Where does the time go???

Well as you may have noticed it has been 2 weeks since my last post! That has nothing to do with lack of internet access, it is simply because of lack of time! Our time here has been absolutely crazy so far, but I have loved every minute of it! First of all I should comment that everyone arrived in Mexico safely although there were certain travel complications for a few of the people on my team who missed connecting flights. They were a little bit frazzled once they arrived, but it all worked out fine and we were all reunited by Thursday of our first week here. My flights went off without a hitch and even going through customs was amazingly easy so thank you for all your prayers on that end . . . it is definitely the customs/immigration part of travelling that stressing me out more than anything else! By far the most difficult part of our arrival here was sleeping that first night as it was absolutely freezing! The Mexicans themselves told us that our first 3 or 4 days here were unusually cold . . . it is pretty much never that cold here and on top of that we were coming from 40+ heat everyday in Australia, so it was COLD! I wore my toque for 3 days straight, day and night!

During our first week we spent 24 hours a day reading through the entire bible aloud here in our area. It was really neat to do that and it was great to see how much the church we are staying with really rallied around us and helped us with this. The youth group came 3 of the nights and read with us for 2 hours each night and I would just like to point out that the first night we were reading Numbers . . . not highly interesting . . . and the second night we started 1 Chronicles which if you don't remember the first 9 chapters are just lists of names! So we would read a chapter in English, then they would read a chapter in Spanish and it was just name after name after name! Highly amusing and I must say those Mexican youth are troopers! I also just need to point out that here in Mexico the age for youth group is 18 to marriage so we are pretty much working with and leading and teaching our peers! Not exactly what I had anticipated when I found out we would be working with the youth group here!

After we finished our bible reading on Saturday we celebrated by going out for lunch at a Chinese food buffet here . . . go figure. The food was great and it was a lot of fun, but I was also coming down with a cold, so I didn't enjoy it as much. Saturday night we finally met the entire youth group, but my leader made me lay down and rest because I had no voice because of my cold. The next day we went to 3 church services and introduced ourselves to the church . . . very interesting when I still had no voice, but it was good and our church is amazing! I love it here. Sunday was pretty much the best day ever because after church the youth group made us an authentic Mexican lunch and dinner! It was the best food ever. I was still feeling sick with my sore throat and my nose and chest were very congested but fortunately nose was not so congested that I couldn't taste anything! It was unfortunate though that my leader decided I wasn't well enough to go with my group and the youth group to the Zocolo (the center of Mexico City with all the history). They all went and interceded for the city and worshipped, but I stayed back and rested again.

The next week we did a lot of prayer walking in our area which was amazing since locals were leading us around and could give us tips about what to pray into in each neighbourhood. We also ate lunch out and the locals kept insisting on buying lunch for us. That was hard because we know they don't have a lot of money, but they absolutely refused to let us pay! The food was so great though. Since it was locals taking us out they knew the good places to go and it was amazing. We also did some evangelism this week which is always interesting when you don't speak the same language, but it was still great! It turns out I know the second most Spanish on my team though I haven't taken Spanish in 4 years, so that's interesting because my leaders keep asking me for help with translating and I am so NOT a translator nor do I know enough to be a translator, but I am doing my best to communicate with people!

Finally this weekend we were super super busy! We went to 6 different churches from Friday through Sunday and were busy at each of the churches. They wanted us to run kids programs, give testimonies, lead worship, and even preach! Two people in our group preached sermons at 2 churches and that is only the beginning! Everyone wants us to preach! At our church here they want a different one of us to preach at each of the 3 services so we will all probably have the opportunity to preach at least one sermon if not two . . . who would have thought it??? I didn't preach this weekend, I ran kids programs. It was a ton of fun, but super interesting when again you don't really speak the language. It is hard to control the groups of kids when you don't know how to say be quiet and listen to me! But it really was fun. And we were fed even more authentic Mexican food! Last night we ate so much food! We had BBQ chicken, tamales, flan, jello, cake, fruit parfait . . . it went on and on! And you have to eat all your food or else it offends the Mexicans! So they just feed us and feed us and feed us until we feel like we will explode, then we have to keep eating so we don't offend anyone! At least the food is fabulous.

So our first couple of weeks have been busy, but so great! We do need so much prayer though. And definitely the main prayer issue is for health. I have been the lucky one so far just having a cold and no voice for a few days, but a lot of people have been throwing up and making constant trips to the bathroom. We have also had to have a couple of people go to the doctor and one guy is restricted to the church for a week because his illness killed his immune system temporarily. And our team isn't the only one suffering from multiple illnesses. One Thursday morning we had a time of prayer claiming health for all the teams here in Mexico which was coordinated by the base in Perth because they have been receiving word from all the teams here about multiple illnesses, so it really is an area where all the teams are getting hit hard. By far it is the area where we need the most prayer! Of course we also need prayer for energy and openness here in Mexico. So keep praying for us, and I will keep trying to keep you updated on everything that is going on!