2006 Year-End Newsletter

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM MEXICO!

It's hard to believe that a year has passed since I came to Mexico for the first time. At the end of 2005 I was anticipating a short-term missions trip to Cofradia, Mexico, and now I'm a full-time missionary there!

This has truly been one of the longest and one of the shortest years of my life. Yet, as I reflect on how my life has been turned completely upside down and inside out, I'm overwhelmed with joy kmnowing that this has also been one of the most blessed years of my life! Our God is certainly a God of surprises, but His goodness and love absolutely endure forever!!

FULL STEAM AHEAD!

2006 started with the decision to return to Cofradia for a three-month internship (March 4-June 2), during which the Lord made it clear that I was to return full-time. After a whirlwind summer of roadtrips, weddings, and lots of time with friends and family, August found me in Guadalajara where I attended 2 months of language school at Harvest Language Center. I lived with the Garza family who has become good friends in company with many others who continue to be a source of great encouragement.

In mid-October I returned to Cofradia and jumped right in. I began mentoring one of the youth girls I met during my internship, Sandy, who is 19 and desperately wants to know and please her Lord. I also continue with the Arrayanes girls' prayer group that began during my internship, and plans are in the making to include the girls from Cofradia and Santa Fe in the new year!

Our weekly youth group meetings, called "Vida Abundante!" (meaning "Abundant Life") continue to be effective and fruitful; we see new faces almost every week! I even had the opportunity to give the lesson twice in November while Steve and his family were in the States! We've also been extremely busy with various other youth events, including a youth retreat to La Cruz, Sinaloa, where we heard teaching on living under authority and guarding our lives for the plan and inheritance that the Lord has in store for us! I've also begun learning the ins and outs of being the Short-Term Missions Coordinator and picking up more administrative duties, now that our director and his family have returned from furlough!

LOOKING BEYOND THE HORIZON!

Our staff recently spent several days brainstorming, dreaming, and setting goals for the next five years. We're very excited about starting a weekly radio program in which our local pastor, Goyo, will preach because it will expand the reach of the gospel in this area, especially into the indigenous villages that still remain fairly isolated in the mountains.

We are also seeking ways to encourage the local church members in their dreams for their church, especially as we anticipate the completion of our new central church facility in 2008. We want to see them become much more active in taking their church into the future that God has for them. This will hopefully include more organized fellowship activities, yearly conferences, and even developing more outreach activities for them, perhaps even short-term missions opportunities as we seek to network with other organizations in the area!

The future is very bright for the ministry and churches in this area because the Lord is leading us in His plans for His people to achieve His goals for His kingdom! Praise the Lord that we are guaranteed success when we are following HIM!

"LOVE AND JOY COME TO YOU..."

My days are busy, but they are blessed. Of course there have been bumps in the road, but at the end of the day, despite frustrations, I have the peace and contentment that come wiht knowing that I'm exactly where God intends me to be, and that is EXCITING!!

Though I am far from home and all that is familiar, the true meaning of Christmas remains clower than ever in my heart. Jesus tells us in John 10:10 that He came so that we may have abundant life. Linus said it best in A Charlie Brown Christmas:

"Sure Charlie Brown; I can tell you the true meaning of Christmas...'unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.' "

I pray that truth will settle deeply in each of your hearts and that this Christmas you too will know the abundant life that our Savior promises. As our youth will illustrate in their Christmas sketch, Jesus is for everyone; His presence and the life He offers were teh Father's Christmas present to us. the shepherds brought their worship, the three kings their treasures. What will we bring this Christmas and throughout the next year?

HOW CAN YOU BE INVOLVED?

As we anticipate a new year, please continue to keep me, the other staff members, the ministry, the churches, and the Mexican people in your prayers.

If you are interested in being involved in any way, whether it is financial or prayer support or perhaps by visiting or bringing a team for a short-term trip, please feel free to contact me; tax-deductible donations can be made through Alternative Missions, but please email me and let me know your intent. I pray that your Christmas is full of joy and life as we celebrat the birth of our Savior!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Praise the Lord!!

• I completed language school!
• For His financial provision. I'm currently at 80%!
• For new youth who continue to attend regularly!
• For re-awakening Sandy's hunger for God's presence and Word!
• For renewed passion in the Cofradia church!
  

Please pray for...

• The 20% of my monthly budget that's lacking. That comes to about $300/month.
• Continued improvement with the language, especially in prayer.
• Deeper committment in the hearts of our youth.
• Support for the weekly radio program we are starting.
• Wisdom in planning and executing new activities with the local teen girls.
• Continued provision for our central church construction project.

Here's an idea of what our central church will look like when it is completed!

Sick and Soccer...

So, the week after Christmas was definitely a busy and interesting one...it started the day after Christmas: a family from Dave and Kathy's church in Canada came down for the week. While they were here, they put on a soccer camp. Their three daughters (16, 19, 21) have played soccer all their lives, and their dad has coached their teams at different times. So, they put together this great soccer camp for kids ages 10-12 in this area. They brought 4 different-colored t-shirts for the teams, they brought a ton of balls, and they planned different drills and games to play each of the three days. Of course they also incorporated a devotion each day. They planned a little mini tournament for the end of the camp, and they had trophies for the winning team and medals for everyone else. The kids had a blast!

The same day they arrived, we started our first ever youth soccer tournament. It lasted 5 days in which 5 teams played for about 4 hours each day, and at the end of the week there was a playoff game and a championship game. It too was a ton of fun! Check out the video from our tournament! The championship day was a Saturday, and after the tournament was over we had our Noche De Vida event. That means "Night of Life!", and it's something we do each month (our youth ministry is named "Life!") in order to try and bring in new youth, etc. It usually consists of something fun, worship, a message, and a time of prayer. There were a ton of kids there that night since half the teams were made up of kids who have never been part of the youth ministry. It was pretty neat.

The kink in the week was that I got sick that Wednesday with a stomach flu. That illness doesn't hit me often, but when it does it's REALLY bad. So, I was out of commission for about three days. Mili and Sandy ended up coming and taking care of me since I live by myself. I was pretty much recovered by the time they came, but it was very sweet of them, and I was glad to have the company after being by myself essencially for 2 days at that point. Being sick, of course, meant that I missed half of both soccer events. I didn't get to see the end of the soccer camp, but I did get to go to the final day of the youth tournament and to the youth event afterwards. It was a good time. And I'm certainly glad to be healthy again.

Well, enjoy the pics and video!

Kids Soccer Camp stretching warm-up excercises!

This was one of their drill/games. It's the numbers drill. Each kid on each team has a number. When the ref called a number, the kids with those numbers had to come out and try to get a goal in a certain amount of time.

Devotions

Youth Soccor Tournament "Video"

Festival of Lights

So..in between my tree and the actual Christmas holday celebration, there has been a lot of activity preparing for the celebration! It's crazy how something that lasts such a short amount of time requires a huge amount of time to prepare beforehand! Anyway, we weren't originally planning to decorate the church palapa this year for the Christmas service, but about a week before Christmas, Pastor Goyo asked me if I'd be willing. Last year, when I came down here with a group from my church for our Christmas Outreach trip, we brought with us all of my white Christmas lights. Then last spring another group brought some down and left them when they were done using them. So, all in all, we probably have about 2000 white Christmas lights!

So, after spending a rediculous amount of time testing them and making them work, which basically consisted of mixing and matching bulbs since we can't just go out and buy replacements around here, I was finally able to get to the decorating part. Mili and Sandy came and spent the night before with me and then the Saturday before Christmas, we spent half the day putting up lights all in the church. It was quite a job! Duct tape and masking tape don't stick very well to brink and columns painted with a metal paint! So, it was interesting trying to get the lights to stay up, and trust me, between Christmas and New Years, I had to re-tape the strands numerous times. But the church looked COOL!

It didn't get truly dark until just after the service ended, but it was so amazing to turn out the lights in the church and just have the Christmas lights on as people were fellowshiping and leaving. I honestly don't know what it is, but there's just something about the twinkle of those lights that leaves me in awe. Just one is nothing special. But all those twinkles together is a powerful thing to behold. I think that's what amazes me about the body of Christ as well. We're just like those lights. Alone we are nothing and we can do nothing, but together functioning as ONE body in unity and fluidity in the Spirit, no force natural or spiritual or otherwise can stop us, and it is quite a thing to behold and experience! Merry Christmas!

Mili and I having fun with the lights!

Around the columns..

Around the projection screen..that things is BIG and TALL!!

Sandy, the 2006 Miss Mexico Christmas Lights!

All around the sound closet...

Around every entrance...

It's bigger than you think!

"Behold, the Light of the world..." It's a good time of year to be reminded once again of who our Light really is!

Glory to God in the Highest!!!

So, Christmas was amazing! We already know it's my absolute most favoritist time of the year, and this year it was no exception. It was certainly different, and there were times that I actually missed the cultural aspects of the Christmas season that are found in the US and not here in Mexico. It just didn't feel like Christmas all around me, so sometimes it was hard to believe or easy to forget that it was actually Christmas time! But when it arrived, it arrived with force and power and was unforgettable...for me at least.

So, the month of December was incredibly hectic as far as the preparations are concerned for our Christmas service. Christmas Day this year was on a Monday, but the more important day in Mexico is actually Christmas Eve. Since that day was on a Sunday, we planned a joint service to take place at 4 pm instead of in the morning. Pastor Goyo wanted to have our service as close to Christmas Day as we could, and I just thought that was such a great idea.

Worship started off our Christmas Eve service

In our Christmas service, usually every demographic participates in one way or another. The youth put on a humorous sketch recounting the birth of Christ. We chose one we found online for free called Myrtle, Frank, and a Few Wise Guys, which I had the priveledge of translating. Let me tell you, there are few things harder to translate than humor! Primarily because it's very idiomatic and culturally based. In this sketch, the humor came mainly from play-on-words. It took some thought, but it turned out pretty funny in Spanish too, and the kids had a good time doing it. I not only tranlsated it, but I also got to help direct it and take care of most of the behind-the-scenes details like collecting props, helping to sew the costumes (first time using a sewing machine!), etc. It was busy, but it was fun and the sketch turned out really well. The kids did such a stellar job and had fun doing it, and the audience really enjoyed it too and got a kick out of it. Some of the lines from the play still live on, actually, and that's kind of cool...it's neat when you see that the investment you make is not in vain and that the results are not quickly forgotten..this result being a retelling of Christ's birth!

The youth sketch dress rehearsal. By the end of the play they were in position of a living nativity. It was pretty cool.

Sandy playing with some of our costumes and props.

Lorenzo, Martin in the sheep mask, and Beto having fun at dress rehearsal

All our props put together...we made do :)

The youth in their living nativity at the end of the sketch during our Christmas service, surrounded by all the young children watching.

The kids also did something for the service. They all participated in singing Away in a Manger, which I accompanied on the keyboard. Ok, now THAT was nerve-racking! I grew up playing piano, but I started fading out of that as soon as I hit college and didn't have a piano to play anymore. So, it's been almost 10 years since I played the piano regularly. Not only that, but the last time I played in public was when I was 10 and played at my first and last recital! So, this was definitely a stretch for me. But I got through the piece without messing up, which was my biggest concern, and the kids did such a stellar job! It was so cute! In addition to singing, several of them recited scripture or a poem, and a few of them even presented a little mini-drama/dialogue. They did such a great job!

The kids preparing to sing their song (I'm in the back left corner), and Jonathan in costume for his recitation and the mini-drama.

Some of the women actually shared a song with us, and I do believe there were a couple of testimonies, although I am not sure on that count since I was outside the church helping the youth and kids deal with costumes, etc. And finally, Pastor Goyo preached a stellar sermon about the wise men that came to visit Christ and the gifts they brought. The youth sketch ended with this line: "God gave us the gift of His Son. The wise men brought gifts to Jesus. What will you give to Him? Goyos's sermon presented a similar challenge as he took a closer look at the gifts they presented and what that means for us in our relationships with Christ. It was really cool. The service ended with a time of prayer. It was amazing because we had all three towns together: Cofradia, Santa Fe, and Arrayanes. And they were all praying together and for each other surrounded by the Christmas lights and with the worship band playing softly in the background as we were celebrating Christ's birth and it's signficance for us today. It was a powerful thing to be part of!

The prayer time at the end of the Christmas Eve service.

When the service was over, it was so great to be able to fellowship with everyone all together. Their smiles were so huge, and they were all intermixing and enjoying each other's company. That doesn't get to happen very often since Arrayanes usually has their own services. But the unity was flowing that night, and it was indescribable!

Fellowshipping and smiles accompanied all as they went on their ways for the rest of their Christmas Eve celebrations!
(Amalia holding Esperanza, Jan, and Amalia's husband Salo)

After the service, the custom around here for Christmas Eve is to go around visiting people and sharing meals with folks. The towns also have what's called a "posada", which is kind of like a town party where they have music and dancing and pinatas for the kids and lots of hanging out, etc. Well, Mili and Sandy's family invited me to hang out with them on Christmas Eve after the service, especially since it was their little sister's 12th birthday. So, I drove the Arrayanes folks back to their town and hung out there until around 10 pm. It was fun! We went to the posada for a little bit, but mainly we just hung out with the family all together and enjoyed each other and the festiveness of the night!

Christmas Day dawned beautiful. I have to admit though that it was really weird to wake up to just myself that morning. I honestly don't think I've EVER done that in my entire life! Normally I am with my family on Christmas Eve, and we all wake up together and have breakfast and open presents. Then my sister and I head to my mom's to do it all over again with her and my step-dad and step-sister. It's a full day full of food and people and festiveness. This year, I woke up to myself. It was very strange. So, I took the opportunity to call my families and talk with everyone. Then around 1 pm, all of us American/Canadian missionary staff headed over to Jan and Doug Taylor's house (part of our staff...missionaries from Canada in charge of the marriage and family ministries here) for a good ole' fashioned Gringo Christmas dinner. We had turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and gravy (which you never find around here...quite a treat!), I made my dad's apple cider, and we had beets which is apparantly a Ukranian tradition (Jan is Ukranian and they always have something red to represent the blood of Christ).

Christmas Day feast at the Taylors
Clockwise, L-R: Married couple friends of Steve and Gena, Kathy, Jonathan, Dave, Doug, Jan, Steve, Gena holding Emma, Rebecka

It was a great Christmas this year. It was totally different, but it was unique and perfect. It was unforgetable, and full of significance and power..just as it should be. I truly wish that Christmas could last all year long. I don't know understand why it's so hard to carry with us throughout the year the same Spirit that makes us so festive and so disposed to unity and fellowship at Christmas, but that's my prayer for my own life as well as for our churches here: that the Lord would fill us with THAT Spirit and that it will light this area and this country on fire for Him!

Merry Christmas!!

O Christmas tree...

Ok, the Christmas season is finally upon us, and this is definitely my favorite time of year! I love the lights and the traditions that I share with family and friends; I love the sights and sounds and smells; I love what it stands for, even more than Easter! This is so much my favorite time of year that I'll watch Christmas movies and listen to certain Christmas music throughout the year whenever the mood hits me. It used to drive my roommates crazy, but what can I say? I LOVE Christmas!

But nothing in Mexico looks, sounds, or smells anything like what I'm used to for Christmas, and I started to find myself a little bummed a few weeks ago whenever I'd look around my appartment and want to see Christmas, because I had nothing to decorate with. So, I've watched White Christmas and Holiday Inn about 2 million times over the last three weeks, and I've had Christmas music playing all day (when I'm home) to try and compensate for the inability to sit in the glow of Christmas lights and the fireplace video. You say, "why didn't you go buy Christmas stuff then?" Well, it's not that easy for me to get to town, first becuase I have to use a base truck and I need to be responsible with gas, and second because although I know how to arrive in town, I don't know where anything is once I'm there, and I'd never find my way out again! However, about a week and a half ago, Isable was heading to town, and I had several errands to run so I went with her; while there she helped me buy a Christmas tree and decorations! So, I've finally bought my first "real" fake Christmas tree! It's about 190 cm tall, and it's perfect for my appartment! Here are pics of my new stocking, the decorations I bought (complete with little pinatas!), and my tree!!












I was so excited that I decided to have a decorating party with my youth girls. So, I made plans and invited them all over last Saturday to help me decorate. Mili and Sandy spent the night after youth group on Friday, which I taught for the first time (yikes!). We completely rearranged my living room, which needed it anyway, and also made the brownies for Saturday. The girls were supposed to arrive around 11 am on Saturday, so that morning we got everything ready and I made my dad's homemade hot apple cider. It has cinnamon and cloves that cook in it on the stove, so with that smell and the smell of the Vanilla Biscotti coffee I made for our breakfast, combined with the Christmas music that was playing, I had a hard time remembering that I wasn't actually at home on Christmas morning! We ate bagles and cream cheese with our coffee, which was a first for Mili and Sandy. They loved it though; their exact words were that it was "celestial", which means "heavenly"!

Around 11, two of the five girls I'd invited arrived: Ana and Sandy Paz. We all had some cider and brownies and then got to work on the tree. As we were putting on the lights, I started sharing stories about traditions my family has surrounding decorating and Christmas morning. When I asked them about theirs, they told me they didn't have any! None of them have ever had a Christmas tree! It just isn't the culture here, at least not out in "el rancho" (the country) where life is much less Americanized. Some folks may put a few lights outside their house, many will have a nativity scene, and those who are Catholic may very well have a decorated shrine to the Virgin Mary, but that's about it for decorating. The big day for them is Christmas Eve, and they'll normally have a huge dinner or something, and if there's money for gifts and stocking stuffers, those will be available for Christmas morning, but that's about the extent of celebration. So, this tree decorating was another first-time for all of these girls, and they had such a blast with it! Now, I love decorating for Christmas and of course was completely in my element, but watching their first-time enjoyment made my enjoyment so much greater! It was truly a blessing and a blast!

These are the kinds of activities I want to have more often with the girls, so that they can be hanging out and having experiences together, making memories together, getting more comfortable with each other, so that one day they will be more comfortable going deeper in their friendshipse. Please pray that the Lord will open up more such opportunities for fellowship with these precious girls!

Anyway, a complete photo album is posted on my photosite (see personal links on the right), but here are a couple of pic just to wet your appetite!

FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!

Cheers! Hot apple cider--(L-R) Sandy Paz, Mili, and Sandy tasting it for the first time and loving it!! Daddy, your cider is a hit in Mexico!

Mili about had a heart attack over the decorations as she helped unpack them. These are some of my favorites too!

(L-R) Ana, Mili, Sandy Paz, and Sandy unpacking the decorations.

Ana and Sandy Paz putting lights on the tree.

My newly-arranged living room complete with resplendant Christmas tree! I absolutely adore this room now! I don't really put much stock in fun shuei stuff, but I think this room's got it!

November Update

Ok, so I know this is long overdue, but here it finally is..my November update!

Happy Autumn to you!! November has been quite a full and exciting month, so much so that I just have to share pictures with you along with the stories. Normally, November and December are my two favorite months of the year; they are full of holidays and festivities that we celebrate with dear friends and family, and for that reason I look forward to this season all year.

As November was approaching, I found myself dealing with sadness and homesickness, praying that the Lord would find some way of making these months just as special as ever, although I don't think I really believed it was possible. Despite my lack of faith, He has continued to reveal His endless faithfulness to me, and He managed to make these two months more special than I could have ever imagined! The first joy of November was a double delight because Dave and Kathy Elias (Dave is our area director) returned from furlough in Canada on the very day of my 27th birthday, November 16. Now, many of you know that I LOVE to celebrate birthdays and usually plan some kind of get-together for mine each year. However, in Mexico, if you plan something for your own birthday you can pretty much be sure that more people than you invited will show up (since it's ok for those you invite to invite anyone else they want), and it's expected that you will serve a meal that will feed anyone and everyone that shows up. It is extremely shameful if you run out of food. And if you don't invite someone who thinks they should have been invited, they get offended. Well being part of the ministry/churches here, I would have had to invite at least half of three different towns, and since I live by myself and have very little space for such an event and don't know how to cook, throwing my own party was simply out of the question. However, Mili and Sandy's mom, Flavia, decided she wanted to do something for me; so she made a wonderful dinner of posole (pronounced "po-SO-lay") and invited her sisters and their families. It was such a wonderful time for me and truly special beyond the power of words to describe! Since my birthday was on a Thursday, I invited the girls to spend the night on Friday, at which time we ate "cake" (lacking at the dinner) and they sang both the Mexican and American birthday songs to me. We also opened the presents I'd received the night before, since it is not customary to open presents at the party.

The following week we spent several days as a staff planning for the upcoming year and for more long-term dreams and ideas. It was really n eat to be part of such planning, to sit with a grop of people and dream and share visions and get back to the heart of what we do here. That week was also Thanksgiving, and Jay and Faith spearheaded the first Thanksgiving festivities for this area. Mexico does not have a Thanksgiving holiday, so the fourth Thursday of November is just a normal day usually. However, this year, in the church in Arrayanes, we gathered together for a dinner feast of turkey, ham, potatoes, refried beans and home-made corn tortillas, jamaica (pronounced ha-MY-ka), flan, and lots of great fellowship. We then went into the church for a short time of worship and a short video that Jay put together of recorded testimonies from two years ago and still photos from when they started building that building five years ago. As we all watched htose videos and the pictures and remembered all that God has done in our lives and in this place, you could see the joy and thanksgiving in everyone's eyes. At that point we took some time, for those who felt led, to share what we were thankful for. Every person that shared said they hoped we continued to celebrate Thanksgiving like that because it is so good for us to remember. We do in fact have plans to do such a thing each year, but to do so with all the churches together! What a great joy that will be!

One story I wanted to share with you from Thanksgiving has to do with the family of Mili and Sandy. Sandy was the first Christian in her immediate family. A few years later her mother, Flavia, and sisters (Mili and Aide) and little brother (Juan Diego) followed suit. I cannot tell you if her father, Benito, has made a committment to Christ or not; however, he has not had much interest in the church or its activities, and when he is unhappy withthe girls or something going on in the church, his first threat is to keep them from going to church. It has been the prayer of many people for quite some time that the Lord would do a changing work in Benito's heart. Just before Thanksgiving, Benito pulled Jay aside one day and told him he wanted to find a time to talk with Jay because he felt it was time he began to get serious about God and church. Well, the first person to share at our Thanksgiving gathering was Flavia, and her praise report was that her husband was seated right next to her, smiling and having a good time in church!!! Since then, he has come to services several times, and Sandy has shared with me various ways in which her father is treating them differently, acting differently, even praying out loud over meals--evidence of something changing inside of him!!! Please continue to keep their family, especially Benito, in your prayers.

The Lord is certainly doing amazing things here in Cofradia, Arrayanes, and Santa Fe, and we are excited as we anticipate all that He still has in store and the amazing ways He will be continuing to reveal Himself and bring in His harvest. Thank you for your continued partnership in our ministry, whether through prayer support, financial support, or words of encouragement! This Thanksgiving, I thank my God each time I remember YOU!

Grace, Peace, and Blessings to you and to your holiday season!!


PS: If you'd like to see more pics, make sure you check out my Online Photo Album (link on the right under Personal Links).

Updated Links..

For those of you who have asked me about this, yes I can receive packages here in Mexico. Email me and I'll send you my mailing address. Due to requests that I've received, I created (or rather updated) a couple of wishlists on amazon.com. They are linked to the right: Movies Wishlist and Books Wishlist.

Please note this however. Though I have made the wishlist with Amazon, items do not need to be purchased through Amazon. This was just the easiest way for me to put together a list online for all to see. However, should you wish to purchase the items from Amazon, they need to first be shipped to YOU, and then you can ship them to me. Amazon does offer international shipping, but I've had extreme difficulty with their international shipping option and would like to save you that hassel. It will take far less time and money (possibly to buy the item (perhaps at WalMart, Sams Club, Borders/Barnse & Noble, a used place, Blockbuster, etc.) and then ship it to me yourself. It is also more likely to arrive in my possession in the end. :) To those of you who have asked, thank you!

The Happiest of Thanksgivings!

Thanksgiving. It's a pretty simple word with lots of meanings. During November it generally refers to the holiday that falls on the fourth Thursday of the month, and it's a holiday that many look forward to for the copious amounts of food that are consumed, the chance to reunite with fam and friends, and the enjoyment of football! But that is only in the US. Did you know that in Canada, Thanksgiving is in the beginning of October? And in Mexico there is no Thanksgiving holiday AT ALL!! ...

Until now...

On this eve of the U.S. Thanksgiving, I would like to give my own thanks to the Lord for a great evening and great reminders. Tonight, we instituted our first ever church Thanksgiving festivity here in Mexico. This time it was only with the Arrayanes church, but we are planning on doing it with all the churches together next year and every year thereafter! We made two big turkeys and a ham and flan, and the folks in Arrayanes brought beans and hand-made tortillas, candied squash, and lemonade and jamaica juice. We ate dinner in the palapa outside the church (like a pavilion), and enjoyed the fellowship time. Then we all proceeded into the sanctuary where we worshiped a little and listened to Jay share about loving each other truly and encourage the body basically not to forsake meeting together as they have gotten into the habbit of doing. Church attendance in Arrayanes is down to less than half right now, which is quite discouraging sometimes. SO, it was amazing to see the church FULL tonight! Even Sandy and Mili's dad came, which is a true miracle in and of itself!! After Jay shared and encouraged, Dave shared a little, and then Jay showed a video he made. It's really a conglomeration of testimony videos he shot about 2 years ago as well as still photos from when they first built the church building about 5 years ago and the first official church meeting before there were even walls or a floor.

It was so incredible to hear their testimonies from their own mouths from 2 YEARS AGO!! When i didn't even know them! And to be able to hear them then and see them now and all that the Lord has done in the church since then, growing it and maturing it in size and in life, it's just mind-blowing! I felt so priveledged to be able to sit there and remember with them the story that God has been crafting amongst them. It was so neat to see their faces and the joy in their eyes after watching the video and sharing things that they are thankful for, to see in their eyes the remembering taking place. What a precious thing to see that moment happen, when the remembering takes over and the forgetting flies away...the encouragement that fills the soul...that was VISIBLE tonight to the human eye and it was indescribable. I came home full of joy and just overwhelmed at the incredible life and goodness that we can freely partake of in our God and yet, more often than not, choose to ignore, or not truly appreciate.

I've been sick this week...digestive track junk, and it's PAINFUL (you can be in prayer for this please)....but I came home tonight and found myself saying, "Lord, it doesn't matter. The pain and discomfort don't matter in light of your goodness. It is a small thing to suffer through if it means being able to partake of You and Your kingdom and Your work, to know You this way."

So, this Thanksgiving I'd like to offer a challenge. We are SO BLESSED, we United States-ians, especially those of us who know the Savior, Jesus Christ, personally! We have so much to be thankful for and yet we complain and gripe about so much too. Why? Tomorrow as you're eating your turkey and loving on your wonderful family and watching that American football, take time to soak up every moment and allow yourself to look around and REMEMBER where you were before you knew HIM, and where you are now, and all that He has brought you through to get you HERE and NOW. And worship Him for it. That is the heart of Thanksgiving.

Isaiah 43:1-13

So, I kept reading tonight as I read back through Isaiah 42. I LOVE Isaiah, and I was reminded why tonight. Isaiah 43 is wonderful too...soak it up well!

But now, this is what the Lord says--
he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Isarael:
"Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name;
you are mine.
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.
FOr I am the Lord, your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;
I give Egypt for your ransom,
Cush and Seba in your stead.
Since you are precious and honored in my sight,
and because I love you,
I will give men in exchange for you,
and people in exchange for your life.
Do not be afraid, forI am with you;
I will bring your children from the east
and gather you from the west.
I will say to the north, 'Give them up!'
and to the south, 'Do not hold them back.'
Bring my sons from afar
and my daughters from the ends of the earth--
everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made."

Lead out those who have eyes but are blind,
who have ears but are deaf.
All the nations gather together
and the peoples assemble.
Which of them foretold this
and proclaimed to us the former things?
Let them bring in their witnesses
to prove they were right,
so that others may hear and say, "It is true."

"You are my witnesses," declares the Lord,
"and my servant whom I have chosen,
so that you may know and believe me
and understand that I am he.
Before me no god was formed,
nor will there be one after me.
I, even I, am the Lord,
and apart from me there is no savior.
I have revealed and saved and proclaimed--
I, and not some foreign god among you.
You are my witnesses," declares the Lord,
"that I am God.
Yes, and from ancient days I am he.
No one can deliver out of my hand.
When I act, who can reverse it?"

Reminders

Todays' sermon was excellent. I enjoy Pastor Goyo's preaching more and more each week. I've been feeling off lately, just in my heart and head--sort of as though I'm doing the doggy paddle in the deep end and getting tired and am too far from the ledge to feel comfortable with my level of tiredness. Then today Goyo preached from Isaiah 42:1-4 and talked about the justification that God brings TO us and THROUGH Christ IN us. It was a stellar service. I love how he gets SO EXCITED about our God every time He preaches. It revives something in my own heart! Anyway, I kept reading in that chapter today and the Lord just started a refreshing work. It is a work of conviction of course, but it is a reviving work too! So, I shall leave you with Isaiah 42.

"Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen one in whom I delight.
I will put my Spirit on him
and he will bring justice to the nations.
He will not shout or cry out,
or raise his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.
In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;
he will not falter or be discouraged
till he establishes justice on earth.
In his law the islands will put their hope.

This is what God the Lord says--
he who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread out the earth and all
that comes out of it,
who gives breath to its people,
and life to those who walk on it;
"I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness;
I will take hold of your hand.
I will keep you and will make you
to be a covenant for the people
and a light for the Gentiles,
to open eyes that are blind,
to free captives from prison
and to release from the dungeon
those who sit in darkness.

"I am the Lord; that is my name!
I will not give my glory to another
or my praise to idols.
See, the former things have taken place,
and new things I declare;
before they spring into being
I announce them to you."

Sing to the Lord a new song,
his praise from th eends of the earth,
you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it,
you islands, and all who live in them.
Let the desert and its towns raise their voices;
let the settlements where Kedar lives rejoice.
Let the people of Sela sing for you;
let them shout from the mountaintops.
Let them give glory to the Lord
and proclaim his praise in the islands.
The Lord will march out like a mighty man,
like a warrior he will stir up his zeal;
with a shout he will raise the battle cry
and will triumph over his enemies.

"For a long time I have kept silent,
I have been quiet and held myself back.
But now, like a woman in childbirth,
I cry out, I gasp and pant.
I will lay waste the mountains and hills
and dry up all their vegetation;
I will turn rivers into islands
and dry up the pools.
I will lead the blind by ways they have not known,
along unfamiliar paths I will guide them;
I will turn the darkness into light before them
and make the rough places smooth.
These are the things I will do;
I will not forsake them.
But those who trust in idols,
who say to images, 'You are our gods,'
will be turned back in utter shame."

Zapo Verde Soy Yo!

Well, Thursday, November 16, was my 27th birthday!!!! It was a day of mixed emotions and sentiments, but when the day was done I was nothing but perfectly content with the day the Lord gifted me! It started off a little sad. Yes, sadly, since I'm a girl, I must admit there were even some tears that morning for missing my family and wanting to be able to receive phone calls with folks singing to me and not just have to make the calls myself and coax a happy birthday out of them. But then, a miracle happened. I was pouring out these feelings to the Lord on my couch, and lo and behold MY PHONE RANG IN MY APPARTMENT. Now, I get zero signal in my appartment; normally there isn't even enough signal to notify me that I have voice mail let alone receive an incoming call! But it rang, and when I answered I heard the sweet voice of my step-mom, Kathy, singing Happy Birthday to me! And she was with my grandmother too, so I got to talk to both of them.

So, that kicked off the joyous rest of the day. I had just finished telling the Lord that all I wanted was to be able to recieve the calls of people singing to me, when my phone rang and Jesus told me Happy Birthday through my step-mom. Talk about a gift! And it just got better from there...more phone calls to friends and family, especially those in Guad who don't even have email, and then I had time to make myself really beautiful for the special dinner being made for me that night before heading off to Faith's for some mentor time. Then around 4:45 I headed to Arrayanes to the home of Sandy and Mili. Their mom, Flavia, was the one making the dinner. She made posole, and let me tell you, she makes it GOOD! Posole is a traditional Mexican dish that is kind of like a tomatoe based broth with meat (usually chicken) and hominy (a type of corn), and it is pronounced "po-so-lay". She invited all her sisters and their families, all of which are some of my favorite people here in Mexico. We had some great fellowship and great food, and it was wonderfully fun and special. The Mexican customs for birthdays are very different. Folks arrive at the party and hand the birthday person their gift and give them a hug. I've reached an age where my natural approach is not to expect gifts, which is just fine by me, so I actually felt funny receiving gifts. But every single gift was sweet and exactly what I actually have been wanting or needing! And they had no clue...another birthday gift from the Lord!

One special gift of note came from Flavia. Aside from doing all the prep work and making the big dinner and serving everyone (since normally that is something I would do at my own party), she also gave me a necklace. It's a rose on a gold chain. She came out of the house at one point and actually put it on me and looked me in the eye and said, "May you be here in Mexico for many years to come and may you have even more years of life and life blessed!" It was really special. She has always made me feel like part of the family in a way, and this was just another manifestation of that.

The next day, Friday, I had Mili and Sandy spend the night. Since it is not the Mexican custom to open presents at the party, I opened them with the girls on Friday night in my appartment. Then afterward, I nuked a microwave brownie mix (add water and nuke for 45 secons...way to go Duncan Hines! Very tasty!), put a tealight candle in the middle and the girls sang me both the Mexican birthday song (Las Manyanitas) and the US birthday song only according to how it sounds to them: "Happy Birthday to You" sounds like "Zapo Verde Eres Tu", which means "You are a green frog". HAH! Here are links to the videos I took of them singing these songs: "Las Manyanitas" and "Zapo Verde Eres Tu". Anyway, I'm posting a couple of pics here of the festivities, but I have put together an album on my PhotoSite. The link is to the right (Online Photo Album). Thanks to all of you who helped make the day special with MySpace comments, phone calls/messages, and emails. You guys rock! Enjoy the pics!!

Flavia serving the posole

The rose necklace Flavia gave me

Eating dinner in the front yard

Some of the family/party-goers: L-R: Erika (Flavia's sister) holding Coco, Brenda (Coco's mom), Aide, Donya Emilia (Flavia's mom), Josefina (Flavia's sister)

L-R: Pola (Flavia's sister), Me, Favi

Me and Mili at the party

Sandy and Me. She was all hugs that night..even more than usual!

The birthday "cake" and special beverages (DP is extremely hard to find here in Mexico) from the sleepover on Friday.

So, I just remembered that we as a ministry in Cofradia have a webpage, which happens to be where we post videos from each of the outreach teams that come down here as well as from various youth events. The most recent video posted is from El Reto, the youth event that took place in September. Check out the website and watch the video...www.cofradiamexico.com, or you can click on the link to the right.

Pictures

Ok, everyone...I have FINALLY updated my photosite. Check it out at foreveramber.photosite.com. There is a link on the right that says "Online Photo Album", which links to this site also, so you can check it out from time to time if you want to see if it's been updated. I've had a lot of fun going through the pics and updating this, so I hope you will have as much fun looking through them!

On another note, we have recently had a couple of different youth events. One was hosted here, and was a one-day event. We invited the youth groups from La Cruz, Sinaloa (near Mazatlan); Rosario, Sinaloa; and Rosa Morada (within our own municipality), and with our own youth we had a total of about 50 youth in attendence that day. During the day we played tournement games of volleyball, soccer, and pictionary. There were 6 teams and they each played each game 5 different times! Then in the afternoon, our youth hosted groups of visiting youth in their homes for lunch, and everyone then enjoyed some free time to rest and clean up for the evening services. Our speaker was a young man named Felipe. I believe he was also the speaker at a youth camp in July that our youth attended, and from what I hear they responded well to his messages then. Our event in October was no different. He spoke about real love vs. worldly love and challenged them to love well and to seek the true love that God offers us through His Son, etc, as well as to love each other truly. The evening ended with a time of prayer, and we continue to see fruit and hear stories of how our youth were touched by the Lord during that time.

I especially enjoyed the prayer portion of the service. I was nervous when Steve called me up with the rest of the leaders to be available to pray with the youth who would come up for prayer becuse praying in SPanish is one of the hardest things for me. But as I was going up to stand in the front, I prayed so hard that the Lord would give me the words I needed, and I felt his peace and presence just descend upon me. I had one of our own youth girls come up and have me pray with her, and the words just flowed. IT WAS SO NEAT!!! And praying in Spanish has been SO much easier ever since. Granted, my praying is not perfect in Spanish, and the words certainly do not come as easily as they do in English, but it gets better every time I do it!

This past weekend, we had another youth event, only this time we took 16 of our youth up to La Cruz, Sinaloa. The church there rented a water park to host the event, and there were youth there from Mazatlan and a couple other towns in addition to us. We arrived Friday afternoon, Nov. 3, in time to set up our tents and get settled in before the evening service started. There was worship and then a teaching given by the youth pastor of our overseeing church in Tepic. The church is called La Fuente (The Fountain), and the youth pastor's name is Paolo. He spoke Friday night about living in submission to authority. His message was truly annointed and I know that many of our youth were challenged to re-examine their approach and response to authority in their lives.

Saturday was a free day for the most part. The youth were free to swim in the pool and play soccer and just hang out and have a good time. Just about everyone ended up in the pool; and if they didn't go willingly, they were thrown in. There were also some oraganized relay games, which turned out to be a ton of fun! Then in the evening Paolo taught again, but this time on how we satisfy the hunger that all of us have in our hearts. He challenged them not to satisfy their hunger with what the world has to offer (sex, drugs, alcohol, fashion, etc), but instead to satisfy their hunger in the Lord and to guard carefully the inheretance He has given each of them in Jesus, as well as the destinys that each of them already holds in their hands, not just their own but also the destinys of future spouses and of those whose lives they will affect as they go through their own lives. It was an amazing message and was followed by an amazing time of prayer. He spoke to the girls and boys separately during prayer time, and I have heard several of the girls talk about how the Lord touched their hearts or called their attention from that message. We left shortly after the evening service ended and arrived back home around 3 am on Sunday morning.

Pictures from these events are all posted in that photo site I linked to at the beginning. Make sure to check them out and see what our youth have been up to! The Lord is moving in their hearts, challenging them to deeper relationships with him and with those around them. Please pray for us and for our youth, that we would continue to see growth in the youth currently attending, and that we would continue to reach out to those outside the church. Also, keep the youth in your prayers as the enemy is working overtime to route and destroy them. Thank you!