Backtrack to this weekend

Friday night we had a costume party. We were all supposed to dress up as a character from a movie, but it expanded a little bit. It was very interesting to see how far people would go for a party and who people decide to be. I think it sheds some light on people's personality. There are pictures of this, it is pretty funny. Then early Saturday morning the Graf family and Katelyn and I left for the States. We got across the border in about four hours and proceeded to spend the rest of the day until about 7 shopping for things that are more easily found in the States. Then that night I stayed with the kids while Dan and Carey went out on a date. It was very nice to have carpet and an oven (ours at the Quinta is broken). So, I made some cookies and a frozen pizza for dinner. It was a great night of relaxing. Then on Sunday morning we all went to Palm Valley Church in McAllen, TX. It was nice to have sermon in English after many in Spanish. Then we did some more shopping and headed back home. It was nice to be in the States for awhile, but Monterrey has definitely become home, and where I live, not the US, at least for now. It was great to realize that this is home now.

Spanish or English

This week we talked about spiritual warfare and intercession. Our teacher was named Clemente Duran and he is from Tepic. He and our teacher from the teaching about righteousness, Roberto, are going to be working with us in two weeks when we are going to be in Tepic. It was a very good week. On Thursday morning we went to the mall about five minutes from our house to practice evangelism. I was in a group with Dina, Levi, and Heather. We walked around and through a series of events that God had to have orchestrated we had the chance to talk to a man named Eusebio. We talked to him for a long time and through this time he came to accept Jesus as his Savior. It was an amazing experience.
This week during our workshops we learned many dramas to music that we will be doing during our outreaches. They are fun to do, and will be very effective in street ministry. One of them is about the Good Samaritan, another is about how with God we need to be real and not wear a mask. They will be fun to do.
We also heard about what we are going to do in Tepic a little bit. We are planning to do street ministry and also help some visiting doctors. We are also planning to do preaching and teaching in the churches. They also told us that they are going to need all of us that are bilingual to translate and help the only English-speaking doctors translate. So, this week my Spanish class began to practice translating as much as we can. We are now trying to speak in Spanish as much as we can, so we can become more and more fluent. It is cool to see how God can use this.

An incredible week once again

This week was a great week. Our speaker was David Holmbeck, a YWAM base director from Weyerhaeuser, WI. He was a great teacher and really fun to have around. He really wanted to get to know all of us, so he spent a lot more time at our house around us than any of our other speakers yet. We spent the week talking about the Holy Spirit and many other topics that this led us to like baptism. Since I mentioned it now, I'll tell you. I was baptized on Friday with one of the other girls, Katelyn. I was baptized as an infant, but wanted to be re-baptized when I personally, fully realized that I was a new creation in Christ. I wanted to follow biblical precedent and be baptized to physically demonstrate that. There are pictures of it online, too, if you want to see. Other things we learned about were the gifts of the Spirit. It was really good to learn about the Holy Spirit, there was so much I didn't know, or maybe I knew, but didn't understand or remember. I do now, so that is good. It still feels like there is so much to learn, and I am excited to absorb more. Other things that happened this week.... We had to say goodbye to Mirjam on Wed., she was only here to volunteer for a month and now she is traveling around Mexico with her best friend. We all miss her, but were glad we had this time with her.
Oh, and last weekend we took Mirjam to the flagpole since she hadn't been there yet. We then walked around downtown some. They have some cool fountains there. I have pictures of that, too. It is just generally a nice place to walk around. I think that is all for now. Goodnight!

Lots of learning

This week has been good, too. A little bit harder because it was so much information. Our teacher, Roberto Wilmer, directs and teaches at a Bible school in Tepic, Mexico near Puerto Vallarta. He taught us about grace, justice, and righteousness. He usually teaches this class in 6 weeks, and taught almost all of it to us in 5 days. Needless to say there was a lot of information and it was hard to absorb and process all of it. But, it was really good information. This week we also had workshops. We have them two nights a week, Tuesday and Thursday. They are all about the arts. Last week we had drawing and this week both were about dance. We are learning a choreographed dance to a song in Spanish that we can use as an evangelism tool during outreach. It is hard, but will be fun to do once we get it down. Speaking of outreach, we have decided where we are going to go. Half of us will stay in Mexico and the other half, me included, are going to be in Mexico for two weeks and then in Argentina for 4 weeks. There are going to be five single girls in this group as well as one male and one female staff. We are all really excited about going. I am so glad that all of you are interested in what I am doing and praying for me. I wish that I could personally talk with all of you, but I can't. Just know that I am so blessed to have all of you supporting and loving me. Thanks!

Another Great Week

We had a really great time this week with our teacher. His name is David Teran and he is originally from around here, but right now he is a youth pastor/ worship leader in Wisconsin. He is good friends with one of our leaders, Edgar, so they joked around a lot. It was fun to feel more comfortable with him and more on equal level. He was also very passionate and excited about what he has learned about worship. The one thing that stuck out the most in his teaching, or maybe more was that we should be extravagant in our worship. The woman who washed Jesus' feet with her hair in Luke 7:36-50 did this and Jesus praised her for it. We should go the extra step for Jesus in our worship too. Another thing was that we can worship in all things it is not just singing and in singing and worship it doesn't matter what others think about you. The only people who matter in your worship is God and you. All in all it was a great teaching and I learned a lot. In other news this week, my Spanish class grew. Heather and Katelyn were moved up to our group from the beginning group. It will be a little bit hard for them, but it is better to be challenged than not learn new things. We have just been hanging out this week. There is still construction going on at the base. It has been quite a few weeks longer than planned, so we are still at the other place, the Quinta. It has been working out fine with the only real complaint being no internet there. I appreciate all your prayers and am doing quite well.