Useful Missionary Skills - Part Three

Low-Tech Technological Communication Skills

Yeah, so, that's probably not really a term for anything, but I'll explain.

Something interesting that I've noticed over the past 2+ years of living in Queretaro is the way we communicate with one another. Pretty much everyone over the age of 12 has a cell phone here, and that's been a useful tool for me ever since I got here. Contacting youth group students, friends to go to lunch with, Jean Paul at work, and many other different people is most easily and cost-effectively done by text-messaging. My phone company has 10 cent messages (USD) to all cell phones in Mexico, and I have a pay-as-you-go plan, so that works out pretty cheap for me. I can remind all my college girls about the sunday evening meetings all at once and in about 1 minute.

Another great communication tool for college students is the use of Facebook and other social networking internet sites. It's quicker and funner than emails, free, and can be done at any time of the day or night. Some of my friends even receive Facebook messages on their cell phones! In planning an event, we can invite many friends all at once through Facebook, and they are even reminded about the event shortly before it starts. It's crazy.

I definitely prefer talking in person with other people to texting and Facebooking, but you gotta use the means of communication that those you are trying to reach use! And through those means, you can set up actual times to meet in person with them! :)

He's A Bus Driver, Not A Baseball!!!

The other day I was walking down Universidad Street (a main, busy street) in Queretaro with Jean Paul. It was a sunny evening, and we were going to the park. All of a sudden, we saw at the intersection ahead of us, two men fighting, and one of them was hitting the other repeatedly with a baseball bat!! We stood there for a few seconds trying to figure out what waso going on... There was a bus parked in the middle of the road, a taxi idling on the side of the road, and the guy hitting a man in a bus-driver shirt in the arm with a baseball bat. Pretty much if there are two men fighting here, everyone stays out of it and just watched. JP wanted to go help the busdriver out, and of course I wasn't too cool with that. But right then, a traffic cop showed up, and JP and a couple other men went to the fight scene with the traffic cop to help settle things down. Apparently the bus had cut in front of the taxi on the road and the taxi driver had a bat hidden under his seat, pulled it out, and hit the door of the bus with it, breaking the bus window. I know it's frustrating to be cut off by a bus, but out of the approximately 4 hours I've ever driven in Queretaro, I think I've probably been cut off by a bus maybe three times. So, I'm gonna guess that it happens every day to taxi drivers... So pretty much there's no reason for whacking a bus with a bat! And REALLY no reason to start hitting the bus driver with it! JP was talking with the taxi driver for a while trying to calm him down, while the traffic cop and bus driver were filing an incident report. I stood by the bus (parked in the middle of a busy street, nearing rush hour), and directed other cars around it.

Everything ended fine I think - we left before any other police officers got to the scene. But I was really surprised, road rage (with physical violence) just doesn't happen much here. In fact, that's the first time in my 2+ years here that I've seen violence used in a traffic incident! JP said that Queretaro is turning into the United States - next thing you know people will carry guns in their cars for when other drivers make them mad. It's interesting what a violent reputation the US has in many places! But it's true about the whole road rage thing - I remember ducking under a table in a donut shop on Lancaster Dr. on night about 3 years ago because some people in the parking lot and on the road were waving guns at each other. Living behind the Taco Bell on Commerical Street (the one at Madrona) had it's little perks like that too - the stabbed guy ringing the doorbell in the middle of the night, another lady who'd stabbed her boyfriend in "self-defense," and all kinds of good stuff that went on in the park across the street... Oh, not to mention the fugitive that was caught in our backyard one evening when I was home by my self wen I was 13! Really, it's true! I felt actually rather scared one night in January or February of this year walking behind the Salem Library by myself in the dark, and it was only like 6pm!

And then there's life in Tegucigalpa - don't talk to anyone on the other soccer team in Yaguacire, they'll start a fight; get back inside the house, the police just apprehended a murderer across the street; don't go to the market place alone, Suyapa got robbed at knife-point twice...

Well, I feel blessed to live in Queretaro, it's pretty safe in general!

Just a Normal Weekend...

Here are just a few pictures of some of the activities that were going on this past weekend:

We had a "conectate," or "group link" event at Horizonte Church. This is a breakfast event where people who are not involved in a community group can get involved. We also had a few groups multiply to make new groups! Jean Paul and I are now in a community group for young married couples. I think it will be great, our good friends Ricardo and Ana, and Justin and Lluvia are in the group, along with another couple who we kind of know, and two couples who are new to Horizonte. I know that it will be a good opportunity to grow in our faith along with the other 5 couples!

Here, we are playing some games at conectate to get started:

Sunday evenings are our college group meetings for the college kids at Horizonte. I led the discussion this week, the topic was about evangelism, and how we can branch out to our non-Christian friends; how we can introduce them to Christ's love by creating atmospheres that are relevant to college students.

Here's our ice-breaker game:

And, Julian and Whitney and their girls - a family who used to work here at Horizonte and now live in Atlanta - are here for a week to visit!

Here's me, Sandy (I live with Sandy and her husband Luis), and L to R Talya, Micaiah, and Haniel. Talya and Micaiah are Whitney's daughters, and Haniel is Sandy's.

Whitney, Sandy, and the girls:

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!

The Car

I think I mentioned before that Jean Paul and I now have a little car! Here it is - a Volkwagon Pointer - I don't think they have that in the States, but it's a great little car. It gets good gas milage, and is easy to find parts in case it needs reparation. And I always think of Volkswagons as being pretty sturdy. This one is a 2004, so it pretty new (especially for me, who's never had a car newer that 1984!!). This picture is how I saw the car when I got back to Queretaro after being in Honduras! It's amazing how everything worked out for the car - we bought it from the boss of a good friend of ours who sold it to us for substantially cheaper than he should've just because our friend is such a good employee. With a car, JP and I will be able to find cheaper housing, as the further outside of the city you go, the cheaper rent is.

Another way that God has provided for us - a friend fromo JP's school works for a home construction company, and the company furnishes their model homes before showing them. One the model home is bought, they company sells the furnishings, most of which are slightly used, or not even used. So we are buying a brand-new refridgerator through this friend for about half the price that it sells for at Sears! Little by little, God is providing things that we need even before we actually need them!

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:

DMV in Queretaro

Just a little interesting culture story for you all...

I think I mentioned in a previous blog that Jean Paul and I now have a car. Well, one of the things that comes with having a car is following the traffic laws (which are extremely subjective in Queretaro!) JP dropped me off at my house one evening, and on the way to his house, got a speeding ticket on the pan-american highway (he probably wouldn't want to to mention that there were large flashing signs that said "State Police Radar" right before where he got pulled over!) All I have to say is that 35 miles per hour is a RIDICULOUS speed limit for the pan-american highway... But, that's the limit.

Anyhow, if you pay the speeding ticket the next day, you get a 30-50% discount. The DMV - where you go for everything from diver's licenses, to speeding tickets, to car tax, and anything that has to do with vehicles in any way, shape, or form - is open from 8am to 3pm. Those are conveniently the hours that JP works, so he couldn't pay the ticket (and there's no such thing as mailing them a check here!) So I took the ticket down to pay it.

I knew where the DMV was, and it is conveniently located an hour bus ride from my house, and I went at 1pm on a really really hot day. I entered the huge, recently-remodled building, and was really surprised to see the inside. Generally, buildings and homes in Queretaro are a lot nicer on the inside than on the outside, and the DMV is pretty nice outside. But not inside. Inside, it is one huge room with a thin corrugated metal roof (no ceiling tiles or anything); customer service and payment window on all four walls, and a few seats a large concrete flower gardens. Like I said, it was probably the hottest day I've experienced since I've been in Queretaro, and, corrugated metal roofs are NOT friendly in hot weather, especially since the DMV is not airconditioned (which most office building here DO have airconditioning). So, I entered into the mass of people cutting in line to take a number and wait. I told the number-giver that I needed to pay a speeding ticket, and he gave me a number for a specific window. I was pleasantly surprised to see only 2 other people in that line. Then I realized that this WASN'T the correct window, and was told that the bank of like 9 windows on a different was was. So I waited. And waited. And finally my number was called, and I went to the window, and a lady printed off a payment form, and told me to go to a payment window and wait until my number was called. I waited in front of the payment windows. After several minutes, I noticed that the payment form was in someone else's name, and for a different amount. I pushed my way in front of the person who was being attended by the lady who gave me the wrong payment form, and she printed me out another form, in the same wrong name as the first form. I told her that it was the wrong form, and she read me the name on the form and informed me, "yep, that's your form." I told her it wasn't. She finally printed off the correct form, and I returned to the payment window area and sat on a big concrete flower garden to wait for my turn, which, by this point may or may not have been called. After about 40 minutes (and wondering if my number had already been called, or if they'd even call it before 3pm!), my number was called, and I paid the traffic fine with JP's money. Then, they informed me that I would need to go to the next window to receive JP's drivers' license, which they had confiscated as a way to assure that he's pay the fine. I was sure that they wouldn't give it to me because I'm NOT JP, AND I'm a foreigner. But they gave it to me, and I was on my way out of the boiling hot building into the boiling hot sun, praying that I never again lose my Oregon drivers' license, so hopefully I'll never have to spend the DAY in the DMV getting a mexican license!

So, no more complaints about the DMV's in the United States! heehee! :)

Pictures from Honduras

I realized that I never put any pictures of my recent trip to Honduras in this blog!

Here's my Honduran mom, Suyapa and I:
Luisa, me, and Moises. Luisa and Moises are getting married in August. Luisa is my next door neighbor, and best Honduran friend!

A view of my neighborhood from above my house:

My "nephew" (actually Luisa's nephew) Carlitos Daniel, playing with my grandma's bird:

Suyapa working on my wedding dress! (yep, this is as much picture as you'll see of the dress until my wedding!)

Suyapa working on wedding things from another friend, Marthita's wedding, and me working on beadwork for my dress:

My brothers' soccer team playing in Yaguacire (a farm area near my neighborhood):

Yep, I said Yaguacire was a farm area! The soccer game had to stop because of the cows crossing the field!

I really enjoyed my time in Honduras, and had the opportunity to spend lots of time with Suyapa and her husband Delmer, my brother Franklin, Luisa and Moises, and various other people from the neighborhood. Suyapa completed my wedding dress in approximately 4 days! Beadwork included! We are trying to get visas for Suyapa and Franklin, and possibly Delmer, to come to Mexico for my wedding, but it's more difficult for Hondurans to get visas to Mexico than to the USA, so it's really up in the air as to whether or not they can come... But we hope!

Now I'm back to Queretaro, beginning a new phase of ministry and life!

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.

Trip to California

Hey everyone!
I’m back from a trip to California with my parents! We went to Disneyland, California Adventures, and Universal Studios, and had a really great time! Although I felt old… I can only make it about 5 hours in a theme park before I’m ready to go take a nap! VERY different from when I was a kid! Heehee! I LOVED going on the rides that I enjoyed as a kid, and also going to Universal for the first time. I have some pictures in case anyone actually wants to see “family vacation photos,” and if not, I don’t blame you! Those are only fun when it’s YOUR family vacation! But you can see the pictures if you wish by CLICKING HERE.

I’m back to Querétaro on February 28th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chicago and Atlanta

Hey everyone!
I just got back from a good trip to Chicago and Atlanta!
I went to Chicago to visit with the staff from International Teams. I had kind of a debrief time of my first two years as a missionary, and also talked about my future in ministry… and as a wife! It was a really great time… in spite of the fact that I’d never been in sub-zero weather before, it was an experience!

This picture pretty much sums up the Chicago weather... :)

After a couple days in Chicago, I headed out to Atlanta and stayed with Julian and Whitney and their girls. (They were missionaries in Querétaro for four years, and left about a year ago). I was able to visit Buckhead Church, a campus of North Point – the church that Horizonte Querétaro is a partner church of. I also got to visit with several people who I’d met when they came to QRO on short term teams from North Point.

Whitney took me to various places in Atlanta, like the Coke Museum, the CNN headquarters, and other downtown things. I LOVED sampling all the Coke products in the museum!! I also had a good time just being able to chat with Whitney and Julian, and play with the girls.

The Coke museum:

Olympic Park:

Micaiah, Me, and Talya:

The girls with Whitney:

Next week it’s off to Disneyland with my parents! Then on the 28th I’m back to Querétaro!!!

Still Around...

Hi! I'm still here, just not really into blog writing these days... I kind of feel like there's not a lot of interesting stuff to write since I'm taking a little break from ministry, so I probably won't be writing in here much in the next few weeks. But I'm alive and well! :)

Merry Christmas!!

Oregon

I'm now in Oregon, for those of you who may not have known. I'll be in the States until probably some time in March, raising a little more financial support, and visiting with friends, family, and donors!

And missing Jean Paul!

Nativity Set

Once again, here are some pictures of the nativity set in the Centro of Querétaro. I LOVE looking at this – every time I pass through the Centro during Christmas time, I look at it!

Here’s the angel announcing to Mary that she will become pregnant and give birth to the Savior.

Here’s an interesting Mexican version of this… They say that the angels that appeared to the shepherds to announce Jesus’ birth also appeared to guys in charge of watering animals. Here are the guys with their water jugs (it’s interesting to me that all the figures in the nativity set except angels, Mary, and Joseph look like Mexicans! But I know we do that too – the people in the nativity weren’t white either!)

Here’s the traditional nativity scene – sorry it was REALLY sunny out, so the light turned out weird.

And another latinamerican take on the nativity – the three wise men. They have names – Melchor, Balchazar, and Gaspar. One comes on a horse, another on a camel, and another on an elephant. They come from India, China, and Africa. (I probably didn’t get all these facts 100% correct, I’m doing it from memory of what people have told me).

Here’s the actual Mexican Christmas scene – families participating in a traditional posada. At a posada, people sing a song remembering the journey that Mary and Joseph made to Bethlehem. I think the song also talks about the shepherds and the wise men. Then there’s a candle-lighting, and a piñata for the kids. Yummy food is served (in QRO it’s generally small sandwiches of shredded chicken in mole – my mouth waters just thinking about it!!)

Here's the creation scene:

And the hell scene:

Guadalupe

Here in México, December 12th is a national holiday. This is the day of Guadalupe, who is the patron saint of México. I was in the Centro the night of the 11th, and there was a procession going to the cathedral that sponsors Guadalupe. There were a TON of people waiting for the truck with the Guadalupe statue on it to pass by. When it passed by people were crossing themselves, and kids were bringing gifts up to the truck to give to the statue.
Here’s a picture (sorry about the quality) of the truck passing by.

It was very sad to me, because it was like the people were waiting to be saved or redeemed by Guadalupe. It’s so sad to me that many people in México (and around the world) read the same Bible (ok, with a few extra books added in) as I do, yet have such a different concept of salvation and forgiveness of sins. The Bible says that Jesus forgives sins, and that there is no other way to be saved except through Him.

Pray for the people of Querétaro, that somehow, someday, eyes will be opened to true salvation in Christ.

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:

Differences of Death

Everytime I encounter things that have to do with death in Latin America, I realize how latina I'm NOT.

I never saw a dead person in my life (nope, not even at an open casket funeral!) until the summer of 2003. I was in the shower at my house in Honduras when I heard a HUGE loud crash sound that lasted for like 20 seconds. Upon gettinig dressed, I went to the front room and Suyapa was calling the Red Cross. There had been an accident RIGHT in front of our house (which is on the main highway through Honduras) between a Mack truck and a littly bitty pickup. The neighbors began trying to get the three guys in the pickup out with garden tools. When the ambulance arrived, they removed on man alive, and one dead. The third guy had died instantly. I unfortunatly got a really good view of that guy's head, which is in terrible shape after having passed through the accident. One of the other gringas was watching the whole thing from her front porch, in tears. What really surprised me was that my little cousins (8 and 11 years old at that time) and some other little children were walking up to the accident and looking in the truck, and no one even thought anything of it.

In early 2006, I went to the Mummy Museum in Guanajuato Mexico. I don't really consider the mummies to be anything super terrible, even though they are real dead people. But what surprised me there was that parents were posing their small children by the mummies to take pictures of them. One family even posed their baby by a baby mummy! I'm pretty sure that if this museum were in the States, there would be an age limit to be able to enter...

Earlier this year, I received a MySpace comment (NEVER do this) from my Honduran brother telling me that our aunt Amalia had died. I had just seen her laughing with grandma and another of thier sisters like a month before. I even remember telling her that she and her sisters were a bunch of troublemakers. She laughed and agreed! Then I get a MySpace comment telling me that she died. It's like people are sad for two days, then life goes back to normal.

This past monday night, a friend of mine, Chelo, was in a bad car accident and died. She wan't a close friend of mine, but I had hung out with her a few times, and she was only 25 years old! It was so sudden, it took all of us by shock. I've never been to a funeral in Mexico, nor in any other latin american country. The funerals happen within hours of the death. I didn't find out about Chelo until about 4pm the day after the accident, and the family had been at the funeral home all day by that time. They buried her today (wednesday) in the morning.

My friend Rebecca, who is from the States and has been here since August, was a good friend of Chelo, and Chelo's best friend Sarahi. Rebecca stayed all day tuesday and most of the day wednesday at the funeral place with Sarahi and family.

The thing that really really tore at my heart, and I can't even imagine, is that Sarahi and Rebecca dressed Chelo's body to be buried. I wanted to ask what she looked like after having been in a car wreck, but am not about to ask something like that so a good friend of hers who dressed her body! I would have thought that one person would identify the body, then she would be put in a closed casket and buried. But apparently, they had her in an open casket for a long time - for funerals here family and friends go sit with the immediate family and the body for long periods of time. I didn't go. I couldn't make myself go. I don't know how Rebecca did it, or especially Sarahi, who was Chelo's best friend.

I don't know if I will ever get used to the different customs of death here. And I know that I haven't experienced the half of the differences yet. I know it shouldn't be a sad thing when someone who is a child of God dies, and I know that Chelo is in a better place now, but the physical part of death still makes me not know how to react or what to do. And some day I'll have to go to a funeral here and actually know what it's like...

Amalia (in the purple) and two of her sisters on the day that I said they were a bunch of troublemakers

Chelo

More College Group Fun!

Semilla Escogida, the Horizonte college group, is going quite well! We had our fourth meeting this past Sunday. We had 9 young people, and had a lesson on worshipping God. We are trying to involve the students in programming and giving the lesson, so Ulises, one of the students, helped give the study.

Here is Vicky, Lluvia, and Ahide hanging out after group time:

We also want to privide lots of opportunity for fellowship in the college group, so we went out for tacos at night! Ahide and Brisa enjoying pork and beef tacos:

Jana, Ulises, and Juan at the taco booth:

Please continue to pray for Semilla Escogida, that it will be a ministry that helps the students grow in their relationships with the Lord, be a good time of fellowship between the students, and also have an impact on those who don't have a relationship with the Lord!

Engaged!

Yep, Jean Paul and I are getting married! Most of you know that by now, but here's just a couple pictures for you, and the story!

This past sunday after church, Jean Paul and I went to eat at an italian restaurant. He was kind of distracted, and kept getting phone calls from one of his friends from school. I was getting a little irritated with this friend for calling so much, and finally Jean Paul said that his friend was outside the restaurant wanting to talk to him - that the friend was having a rough time with some stuff. So Jean Paul left for a few minutes, leaving a somewhat disgruntled me sitting alone in the restaurant. After several minutes, a stuffed cow comes walking into the restaurant, greeting all the people. While this isn't the strangest thing ever, I had a feeling he was there for me! Sure enough the cow had a laptop with him and set it down on my table. He had a presentation that begun like this:
"Hello, my name is Happy Cow." "Are you Jessica Stoner?"
I said yes.
"Someone who loves you very much has a question for you. Are you ready?"
I said yes.
The cow took off his front feet and his head, and sure enough it was Jean Paul in the cow outfit. He pulled a ring out of his sleeve and asked me if I would marry him! I said yes! We are praying about possibly getting married in August of 2008. The wedding will be in Queretaro at our church, Horizonte.


And the picture of the ring that some of you had asked about:


Thanks for your support in our engagement and our future together! I'll post more details as plans come along, I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!!