Into the glorious unknown...: 2008

Hello to all of you wherever you may be.
In this weeks edition of Leah´s blog we have some fun language stories, so without further ado:

El Encante (a restaurant here), 2 weeks ago (right after I posted my last blog), World Series game:
We were all sitting down when the waitress came to take our orders, I had carefully planned out what I was going to say and what I wanted to order (a milkshake and french fries with a side of mayo, cuz that´s how we roll in Minnesota). I had asked Missy (a girl who speaks just as much Spanish as I do) how to say french fries (this by the way is usually a big mistake). So when it came to my turn I ordered my milkshake and ordered ¨fritas y mayonaisa¨roughly translated I ordered fried mayonnaise. Whoops! Slightly embarrassing, but we worked it out and got my order in...or so I thought. Later the waitress came back with our food and she´s putting all of our orders in front of us and as I´m watching everyone get their food I´m seeing that everyone got what they ordered. Then she puts my plate in front of me and I look at and blink a couple times and look again...it was not what I thought I ordered, instead of french fries with a side of mayonnaise it was 2 pieces of what could be likened to country fried steak, a salad and a small pile of french fries. Missy looks at it too and busts out laughing and even though I know that laughing at this very moment is a bad idea I can´t help it and laugh too. I guess that´s all you can do right? Is laugh? The best part was after she brought it out I had to ask for mayonnaise for my french fries.

Last week, in the park, meeting with my friend Thelma:

I have been meeting with Thelma for a couple weeks now and last Thursday she brought her friend Eduardo. In Mexico when you are friends with someone you do the cheek to cheek air kiss, keeping that in mind Thelma introduces me to Eduardo and he goes in for the friend cheek to cheek air kiss (which is ackward for me first because he is a guy and second because he´s a guy I don´t know) and instead of saying ¨mucho gusto¨or nice to meet you¨. I say ¨me gusta¨ or I like¨ I knew instantly that this wasn´t right and could be construed in all sorts of bad ways so I tried to make up for it by saying that I get the two phrases confused (I don´t) and that they sound a lot alike (they don´t). I laugh about it now and he seemed to take it the right way, but that could have turned out bad.

Cultural Things:
So I mentioned previously that I have been meeting with 3 girls to practice my English and them practice their Spanish, well in Mexican culture it is completely normal for people who you have been meeting with to not show up. This has been my experience with these 3 girls. At first I was very frustrated and discouraged, but now I have come to accept it as a part of being in a different culture. The 2 high school girls haven´t shown up for a couple of weeks so I don´t think I´m meeting with them anymore, but I´m still meeting with Thelma and in fact hung out with her last night.

If you could keep Thelma in your prayers I would really appreciate it, I don´t know much about her yet, but I´m really excited to get to know her better and I hope that we can be good friends. Pray that the Holy Spirit would work in her heart and that he would give me the words to say at the right time.

I love and miss you all. I will hopefully post again sooner than later.

The title of this blog post pretty much says it all. The past week of my life has been a little tumultuous to say the least. Let me fill you in on a few things that have been happening:

Last Sunday:
I was was watching a movie with my fellow GFMers and eating a tortilla with guacamole in it when, I bit into the tortilla and was surprised by "crunch, crunch" unfortunately there wasn´t anything crunchy in that tortilla, instead it was my tooth that had broken somehow. Luckily it didn´t break down to the nerve, but still a little irritating. Especially since my insurance is less than spectacular.

Last Tuesday:
The past couple of weeks have been Tlaxiaco days where they celebrate their city and part of that celebration included a carnival complete with rides that have been rejected from the US carnivals. After taco Tuesdays a group of us decided to go to the carnival and check it out. We had churros with chocolate inside they were delicious and oh so fattening. It reminded me of the State fair I felt like I was on the midway. After we had churros we began to walk around and see the rides. I was determined to ride on one of these "rejected rides" and then we saw it in all its glory, the mechanical bull. (singing: ahhhhh). For those of you who were with me on my birthday last year, it was like finding the holy grail. I had to give it a go, so I paid my 20 pesos and got on. I have to say here that the ride was not all that I hoped for it was not what I had dreamed it would be but it was fun for the memories. Up next: a real bull (I´m convinced it would be better on a real bull).

Last Thursday:
I returned home from being in town all day only to turn on my computer and err, umm, it didn´t turn on. I thought ok this is only a fluke thing it will work if I try it again. No, it did not. Bummer, so folks I´m without a computer for the time being. Right now I´m at a Internet cafe and will have to rely on them and the generosity of friends probably until I come home for Christmas.

All this to say God is still good and even though things like computers crashing and teeth breaking are extremely inconvenient God is still there and he will use it for his glory. I know that there are lessons to learn in the midst of problems and will probably look back at all of this and see quite clearly what God was doing. In the mean time I choose to laugh and continue on with life.

On a positive note I have been meeting with three girls in the park on Wedensdays and thursdays to teach them english and have them in return teach me spanish. I am excited about these new friendships that are in the making. Please pray for them that the Holy Spirit would be working in their hearts and also pray for me to know what to say to them and that I would learn spanish fast.

I hope you are all doing well. Love and miss you all!

Ok so I am failing miserably at this updating business. I am terribly sorry, but you are going to get the condensed version of the past 3 weeks (!).

Freedom Camp
A couple weeks ago I went to "freedom camp" with the other MTS students here. It was a 3 day fast and camp retreat. Basically it was a time where we all could focus on getting ourselves right with God by identifying sin in our lives both past and present and repenting from them one at a time. Let me just say here that repenting from a lifetime of sin (that I had asked for forgiveness, but used a blanket forgiveness statement) is exhausting and a little overwhelming, but incredibly freeing. I would love to tell you more about this experience, so ask if you want to know more.

Last week
Last week we talked about personalities and how they fit into ministry and a mission team, being a psych major I thoroughly loved this week. I love finding out what everyone's personality is and also learning more about the way God created me both with strengths and weaknesses.

This week
This past Monday we celebrated Canada's Thanksgiving (yes that does mean 2 thanksgivings this year Yee-haw! gotta love that!). The Canadians made the meal, which was delicious by the way, and we played a game of football in the afternoon (after all what would thanksgiving be without football?), which was a lot of fun even for those of us who are not super great at the sport.

I should mention that on this past Sunday in upper room the Holy Spirit moved in a big way. I experienced him in a way I have never experienced him before. I feel that my faith has been deepened in a way I never knew it could be and am excited to explore what that means in my life and am excited to grow in that. If you would like to hear more about this I would love to tell you I can only write so much here but there is a lot more to this story than is here.

I am still loving my time down here and have really felt God's hand in really everything I have been doing, and I'm excited to see the rest of the year play out. Thanks for all of your prayers and support I really appreciate it. Love you all!

This is a belated post that should have been posted on Sunday, but due to some complications was not posted until now.

On Saturday I met Tashia's friend named Lorenza. We had a good time of fellowship and talking on Saturday night, she practiced a little bit of english and muddled through some spanish (a botch job mind you, but I tried). As we were about to leave Lorenza asked if we wanted to come back the next morning at 7am to make tortillas. I am not a morning person, but I couldn't pass up an opportunity of learning how to make tortillas, so of course we said we would come back.
Sunday morning I woke up at 6am and caught a taxi in the pitch black of early morning and met up with Tashia to go to Lorenza's. We got there a little after 7am, but its okay because we were on Mexico time and there is no worries about arriving late (my kid of culture). She had already started by the time we got there, the dough was already made (made of corn, water and salt) she said that, that part of the process only takes about 10 minutes. She does her tortillas over an open fire in a metal dish (pics are coming I promise, I just haven't had time or good Internet to do it yet) she puts this white chalky stuff in the dish so that the tortillas don't stick. Then she got down to making the tortillas, she takes a bit of dough and pats it between her hands and flattens it then she puts the dough on a round piece of plastic (home-made from a plastic bag, very ingenious) and proceeds to make a perfectly round tortilla with only the palm of her hand (they pride themselves in the roundness of the tortilla). Now it was Tashia and my turn, let me just say we did not do very well, but Lorenza came to the rescue and perfected them for us. We each only did one, I don't think she wanted us to do any more than one, but we did get to eat the tortillas we made fresh off the fire with queso it was delicious!

Turkey, Turkey everywhere, on the ceiling, on the walls and on the floor.

So tonight we were having dinner and talking when Troy comes out of the kitchen and "klablooie" an explosion coming from the kitchen and a cloud of white proceeds to fill the entire kitchen, and when the dust settles (so to speak) there was cooked turkey everywhere.

So here was the deal: there was a pressure cooker on the stove cooking away when apparently something went awry and the pressure got to be too much inside and the next thing we know there goes the pressure cooker soaring up to the ceiling and slammed back down to the stove where it proceeded to make a HUGE dent in the stove. So needless to say the kitchen got a little extra cleaning tonight.

Hola!

Since it's been awhile since I last updated my blog let me catch you up:

On Saturday we had a September birthday party/Oaxaca Idol (lip-synching competition). Us single ladies did our lip-synch to "Jesus is a friend of Mine" (its on youtube if you are interested and seeing the original song/group its rather hysterical) the song is by a group from the seventies so we all dressed up accordingly we got some interesting clothing pieces from Reto, a used clothing store (for those of you who are on facebook that's where I am in my profile pic) for the occasion, it was a lot of fun. That night we played Ultimate Pong a ping pong game that gets pretty competitive (if you would like to learn we'll have to have a Ultimate Pong night when I'm home)

Here in Tlaxiaco we are surrounded by beautiful mountains, and ever since I got here they have been calling my name, so yesterday we finally climbed one. It took us about 2 and a half hours to climb it and I have to say that it kicked my butt the entire way, but it was totally worth it when we were at the top. I hope that it will get easier the longer I'm here and I get acclimated to the altitude. On the way down we ran some of the way and I took a complete no recovery tumble. Don't worry mom I'm ok I just have a sizable bruise on my bottom. No problem. It was a really good time, yet a very tiring time!

Today we started a new week of classes and this week we are learning about intercessory prayer. It's only one day in and I'm already feeling challenged by the things we are learning. I have been praying that God would break me and refine me so that there would be no more of me and all of him. This is a scary prayer for me because I know that there will be a lot of pain and questions that will come with this prayer, but I desire to be at that place. If you guys could keep me in your prayers as I'm going through this process I would really appreciate it. Also, if you could keep my health and everyone's health here on the base in your prayers I would appreciate it. Living in community with others is a wonderful thing, but it also comes with its own problems like sickness, so if you could keep that in your prayers I would be grateful.

That's pretty much it in a nutshell. Till next time, much love...

This week is death to self week here at GFM and that means a lot of dying to my way of thinking. To say that my world has been rocked just doesn't do it justice...I now know that I will not be the same person I was when I got here and this is only the second week. I'm sure over the next months you guys will start to see changes (at least I hope you will anyway).

Just to share a little about what I've been learning, I have been challenged in what I believe is suffering and what I believe is complete surrender to God. I have come to the realization that God's glory is so much more important than my life and my comfort and that God may use me in ways that I might not think is comfortable or convenient but it isn't about me its about God and his glory. I have also come to the realization that my relationship with god has been me-centered and not God centered, God wants to bless us don't get me wrong, but He blesses us so that we bless others for his glory and not for our own.

Whew.....that is just a little taste of what I have been learning. I can see that the process will probably be a long and painful one, and I know that God is going to chip away at me until I am completely broken so that he can use me for his will and glory. I'm ready, or at least I think I am. If you would like to know more about I'm learning I would love to tell you about it in more detail, just shoot me an e-mail or wright a comment.

On a lighter note, On Monday night we went to a neighbor's house who's daughter was Miss Mexico and we had dinner and walked in a parade to the Colonia's recreation center for the "Greeto", where they had a ceremony and the 'gringos' got ambush foamed. It was fun to get a little taste of culture and see how they celebrate their independence day (I was wrong in the previous post their independence day was yesterday September 16th).

I love you all and miss you guys!

In His Hands,

Leah

Greetings from Mexico-

I hope that you have had a restful and challenging Sabath. I personally have had a good one. This morning I went to church with Dan and Kelly Farr and their family and the Wheelers to a church that was on the otherside of town and outside on the side of a mountain and it was awsome! When we arrived they had already started music worship and I was pleased to see and hear that they were doing worship with an electric guitar, drums and an electric bass guitar I loved every mintue of it even though I didn't necessarily understand everything.

Ok, so I'm still trying to learn the language so this morning I was trying to pick out the words I could understand and I heard over and over again: "Gloria adios" and I thought to myself, 'why do they keep saying 'glory good-bye'', Finally I realized that Dios is God in Spanish and they were saying "glory to God". You've gotta love the humor in learning a new language, sometimes it just doesn't quite make sense.

Also, during the service they did a trust fall with some of the church members (whoever wanted to participate could) I didn't end up participating because I wasn't quite sure how that would work with a skirt on, I definitely did not want anything to fly up and offend them :). I always love worshipping with my brothers and sisters in different languages its a beautiful thing. I think I will probably continue to go to this church for now at least.

So far that's been my day, we have today and tomorrow off so I'm not exactly sure what we will be doing, but tomorrow is Mexico's independence day so I'm hoping to be able to go into town and see how they celebrate. I hear it can get pretty crazy.

Until next time..

Hola!



So I hope that you are all enjoying an event filled Saturday night! I got back from town about an hour ago and am ready for a night of relaxation and fellowship with the "gringos" here on base. However I must say that today was a spectacular day in and of itself. Let me expound:



So this morning/afternoon we went into town and tried our communication skills (or lack there of) we had a scavenger hunt where we had to ask towns people different questions to fulfill the points. I went out with Heather and Missy, Heather knows a lot of Spanish and was a very patient teacher encouraging us to use what we know and helping by giving new phrases to use with the people in town and translating when they answered back with words we couldn't understand. We met quite a few people today and I hope that we will be able to build on that foundation and create relationships with those people.



At about 2pm we met up with the rest of the "gringos" or white people (that's what they call us down here) and went to lunch with the groups that will be our Saturday lunch groups for the rest of the year. After lunch Tashia, Jon and I went back to the market in search of grasshoppers. Tashia said that I had to eat one (yes I'm blaming you Tashia :)). So after wandering around the market without success we finally found a woman who lead us to a vendor who had them and graciously (not sure if that's the right word) let us try one. My first grasshopper...interesting, not exactly disgusting, yet not exactly appetizing. After the grasshoppers we decided to get some coffee at a local coffee shop (I was happy to hear they have coffee shops with espresso drinks) and had a good time of fellowship.

Tonight I had alone time God sitting on the hammock, watching the lightning and drinking coffee (it was lovely) and felt so blessed to be here learning more about my Jesus and learning about how to be best be his vessel. I still don't know what exactly it is that God is calling me to, but its ok because I know that it's in His Hands and there is no better place for my future to be, right?
You can continue to pray for me in the language area I still have a ways to go, but I know that God is right there with me. Thanks for all of your prayers in this area I have definitely felt them!

I have been in Tlaxiaco for 4 days now and haven't exactly gotten into a routine quite yet, but I am hoping that I will next week since this is an orientation week.

So let me catch you up on my life the past couple of days, on Monday we had some neighbors kill and butcher one of the base's pigs, because she could no longer walk due to abuse from the male pig she indeed led a sad life of abuse, so it was better that she was put out of her misery. That was pretty much the excitement for that day.

On Tuesday we ate the pig in pork tacos they were pretty good! On Tuesday night we went into town, toured it and had taco Tuesdays at one of the restaurants the people here really like (it was pretty delicious). We will be doing taco Tuesdays every week so I am very excited (this will also be a night of ministry time where we will try and form relationships with the local people).

Today we had class (we've had class since Monday) and had a lesson on speed reading (I must say here I was a little skeptical, but it actually does work, within 30 min I improved my speed by 50 words per minute!). This afternoon I finally went for a run. I have been a little stir crazy the last couple days so it was nice to get out and stretch my legs and get some exercise. On a side note the one thing that wasn't enjoyable were the 3 dogs that chased me, luckily they didn't chase me for long. Tonight I'm not sure what we will be doing I suspect I will attempt to get some reading done and possibly go back into town. Thank you all for your support both now and as I've been on this crazy journey called life, I think back and don't know what I would have done without your prayers and support. I am one lucky lady to have friends and family such as you!

Prayer Requests:*Please pray for me as I am trying to make relationships with people here that I would be able to pick up the language fast and that I would be able to adequately communicate with them in order to make those relationships.

Greetings from Tlaxiaco, Oaxaca Mexico!

I have arrived safe and sound last night and have (shocker!) settled in for the most part already. Yesterday was a long day of travel that started at 8am and ended at 12:45 am (Tlaxiaco is an hour behind Minneapolis in case anyone was wondering). By the time we arrived at the base I was quite ready to go to sleep, so I was happy to hear that we would have the chance to sleep in until 10am this morning! Although I think I was too anxious to sleep that long I probably woke up at about 8am, so really not too bad. Today we had brunch as a big group and I met several people at the base here (however, I don't remember many of their names, I'm sure I will get a chance to learn them over the next several months). The rest of the day is a free day until 8pm when we will have mandatory fun time, I think I will probably take a nap and visit with my new classmates. I think we begin classes tomorrow, so if I have time I will try and do another update then. Love you all and hope that you are doing well!

The blogging begins...

I am leaving for Mexico in 4 days and can hardly believe that it's already time to go! My goal is to update all of you, my family and friends, on my life while I'm in Mexico. Hopefully that means weekly updates, but knowing me I have a feeling that it probably won't be every week, but I will try my best. So, until next time...