Enter the Matrix!

Last week we started a series in Infusion young adults's group called "Enter the Matrix."  It's about living for Christ and not being consumed by the world.  Like John 17:15 - "My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one."  We are to to live in the world.  But we are to live for Christ!  To be an example of HIM to the world that needs Him! 

So on Saturday night, we talked about what we're investing our time in...  School, a good job, a family, owning your own home, etc.  These are all GOOD things, but they shouldn't be THE things that we're living for.  Our number one focus should be Jesus.  We do (some of!) the things that the world says we need to do, but while we're at it, remember that God has put us here to: KNOW Him, GLORIFY Him, to BE LIKE Him, and to TELL others about Him!

Girls at Infusion: (back) Karen, Pam, Ari, Brisa, (front) Carmelita, Alma, Cinthya

We'll continue "Enter the Matrix" for three more sessions! 

 Jean Paul, Ruben, and Dany

Last week we went out to tacos after Infusion!

On February 12th we're doing a service project for an older woman at Horizonte who lives in a metal taco stand.  We'll be fixing the roof and sides of the stand so water doesn't come in when it rains (two of our young guys can weld), water-proofing the areas where the metal siding is hooked together, and painting the whole stand.  Catita, the woman who lives in the stand, sells candy from her taco stand as her source of income.  We hope to raise enough money to: fix up the stand, bring lunch for the young people who go to work and Catita, and buy lots of candies for her to sell, as well as some pretty containers to display them in.  So far we have 4 paint brushes, the caulking needes for the cracks on the outside of the stand, and two large bags for assorted candies.  Some of Catita's friends from the church are donating a little money to help, and we're going to have a car wash to raise the rest! 

Santo Relajo!

Last week we had a pretty much amazing event at Horizonte Church - Santo Relajo!  (doesn't translate well in english, but it's like "holy mess")  This was an outreach event for youth.  Many of the Horizonte youth invited non-Christian friends, and we had quite a few young people from other Christian churches come with friends as well.  We had 70+ young people at the event, which included live music from *Sweet Emily* - two girls from Horizonte are the drummer and a singer in the group.  We had a super-mega-abundance of hot dogs, chips, hot chocolate, and cider for everyone, provided by the women of Horizonte and families of the young people.  We played lots of crazy games, and had a bonfire with the biggest marshmallows I've ever seen.  And most importantly, Pablo - a youth leader from another church in Queretaro - gave a message of salvation for those who might never have heard about Jesus' saving grace.  FIVE young people accepted the Lord that night!  We want to make sure to keep in contact with them to help them grow in their new faith!

Our invitation to Santo Relajo  (my pictures didn't turn out well, it was too dark...)



We're also planning a large Christmas party together with several other Christian church youth groups in Queretaro on December 18th.  It will be held at Horizonte, and will also be an evangelistic event!  We're excited about the partyyyyyyy!!

Zombies!

"Wait on the Lord."  "God will open doors for you."  "God works in His timing."

I agree.  Biblical concepts  by which we sould live.

But, many times as Christians, we take phrases like these and turn them into excuses to do...  NOTHING.  We graduate from high school and don't work or go to college because we're "waiting on the Lord."  We don't tell anyone about Christ because "God hasn't opened the door" for us to do so.  We turn into ZOMBIES - having that blank stare that shows that you have no clue what's going on, and following what everyone else is doing. 

We've begun a series in Infusion (Horizonte Church young adults' group) called Zombies.  Too many young people are falling into complete apathy and blaming it on "God not showing up," or "God hasn't given me the opportunity."

Let's take the story of Joshua as an example of correctly "waiting on the Lord."  Joshua was a young guy when the Israelites left captivity in Egypt.  At some point, he became a helper to Moses.  Moses and all the people "who were of fighting age" when they left Egypt were not going to be allowed to enter the land that God had promised the Israelites.  (Joshua could because he was obedient.) 
Anyhow, all the old guys are gone and the Israelites are set to go to the Promised Land.  But God tells them that they'll have to FIGHT to get into the land.  What's more, they have to walk around the whole city for seven days, probably while the people inside laugh and make fun of them, and maybe stand on the city walls throwing rotten vegetables and spitting on the Israelites.  (this is the Jessica version)  In the end, the Israelites race in to Jericho and kill all the people inside. 

So...  What if Joshua and the Israelites would've "waited on the Lord" in the same way many of us do now days?  They could've sat in the desert thinking, "well, God's going to give us this land, so I guess we'll just wait here outside the city until the people inside decide to leave and give the land to us."  Wow, there's a threat.  "I guess God hasn't opened the door for us to go into the city yet, but some day He will." 

Guess what!  "Waiting on the Lord" and "Looking for His open door" doesn't mean being lazy!!  The Israelite wouldn't have and  Holy Land today if Joshua would've been like, "well, ok, we'll go in to Jericho when the people decide to give us the city."  They took action and got their hands dirty!  "Waiting on the Lord" involves LISTENING to Him and TAKING ACTION when He gives us a promise or an opportunity.  We need to provoke things to happen.  I'm not at all saying that God isn't taking action - it He's not the focus of our lives, we might as well just forget about even saying we want to follow Him.  We DEFINITELY need to seek God's will.  But SEEK is a VERB - that means we have to take action!  If we don't ACTIVELY SEEK His will, how can we wait on Him?! 

So, we should shake off the Zombie-ness.  Zombies have been dead and are now alive (ok, THAT we don't need to shake off!), just like we were dead in sin, and are now alive.  But Zombies just do what everyone else is doing, following blindly with blank looks on their faces and not using words just grunts.  And THAT is what we DON'T need to be doing.

This is what we're learning in Infusion.  We hope and pray that it will impact the young people to TAKE ACTION!!  :)

We made a funny video about zombies who just follow what everyone else does.  I don't have the video, but we made ourselves up like zombies.  Some of us turned out pretty freaky-looking...  But the video was funny and served the purpose to show what we DON'T want to be like!

You only get one picture of Zombies, because the rest look like bad holloween make up and are kind of scary...
Pam, Lluvia, Amayrani, Brisa, and Karen doing their zombie make-up for the video!

The Guys From Down the Street - Take 2

In January, I wrote about some kids - Enrique and Fernando - who live in the same neighborhood as Angel and siblings who are Christians who go to our church.  Enrique is the guy who introduced himself to us several months ago as if he were in some kind of non-christians annonymous...  hehe.  Anyhow, I'd also mentioned that he's been coming regularly to Metamorphosis group (young adults small group), Infusion, and now and then to sunday morning church service. 

Saturday was Infusion (monthly meeting and hang-out time for the young adults at church, and any friends they invite), and Enrique came.  Our topic was worry... and I was the one leading the discussion... quite fitting.  hehe  When we were all leaving, Enrique stopped me and thanked me for the discussion - that he's been suffering a lot lately from worry about all sorts of stuff, and that knowing that GOD provides a way out of worry by us putting our trust in Him, and "casting all our cares on Him." (1 Peter 5:7) It was nice to see that Enrique's life is being impacted through Infusion.  He's also going to tell a little bit about how his life has been impacted recently, at a breakfast for people who want to join a small group at Horizonte. 

Anyhow, yesterday, I just about thought I was hallucinating when I recognized Enrique's mom and sister, and the parents of Andrea (a girl from that same neighborhood who comes to youth group) in church.  I think Angel's family (they're the Christians who live in that neighborhood) are pretty much evangelists by lifestyle - they just hang out with their neighbors and the next thing you know, they all show up at church!

Please pray for Enrique and his family, and Andrea and her family, that soon, all that they have been hearing about Christ's love will move from their heads to their hearts to change their lives and bring salvation!

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!

Fashion Show!

The other week in Infusion (Horizonte young adults group), we had a progressive dinner where the participants had to all dress up in clothes that don't match...

It turned out pretty well, with the exception of everyone getting to their houses after midnight due to one car running out of gas, one car breaking down, and traffic that involved a 5-lane highway with 4 lanes closed for road repair and a wreck in the other lane!

But it was a good time of hanging out together!  We had TONS of food between 3 houses (had to actually not go to one house due to the late hour!)

And here's our fashion show...

Andrea

Liz

Angel

Abdiel

MEEEEE!

Amayrani and Brisa

And those are just the WORST-dressed!  We like parties!  :)

The Guys from Down the Street

A few months ago, Angel, a guy from Infusion (Horizonte Church young adults' group) brought a friend, Enrique, with him.  Angel and Enrique have been neighbors and best friends for year.  Angel had invited Enrique to church before (when he attended a different church in QRO), and Enrique didn't want to go back.  So when Angel invited him to Infusion, he didn't want to go.  Angel told him that it's really just a group of young people hanging out, eating, and talking about the Bible.  NO preaching, just conversation.  After lots of prodding and promising that if Enrique didn't like Infusion he didn't have to come back, Enrique came. 

His initial greeting to all of us was, "Hi I'm Enrique.  I'm not a Christian."  (What is this, non-christians annonymous??)  And no one even batted an eyelash, just welcomed him and sent a plate of chips and a coke his way, and joined him into the conversation. 

Enrique was raised in a Catholic family, but didn't like the "traditional-ness" and felt like he was obligated to give money if he wanted to go to heaven.  So he quit church.  He knows a good deal about the Bible, and actively participates in biblical discussions in Infusion.  But he has his own set of rules for life, and doesn't want any other rules imposed on him.  (No worries, his "rules" DO include abiding by the laws of the country!)

Anyhow, Enrique continued to come to Infusion for about 2 months, and attended the Infusion Christmas party as well.  At the party, he asked Lluvia (one of the Infusion leaders) if it was ok if he kept coming to Infusion even though he's not a Christian.  Of course Lluvia said, YES, we'd LOVE for him to continue coming!  And Enrique said that he'd made more good friends in Infusion in the last two months than in college that last two years.  He went on to say that he didn't understand why a group of Christians would want HIM to hang out with them, since we know he doesn't believe the same as we do.  We told him that he's more than welcome to not only come to Infusion, but also to invite any friends he'd like - even if they're not Christians, or they're some other religion.  Just that we're going to keep talking about the Bible and Jesus, and how Jesus has changed our lives, and how He can change everyone's life. 

Enrique - the guy with a church-phobia - has now even been coming to Sunday morning services at Horizonte.  He even brings another neighbor friend - Fernando - who is 15, and also wonders if it's ok for  him to come to church even though he's not a Christian.  Between all the Christmas parties, birthday parties, hiking trips, and random get-togethers that we've had in the past couple months, even Fernando has gotten to know some of the other high school kids.  Even though like 5 or 6 other high schoolers have told him that he should come to high school youth group, he still says he doesn't know anyone there...  But hopefully he'll realize that the other kids DO want him to come, and he'll GO.

We know that God is working in the hearts of Enrique and Fernando, and trust that soon they will both begin a relationship with Him.  See?  You DON'T have to be a party-pooper weirdo Christian to be a good example to those who don't have a relationship with God...  I truly believe that God wants us to be a part of our cultre!  Just to be aware of things that are not pleasing to God, and participate in all that IS pleasing to God!

Pre-Christmas Events

Two of our favorite events of December were the couples' dinner at Horizonte Church (our FIRST event for married couples that we've been able to attend!)

And the Young Adults' Christmas party... complete with piñata, steak, desserts, and weird games.