Clases de Reposteria

My 6 week baking course came to an end this week. But we ended on a sweet note, "Pay de Manzana." (Apple Pie). 7 ladies from the community in Santa Barbara were there. It has been a really sweet time-literally :).

Food is an avenue to more than just a man's heart, in this case, it has been an avenue for Alejandra who lives across the street from the church to attend a Friday women's bible study for the first time after coming to the class. Or, Mariana, a mom of three, a product of some serious marital issues (and about to be a grandmother thanks to her 15 year old daughter) came to the baking class...the first time she has intimately been around the church ladies in the last 4 years!

God uses everything- murals, baking classes, ballet classes and simple hospitality to show his love to those who are searching...and those who aren't.

Mural Progress

Mexico City and Newbies

We left Wednesday afternoon for Mexico City, to pick up students from the airport that have internships through the Latin mission, CAM International. Even though Matt and I are not officially with CAM, we are working in partnership with the ministry and church here until we leave end of June. As a result, we were a part of the 2 day hotel orientation and in a sense, are operating as helping staff, in that we are a hosting family and can help orient the students to the day-to-day ministry here. The orientation was cool. Bonded with the group and saw a good number of sites, including the pyramids. I climbed both the moon and the sun.

The students are a riot, and come from all walks of life. The students in our house comprise of Hannah. She is from the hill country of North Carolina and is a southern bell for Jesus, she has stories of shooting squirrels, deer and coyote. Her birthday is Sunday, so we plan to throw a surprise fiesta after church with the youth. Robert, is an MK from Paraguay, but currently a Moody Institute student in Chicago and is considering Seminary. He will be leading a mens bible study and preaching a couple times while he is here. Brigham, is a 20 something believer from Buffalo, NY. He is quite aware of his liberty in the Spirit and has bonded quite well with Matt...they discovered quickly they both enjoy cigars, tacos and beer. Pray for them ;)

It will be a full house these last few weeks here. But, honestly, it would be boring any other way.

Bomba

Matt got a little sick this past weekend. By a little... I think he said he hasn't been that sick since he was 10. He couldn't lay down vertically without vomiting. He couldn't even hold down water... The next morning he was still feeling it pretty strongly so I went to our neighbors for help. Iris and Jos, two women who attend the church as well, ended up taking us on the afternoon adventure of a lifetime. We went to two doctor offices before we got to one that was legitimate and open. (legitimate and open..believe it or not I think the latter word is harder to find). We were seen by Doctor Lechuga. (Umm, that is Dr. Lettuce in English).

I did my best to translate everything from Dr. Lechuga for Matty. He prescribed 2 different medicines. One to kill the infection in his stomach, one for pain (headaches due to dehydration of not drinking).

Then the nurse entered and swirled her finger in the air as the signal for Matt to turn over on the table. He received a shot in his bomba :) I don't know what exactly was in the shot, but within 20 minutes it took away Matt's gag reflex, and he was able to sip on Gatorade. This ability was important, as it got Matt through the treacherous journey of finding a pharmacy that actually had the medicine we were prescribed. We went to 3 different pharmacies, and finally landed on Walmart, which had what we needed (go fig, even in MX). Poor Matt was in the back seat of the 2 door car, leaning to one side to keep pressure off his newly sore bomba and head bouncing like a bobble head with every speed bump...(you won't be able to appreciate the speed bump remark until you have driven in Mexico).

We left a little before noon originally for the Dr. and we arrived back at four. 4.5 hour ordeal for a clinic check-up a couple miles away! All this to say, Matty is up and running now, just in time for us to host 5 new students who fly in this Wednesday. We will spend Wed. night through Friday at a hotel in downtown Mexico , helping orient the students to the ministry and the culture in Ixtapaluca. Kind of fun to be on this side, 4 years ago, I was in their shoes, preparing for a 2 month internship with CAM ministry. I didn't even know what CAM stood for at that time, I just knew I was where I was supposed to be.

So much...

Not sure where to start...

I think the last entry was about mural work. That's more than coming. We are about halfway there, had different youth and even a short term team of students that came down through Corbon University help me out on it. God has answered prayer and is using it, so many people stop me during painting and ask questions about its purpose. I am more than happy to share John 10 and the opportunity for all to walk through the door. As of Saturday, the city has agreed to pay and paint the other sides of the graffiti covered water tower, white, in support of further mural work. To top that off, Julito, the gang leader who we originally were worried may violently respond to our mural work on his territory, has agreed to paint on the otherside of the water tower in aerosal, to share clean and family friendly artistic interpretations of life. Wow. Pray for mighty things to come through that!

The team of students this past week was fun. It is such an ironic feeling, to host people in my first house, in another country, for a mission that I do not technically work for, but I am here, we are here, and we cannot believe it is anything but ordained, even if it is just 3 months. Its been 2 months this weekend. How sweet it was to travel around and meet missionaries through out Mexico, giving their lives, their comfort, freedoms and wallets to the simple but hard work of loving people and sharing the love of Jesus. It still exists, if you can believe that. House to house bible studies, baptisms in rivers, addictions being broken, marriages restored, worship without official choirs, just pure off tune singing at the top of lungs. Its pretty beautiful.

We had 2 guys living with us from the Corbon group, they left this afternoon and tonight, we have a guy from Paraguay staying with us. Just enought time to wash the sheets.

I am pretty tired and heading to bed but the gist is God is good, God is good, God is good.

Dia del Madres

Yesterday we (along with missionaries, and a couple handfuls of youth from the church) hosted a mothers day dinner and program for the women in the church. It was evangelistic in that the women were to invite a friend as well. We had almost 50 women! We rented a tent, and the youth served. It went well. I shared a 10 minute or so message about my relationship with my mother and tied it into Proverbs 31. In Spanish! Se viene... poco y poco. The youth shared a skit, we played games, even had a special music serenade surprise by the men... It was all worth it.

We prepped all day.. decorations, lasagna, brownies, salad... skit by the youth. Check out the pics.

Mural

The concept for the mural that we are placing on the water tower clock in the middle of the community is to the left. It has been a month coming completing the concept. The general idea is to reflect John 10's "I am the door" passage. On the left side we are using nature to show the tranquility and peace that one finds in a life with Christ. We have used a well known basketball court wall inside the mural to represent sin and the division that exists unless we make a conscious decision to walk through the door of faith that Christ provides. Additionally, we are playing off the idea of the water tower and painting a 3D hole, where water spills out and falls like a waterfall into the left side of the mural. This reflects Christ's claim that he gives eternal water, that sustains and refreshes forever. This past Sunday we had all the youth of the church over for food and then after we went over to the clock/water tower to clean the dirt off the wall and paint it white in prep for the mural. Samuel and I have been working on it in the mornings, 7-11. We have to beat the afternoon sun, and the evening's hard rain. We have already shared the gospel message twice with bystanders who watch. God has been faithful to keep any graffitti from gangs in the community AND we received all the funds and donations for the paint!