Our Last Week in Queretaro

Our last week in Queretaro was a busy one!  We are very grateful to Walt and DiAne who took us in for THREE weeks while we packed up our house and turned it back in to its owners.  We had some unexpected events during our last week - like a minor operation for me which had us staying about 5 days longer than anticipated (everything went excellent!).

During our last week...

We had nightly prayer services for "Week of Prayer" at Horizonte Church

(and it was COLD!)

Me, JP, and Angie:

We went to the community of Pilares in the State of Mexico (about 2 hours from QRO) with Walt and DiAne, where there is a Compassion International project, and where they are beginning micro-finance courses.

JP, a chicken, and DiAne:

We had our goodbye party at RenovArte Cafe (hosted by our friends Phil and Sandy in their place of ministry!) one Saturday night, and TONS of friends came to hang out with us!

Us with my good friends Karen and Pam!

Alex, JP, me, Job, and Cristina at the cafe!

Some of the people who came to our goodbye party!

Part of my womens' group at Horizonte Church (Angie, Moni, me, Brenda, and Silvia)

And JP got his official diploma from college - he's now a "professional" in International Business.  :)

We had an excellent time hanging out with friends and family in Queretaro.  We'll miss living there for several months, but we'll be back!  

Bienvenidos al USA!

We are here!  After an exciting weekend of a minor operation for me, a good-sized earthquake (6.4!)experienced from JP's dad's 4th floor apartment of in Mexico City, our favorite fried quesadillas in Coyoacan, an all day travel day on Monday, and an immigration official that didn't want to let ME into the USA (I'm still a US citizen!!), we're settling down for a few weeks at my parents house in Salem Oregon! 

We're thankful for God's provision through the past two weeks of craziness, for parents in two countries who let us stay in their  homes at a moment's notice, for Walt and Diane in Queretaro who took us in to their house for three weeks, and for indoor heating! 

No pictures this time, but soon!  :)

A note about the earthquake:
I'd been in 5 good-sized earthquakes in Oregon, California, and El Salvador, but this one beat all.  I'm pretty sure the thing lasted about a minute, and it was the wavy kind, not the bouncy kind.  We (JP, his dad, and I) were in the tv room of the apartment and we got to the door, got the door unlocked (there are three deadbolts on it, all of which open from the inside with a key!) and got to the stair well, at which point the power went out, and being 8pm it was dark.  All the neighbors came out of their apartments too, some of the ladies were screaming and others were calling for their pets.  We made it down to ground level, bumping into lots of neighbors, by the time the quake stopped and the lights came on.  In general, people seemed calm, and thankfully, no one was hurt, and in all Mexico City no one died!

Sooo...

SOOO much has happened in the past two weeks, it's crazy!  BUT, we're on our last day of continuous internet access until we figure something out in Oregon, and it's midnight, and we have to be up at like 5am... SO - we stayed longer in Queretaro than we'd planned, going to Mexico City Saturday morning, in Oregon Monday night, JP had his "titualacion" (like graduation for when you're a professional) tonight, said goodbye to everyone and their pet rock TWICE so far this week, tired, looking forward to Paddingtons Pizza, don't have a date to come back to Queretaro yet, going to bed. 
That sums me up for this week!
And here's a picture! 

(Us with Luis, Sandy, and girls)

And this is yummy:

(and big)

At some point in the not too distant future, we'll get a good update on this blog.  Some day!  I promise!

Brief Update!

Wow it's been a LONG time since we've posted anything on the blog!  We're in the process of moving right now!  A week from today we move out of our house and in with our friends Walt and Diane.  Then off to Mexico City for a week, then on to Oregon for Christmas and New Years!  After that we'll be doing a good deal of travelling in the States.  Of course we'll have more info as we get a more concrete schedule!

Highlights of this week:

• We were able to meet with a local polititian and his wife to give them a Bible and share a bit about Christ!!  I've been going to their home 4 days a week to help their daughters with their Englsih homework, but we had bee praying about meeting with them to share about Christ.  More about that if you get our newsletters!
• We sold our car yesterday at a REALLY good price!
• Today is the 1st anniversary of our friends Phil and Sandy's cafe ministry to college students!  The ministry is growing bunches!  We'll be at their celebration tonight!

I unfortunately haven't taken many pictures in the past few weeks, but I'll leave you with this one from a brief trip to Tequisquiapan (try pronouncing THAT!)  a couple months ago:

Goodbyes and Holidays!

Our good friends Justin and Lluvia left Queretaro this past weekend to move on to a new ministry assignment.  I've worked with them the whole time I've been in Queretaro, and JP worked with Justin even a bit longer than that!  So we're sad to see them go, but happy that they will be used in another country soon!

Jean Paul, Jessica, Lluvia, Justin, and our good friends Sandy and Luis.

September 16th was Mexican Independence Day, so we got to celebrating on the 15th and 16th!  My first Mexican Independence actually being a Mexican!

We celebrated at church this year :)

Some of the ladies that participated in the "traditional dress" contest at church:

JP and his mom in front of the Queretaro State Capitol building

Every time is food time on this blog:

Here's a common snack in Queretaro: a big crispy pork rind with cabbage, tomatoes, onions, salsa, and thin strips of PICKLED PORK SKIN on top.  NOT one of my favorites, but it's quite popular!

This IS one of my favorites, in fact there were made at my house by me for lunch on the 16th - Queretaro Guajolotes (wah-ho-LO-tays) or in Mexico City they're called pambazos (pahm-BAH-sohs)  - sandwiches where the bread is dipped in sauce and roasted, filled with beans, cheese, chorizo sausage, onion, lettuce, and cooked squares of potato and carrot.  REALLY YUMMY

And the typical elotes (ey-LO-tays) - corn on the cob covered in mayonaise, grated white cheese, chile powder and lime!  We had a guest from Guadalajara at our house for lunch the other day and we were talking about typical foods in Queretaro and Guadalajara, and he just about gagged when we said we eat mayonaise and cheese on corn...  I guess that's only in this region of Mexico!

We had a great weekend!

STUFF

I may have written about this before, I honestly don't remember.  But I was reminded of "STUFF" just now because Jamie the Very Worst Missionary posted THIS article on her Facebook feed.  And it was a good article.  And it made me think of the STUFF in my life - present and past.

Over two years ago, when JP went the United States for the first time (and only time until this December!), he made a comment that really got me to thinking.  We were walking through some middle-class neighborhoods in South Salem (Oregon) in August, and of course, many people were doing stuff outside and had their garage doors open probably all day.  Apart from being flabbergasted that someone would leave their garage open when they weren't in it *(see note below), JP wanted to know what all the STUFF was that people have in their garages.  Good question!  My first answer was "bikes, a lawn mower, Christmas decorations, tools, and cleaning supplies."  That makes sense, even here in Queretaro those are things that you'd find in someone's back patio.  "Ok... so what's all the REST of the stuff?"  JP asked.  I thought about that for a little bit and said that I imagined that it was stuff that the people hardley ever use but don't want to get rid of.  That did nothing to take the look of confusion off JP's face.  "Why don't they have a garage sale?  They could get a ton of money from all that stuff!" he said.  And I realized that, after having moved to Mexico, that's my line of thought on the subject of "STUFF" too.  If you don't use it, you can either sell it or give it away! 

This is just a random "google images" picture, but I think it could be pretty typical of a "STUFF-filled"garage!

Since JP and I both LOATHE moving, we started really early in finding out what to do with our STUFF while we're in the US.  We've sold a few items of furniture - things that we don't use very often like a twin-sized bed, an office chair, and a cabinet.  I also decided to sell the mircrowave to a lady who opened a restaurant three weeks ago.  It's really not that difficult to be without a microwave!  :)  We're happily getting rid of STUFF, and that's really not that hard either, it feels good!  Try it!

Now I just need to figure out what to do with MY STUFF that's still at my parents' house in Oregon...  :) 

* In Queretaro, we're blessed to have a low rate of violent crimes.  However, theft is rampant.  We've had our car attemped to be broken into twice, just because we had a coat or a plastic grocery bag in the back seat!  If we left our back patio door open all day, we might come home to a completely empty patio - washing machine included!  I don't even leave jeans hanging outside of our patio to dry anymore because I think they might not be there in a couple hours! 

Seriously?!

Read even just the introduction to this Wikipedia description of Operation Fast and Furious. 
REALLY?! 
Correct me if my interpretation of this is wrong:

Give guns to bad guys so they can go commit MORE heinous crimes, then TRY to see if you can track them and the weapons you gave them down.  And make sure they all get sold in Mexico so our ridiculously high crime rate will sky-rocket even more. 

ATF FAIL.

Clean Hair... And SO Much More

I HATE washing my hair.  Like I REALLY.  HATE.  IT.  I unfortunately also hate the feeling and the look of having dirty hair.  I also have hair that is prone to greasiness, and I play with my hair like, ALL the time.  That makes for an unfortunate combination.  However, I LOVE taking a shower (as long as I can do it without getting my hair wet)!  There were actually a couple of days this past summer, days when it was 95 degrees outside and 89 inside, where I showered three times in one day.  It just feels so good.  And two of those times per day were made even better by the fact that my hair didn't even NEED to be washed!  :)

So yesterday at church (yeah, I DO have a point to this!) we were studying Titus 3:1-7.  At Horizonte Church we go through an entire book of the Bible at a time.  Over the course of several weeks or months, of course.  And I've really been enjoying Titus.  So the pastor was talking about verse 5 - Jesus saves us, not because of cool stuff we've done but because of MERCY.  And as all Horizonte attendees know from the Titus series, mercy is "NOT receiving what you deserve."  Christ WANTS to clean us up from sin.  And the pastor asked a big question: What part of my life do I NOT want Christ to clean?  It's like me with not wanting to wash my hair.  In fact, I probably thought of that analogy yesterday during the sermon precisely because I hadn't washed my hair a in a couple days and, honestly, it was particularly greasy-looking.  I want my body to be clean (hence 3 showers per day if it's super hot out), but I don't want to go through the bother of washing an incredibly full head of hair because, even though I love the end result, I hate the process of actually washing it, then brushing it out, waiting for it to dry, or even worse drying it with a hair dryer.  So yesterday, for example, people had reason to wonder if I'd showered recently - not because I had crap on my face, or smelled like B.O., but because it was noticeble that I hadn't washed my hair.  And that contributes to a general "not-showered" look.  The same happens if I let Christ clense me from my sins but keep going back to one particular sin because I don't want to give it up and be forgiven.  Having forgiven sins is *a little* bit bigger of a deal than having clean hair.  And the GREAT thing is that if I give over control of my life to Christ so He takes care of the sins that I don't want to let go of, I'm clean for good!  (Stupid hair gets dirty again in the next day or two!!) 

So, while I may not change my hair-washing habits, I DID get a lot to think about and work on in my SPIRITUAL life!

Reading and Learning

I just read a REALLY interesting book - The Unlikely Disciple, which tells about the experience of a non-Christian guy's semester at Liberty University, which is definitely on the ultra-conservative side of Evangelical Christianity.  It was interesting to see what were the things that most struck the author as odd in a conservative Christian community.  Some of the things didn't seen weird to me (like that classes start with prayer, for example).  But others were things that I don't understand either, even after having grown up in a Christian family, and gone to a not-as-conservative Christian college. 

For example, the author mentions that he felt that a lot of Christians (in his experience) don't care about the environment.  Falwell gave a sermon (seriously?!) on global warming in the course of that semester at Liberty, saying that it was a big myth.  Do I think that as Christians we should be concerned about the Earth's environment?  ABSOLUTELY!!  God made everything on the earth for our use, and we should take care of it, so in my opinion, we should use God's earth in a way that's respectful to Him - the Creator of it.  I DON'T think that taking care of the environment is our #1 priority by any means, but it's important!  And in my experience growing up in a Christian environment (mainly in the 80's and 90's) I heard people even laughing, saying that it is dumb to worry about the environment!  That's shameful to me. 

The author had his run-ins with people who were completely ignorant and rude, as well as with those who were really, well, normal.  Reading this book has made me think a lot about how I am viewed as a Christian (especially living in a place where there are VERY few Christians!)  Do people see me as loving and accepting, or as some rude religious fanatic?  I'm pretty sure the "rude religious fanatic" isn't how people see my husband and I, seeing as how we are frequently invited out with people who aren't Christians and even those who don't want anything to do with Christianity.  But they like US as people.  I don't want to be a "religious" person - I want to be someone who truly loves and follows Christ and shares that love with others!  In all I do I want to love others, at the same time not compromising my values or sinning.  Sometimes it's hard to balance that, but we're learning! 

Weddings

Two of our friends from church - Ivan and Selene - got married the other week.  We are SO happy for them!

Weddings in Mexico generally have a LOT more festive mood than those in the United States (at least the U.S. weddings I've been to!)  After the wedding ceremony there is a party with FOOD - a WHOLE meal, usually catered.  And cake too, of course!  There's generally either live music or a DJ.  And after everyone has eaten their fill, the real party begins! 

At some weddings they play what is called "La Vibora del Mar" (the sea snake).  The bride and groom each stand up on chairs (which area usually rented plastic collapsable chairs - real sturdy, hehe!) and hold hands with a big space between them.  In the picture below they used part of the bride's dress instead of holding hands.  Then, all the women (who want to participate) at the wedding hold hands in a chain and start running through the room, between all the tables and people sitting down, and eventually go underneath the bride and groom. 

Then it's the guys' turn.  They hold hands in a chain and do the same thing.  At some point during La Vibora del Mar, the groom will likely get knocked off his chair, and we may see the demise of a flower arrangement, centerpiece, or other decoration. 

I'm not making this up!  And it's not the kids who do this, it's the adults!  It's kind of hard to run through a room filled with tables, chairs, and people,  holding hands with other ladies in HIGH HEELS.  But it was fun!  But I'm NOT upset that we didn't do the Vibora at our wedding...  :)

Another aspect of a wedding party that is different from in the U.S. is that many times the bride and groom go from table to table collecting money for their honeymoon.  The bride has a little bag (traditionally she'd use her shoe, but most brides use sandals these days!) that people put coins in, and the groom gets bills pinned onto his suit.  I TOTALLY wish we would've remembered to do this at our wedding!!  :)

And then there's lots of music and fun until late at night.  And that's a traditional wedding in Mexico (in my experience)!

Our Stash

We just got more ministry resources!  When we invite our ministry contacts out to dinner we like to be able to give them something.  So how about a Bible!  Or a book that explains salvation by grace!  Yeah!  :)  We have a friend who gets super cheap ministry resources/Bible/etc, so we went and stocked up with her yesterday, as we were down to almost no Bibles to give away. 

JP has been sharing Christ with several of his work friends as they carpool home from the airport each day.  A couple of them have a Bible now - JP asked one guy if he'd read any of his new Bible (I believe JP recommended reading the book of John), and he said that he'd read a little bit, but his mom saw the Bible and took it with her to work to read!  So probably one of these Bibles will go to him!  :)

Done!

I FINALLY have all my documents to be able to leave the country and to go to the U.S.  I'm all set on my documents now for TEN years!  Yay!!!  (With the exception of my driver's license... which I probably need to get a Queretaro one but won't yet because it's another expense and we'll just wait to get it until we get back from the States.)

El Bajío

El Bajío (bah-HEE-oh) is the region of Mexico that we live in.  It includes the states of Queretaro, Guanajuato, and part of Michoacan.  This statistic was just shared with us in church on Sunday: this region - along with neighboring states of Aguascalientes and Zacatecas - is the region in LATIN AMERICA that is least evangelized.  And we live here.
 

Below is a map of Mexico with these states colored:

Queretaro is blue

Guanajuato is purple

Aguascalientes is red

Zacatecas is green

Michoacan is brown (the eastern-most part of Michoacan is considered part of the Bajio)

We've actually met a LOT of people who had never heard about salvation in Christ!  So many of the people we come in contact with (with the exception of those at our church!) believe that by being good, participating in the sacraments (baptism as a baby, eucharist, confession, confirmation, etc.), and praying to the saint of their church or city, they will be saved and go to heaven.  It has been sad to see so many people believe that, even though they don't have a relationship with Christ that they will go to heaven.  And we know that Jesus says: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."  John 14:6

God has been giving us some amazing opportunities to share the Message of Salvation with those around us (these testimonies will be in our upcoming newsletter).  Please pray that God will open the hearts of those we share with, that they will come to know Christ as their Savior.  And pray for us too, that we may have the boldness to speak the Truth to others!

View of Queretaro at night

Getting Ready

This week we started making preparations for our trip to the States.  It's still almost 6  months away, but we both absolutely loathe moving.  So we're getting stuff ready for our first garage sale in a couple weeks - selling stuff that we don't use much.  We'll have another one in November for about half of our furniture that we're selling.  It's weird to think of us not living in our house anymore.  It's not actually our house, but it's the only home we've had as a family!
We're looking forward to this adventure of exploring the United States, which will include visits in Oregon, Chicago area, and Atlanta area, and it looks like JP will get his first trip to Disneyland!!
Please pray for us as we continue to make preparations for 6 months away from Mexico - where we will keep the furniture that we're not selling, what to take with us, and where we'll stay for a few weeks after we turn our house over to the owners, where we'll stay in the each city in the States, and what our transportation situation will be like!  Wow, that's a long list!  But we're very excited to take off on this journey of sharing our ministry vision with others!!

Resumé

Our friend, Alma, and her husband have been coming over to the house recently to work on Alma's resumé.  She went to school with JP and is looking for a job.  JP and Max, Alma's husband, were making fun of the picture she put on her resumé (here you have to put a picture of you on it), and told her she should change the picture. 

Unbeknownst to Alma, Max and JP DID change her photo.  To this one:

And, instead of going home and opening up her resumé file before sending it to potential employers, she just attached the file as it was when she left our house.  Oops!!  After sending it to one potential employer, she opened the file to see Krusty the Clown in place of her picture!  At least she only sent it to one place... and we figured, hey, maybe they'll call her for an interview just out of curiosity!  hehe!

Mexican!

On Friday, I officially became a Mexican!  My "birth certificate" was given to me (emitted on March 22nd, not sure why they didn't contact me sooner!), and says I'm from Mexico City!  Which is funny, because people from Mexico City ALWAYS ask JP and I if we're from "provincia," which means from anywhere in Mexico that's NOT Mexico City.  hehe! 

I'm getting my passport soon, and went in yesterday to get my "voting credencial," which, besides being what I need to show when going to the polls, is the primary form of ID for Mexicans.  And, unfortunately, I'm "supposed" to get a Queretaro driver's license too, but we'll see...  I have several Mexican friends who have a valid license only from the USA, and haven't had any problems...

Anyhow, we're excited for my double-citizenship!  No more paying residency, nor 4-hour visits to Immigration! 

Catita

Catita is a 72 year old woman who lives in a really little town about 40 minutes north of Queretaro.  She goes to church at Horizonte (Yes, she travels all that way EVERY sunday, and tuesday for women's prayer meeting, and saturday for her small group!).  Catita lives in a taco stand.  Yes, a little metal building that's about 7ft X 5 ft.  She sells candies and pop.  She asked us a while back if we could paint her stand.  We went out and looked at it, and sure enough it needed painting, among lots of other work!  It was last painted with water-based paint that we knew would turn all rusty when the rainy season starts...

So we asked people from church if they'd be willing to help out with some money to get Catita all set up.  We gathered up paint supplies and asked our friends Pepe and Juan to help us out.  Pepe has a paint spray gun that gets oil based paint on metal done in a jiffy.  Juan is a welder, so we brought him along to help fix the roof leaks. 

JP, Pepe, and Juan figuring out exactly what needs to be done...  JP is stopping up leaks in the roof...  Catita says she wakes up in the middle of the night to sweep water out of her house when it rains.  She sleeps on the concrete floor with blankets.

Sanding the water-based paint

We had some real quality OSHA-approved tools to work with :)

The ladder that we borrowed from a neighbor:

Catita said she wanted her stand painted RED.  Pepe chose the color and when we opened it up we just about died, it was a flourescent bright pinkish-red...  We didn't want to paint it that color...  But when Catita saw it she said it was EXACTLY the color she wanted! 

The door to the taco stand had a big gap in it.  It was really difficult to figure out how to fix it because Catita needs to be able to open the door from both the inside and the outside.  Juan figured it out, and we're pretty sure the door won't leak now! 

Catita is looking on ask Juan works.

Goofing off

The finished product:

But wait, there's MORE! 

Since Catita sells candies and pops to make a living, we decided to help out by buying her lots of stuff to sell!  Some of the youth group people donated candies and money to this whole operation.  I had a blast picking out candies at the market to give to Catita!

Checking out the new candy supply...

This project took a whole lot longer than we expected - we were there with Catita in the little town of "Pie (pee-EH) de Gallo" (means "rooster foot!") all day.  But it was really a lot of fun!

Catita's situation still isn't ideal...  She lives in a TACO STAND!  And her 8 children don't seem to want to help her out very much.  We are unsure of where Catita takes a bath and goes to the bathroom.  She's always well groomed, and has clean clothes and keeps her taco stand clean inside.  I unfortunately had to go to the bathroom while we were there, and, being a woman, I can't exactly just stand behind a tree to do my business!  She said that she usually goes up a big hill behind the stand to go to the bathroom, but she asked a neighbor if I could use theirs.  You have to understand something about small-town folk in Queretaro - they are generally not very willing to share things or be hospitable to people they don't know.  The neighbor very reluctantly let me use the bathroom...

Catita is somewhat of an outcast in her town.  The people call her a "witch" because she doesn't have and alter to Our Lady Guadalupe (the preferred saint of Mexicans) in or by her house.  It's very clear that Catita doesn't worship Guadalupe, she worships only God.  Please pray for Catita, that she will continue to be strong even in the persecutions in her town, and that God will continue to provide for her!

You and You

In Mexican Spanish, we have two different ways to say the singular "you."  "Usted" (oo-STED) is the formal way, and "tu" (pronounced like "2") is informal.  Usted is used for: people who you don't know who are older than you (or over 40ish), people in authority (polititians, teachers, bosses, etc.). 
Then there's the whole thing of other spanish-speaking countries that have different rules for the use of "tu," or even don't ever use it, or use "vos," and lots of other things that we don't do in Mexico...

Anyhow, JP and I have been going out with one of his college professors to hang out and to share about Christ.  He's only like 7 years older than we are, but being JP's former college professor, he's automatically "usted."  In fact, we wouldn't dream of calling him anything else.  (That would be like going up to a college prof and being like, "hey what's hangin' dude!?" 

So, in one conversation between the teacher and JP, JP had the confidence to share with him that without Christ, he would not go to heaven.  While true, that's kind of a risky thing to say in a friendship!  But, instead of getting upset or offended, the teacher said he'd think about what JP had said and start reading the Bible that we gave him.  Then he told JP to please call him "tu" because they're now friends, not a teacher and student!  This might not sound like that big of a deal to English-speakers but it totally is!  We gained a lot of confidence with the teacher that day! 

The State of the State

Queretaro is the state in Mexico that has the most people who worship death, or satan.  There are a lot of churches here, and each one is dedicated to a saint - I think that's pretty normal to hear "St. Matthew's Church," or "Church of Saint Thomas."  But in Queretaro there is a "Church of holy death" in a town right by where JP works.  People make pilgimages from the city to the church.  One Christian girl from the US who came to study at the State University here was living with a family who told her "we worship death."  Before I moved to Queretaro, I would have imagined people who "worship death" to be creepy-scary-looking people who are outcast by society.  But not here.  That family that I know that worships the Santa Muerte is super "normal" - they have a cool house, good jobs, and the woman makes and sells yummy tamales in the house in the evenings.  I was going to put a picture of La Santa Muerte (holy death), but I don't want that on my blog.  But if you want to see what it looks like look it up in Google images.

Please pray for the people in the State of Queretaro.  Of course not all worship death.  But so many are lost, and worship things other than God.  Approximately 1% of the population of this state attends a Christian church.  And how many of those people actually have accepted Christ?  The family who I teach english classes to has an altar to their favorite saint set up in their living room.  Queretaro also has the highest rate of suicides in the country and the highest rate of single moms.  It would be a stretch to say "we're suffering for the sake of Christ," because Queretaro is (in my opinion, and the opinions of many queretanos!) the most beautify city in Mexico!  But even though this city SEEMS to be in good shape - athsetically, economically, politically - we are actually in a really poor state of being.  That's why JP and I are here.  And that's why we ask for your prayers - for us as we work with people here, and for the people we minister to. 

The Best Weekend Ever

We just had a ridiculously LONG but SUPER GOOD weekend!!

Why?  Read below!

Singles Conference
JP and I led a group of 24 young people ages 18 to 36 to Cuernavaca (supposedly 3.5 hours south of Querétaro) for a conference for singles at the Horizonte Church in that city.  About 300 people were in attendence, and we had several EXCELLENT speakers that touched on topics that I know many of our young people are dealing with.  At least two of our young ladies are dating guys who aren't Christians, and this topic was talked about very clearly - God's plan for us NOT to be joined together with unbelievers - and I know that these ladies have been thinking about the consequences of their relationships a lot this past weekend.  One of the speakers talked about SERVING the Lord as a single person.  There are SO many opportunities.  And another speaker talked to all the ladies about taking advantage of singleness to serve and living life to the fullest, NOT waiting around for life to "begin" once you get married.  Even JP and I learned a lot of good stuff to apply to our lives!

The group from Horizonte Queretaro at the conference!

Cristina, Pam, and Ramses

The Food
We ate WAY too many tacos at the conference, they brought in the biggest chunk of meat I've ever seen and between 300 people we finished her off!  :)

The Drive
So, as I mentioned above, the drive from Querétaro to Cuernavaca SHOULD be about 3.5 hours.   The 24 of us took off at about 6am from Querétaro in our car, another small car, and a 15 person van driven by JP.  We stopped for about half and hour just outside of Querétaro, as some other people from Querétaro had car problems (they were following us to the conference).  Then we stopped again for potty and coffee break for about 45 minutes.  We entered Mexico City at about 9:30 am.  This will all of the drivers' first time driving in Mexico City - it wasn't half bad!  But one girl got car sick there and we had to try to find a pharmacy to get some dramamine, and kind of got a little bit lost...  We got to the conference at noon - and hour after it started.
Then we left for Querétaro at about 10pm.  And we hit TRAFFIC at 11pm on the parking lot, er, I mean the highway, that circles about Mexico City.  We were stuck on the circle highway for TWO HOURS!  We ended up getting back to QRO at 3am!  But all arrived SAFE, thank God!

Our fearless pilot!

Bus ride! 

(Maricela, Cristina, Andrea, Adrian, Karen, Pam)

Sleep (or lack thereof!)
I don't do well on little or no sleep.  But between the time JP and I woke up at 7am on friday morning and the time we went comatose in bed at 6 pm on sunday, we slept a grand total of 7.5 hours!  And were driving for 10 of them!!  (ok like 11.5 for JP since he has to drive 45 minutes each way to work!)  But it was worth it!

MORE Changes for Horizonte Queretaro
The church leadership of Horizonte was informed of the following this past week:
Juan, the pastor who came after Martin and had gone back to pastor in Ensenada due to health problems, had left his son, Jonathan, as pastor of Horizonte QRO.  However, Juan's health is getting a lot worse (please pray for him!), and he asked Jonathan to please come back to Ensenada to be the permenent pastor there.  So where does that leave us?  With Kike (KEE-kay) and his wife Paulina from Cuernavaca!  Kike had come several times to QRO en the past few years, and had a burden in his heart for the people here (1% evangelical Cristian!).  He and Pau were praying about starting a house church here when Jonathan called up and asked them to pray about pastoring Horizonte Querétaro.  So on sunday, it was annouced that Kike will be our new pastor, beginning that day!  We're sad to not have Jonathan and Evelyn here, but Kike and Pau are awesome, and we know that they will be a huge blessing here!!

Kike and his wife Paulina

Kike and Jonathan

Soccer
The Horizonte QRO girls' soccer team won our second game on sunday!  Just to top of the excellent weekend!!

Dirce, Alma, Ari, me, and Arely after the soccer game

Birthdays and Parents

JP and I had a couple of special days in February...  We both turned 30!  JP on the 20th and me on the 23rd.  My parents were down here for a week too!

Here are some pictures of the fun birthday week!!

Barb and Rick in Mexico City

JP and Jessica in Guanajuato

Us at our birthday party - we had 35 people in our house over the course of the evening!!

Some of the girls from the birthday party!



Fire

Just a while ago I was sitting here at the computer and heard sirens entering our neighborhood.  I could tell that they were really close behind our house, and went out to see what happened.  In the next condominium complex over there was a house on fire.  That particular house in the complex is at the very back, and there is no place for a vehicle to come within probably 30 feet of the house.  So the firemen went in with neighbors' garden hoses and buckets... they didn't even turn on the fire hose.  Some neighbors from our condominium complex told the firemen that they could get the truck right up next to the burning house.  One fireman asked to use my neighbors' ladder to climb the fence into the patio of the burning house.  I was there more than 5 minutes watching the house burn and the firemen try to figure out what to do.  They finally brought the truck around to our complex and put the fire completely out... after having to break windows and have A LOT of the family's stuff burnt.

This really takes away a lot of faith in the fire department for me...

One thing you have to understand about house fires in Mexico is that the houses are built out of concrete blocks, rebar, and plaster, so at least the house structure withstands most fires.  But I imagine that the family's furniture and most everything in their home is ruined...

Everyone got out of the house fine...  A small boy found a lighter in the house and went to go play in the closet.  With the lighter.  You can probably imagine that the clothes caught on fire, then the closet doors, etc.  The dad tried to put the fire out himself but it got too far out of hand and they called the fire department.  I feel so bad for the family because it took about half and hour for the fire to be properly put out!  And, most people who live in these condominiums don't exactly have a lot of extra money lying around in case of emergency, so who knows how they'll put their house back together.  JP and I are going over there now to see if we can help them...  donate bedding, clothes, etc...  Please pray for the family with the burnt house.  We also want to use this opportunity to share Christ's love with them.

Graduation Time!

JP has his graduation and graduation party last week!  We went out to dinner after the graduation with a bunch of friends who'd been with us through all the joys and challenges of school.  Then saturday was the party with JP's school friends!  It was a blast!

Classmates before the graduation ceremony

Us

With Luis and Sandy

JP's dad

The guys in JP's class at the graduation party!

Cesar, Bruno, Fede, Chava, JP, Pacheco

JP, Chava, Elena, Cesar, and Pacheco enjoying the food

Bruno, who spent lots of time in our house over the past few years