Various thoughts..

So, there are a couple things about Mexico that I DO NOT like at all!

1. Ghekos in my room
2. Cockroaches anywhere!!!!

Yesterday, I went to Jay and Faith's (Jay was out of town with the team) to get a Dr. Pepper and ended up staying all day until dinner, when I was supposed to be there anyway. Well, while I was helping Faith make the pasta, I happened to notice a little flesh-colored lizard dart from the window behind her stove--talk about shock factor! She informed me that it was a gheko and that I would just have to get used to them. They eat bugs so they are good things to have around, and they are everywhere, and I'd just have to get used to them. UGH! Well, tonight I came home from dinner with Dave, Jonathan, Dave's parents, Isabel, and her son Josue in Pilas (we had the best tacos EVER!), and when I turned on the light in my room, I noticed this thing scoot down my wall very quickly and then dart along the bottom of the wall towards my door--yah, it was a gheko. The first one I've experienced inside my own living quarters. Apparantly it didn't want to be around me anymore than I wanted to be around it, so it left, thankfully. But I might just sleep with one eye open tonight. I'm afraid it might come back when the lights are out. Not sure how it got in in the first place, but UGH.

So, the gheko left, and then I went ahead and got ready for bed. When I walked into the bathroom I happened to notice the LARGEST COCKROACH KNOWN TO MAN hanging out on our sink....DOUBLE UGH!!! So, I tried spraying it with roach spray--didn't work at all. I finally smashed the thing to bits with my shoe, but talk about NASTY!!! I feel violated just having set eyes on it. It was seriously big. Seriously.

Well, now for something I DO like about Cofradia, Mexico. There are SO MANY things, that it's hard to pick just one, but we'll start with the beauty around me! They have absolutely captivating sunsets EVERY DAY it seems. I'm always just in awe each night when the sun starts to go down. It's like the whole sky is just set ablaze with colors. I was telling Faith last night that in Fred, we are in the valley of Central VA and there are so many trees that often you just can't see all of the sunset that you want to see. But here, even though we're not quite on top of a mountain or anything, there just aren't as many or the same kind of bushy trees that we have in Fred, so you can see the whole horizon line as the sun is going down simply by walking down the street a few blocks, and it's just like watching from on top of the mountain! Incredible! Take a look!

This was the the first of two pictures taken of the same sunset in Santa Fe on Thursday evening before our movie night event began. See what an amazing clear view we have?!

This was the second (I zoomed in) taken about 30 seconds after the first. I literally watched the sky catch fire as these colors deepened, and we could see the color of the light changing where it shone around us on the ground! How awesomely creative is our God!!! The heavens certainly do declare his WONDERS!!!

So, we had two teams come in the last two weeks, both of which worked with the youth in various capacities. I've mentioned before how neat it was to watch them interact across language barriers to really befriend the local youth, to really make them feel special and loved, and to also challenge them to be witnesses in their own communities, drawing in their friends and family and not to be ashamed or afraid to speak out about the truth of the gospel no matter what. Well, I've wanted to blog about all that went on, but I just don't have the words. However, Steve has written about it on his blog, and he even posted pictures from the various events, some of which I took myself. So, PLEASE click here and read up on all that went on with the two teams from Houston (all the blogs from "Update" from Tuesday, March 7 through "This Week's Team" from Thursday, March 16). They were so great, and it was such a blessing and priveledge for me to be part of that! Especially check out the pics from the Oscars Night--Steve related to us last weekend after he returned from dropping off the first team and picking up the second in Guadelajara that Mili and Sandra, two of our youth, loved how the Houston youth transformed the Arrayanes church for Oscars night, that afterward they commented to Steve, "When I get married, it's gonna be in that church and it's gonna look like THAT!" How precious to know that the work those American youth did here was the stuff of DREAMS for these kids! If you Houston youth are reading this: THANK YOU!