hola de Juarez

Hello all,

We are finishing up our second week in Juarez, Mexico, and will be returning soon to El Paso. Now to most of you, this schedule looks the same as what it was last week. However, our plans have changed so many times that it would not be worth it to describe all the changes. For instance, at one point we were going to go to Las Palomas, and help there. Rest assured though, we are learning to be flexible and not to have any expectations. It reminds me of when I was in Belize and Wassim kept asking Doc about what our destination would be like--finally Doc responded, "WASSIM! You'll find out when we get there!" :)

The first few days here were rough, as we were trying to settle into some sort of routine. We had no translator, knew nobody outside Pastor Richard's family, and we were the only English speakers. However, the families here have helped us to feel at home, preparing us meals, taking us where we needed to go, and introducing us to others. Benjamin was one of the first people we met, and he and Suri came with us to the mission these two weeks.

We helped at a mission just outside of the city, called Peniel. We invited families to church and to VBS, as well as a game day we had with the neighborhood kids. We played games, shared a Bible story, colored pictures, and did face painting. This was a great time to build relationships with some of the kids, because we later saw them at VBS. The day before VBS started, we worked to clear gravel and sand out of one of the rooms and moved it to make a sort of stage in the mission.

Benjamin became one of our good friends, and it was sad to see him leave earlier this week. He was our Spanish-to-Spanish translator, looking out for us, and he helped us meet more of the youth from the church. These people have become our friends, and we have talked with them and done lots of fun activities.

We are a forerunning group for the Nazarene Border Initiative, and its goal is to allow the Mexican church's leaders to decide what to do in their communities. Rather than the American teams coming in with a plan, the Mexican church can place us wherever they wish, and not be told what to do in their community.

We helped a group from Denver First Church in doing VBS at Peniel this week. One woman from the group, Angela, told us that on Tuesday she was worried that there would be no translator available at Peniel, and in the midst of her stress, she finally remembered to pray and trust God to provide. God used us to meet that need! There were many children at VBS, upwards of 30 I'm sure.

As well as we know now, tonight we will be working with the youth of this church to go door to door in the neighborhood, and invite people to church. We will be spending the night at Fabiola's before going to a sort of water park with them as well.

Next week there was supposed to be a basketball camp in El Paso, but at the last minute, Barry and Mikey found out that it was this week. They had 35 kids on the first day of the camp! We will be heading back to help out with however many kids show up for the original time, which will be interesting as we don't have many skills in basketball. :)

There are so many stories I want to share, but I don't have the time or space to share now. I'm sure you will be hearing many stories once I return. :)

Prayer Requests:
~this week's basketball camp, and the children and families that will come
~the Vacation Bible Schools that we will be helping with in July, I think
~Health, safety, energy each day
~Communication

Some advice of what NOT to do when there is a language barrier:
~Don't try to get money from an ATM. You may get 20 pesos ($2) instead of $20.
~Don't try to tell jokes or stories. They're not as funny.
~Don't pretend like you know more of the language than you do. It may be assumed that you are fluent.
~Don't say you like something, because it may be assumed that you cannot live without it.
~Don't assume that all words are similar between languages. For instance, "embarazada" does not mean embarrassed. It means "pregnant."
~Don't smile and nod every time you are asked something.