Falling on your knees

Since being here in Mexico, I have encountered God in so many different ways and I have learned so much from my Mexican brothers and sisters in Christ! It's been pretty amazing!

One thing that never ceases to amaze me is how ready they are to fall on their knees during prayer. From them, I have learned the importance of prostrating yourself before God, humbling yourself in the knowledge of who God is, and to not being afraid of being face down in the dirt from which you came.

The most powerful moment of prayer has been during VBS week. One day my Mamá was the director of VBS and under her leadership we started off the day of VBS on our knees praying to God. We prayed that God would be ever so present in our ministry, He would plant His word (our theme was the harvest) in every heart present, we would be an example of what we were teaching, and finally that God would speak through us.
It was so powerful to hear the prayers of the other VBS leaders and to all be in the same humbled position, crying out to God for Him to do His will in us.

It has been such an amazing experience to learn from my Mexican family in Christ how to experience God more deeply. This act of prayer is definitely something that I want to put into practice more often when I return to the States.

"Falling on my knees in worship. Giving all I am to seek your face. Lord, all I am is Yours."
-"Came to my Rescue" by Hillsong

*Included is a picture of all our wonderful little crazies that we had the honor to serve during VBS week*

7/4/13 Go Forth and Make... Friends?

My Spanish teacher is truly amazing. She has such a passion for sharing God's word. She is so fearless! She always has eyes to see who needs prayer and it is incredible to see her at work. One of my favorite things that we do in class with her is to go out on prayer walks. The purpose of these prayer walks are to explore the neighborhood, memorize our Spanish Bible verses, and pray for people that we have conversations with.

Just from walking around the neighborhood, we have had the opportunity to meet some pretty amazing people and to talk about Jesus! We've met a man who is trying to return to the United States in order to be back with his family in Long Beach, California, the nicest women who make the best and biggest quesadillas that I have ever seen, and another guy who just wanted prayer for his family.

From our prayer walks, I've learned the importance of just being available and attentive; available for God's use and attentive to the needs of the people around you. It doesn't take much to make a difference in another person's life. You just need to be ready.

7/3/13 Only Jesus

Only Jesus:

-Could have blessed me this much to have such an amazing family

- Could have given me the words to say as I struggled to pray for people of the church in Spanish

-Could love me so much to continue working on me daily

- Could be protecting me everyday from unseen dangers

-Could be revealing Himself more to me in Spanish

-Could be helping me have more confidence in sharing the Gospel in another language

Only Jesus.....

7/1/13 That Moment When

That Moment When You Know Without a Doubt That You Have A Sister For Life

Last night, my sister and I were walking down the hallway to our perspective rooms when I decided to go into her room and pretend to pass out on her bed. As I pretended to sleep in her bed, she only said "Ok," and left. When I had discovered that she had left, I felt kind of embarrassed to be honest. I was thinking that she hadn't found it funny. However, when I returned to my room, I found her passed out in MY bed!
I climbed in the bed next to her and we began to talk and laugh and laugh and laugh. We were imaging the perfect bed for gorditas (big girls) and flojas (lazy girls) like ourselves. This bed was complete with a 3D plasma screen tv that also acted as a computer, a bathroom, mini-fridge, and gadgets that were able to bathe and dress us. We laughed until we cried and couldn't laugh anymore. It was such a beautiful moment that I will never forget.
I have never had a little sister before and she has been such a crazy blessing.

6/30/13 When the brothers go to bed the sisters come out to play....

The other night my sister and I were up to our usual scheming ways and decided that this was the night to do the big prank that we had been planning. With the rope that I had bought earlier on in the week, we decided that we were going to tie our brothers' doors together. Tonight was the night!! Tying our brothers' doors together was no small feat for us though!
The first time that we were tying the doors of their rooms together, everything was just a big mess. The rope was too big for the door knobs as we were tying them together like a figure eight (as the advice of our MOM). As we were struggling to tie the doors together, we heard from the bathroom next to their rooms the sound of the toilet flushing! Everyone else was in the living room or had already went to bed so it could have only been one of our brothers! We paused for a second, had a mini-heart attack, and ran! But then we quickly hurried back because we had to take the rope off their doors so they wouldn't know what we were up to. We took the rope off as quickly as we could and ran like crazy persons back to our rooms. As we sprinted back to our rooms, our dog was barking like crazy, waking up the whole household. It was quite the scene.

After we heard our brother close his door, we waited a few minutes and re-began our mission. However, before beginning our mission, my little sister decided that it was important that we wore "disguises." By disguises, I mean beach hats and beanies. Before trying to retie their doors together, we decided to thin out the rope so that it would fit on their door knobs better and boy did it work! Those doors were tied shut!!
After successfully completing our mission, we of course had to take pictures and reward ourselves with fits of giggles and high fives! We were quite proud of ourselves! We also wrote a note to our brothers, of course, explaining to them that we did it with mucho amor (a lot of love!)and that we loved them. After slipping the notes under the doors, we sat on the couch and reveled at our handiwork. As we were reveling in our glory, we had a scary thought. What if our brothers in the middle of the night had to use the bathroom? After much debate, we decided to take off the rope. But believe me, it's not over yet! One night we will return and the prank will be completed!

6/29/ 13 That Moment When....

That moment when you know you are truly part of a family:

The other day, I had such beautiful moment with my family. We were standing in the "panaderìa" (bakery) choosing the bread that we were going to eat that night when I decided to slowly slip my hand into the hand of my mamà. At that moment, she quickly grabbed my hand and smiled at me. It was so sweet!
Shortly after, my brother comes up and tries to break us apart. However, jokingly, I told him to not be jealous and grabbed his hand as well. Thinking that it was going to be awkward, I attempted to pull my hand away, but he held my hand there. As we stood there holding hands, all the noisiness of the shop faded into the background and it was such a beautiful moment. The three of us. United. After, my host brother pulled me into a quick hug and told me, "You truly are my sister. Even more so now."
It was such a sweet moment! I truly feel like I am apart of this family. I now have 3 more sisters, 2 more brothers, and 1 more set of parents. I seriously cannot believe how fast we all have bonded and in such a short amount of time. Everyday with this family is such a blessing.

6/19/13 "Go forth and make disciples....."

The command that Jesus gives us to make disciples of all nations is something that we can't separate ourselves from if we call ourselves Christians. As Christians it is a never ending cycle of being a disciple, making disciples, and discipling disciples.

Today I had the opportunity of planting the seeds of the gospel in the efforts of making disciples. We had to go out and practice having intentional Spirit-filled conversations. Which in the beginning scared the daylights out of me because we were suppose to go out, talk with people that we didn't know, in a language that we hadn't mastered, and all in the hopes of having an opportunity to share the Gospel. After our "Sharing the Gospel 101" workshop (It wasn't really called that ;) ), we divided ourselves into pairs, boarded the metro to Bellas Artes and went to hopefully have a chance to share the Gospel.
When we were in the metro, I was sweating bullets and this time it wasn't because it was hot and there were a lot of people! The whole ride over to Bellas Artes, I was praying and praying. "Dios, dame las palabras que tu quieres que yo diga." God, give me the words that you want me to say!"
Arriving at Bellas Artes (a very beautiful park area in Mexico City), I felt a sense of peace as my partner and I roamed the park, going as the Spirit led us. I believe that this peace came from the fact that at that point, I had completely emptied myself out. I had completely emptied myself of my fears, expectations, worries, and hopes and was praying that God would fill me up with Himself. I was praying that God would give me His eyes to see who we needed to talk to, His words to speak of the amazing love that He has for us, and a taste of His never ending love that He had for the people that we were going to talk to. I honestly believe that God answered my prayers that day in such a beautiful way.

As my partner and I were walking around the park, we happened to be almost caught up in a political march. "Aha!" we thought, "These people would be perfect to talk to!" So we decided to strike up a conversation with this older man with a plethora of flags and very impressive 5 gallon cowboy hat. However, by the end of that conversation, we discovered that the man didn't know any more than we did about the political march he was supporting. He was really only marching because of his mujer, his woman, and he had no idea why they were "United for a Better Mexico," or what a better Mexico would look like or how to bring about a better Mexico for that matter. He was quite a guy, but at least we got some pretty cool flags to support a cause that we have no idea about!

After that interesting conversation with cowboy hat man, we decided to sit down next to a girl that appeared to be our age and I am so glad that we did! We were able to have such a wonderful conversation with this young woman. We were able to talk about life, Christ, and about the culture of Mexico. We found out that she didn't believe in God, but that also that she didn't have a lot of Christian friends. So we exchanged information of course so that she could have two more Christian friends! I really hope that there will be a moment this summer where we can meet up and hopefully have more conversations about Jesus!

Right after we finished speaking with her, a man who, to be honest had been very, very interested in our previous conversation, asked us in English where we were from. So we began to speak with him as well! In this conversation, we found out that this man had recently been released from prison (4 months ago) and was basically starting his life all over again. However, while he was in prison, he read the Bible and prayed every single day to God. It was awesome to see how God works even in the darkest places. I say this due to the fact that the prisons here in Mexico are like hell itself. However, in prison, this man was able to find God. God is incredible. Nearing the end of this conversation, we prayed for him and then gave him the information of our director so that he could surround himself with more Christians and find a mentor.

After we parted ways with him, we found ourselves caught in another political march! I was really excited because I thought it was the same march as the one before. However, it wasn't. Yep, I was that crazy gringa emphatically waving my flag for the wrong cause.
When my partner and I met up with the larger group again, I found myself having yet another conversation about Jesus with this woman who came asking for money for food. My roommate jokes that she gave her earthly food and that I gave her spiritual food.
From what I could gather from what she was telling me, she use to be a social worker in the US, but due to just the unfortunateness of life she lost everything in an instant. However we were able to have an amazing conversation where we agreed that in Christ we have everything even if in this world we have nothing. I was able to pray with her before we parted ways and it was truly beautiful to see her faith shine through the trials she was going through.

Today God really blessed me to have some amazing conversations and to experience Him in a new way.

¡Qué Padre que Ser Padre! :)

Yesterday was Father's Day, which in Mexico isn't as big as Mother's Day. Usually our family doesn't even celebrate Father's Day, but my roommate and I decided that we DEFINITELY had to celebrate at least a little! Any father that can put up with our American craziness with such love, grace, and complete acceptance deserves a little somethin' somethin'!
So we concocted an elaborate scheme to surprise him with a gift of chocolates and a card for Father's Day.
This scheme included us telling a little fib to Papá and telling him that we were going out to get a dictionary for my roommate's Spanish homework (which we already had gotten earlier in the day), hunting through the market for the gift, and coming back to hide the chocolates and showing him the dictionary that we "had just bought." Hehe we were very sneaky indeed and after the deed was done, we celebrated with lots of high fives and fits of giggles and triumphant laughter.

Then came the day of Father's Day when we had to find a way to all sign the card without Papá noticing! We were all downstairs "getting stuff ready" to bring upstairs for lunch when down comes Papá to throw away his trash! My roommate pretends to open the fridge while simultaneously stuffing and hiding the chocolate and card in the fridge, mom pushes me (literally, she is a strong woman) and launches me out of the kitchen to try to distract dad, and then shoos him out of the kitchen saying we were talking about "womanly things" forgetting that our brother Levid was sitting right there. It was hilarious to say the least!

But all so worth it for this moment:

http://youtu.be/34Cmja0WgRU

Click the link to see our Father's Day surprise!

Abrazos

Prayers of the Saint

One of my favorite things to do is pray with my family.
It is such a great experience to hear their honest and heart wrenching prayers for themselves and also for their church. Every Friday night, after Papá is done working, the family comes together around the dinner table and prays for the prayer requests of the church. My Papá is an incredible pastor and father for having this as a weekly occurrence.

Last Friday night, we were actually Kneeling around the table praying for each other and the church. The air around us when we pray is already reverent and spirit filled, but this time I truly felt the Spirit even more when Mamá began to pray. Mamá, down on her knees, prayed and pleaded with such fervor that she was soon reduced to tears. Listening to her tear-filled prayers for her sick and dying church members, her son, and her husband was so powerful. Then she began praying for me and my roommate as her new daughters. She was down on her knees, crying and praying for ME as one of her own daughters!
Words cannot explain the sheer beauty and purity of that moment. There wasn't a dry eye in the house when she was finished. Even our dog was probably a little teary eyed! She truly is a saint and has touched my heart in such a special way. I can't imagine being any more blessed than I am right now.

The Best Cake is Enjoyed in the Face

*A little warning: if phrases don't make sense, it is due to the fact that I'm constantly speaking in Spanish and thinking in Spanglish. I honestly can't distinguish the difference sometimes.*

I just had a birthday on the 7th! It is my first birthday that I've spent outside of the States and I have to say it has been one of the best because it has been celebrated Mexican style! Not only once, but twice!

Never in my life have I felt more loved and special, than I have these past couple of weeks from my friends and family in the states and now from my friends and family in Mexico!

Un aviso (warning) if you are going to spend a birthday in the Mexico, run if you hear people chanting, "Mordida. Mordida. Mordida." The translation doesn't matter as much as what actually happens if you stay long enough to hear it!
Mordida (bite) is the Mexican tradition of the birthday person to take the first bite out of the cake sin sus manos (without their hands). That's the fun part. While you are enjoying your first bite, someone will come along and smoosh your face in the cake. Boom. Mordida. I've had the pleasure of enjoying the Mordida twice this past week. Both times extremely delicious and very very messy. One benefit of Mordida is that my face is surprisingly more smooth. Icing must have some moisturizing properties or something!

My time in Mexico has been such an incredible experience already! I'm ALREADY dreading August 2nd! If these past few days are any indication of what the rest of the trip is going to be like, well I must say that God has outdone Himself with this amazing blessing.

Abrazos

Be a Man! 6/7/13

These past couple of days of training have felt like the scene in Mulan, the Disney movie,where they are training Mulan and the soldiers for the war. Except for me, it would be, "Be a Mexican!"



Latin American Mission is completely amazing. These past few days have been basically nonstop sessions of training and praying to the point where I feel completely "prayed up"and prepared to begin living with my host family. They've taught us everything from how to dress in the church, praise songs in Spanish, how to be good Mexican children to our host family, to how to ride the metro. They've also had these super hilarious skits that are COMPLETELY accurate!

The purpose of these trainings have been to prepare us for what we will encounter in our homes and in our churches, but also how to be a blessing in this country. I've never received this level of training before with a missions trip. It is quite amazing and it says a lot about LAM. And there is still even more training to come! (This is not a plug for LAM, but man they are awesome!)

I think that the greatest thing that I'm taking away from training is: confidence.
Confidence in my Spanish speaking abilities that I have and confidence that they will greatly improve by the end of the summer. Confidence that God is with us and before us. Confidence that lives will be changed, whether mine or the Mexicans that I will be ministering to. Also, confidence in my ability to take every opportunity to share the powerful gospel.

I am so grateful for the confidence that they've given me and if I had to leave tomorrow, the trip would be worth it.

Abrazos

A New Beginning 6/5/13

"Spirit lead me where me trust is without borders. Let me walk upon the waters, wherever you would call me. Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander and my faith will be made stronger in the presence of my Savior."These were the words that I sang in church on April 28th, two days after receiving my acceptance email into the Avance Program. This was my act of declaring to God that I would go whoever He was calling me this summer and in that moment in my spirit I felt such a powerful draw to Mexico City that it took my breath away. Now 38 faith growing days later, these were the very words that I was again declaring to God as I began to board the plane to Mexico City. Listening to this song while boarding the plane was intense to say the least. Each step crossing the boardwalk into the plane was a step of faith, a sign of the beginning of the journey, and a literal representation of my obedience to God's will for my life. As I sit on the plane, I am soaring through a myriad of emotions ranging from nervousness to sheer excitement. However, I am choosing to anchor myself to the One who is steadfast and resting in the shadow of the One who holds this entire universe together, including me and my future. ¡Gloría a Jesús! Do I have expectations? Yes, but I've chosen to keep them pretty low because I have NO idea what this summer has in store! I expect to see God move, be used by God, learn a lot from my Mexican brothers and sisters in Christ, and improve my Spanish Do I have goals? Why yes, thanks for asking! I just have 3.I hope to be an avid seeker of God's presence and his work in situations and in people. I will always be asking: "How is God moving in_______? Also, I hope to be innovative in ways of Loving God and Loving Others and to never forget the power of culture! This summer is going to be incredibly crazy, challenging, and amazing! You know what? Bring it! God is in me, before me, and with me! I'm ready.