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.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
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 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!
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!!
Soccer
The Horizonte QRO girls' soccer team won our second game on sunday! Just to top of the excellent 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
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
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!!
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!
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