Viva Mexico!!

Wow! It's almost been a month...is anyone still reading? I guess I have a hard time blogging if nothing "big" is going on, or I don't have pictures to include. Does anyone read if there are no pictures?

Well, this past month has been a bit of "down time" between teams, which has been very nice. I've been able to get caught up on all kinds of administrative things that get dropped during summer, start planning ahead for the next teams (TREK team arrives in a month and stays for 7 months!!), get caught up on rest (yay for sleep), and I even started going to the gym (feeling the burn!!). It's also given me time to focus on the youth at our church, and some friendships which kind of get put on hold during summer.

A few weeks ago Jen and I went with a new friend Hilda to the town of Tequila. It's about an hour away, and you guessed it...that's where they manufacture a large amount of Mexico's tequila!!! It was a nice Sunday afternoon thing to do, and provided us the opportunity to get to know Hilda a little more. She's not a Christian, and definitely struggles with a lot of different things in life...but it seems like she's searching...

Then, on September 15th we celebrated Mexican Independence Day...always a major celebration here in the city. We started with a youth event focussed on "freedom", and "mexican style games" which included a contest to eat the most jalapeno peppers...Jen rocked it and tied a bunch of Mexicans for first place!!

After youth we, being the insane youth leaders that we are, took about 10 youth downtown to where the mobs of people were waiting for 11:00 to strike for the town governor to step out on the balcony and give his speech leading to "VIVA MEXICO"!!!! It's overwhelming and exciting all at the same time. And then they put on an amazing display of fireworks. I didn't bring my camera this year, but here's a picture I took last year.

I'm really enjoying the opportunity right now to be in some formal discipleships with a few of our youth girls. God's doing some amazing stuff, and calling these girls to follow Him more closely, and even into possible future ministry. Please continue to pray for these youth.

Since the summer it feels like a lot of trust has been built, and I'm amazed at some of the conversations we've been able to have...about life, God, music, friends, even sex!!! I am often in awe that God gives me the privilege to speak into their lives the way I can.

Well, that's a bit of an update. Life is really good! I'm really enjoying this time, and I'm also excited to see what the next chapter will bring with the arrival of the TREKers.