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!

Christmas Vacation!

Well, JP and I didn't leave the country for Christmas this year, but we went to Mexico City for a weekend to visit his dad. We spend a good portion of a day at Chapultapec Forest at the Castle. I'd always wanted to go to the castle but for some reason never had. It really IS as cool as I'd imagined!

The outside of one wing of the castle...

View from the Castle that's on a hill in the middle of Mexico City...

Outside of another wing of the castle...

Inside the castle...

The Chapultapec Castle was built in the 1700's, and used my foreign rulers of Mexico, Mexican presidents, as a school, and now as a museum. (The president doesn't live there now).

That weekend, JP's favorite soccer team, Cruz Azul, was in the finals for the second time in a row. We ate gigantic fried quesadillas (kekas) in Coyoacan while watching the game on the tiny TV at the keka stand. Cruz Azul lost... also for the second time in a row. Oh well, we enjoyed the wonderful Coyoacan kekas!

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!)

"Weigh" Too Much Food

When I met Jean Paul, he was very very skinny. I, on the other hand, haven't fit into that category since high school... Anyhow, when we got married, I was determined to look out for his health through serving 3 good and nutritious meals per day. Living alone before we were married, JP frequently didn't eat breakfast, and ate tacos or pizza for dinner. Of course, having a real kitchen helps me WANT to cook, and being newly weds kind of cuts down on the amount we can eat out... So we decided to eat home-cooked meals as often as possible, in part to save money, but also for JP's under-weight-ness.

Well, it worked. Right at 3 months after we got married, JP got weighed. Over the course of THREE months, he gained SEVEN KILOS!!! I'll leave it to you to figure that one out in pounds, but, even though I know most men gain weight when they get married, I'm doubt many gain that much!! JP is now at a healthy weight, and we think now might be a good time to look into more fruits and vegetables and less fried stuff! Heehee!

This is why JP gained weight so fast... Our normal lunch setting:

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!

Lot of Stuff

I'm back to being busy again... hence not having written much lately... again.
But it's always the GOOD kind of busy, I LOVE my job!!!!!

I've also been a walking health problem the past month. I'm trying (really really hard!) to get over my second cold in a month, and I'm hearing lots of people sneezing around me, which makesd me think I've successfully infected the rest of the church staff... again.

But other than that, things are going well! Normal I guess. Thanks for thinking of me (you must be thinking of me if you check my blog!!) And, if anyone ever wanted to send down a nice big box of Cheez-It crackers, ask for my address, or if you're cheap like me, my parents are coming down for JP and I's birthdays the end of february and would be glad to bring us stuff! (or checking this blog is good enough to let me know you love me!)

Ok, my brain is turning off for the afternoon... I'll leave you with this interesting photo...

My friend Ana and I at a game night at church... We are both very competive and were trying to sit in the same chair... Oops! :)

A Servant's Heart

I've mentioned Maricela a couple times in this blog. But in case you don't remember her, she is a 25-year old girl who attended Justin's english classes at Global Grounds cafe, and also was the spanish teacher for various short-term missionaries who have worked with us. Lluvia began discipling Maricela in 2006 I think, and she accpeted the Lord about a year ago, and began attending Horizonte Church in May of this year.

Anyhow, Maricela began to attend the college group meetings this summer, and really enjoys them. She came with us to Passion Mexico City the beginning of October, and was really touched by it. Maricela asked to meet with Phil and I about a week after the Passion event. We went to breakfast with her, and she explained some doubts/questions about Christianity, which we talked through with her. Also, Maricela's family is opposed to her being a Christian and going to church, and were really irritated that she left for a weekend with a bunch of Christians (to go to Passion Mexico). But in spite of her questions and family issues, Maricela (also at breakfast with Phil and I) explained that she really felt like she should and wants to help out with whatever detailes need to be done at church. She volunteered to help us translate some youth group materials from english to spanish, and also wants to start coming early on Thursday nights to help set up everything for Semilla Escogida college group meetings. Last week, she even made and printed invitations for the concert we had last saturday, and went to the State University to pass them out to students! I'm amazed at the way Maricela helps out with seemingly small details, and does it with such a joy in her heart!

Please pray for Maricela that she will continue to grow in the Lord, and not overkill the volunteer work - it's easy to get burnt out. And please pray for Lluvia as well, as she continues to disciple Maricela and talk through her questions and doubts about having a relationship with the Lord.

Here's Maricela and I in the Mexican Capitol Building in Mexico City

Cheaply Healthy

Eating healthy in the United States can be EXPENSIVE. I was aghast last January when I went to WinCo to buy tomatoes and they cost like $2.30 per POUND!!! True, it was off-season for tomatoes, but good grief... And tomatoes are key to most mexican food...

Thankfully, fruits and vegetables are a LOT cheaper here in Queretaro (and cheaper still in other parts of Mexico). Since I'd lived with mexican families for until I got married, I didn't need to buy a lot of groceries, but always went to the grocery store when I needed stuff. Now that Jean Paul and I are married, of course we have a budget for everything, and I now must figure out the cheapest way to buy food for 2 people for three meals a day. We both ate in cheap restaurants and taco stands as singles, but it's always cheaper to eat at home. JP recommended that I find a friend to go to the market with me. I'd been to the markets many times for things like craft items, disposable cups and plates, etc. But I took a friend and went to the fruit and vegetable section of a market downtown. I was pleasently shocked at the prices! Things are MUCH cheaper than in the grocery stores... In fact, the other week, I bought all this:

Clockwise from the white thing by the apples: 1 pound of cheese, 1 pound of hotdogs, 4 apples, 2 pounds of limes (I make a mean lime-ade!), 2 pounds of potatoes, 6 bananas, 1 pound of tomatoes, hotdog buns, a loaf of bread, a head of lettuce, 2 pounds of tomatillos (excellent for enchilada sauce!), 4 pieces of chorizo sausage, and a cucumber.

All that cost less that $10 USD. Pretty good, no? And all that lasts us a good 2 weeks. (Of course I buy meat and chicken a other stuff too...)

Anyhow, I just wanted to brag a bit about actually being able to make yummy homemade foods for CHEAP! :)

Super Ultra Mega Blessings!!

God is doing great things in the college group in Horizonte Church!!

I have to admit that about 5 months ago, I was SO discouraged about the apathy among our students, that I felt like quitting to just be a house wife (nothing wrong with being a house wife!!) But thankfully, God sustained me, and I (and the other college group leaders) kept with it.

I think it was about the end of beginning of July that things started taking a turn for the better. First, more students showed up at weekly meetings (not that our goal is lots of people, but it helps). Then, we started a group for non-Christians - or for Christian students to be able to bring their non-Christian friends to a "non-churchy" event where the love of God is shown and Biblical principals are shared.

When I came back to working full-time at Horizonte after my wedding, things were even MORE different - for the better!!

The Passion 2008 Mexico City event was amazing, and really touched the hearts and lives of the students who attended! More students have been making efforts to reach their non-Christian friends at school and work, serving in the church, and having a desire to grow in the Lord.

One example is Ere, an 18 year old girl who accepted the Lord about 3 months ago. She's the cousin of some of two of the Horizonte college students, and they shared the message of salvation with her. I took Ere home from group on thursday, and she mentioned that she has a really hard time knowing how to read the Bible. She wants to, but it's confusing. So tomorrow, I'm meeting with her to begin a Bible study that's aimed at new believers - one of the first lessons is HOW TO READ THE BIBLE! Ere is going through some really hard times in her family, and is the only family member who is following the Lord, even though they all used to go to church and her parents used to be good examples of Christian parents. We trust that the Lord will use Ere and her new relationship with the Lord to touch the hearts of her family, so they trust in Him!!

Ere and I outside in the rain, waiting to enter the Passion Mexico event! (it's the only picture I have of her... and me with my double chin...) :)

I have SO much to share, and so little time... There's lots of stuff going on - events at Horizonte, discipling a few young ladies, and of course taking care of my "wife stuff" like cooking (which I actually LOVE!... possible evidenced by my "double chin" in the photo above), and cleaning... I'll try to be more on top of writing in the blog!!

Super Quick Update...

Hi!

Just wanted to drop a note to say that I'm doing fine... I know a few of you heard the word "Typhoid" floating around, and yes, it's true, I had that AGAIN. I was in the hospital for 3 days, but had a TON of people taking care of me, and was in a good hospital. I was down for a good week, but by this past Sunday felt a lot better, and I even went to work at the church today! Feeling LOTS better!!

So I'll get a real update on here soon, about the good stuff God is doing in the college group!!

Passion Mexico 2008!!!!!!!

Warning: THIS WILL BE LOOOOONGGGGG!! :)
Here's what was going through my head last thursday night as I went to sleep:

- We're taking 23 college kids to the biggest city in the world (varies daily), dirtiest city in the world, and most dangerous city in the world.

- Everyone in our group is between 17 and 28 years old (none of which are considered adults here except me, because I'm married).

- No real plan for food for the three days we'll be gone.

- I've been married less thatn 2 months, and I'm leaving without my husband for three days

- I'm CRAZY!!

But things turned out really well!

The Horizonte college students piled on a bus on friday afternoon to head out to Mexico City to go to the Passion 2008 event. If you don't know what that is, see the post below this one, and/or visit http://www.268generation.com/worldtour/high.html

We had with us a 24 year old girl named Alexandra, who I met for the first time the day before we left. She told me she didn't realize Passion was for Christians, that she wasn't a Christian, and wondered if she could still go or not. I told her YES! She should come!! Alex was nervous about going, as she didn't know anyone, and her boyfriend told her that she was too bad of a person to be hanging out with Christians for a weekend, that we'd think she's a bad person. But I encouraged her to come, and she showed up to leave with us on friday afternoon!

Also in the group was another new guy, named Alan, 24 years old. He recently moved to Queretaro from Culiacan (a city a long ways north of here with a reputation for a lot of violence), and doesn't really know many people here yet, but his parents have gone to Horizonte for about 2 years, so he decided to come as well.

Ere, an 18 year old girl who's the cousin of two of our Horizonte students, came as well. Ere accepted the Lord about 2 months ago at the influence of her Christian cousins.

And the rest of our students have been attending the college group and/or church pretty regularly.

We had an absolutely amazing time of worship on Friday night at the event, and a great message about GRACE. The plan of salvation was shared also, which I was glad because Alex isn't a Christian.

Upon returning to the hotel (1am??) I went to my room with Alex and Ere as my roommates. I asked them what they thought about the friday night session. Ere was like, "I didn't even know anything like this ever happened! I just know it was really good!!" And Alex said that she enjoyed the time, that she felt like she needs to "get closer to God." But she also said that she didn't think she'd be able to give up her party life-style and be a good person. She said she didn't want to quit having fun. Ere told her that Christians don't have to stop having fun. There are just things that God convicts us of not to do anymore. I said that a lot of times, those convictions may not even come right away, that it's something that God works on our hearts about. Alex said that it's definitely something that she'll be thinking about.

Inside Passion 2008 at the Palacio de los Deportes with about 6 or 7 thousand other students:

Some from Horizonte:

Saturday, we all woke up tired, but ready for a big day of Passion 2008! The messages were centered around God's grace, and our responsibility of evangelism.

At one point, it was asked if anyone needed a touch from God to be renewed and encouraged in their walks with the Him. A lot of our students raised their hands, that they needed renewal and strength.

Later, a presentation was given to remind us about how much God loves us and that He even sent His Son to die for us because He loved us so much. Impacting.

At another point, the speaker was talking about being a light in the darkness - Christians sharing with their friends in their schools and jobs. The speaker said that if you know you're ready to be sharing your faith with your friends, you should be doing that. And if you aren't sharing, why not? Are you willing to make that commitment to share your faith with your friends? And if you feel unprepared to share your faith with your friends, are you willing to get ready?

This touched many hearts of our students. I was able to pray with Ere, and we're planning to meet for a Bible study every week or 2 weeks to help her in that process of becoming ready to share her faith with her friends. Brisa wants encouragement to share the faith that she's had for years with her new school friends. Ana wants accountability in her walk with the Lord, and also encouragment to share. Fatima wants to renew that faith that she learned about as a child and has been kind of ignoring the past couple years. And I want to meet with Alexandra to see how she's doing and what she's been thinking about this past weekend!

Saturday night we ordered dinner about 12:30 at night, and packed everyone in the hallway and a room of our hotel to eat beef and cheese tacos together, and to enjoy the crazyness of 23 college kids who haven't slept well. Some of the goofyness:

On Sunday, we slept in, and then walked through downtown Mexico City for a while, before going to Semilla de Mostaza Church. This is one of the most well-known churches in Mexico, and probably in Latin America, because of a worship band that is from there. Currently, Fermin IV, a famous rapper from a secular band in the early '90's turned Christian, is the pastor. We know him, the guys from the worship team, and other church members because Semilla is a Calvary Chapel church, like Horizonte. It was good to get to go to Semilla for sunday service, and to see our friends there again. We got back to Queretaro around 8pm, tired as anything, but HAPPY!!!!

Please pray for me as I feel a bit overwhelmed (but in a good way!) about discipling so many girls all of a sudden, and I also want to be sure that I am growing in MY walk with the Lord to be able to help them grow as well. Thank you so much for your prayers!!

See more Passion Mexico 2008 pictures here!!!!!

Independence Day, and Passion 2008 Mexico!

I'm pretty much not keeping up real well with writing in this blog, please excuse me! :)
September 15-16 is Independence Day here in Mexico, and we celebrated in style at the house of our friend Job and his family, with typical Mexican soup, enchiladas, and traditional musica and dance!

Me, JP, Lalo, Phil, and Ruti enjoying the festivities!

Me with Mariana and Alan:

This week, we've been planning high and low for Passion, a hugh event for college students with the purpose of encouraging students in their relationships with God, and proclaiming His name in the city! We'll be taking 25 students to Mexico City this weekend for the event! We had a coffee and cookies fundraiser at church this past Sunday which went quite well, and the students are excited for Passion! Please pray that this will be a life-impacting event for our students - worshipping alongside thousands of other college students! - and that everything will work out logistically. Honestly, I'm a little nervous about taking so many kids to Mexico City, in the eyes of Mexican parents, I'm the only adult (you become an adult when you get married or turn 30), and only barely so! Phil has done an amazing job of organizing the event for the Queretaro students, I really haven't done much at all, so he's been on his own for the most part - finding a cheap/safe hotel, reliable transportation, event tickets, everything. Phil moved here from Australia in March, so organizing the Passion trip for our students has been a huge undertaking and good learning experience!

Again, we ask your prayers for our students and leaders during this event - this coming friday, saturday, and sunday.

I'll post an update when we get back! :)

Some Updates, Finally!

(I started to write this 3 days ago, but the power went out, as it has frequently in the past weeks, and with it went the internet... so this is a bit delayed!)

I'm SO sorry about not having written in FOREVER! But, you can probably imagine that things have been busy since we got married!! Busy in a good way, of course! :)

I just want to give a little update about what the Lord is doing in the lives of some of our college students...

I don't remember if I've mentioned Maricela before... She's a 25 year old girl who we know because she's been spanish teacher to some of our short-term missions girls, and she used to attend Justin's english class. Lluvia (Justin's wife, both work with students at Horizonte) began to have a Bible study with Maricela about a year and a half ago. I think it was about 10 months ago that Maricela accepted the Lord! She was always nervous about coming to any church because she'd always had bad experiences with churches in the past. But, in May, Maricela began attending sunday service at Horizonte! She's come regularly ever since, and come to thursday night college group when her work schedule permits.
Last thursday, Maricela called Lluvia after college group that she attended, and explained that she was really enjoying being a part of the group, especially this past thursday, as we had an awesome time of worship and opportunities to spend a lot of time in prayer and reading the Bible. Maricela said that she plans to invite her sisters, who are between 18 and 24 years old, to this week's meeting, which happens to be specifically for inviting non-Christian friends. It has really been amazing to see how Maricela's life has changed in the past several months. We doubted for a long time that she would ever start attending church, and now she's even inviting her sisters to come! We thank the Lord for His work!

Here is Lluvia with Maricela (yeah, I stole the picture off Lluvia's blog...):

Brisa is a 19 year old girl who just entered college at the State University this semester to study foreign languages and linguistics. I've known Brisa the entire time I've been here in Mexico, she's Lluvia's little sister, and has grown up in church. She's also quite shy around people she doesn't know, so I knew it would be interesting to see her form friendships with her new schoolmates. Brisa has said that she feels like she needs to get her act together as far as being a Light for Christ to her school friends. I'm very encouraged to hear her desire to reach out to those in her class who don't know the Lord! We're looking for an open space in the week for me to go to her school for a little while each week to pray with her and any friends that would like to join us!

Brisa at a birthday party...

Rafa is our friend who is 24 years old, and has been paralized in a wheel chair for 7 years. He's VERY shy, but has opened up to Phil and Justin (two missionaries who work with college students) more and more in the past months. When we closed Global Grounds cafe in the location, we were nervous that Rafa may stop coming to college group. Why? Because the only other apt place to hold the group was UPSTAIRS in Horizonte Church. And no, it has no wheelchair access. Rafa didn't come for about 6 weeks after we changed locations, but decided to give it a try one day. Two guys lifted him up the stairs and two other brought his chair. Rafa has come very regularly ever since! He also has been sharing with Justin about his relationship with the Lord, and his struggles in life.

Along with Rafa comes his 17 year old cousin, Hector, who helps Rafa's mom take care of him (Rafa's dad passed away 6 months before he became paralized). Hector rarely talks. For a long time, he would just help get Rafa into the college group area, and sit by himself and not want to talk to others, even though several guys made a good effort to involve him in the group.
In our recent few group meetings, Hector has opened up a bit to Justin and Phil, sharing about his recent trip to the beach, and also asking for prayer that he would be able to follow Christ more effectively! As far as we know, Hector has not accepted the Lord, but wow, he's heading down the right path!!

Rafa at his birthday party a year ago...

And finally, Mariana. My little girl grew up and went away to college!! I feel like a mom saying that. Mariana has been out of high school for a little over a year now, living in Queretaro with her mom and brother, taking intensive English classes (I think she speaks better than I do now!). But in August, she got the opportunity to study Bilingual education at a college in Puebla, about a 6 hour drive from here. So my wednesday nights from 7-10pm seem quite vacant now without looking forward to meeting with Mariana.
However, Mariana has come home a few weekends since she moved away. She's asked prayer for her relationships with ther classmates - that she can have a good friendship with them while keeping moral limits (the classmates like to party a lot). This is also Mariana's first time living alone, and 19-year old girl living alone here is not very common, so it's a BIG adjustment.
So far, all is good, and very busy!, in Puebla, and I trust that they Lord will help Mariana develop healthy friendships and thrive in her new school and living situation!

Mariana and I...