Nuestra Cruzad-eichon

Me and Dina...twin-kies...this picture was taken in Durango at Parque Guadiana.

Due to lack of fund-age, Dina and I are on our own special little "Out-reach" phase. Our team left us yesterday to go to Argentina to complete their "Out-reach" phase. We got to go to the airport to see Chloe, Amber, Katelyn, and Oby off...it wasn't too bad saying bye to them. It was when Isai came to say goodbye to us that the water works more or less started.....we were supposed to be traveling with Isai....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.

This morning we were totally blessed to get to go to church in Dina's home church. I feel totally at home with these people and it was nice to be in a familiar place...This morning they had an extra special service for the end of the year. It started off with about an hour of praise and worship, then an hour of preaching, then an hour of special presentations....by then I thought they were going point to the back and say "HEY YOU! In the back! Yeah, YOU. You look like you want to say something, how bout you come up here and sing or dance or clap or something...."

In this pic some of the youth came up to sing a special....that's Azael on the drums...and Dina's dad grooving to the music in the back.This evening we were supposed to do a service at a different church, but that got canceled.



We did, however, have a bit of fun already....Esther got locked out of her room and we had to break in....Apparently Esther didn't know her door was locked when she exited. First we tried to climb over in the bathroom....exciting times.


Now Dina and I are being complete internet junkies. We had fun talking to Pavel on SKYPE while he looked through our pictures from Durango (online). We also called my grandpa and Dina talked to him in Spanish.

On January 2 we leave for Galeana. So for now we are enjoying our last few moments on the internet before we head to do massive amounts of teaching, preaching and freezing up in the mountains, where we won't have any internet for two weeks....I know what will we do?!? Actually its not so bad, not being connected. Lots of fun things happen, always. After we get back done from Galeana, I am not sure what we are doing, but we are going some where else for two weeks.

And thus has been the second part of our out-reach so far. You are thrilled, I know.

At Home In Durango

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!

Durango

Hey! So we are in the first week of our Outreach phase! And what a crazy journey it was to get here!! I wasnt sure I would make it. The last week in Monterrey was a bit on the stressful side. Money for my out reach just wasnt coming in. I thought I was going to have to go home. And I wasnt the only one lacking the green...a couple other people on my team too! At the end of the week the staff and students took up an offering. With that I am able to come to Durango with my team for twelve days, after that Chloe, Katelyn, Amber, Oby, and Isai will be going to Argentina and Dina and I will be staying in Monterrey. I would really like to go to Argentina with my team, but we lack 2,000. So, unless something happens, this is how it will go.

SOoOOoo, entonces, We have been working hard here in Durango. Already it has been quite the missionary experience :p Complete with FRIGID showers and getting locked out of our dorms...Its been good. We have been blessing the church here by cleaning some rooms, and ministering to the youth and young adults. It was amuzing to me to see that the young adults here do pretty much the same back home. :)

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!!

Loves
Heather :)

Real quick...

I uploaded more pics from this last week. They don't have captions yet, and I am planning on doing another fabulous (or not so fabulous) blog with pics, but right now there is no time.

Things are all up in the air here. Funds haven't come in for my outreach phase so we are discussing different options I have. Reality checks bite the big one.

Anywho...more info to come as I have it!

Absolutely.....

I just wanted to post quick about today!

In class this week we have been talking about our world view. Today we were talking about secularism and pantheism. We had a really good discussion about absolutes--whether or not there are any absolutes... It got almost to the point of an argument over if gravity was an absolute or not. All of our debating just proved the point our teacher was trying to make. Even though all of us in the class room are mostly from the US, and all of us are Christians, we still have a different view on things. We also discussed how we can reach people with different world views than our own. It was super padre! (cool)

This evening we also had a worship workshop (say that five times fast) after dinner. It was also a good time. We had an EXCELLENT teacher come. Last week we learned what the Hebrew words for worship were and what they meant AND worked on a song we can use on our out-reach. We were supposed to practice the same and get some more teaching, but Jonathan (our teacher) really felt it was important to drive home the point that unless we had the presence of God reflected in our lives all our songs, dramas, dances, teachings were worthless. It was sooo good. We spent a little time just being. It was something that I desperately needed today. :)

And that was today.

eStoy muy feliz

This week we got a Christmas tree! A real one. It has made all the difference for being away from home during this, my favorite season.






Here is our naked tree. Emma was soooo excited. She was saying alllll day "Today Christmas is coming!!!"











Chloe and Carey lighting up the place...they put both colored and white lights on. I was skeptical at first, but it turned out ok.













Me and Emma...there wasn't enough of that nasty gold garland stuff so we decided to wear it :)















Ooo! AHhhh!! The finished product!! See the red ribbons around the tree...I did that part.










Dina and Esther. Dina was our DJ. She kept the Christmas music going...most of the time.



My time here so far has been so blessed. God has really blessed me. Even though I am far away from family and friends, I am blessed with new family-like-friends. I hope you all have very merry Christmas.





and remember...........
...its ok to be crazy sometimes.

Christmas Tree Excitedness

We are getting a real tree today!! WOOO. I am soo excited. I didn't think we would have a tree here, but we do! YAY! Maybe Christmas won't be bad being so far away from home.

Squished mice and dance parties.....

I have only two random things to blog about today.

This week we have had the unique experience of seeing a mouse run along the wall in our our class every day. Today was no different. Usually Dina and some others will try to go into the closet where it dashed to try to find the little guy. TODAY, however, the mouse ran along the opposite wall. When Dina went to move the guitar case to see if she could find it.....she accidentally squished him. It was so sad. Carlos picked him up by the tail, his little eye was bulging....it was sad, but so funny. I just reminded Dina of the incident, and she laughed and said "I just remember the sound...KRUNCH...." ha ha ha

For small groups today the girls got to watch a movie on the big screen. It was sooo nice and relaxing to watch a movie. Afterwards we had a dance party. Just us girls :). It was fun.

Thats all for now. Classes this week have been good. We have been talking about Relationships! Wooo.

So much to say, so little time

WOW. Ok. So its been way too long since I've updated anything here. I have been running from the moment I got back to Monterrey. Seriously. I got back and everything at the Quinta was in complete disarray. Everyone was in the midst of packing EVERYTHING too either take with us on our mini outreach to Tepic or to take back to the Base. I was given literally twenty minutes to re-pack everything! It was madness. The next day we were supposed to leave at 3:30am but somewhere along the way the time was pushed to 4:30am, however, that wasn't communicated to anyone. Almost everyone woke up an hour earlier (except the ones who decided to leave an hour later...)

I spent the last two weeks in Tepic and the surrounding areas. Our first few days in Tepic we spent at a church called La Fuente. There we joined the discipleship school they have in their church for adults. We talked about leadership. During those first three days we either had classes alll day long, or we had some sort of ministry thing to do, like an open-air service in the streets in a neighborhood. On Thursday of the first week we loaded up our vans together with the students from the school and the youth from La Fuente. We all headed down to Bucerias. There we got to stay in a beautiful mansion-like-house on the beach. It had its own pool and gate right to the ocean. It was soooo beautiful!!! Friday of that week we had an alll day ministry at a school. We did two programs because there were two sets of kids (a morning session and an afternoon session). Made me think of the kind of school day I dreaded as a teacher because you get absolutely nothing done in the classroom....however it was an excellent ministry time. While most of the group was taking care of the program at the school a few of us went down to an orphanage (basically a house with seven kids in it) to paint some walls and re-organize the kitchen foods. The next day we headed back to Tepic, our dts left a little earlier than the rest because we had a youth service to do at a different church called Vida.

Last week we spent working with the Vida church. We did a service Sunday night for a church plant of Vida. It was fun because I got to help with the kids....I had to bribe Isai to help me, but it was fun. Monday of last week was our day off, or free day. We all went to the other side to the Pacific Ocean (In Bucerias we were on the gulf side). It was about an hour drive away. On Tuesday we helped clean around the church, AND some of our dramas and dances were recorded for the television program the church puts out. On Wednesday of last week we headed to the mountains to work with the Huichol ( pronounced WeChole) Indians. The drive up there was quite an experience. We had to stop like every fifteen minutes it seemed for something or the other. I honestly didn't think we were going to make it.

It was cool that we were up there in the mountains with the indians for Thanksgiving. I think it was very much like what the first Thanksgiving was like. We were sharing our food and they were sharing their beans and tortillas (which were the best ever!)

We got back to Tepic Friday afternoon and rested because the next day we traveled fifteen hours back to Monterrey.

That, in a nutshell, was the past two weeks.

Making the best of it

My time in Kansas City has been going pretty well, considering why I have to be here. I arrived late on Friday night. My first two nights I stayed at my grandma's house in Independence with my parents. Now I am staying with my Uncle George and Aunt Liz and Christopher and Melaine! My brother Mathew and his family are also staying here too. It's been good cousin/niece-nephew hang time.

Saturday evening we all: My parents, me, my brother Nathan, brother Mathew and his wife Katherine, thier two kids Hailey and Noah, Uncle George, Aunt Liz, Chris, Melanie, and Granny, went to visit Uncle Mario and Aunt Desire and thier family at thier house. Both my Uncle Mario and Aunt Desire said they weren't sure they wanted all over for company, but once we were there and we were all talking and even laughing and eatin lots of food they said it was good for them. They were even able to eat a little and keep it down when they hadn't been able to since they lost their son. It was good family time. We all hadn't been together in one spot like that in over eight years.

Yesterday My family and my Uncle George's family and Josh and a friend of Chris' all got together to watch the Chiefs play. The game looked promising for a moment, but then in true Cheifs form they lost the game to the Packers. At least Favre now has beaten all the teams...or some random record like that was set.

Last night I enjoyed being away from the "quiet time...lights out" rule. At 10pm my sister-in-law Katherine and I went out for a drive. I drove! woo. And I managed to not even get us lost, which is pretty amazing since we didn't back track and I've only driven around this area for a couple days in August. We stayed out for about two hours. When I got back I watched Mission Impossible with my cousin Chris and my brother Nathan. After that Chris and I cheered Melaine on while she finished her lesson plans....she didn't get done with them til almost 6am. good times.

Today, after getting up around noon, Melaine and I really wanted to go downtown to Crown Center ( really cool shopping mall ). However, Chris didn't want to take us and Mathew and Katherine were already gone down there. SO I totally hi-jacked Chris' mustang and drove us down there myself! WOo. Now, remember I don't live in Kansas City anymore, and I don't really know my way around, but we found our way down there and back! It was such a awesome thing to be able to drive down there not really sure where we were going and to make it all the way too. Just the two of us.

Tonight another cousin, Carla, kidnapped me and took me out to eat at Joes Crab Shack. I had the blackend Mahi sandwhich. IT was really tasty! I had a good time just relaxing with her. Before I left to eat with her, I enjoyed playing a hand of Spaids with Mathew, Katherine and Josh (close friend our family...he's my little brown brother).


And now Hailey is wanting on my lap....
:)

Sad News

On Thursday of last week my mom called to tell me that one of my cousins had been tragically killed in a car accident. I flew to Kansas City on Friday. We are waiting for arrangements to be made for the funeral. Please keep me and my family in your prayers.

Pictures.

Ok. I have just fixed my online pictures. I added new ones and organized the old ones. From now on the newest added pics will be the first album you see. So you should go check them out! Just click on My Pics link to the right!

We had a "costume party" last night. It really wasn't a party...it was more like "Ok! Everyone dress up! Ok! Cool. Tell us who you are! Ok. Thats all, thanks for coming!" It was really lame. I am glad I didn't spend too much time or effort on my costume....ha ha. I spent no time on it. They told us to dress up as a favorite actor in a favorite movie or something movie related....I went as a movie extra. They are in every movie and no one ever hardly notices them! But anyway...check out the pics, see the gang of crazies I get to live 24/7 with.


Oh, there's also a couple of pictures from last week in there too. We had a water baptism in our pool. Pretty cool.

:)

A light bulb moment

This morning as I was sitting in class, thinking how this guy seems to talk in circles. At least, he repeats himself alot (Or maybe its just that I hear it twice as much with a translator :-P.) And then I was thinking about how everything we have been taught in this DTS so far is stuff I know, or am familiar with. And up to this moment its been kinda frustrating. However, this morning as I was fighting to stay focused I was thinking how I really want to watch one of my alll time favorite movies Anne Of Green Gables. Then I thought, listening to these things I know already is like watching a well known movie. Or watching a favorite movie. In a movie you have seen a lot, there are parts you enjoy much, and parts you can skip. How often do watch the same movie countless times? Why should I become impatient with teachings I have heard before? They are good. They are truth. And like a good movie there are parts that are better than others.
So, I dont know if you followed that train of thought, but it really helped me see things in a different, better light :)

A morning out....

This week in class we have been learning about Intercession and Spiritual Warfare. Its been pretty interesting. As a part of the class, our teacher wanted us to go out to the local mall to witness to people. So after about an hour or so of class, we all piled into the Express and headed to the mall.

It was cool that we went to the mall that we did, because its and area we know well by now. We shop there alot. So its like practicle application to what we are learning...we didnt have to go very far just down the street.

Ok, so when we got to the mall, my group, we were all like....ok...what do we do...we didnt just want to walk up to someone and like freak them out. So after walking we sat down on a bench and prayed. After we prayed, I felt like we should help someone, maybe load stuff in their car or something (HEB is connected to this mall). We all decided to go outside. We started walking through the parking lot away from the mall down the street to this other Soriana shopping store. On the way there we saw this guy watering some plants and I was like ...What about him...but everyone else was like...eh he is busy, maybe on the way back. We kept going, crossed the street by way of an bridge for pedestrians. On the other side we kinda milled around and really didnt find anyone to help or talk to. We decided to head back towards the mall since it was almost time for all of us to meet up again. When we got back to the guy I originally said we should talk to, it looked like he was taking a break so we approached him and started talking to him. We found out that his wife was pretty sick and he was worried about his son in VeraCruz. Through our conversation with him we were able just share truth with him and pray for him, and Levi went and bought him a Bible. He came to a more clearer understanding of who Jesus was and accepted him into his heart! It was a really cool time! Right before we left he said that we were light....he was blind and now he could see. And that is really signifcant because before we left for the mall Clemente, our teacher for the week, was talking about how the enemy blinds people to the truth....and then to have that guy say that, who doesnt know the scripture...wow...que padre!

And that was my morning! God is sooo coool.

Tengo mucho frio

SooooToday its waaayyy cold. Seiously. You know how we have class outside, it was sooo cold out there today...its hard to believe I was just out swimming in the pool yesterday! Today we were all hoody, and hot coco.

Todays classes were really good. Here is a taste of some of my notes:
-Holy Spirit is about glorifying Jesus not about us
-Change your mindset from recieving to giving-- The son of man didnt come to be served but to serve.
-You are not here to be glorified
-Not--touch me God, but God I want to touch your heart!
6Things Salvation means: healing, victory, bless, to be whole, protection, renew our mind
Salvation is a process of every follower of Christ.
-Who is Jesus to You? Matt 16:13, John 15:5, Gal 2:20, Rom 12:1-2

-The Intercessor:
1. Knows the charater of God-John 17:3
Atributes and Characteristics of God:
we cant be: ominpresent, ominscient, ominpotent, infinate, soveriegn, inmutable(Josh23:14,1Chron28:20)
we can be:love, truth, holy, obedient, forgiving, faithful, righteous, wise (1John4:7-8, John 8:32, Lev 11:44-5,1peter 1:15-16....and I have sooo many more...)
-we need to know who God is according to his word

2.Knows the will of God
-John 6:40
-2Peter 3:9
-John 3:16

Also learned in spanish class today how the verb Be works in past, present, and future. And how the endings of words change. For example:
Yo estaba comiendo ayer (I was eating yesterday)
Nosotros estabamos escribiendo ayer (we were writing yesterday)

And lots more. But I wont bore you with the details

Its been a good day, even though its frigid!
OHHHHH AND I got to talk to my sister in law and HAILEY on IM toooo....I miss them mucho.

That is all for now I guess..

Here I am waiting.....

I have come to the realization this weekend that I really do not like the weekends. I am constantly having to wait on someone..and can not do anything without someone else. FOR EXAMPLE I reallllly need to do laundry this weekend...like yesterday...HOWEVER I was unable to do it because everyone else here did laundry last weekend (when I was at the boarder) and therefore dont really need wash any thing, and since one of the rules is you cant go anywhere alone, I couldnt take my laundry to the laundry mat because no one wanted to go with me. Another example. I am ready to leave for church, I actually want to get there in time for Sunday School, BUT I cant leave yet because Dina is not ready yet and I cant just go to church by myself. ..... SIGH....needless to say I am really missing my independence and my car!

Ok, enough of that complaining.
My ankle is doing much better, I can walk around pretty normally, it just starts aching after a while, so I still need to take it easy.

I watched the Grinch movie with Jim Carrey in it this past week...and then tried to listen to some Christmas music...mistake....it has really started to hit me hard that I wont be home for Thanksgiving or Christmas.... :(

Last weeks classes were pretty good. All of the rest of the students really gained a lot from what the speaker had to say. It really blows my mind to see how much I have been really blessed in the places I have been and in the things I have experienced. This past week, God started doing some major house cleaning on my heart....it has not been all that comfortable, but God is still good and I am eagerly waiting to see what this next week holds.

Yesterday I really missed Mirjam a lot. I hope she made it to Cuarnavaca safely. If you read this Miri... I MISSSSSS YOUUUUUUUU!!!!

Dont forget to leave me comments and to check out my pictures, I will be uploading some more new ones sometime this week! OH, and find the video of us dancing! Its in the album Miri Pics...or something like that.

Que Paso?

Hey! Hey! Well we are now connected here at the Quinta! WOo hooo!

Things are going really good. This past weekend I had to go to the boarder to get my visa fixed, and they had to get a vehicle permit renewed. It was a good trip, we didn't encounter any problems...which is always a good thing when going back and forth over the boarder. Sunday I went to church and afterwards we (the DTS students that go to that church) were invited over to one of the youth's house for lunch with the rest of the youth group. It was a really nice time..and the food was delicious!

This week in "class" we are talking about the Holy Spirit. And its not so much any thing all that new for me. But, its really exciting to see my friends down here really grasping new concepts and running with them. Something interesting that I did learn, that was something I never really thought about before was that, when Jesus met Mary in the garden just after he was resurrected he told her not to touch him because he hadn't been to the father yet. Later in the next passage he tells the disciples to touch his scares to prove he was who he was...so sometime between when he talked to Mary to the time he appeared to the disciples he had been to the father. I always thought he didn't go until they saw him ascend in the beginning of Acts 2. So, I know its nothing life changing fact, but still its nice to have clarity on the issue :)

On a couple of sad notes....I twisted my ankle yesterday :(. I was warming up before our "dance" class and rolled it when I was running. Then I danced on it....lol...I didn't think it was that bad, but it's been hurting A TON. So I'm trying to keep it up. And the other sad thing is...Today Mirjam left :(. I really am sad to have her leave. She's been such a great friend. Quite unexpected how she came and how much she fit in here with all of us. She's one of the family!

Right now I'm doing this, uploading pictures, AND watching The Grinch, with my ankle up! woo. Good times. More people should get online so I could talk to them!

Make sure you check the pictures on my pictures link. I'm not sure how, but ALL of Chloe's pics got uploaded there, in their own album called "Life at the Quinta". Now I'm uploading all of Mirjam's pics and it's called "Miri week 2" I think. I'll be going through them and putting captions and deleting some that are just extra, but it might take a while. There are a lot of pictures.

I hope everyone who reads this is doing well. Hollar at me sometime! I'd like to know who all reads this!
Adios Chicos!

hey hey

Hola Chicos!
I hope you all are doing grand! Its way past time to catch you up on whats been going on! We are still out at the Quinta, and now they are not sure when, or if we will get to go back to the base. Its not so bad, as you can see from the pictures, the Quinta is a pretty relaxing place...its just so far away from everything and disconnected! Oh well, Im surviving.

The last two weeks were good, but hard cuz I didnt get to talk to my family at all....but now we have worked something out and I was able to talk to my mom yesterday yay!

Last weeks classes were on the Heart of a Worshiper. David Terran came and shared. IT was a most excellent week spent mostly praising God and seeking him in the powerful tool of worship.

Saturday was fun. We went the base, and I did laundry..wwoooo! We also went downtown to shop for a bit cuz Mirjam hadnt been there yet. At the last minute I decided to head back to the Quinta with Mirjam and Chuy so that I could go to youth group with them. The youth ended up going back down town to walk the river walk...it was a really long walk, but so much fun. I cant post pictures right now, cuz Im at the HEB but I will post them as soon as I can. But it was sooo good to be doing something with a youth group again, I really miss that. I think I might try to see if I can help out in anyway with these guys while Im here. Sunday we were invited to the pastors house and they gave us lunch. It was very nice...we watched Armagedon toooo....

Spanish class is going pretty good...we got vocabulary words for the week and I am workin on memorizing some scriptures in spanish...wooo.

ok, well I need to get going. Thats all for now.

Domingo

This morning I went to church close to the Quinta area. It´s Chuy (YWAM Staff) and Dina´s (fellow dts student) church. To get there we had to take a bus, that was quite full, and walk several blocks. As we road the bus I thought of how different it is to get to church here from how I would be getting to church at home. I think I miss being able to drive where ever I would like. Its complicated to get around here. You have to either wait for one of the few YWAM staffers that can actually drive to take you or you have to get a bus or a taxi. ... hmm... anyway, but church this morning was good from what I could understand. When we got there it was Sunday school time. Everyone first meets for praise and worship then they got to their seperate classes. I went with Dina, Mirjam, and Casey to Chuy´s class. He´s the youth pastor at this church. He speaks some English, but he didn´t translate for us what he was saying, but that´s ok. He also preached for the Sunday morning service. He´s a very wise man I think. Oh and before the service started they called all the September birthdays to the front and prayed over us, and sang Happy Birthday in Spanish then everyone in the church came to the front and shook our hands...it was quite random and unexpected. Between Sunday School and regualar church they eat tostadas outside. Today, though, they had cake for the September birthdays I suppose.

Right now I´m in the HEB again, after we are done here, we will take the bus back to the street that leads to the Quinta, but instead of rideing the bus the whole way we´re going to walk because today is market day and all the little tiendas (shops) are out on the street. When we get back to the Quinta I might swim, but I have homework to do! (oy!) Every week we are required to journal about the classes from that week and about what impacted us the most and how we can apply what we learned to our lives. And for the first week, we have to have our journals decorated in a way that some how expresses who we are or what we want to learn during dts. I have to finish decorating and I haven´t even begun to journal yet (but I have all my notes from class so I just have to summarize them) fun stuff.

I´m still planning on sharing some of those notes on here, but as we are here in the HEB/mall right after church to eat lunch and do internet I didn´t bring them with me!

We are still having to be at the Quinta this week because the construction at the base is still not finished. It´s supposed to be ready for us to be back there by this coming weekend, but since we´re in Mexico AND it´s construction, I´m not sure if that´ll happen.

That´s all for now I suppose.

pictures

Ok, this is going to be short.
But I've loaded pictures to a web album on picasa. Check out the link on the right under "Pictures". Also check out Chloe's pictures. She's got some good ones on there tooo! I'll post more later if I can!

loves!