Student Leadership Conference and then Home Again!

So, February 8-10 saw us in a very youth-specific outreach: a Youth Leadership Conference. Two pastors from Cy-Fair Christian Church in Houston, TX came down, for the second year in a row, to do this conference with our youth. The topic was "Authorith = Love", and they really challenged our kids. Some responded better than others to the authority that these pastors brought with them, but I think that overall it was a very successful outreach. I would describe it all for you, but one of our other staff members, Steve, who is in charge of the youth ministry, blogged about it himself, and he did a great job describing it all, and even included a couple of pics. So, I'm just going to link you to that blog! Go HERE and enjoy reading about what the Lord is teaching our youth! And please continue to keep them in your prayers concerning this area of obedience and submission! It's a biggie! One of the pastors preached on Sunday, and then after the service in Cofradia, they headed back to Guadalajara to fly home. Well, I went with them, since I too was flying home from Guad!

We left Sunday afternoon, and they dropped me off that evening at the Garza home where I lived while in school. It was so wonderful to get to see everyone! Angeles and Romel had planned to have everyone over after church that evening for a celebration dinner to say hello to me and to say goodbye to Sally as a couple weeks later, she was graduating and returning to the states. My favorite part of that evening was the look on Erika's face when she saw me standing there. I was there before they all arrived, and I was sure that she had heard that I would be there. Apparantly, she didn't, however, so as she walked in her face was priceless as she tried to process and figure out who I was standing there! It was great to hug all the dear folk there in Guad, and that night, two of the American students spent the night with Sally and I. Sally and I had a good time watching some Gilmore Girls and chit-chatting while the other two girls studied for classes the next day. Then on Monday I went to school with them and hung out with Erika all morning, after which we headed to Starbucks and hung out some more that afternoon.

Then Tuesday morning, I grabbed a cheuffer service to the airport at 6 am since I had a 9 am flight HOME!!! My flights were all incredibly uneventful, thank the Lord. My trip went more smoothly than I could have even prayed for, especially given the fact that there was an ice storm in DC while I was flying in. I was very concerned, as was everyone else, that my flight would be delayed or canceled due to the weather, but there were no problems at all. I was excited thinking that it was icing at home. I've been missing the winter weather so much. I love the weather in Mexico right now. It's perfect...for Mexico. But it's certainly not winter, and as far as I'm concerned there is a time of year when the cold is appropriate, and I welcome it! I've missed the snow and having my nose freeze, wearing winter clothes and drinking hot beverages under warm blankets in a cozy living room with my friends and family. So, the prospect of such cold was thrilling! However, when we finally broke through the clouds over DC on our descent, I gasped audibly as I was greeted by WHITE on the ground. I had been telling everyone for so long that the reason they were having unseasonably warm weather was because God knew how badly I wanted cold that He was storing it for me to be unleashed fully upon my return, so much so that it would SNOW! Oh me of little faith, even though I knew it was icing, I was not expecting a white ground! It was a glorious moment to break through the clouds and see that God had cared for even such a petty prayer request! :)

The drive home from the airport was even smooth! Since the weather had been so bad, everyone had left work early so that though we were driving home in rush hour on the worst interstate for rush hour, we had no traffic problems cuz most people were already home! Elena and Ken picked me up, and I had a good time visiting with them until my dad arrived at their house. Now, I'm home with my family, taking the couple of quite days that I have to take organize receipts and expense reports, etc. so that I can get my taxes done while I'm here! It is so wonderful to be back with my family: to hug my nephew, to hang out with my sisters, to talk to my friends on the phone and just drive to their homes when I feel like it, to drive my car again (although that took a little getting used to, since I'm now used to a 68 Ford pickup..hah!), etc. God is just so good to me, and I'm eating up his goodness by the bowlfull!

Girls Prayer Group

So, I updated in my January update about our Girls' Prayer Group and the changes that have taken place in that activity. But I wanted to share a little more detail about how that's going. In our first couple of meetings with the girls here in Cofradia, I was very excited to hear what some of the girls shared!

One of the girls, Ana, used to be very involved in the youth group and other ministry areas, and then she just sort of started fading out. Well, recently she started coming back to youth group consistently, and now she's coming to prayer group as well!

Another girls, Claudia, shared from Psalm 1 this past week. Though she has been involved in the youth ministry since The CHALLENGE (El Reto) back in September, she didn't have her own Bible. So, we gave her a New Testament when she shared this at our first meeting here in Cofradia. Last week she shared that this past week she didn't know where to start when it came to reading her new Bible. So, she prayed and asked God to give her a page # to start on. Well, he led her to Psalm 1, and that's the passage she shared in group and what that Psalm said to her. What an amazing thing to share and a perfect place to start, eh?!

We even had a young lady come who has admited that she doesn't have a relationship with Christ but who has participated in youth events in the past. Sandy and she have formed somewhat of a special connection, and Sandy even approached this young lady, Pati, about meeting together each week. However, Pati goes to school in a different town and arrives late each day; for that reason she isn't able to meet with Sandy or continue coming to group, but I was so excited to see Sandy take that initiative and try to reach out to Pati in that way.

Mili and Sandy come each week, but they come very early on Wedensday mornings using the bus that goes between the town. It costs them a little something to attend this meeting, and it's exciting to me to see them making the effort and doing what it takes to participate in something like this. Even though it means that they are away from home all day just for an hour-long prayer group meeting.

Please keep these girls in your prayers: Sany, Mili, Claudia, Ana, Pati, and Cintia. And please pray that the Lord will bring in more girls and build a precious unity amongs our young ladies in this area!

January Monthly Update

JUMPIN’ IN

Well, January has been quite a full month as it kicked off our Short-Term Missions (STM) season! And what a packed season we have ahead of us! As of right now we have 10 outreaches on our 2007 STM calendar from January to August, and there is at least one more in the works! January started with a women’s team from Houston, Texas. They came and ministered to our women through aerobics, crafts, Bible studies, providing a library of books and CDs, and through the building and strengthening of relationships. It’s exciting to see them continue in some of the activities and habits that the women from Texas introduced that week! May these activities and habits become permanent! At the end of January we had a construction team from Washington state. What hard workers these folks were! They worked entirely on our central church facility, which we started construction on just a year ago! While they were here, they finished the platform floor and steps, built the instrument room (minus the roof), and leveled about one-third of what will be the sanctuary floor/basketball court. Two of their men also created our front gate from scratch, welding strips of metal together, and they had it installed by the time they left. What an undertaking! But we are excited to see this facility beginning to take shape as well as the dream behind it! Even more exciting is that our local church members are beginning to catch that dream themselves as they see it coming to life before their eyes, and so quickly! Praise the Lord!

THE MENTOR GAZETTE

In ministry news, I’m very excited about how the Lord is working in our young ladies! I continue to mentor Sandy, and I continue to be awed and humbled as I watch the Lord working in her and growing her into a truly beautiful, strong, and committed woman of God! We just finished studying the book of Ester. It has been a wonderful study in the contrast between worldly and godly character, in submission and obedience, and in having confidence in the presence and working of God in all things at all times! In addition to our study, we have talked about other issues. Discipleship is one of them, and I am encouraged to see her taking steps to reach out to other girls, praying with them and encouraging them in the truth! We have also dealt with issues such as standing firm in the decision not to date non-Christians and in figuring out what kind of man she would want her future husband to be. As the Lord has worked in her life in all these areas, she has been put to the test over and over again both in her own relationships and also due to the attitudes of her parents and sisters on these matters. She is a voice of one more often than not, but she stands on the Word of God so she does not stand alone. I’m so proud of her steadfastness and persistence in the face of strong opposition and from those most dear to her. We are believing that the Lord is doing a changing work in her family, but that takes time and often a lot of pain. Please pray for Sandy and her family.

DO NOT STOP MEETING TOGETHER…

The other very exciting development concerns our girls’ prayer group! This group began in April when I was here during my internship and consisted of me, Sandy, her sister Mili, and her two cousins Lupe and Favi. Favi and Lupe are no longer able to meet with us. However, though we miss having them, we are pleased for the opportunity to open up the group to include more girls. This required us to move our meetings to my house in Cofradía in January, and as a result we have had three to four of our Cofradía girls attend each week. They are all much younger in age and in faith, but they continue to come and do not seem to be deterred by the fact that they are required to share something and pray with us. The point of this prayer group is that each girl would be reading throughout the week so as to have something to share in our meetings, and that we would all pray for and with each other before going our separate ways. By requiring participation from each girl who attends, we avoid having the same ones share each week and increase the possibility of spiritual growth in every one of them! In just our first three meetings, the Lord has done a great deal in each one, and I’m excited to see how He continues to move in their hearts and lives. In addition to Sandy and Mili, please keep Cintia, Ana, Claudia, Pati, Mirna, and Judit in your prayers.

(pics counterclockwise from Top Left. Claudia, Me and Judit, the girls (Ana, Cintia, Mirna, Mili)

More Updated Links

Hey folks! I'm still working on the updates. Things have been crazy busy around here, and now I'm getting ready to head to Virginia at the end of a Youth Leadership Conference at this week. However, I did want to announce that I've added a couple of links:

1. There is a link for the online catalog of our Library here at the church in Cofradia. This library was officially started by the Cy-Fair Christian Church Women's Outreach Team that came down at the beginning of January. Their donation of books, CDs, Bibles, and Bible's on CD have been blessing our church body. We decided to do an online catalog so that folks can search it and know exactly what we have and don't have in case they have an interest in donating more books, CDs, reference materials (study materials, health reference books, etc.), movies (DVD and VHS), or anything else they think might bless the church body here in Mexico. Please keep in mind that anything donated should be in Spanish.

2. There is also now a link to My Yahoo Videos. I noticed that some of my videos when uploaded to YouTube had a delay in the audio. That does not happen with Yahoo Videos. However, since I can't seem to successfully embed the videos uploaded on Yahoo, I have kept the YouTube account as well. So, feel free to check them both out, though Yahoo will be my primary video site!

Well, enjoy! And I promise I'll continue working on those updates!

Painting

So, yesterday I headed to Arrayanes for my weekly mentoring meeting with Sandy, and then afterward spent the day at their house....painting their room! Now, I LOVE painting, so this was a blast for me, but it was hard work too! The girls had never painted before, and I had never painted concrete walls before; so this was an interesting experience for all involved. In the end, although we still need to paint another coat on the upper end of the walls and finish off the details, it turned out pretty well.

Me and Mili painting the two pink walls...

Ok, so these walls go all the way up to the tip of the ceiling!

More painting over the pink..by the way, the new color is pistachio

His Place Construction Outreach

Ok, sorry I haven't posted in a little while. We've been busy with a team from Washington state. They came from His Place Church in Mt. Vernon, WA to do construction on our new central church facility a few blocks away! This construction project started almost a year ago exactly, and it's so exciting to see it taking such form and shape already!!! It's really a huge undertaking, but our God is SO MUCH BIGGER!

Anyway, this team usually comes down every year and does nothing but construction. A few years ago, they came down and started building the Arrayanes church. They are hard workers and accomplish a ton of stuff in short amounts of time! This week they poured the platform floor and stairs; they built the instrument storage room up to the the first "dala" (it's like a concrete beam or something); they leveled about 25% of the sanctuary floor (which is slightly larger than a full-sized basketball court); they extended the re-bar columns on the property wall to their full height; they uprooted and moved several trees to their permanent locations; and two guys took a ton of steel pieces and welded them together to form our massive front gates (complete with man-door); which was installed by the time they left!!!

The greatest part of it all was that the entire week they worked side-by-side with folks from the local churches here: men, women, and even non-church members alike! Even I helped on the construction: shoveling for the mixing of concrete, wetting bricks that were being laid as part of the walls for the instrument storage room, and making steel re-bar cages for the wall cage extensions. I even helped load the massive gates onto the truck that transported them to the church! This project is cool enough as it is, but it's going to be even more phenomenal when it's done and we can each of us, Mexican and American and Canadian, walk around that facility and say, "hey, I helped build this wall!" or "I helped pour this very floor!", or "I helped pour the very platform that He's teaching me from!" What an incredible and tangible way to understand what it is to grab hold of the prize, to press on toward the goal, to take hold of our faith and walk forward in it! Wow, God is good!

The first Sunday that the team was here, they attended both services: in Cofradia and in Arrayanes. Then after the service in Arrayanes, they provided a wonderful meal of Taco soup for them to have a chance to fellowship with that church body. This team has built wonderful relationships with the church body in Arrayanes especially, so it was a really precious time of fellowship and catching up! And it was a ton of fun too!!

The team also went up to Mojocuautla on that Friday to be part of the Bible study ministry there. It was neat to be a translator for that. That is still a pretty tough job for me..translating that is. But even though I'm terrified every time I have to do it, it's just way cool when it all comes out well!

One morning during the week, I even did the unthinkable. Yup, I got up before sunrise! I accompanied three guys and one of the young ladies on a hike up the Cofradia Hill to watch the sunrise. From this hill you can see the entire town of Cofradia as well as all the way to the mountain in Penas, which is about 20 minutes from Cofradia by truck. It was a glorious morning as we welcomed the dawn and then hiked back down the hill to a wonderful breakfast and a day of hard but gratifying work! Praise the Lord for the glories of his creation!

The town of Cofradia from "The Hill". I live just a block or so above the first red roof you see. :)..just to the right of the radio tower!

The sunrise that glorious morning!

At the end of the week, the team went for Tacos in Pilas. There is a man there who has a popular taco stand on the weekends. Last year and this year he opened his home and made tacos exclusively for this team during the week (which he doesn't normally do). The team took probably about 20-30 people from the church with them, so were probably about 60-70 people total! It was SUCH A BLAST!!! Everyone had a good time talking and eating their fill! When it was all over, we at 660 tacos total, and the record from last year was broken for the one person who ate the most tacos. Last year it was 23, and one of our own youth broke the record by eating 24!!! Talk about big eaters!! But we had a wonderful night. I had the priveledge of sitting at a table with Sandy and Mili and one of the young ladies from the team. We had a good time joking around and eating good food.

What a marvelous outreach this team has had in this area. The people here KNOW them, and they look forward to spending time with them. They consider this team precious friends and brothers and sisters in Christ. What a great time of work and fellowship in the Lord this week and a half has been. We're definitely looking forward to next year!

Feliz Cumpleanos

So today is Mirna's birthday. She is Pola and Juan Luis' (the Arrayanes youth pastors) oldest daughter, and she is Mili and Sandy's cousin (Pola is their mom's sister, and Juan Luis is their dad's brother, so they're double cousins). Mirna turnes 13 today. So, last night....or rather this morning...around 12 am...we gathered up a handful of our youth and drove over to Arrayanes and woke her up at the beginning of her birthday by singing Las Manyanitas to her. That is the traditional Mexican birthday song. It was pretty fun, and kind of like an initiation for her. Since she is still in 6th grade, she had to wait until she turned 13 to be part of youth group. So, this was sort of our way of welcoming her into the group as well as to celebrate her in a special way. Since it's Friday, we had youth group tonight. After our meeting, which Mirna attended, Pola invited the whole youth group to their house for Mirna's birthday dinner/party. They served pozole, and it was a great time!

Please keep Mirna in your prayers. She has pretty much grown up in a Christian family, but nevertheless she's still very young (obviously!). Please pray for the Lord to awaken a fire for him in her heart instead of her understanding of God being about church on Sundays and Fridays. She is part of a Christian youth rap band, which she really enjoys and which is led by a young man on fire for the Lord. Please pray that his enthusiasm will be contagious and that this young lady will grow into a powerhouse for her God!

Enjoy the pics.

Mirna, now age 13!!

Steve and Gena eating pozole at the party!

Mirna and the guys
(L-R: top--Pedro, Gollito; bottom--Lorenzo, Martin, Mirna, Ruben, Chicle)

Mirna and some of the girls
(L-R: Ana, Cintia, Mirna, Mily)