Hello. Goodbye.

It's really hard to believe that summer is already over! Well, living in Mexico it's practically always summer-time weather, but what I mean is that school is starting again already :( The kids come back on Monday!! Where has my summer gone??

I remember now...one week here in Durango "resting" two weeks in the states (1 wk in Texas, 1 wk in KC), one week back in Durango going out to the camp grounds everyday, two weeks of rest and cleaning the house, and then last week, in-service and another youth camp....yep that's how the summer went. So fast.

I have been singing more with the worship team. It has been somewhat of a challenge. I'm still not as confident in my abilities as I should be I think. But I'm going to keep at it and see what happens.

God has been doing some crazy good stuff around these parts, moving and working and bringing freedom to people's lives like never before.



One Thursday night I had a slumber party with some of the girls from church. It was pretty fun, and relaxing. It's neat to see how God brings people together at the right time.

Here is Grecia, Dulce and me .... like at 4am :-P
Also at the party were Oly and Alejandrina :)




School starts on Monday. My goal is to keep this more up to date (as always) we'll see if I can make that happen!

Tengo Miedo

Recently we've been having more drive by shootings, and shoot outs between the bad guys and cops.

This past week, on Wednesday actually, a friend and I were driving home from the movies when we passed a bunch of cops and a couple of taxis. Were like what happened here?!? But we kept on driving (you never stick around when there are a bunch of cops...and this is why). As it turns out not 15min before we passed, some taxis had a little fender bender. As they were sorting out the details with the police, two guys drove by and opened up a couple of rounds on everyone at the scene but mostly targeting the police. The police officers were shot in the back (and are ok I think) but the taxi drivers (three in all I think) were killed (two on the spot and the other one just died today) :-S. Here's the ironic part, the shooters where driving fast, hit a bump, flipped their vehicle and died....

Tonight there was another shooting in the neighborhood of a friend and the police wouldn't let people leave their houses.

Last week, when we were all out at the fair grounds for a concert, in the neighborhood where my church is located (and just around the corner from a different friend's house) there was a shoot out between cops and the bad guys. That night my friends couldn't return home cuz the cops had blocked off that entire area. I've driven past and seen the bullet holes in the building.

Crazzzy stuff.

Please pray for my safety, and the safety of everyone here in Durango. Mostly the danger is with the cops. They're the targets. However if you happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time (like the taxi drivers).....

Oh my! How time flies!

Apparently I'm really bad at keeping up with this blog.....I think I lack inspiration due to too much busy-ness. Its really hard to believe that I've been living here in Mexico almost a whole year now (August 1 marks one year!! Wii!! Party at my house!)

This year has been more challenging than I could have ever imagined it to be. Full of ups and downs. I think the most challenging part has been my job. Unless you've been here, you really cannot imagine what it's like adjusting to not only living in a different culture but working in one. Yes, I work at an "American" school, but it's totally run by Mexicans :p. The challenges that I've met there were not something I expected. It's definitely been a chance to grow and change how I think.

More surprising than the challenges I have faced so far are the many blessings God has been throwing at me. I am incredibly blessed with an amazing church, full of so many good friends. I absolutely love living here and wouldn't change it for the world!! God has also opened the door for me to do something I've ALWAYS dreamed of doing, but I never ever in a million years thought it something I could possibly be any good at doing!! :p That is singing on the worship team at church! I still don't think I have a great voice, but what I do have I give to the Lord to use as he will :)

I think that's all the reflecting I'm gonna do for now :p

It's getting kinda late, and there's a bunch of dirty dishes in my sink that really should be washed!! hahaha

Let's see if I can stay a little more consistent with this blogging business!!

:)

Moments in Mazatlan

This past weekend I had a three day weekend. My friend from work Jeannine and I decided to plan a little get away...to Mazatlan! The idea was to spend two and a half days relaxing on the beach. Unfortunately, the grandmother of my best friend passed away as I was arriving to Mazatlan. After talking with my friend a couple times I decided to return to be there and help in any way. However, I did spend a pretty fun 10 hours in Mazatlan.

After a very long 8 hour trip on the bus, full of turns up and down the mountain, without much sleep, we arrived to find a very cloudy and rainy day in Mazatlan. As we set out to the hotel we told the rain: Rain, rain, go away! (It didn't so much work) When we arrived there it was too early to check in. We left our things in a secure area and went to explore and find some breakfast. We hadn't walked very far when I made a grand discovery:

Needless to say, I was thrilled. Of course I had to wait to get something because it wasn't open yet. So we walked and we walked and we walked and we walked some more. And it was starting to sprinkle, and then it was starting to rain and mist more....so we decided to stop for breakfast. The only place open was a well known restaurant called Panama. They had a lot of cakes and breads in the windows and the menu reminded me some of an Ihop.

After we ate, we decided to walk around a bit more, despite the fact that is was raining. We found our way to the beach just have a look-see and walk. I, of course, took off my shoes and walked in the water :). I managed to collect a few cool looking rocks. We started tiring of walking in the rain and decided to head back to the hotel to see if we could relax in the Jaccuzi while we waited for our room to be available. To our surprise we were able to check in early! We then went to the room and crashed for a couple of hours hoping that the sun would come out to play.

After a refreshing nap we decided to hot tub it since the sun was still not out completely. After 20 minutes in the "hot" tub (it really wasn't hot at all) I convinced Jeannine and Ana that we should go to the beach and that it wouldn't be too cold. There at the beach Jeannine just laid out on her towel, trying to convince the sun to come out. Ana came in the water with me for a little bit but was scared of the waves, so she stayed close to the shore. I went deep and had a blast jumping through the increasing waves.

All of these pictures I stole from Jeannine, because I forgot to take out my camera while I was there.

When we decided to head back to the hotel I called my friend in Durango to see how he was doing. I knew then after hearing his voice that I couldn't possible enjoy myself any further there in Mazatlan while he was suffering. Before heading back to the bus station I did manage to go to Starbucks!

This was the taxi we found to take me back to the bus station. The bus station was a good ten minutes away from the hotel, and on an open road, with fast cars. It was a little scary, but part of the Mazatlan experience, I'm told.

And those were my moments in Mazatlan.

Hello :)

Howdy there blog world! I bet you thought I forgot all about you. I haven't. Life's been crazy busy, and I forget to tell you about it. :s Sorry.

Let's see what's new in a nutshell? Mmm...
My days are pretty full. I teach Monday through Friday, usually having stay late until four for meetings, planning, and Spanish class. I'm currently taking guitar lessons at a little music school. Everything is in Spanish, and surprisingly enough I'm getting along fine in the classes. I've also been going to worship practice at church since the beginning of December. Azael the worship leader tells me it will be soon when I can actually start singing on Sunday mornings (he's been saying that since December, but this is Mexico and that's how it goes). What else? Oh yes, in the young adults group (we have our services every Saturday) I was made the treasurer. Also I'm part of the multimedia team and I help with the projector and easyworship so we have the words to the songs being sung every Saturday. :) Oh! and I recently helped a little (as much as I could) in a drama we put on for missions Sunday or something.

Last month the young adult group and the youth got together to do some ministery at the general hospital here. The youth put together one drama and we put together two human videos. In true Mexican form, we didn't practice/learn the videos until the day before/day of. But it went well. We also handed out food to the people who were there waiting to get in, or waiting to see family. Teams also prayed with anybody who wanted it. All in all it was a pretty good afternoon. We had a HUGE turn out of adolescents show up to help...
Here are some pictures of that day!

Here we are praying at the church before we head to the hospital.

Here are some of me being beat up by demons in the Wake Me Up skit and me being a demon in the Everything skit.

I love this last photo. All of us demons were trying to keep Ale from getting back to Jesus, and finally he comes in and stands there, and we're still trying to get to her but we can't...so powerful!

We're not all work and no play here. :p Quite the contrary :p For Valentine's Day the young adult had a special dinner. We all dressed up nice and exchanged chocolates. It was a fun time. Probably the best Valentine's day ever. Why? 'Cuz it was just fun! Not many couples...well in fact there were only two couples (out of like 40 people). :p Also there was a big emphasis on friendship and the guys taking care of the girls like princesses...with no strings attached. It was really a pretty cool message that was shared. I had a great time, despite the fact that I was feeling a little under the weather still.

Here are some photos from that night :p

Everybody...almost :)

Me and Pavel :)

Me, Janeth, Caro, Dani, Rafa, Jorge, Edgar, Juan Ramon

And that's all for now. I hope someone still reads this. :p