Sólo Dios: July 2011

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Prayer Request

On saturday we have a team coming from fort worth texas coming and bringing street teens from Acapulco. Please pray for their safety and that our ministry will be effective with these teens. We are also helping with the language barrier. Pray for my spanish. :) Thanks so much.

Week of Recovery

During the last two weeks the interns have definitely felt the exhaustions of our bodies. Almost every single one of us has been sick, either stomach or cold, but thankfully we haven’t had a team so we have been able to move at a slower pace and let our bodies rest. Not only have we been able to physically recovery but also able to refocus and spend large amounts of time in the word and prayer as a group. This past week with the kids from Tejaban we taught in ESL words associated with religion, mainly Christianity. Up until this point the gospel has not been shared as much as we would have hoped so as a group we decided it was our time to do so. After spending almost 4 hours preparing the lesson, making sure we covered enough material so they understood but did make it too complicated, because there are some topics of the Christian faith that are VERY complicated. We wrote down verses to share with them, in both Spanish and English, hoping they would understand what Christ did on the grace. We shared verses about faith, grace, and the gift of eternal life. We struggled at with having too many verses and not wanting the kids to fill overwhelmed. We also were going to open the camp back up later that night for a movie night with the kids cause they loved it when one of the teams did that. Well 4:15 rolls around and some of the older girls come into camp, then 4:20, then 4:30 (when we normally start) we have about 5 kids, 4 girls 1 boy. We decided to go ahead and start and if more decide to come then great. More kids did show up, but no kid had the intention of learning English. We had papers being thrown everywhere; a snakehead was pulled out at one point. After attempting to teach them the lesson we finally let them go play. Feeling discouraged we all went outside hoping playing would help, it didn’t. Basketballs and soccer balls were being thrown over the fence to be “borrowed”, another child throw a basketball at a sick bird trying to kill it, only for him to be escorted out of camp. Once all the kids left camp, we were very discouraged. We could sense the doings of Satan. There is always some type of opposite when the gospel is presented and I fully believe that now. We gathered around for a time of prayer. Tried to move on and get ready for the movie night. We set up the projector and sound system. I sat looking around camp and see the interns spread out around camp with Bibles in hands and head bowed. It was an awesome picture to see that we are frustrated and discouraged we turned to Him who is in control. He holds those Tejaban kids. We had no control over their salvation, we can present the gospel but that is all. He is the one who waters the seed NOT US. After spending some time in the word and prayer, we get ready for kids to come for movie night. Our spirits are lifted a little. 7:00 rolls around…then 7:15…7:30…at 7:45 we clean up the movie stuff and come to terms with the fact that no kids are coming. We tell ourselves the reason they couldn’t come is because they had homework and graduation from primary school was the next day. So we played cards instead, it always puts us in a better mood. I don’t tell you this story because I want you to feel sorry for us. I tell you this story so that you will get on your knees for these kids. Even though the frustrate us we love them to death and want to see them in Heaven. We are at the point now where all we can do is pray and love them. This has been yet again another learning experience for us. Continue to learn that we don’t have the power to save; we have the power of prayer. I am grateful for all of your prayers for these children, keep them coming. Lets flood the throne with prayers for these kids’ salvation.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Surprises

There have been many things this week that have come as surprises. This week started on Friday when the team from Nashville left. Maggie and Alex head to Acapulco for the week. Depressed and sadden we headed into GTO. Surprise number one was food poisoning my body experienced Friday morning. Along with food poisoning, there was some serious sleep depravation, seeing how I went to bed at 3:30 am and then woke up at 5 am to say good-bye to Emily and Sam, then went back to bed before getting sick around 6:30 and then again at 8. To say the least it was an interesting day. After doing some things in GTO I was exhausted and felt terrible. Mary Frances, Kaitlin and I headed back to camp where I fell into bed at 6 pm praying I would not wake up in the middle of the night sick. Thankfully I was woken up the next morning at 8:30 am having not woken up once through the night! God is good. We had a meeting with David where told us that we would not be alone this week. A family from Atlanta was coming through the Mexico and is looking at doing long-term missions in GTO, so we gladly opened the doors of the camp. Anyone who is willing to commit to being in the city long-term is more then welcome. After cleaning up camp somewhat we headed to Léon for English club. At the mall Monica got her ears pieced while Tori got her nose pieced (and yes I obeyed parents. Nothing is pieced). While trying to get to the church we got onto the wrong bus and ended up getting to the church 30 mins late. Thankfully this church is forgiving and gracious, they had not left yet! After we had church on Sunday we invited our friends from Léon over an afternoon at the camp, to play games and continues the relationships we are building. We thought maybe 20 would come. Kaitlin counted and there were 34! And they brought food! ¡Pollo Feliz! (Happy chicken!) Sooooo good! We had a great afternoon. By the end of Sunday I had slept 27 hours in a span of 48. Talk about self-depraved. Monday we went to celebrate Fourth of July in San Miguel…a very American city. It was a good day. Great bonding and shopping with my friends. This week we start back with our ESL classes with the village kids. This has been a great week full of new adventures. Not having a team reminds me how grateful I am for the 5 other interns I am serving with. We have so much fun together. We can go from goofing off in the kitchen to talking about our faith. I am blessed to call these girls my friends. God is truly working in each of our hearts to kit us closer together while drawing us to him.

Prayer Request:

-Family that is considering missions in Mexico (hopefully GTO)

-Rest and health for the interns

-Relationships being built for the kingdom

-Doors open for conversations about the gospel.

Friday, July 1, 2011

The craziness of teams has come to a close for now. These past two weeks have been great. Crazy and lots of fun. Teams are learning experiences. I have loved being on other side of a team. We had the opportunity to work with the team on building sidewalks and this team knows how to have fun while working. There was always music playing and jokes were flying. We were always laughing. When the kids came in the afternoon everyday we watched the kids’ hearts soften and play with kindness. Almost everyday I got to play soccer, the solo gringa. Ha. The kids LOVED all the crafts. The team had brought these face crayons. Hit of the week. The kids also love all the foam stickers and the hair and nail station.

Prayer Points:

-Pray for rest and relaxation in our off week.

-Pray for the kids in Tejaban and that their hearts will be change and challenged from the teams.

-Continue to pray for our two English Clubs. Relationships are growing and people are starting to ask more questions about our faith.

Since pictures express more words here are some pictures. ENJOY!