Noche de Vida....

....is a once-a-month youth night that happens the last Saturday of every month. We alternate between having it in Cofradia and Arrayanes. For January, we were in Cofradia, and it happened to be while His Place construction team was here. It was a great night. We started the evening with a slideshow from the Christmas soccor tournament. Then we played this new quiz game we've started called "Quien Quiere Quinientos?" ("Who Wants 500?"). It's sort of like "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?", but it's Bible trivia, and the most they can win is 500 pesos (about $50USD). That was fun. We choose the player (only one each month) through a rafle. The guy who got it didn't make it past the second question, but oh well! At least he gave it a shot! Then we moved on to worship and the message. Our speaker was one of our own youth--Martin. He is the oldest son of the pastor in Arrayanes, and the Lord has done so much in Martin's life over the last 2 years. He spent a year at a Bible school in Oaxaca, and has been here since the summer, and then he plans to return to school this fall to complete the second and final year of the program. His desire is to preach and share the gospel, espeically with youth and the indigenous population. Anyway, his message that night was about "Making Decisions", and it was a great message. Lots of kids came up for prayer during prayer time including the entire rap band that Martin and his brother Ruben have started.

Speaking of prayer time, I wanted to recount a little story. I was talking with Sandy and Mili after the evening was over and they related the following to me: Pola and I were the female youth leaders who were up front to pray with the girls. Mili and Sandy had both come up but were behind some of the other girls being prayed for. I was praying with some of the other girls, but when I looked up at the end of praying I saw Sandy and Mili both praying on their own each with one other girl: Mili with Ana and Sandy with Pati! I was so surprised to see this, that afterward I asked Sandy what happened because she went up to receive prayer and ended up offering it! She told me that she did get prayed for by Pola, and so did Pati. When prayer time started, she asked Pati if she wanted to go up, and Pati seemed nervous about it. She told Sandy that she wasn't ready to receive Christ and didn't want to go up alone, and Sandy assured her that she could still be prayed for. So, she said she wanted that and they went up and Pola prayed for them (they are the three all the way to the right in the pic..Sandy in the stripes with her hand on Pati's back). When they were done, Pati hugged Sandy and was crying. Sandy said she just felt in her gut that there was something more to pray for Pati, so she asked her if there was something else specific for which she wanted prayer. She shared about some problems at home in her family and also that she wanted prayer that her parents would keep letting her come to church. So, Sandy just started praying for her. She said she just kept praying and praying and was suprised at how easily the prayer came out of her. She was just so excited because she said that was the first time something like that had happened to her, where God used her in that kind of a way, and it was so cool to her!

A similar thing happened with Ana and Mili as well. They have formed a bit of a connection and talk pretty easily. Ana confides in Mili and seeks her advice on things. After being prayed for, Ana turned and hugged Mili who was behind her. Mili asked if something else was going on, and Ana shared with her. So, Mili started praying for her as well. She said the same thing happened in that the prayer just started rolling off her tongue and she wasn't even sure what she was saying, but that it was a really cool experience! It's just so neat to see how the Lord is working in these two girls. He obviously has something very special planned for them! What a glorious priveledge to watch it beginning to unfold!

Playing at Dusk

So, when we took the Houston ladies up to Mojocuautla, we took a bunch of the Mexican ladies with us, including Sandy and Mili. After it was over and everyone was just milling around waiting to head back to the base, Sandy, Mili, and I had fun playing on a hill overlooking the river! We had fun running up the hill, but then one of them started taking pictures of us which turned out pretty cool because it was dusk and we basically just came out like sillhouettes. So, enjoy!

Ok, seriously...I think I might crow (like Peter Pan!)

"Walk with me...friend...sister..."

And the sun sets on the end of a very wonderful day :)

Cy-Fair Ladies Outreach

Well, here we are a couple weeks into 2007, and it's already been an exciting year so far!! HAH! We just had a group of women here from Houston Texas. They came from Cy-Fair Christian Church on a short-term trip to do women's ministry here in Cofradia, and man was it A-MAZ-ING! It was a small group, but I believe they had a HUGE impact! We had announced that they were coming in both church for a couple weeks before they arrived. So, we had a large group of ladies show up that first day. Some were more skeptical than others about whether or not they thought they'd enjoy it (especially the youth girls that came), but after that first day, they were hooked! Each morning started off with some fellowship time just talking to folks as we waited for everyone to arrive. This group of ladies also brought a ton of books that they donated for us to start a church library. So we had all those books laid out each morning, and the women would mill about looking to see what was available. A couple of mornings we started with some crafts also. But regardless of what we did during "arrival" time, when it was time to began, we did so with AEROBICS!! It was great! It was fun and funny all at the same time, but the ladies REALLY liked it! Of course there were some who didn't participate (yours truly among them), but they would encourage the other ladies anyway. In fact, about 6-8 of them enjoyed it so much that they have continued to come and do aerobics together now that the Houston ladies are gone (they donated that video too)!

Then it was time for the Bible study lesson. The theme for the week was Sister, Daughter, Friend, and our Bible study lessons looked at different Biblical women who were one or more of these aspects of women. We studied Mary and Elizabeth, Mary and Martha, the woman with the blood disorder, etc. It was really neat to look at these very familiar Bible stories from the perspective of their interactions with each other and what that could mean for us in our lives! After the lesson, we had small group time to discuss the lesson and what the Lord was teaching us through the stories. And then several days of the week we ended with some craft time. We made banners with the theme of the week printed on them, and the women really enjoyed that! It was so refreshing to see our Mexican ladies interacting with each other the way they did during this outreach! More often than not the two church are pretty isolated from each other (Arryanes and Cofradia). And when there are fellowship activities for both churches together, it's not uncommon to hear commetns about how someone doesn't want to go because of this person or that person, etc. That can be very discouraging sometimes because it's quite the opposite of unity. But during this outreach the Arrayanes women came with a whole truck-load of women and they came everyday. We had women coming who are not part of the church, and they too came every day! We had old women and young women and women all in between! And no one was thinking about who they were trying to avoid. They were just ENJOYING themselves! And it was so precious to be part of!

I was especially pleased because Sandy and Mili came each day. I had such a hard time convincing them before the women arrived that this would be an enjoyable thing for them. They couldn't get past the fact that this would be a week of ministry for grown-up ladies, all married and with families. But I finally convinced them to come at least the first day saying that the ministry that was going to take place was not specific to women of any age or stage of life and that they really would enjoy it! Well, they had a BLAST! And it was great hearing from them during small group sessions. Two of the women on the team took a special interest in these two young ladies. They actually went with me to have our weekly prayer group that Wednesday, and the elder of the two ladies shared about her favorite Bible story: the story of Esther. This was especially cool because Sandy and I are studying through that book right now in our mentor times each week. Sandy and Mili were really touched by what this lady had to share, and they enjoyed the younger of the two as well as we took them home. The younger of the two was also their small group leader, so they had time to spend with her each week.

That week they also went up to Mojocuautla to minister to the Cora ladies in that village. We split into groups and went to several different homes. There they passed out gifts of perfumes, etc, that had verses inside about how our prayers are like incense to the Lord. After explaining all this, the women then offered to pray with the Cora ladies who gladly accepted those prayers. The group I was with had the opportunity to share with a couple of ladies who don't normally involve themselves with the Bible study activities in that village each week, so it was a real outreach opportunity. One of them was even really sick. None of us left that encounter dry-eyed. During another visit, we were all seated, and a goat began to nibble and nose one of the American ladies during prayer. When we were done and had finally stood up, the goat immediately jumped into the chair and made himself comfortable. We all had a good laugh as we realized that the goat was trying to get his chair back from our friend!

Finally, the last night they were there, the American ladies put on a movie night for all the women and their families. They showed the Wizard of Oz (in Spanish!..quite hard to find!), and before it started they shared some spiritual principles that we can learn from this movie! Everyone had a blast during the movie! And we all ate popcorn and PINK M&Ms!!! After the movie, it was time to say goodbye as the ladies were leaving for home the next morning. I was especially struck by the goodbyes that took place between Sandy and Mili and their small group leader. There were tears (very rare on the girls' parts), and as I walked them back to their truck, I asked them what they thought of the week. Their response: "IT WAS PERFECT!" After the difficulty I had convincing them to give it a try, this was a miraculous answer to hear from them! But I was so encouraged by it because it meant that they EXPERIENCED something during the week. They were touched by it, and I've seen them more interactive with older ladies in the church since then, especially their aunts. It's just really cool to see how the Lord works through us and in us in the most extraordinary ways...even when they seem pretty unremarkable! God is really good, and His goodness shone through yet again through this outreach experience! Thank the Lord for all that He is doing!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Welcome, friends, to 2007, a year full of promise and possibility!! Our New Years celebration was SO MUCH FUN!!! Since New Years Eve was a Sunday, it all started with another joint church service. That's right! The Arrayanes church joined us for another sunday service..that's 2 in a row! And it was so great! Then that evening, the Cofradia church had planned a sort of pot-luck-esque gathering at the home of one of our families! This is how we organized it! Every family that was coming was to bring enough meat to feed their family and enough tortilla mix to feed their family. Then on top of that each of the family groups had committed to bringing another aspect of the meal: beans, salsa, and a few other things. I wasn't in on the planning so I'm not sure what all they were supposed to bring, but let me tell you we had a feast! Then when everyone arrived around 5 pm, the men all worked on grilling the meat and the women all made the tortillas. Yes, you read me right...hand-made tortillas. It's so normal here for them, but they are SOOOO good! It was a ton of fun, and even some of our guys did a little tortilla-making...quite hillarious seeing Dave (our base director), Goyo (our pastor), and the dad of the family that did the soccer camp making tortillas!

Mati (Goyo's wife), Pola (from Arrayanes), and Maria (Arrayanes pastor's wife) preparing meat for grilling

Dave making hand-made tortillas!

Goyo making tortillas

Mr. Funk making tortillas--quite an experience for his Christmas outreach trip with his wife and three daughters!

Folks from Arrayanes came too, and we all ate and laughed and talked and had a grand ole' time. The later it got the colder it got. Eventually we had a couple fires going with folks sitting around them roasting marshmellows and telling stories or just chatting about stuff. Sandy came from Arrayanes, and we had a good time laughing and spending time with her family that came and others from the church. Everyone went home around 11:30 pm, and right at midnight everyone started shooting off their guns for about an hour! At that point, it was already pretty noisy from all the parties going on. So you could hear the music from all over town plus all the guns going off. It took a little while to fall asleep, but it finally happened!

New Years Day dawned, and I had mentor time with Sandy. We decided to go ahead with it regradless of the holiday since we hadn't had mentor time in a couple weeks due to the Christmas activities. I showed up at her house around 10 am to find her still asleep as she had been up all night at the all-night town party in Arrayanes after returning from our church party!!! We had some great time together that morning discussing some pretty serious stuff that had come up for her the night before, and God moved in amazing ways. I can still see how the look on her face changed as the truth of God's Word in relation to what was going on for her began to sink in deeply in her heart. It is a truly unforgetable experience to be able to see with your physical eyes the transformation that the Word of God has on a life in the instant that it's happening!! It was an amazing way to start the year!

The Lord has his own challenge for me as we rang in the New Year together! As I've pondered over the end of 2006 and the entrance of 2007, the Lord has been challenging me to have an undivided heart (Psalm 86:11; Ezekiel 11:19; Jeremiah 32:39) and to be committed to the pilgrimmage with Him that will lead directly to His throne room one day, from strength to strength (Psalm 84:5-7), transformed in ever increasing glory (2 Corinthians 3:18), finding all my fountains in Him (Psalm 87:7). None of that happens by accident. None of that just sneaks up on us until we realize that it has come to be true without our realizing it! It is something we have to work for; we have to set our course in that direction and commit ourselves to how the Lord would work in us to accomplish that in us since we know it is His will and promise for us! It only happens when we seek it out intentionally. So, that's my prayer, my hope, and my "plan" for 2007, and instead of saying "we'll see if it happens", I'm claiming the truth that it WILL happen because that's the kind of God we serve! I pray that as you begin your new year that the Lord is challenging and encouraging you in your intentionality for 2007 as well, that this will not be a year that just happens to us but rather one in which WE happen to IT and all for the glory and kingdom of God.