Ten young adults just left my house. It's almost 11pm. There are lots of little tiny bits of colored tissue paper scattered aroung the floor, cups that are sticky with pop, popcorn smooshed on the floor, pieces of Doritos in places that I didn't know Dorito crumbs could get into, and stepped-on salsa drops.
But I LOVE this mess! Because with those 10 young people - our Metamorphosis small group - we had a GREAT talk about seeking God's will through prayer, and the importance of this in ministry (6 are in some sort of ministry!) and daily life. Why we don't seek God's will because the issue isn't all that important to us. And how we know that God's will is in our lives, especially to be like, for example... a missionary. Enrique asked that question - that how could I (and Justin and Phil, the other missionaries he knows!) just drop life in the US/Australia to move to Mexico. Enrique is the guy who introduced himself to us several months ago as, "I'm Enrique and I'm not a Christian." Non-Christians annonymous? hehe He asked about the passion needed to actually DO something like that - just dropping everything to go tell people in some other place about Christ. We were able to explain that that's what a deep relationship with Christ leads to - passion to follow and obey Him. Enrique now prays. With us, and about stuff like school stress and girls. He believes in God. But he hasn't taken the step to let Christ control his life and let Enrique NOT control his life. We keep praying for him!
Every now and then, we just have a really dynamic small-group time. This was definitely one of those. I want to remember conversations like this when I feel that I'm not involved in anything impacting! Beacuase I AM involved in impacts - God through me impacts the lives of others!
And, Yetzi, Cris, and I wanted to take a picture of our prayer time tonight - we divided into pairs (threes for us girls) to pray, and the guys all decided to pray together. So, picture 8 young, big guys all gathered around my small glass coffee table praying together. That's the picture that I would've put here.
And for that, I'll be smiling at 6:30 tomorrow morning when I start cleaning up this mess!
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Fun In Queretaro!
I totally forgot to mention that my parents were here to visit... like a month ago! They came down to celebrate our 29th birthdays the end of february, and to relax in semi-warm Queretaro.
We went to Bernal, San Miguel de Allende, and several neat places in Queretaro!
JP and I HOPE to be able to go to Oregon to visit in January 2010... If God allows, we'd like to visit you all in Atlanta too!
We went to Bernal, San Miguel de Allende, and several neat places in Queretaro!
Bernal
Best corn on the cob EVER. (smothered with mayonaise, cheese, chile powder and lime juice!) YUM!
Judith (JP's mom) and us at our birthday dinner in Italianis YUMMY!
The pyramid in city of El Pueblito Queretaro. I lived within walking distance of this while I lived with Luis and Sandy for 6 months!
JP and I HOPE to be able to go to Oregon to visit in January 2010... If God allows, we'd like to visit you all in Atlanta too!
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Two Steps In The Right Direction
Our friend Jorge, who I think we may have mentioned before, as been making some decisions lately... He and his girlfriend have/had a really messed up relationship. Both Jorge and his girlfriend work with JP, and they're our age, so about a year ago we started hanging out with them. Jorge began coming to Jean Paul with situations regarding his girlfriend, ex-wife, etc. JP always told him that there will be no advice given in this house that doesn't come straight from the Bible. Jorge always said that was fine, but the whole "Bible thing" isn't for him, but that JP could get good advice from it.
About 2 months ago, things took a turn for even worse with Jorge and his girlfriend. He began showing up at our house rather late at night, looking for JP to talk with him. It got to the point where we had to tell him to please call before coming over; that 11pm is really too late for him to "show up" at our door. It was getting tiring. So one of those late-nite time with JP, he asked for "marriage counselling." Which was weird, but whatever. We suggested that he talk with Pastor Martin at our church. He is now meeting with Martin every week, and is slowly learning about the importance of a relationship with Christ. Jorge's girlfriend doesn't want him around anymore, and doesn't want to go out with me anymore either. That was really hard for him to handle, but I'm sure it's for the best.
Jorge came to church today. We are having a series called "Staying in Love," and I actually felt kind of bad for Jorge because I know he thought that Martin was preaching directly at him - the sermon touched on the exact things that Jorge is dealing with, and Martin knows that from their counselling sessions. I know that Martin had the sermon prepared well before he knew that Jorge was going to come to church, and LOTS of people have said in the past few weeks that who was telling Martin about their lives because, he was preaching directly to them! Anyhow, we hope that Jorge continues on this (slow) path to Christ because that's the only thing that's going to help him have hope!!
About 2 months ago, things took a turn for even worse with Jorge and his girlfriend. He began showing up at our house rather late at night, looking for JP to talk with him. It got to the point where we had to tell him to please call before coming over; that 11pm is really too late for him to "show up" at our door. It was getting tiring. So one of those late-nite time with JP, he asked for "marriage counselling." Which was weird, but whatever. We suggested that he talk with Pastor Martin at our church. He is now meeting with Martin every week, and is slowly learning about the importance of a relationship with Christ. Jorge's girlfriend doesn't want him around anymore, and doesn't want to go out with me anymore either. That was really hard for him to handle, but I'm sure it's for the best.
Jorge came to church today. We are having a series called "Staying in Love," and I actually felt kind of bad for Jorge because I know he thought that Martin was preaching directly at him - the sermon touched on the exact things that Jorge is dealing with, and Martin knows that from their counselling sessions. I know that Martin had the sermon prepared well before he knew that Jorge was going to come to church, and LOTS of people have said in the past few weeks that who was telling Martin about their lives because, he was preaching directly to them! Anyhow, we hope that Jorge continues on this (slow) path to Christ because that's the only thing that's going to help him have hope!!
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
A JOYFUL Noise
Every first saturday of the month we have Infusion – the large-group meeting of young adults at Horizonte and their invited friends. In March, we talked about praise and worship. WHAT is it, WHY we do it.
We had a guest speaker, Charlie, and an extended time of worship through music. We also had an activity where each group of four people had to make a musical instrument, that is NOT a drum, out of some junk that we had laid out for them. Each team ended up making 3 or 4 instruments (some drums were included) such as flutes, a little finger piano, and a guitar.
Various students playing their instruments:
Josue, Angel, Juan and Brisa with a plastic guirro, a cardboard and string guitar, and balloon/coffee bean percussion
Justin, Andrea, Charlie, and Job (My team, which had a huge advantage since Job is a professional musician and Charlie plays a few instruments too!) demonstrating a coke-bottle percussion instrument, a finger piano, a styrofoam and rubber-band guitar, and a flute.
Alex and Cinthya (where’s the rest of their group!?) demonstrating a 3-liter pop bottle guitar, and a paper, string, and bean percussion instrument that makes various sounds
I personally was a little discouraged as it seemed like a lot of the students weren’t all that interested in learning or interacting with the theme. But we hope that there may be more interest in learning and participating (In MORE than just the musical activity) in the future!
We had a guest speaker, Charlie, and an extended time of worship through music. We also had an activity where each group of four people had to make a musical instrument, that is NOT a drum, out of some junk that we had laid out for them. Each team ended up making 3 or 4 instruments (some drums were included) such as flutes, a little finger piano, and a guitar.
Various students playing their instruments:
Josue, Angel, Juan and Brisa with a plastic guirro, a cardboard and string guitar, and balloon/coffee bean percussion
Justin, Andrea, Charlie, and Job (My team, which had a huge advantage since Job is a professional musician and Charlie plays a few instruments too!) demonstrating a coke-bottle percussion instrument, a finger piano, a styrofoam and rubber-band guitar, and a flute.
Alex and Cinthya (where’s the rest of their group!?) demonstrating a 3-liter pop bottle guitar, and a paper, string, and bean percussion instrument that makes various sounds
I personally was a little discouraged as it seemed like a lot of the students weren’t all that interested in learning or interacting with the theme. But we hope that there may be more interest in learning and participating (In MORE than just the musical activity) in the future!
Ok, Not Quite…
So, the whole discipling the two new girls thing (see previous blog) didn’t quite go as I’d imagined… One good thing – Andrea is being discipled by another woman in the church, so that’s a GREAT thing! But Ilse has kind of dropped off the planet or something… She hasn’t been back to church since we decided to start the discipleship, and I just today found someone who gave me her phone number. Please pray for Ilse, she recently accepted Christ, and is unsure about this step because of the “rules” of being a Christian, which I unfortunately feel like we here at Horizonte have tried to impose.
I’ve always told people this: you don’t LOVE God until you KNOW Him (which we do through reading His Word), and we don’t have a desire to OBEY Him if we don’t LOVE Him. Example: If Jean Paul wakes up sick in the middle of the night, I’ll gladly get him some medicine, or do whatever needs to be done, even if it means going to the pharmacy at 3am. I do this because I LOVE him. If a friend calls me up at 3am with a problem, I’ll answer and try to have a good attitude about it and attend her (although this would most likely be with a BAD attitude) because she is my friend, and I love her, although not nearly as much as I do JP. If a stranger knocks on the door at 3am, we’ll probably look out the crack in the upstairs curtains to see who it is without them seeing us, then go back to bed (scared?) because we don’t know the person, don’t trust them, and don’t have any desire to attend to him at 3am.
I don’t want to impose rules on new believers, but allow them to get to KNOW God, to LOVE Him, and THEN to WANT TO OBEY HIM. And what can I do? Help and encourage them to KNOW God. This is discipling! So, I still hope to get in contact with Ilse and help her begin this processes of knowing God, and trust that the rest will come as she grows in her faith!
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Ask And It Will Be Given To You...
I have recently been praying that the Lord would lead me to two or three young ladies to begin discipling. I didn't know who or how, but that's what I prayed for.
And in one week, TWO young ladies have come into my life looking to be discipled! God answers prayers in interesting ways though... Both of the young ladies are struggling with very difficult break-ups (even though they are SO young!), and situations that I've never been through. But I trust that the Lord will speak to their hearts through our time together.
And in one week, TWO young ladies have come into my life looking to be discipled! God answers prayers in interesting ways though... Both of the young ladies are struggling with very difficult break-ups (even though they are SO young!), and situations that I've never been through. But I trust that the Lord will speak to their hearts through our time together.
I'll be beginning to meet with Ilse, the girl with the scarf, and Andrea, in the middle.
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