When the Light Turns On....

The most amazing thing happened today! I had the best reading session I have ever had and I had to get on and tell you about it myself. I have been reading with a woman named Teresa for 4 weeks now. She said at the first session that she had no religion and did not agree with her family that blindly followed the Catholic church. She was a curator in an inquisition Museum and has a strong distrust of all "religions". She has strong principles and believes in good conduct, but something is missing in her life. The word worship was in our lesson today and she had a hard time with the definition. I tried to explain by saying that worship was placing something or someone first in your life; it is your purpose for living. Teresa said that she didn't worship anything. So I made a list of all of my priorities in order, starting with God, Jeff, Noah, family, etc. and told her that whatever was at the top of the list was the thing that I worshiped. She decided to do the same and her list was her health, her family's health, her friends, travel, and her job. We then talked about how much time a week she spends on each thing and why the thing at the bottom of her list took up all of her time. I told her that my job also took up a lot of my week, but that I could serve God while I was teaching by showing my students that I love them, that God loves them and that they are special to Him. Thus, God has given purpose to my job. The key was to try to serve your first priority while doing all of the rest of your responsibilities. She just looked at me for a long time and finally said "This is so exciting...And embarrassing. I have gone my whole life and never thought about the reason that I do things. You are teaching much more than English, you are teaching a new way to live. If you had said that we were going to talk about religion I would have put up a wall around me and never listened. I now understand why my life is so empty and unhappy. I feel like a pirate ship, always sailing and looking for something but I don't know what. " I told her that it was interesting that she used that analogy because Jesus wants to be our anchor. She didn't need to look anymore. The bible says that we are empty jars of clay and that He can fill us with His love and joy. She said that she has been trying to fill her jar with many other things, like work, and has never been happy. Jeff and I are only here to plant seeds of faith and pray that they will take root. But praise God that sometimes, even though He doesn't have to, He lets you be there to see the light come on.

I will be reading with Teresa one more time next Wednesday. Please pray that God will continue to convict her heart and that she can finally find purpose in her life through Him.

Praise God!

Kristina

Be encouraged

Natalia did come to small group! Our Spanish teacher wants to go to church! Our readers are interested in spiritual things and conversations about Jesus! We are planning and are excited about our VBS for Saturday. We met some very strong Christians and missionaries this weekend. Billy and Belinda Moore began telling people in Mexico City about Jesus in 1987. They really encouraged us in our work and gave us an insight to their work in Mexico and what God is doing here. They are an inspiration to the Christians who know them. We also met some AIMers (Adventures in Missions) from Lubbock in church on Sunday. They started their project here about the same time we did. They are going to eat dinner with us tomorrow night and are going to help us out with our VBS. We went out last night to get coffee with our Spanish teacher and her husband and they showed interst in coming to the Church here with us next week. We can't believe that we only have two more weeks here. We have been really encouraged by everyone's emails, comments, and prayers. Thank you all so much for everything!

Here are a couple more pictures for you guys.

1. noah asleep in spanish class...he's never going to learn at this rate!
2. noah after his first biscuit
3. church on Sunday
4. our team
5. billy and belinda moore
6. we had let noah chew on a small chocolate bar on the way back from lunch and when we got back there was a hole in the wrapper and 1/2 of the candy was melted...all over him. :)

until next time,


Jeff

Making progress...all of us

Buenas tardes,

We took our first Spanish test this week. It went well, but Kristina and I had to study a lot beforehand. Our reading sessions are still going well and today Angel said "I like learning with this method. I get to learn two things that I want to learn...English and about the Bible." Tonight we have small group and we will see how many of our readers will come. At small group everything is in Spanish and last week I understood almost everything and even responded to some of the questions in Spanish. I can definitely tell that I am making progress.

Today we saw Noah pull himself up into a standing position for the first time. I also saw him catch himself from falling on his head. Tile floors make for quick lessons.

We are all doing great and are making a lot of new friends. We are enjoying telling others about Jesus. On Wednesday our Spanish teacher said "I am on the path to becoming a Christian."

Looking around makes me realize just how blessed I am. The second picture above is a house that is right around the corner from where we are staying. I thought it was abandoned the first week we were here.

I'll let you know how small group goes later,

until then,

Jeff

Hear the Good News

Today I read with Natalia. She had attended a church in the past with a friend but has not been back in about a year. She has questions about how a person can be saved and she wants to know as much as she can about becoming a Christian. I invited her to small group on Thursday and she seemed very exited! She is coming again tomorrow and our reading sessions have turned into Bible studies. It's awsome to see God working in her and in me!

This weekend we traveled again to Cuernavaca and met with missionaries Doug and Sandy Holcomb again. They are like parents to the local Christians and Missionaries. They are awsome people! They made dinner for us and we had a lot of fun together.

Also, Sean has been studying with a woman and her children from the local church and they have said that they want to be baptized! Wonderful things are happening here...

I hope all is well where you are too,
In Christ,

Jeff

Pants and Pinatas

Last night I met with Marcela. Her english is very broken, but with her english and my spanish we are making our way through the beginner book together. At our first meeting she found out I was a Christian and that the lessons would be from the Bible and she got very excited. She said she wants to learn more about the Bible and about being a Christian for her and for her son. Last night we were working on phrases like "how many sisters do you have?" and "I have two sisters." When I asked her how many cats she had, she said none, so I told her to ask me. She said "how many pants do you have? Pants?! I said? Not pants...Cats! I'm not telling you how many pants I have, but I do have one cat. We both laughed for a long time about that. Before she left she said she had been reading the Bible with her Dentist and that he was a Christian too. I'm going to see if she and her son would like to join Sean's small group. Lacy has already invited several of her readers to come to small group. The members of the church here are fantastic and I know whoever comes will feel welcomed by them.

When we were hanging up posters ftoday or the VBS, I ducked to avoid some balloons on the sidewalk and accidentally knocked over a huge pinata. It was a gigantic sloth like the one from "Ice Age" and it ended up on my back with me carrying it around trying not to drop it. I told the store owner I was sorry and she just laughed at me and showed me where I could rehang it. While we were hanging up posters a lady and her son walked up and thanked us for helping with the VBS. We have no idea how many people to expect, but the reaction has been great so far.

The picture above is of another reader. He is also very excited about learning english and reading the Bible. So much so that he studied before he came and memorized the entire lesson! He recited Luke 2:1-7 with the book closed. He is a very happy man and wants to learn as much as possible. He skipped instead of walked to class the other day. :)

Tomorrow we go back to Cuernavaca to meet with some other missionaries and work on our spanish some more with a personal instructor for the day. Pray for receptive brains...and energy!

Until next week,

Jeff

Keep your eyes open

As part of our Spanish lessons, our teacher (Marcia) had us all write about ourselves. We wrote things like our age, occupation, etc... and also included that we were all Christians. Our teacher then mentioned that her husband was also a Christian. This morning after class she told Kristina and I that her husband was excited that her students (us) were Christian. Kristina began a conversation by showing her our teammate,s Bible that is in English and Spanish. Kristina told her that we were teaching English using the book of Luke. Marcia said that she was going to go home and read Luke. She said she now wanted to go to church which her husband who has been asking her to go for ten years. God can do anything!

Mis amigos nuevos

Mis amigos viejos,

We are all having very meaningful conversations in our reading sessions. Many of our readers are reading the bible for themselves for the first time. Some are asking if is ok if they read Luke on their own outside of class to understand it better. (we told them yes by the way). We have even invited one of our taxi riders to small group. The mexican people are ready for the hope that Jesus offers. One of my readers read ahead 20 lessons in between sessions because she wants to know what the bible says so much! Pray that God will give us the right words to say and the wisdom to know when to say them so that God's Mission in the world will be furthered and more people will find the Savior.

On another note, we travelled to Cuernavaca and met some other missionaries that had been there for nine years and had just baptized another woman the day before. They are very nice people and we will spend more time with them next weekend. We toured parts of Cuernavaca with Sean's former language instructor. We were able to learn about language and culture at the same time. It was awsome!

The pace of this trip is unbelievable. I am updating every chance I get... Noah is doing very well. He now has three teeth. Kristina is hanging on in language class, and I am learning quickly. In missions class, Sean has given us a great foundation in God's Mission through His Word and some great things to chew on for world missions as well as our home church. Today we talked about how important it is to start by figuring out what God says we should be doing, followed by cultural and historical analysis, and then develop strategies that fit in with all of that, but keep reevaluating everything through God's Word. I know it sound simple, but I'm not sure how many of us have really stopped to think about what our church is doing and how we could be more effective in our communities based on the culture and history of that community. I know that I haven't, but I'm going to now.

Speaking of understanding culture...today we handed out free childrens books of bible stories and reading one of them to the children in the local park. I was expecting the reaction I would have, or the reaction I would expect most children or parents to have when a foreigner comes up to you offering free things and to read a story to your children. The children and parents of children were all very receptive. They were excited about the books and about the VBS we had planned. While we were still at the park some of the children ran over to show off their book to thier friends. And we heard others telling thier parents as we left "I want to go, can I please go?" It made an impression on me, and I think understanding the culture here (or wherever you are) can help lead more people to Christ.

That's all folks,
Tune in next time for an update on the "Americans in Mexico"

Jeff

Hooky is delicious!

So much has happened since my last post that I haven't had time to update. On our cultural excursion on Friday Sean took us to see the pyramids at Teotihuacan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teotihuacan and to the Basilica de la Virgen de Guadalupe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_Guadalupe. Check out the links. There are a lot of very confused people here. It was eye-opening to travel all the way across Mexico City. On Saturday, one of our readers took us to Zocolo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zocalo and to El Templo Mayor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Templo_Mayor. We also found a local Torta Shop and on Sunday we attended church and ate tacos in a restaurant/garage afterwards. We also started our reading sessions with the local people and they have gone extremely well so far. Many are very intersted in learning more about Jesus and the bible. I am about to go to a reading session now. I hope to have more time to share stories later. I will say that Hooky ice cream is very good. It has strawberry, orange, and vanilla.

Pork rind anyone?

Hola,
Sean fed us breakfast this morning and he and his family went with us to exchange travelers' checks into cash and to lunch and Wal-mart. We stocked up on food and essentials for a few weeks and bought a bucket for Noah's baths. The trip went very well, but it takes so much longer to make decisions when you cannot read the labels and there are so many new things on the shelves. We surely saw the largest pork rinds in the world. We will definitely have to send pictures. We also met the people who work at the local park where we will be doing our reading sessions. We have our informational meeting tomorrow with our future readers and we are excited to meet them. Tomorrow we will also be evaluated by our language teacher so that he/she can find and use material that is appropriate for all three of us. Sean outlined our schedules for us this morning and we will be taking language classes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and cultural classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays along with a class about missions Mon.-Thurs. with excursions with Sean on Fridays. Every afternoon we will be reading the bible with locals one-on-one and going out into the local neighborhoods to talk with people and tell them about Jesus, read children stories about Jesus, and invite them to attend the VBS we will be hosting near the end of our project. It sounds like we are going to be plenty busy. We are all very sleepy after a wonderful day.
Good Night,
Jeff