets, but it looks like we should arrive on August 15, and stay until the 26th. It will be JP's first time to the States - actually his first time ever leaving Mexico!!

As far as the young adults group goes, things are good! We are planning a youth camp for ALL the young people (age 12 and up); that will be 16-18 of July. Please pray for the planning of the camp, in which we're trying to involve many of the college-age students, that the Lord will give us wisdom in WHAT to talk about with the teens, and what to plan for. We want this to be a camp that is not only FUN, but that also IMPACTS their lives! Our main theme is "Identity in Christ." We hope that the speakers can communicate well to the teens, and that all activities are uplifting, fun, and learning experiences! The camp will be held in a place with cabins in the town of Tequisquiapan about an hour away from the city of Queretaro.

Our friends Mark and Abby, who have been in Queretaro since January, are leaving this week. They came here to study spanish before moving to the state of Chiapas (southern boarder of Mexico with Guatemala) to begin a youth ministry there. So the time has come to see them off to their ministry destination!


And, my 10-year high school reunion was a couple weeks ago - that makes me feel old - and No, I didn't go, but I heard it went well. It looks like about half the class was there! (Yeah, there were only 45 in my graduating class...)


Look! Most people look just the same as 10 years ago! haha!

Politics

Well, the swine flu scare has passed, and things have returned to a much more normal state here. And we've been busy!

JP started summer semester at school, and has had some interesting things happen there...

JP's friend Benjamin works for the county government. He's affiliated with one of the political parties, and helps the candidates for mayor, senators, and governor. In JP's school, one teacher (an ex-polititian himseld) mentioned that he thought it would be an excellent idea to be able to bring one or two political candidates to the school to either have a debate or just talk with the students. Benjamin went to JP's school until he transferred to another this semester, and began talking to his political party's candidates. Since Benja no longer goes to the school, he passed the organizational part of the candidate event off to JP. JP met with the college president and the ex-polititian teacher, and they decided to go ahead with the event, inviting the candidates for both mayor and governor (state and county elections are on July 5). JP is in charge of setting things up for the event. We're excited that he has this opportunity, as it may provide a chance for a better job in the near future, especially if the invited candidates get elected. JP hadn't previously been affiliated with any political party, but this is the party that he would've been a part of... The party that, in general, seems to be most like what JP would vote, AND the party that is most likely to win the elections here in Queretaro.

Please pray for JP in the process of this event, and his relations with the candidates. He's always had a desire to minister to the upper-class and famous people... it kind of seems like God has given this opportunity for that specific reason!

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...

Spring Break!

We've had a lot of funness going on around here in the week that JP was off school and Horizonte church staff was out of the office!

On Easter Sunday, JP and I went to the fair in the Centro. This isn't the big State Fair, but a smaller one, kind of like a county fair - no rides or anything.

One famous tradition in Queretaro (and some other cities too) is the burn a figure of Judas on Easter Sunday. I imagine that originally it was because we could say that Judas was responsible for Jesus' death, although we know that He would've died anyway even without Judas' involvement. Nowday, besides the statue of Judas, the Catholic Church - who organizes the event - also burns statues that represent people or problems that the church doesn't like. This year, figures of the "financial crisis," "drug addiction," and "violence" were burned.

It was hard to take pictures in the dark of a moving piñata-type figure, but here's one of the figures before being burned by fireworks:

Lots of people in one of the main streets of downtown watching the figures being blown up:

And our favorite part of the festival... the food booths! Jean Paul loads up on candies:

I love "antojitos queretanos" - typical street food from Queretaro! However, we opted for pizza instead this time, as my stomache health has been a little delicate lately...

Then last friday, we had a water-park outing with the young adult group at Horizonte Church! I LOVED this water park, the water isn't freezing cold like it is at most of the parks! There were several water slides, a diving pilar, a wave pool, and smaller pools for kids.

Alma in the funnel water slide:

Checo, Alma, Cinthya, Arturo, and Andrea hanging out in a pool:

Dany going off the diving pilar. Several people went up to the top but never got up the courage to jump... :)

And today I made "sopes" (SO-pays) for lunch! Sopes are "antojitos queretanos" also. I kind of guessed at how to make them, and they turned out great! Sopes are thick corn tortillas grilled with refried beans, cheese, meat (I used sausage), and salad on top. YUM!

Tomorrow it's back to the office for me! I'm excited to get back with the young adults group too, next week we are going to a physical rehabilitation center to do a small skit and invite the kids there to Kid Stuff (monthly theater and musical presentation for kids at Horizonte). This is one of the projects that the young adults suggested to reach out to our community a while back!!

More to come:

Easter month services at Horizonte

Maricela's baptism

Birthdays and Stuff

JP and I had good birthdays, we're 28 (yikes!) and had a few different activities for our birthdays this year!

My parents have been here for a week now, they leave tomorrow. I've been a bit sick, but have been able to show them around Queretaro a little more...
Here's them in Tequisquiapan, a small town in the State of Queretaro:


My parents leave Friday, then I have Saturday to get my house in order and cook a week's worth of food for JP, Sunday is family picnic/carnaval day at church, then on Sunday evening, 6 of us head off to Mexico City to go to Ecuador for a week! I'm excited, but sad to leave JP... :(

So if you don't hear from me again for a while, it's because I'm out of the country! Yeah!

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!!

Christmas Celebrations!

Yes, I'm finally putting up pictures from Christmas!

This was actually my first Christmas in Mexico! I spent my first two Christmases out of the country (2005 & 2006) in Honduras, then last year I was in Oregon.

Christmas in Mexico is celebrated mostly on the 24th. People work on the 24th, but get off by 6pm or so. I didn't think we really had any plans for the 24th, except to have my mother-in-law over for dinner. But JP decided that the three of us (me, him, and his mom) should go downtown in the evening. That was a GREAT idea!!

Here's me and my mother-in-law in front of part of the nativity display in the Centro:
Jean Paul and his mom in the Centro:

Around 8pm, a parade began. It started off with a bunch o paper-machet dolls walking past... Apparently, kids made the big dolls (out of the stuff we use for piñatas in the States), and they could be inside of the dolls, walking in the parade. Notice in the doll below, there's a rectangular hole where a kid is looking out of. They even stick their hands through the little face-hole to collect money from the onlookers!

Most of the dolls were recognizable famous mexican entertainers:

Then came the "Bible Cars." One tradition from Queretaro is to have floats of Bible stories pass through the Centro on Christmas Eve. Here's a car (float) of Adam and Eve, and angels singing behind them.

We also bumped into Gaby and her dad in the Centro! (Gaby is the lady I used to live with, with the two teenage kids)

Lots of people lined up waiting for the next Bible Car to pass. Every car stopped about every 70 yards to do a song or drama about the Bible story that the car represents. We didn't stay for very many cars, but we saw Adam and Eve, Moses and the 10 commandments, Joshua and the battle of Jericho, and some others.

Then came this Bible Car with a song and drama presentation:

The car said "The story of the brave Judith" on it. I was really confused. Who is Judith?! (Ok, my mother-in-law was standing right next to me, and HER name is Judith, but obviously the car wasn't about her!) :) I asked JP and his mom about it, and they were really surprised that I'd never heard of Judith. I grew up hearing Bible stories since before I can remember, plus I went to a Bible college... I should have a good knowledge of Bible stories!! Apparently, Judith is a book in the Apocrypha (the Catholic Bible has the books of the Apocrypha, but other translations don't have those books because it is harder to be sure that they really are God-inspired books). Judith lived around the time that Esther was alive (say JP and his mom). I believe Judith was also a queen. She saved some people (maybe the Israelites?) from a bad guy by cutting off his head and showing the head to the people of the kingdom so they'd know they weren't in danger from the bad guy any more. Mexicans learn this story along with Noah's Ark, Joseph, and all the stories that I've heard all my life too! Now I know another Apocryphal story!

We ended the night at our house with homemade chocolate chip cookies, vanilla ice cream, and... the movie "A Christmas Story" with spanish subtitles! JP really liked the movie too, which kind of surprised me, because it's very gringo. I said it's a good thing he likes it though because we'll be watching it once a year on December 24th for the next 60 or so years! :)

We slept in LATE on Christmas Day, and opened our presents. Presents aren't near as big on Christmas here as in the States. Lots of people get one or two presents in total. I got JP his favorite candy bars, and he got me a Monopoly game where the places you can buy are all things in Mexico! (We play table games a lot more now that we have other couples over to hang out, and doing things at home is a lot cheaper than going out to have fun!) We both bought new cell phones a couple days before Christmas too, so I wrapped those up and put them under the tree. (JP's old cell phone had the letters on the black and white screen turned upside-down, and the face fell off most times when he tried to answer it. My phone heated up a lot, and some of the buttons didn't work! He had his for 6 years, and I had mine for 3. We really did need new phones!!)

Sitting by our tree on Christmas morning!

College Group Christmas Party!

In Mexico at Christmas time, ADULTS get to do piñatas!!!
On December 11, we had our Christmas party for the college kids at Horizonte church... including a piñata! And no one can say this piñata had lame candy inside...


Piñatas can be made from cardboard, paper mache, or... a clay pot. I'm serious! And I bought a clay pot piñata!

We expected about 20 students to show, as some were still in final exams that week. However, most of our regular attendees came, and several people invited multuple friends! We had almost 40 people!! It was quite multi-cultural as well. Besides lots of mexicans, two gringos (Justin and I) and an australian (Phil) who always come, we also han a dutch guy (visiting a friend from college who comes to Horizonte), and swiss girl and two other gringos (spanish students of Maricela, a young teacher who attends our group).

And there was lots of good food, and excellent homemade hot cider!

Job stayed up on the roof of the church to hold one end of the piñata string to make it move...

Getting ready to break open the piñata...

Brisa taking a swing at either the piñata or the garbage can... Some of the other girls brought the can to make Bris think she was hitting the piñata!

My turn... Phil trying to trick me into thinking the piñata was the other direction. Good thing I didn't whack him a good one on accident!!

Justin beat up a plant thinking it was the piñata!

The party went very well, and was a good closing time for 2008 for the college group. We hope to see some of the new people who came get involved when we resume the group in January!

Thanksgiving!!

I love Thanksgiving!! This was the third Thanksgiving that I've celebrated in Mexico, and by far the best! It was Jean Paul's FIRST Thanksgiving ever, and my first time being the one doing ALL the cooking! Believe it or not, I'd NEVER made a pumpkin pie before. I brought canned pumpkin with me from Oregon in February, along with ginger and cloves, and other stuff that I can't find here (or just don't know what it's called in spanish!). I made my first pumpkin pie in an oven that has temperature settings of "high" and "low." And it turned out AWESOME! (Sorry, I had to brag...) See my pie below (and the quesadillas I made for dinner on wednesday...)


About two months ago, a new couple moved into one of the houses in back of ours. There are about 12 homes that all have the back door facing the small parking area, so we see all of those people when they come and go, and one day a couple months ago we met Diego. Diego said that he and his wife Ana had just moved to Queretaro from the United States after having lived there for 10 years. They look about our age (JP thought they were in their 30's), and they are both originally from Mexico. We decided that maybe they would like to celebrate Thanksgiving with us - as they had probably celebrated it in the US for the past few years. They accepted the invitation and came over for dinner, along with our friend Job from church.

A few days before Thanksgiving, we learned that Diego and Ana are chefs. As if I weren't nervous enough about preparing my first Thanksgiving meal for strangers... They have to be chefs, AND chefs that know what Thanksgiving food should be like!

Here's pictures of JP, Diego, Ana, and Job. (and me below)

I think everyone enjoyed the meal. We had: green salad, mashed potatoes, homemade stuffing (my first time not using Stove Top!), cinnamon apples, pumpkin pie, and CHICKEN. Since I've never made a turkey before, and had to work until noon on Thanksgiving (not a holiday here, but my pastor told me to go home and anjoy some good food!), I opted to swing by Pollo Feliz roasted chicken restaurant before going home to cook! I even stuck it in a baking pan in the oven and poured chicken broth over it, just like if it were a turkey! Heehee!

We had a good time with everyone of getting to know each other, and joking around a lot. And in the midst of the joking, Job asked the question that JP and I had wanted to aske but didn't for fear of being rude... How old are Diego and Ana? We seriously thought they were about 30 or older (I thought Ana may be younger than us, 27)... And Diego said he was 25 and Ana 21. We laughed and asked how old they REALLY were. I'm serious, we did! And they really ARE only 25 and 21! I felt really bad for not believing them the first time, but I don't think they were offended!

Anyhow, Thanksgiving was a good time, and good food too! We are going out with Diego and Ana on saturday, and hope to form a good friendship with them!

My kitchen after dinner... Fun stuff! :)

(At least you can see the counter!)

Christmas Time!

We're probably a step ahead of those of you living in the USA in terms of Christmas stuff... JP and I put up our Christmas decorations last friday, I know most of you will be doing that this Friday! We got a tree, and it was my first time putting up a plastic one! The trees that are probably from Oregon cost about $50 USD, and my parents and I used to get the same type of tree free... But the plastic one will last many years!

Here's me arranging the branches on the bottom half of the tree:

Putting lights around the door frame outside...

My favorite ornaments, the little blonde girl ones that I think we've had since before I was born! JP likes them because he says they look like me! :)

JP finishing the lights on the outside window...

And the two of us with our small light arrangement outside (it took forever to get the little neighbor girl to get a decent picture, even if you can't really see the lights...)

We hope you all enjoy Thankgiving in two days too! I'm planning to make a pumpkin pie! Yummy!

Oh, interesting cross-cultural note: Phil, from Australia, was commenting the other day about how strange it is that it's cold around Christmas time!! I can't even begin to imagine it NOT being cold for Christmas, even after two Christmases in Honduras! I still needed a sweater then, not shorts!