200 Years of MEXICO!

Mexico's Bicentenial was this week - September 16th!  JP and I, and friends, went to the Centro to celebrate!  It was wonderful!  Of course, we started out the night with "Antojitos Queretanos" (tipical Queretaro fair-food)



Jessi & JP with sweet tamales

Pam and Karen getting elotes

JP's favorite food booth!

Then we all crowded into one of the parks in the Centro - we didn't make it into the one in front of the State Capitol!

The governor gave the "GRITO" and we sang the national anthem.

Noe and JP in the park with THOUSANDS of other Queretanos!

And, what Independece Day celebration is complete without fireworks!

Fireworks over the San Francisco Church

Viva Mexico!  200 years!!

It was an unforgettable celebration! 

Mexico - 199 years, 363 days old...

Mexico is turing 200 years old!  I always love Independence Day here (September 16, and the celebrations start on the 15th at night), but this year will be extra special, as there is so much going on for the Bicentenial!  JP and I, and several friends are going here on the 15th at night:

This is a plaza in front of the State Capitol building.  The governor will do the "grito" which is a tribute to the people who helped Mexico become independent.  Somehow I have a feeling that we'll end up down some alleyway somewhat close to the plaza, as there will surely be THOUSANDS of people here...

The town is decked out in Independece Day decor, and we are too!

I'll definitely post pictures after the celebration!!

Scary Christians

Why do we, Christians, sometimes have the notion that we have to be "weird?"  I mean, technically, Jesus was weird - he did and said things that were counter-cultural - like the "turn the other cheek" thing - it was supposed to be "an eye for an eye," but Jesus spoke about vengence and forgiveness in a different way that the culture dictated.

But why do so many Christians ADD rules to life?  Isn't that what the Pharisees did?  And why are we, sometimes, meaner, less careful with our stuff, or more legalistic than people who DON'T believe in Christ?  There is a fine line between setting a good example of a Christ-like lifestyle, and turning your nose up at those who don't know Christ and therefore don't live a Christian lifestyle. 

I have two examples from personal experience that rather irritate me along these lines...

1.  A long time ago, I worked in a restaurant.  I usually worked at night, but this particular day I was working at lunch time, and some ladies that I knew from a local church came in.  Apparently, they went to that restaurant every week after a Bible study.  I greeted the ladies by name, and a coworker took me aside and asked me if I actually KNEW those ladies.  Yes, I said, I know them.  Why?  And my coworker said, "They're CHRISTIANS.  They're always totally rude to me and I HATE it when they come in here!  I know you're a Christian and you're not like that, but I figured you didn't actually have anything to do with them!"  And, right on cue, one of the ladies came up to the counter and started going off on my coworker for putting some extra ingredient on her pizza.  I'm not talking, "Um, excuse me, this isn't what I ordered."  (Which is totally valid - if you didn't get what you ordered, tell the waiters).  It was more like, "Um, did you HEAR what I asked for?  I mean, it's really NOT that hard to remember 'pepperoni with mushrooms and olives,' and THIS has ONIONS on it!!  I can't heat THIS!  You need to give me another pizza NOW!  I shouldn't have to suffer through this crap."  Not.  Even. Kidding.  I was MAD that this lady, representing a Bible study group, went off on my coworker like that!!  I think a lot of times non-Christians do a lot better job of "being kind to one another" that those of us who claim to follow Christ. 

2.  I remember when I was little and recycling became something that was plausable for people to actually do in their homes.  A lot of people didn't want to do it...  too complicated, too much work, I'm too lazy, etc.  But CHRISTIANS should be the FIRST people to want to jump in with recycling!  God created the earth for us to use AND take care of.  We can't continue using natural resources if we don't take care of them first.  I remember a LONG time ago when the "spotted owl" was a big issue and cutting down lumber was getting to be frowned upon (this is in Oregon).  Christians were the ones saying that we should just cut down the forrests for whatever we want, they're there for us to use and we can do whatever with the forrests.  Some of my friends and I even made up a song: "Cut down the old growth forrests, make the spotted owl live somewhere else!"  I totally agree that animals should not have presidence over humans, but no human is going to die if we are more careful in the lumber industry and plant lots of new trees for the trees that are cut down.  It's part of taking care of God's creation - something that I get the impression that non-Christians do a whole lot better than Christians.  That seems incongruent to me since if we want to honor Jesus with our lives, we should obey God's commands...  Including taking care of His creations...

3.  Then there's the whole "dress code" thing.  Those who follow Christ DO need to be careful in how we dress - cover what needs to be covered.  But there are lots of "modest" clothes that are actually cute and rather stylish.  I used to go to a Bible study (GREAT study, by the way) where there were like over 100 women.  I was always one of the only ones in pants.  It was like there was a "uniform" of jeans jumpers (AUS: "jumper" is like a dress that you put on over a blouse) and flat dress shoes.  (This was only about 5 years ago!)  Why?  I guess because that's how good Christian ladies were "supposed" to dress.  I'm sure that if you went to the closets of 100 non-Christian ladies in the same age groups you would only find like 2 jeans jumpers that actually get used.  Yes, as Christians, we are called to be different, but not to isolate ourselves from all things/people who aren't Christians!  (Note the "purple jumpsuit missionary" for another example). 

It took me a long time to find a picture of a jumper, and this is not quite as bad as the ones I'm talking about...

The point: We scare people when we make rules and /or disregard cultural norms.  (Cultural norms that do no go against God's Word, that is).  Who wants to be a Christian if it means that you're going to turn into an old bag?  Or if it means disregarding what you know is right - like taking care of our resources - because it's all of a sudden not important?  Or if it means that you're subjected to a life of jeans jumpers and turtleneck sweaters?  Because I feel like this is the impression we give of what it means to be a Christian.

Just saying...

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!

Foreigners and Citizens

2010 has been (and will continue to be!) a seemingly never-ending year of "trámites."  (TRA-mee-tay)  I can't for the life of me come up with a good english word for that, but it's basically all kinds of government paperwork that requires you to: stand in lines, make appointments, suffer through "I'm sorry, the system is down" when you urgently need a document, travel to the city you were born in to physically receive a document, make payments in the bank, get a paper from the mexican IRS that says you don't owe taxes (that one took 25 hours in total), etc.  That's what a TRÁMITE is!

I am in the process of becoming a Mexican citizen.  JP is in the process of getting residency in the US so he can get his citizenship next year.  I know that sounds impossible, the vast majority of foreigners have to have residency for 3 years before even beginning the citizenship process, but thankfully we're not included in "vast majority!" 

We've done approximately 40 trámites this calender year, between JP, his mom and I.  I feel like i could be a facilitator for foreigners getting annual visas, residency or getting married; or do tax stuff for individuals after all this!  hehe! 

Anyhow, we're happy to be able to be in these processes so we can be able to live in either country without having to pay every year, or being nervous that laws will change and the foreigner will have to leave the country. 

Please  pray for us in these "trámites" as we'll have to continue going to Mexico City somewhat frecuently, JP will be travelling to Ciudad Juarez, and we'll have a small tour of a couple US cities (very much looking forward to that for next year!!) to complete these processes.  We want to do everything legally - even though it's definitely not easiest - and we have no idea how we will pay for all this or where we'll stay when we're in the US, but we're looking at it as an adventure!!

The Famous Lizard Costume

Here's the lizard costume I made for KidStuf.  I took a huge chance in saying I'd make the costume... considering I'd hadn't sewn anything besides hemming a piece of fabric for a tablecloth and stuff like that in years!  And, I had no pattern.  I think it turned out rather well!  (Especially because in this picture, you can's the the horrible zipper where one side is about 3 inches longer than the other!  hehe)  The back has lime-green spots on it too.

Alan "Kit" modeling the costume backstage.

Milestones

This week is a big week for us!

Today is our second anniversary! It seems like it's been a LOT less time than that... that means it's been a good two years, right? :) We're going to the restaurant where JP proposed to me for lunch!

Wednesday is JP's last day of classes FOR.EVER.  (Although I have been hearing the word "maestria" passing between JP and his friends... guess what that means...  hehe)  He's graduating as the valedictorian of his major, and probably of the whole class of  2010 in all majors!!!

Classes...

Randomness...

And late-nite taco runs...

It's been a great 3 years of college!!

Tomorrow and wednesday I'm turning in my documents to become a mexican citizen, taking my mexican history and culture test, and being approved for being able to speak spanish well-enough (they guy who's testing me laughed when I asked him if he thought I speak good spanish - that I should hear some people struggle through making full sentences... and he approves some of them!) 
Please pray for that all goes well in this process...  I have two possible SNAFUs - I have two different names on legal documents: my mexican documents have two last names (my maiden name and my mom's maiden name - that's how they do it here) and the USA documents just have my maiden name (haven't changed to Uribe yet); and, my passport is brand new, it doesn't have any stamps in it, and I need to show stamps for all the times I've left Mexico in the past two years - which has only been twice - and those stamps are in a cancelled passport.  These two things wouldn't be a problem in the US, but here they are VERY strict about ALL documents having the EXACT same name/address/validity/etc. 

Anyhow, we have a lot to be thankful for this week!  God has been good!  And will continue to be too!  :)

Happy Day!

About three months ago, a family entered Horizonte and asked about the church.  This family is from Mexico City and was visiting Queretaro.  They have family that lives down the highway from the church.  The Mexico City family brought their Queretaro family members to Horizonte for the second service.  There were three girls - Pam, Karen, and Fernanda.  Pam and Karen are 23 and 20, respectively, and Fer is in elementary school.  Their parents didn't want to come.

Pam and Karen accepted Christ the beginning for 2010 through the influence of their family members in Mexico.  Immediately they were interested in being involved in the young adults' group and coming to the Sunday services at Horizonte.  They are learning a lot about the Bible, and are VERY eager to continue that learning.  

The other day, the three of us went out for crepes (very popular in Queretaro, and VERY yummy!!).  I had told them that Laura, the lady that was discipling me, just moved to the US.  They asked me about eing discipled, what that is, and how they can be discipled.  I'll begin meeting with each of the girls this week!  Unfortunately we aren't able to do a study all three together, as Karen goes to school in the evening and Pam gets off work at 7pm.  

Please pray for Pam and Karen, that they will continue to grow in the Lord.  And for me, that the Lord will speak through me.  I've had some frustrating experiences with discipling in the past year - girls who aren't commited to meeting for a study, or who are too busy going to dance clubs in the evening to meet.  I've been discipling Sandy, and 17yearold for about 2 months now, and that is going well.  And I trust that Pam and Karen will be commited and benefit from our times together!

Both girls were baptized yesterday at Horizonte Church!  I don't have pictures of their actual baptism - I was behind the stage helping them out!  But below is a picture of thir parents (who thanfully came to watch!), aunts, uncles, cousins, and a few friends! 

Mexico D.F.

I'm working on becoming a Mexican citizen.  It's a kind of long process, but the total cost of all the paperwork and fees is about $150, which is tens of times less that it will cost to get JP's US citizenship.  I've had to go to several places in Queretaro to get the requirements for this process, and one paper had to be picked up in Mexico City.  I went on thursday.  It costs about $30 round trip to get to and from Mexico (haha mom, I can pay less to go to the bus station instead of the airport!), so JP didn't go with me, and he couldn't really take off work anyway. 

The Mexico City Metro Area has over 20 MILLION people.  It's one of the dirtiest cities in the world (although they're doing well at cleaning it up), and one of the most dangerous as well (which is also being worked on).  For some unknown reason, I feel a lot safer in Mexico City that I do in large cities in the US, Chicago for example, but I have no idea how to get from one point to another in Chicago or other large US cities.  I feel unsafe taking public transportation in Portland Oregon, which I seriously doubt has a high crime rate.

Anyway, I mapped out my route to the Federal Police building where I needed to get my paper.  Go to Mexico on a nice bus.  Go on the subway (Metro) from the bus station.  Change Metro lines twice.  Buy a MetroBus ticket and go about 10 minutes on that.  Get off and walk 4 blocks to the Federal Police building.  A lot of people look at me and know that I'm a foreigner, but there's always room for doubt - there are many mexicans with my skin, hair, and eye color.  By mapping out my route before I begin using public transportation, I somewhat avoid looking like a lost tourist, which cuts down on the risk of being pick-pocketed or worse.  All credit/debit cards that I don't plan on using stay home, as well as wedding rings, driver's license, and other things that I won't use and want to keep for years to come.

The paper-pickup took less that 10 minutes, which is EXTREMELY rare for paperwork here - I waited HOURS in each immigration visit in Queretaro.  And I had planned to spend hours in Mexico.  So, I went to the Capitol Mall, some free museums, the zoo, and ate lunch a a Burger King across the street from the Angel of Independence.  I think I walked for about 2 hours, counting walking around the zoo.  It was a nice, cheap, day of exploring and recharging.  And I still am weirded out by the fact that I've been to the Capitol Mall and the Capitol building in Mexico like 8 times in 4.5 years...  I've only been to the US Capitol once I doubt I'll ever have the chance to go back...  I like living here!  :)

Back to the States

No, not us...  hehe

Our friends Steve and Laura, and their girls are moving back to the States.  They've lived here in Queretaro for TWELVE years; their girls are more mexican than anything...  But, it's time to go.

Laura has been discipling me for the past several months, and JP has met with Steve frequently as well.  So we'll miss them a lot!

Laura, Mary, Steve, Audrey, (Jorge, who snuck in the photo!), Jessi, and JP

Also, the "Back to the States" title probably will be applying to us, on a short-term basis, here in the next  year or so...  I'm in the process of becoming a mexican citizen, and after I receive citizenship we'll probably be making the rounds to Oregon and Atlanta (and we'd love to go to Chicago, Minneappolis, Northern California, and Disneyland too!  hehehe!) 
Please be praying for my citizenship process.  From that we've heard, it actually costs less that a visa renewal, but takes 8 months if you have all your documents ready...  This will save us hundereds of dollars per year not having to pay for my residency anymore!