Day Eleven Pictures

On Sunday, we woke up, ate breakfast, and hung around a little. Some of us went up on the roof. Then we came down and had a last meeting. Ramon talked to us, and we all said our goodbyes to him and his family, Miros, Ruhama, and Barnabe. We also prayed for his family, and took a few group pictures before piling in our vans and beginning a rather sad drive away. We saw a couple other members of the church driving toward Gilgal on our way out of Monterrey, and they honked at us to say hi. It was actually Sonya's sister in law and husband, our wonderful drivers/tour guides/new friends.
We drove for a couple hours to the border and crossed without any problems, getting to McAllen in good time. We flew to Dallas, and had a two-hour layover in the accursed place, which actually allowed us to have our last group devotion, so it all worked out.
Then we flew home, and you mobbed all of us, and it was great. And we love you all so, so, so much. Really.

God was so good to us on this trip, and I think it's weird to us that it's over. It felt somehow simultaneously really long and extremely short. The beginning, flying out of St. Louis, and spending forever in Dallas, and working at RGBI feels forever ago. But somehow, the trip also feels like it sped through, and the end caught us off guard.

It was wonderful. I love Mexico, and the Mexican people. We all do. I definately have seen people's hearts change this week, and some of us have learned so much.
Thank you so much for all of your prayer and support. It couldn't have happened the way it did without you.

I love you all. Thank you for reading.

Signing off for now,
-Ian

Day Ten Pictures

We went to Revolucion to help Miros with her weekly children's program there. We sang a few songs, then played with them, then gave them lunch, then played some more until they left. After that, we went to eat lunch, then went to the market to buy souveniers for people(/ourselves).
Saturday night we split up into four or five groups, and we all went and ate in people's houses. It was really awesome, as always, to meet these people. The group I went with was me, Stephanie, William, Larry, and Lance. We went to a birthday party, then Fundidora, then that goat restaurant, and it was all so awesome. We got back to the church at about 12:15, though. :)

Last night I met two of the coolest Mexican ladies ever. Me, Josh, and Duane (we got the translator! yay Duane!) went to Chela's house. It was kinda like a courtyard thing with a couple of buildings in it--one she used for the laundry-ish room and the other was her actual house. I knew I liked her immediately when I walked in the door and spotted two cats. My liking for her grew as I discovered she also had two dogs and another cat (and by the way, one one of her dogs was named "Doggie" and one of her cats was named "Kitty"). :)
There was another lady there named Elsi (sp?). She helps take care of Chela because Chela's a widow. At one point the ladies were asking us when we were leaving and we said "Tomorrow morning" and I was joking about how I have to because I already missed Father's Day last year and she said, "My children don't have a father." :( It was one of those moments where you feel really bad and don't know what to say, but she moved on and was asking us about St. Louis. Later we were sitting outside and I asked her how long she had been a Christian. She told us that when she was seven she wanted to be a Christian but her parents wouldn't let her and made her go to a Catholic church. I guess when her parents died, she was able to actually actively follow God. She spoke about how her husband is no longer alive and her childen have moved away, so she has been kind of lonely. But she pointed to the sky and said, "I know I am never alone, because He is with me. And she sent me a friend to help take care of me."
The friend she's talking about is Elsi. Elsi also told us her testimony. She became a Christian three years ago. She runs a shop and tells people about Jesus. Some people listen and tell her their problems, and some just get angry with her. But she knows she has to do it. She says that her sister runs the shop in the morning, and she runs the shop in the afternoon and can listen to the Christian radio station, so she has "half of a day to give to Jesus." I was thinking that most ofus have problems giving a few minutes to Jesus each day to pray. She said that her family doesn't want to listen to her about Jesus, but she's told them. She said that if it's God's will for them to not listen then there's nothing she can do about it. She's given it up to God.
So yeah, they're pretty awesome. they said they help out a lot at the church, and no kidding. They're here right now.
Please pray for Pastor Ramon today. He's leaving for Chiopas (the place where the pastor was killed) today. He'll be gone for maybe a week.
I've learned so much here in Mexico, most of which I have not been able to share on here because they're been no time! But you'll hear about it when I get back. :)
We've got a long day of travel ahead of us! yay...
See you guys tonight! (Hopefully...)
Love,
-Rebecca

Final thoughts (on dinner and languages)

I think yesterday was my favorite day, but it's for a reason that most people probably wouldn't expect.

Yes, we went to Revolucion and played with the kids, and had a song battle. (We sang "alelu, alelu, alelu, aleluia," and they sang "gloria a Dios." We were both trying to br louder. They won.) We watched Miros give a lesson, and then we played games with them, giving them lunch afterward. It was really fun, and it was another place for my Spanish to be useful. But it wasn't the best part.

And yes, we went to the market, which everyone really loves to do. I got almost everything I wanted to get, and spent all but 7 pesos, which is the best I've done there so far. It was also fun to walk around the place with everyone, and to feel like I knew where things were after being there two other times. But it still wasn't my favorite.

Where I think one of the coolest things of the trip happened was at on of the church member's houses. We went to a birthday party that a family was having for a girl at Sonya's house. Sonya's sister in law drove us there and back, which was approximately 2 hours round trip. I was pretty grateful for her doing that. David and Aurelia's daughter, Rut, and her husband, Erik, were also there, along with a man who is on the praise team at Gilgal and his wife. Sonya's husband's parents were also there.

We ate dinner and just kind of enjoyed the night with them, and they were so nice and gracious and glad we were there. If my love for the Mexican people needed any more support, than this would definately be it. There were some really funny times when I would understand something in Spanish that they didn't expect me to. Once, Sonya was joking with someone that she needed money from us for the dinner, and then I laughed. She saw me, and said, "Ah! He understands me!" Then she said,"Okay, put your money here."

The specific thing that I liked so much was when we prayed for dinner. Sonya's mother and father in law are deaf. The father had been joking around with us all evening, miming things like drinking salsa, and how the Pepsi Light was skinny instead of fat. When we were going to pray for dinner, they asked Lance to pray, and said that our driver (Sonya's sister in law) would translate the prayer into "Lingua manual" (spanish sign language), and that her husband would translate it into Spanish.

It was unique for me, and I don't think it's very likely that I'll be able to see people praying in three languages all at once again. It strongly reinforced the idea that many people realize their first time in Mexico: that God speaks everything. He will understand, no matter what language you speak, even if you use your hands to speak it. It was really awesome to see.

After dinner, we gave Sonya and her husband the gifts we had brought for them, and they were pretty touched. We left, even though no one really wanted to, with Sonya's sister in law. We actually got an opportunity to go to Parque Fundidora, a place I have wanted to visit since first seeing it two years ago, and it was really cool. We also went to this restaurant that all the famous people apparently go to when they visit Monterrey, which was interesting.

We came back and went to sleep, and now it is the day we leave. I think all of us are sad to go. I know I am. Don't get me wrong, I love you guys. But I love Mexico too, and I definitely wouldn't say no to more time here.

We'll see you in the airport!
-Ian

Day Nine Pictures (a.k.a. Hooray for Mountains!)

Going up to Tejacote was awesome, as usual. When we got there, we had a church service for the people from the area. People (like always) shared and sang. Something I thought was kind of funny and kind of cool was that we sang "Yo Tengo Gozo" (I've Got The Joy) in Spanish for them, and they really liked it, even though it was kind of a kids' song. At the end, we gave bags of staple-type foods that would be really helpful to a representative from each family. We brought 20, and as a whole bunch of people ran up to the front, we were getting a little worried. But it turned out there were exactly 20 ladies there. (There were a couple kids whose mom hadn't come that day that didn't get one, but we're going to send a few extra bags for that kind of thing up with David and Aurelia next Saturday.)
We came back to church (after Lance got lost/ditched by Al), ate, and then went to this awesome national park-style thing that William talked about. It was so amazing to see all the lights of Monterrey stretched out beneath us like that. After not enough time there, we came home and went to sleep.
It was a good day.

Guillermo Habla Dos.

Hey,
This is William again. Things are going great still. Everyone is healthy and no one is hurt badly.

Today we went into the mountains to Tejocote. It was awesome to see the majesty of God in his beautiful creation. There were some very awesome mountain passes that we went through that were absolutely breathtaking.

The way we got up was so fun and unsafe. We rode in the back of pickups. We had to hang on for dear life, and we all got some nice windburn.

When we got there our truck went around inviting people to the service. The other truck went straight to the church there and waited for us.

At the service we sang lots of songs and a few members of our team shared testimonies. At the end we gave out food bags to the families there. We also passed out dulces (candy) to everyone who came.

When we got home, and after we ate, we went to an anthropological museum that was high on a hill with a good view of the city. Nearby was a huge Mexican flag. It was pretty awesome looking.

Right now I am about to retire for the night, but before that I will tell of what is happening tomorrow. Tomorrow we actually get to have breakfast at 9:00 instead of 8:00. That is a happy thing (but still too early). After breakfast we will go to Revalucion to do a service for the kids there. Some of us will stay back at the church at that time to do some odd jobs.

After that we get to go to a mall/market sort of thing and then to some peoples houses for dinner. That is about it.

Signing Off
-William Keating

A note from Josh

Today we went into the mountains and I was reminded of how BIG God really is. I was reminded that the God I serve created everything that exists including the mountains. Then I was reminded that the same God who is powerful enough to speak the universe into existence cares about me and lives in me.

He is big enough to change me into what He wants me to be and to get me through whatever circumstance I am going through. It is good to remember that we serve a BIG God.

-Josh Govier

Day Eight Pictures