Visiting Cofradia...

Well two weeks ago I went and visited Cofradia! We had a free day on Sept 8 (no classes), so after classes ended on that Thursday, around 12:30 pm, I headed to the bus station to go to Cofradia for the weekend. It was about four-five hours before I arrived, but it was wonderful to be there! I was shocked speechless to see how different things look there in the rainy season! It was seriously like a tropical rain forrest! Everything was green and lush and just beautiful! There was grass and bushes where there had not been anything but dust before! Whole streets looked completely different! So different, in fact, that a couple of times I was walking streets I new pretty well, wondering if I’d taken a wrong turn! It was marvelous!

These two are of a hill between the base and Jay and Faith's house

This is of the view between Cofradia and Arrayanes...I really do enjoy the view on that drive even if the road is terrible!

Thursday night I arrived and had dinner with Jay and Faith and their kids, and then Faith took me over to the base where my apartment is. We opened it all up and made sure now strange or dangerous animals had taken up residence and then she headed back home! It was very strange to be there truly alone! Dave and Kathy are on furlough right now in Canada, so everything is off and empty and locked! It was a little eery at first, but oh well! On Friday morning I headed to a store to buy some food because there was NOTHING in the apartment since it has been empty since I left in June. None of the local people knew I was coming so it was so fun to walk down the street and see them do double takes and then shout out, “Hola Ambar!” as they realized that their eyes were not lying and I really was there in front of them! I got so many hugs and had some fun conversation catching up with friends that I’d made during my internship!

I then headed over to Steve and Gena’s to talk with Steve about the youth events going on that weekend. He and Gena were in the states while I was there before because their second daughter was born in the April/May time-frame. I communicated with them some over email and blogs, but this was the first time we’d gotten to sit down and talk about the youth and what is going on this year and ideas, etc. Anyway, Friday night was the Youth Family Group, and Saturday was El Reto, which means “The Challenge”. It’s kind of a mix between Amazing Race and Survivor, but this particular time it was set up like Amazing Race. You can read more about it on Steve’s blog. So, we talked for several hours and I had lunch with them and just enjoyed catching up with them! Then I headed home to shower and get ready to go surprise the girls in Arrayanes. They had no idea that I was visiting, which was the whole plan. In fact, two weeks before I had called and talked some with Sandy and told her I wanted to try and visit but had no idea when; directly after that I called Faith and began to make plans. She spoke with the girls’ mom and got permission for them to spend the night with me on Friday night, but the girls had no idea.

So, Faith and I headed to Arrayanes to pick up the youth for family group, but we went early so as to have some time with the girls before we had to participate in a group event. I arrived at the door, and Lupe was the first to see me. Her cousin had come running to tell them that I was there, but they didn’t believe her. Anyway, Lupe’s eyes almost popped out of her head and she screamed and jumped up to hug me. Mili and Sandy were in their bedroom and heard Lupe’s yelling and came out to see what was up. They saw me but it took a minute for it to register that I was standing right in front of them. They had looks of shock on their faces for about 10 minutes and Sandy kept saying, “Am I dreaming? Am I dreaming? I can’t believe you’re right here!” We sat out in the yard and talked some, and I told them about the slumber party. So they packed their things, we picked up the rest of the youth, and off we went back to Cofradia.

The overnight was tons of fun! Lots of talking and catching up until 3 in the morning! And then we did more on Saturday until it was time for El Reto. I was able to have some really great conversations with them corporately about what the Lord was doing and challenging them in some things, and I was also able to have some one-on-one time with Sandy! Oh it was so good for my hear to see them and spend time with them again. I have talked with them throughout the summer by phone, but nothing beats personal, face-to-face time with those you love! What a blessing that trip was!

El Reto was a blast, and it ended in Arrayanes. This particular one was modeled after Amazing Race. I had an activity to monitor, which was that the teams upon arriving at the base had to count all the bricks that make up the sound closet for the church palapa. The answer was 577. Steve had thought this would be the activity that took the least amount of time...it ended up taking the most! One team was there for almost an hour before I finally just gave them the answer..they were within 2 of the right answer anyway. But there were several times when other teams had come to me with answers of 575 or 576 or something else really close, and I had to tell them NO...but it was a lot of fun and the kids seemed to enjoy it immensly. From everything I hear it was a time of lots of growth both in numbers of kids coming to youth activities as well as personal and spiritual growth. I even found myself being challenged in certain ways!

The youth counting bricks to the sound closet

Since Favi had been working with her husband all day on Friday and Saturday, I tried one last time while El Reto was finishing up in the church. Finally, she was home, and when she saw me, she screamed and came running out the door. She hugged me so hard and she started crying! Apparantly she had not realized way back when I told them I was leaving that I was also coming back and for two years! She was very glad to hear that on Saturday night, though! She wouldn’t let go of me the whole time we were walking and talking! Oh how I missed her too!!! She made me a tortilla cloth while I was gone, too! So, now I have one from her too. This one however, is an actual tortilla cloth and it is stitched rather than painted! So beautiful!

Check out the stitching on that! It's so beautiful!

Then Sunday morning I headed back to Guadalajara, tired, but filled with contentment! I’m very excited now to return, but I’m also excited because Mili is visiting Guad right now for a month or so!! I’m really looking forward to getting some time alone with her. For some reason it was much more difficult to get time alone with her during my first months here—I spent more time with Sandy and Lupe individually, so I’m looking forward to getting lots of quality one-on-one time with Mili while here in Guad. In fact today, she came over for the afternoon, and we had a wonderful time catching up and talking about “stuff” etc. We also laughed a good deal over our bus adventures! I’m looking forward to meeting her family here and just hanging out!

God is good!