Closing Prayer

At the end of our Bible study today, I asked if someone wanted to lead the closing prayer. They were hesitant, so I asked if they wanted to take turns just saying a sentence prayer. They looked at each other and then one woman asked me, "Can you tell us how to pray?" WOW! That was quite a moment. See, these women are very new to studying the Bible and most are not yet believers. I explained that praying is just talking to God and that you can praise Him, thank Him, share your needs, etc. while you talk to Him. That's when I realized that they were looking for a formula. They are afraid that if they don't do it right it won't "work." Each of us prayed. The last 2 were so incredibly nervous, but the did it! I told them that they had done a good job and that it really is just talking to God. It was neat to see their confidence in their ability to pray step up a notch. Please pray for this precious group of women! Pray for them to all grow in Christ and for their husbands to accept Christ and become spiritual leaders.

First Women's Bible Study

This afternoon Robin and I went to the same house we've gone to every Wednesday since I got here and met with the same people. The difference was that instead of teaching the kids as I usually do, today Robin took the kids and allowed me the opportunity to teach the women. The group is accustomed to doing both a craft and a Bible study in their time together, so I had prepared for both. Both parts wents okay, but I feel like I did better at explaining the craft than at leading the study part. Tomorrow I'll be leading the same study and craft with a different group of women. Praying that I will do better at the important part, but grateful that things went as well as they did.

The Week Ahead

Not only are there several things on the agenda for this week, but I have the feeling that God desires to do BIG THINGS this week. That's why prayer is so crucial!

First of all, we've started a Christian women's organization that pulls together leaders of several different churches. This Saturday, July 3, we'll have our first big event--a conference for women that includes an option of childcare because we don't want women to be unable to come for lack of childcare. It is really hard to plan details like food and childcare because we really don't know how many people will come. It could be 50 women and 20 children, or it could be 200 women and 400 children! The women have invited a lot of friends who are not believers, so we really don't know who will come. However, God DOES know, and I beleive He has BIG plans! Please pray for us to be sensitive to His guidance to pull together the details this week.

We have 2 wonderful Christian women coming from Guadalajara to be the "keynote" speakers at the conference, and they will be staying at my house with me. I enjoy having guests and pray that my home can be a blessing to these dear sisters in Christ.

Usually on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons I lead kids at the Bible studies. This week will be my first time to lead the women, and I am fervently praying that God will communicate through me beyond the limits of my abilities. I know I've mentioned this before, but it is difficult for me to stay focused and positive that God will work instead of being stressed my own limitations. So, I'm reminding myself by sharing it with you.

Throughout the week I will be doing whatever I can to help with the preparations for the conference as well as working on my goals to know the city better and to meet people. This morning I am heading downtown by myself to get more familiar with the area and to pick up a few things we need for Saturday. I am praying that this will go smoothly and that God will lead me to a divine appointment.

As a final note, Sunday, July 4 is election day here. Things have already been getting intense and violent through the campaigning, and there have been threats of even more severe violence for election day. Please pray for peace to reign.

Thursday Afternoon Group

On Thursday afternoons we have a Bible study in the small area in front of a little house. Robin leads the women, and I lead the kids. This past week we talked about becoming new creations and made butterflies out of coffee filters. Here are a few pictures of the kids.

In this picture you can see Julio with the kids. He's a teenage member of our house church who goes along to help with the kids when he can. The 7-8 year old girls LOVE him!

Here are their butterflies hanging to dry.

When I realized the name of the street where we have this study, I thought it was pretty cool that it looks like the name of the town where my parents live (and the name of a great church, too!)

This coming week Robin and I are trading: I will be leading the women for the first time, and Robin will take the kids. Please pray for me to communicate well and for the women to be receptive.

Hostessing

Thursday mornings I am involved in a women's Bible study from one of the local Baptist churches, and every week we meet in a different woman's house (which, by the way, has given my lots of practice in using directions to locate places in town!). This week was at my house, and I was very excited. They had a bit of trouble finding me even though it is an easy neighborhood, so everyone was a bit late arriving. Several couldn't come for various reasons. We sang, shared praises and prayer requests, ate, went through a section of the book we are studying, ate some more, prayed, talked, ate some more, and pretty soon 3 hours had passed and nearly all of the food I had prepared was gone. I guess that means they enjoyed my "American" recipes!

For Saturday, I had invited women from my neighborhood to come over. I prepared some snacks, but nobody came. While this is certainly a bit disapointing, I feel like I learned a few things from the experience and also have now at least met several and am therefore more comfortable going back to approach them and start conversations.

Fun note: Saturday night Emily and I went to a ballet with a family. The 12 year old daughter was performing and they invited us to come. I had only met the mom once, but that night I was instantly comfortable with her and really enjoyed the experience. The storyline of the ballet was rather strange, but they did a good job. Afterward we went out for dinner at a restaurant that features food that is typical in the Yucatan area of Mexico. The restaurant is located in a neat area of town, which added to the experience. The mom and I found a lot to talk about, and she was very natural at helping me build vocabulary. She is definitely the type of person with whom I need to spend more time! On the way home, language issues became more challenging. First, by 10:30 pm my mind was getting tired. Second, she was playing an English Christian music CD and asking me to tell her what the songs were about. Meanwhile, she continued the conversation in spanish. Add to that the fact that the girls in the backseat were trying to have a conversation in English and kept needing to ask me to translate a word or phrase for them, and you can imagine the challenge I faced. Fun though! I am thankful for this new friend and praying that we will be able to spend more time together. Also praying for some concerns she shared with me.

Busy Week

This is shaping up to be one of my busiest weeks so far, with the exception of the 2 weeks when we had teams here, of course. Not only do I have a lot going on, but I have several prayer requests for the week.
Monday I am attending a high school graduation, Tuesday we are taking Emily to the leather market in Leon (okay, so that's my day off this week), Wednesday afternoon I'm leading a kid's Bible study, Thursday morning I'm hosting the women's Bible study from a nearby church at my house, Thursday afternoon I'm leading another kid's Bible study, and Saturday I've invited all the women from my neighborhood to come over to my house. Between those things, I need to clean my house, prep for studies, shop and cook for the events at my house, go back to neighbors' houses to reinforce the invitation, as well as a few other goals I want to try to accomplish this week.
Please pray for each of these activities. Pray that each time I meet with the kids they will understand a bit more about our God and that another seed will be planted so that one day they will have a personal relationship with Him. Pray that the women of my neighborhood will come to my house and feel welcome, that friendships will begin, and that this will lead to a Bible study in my home. Pray for my ability to communicate to improve every day and for people to be willing to help me by correcting some of my errors. Pray for God to guide my agenda and to be at the center of everything I say and do. Thank you for praying!

PS. The young man I mentioned who made himself a prayer card after seeing mine gave me a copy of it tonight. I am SO excited to have it as a reminder to pray for him. I believe our God has great plans for him!

University of Aguascalientes

One of my goals is to start a ministry to university students. Aguascalientes has one major university as well as numerous smaller colleges. One day this week I visited 3 campuses, including the University of Aguascalientes. As I did, I prayed for God to provide an opportunity to meet students. While I was there, I was able to talk to some very nice people in the languages department. I offered to volunteer to help English students, and they quickly agreed that they could use my help holding English conversation sessions this fall. They emphasized that it would be a scheduled commitment and that I would not be allowed to discuss religion. To me, though, it is an answer to prayer. I can meet students and form relationships and then invite them to have other conversations and activities away from our class setting! Looking forward to August, and praying for divine appointments and guidance.

Thursday

Thursday mornings I am involved in a Bible study with a group of women from a local Baptist church. The women have been taking turns hosting every week, and Vero usually meets me at their church so I can ride with her. Today when we arrived exactly at the scheduled starting time, even the hostess wasn't there yet. Eventually, though, people showed up and we began with singing and sharing praise reports and prayer requests. We are going through a book called "La Batalla de Cada Mujer" (every woman's battle). Afterwards, as we chatted over snacks and drinks, the decision was made for next week to be at my friend Rosario's house and the following week to be at my house! As usual, we were there for about 3 hours total.

This afternoon I went by the eye doctor's office to schedule a follow-up appointment (with the hopes of getting an all clear on the infection) and reorganized my craft box before Robin and Emily came to pick me up for our Bible study. I did the same activities with this group of kids as I did yesterday. This group meets in the tiny little area in front of a small home, and this space is shared between the women and the kids. The father of a few of the kids (husband of one of the women) stood outside the fence right beside me the entire time, and most of the time a couple of his girls stayed out there with him. I handed craft projects through the fence to them and often wondered what the dad was thinking about everything I was saying and what we were doing. Near the end when the kids were coloring pictures and working find-a-word puzzles, I looked over to see that dad diligently searching and finding the words!

Wednesday

Okay, this morning I let myself sleep in a bit and then just did a few things around the house and did a little menu planning for the event I want to hold for the women of my neighborhood. I also ran a couple of quick errands.

This afternoon I went with Robin and Emily to our Wednesday Bible study. While Robin taught the women, I had Emily help me with the kids. We had a short story and discussion about love and forgiveness, made a couple of crafts, sang a couple of songs, colored pictures, and did find-a-word puzzles. Today we had 7 kids, ranging in age from 1 to 12.

This evening Charlie was out of town, so Robin and Emily and I had a "girls night" with pizza and a movie at their house.

Tuesday

First thing Tuesday morning I ran some errands, inluding paying a bill (whch has to be done in person here--no mailing it in or online payments!), getting copies made at a copy store, etc. Then I went to Robin and Charlie's house to have Emily help me with some gluing and cutting that needed to be done to prepare some crafts. This afternoon I wrote and sent out my monthly newsletter to prayer supporters. Then a Mexican census worker came to my door, so I answered his questons. It was a cultural experience just to hear what kind of questions are asked here compared to what would likely be asked in the States. For instance, one question was about whether or not I have running water in my house, and another was about whether or not I have indoor plumbing for sanitation. They ask these things because there is a significant portion of the population who would haveto say "no" to those questions.
This evening I went with Robin, Charlie, Emily, and Angel (a teenager I've mentioned before without name included) to watch Julio, another teenager from house church, play soccer (futbol). Julio's brother and parents were there too. Here's Julio in a red shirt kicking the ball.After the game we drove Angel home. He lives a ways out, and when we got there he found a note from his mom that they were at his brother's in-law's house. (His brother's wife had her baby yesterday.) So, we took him there, a bit further out, and went in for a bit to say hello to the family, including the proud new parents and the precious tiny baby who still doesn't have a name. (People here often take their time naming babies.)
I got home after 9 pm, ate dinner, and then continued cutting for craft projects. I clearly planned projects that require too much cutting! :)

Monday

Rosario, awoman I met last Thursday at a Bible study (part of the women's ministry of one of the local churches), agreed to come meet me at my house at 9 this morning to help me practice Spanish and learn more about the culture, etc. Now, it is not uncommon here for people to be late or miss a meeting altogether. In fact, the first woman who had agreed to meet with me for this reason never showed up for our meeting. So I wasn't at all concerned when Rosario wasn't here yet at 9 am. I just sat down to read a book about spiritual warfare while Iwaited. She called around 9:15 and said something about meeting somewhere else. Following Spanish over the phone is far more difficult than in person, so I strugged a bit until she suggested we meet at the hotel by the entrance to my neighborhood in about 30 minutes. I drove there and waited until she arrived just after 10 am. This is when I realized that her problem was transportation. I felt so bad! She had flagged down a transport van to bring her. After I apologized, we came back to the house, where we had a great conversation. I was instantly very comfortable, and it was very clear that she really wants to help me and be my friend. Among other things, I asked for her input on my idea to host a breakfast or something similar for the women in my neighborhood. Not only did she advise me on cultural aspects, scheduling, etc., but she helped me write the invitations and volunteered to come back over on Saturday to go door to door with me to distribute invitations. Around noon I drove her home, so now I know where she lives and can go back Saturday to pick her up.
After lunch I finished a monthly report for my supervisor and sent it in then ran a few errands. I designed and printed the invitations for my neighborhood women's event and spent a couple minutes on recordkeeping (I try to do this every day or two in order to avoid spending hours at the end of the month on expense reports.
After dinner I revised a resource that a colleague in another city shared with me and printed a copy of it so that I can take it to the copy shop while I am going and have them on hand when needed. Now I am going to do a load of laundry, work a bit more on kids' activity prep work, and maybe even do a bit of house cleaning.

Typical Week?

Some people have been asking me what a typical week looks like for me here, and I have to say that in my two months here no 2 weeks have been alike. A few tings are starting to become more fir in my weekly schedule, at least for now, but there are a lot of variables. But in an attempt to answer that question, I thought I'd post a series of daily summaries for a week. I'll start with a summary of this weekend.

Saturday, May 29
Went with Robin and Emily (teenage girl from states currently visiting Robin and Charlie) to visit a lady from our Thursday afternoon group. She and her family have recently moved to different housing, and it is too far for her to continue coming to that study without transportation. Instead of just quitting, she asked Robin if she could start a new study at her new apartment. So, we went to visit her and take her invitations for the new study that she can give to other women in her apartment complex. When we arrived, two of her little girls who I have quickly grown to love immediately began to take turns jumping into my arms and climbing on me.
From there we went to our storage building to sort through some resources. I pulled out a few things that I thought I might be able to use with the kids over the next few weeks. I spent the rest of the afternoon at home researching, planning, and organizing crafts and stories for the kids.
Saturday evening I went with Robin and Emily to a meeting of women from several different Baptist churches. This group of women have begun to form an organization to work together on big ministry and outreach events. This meeting focused on planing a women's conference to be held in a month.

Sunday, May 30
I attended a local Mexican Baptist church that was original started by Robin and Charlie and are now on their own. On the way home I stopped at a couple of stores to buy supplies for the kids' crafts I am planning.
Sunday evening I attended Robin and Charlie's house church. Afterwards, I told the young man I described in my last post that I had seen his prayer card and really liked it and wondered if I could have one. He agreed, and I joked that if he couldn't bring me a copy then I might have to steal Robin and Charlie's.
Before and after the evening service, I spent more time preparing for upcoming kids' activities and making a list of things I would like to accomplish on Monday.