Southside Christian Church

So, last week was a buzz of activity around here! We had a team of 32 here from April 1-8 (they left Cofradia on April 7 for Mazatlan and flew home from Mazatlan on April 8). They were from Spokane, WA, and they were SUCH A BLAST! I had such a good time with them! I was very impressed with how much fun they were all able to have with each other and still manage to behave themselves. It was simply fun for the sake of enjoying themselves and not for the sake of causing trouble! How amazing to find that kind of maturity in kids between the ages of 14 and 17/18. Most of them were in the younger part of that range, too! They worked so hard on the new church building being constructed right now. I believe they finished the work needed on the last part of the wall foundation and actually got that poured and completed ahead of schedule! So, since they had finished early in Thursday with their construction activities, we took them up to the Penas Mountain (see one of my earlier posts) to see the countryside.

In the afternoons all week they hosted a Kid's Club VBS. We averaged about 120 kids here on the base property EVERY DAY! It was amazing! I didn't even know we had that many kids around here! We brought them in from Arrayanes and Santa Fe also, but the bulk of them were from right here in Cofradia! The Kid's Club activities included worship at the beginning. There were also dramas put on by the kids and narrated from scripture passages (Creation of Man and Woman, The Prodigal Son, The Healing of the Paralytic, and The Good Samaritan). The kids did such a good job acting out their parts in the drama--they were quite entertaining but they got the points across very well.

Creation of Man and Woman--Adam (in white) trying to find a suitable helper amongst the animals

The Prodigal Son--The Father's joy when his son comes home

The Healing of the Paralytic--The Lame walks again!

The Good Samaritan--Taking the man to get help

Then after the dramas, the kids were divided into groups that they stayed in all week, and those groups would do crafts that were somewhat pertinant to the dramas they had just seen from scripture. At the end of the week--Thursday night--we showed The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe for all the kids who had come during the week AND their parents! It was a smash hit. Lots of popcorn (they eat it with chile sauce on it!) and lots of people and lots of fun!

I ended up having to help with translation this week, too. That was quite a stretch for me because I do alright in casual conversation when I have something to say because I can figure it out ahead of time; but there is no way for me to know what someone's going to want to say and therefore cannot plan it out ahead of time! So, that was quite a stretch, but it was so neat because by the end of the week, I was having an 2-hour-long conversation with one of the girls from Arrayanes that I'm getting to know. Her name is Sandy (the girl to my left), and her younger sister is Mili (to my right, and the girl all the way on the right is their cousin Lupe)--I've mentioned them before. They are cousins of Faviola and Brenda, about whom I've also blogged before. It was such a neat thing to see how much more comfortable I was with sticking myself out there and just talking with people by the end of the week. The funny thing was that on Friday I accompanied the team to Mazatlan, where I spoke almost no Spanish for about 36 hours, and by the time I got back to Cofradia, I felt like I'd taken a step backward--you know, 2 steps forward, 1 step back. However, that's ok, because at least I know that I CAN do it and that it DOES improve with practice, so I'm trying to make arrangements that will provide me with lots of opportunities to practice! One other exciting happened that happened this week!! I saw my first armadillo, and I actually ATE armadillo! It was very flavorful!!

Here's our armadillow friend in the arms of Rachel, surrounded by Alejandra (left), Rebecka in the green (in Tepic for 3 months from Canada), and Lili (Mexican girl who works with the others in Tepic)

And here is our Armadillow friend trying to get away. Yes, we ate him--boy was he tasty!

We had quite a blast in Mazatlan on Friday and Saturday. The bus ride there was quite enjoyable for me because I actually got to spend some time with the girls of the group. The oddest thing happened with this group--I spent almost no time at all with any of the girls! I always ended up hanging out with the guys, which is SO out of character for me. But I never felt anything but completely comfortable with this group of guys, and it was really good for me to have the chance to be "one of the guys" if you will and grow even more in my ability to interact with men well and to get more insight into man-world! However, I greatly enjoyed getting to know some of the girls on the team on our way to and in Mazatalan! In fact, a couple of them walked with me on the beach Friday night late for about an hour and a half and we had such a good time talking and laughing and sharing. They are such a stellar group of guys and girls! It says a great deal about the caliber of leadership at that church that their youth group--and such a young youth group--has turned out as it has! Makes me want to go check out that church because they must be doing something right! One other enjoyable aspect of this past week was that we had some folks come from Tepic to help out in the kitchen and with translating (see the armadillo picture above), since we are so short-staffed right now with two of our staff families out of the country. We had a married couple and three girls around my age staying with us all week. The three girls stayed in the room in front of mine, and we had such a blast! It was great to have some girlfriends around and to get lots of social time with them! What a blessing all of this has been for me this week. I'm very much an extrovert, and I had spent A LOT of time by myself over the first four weeks I was here; but I don't think I'd realized how depleted my energy sources had become until I had this group and these three girls here to talk with and enjoy! I truly just soaked up every ounce that I could. The only time I really spent alone was when I was sleeping or working on stuff for Dave or team expenses (which took about an hour a day tops, if that)! Two of the girls ended up going with us to Mazatlan, and we had a blast out on the beach all day (I actually got some sun without burning!!!) and at dinner Friday night. We also shared a room and had some good girl-talk in our room! I'm loving making friends here, but it's going to be awefully hard to leave them when I return in June!

The sunset in Mazatlan as we at our team banquet in a beautiful, open-air restaurant on the beach!

So, now I'm almost half-way through my three months in Mexico. It's amazing to realize that, and unbelievable all at the same time. We have no more teams coming during my time here, so we shall see how things go. Semana Santa is arriving here--either this week or next. It will be interesting to see how they celebrate Holy Week and Easter here! It was so cool to experience a Mexican Christmas, and now I'll get to do the same with Easter--what better holidays to experience in another culture! I'm excited over that. :)

I'm continuing to tutor Cecilio with his reading. He is improving, slowly but surely. I'm trying to encourage him to start reading words and not just syllables, but that's a hard concept to understand. I've also been asked by a girl in town to teach her English. Now, that's a challenge, because I've never taught English before. So, we'll see how that goes. She wants to come 3 days a week; we're gonna try that at first, but that may change depending on how well it goes. Thankfully, Jan and Doug will be back in a week or so, and both of them are professional teachers and have even taught English here before. So, hopefully I can get some help and advice and guidance from them. I'm also going to be branching out a little more and trying to head over to Arrayanes more frequently on my own to hang out and talk with Faviola, Brenda, Mili, and Sandy and some others. I really want to get to know these girls better. I'm told by some of the missionaries that they respond so well to me in ways that they've never really responded to any of the others that have been here so much longer than I. They tell me that I seem to be able to reach the folks that no one else has ever been able to reach, and since I don't know everyone's history, I don't look at someone and think, "Oh, she's never gonna get it, so I'm just not going to try anymore." Every person in this town is fresh and new to me, and for that I have a special opportunity to reach people in ways that others haven't been able to. I'm trying to be open to that, but it's hard because it requires me to get out there and interact with people that the others are spending as much time with, which means I'm on my own in a lot of ways...YIKES! But the Lord knows why He has me here and what He wants to do in and through me, and all I need to do is keep my heart open and willing and obedient. So, please keep that in your prayers! I still don't know if I'm coming back or not, but I'm enjoying my time while I have it, and that's all I need to know for today!