Followers

Things have been very difficult the last few weeks as you have seen in previous post for our family. I think we have moved passed the "culture shock" to "culture stress".

That has not stopped God from moving. I have had the priveledge of having a front row seat. Sometimes you go through life or hard times and you never get to see God moving. I am especially blessed and glad that this is not one of those times. For weeks now I have seen different students in each of my classes asking really tough questions. Questions that have shown that they have been searching and questioning whether they are going to believe in Jesus or not. Today in the 6th grade Spanish classes they had a special guest that came in to share her testamony. Around 10 students raised their hands saying that they want to follow Jesus. Since I wasn't in the class I have asked for a list of names so I can follow up with them. Also so I can see if these were some of the ones that have been asking the questions.

I have been able to see God working with one of my eighth grade classes as well. This whole week we have been talking about being a fan verses being a follower of Jesus. Fans of Jesus go to church as long as they enjoy it or if they have to. Fans of Jesus are only there when it's convenient for them or as long as God is granting their prayer requests. A follower of Jesus truly understands that they were completely lost with out Jesus sacrifice and punishment on the cross. Followers realizes that because of the bad things they do that they cannot do anything to be good enough to go before a perfect God. A follower truely understands that they deserved a punishment of death for the things they have done, but Jesus took that punishment for them. A followers confesses the wrong things that they do and believe that Jesus was God and was the only one that could be a perfect sacrifice for them. They are so grateful for what has been done for them they will want to live for Jesus and worship Him. A follower is willing to give up things here on Earth because Christ gave it ALL for them. These are just some of the many ideas of a fan verses a follower of Jesus that we have been talking about.

The 8th graders have been talking to me outside of class about being a fan or a follower. Sometimes in a joking way and sometimes questioning what I said in a good way. It's made it obvious that they have really been thinking about it.

Another teacher confronted them today on how they were behaving (especially for the new teachers). One of my eighth grade classes came to me today and apologized for their behavior. Usually this is the worst class that I have all week. Today it's in a different room than this class is normally in and it's towards the end of the day. I was suprised when they quieted themselves because they had to talk to me. Then we continued to talk about the Fan verses Followers and they had some really good questions. I had a couple ask "How can you tell if you are a fan or a follower?" or "how can I become a follower if I am sitting on the edge between a fan and a follower?" I can really see that they are pondering it and are trying to decide what they want to do.

Kiddie Talk

One of the facsinating things about being here is watching my kids learning a second language. They are learning and catching on to so many verbal and nonverbal cultural clues. Edan came to me today to explain that Spanish is backwards from English. "You usually say the words in the opposite order." Then he gave me an example and said, "You know, like instead of saying orange shoe you say shoe orange."

To keep David interested in studying his Spanish words Brian quized David and me to see who would win. I made a run for his money and we tied quite a bit. (I think Brian was giving David a lot of those ties as wins.) Anyways, I was so impressed at how quickly he could spit out the answers. I didn't think he knew them as well as he did because he hems and haws when it's just me giving them to him. Make it a competition and he's all in!

Out of all the kids, Joelle has been the most interesting to watch learn another language. She spends the day repeating all the things she is picking up. Many times bableing in Spanish made up words. The other day she said, "Chicito y Grande no the same" while she shoke her finger back and forth like the Mexicans. We were walking down the street and there was this little dog with a pink collar. She shouted, "Ohh Chicita, Que Bonita!" She sounded just like my students sound when they see something really cute (like my children). She some times goes to the door and knocks and shouts, "Quien es ahi " (Who's there). The other day she came home saluted and began trying to sing the Mexican national anthem. Almost every night now she tries to pray in Spanish. We got some respadas (glorified snow cones) and the lady asked if we wanted Large or Small in English because she knew I spoke English. Joelle answered her back "Chico" (small).

1/2 The Blog I Wrote This Morning

Okay, so I wrote a blog earlier today when I had no electricity and very little sleep thanks to a few drunks and decided it would be best not to post all of it. I was about to crack. Well, maybe I did crack. We really want to be honest with this blog. We know that there are missionaries out there that are going through the same things as us, but because a church that’s supporting them might not completely understand what they are going through they might not share everything. Plus there are many internationals that come to the USA each year and go through similar things as we do. I want to share with you my struggles and our families so you have a better idea.

Here’s an excerpt of what I wrote this morning.

Ever since we got here I have begun to realize more and more about Satan’s attacks. The more my students at school are asking questions about God and false religions and coming to me with prayer requests. (One girl gave me a hug this week and said she needed a hug because she really missed her Grandma and we were able to talk about that because I lost my dear grandma last year.) The more I feel that God is working in my students lives the more our life is about to explode in a ball of smoke. This last week with the exception of one class I really felt the kids were listening and mulling on things of God’s Words. Yet in the last week and a half I have had sick children, I’ve been sick, David’s tooth mysteriously cracked off in the middle of the night (and we were directed to a dentist who mistook peanut butter for a rotting tooth) , David’s had two antibiotics and he has never had any in his 7 years previously, my dad has had a heart attack (He is fine now), our electricity went out yesterday right after Brian went grocery shopping and most the cold things are now spoiled, our car’s brand new tire got a flat two days after it died on us in a strange town, we are struggling in a small house that has barely no windows, yard, or room for 3 kids , and last night a car was parked right in front of our house blaring Mexican music while three drunk people danced in the street from 2-3 in the morning! Of course, no one on the block would confront them out of fear. On a positive note, we lay in bed and prayed that it would start raining harder to drive them away and they were gone in less than 10 minutes after praying. As I write the power is still out. To say the least we have really had a hard week.

We know God is sufficient to meet all our needs and we need to go to him, but we also know we are human and need other humans. God desired that we would live and serve in unity. He created us for relationship. Regretfully in a foreign country going to church is more about a Spanish lesson then about fellowship and community. Very few come up to talk to you at church because they know you barely speak the language...

OKAY so I’ll stop there. You get it, we are struggling!

I had called a friend today to vent to her. She quickly offered to help and by the end of the day I was able to see again that there is some encouragement amidst the trials. God must have some big plans that others will come to know Him and worship Him and Satan wants nothing to do with that! We desperately need your prayers.

My Eighth Graders!

You might think by the title that I am going to write on all the woes of the eighth grade class, but quite the opposite. I have really been enjoying them! HONESTLY! I really feel like a lot of this has to do with prayer. I have been praying, along with many others, for a love for these crazy eighth graders and to be able to connect with them, along with their salvation because it has been pretty clear that many are in great need of that. I have to say I really love those two classes and the kids. I really enjoy the kids and I really am learning from them.

Don’t get me wrong they are still a challenging group to work with, but I’ve been having good classes with this challenging group. Plus I think some how my attitude is changing towards them. I was sick the other day, but didn’t want to take off. I decided I was going to have one of my most challenging students teach in each of my eighth grade classes. (We were reading a chapter of a book and discussing it.) I learned so much from that experience. One I learned that no matter how much they complain they still do have a certain expectation for the teacher to discipline and keep order. Both students were on their peers and had that class in line. The two kids that taught wanted to take off more points than I usually do. The first to teach had better classroom management skills than I do. (Although it did help that I was taking off points behind him and I could watch and see the whole time what everyone was doing.)

On the bus ride to the club (where they do gym day) they have been asking me many questions, some irrelevant, but many about the Bible. If I don’t know the answer many times they say, “If I can find the answer to that can you give me extra credit.” My answer is always yes. One student asked what the names of the two thieves on Jesus side were. I said, “thief one and thief two.” He is going to search for the answer for extra credit, if he finds it. I have also found how weird the power of extra credit is. I give an assignment and several won’t turn it in period. I call it extra credit, say the first to turn it in will get the most and I have kids staying after class to finish.

I told a few of the eighth graders today they were preparing me for when my kids become teenagers. One said, “You just wait, the more you get to know us, you will realize we are a lot worse.” Probably a true statement, but I still like them even more, the more I get to know them!

Eggs!

Why do I have a pictures of a warped eggs?

Many things are different in Mexico and eggs are just one of them. When you go to buy eggs in Mexico you will never find them in a refridgerator. At least I have never found them yet in one. This concerned me for I have never found them sold where they were not stored in a fridge in the US.

You might ask for a dozen eggs and the store clerk will pick from bin of eggs and hand you a bag or you might get a dozen eggs with just the bottom part of the egg carton covered in plastic.

It's not uncommon to find misshapened eggs. I often wonder how it is possible for an egg to be so oddly shappen. While I have seen eggs in many different shades of brown to white, I have only see egg shaped in the common egg shape. Here that has not been the case. I wonder what kind of chicken did this egg come from to possibly be so irreguallarly shaped. How in the world does that happen?

On a side note, I am feeling much better. Unfortuanatly David needed another antibiotic. He has not had a single antibiotic in his whole 7 years of life and now in Mexico 2. I think all our bodies are undergoing some changes. I am glad that medication and doctor visits are much cheaper here as well.

Another side note, if you have notice that my spelling has gotten worse that is because now that we are in Mexico our spellcheck is in Spanish. Unfortunately that means everyone is now aware that I am a terrible speller.

Something you don't see everyday!

I thought you guys might like to see this. Very rarely will you see anyone with a lawn mower or even a weedwacker around here. I want to show you how most people and how we now cut our grass. Luckily, lawns aren't as big here. Think about doing this with your yard!

On another note, we had another little car issue today. A flat tire! A nice big screw stuck in our tires. Another fun little opportunity to practice my Spanish!

From Sickness to Chapala

We have been passing around sickness. I should be asleep now, but since I spent all day sleeping and feeling miserable, I thought I would update instead. This "break" from school has been spent mostly at home because someone is sick. We did have a break yesterday where Edan was feeling better and I had not yet gotten it. We made the most of the opportunity and headed out to the largest lake in Mexico, Lake Chapala. Another couple from the school went with us.

We had a great time. We took a boat ride that the kids loved because the water was a little choppy. We tried this disgusting little fried fish on a little island that is suppose to be the local specialty. I'm sure Brian would have a better take on the cuisine, but I thought it was gross. We walked around the town bought a couple things like creamed honey and fresh roasted coffee. Then I thought I would walk back and put my jacket and bag in the car. When I got to the car I noticed the car wouldn't unlock. I went around to open it the old fashion way and jumped in to start it so the alarm wouldn't go off only to discover our battery was dead.

It's enough of a pain when you are in your own country to get your car jumped let alone when you don't fluently speak the language. We turned off the hazard lights and walked around for awhile hoping it would be able to start when we came back. Unfortunately we had to go to plan B. At first I'm thinking through how exactly you would ask for a jump in Spanish. I was pretty sure it probably didn't translate, "Me carro necesita un salta." We didn't know how to translate the word "jump" in Spanish. We went to plan C. Take the jumper cables with you when you ask. It actually worked out a lot smoother than we imagined. A nice police officer helped us and he didn't want a cent or should I say peso. You here so much about crooked cops in Mexico, but so far we have been lucky to not run into any. He was glad to help and wanted nothing from us.

We decided when it was all over we needed to stop using turn signals here. The Mexicans don't and we only forget to turn them off. I guess we need to be a little more like the Mexicans in this area.

Few Days Off and Time to Post!

Because of Mexico's independence day we have a few days off to regroup. Unfortunately our kids are passing along their sickness and now Edan is sick. The good thing about having a small house is it gets us out a lot! We are forced to get out there and be bombarded with Spanish. The bad thing about having a small house, especially one that echos is when a child is sick or you have to be in the house the kids can get at your last nerve. It can be difficult to be confined to small quarters.

I haven't had a lot of time to blog and think because of being thrown into school and trying to figure out how to be a teacher. Especially being a teacher to Junior Highers. But I thought I would share some of my thoughts now that I have some time confined to the house with a sick child.

Before I came to Mexico I had previously lived in another country for one month. I learned a lot in that month. It open my eyes to so many new things. Now I am coming to realize that there is a huge difference in going on a short term missions trip and longer commitment. The biggest difference is mentality. When you are on a short term trip you learn a lot don't get me wrong, but you always have the mind set that you are going home in a little while. It's temporary. Whatever the conditions are like when you go you know it's temporary. If you can go I think you should, you will still learn a ton it's just different.

When I got to around the month mark of staying here in Mexico the reality hit that I'm still here. I'm not going home, at least not for a long time. I began to get major cravings of things that I had before that I could no longer get or have. The excitement of the newness of being in a new country starts to fade. On top of it all I still don't know the language! Sure I am beter than I was a month ago, but it can be frustrating trying to communicate. I understand a lot, but I have a hard time formulating my words in Spanish. I start getting panicky when I try to speak in Spanish and it's even harder to think. Instead of thinking clearly I start thinking, "What am I suppose to say? I can't think!" The newness is gone, you still can't communicate effectively, and you miss things you use to have. It's hard to keep your mind from wandering and thinking about the future or home. I'm constantly reminding myself I need to live in the present and make the most of this opportunity.

Not only has the cultural adjustment been difficult, but the adjustment to working mom. I've never worked full time since I've been married. It's hard to balance being a wife, mom, and teacher. When I stayed home it was hard to always feel that what I did was valuable. I'm realizing now how valuable it was for me to stay home with my children. I do think it has been good for them to all be in school this year. They have been learning Spanish and amaze me everyday with what they pick up, but I'm understanding that there is no shame in staying home. Housewives in America shouldn't feel any shame if they want to and get to stay home with their children, even if all their kids are in school. Maybe shame isn't the right word, but they shouldn't feel like second class citizens or that they need to explain their choice.

On the other hand I don't think my kids are hurting because I'm working. The boys especially are blossoming and learning so much through this experience. It's been the hardest on Joelle, but now she has a bestfriend at school and the other day they all decided to paint their nails for school! It's already starting at four! The greatest thing of all in this experience as a working mom is it has actually enabled us all to spend more time as a family! I think Joelle, especially, is closer to her daddy then she might have been if I always stayed home. It probably has been the hardest on me than them.

Well there is a random post of thoughts of what I have been personally going through. I'm sure many can relate in one way or another. I've been trying hard to think on the bright side of things. It has definately been a battle of the mind.

Mexican Independence Party at the School

Here are some pictures from the Mexican Independence Festival at school today. Here you can see the kids dressed up and some of Joy and I's students in a picture with me.

Mexican Culture Dance Fair w/ Pictures and Video!

These are pictures of our trip on Sunday afternoon to the Mexico Cultural Dance Fair at the Theatre Degollado. I went with the boys as Joelle had a temperature and mom stayed home with her. This was a field trip for the MS students so I spent a good amount of time "shushing"!

Here are some pictures of the inside and outside of the theatre. The theatre is 150 years old and is in the heart of historic downtown Guadalajara. The pictures of the inside don't do it justice as the architecture is incredible. It is a rather small theatre with 5 levels of balconies as you can see in the 1st two pictures.

On a funny note, Edan got pooped on by a pigeon as we sat in front of the theatre waiting to go in! You can see in the pictures that his shirt is still wet from being cleaned.

The dancing and colorful costumes were incredible, but I have no doubt the girls might have appreciated the experience more then the boys. I posted a short video of one of the dances below, but because of the darkness of the theatre the colors are not done justice.

Mountain Hike!

Joy, David and Edan went on a little hike today. We found out one more thing to be thankful for where we live. Where we live there are many more trees. We live to the right of the green patch. The school is in the green patch. As you see in the different pictures looking out at the city we really are in a nice location of the city.

This cross is located at the very top of the little Mountain we climbed. The kids were told you don't make it to the top unless you touch the cross. Edan got their first.

David at the top. I had a pitcture of Edan as well, but I couldn't tell which picture is which. It can be difficult and time consuming to upload pictures. So Edan's picture didn't make it this time.

We made it to the top!

Pictures of the city!

David and Edan on the way back down. David and Edan picked "flowers" for Joelle. What Edan picked was a bunch of grass and David made it clear that he really didn't pick flowers, but they were beautiful flowers to Edan.

Different view on the way down. This "mountain" is right by us. Joelle was sick today so Brian and Joelle stayed home. Brian is taking the boys out later today. As you can see we got lots of good pictures on our hike!

Sometimes You Just Want to Explain Yourself!

Today, I went into a store and handed them a 50 peso bill to pay. They looked at the bill and then they looked at me. They then called over another person in the store. They looked at the bill and held it up to the light. I knew I had a problem. The lady then turned to me and said "Falso" or fake with an somewhat accusing glance. I tried to explain that I was given that bill as change, but I don't know if I really made my point. She grabbed out a pair of scissors from under the counter and handed them to me. I knew she wanted me to cut it up. So I did, I paid her with another bill and walked away embarrassed. Not knowing what they thought or even what I said in explanation. Sometimes, you need to be able to explain yourself!

On another note, I have fallen in love with Tuna Fruit. It is the fruit of a certain cactus here and it is sold everywhere, much like corn on the cob is sold everywhere in the fall in the Midwest. We buy it outside the school off of a man with a little rolling cart. I get a litre of tuna and the kids get sandia (watermelon) or pina (pineapple). We then walk home with a fork and a litre of fruit in hand. Definitely a healthier way to live! It tastes like watermelon only with a little fuller flavor and it is full of little crunchy seeds which I think just add to the taste. I have never seen it in the states before, but if you find it somewhere you have to try it. The kids love it as well, We have also started to enjoy Guyava, but we have struggled to make Mango and Papaya (also everywhere) acceptable to our palate. Mango might happen, I am holding out little hope for Papaya.

Learning to Live Watched Lives

We all have good days and we all have bad days. Because I am generally not great at hiding facial feaures, my bad days in the past were often observable. Someone would say something and I would explain the situation. Maybe I got to bed really late last night or I had a rough day at work or the kids were bouncing off the walls. No matter the situation, you could generaly explain the situation and the reasoning was understood. There is no explaining anything here.

In many ways, you feel forced to never had bad days, to always smile, and to never look despondent. For most of our neighbors and those in our community, our body language, our facial features, constant "Buenas Dias, Tardes, or Noches" is all we have to communicate at this point what type of people we are. In many ways our testimony is based simply off of being very outwardly happy and positive daily.

Here this feels like a very big deal as every person who walks by looks at us, they want to size us up and see how you respond. We are the oddity and they will make decisions about us well before we learn to speak fluently. In many ways, we are forced to constantly be on guard. We are living watched lives. Of course, no truth is new truth, so as I was thinking about this I realized that I have always lived a watched life.

You then start to scratch your head and wonder why this is such a foreign concept. This public testimony I am trying so hard to convey here without words is not so different then what I should have been accomplishing in the States. While yes I could explain my behavior, facial gestures, or actions away to friends, 90 percent of those I encountered in the States knew me no more then my neighbors here do. I spoke as loudly to them as I speak to these I do not share a language with.

It has struck me, that this constant sense of being watched is not so bad. No matter the situation, I need to learn to live a watched life.

Sunny Days to Rainy Days

One thing I must not forget putting on is SUN BLOCK! I need to put it on whether I think I'm going to be in the sun or not! I'm teaching a basketball elective to the Junior High girls. They go over to this club for PE and electives. Seeing I'm from Indiana, when I think about going to a athletic club to play basketball I think about the courts being inside and not needing sun block. Luckly we came to Mexico in the summer when I did have a slight tan, but I still got a little red in the face. Saturday we went to this really cool park. It was a wooded park similar to a state park. Of course I'm thinking woods sun block. I brought the insect repelent which we ended up not needing and forgot to add the sun block. That is one of the necessities I need to add to our adventure backpack. Along with that I need to add toliet paper and hand sanitizer and $1 pesos, but I'm learning.

We ended up making a friend at the park. Her husband is one of the pro-soccer players here. She was from the United States and her husband is from Mexico. They have a little boy Joelle's age and we spent the day with them. They showed us how to feed squirels (David and Joelle feed many, many squirrels before Edan would man up. I finally held his hand to the tree and wouldn't let go.), took us to the lake to feed the ducks and this Japenese garden to feed the fish and we shared a few popcycles together. She sounded like she really wanted to get together soon and gave us her information!

The last few days have been more like what I imagined the rainy season to be like, raining all day. It usually seems to only rain in the evenings. I found out how difficult it can be to have half the school outside. I heard that day one of the public schools in the area got canceled because of the rain! Can you imagine that! It wasn't raining that hard just a constant drizzle. We finally got good use out of the rain jackets we bought before we came.

Feeling Helpless

We have been forced to deal a lot recently with the feeling of helplessness in the little things of life. Things like finding a doctor, paying a simple water bill, or trying to order food at Burger King (Yes they have those here). Because we have no TV and our aquaintances at this point are limited to those we work with who speak English, we have much time to think and talk.

While this feeling is not fun, we have often thought whether it isn't extremely necessary. Only uncomfort often brings about helplessness and as we read Scripture, we constantly see God's desire that we constantly turn helplessly to him.

I just read Matthew 17 and here we find a story where the disciples wonder why they were not able to drive out a demon. Jesus tells them because they did not have enough faith. After hearing this and knowing the great faith and works of the disciples. I have trouble believing that these were men who completely lacked faith. I sometimes wonder in this story if they weren't a little to overconfident in their abilities and then they ran into a roadblock. Maybe they didn't feel helpless enough and their attempts to cast out this demon were done in their strength. They were not done by men who had no faith, but men who at the time had become confident in "their" success and simply forgot that they were merely helpless believers who needed to trust fully in the power of God.

I think we all need to try to feel uncomforatable on a regular basis. Very little has seemed comfortable recently, but maybe that is just the point.

What am I doing here?

If you couldn't tell from Joy's post yesterday we have had a string of difficult, frustrating days. Nothing major (other then David's sickness), but many of the little headaches that you get when you live in a country where you speak very little of the language and understand even less. Today mine was going to the bank to try to exchange traveler's checks (horrible idea just use ATM) After standing in line for 30 minutes, I get to the front to exchange them. After making my initial statement (which I spent 30 minutes going over in my mind) after a few brief comments from the cashier I am forced to say "Hablo solamente un poco espanol" (I only speak a little Spanish) and I don't even know if that is right. She then talks to several people and tells me she can't help me because I don't have my original passport because the school needs it for my Visa. So after an hour, I walk away with no more then an hours waste of time. It is then that the little thought passes through your mind "What am I doing here?". After that thought sinks in, you really do ask yourself "WHAT AM I DOING HERE!?"

I have come to realize that this is the best question I can ask because when I am forced to think of an answer I always have to come back to God's Word. So I ask myself, why did we come here to be "missionairies" in Mexico. While reading "Let the Nations Be Glad" by John Piper the other day, I was reminded why. To use Piper's words, (they are much better then mine)

"Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn't. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate not man"

I am here, every believer is here, to work in this world to help increase worship to God. We do this through the encouragement of the believer and the evangelism of the unsaved. This is why I am here. This is why you are wherever you are. Wherever we are in this world, we know that God desires their to be more and greater worshipers in that place. That is our job, to be used by him to increase worship.

After thinking about this, I am struck by the fact that the easiest way for me to increase worship is to do more myself. This means not feeling sorry for myself, not letting myself dwell in the "What am I doing here" questions forever, but worshipping and then doing whatever I can to increase the worship of others.

I think ultimately, even though its extremely frustrating at times, I have to thank God for this question and hope He never stops making me ask it.

Thankfully I'm not on a Camel

What can I say...we have been a bit overwhelmed lately. Yesterday we had to take David to the "doctora". He ended up having an infection. We had parent night that evening. Plus all the little things like getting homework done and dinner and a few school supplies we still needed. It's amazing how much more difficult it is to do things here! I feel so helpless, daily. Something so simple before feels like a circus act now. The kids were especially tired and whinney today and I felt like I was going to snap. At times I start doubting and think, "What in the world are we doing here!" It's so far out of our comfort zone. We are constantly being stretched through language, different views, and culture.



I was about at my lowest point when I began reading Joelle a Bible story tonight for bed. It was about God calling Abraham to go to a land he promised. God would tell Abram where it was as he traveled to get there. Abraham packed up everything he owned and left for a new country. Trusting God for food, clothing, direction. Joelle and I talked and compared what was the same about our lives and Abraham's. We talked about how we went to a new country and packed up all we owned. How we didn't know what it was going to be like. How it is tough at times, just like I'm sure it was tough for Abraham. We left family and friends and our home. She did notice the difference in Abrams mode of transportation, camels, compared to our van.


I would never put myself on an equal footing with Abraham! God had choosen him for a much bigger role and purpose than anything I will do in my life! I felt like I could relate to him more now than I ever have before or probably ever will in the future. It's not easy! It's hard! I understand now why he was quick to give up his wife to another king. (Even though I'm not saying he was right doing that.) It's not easy making choices when you are unsure of customs and safety. You can easily get distracted and overwhelmed. Reading the story to Joelle encouraged me a little bit. After all it could be worse. I'm still not traveling on a camel trying to make it to my destination!