Its incredible how you can become so attached to a group of people in a very little amount of time. The past 12 days in Durango have been, not without its challenges, but a time I will forever and always remember and cherish.
When I first signed up for this five-month-YWAM-thing I knew I would not be spending the holidays at home. I did not, however, count on it being sooo HARD to be away from home during the Christmas season.
As soon as I got to Durango, I was immediately blessed to see the city extravagantly decorated for Christmas. There was a park downtown that was all decked out with Christmas lights. We had the pleasure of walking around there and enjoying the season, twice!
As Christmas was was quickly approaching, we were beginning to build long lasting friendships with some of the youth of the church. We began teaching them some of our dramas, and they helped us with our street programs.
On our third day there, instead of going out and doing a program, Isai took us (the YWAM team and some of the youth) up the side of a mountain to a church that overlooked the city. Up there we separated and individually began to ask God about the city: how we could pray for it, how we could bless the people...
As I found a place and began to look over the city I thought it was strange to see several groups of birds circling in different areas of the city. Thinking about it, I thought that these kinds of birds only fly like that when there is something dead they want to eat. Almost immediately I the story of Ezekiel speaking to the dry bones in the desert came to my mind. I got my Bible and searched for the story and found it in Ez. 37. Shortly there after we all came back together as group to share what God was speaking to us about the city.
At first I was hesitant to say anything, I didn't want to say there was a lot of death in the city because I saw some birds and thought of a scripture... However, when prompted, I did share and after I spoke, Isai confirmed what I had heard God telling me by saying that the city has the most suicides. We also heard about several fatal car accidents before and during our stay in Durango....
As Christmas was coming I was really not looking forward to it. It was REALLY hard to not be with my family for Christmas...BUT it turned out to be WAY better than I thought it would.
Christmas Eve we had the pleasure of joining Isai's family for dinner. Afterward we found an open restaurant downtown to get a coffee treat. I think we were there for at least an hour....it was midnight before we left! Everyone was very tired...you can imagine the silly things that were going on because of the late hour....
On Christmas day they told us we would be heading to the church to make our breakfast (like usual) and then we would clean the bathrooms....To say the least we weren't thrilled with this idea...it was CHRISTMAS!! When we were pulling away from the camp grounds, I made a flippant comment about going to an IHOP or Vips (which is very similar to IHOP). Of course, all the gringas liked that idea, the Mexicans...not so much. After some negotiating we were on our way to Vips for Christmas breakfast!! It was a nice treat, something out of the ordinary. After eating we stayed longer talking. We took turns going around the table and encouraging one another. It was a good time. By the time we left it was after 1pm!! We had to rush to Walmart to get somethings before heading over to Edgar's house (kid from the youth that invited us over for Christmas dinner). When we got there I was very excited and surprised to see our other friends Pavel, Poncho, and Aohli. Having them made a big difference! ~totally made the day~ After we ate we did our little gift exchange ( we did a secret santa).
Then all of us were off to downtown Plaza de Armas. We had to do about an hour or so of ministry. When we got there practically everyone had to go to the bathroom...so while we waited Pavel (and I think Poncho maybe) treated us with an ice cream cone from McDonalds. Then we split into groups of three and headed out to mingle and talk with the people.
At first it was a bit odd. We weren't sure where to start. We wandered around for a bit. Then I suggested we ask how their (whoever we approached) Christmas was, since it was Christmas DAY. From there we could ask them what the true meaning of Christmas was to them..
My group talked to probably five or six different people. There was one lady, though, that impacted me the most. She opened up and shared with us that a year ago to the day her husband committed suicide, leaving her and their two young daughters behind. Its one thing to know something about the city, to pray for it, but to put a face to it, to know it first hand is something totally different. My heart breaks for Durango.....
After we were done talking to people were just there in the Plaza standing around laughing and dancing to the Christmas music. We were given three hours of free time because it was our 2nd to last night in Durango. We decided to walk to a coffee shop...it was closed, so we decided to walk to an ice cream shop........it too was closed, so we walked....we found a tienda that was open AND had a bathroom so we stopped there for a bit....from there walked to the park were all the lights were-- just outside of it. After hanging around there for awhile...having fun in the fountain and with the water from the fountain....
Chloe was the only one who wanted to brave not only the yucky water, but also the freezing cold by getting in the fountain....I am not sure what she was thinking... Later Amber got Pavel and Poncho really wet by pretending she wanted to show them something in the fountain and then splashing them with the water... here we can see Pavel's Fanta bottle BEFORE he emptied the rest of it to put water in it to get Amber back...
When we were tired of all that fun we decided to walk all the way back to the Plaza de Armas. There we determined that we were hungry, but the gringas didn't have much, if any money on them. Pavel, Poncho, and Edgar decided to buy us all hamburgers. First, however, we had to get Pavel's car out of the parking garage...we then put 9 not so small people into Pavel's not so big car...Poncho rode in the trunk!! It's an experience I won't forget...especially since someone in the back decided to release some gas... It was definitely a Christmas I will always remember!!
We have great friends in Durango...I say I have family there!! I know God is got something incredibly awesome started there, I can't wait to go back!
Here they are...our family in Durango!
This is Pavel, mi hermanito. We broke his car when we were all in it....he's an awesome kid that God's got HUGE plans for. I am totally blessed to call him friend, and brother.
Here are Edgar and Poncho. These two guys were always making us laugh!! They were a riot! These guys, and Pavel are such extraordinary gentlemen!
Here is Mariana and Aohli (I think that's how you spell their names). There girls were sweet. It was hard to say goodbye to them!
later when we had a meeting with our team leader Esther ....there was a flood of water works.....we were pretty pathetic. To top it off we had to go downtown after our cry fest and try to talk to people one on one. Later that evening, we had free time. We decided to go to Starbucks, so we headed to the one in the mall.... it snowed!! Fake snow, but it was snowing in the mall! If you look really close you can see it in the picture!! The best part of the evening what when Pavel and Poncho started texting us, then called us. :) We also ran into a friend of Dina's that she had been wanting to see since before we got went to Durango...So the night turned out pretty good despite how pathetically miserable we were.
