Mexico Adventures

2008-12-21T19:47:00.001-08:00

To our loyal fans and readers!
In these last days before Christmas we write to you our last update letter concerning our trip to Mexico for my PRIME internship. It has been a wild ride! Before we left last Tuesday morning I prayed that God would help us have a safe and uneventful trip back to the states, and that if our journey was difficult God would help us to handle all situations as his disciples should—with love. Well, though it was a long and at times boring trip, we managed to jump through all the hoops without problems. Let me tell you how God blessed us! We left our apartment at 8:40ish and expected an hour and a half of traffic (or more!). But, it only took us about 40 minutes to get to the airport! We expected to wait in line for hours to check our bags, but we were the 5th couple in line! We thought we were going have problems with the customs department about our expired visas and would have to pay a 500+ paso fine, but the baggage check guy said nothing about it! None of our plans were delayed! U.S. customs was a breeze (and we expected that to be tough with all the stuff we had), and our connecting flight was on time! And, when we reached Cleveland Michelle and Audrey were waiting for us! All in all, we left our apartment at 8:40am and arrived at the in-laws house around 11:15pm…Like I said, long, boring, and uneventful. It was an answer to prayer!
Well, I can’t say that our trip was totally uneventful. While we were waiting in the Mexico City international airport for our flight we managed to find and get pictures with the Japanese version of Tom Hanks…or, the character that Tom played in the movie “The Terminal.” This guy is literally living in the airport, and has been for a few months now! Apparently, they can’t do anything about it because his visa doesn’t expire for a few months. Until then, they can’t kick him out! Dennis and I tried to approach him and speak with him. He was not very talkative; he did not engage us in conversation in either Spanish or English…But he did let us take a picture with him. Only after we tried to talk to him did we google how to say hello and a few other pleasantries in Japanese. We should have done that before hand; but, oh well...lesson learned.
Some of you may have heard me say that the smog is pretty bad in Mexico City, but I just cannot adequately describe in words how disgusting it looks, though I know some authors that could…Anyway, I have attached a picture of what I saw as our plain took off from the Mexico City airport; it was incredible! As we were ascending I was looking out the window and all of the sudden, I could see ten times further then I could just seconds before! We did not break through a cloud line, or fog; but the smog line from the city!! After having lived for 6 months in a place that gave me smog buggies just from talking a 20 minute walk I am SOOO thankful to live in a country with clean air policies—even as obnoxious as the E.P.A. and other green parties can be.
In closing I want to share with you a few other ways in which God has blessed us since we have been in Mexico. When we left we did not have the funds necessary for the duration of our trip, but we left in faith that God would provide. A month or so after we arrived a few unexpected donations came in that brought us up to and just over the amount we needed! To help matters, our host family in Cuernavaca (the place we lived for our first month while I was in language school) did not charge us any rent (though we were able to leave them with a gift). When we reached Mexico City we had some expenses that we had not anticipated, but God provided again as our Landlady charged us LESS THEN HALF of what he had budgeted for our rent, AND we did not have to pay water or electricity either!! BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE! When we left for Mexico Nicolle’s car was on its last legs, and we were on a very limited budget for finding another car. But God saw fit to find us a sweet economy car through our friends and family (’93 Honda Accord, so cool!)! He practically dropped it in our lap! What an answer to prayer! Also, we had to leave our apartment in Huntington, which has since been rented out. But again, in an amazing answer to prayer, God helped us find a very economical apartment that will meet our needs beautifully through a dear friend of ours! We are so excited to return to H-town and set up our new pad!!! Lastly, Nicolle and I were both concerned about returning to quickly empting bank accounts and no jobs. In October I double checked the budget with our current spending habits and did not think we would have anything left over from our Mexico funds. However, the conversion rate took a dramatic turn in our favor around that same time—from about 10 USD to 1 Paso, to 13.8ish to 1! This doesn’t sound like much, but it slowed our cash flow enough that when we hit US soil we had a little over $700 bucks to help us transition as we look for jobs! God is sooooooooo good, providing above and beyond our needs!
Well, as I said this is the last up date, and I think there will only be one or two more extras and photo links put on the blog. But…Nicolle and I have enjoyed updating, and putting up pictures and such that we think we will continue the habit in the future. However, we are planning on starting a new blog that is not centered around our trip to Mexico. So, the very last message you will receive from us will be the info on the new blog, for those who are interested. I must say, it has been a pleasure sharing our stories with you all. We love you all very much and deeply thank you for all of your help and especially your prayers!

PS. Sorry the font is so small, I guess I had a lot to say…just zoom in! hahaha! Merry Christmas!

Please pray for: Jobs for when we return to Huntington; and safe travel from Ohio to Michigan, and to Indiana.
—Shalom.

2008-12-15T20:04:00.001-08:00

To our dear friends,
Well, I can hardly believe it but this is the last update that we will be sending from Mexico! Tomorrow, bright and early, Dennis Poulette (my PRIME mentor) will be swinging by the apartment to pick us up. We will be heading through an hour to an hour and a half of traffic to get to the airport four hours before our flight leaves, our first flight for about four and a half hours, which will take us to our one hour long layover…just before our second one a half hour flight…where we can then go through customs…….after that we can (thanks to my awesome in-laws) be driven the last hour and a half to Nicolle’s parents house………Either way you cut it, its going to be a long, long day. But, it will be well worth the stress to be back in the states to see friends and family for Christmas! To our loyal readers from Little Flock Fellowship Church, we shall see you next Sunday!
Some of you might be wondering what we have been up to in the week proceeding our departure. Well, to be honest, it has gone really fast. We tried to relax a bit when we could, but we didn’t really get the opportunity to do much loafing. We were invited to a few people’s houses for lunch or dinner; and in typical Mexico fashion, these affairs usually took the entire day. Also, there was the last meeting of our small group. For the most part, we spent our spare time cleaning and packing our things so that when we were invited somewhere we could accept. Our biggest adventure happened this last Saturday when we went down town with a few kids from our youth group. There is a big Christmas shin-dig in the Zocolo (see pictures from last weeks up date) that is always fun to go to. However, at one point on the way home, I almost died! You see, we were waiting on the platform for another metro train to come by….waiting and waiting….well, about 25 minutes later (about 23 minutes too long) one finally came. By this time there was well over a thousand people waiting to get on, and I knew it was going to be a mad dash for the doors. Well, luckily, the V.P. of Y.M.I. (Youth Ministry International, the world wide ministry organization that I am doing my internship through), Brent, was there. He is all of 6’2” and beefy. He plowed a way on for us and we made it. But that was only the beginning. You see, it wasn’t just that platform that was over crowded, but all of them up and down the line. So when we wanted to get off, we not only had to struggle to get to the door on the train, but to get off! I was the last one in our group trying to exit, and about the time I put one foot on the platform the buzzer started to ring, singling that the train was going to leave in less then 10 seconds. That was when it happened! The crowd of people that I was trying to beat my way through surged toward me in a mad struggle to get on the train! I was just starting to cut through them when I almost got pulled off my feet! You see, I had the camera around my neck, and through the strap I had hung my hooded sweatshirt. This combination hung down just past my knees, and it had gotten caught in the crowd moving in the opposite direction!!! It was all I could do to keep my hoodie from getting caught in the doors as they started to close. No one was holding on to them, it was just the pressure from being squeezed between the people as they piled onto the train! I was so surprised and scared! The whole time I kept thinking this was just the kind of stupidity and insanity that got that Wal-Mart employee killed…Oh, my………..
In other news, Nicolle and I made someone’s day! The youngest daughter of our Landlady, Liliana, has been wanting a computer for quite some time now. She has borrowed my laptop a few times since we have been here to do home work. Well, because Nicolle has a new/used lap top waiting for her in the states, and we are severely limited in the amount of stuff we can bring back with us (weight restrictions and such), we decided that it would be better just to give Nicolle’s old lap top to Liliana. She was soooooooo excited to get it and I’m sure she stayed up late playing around on it. Earlier today, I went upstairs to drop off some food and things that we would not need anymore and found that Lili, her brother and some friends were all up in her room goofing around on the internet with her lap top. Christmas came a little early for Lili this year, God be praised!

Please pray for: Jobs for when we return to Huntington; for a safe and stress free trip (especially in customs), for safety on the roads for Bryan and Michelle when they pick us up.
—Shalom.

The Recipe

2008-12-12T09:52:00.000-08:00

Beef and Bean Chimichangas

My family never gets bored with what I serve for dinner, because I'm always trying new recipes. These chimichangas, though, are often requested especially by our teenage daughter.—Janice Lyons, Eagle River, Wisconsin

SERVINGS: 16

CATEGORY: Main Dish

METHOD:

TIME: Prep: 25 min. Cook: 20 min.
Ingredients:

* 1-1/2 pounds ground beef
* 1 medium onion, chopped
* 1 medium green pepper, chopped
* 1 garlic clove, minced
* 2 cans (16 ounces each) refried beans
* 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
* 1/2 cup taco sauce
* 16 flour tortillas (10 inches)
* Vegetable oil
* Toppings: shredded lettuce, sour cream, chopped ripe olives, chopped tomatoes, additional cheddar cheese

Directions:
In a large skillet, cook beef, onion, green pepper and garlic over medium heat until the meat is no longer pink; drain. Add the beans, cheese and taco sauce. Cook and stir until cheese is melted, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat. Spoon about 1/3 cup off-center on each tortilla. Fold up edge nearest filling; fold in both sides and roll up. Secure with a toothpick. In a large skillet, fry tortillas, folded side down, in oil for 2-3 minutes or until lightly browned. Turn; cook 2-3 minutes longer. Drain on paper towels. Serve with toppings of your choice. Yield: 16 chimichangas.

**** We took the left overs to Bible Study because even though I cut the recipe in half...the tortillas here are small and it made 18! They were a hit. I looked up the origin on Wikipedia...and it's pretty funny, apparently it's a Tex-mex dish...our Mexican friends had fun with the name :)

Taken from Taste of Home's website

chimichangas!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-12-11T17:42:00.000-08:00

We just made chimichangas for dinner and they were sooooooooooooooooo good!!!! Mmmmmmm...fried food... haha!

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-10T19:52:00.000-08:00

To our dear friends,
This is going to be a shorty, sorry. We find ourselves with very little time left here, the days are going faster and faster. We are trying to spend time with our friends before we leave, fitting in packing and other necessaries when we can. I have one last little paper to write for school, kind of a wrap up summary of my internship. After that, we’re home free.
The schedule: Today, hung out with Dennis and Jenelle, Nathan and Ben. We went to the Zocolo for the big Christmas fest. They had a mini sledging hill, and a huge skating rink; even a place to build little snow men! Thursday, clean and pack, write the blasted paper, maybe hang out with Dennis; maybe lunch with Huberto. Friday, maybe more packing, hanging out with the Poulett’s for dinner. Saturday, there is a group of youth from the church and seminary going to the Zocolo for more of the Christmas celebrations. I managed to take a few pictures of the fun’ness when we went today and will have them in photo bucket shortly. Sunday is a special church service in a restaurant where we get to hang out, eat breakfast, and have the sermon right there. It will be our last Sunday here. In the afternoon we will be bequeathing the possessions that we acquired for daily living here in Mexico to a couple our age that we met here. They are to be married in about 6 months and could use some of our stuff for setting up house. On Monday, we finish the packing, and scrub the apartment down floor to ceiling (we try to leave things better then we found them) and then trying to get a good nights sleep because on Tuesday we need to lave by 8:00am in order to make it to the airport four hours early to catch our flight. While there, we hope to meet the guy from Japan (or China?) who has been living in the airport for the last few months. It’s like that movie, only real. Haha

Merry Christmas!

Please pray for: Jobs for when we return to Huntington; for our ministry with our core kids, that their faith is strengthened; that God would use us even as we are preparing to leave.
—Shalom.

2008-12-04T09:56:00.000-08:00

I had heard that Sams club carries Root Beer here in Mexico, but I do not have a sams card, and I don't know anyone that does. However, at long last (six months to be exact), the dollar store down here had some Root Beer!!!! Oh, it was so good, soooooooo good! Nicolle and I made cheese burgers the other day, and I had a Root Beer with it. mmmmmmm

COOKIES!

2008-12-04T09:39:00.000-08:00

So, Nicolle was feeling festive the other day and decided to make some Christmas cut out cookies! One day I came home to a wife covered in flour and a large lump of dough cooling in the fridge. Nicolle asked me to talk to our Landlady and see if she had a rolling pin that we could use. When I talked to her, she said that she had just thrown three of them away in the garbage earlier that day! I could not believe it! Well, Nicolle managed quite well with just patting the dough out with her hands. Because we didn't have any cookies cutters, she used an assortment of different sized cups to make circles for snow balls, ornaments, and snow men. The really fun part came when we went to frost the cookies. We didn't want to spend $2.50 on food coloring that we would only use once, so we decided to see what we could use to tint our otherwise white frosting. We got a lovely shade of purple/red using strawberry and grape jelly, a warm shade of brown using cinnamon, and light shade of yellow from honey, orange juice, and orange peal zest. In the end, the cookies were cute, and tasted delicious!!! Merry Christmas!

what a week!

2008-12-01T21:04:00.001-08:00

Dear friends,
So many things have happened this week; I really don’t know where to start…So, to keep things simple, we will go chronologically. On Monday Nicolle and I played hooky. I have that day off from work at the church, and since Nicolle and I were short on sleep we decided to stay at home and relax. It was a well deserved break and greatly enjoyed. Tuesday was un-eventful, though I started finalizing my message for this Sunday. Wednesday was more of the same, to be honest; the real action didn’t start until Thursday. So, Thursday, THANKSGIVING! As I have mentioned in past updates, Nicolle and I were invited over to Dennis Poulette’s house for the celebration. It was so much fun! We were not the only people that got invited over, Dennis asked a few friends of his from Mexico to come over. They all seemed to really enjoy the food and talking about the tradition of Thanksgiving. Speaking of food, it was fantastic! Nicolle and I made deviled eggs and sweet potatoes (Thanks Michelle!), and Dennis and his wife made up a giant turkey, green beans, potatoes, gravy, homemade bread, corn and some scrumptious deserts: peanut butter pie (oh my goodness!), apple cake (wow!), and B.T.S.P. which was my favorite! It had crumbled nut crust, a layer of cream cheese, a layer of chocolate pudding, and a layer of freshly whipped cream (gaaaaaaaaaa!)! All in all, we had a fantastic time. Friday, I finished my preparations for my Sunday message and went home to try and relax. Well, Nicolle and I were in the middle of a movie when our landlady started banging on the door in a panic. It did not take us long to figure out what happened. Her 89 year old father who lives across the hall from us had passed away suddenly. She had gone upstairs to call a doctor and five minutes later, he was gone. His health had taken a sudden turn for the worse about three days earlier, but there is just no way to prepare for something like this. Well, this was a very late night for both of us. Being a leader in the church I was expected to attend to the family and help comfort them. And Nicolle did not get much sleep because most of all the family came from all over Mexico (and one or two from America) so the house was very very loud. At 2:30am we gave up and called my PRIME mentor/supervisor Dennis Poulette (a very good friend) and he and his wife were willing to take us into their home. We got way more sleep on their couches then we would have at our apartment, even with the 8:30 wake up call by 3 year old Nathan doing his impersonation of Jimmy Hendrix! We spent most of Saturday just hanging out with the Poulettes, decorating their Christmas tree, and relaxing. We finished off the night with pizza and coke with them and went home around 10:00 wondering where our day went. All of the sudden it was Sunday morning, and I was feeling slightly less then prepared for my message. After breakfast, and a calming time of prayer, I jotted down some notes and left for church dressed to kill! When I arrived I spent a few minutes getting my props prepared, and talking to Huberto about the skits that we were going to do (oh yes, we had a lot of fun. I had Huberto marry one of our volunteers and an older student in the youth group, and he impersonated Moses!). It was around this time that I discovered that the bulletin insert that I had made was not printed! Really, I was not too surprised; I am used to little setbacks and things getting overlooked. It turned out to not be a problem because my lovely, darling, serving, loving, wonderful wife went back the apartment to get my computer so I could print the handouts. Even though I had trouble with my Spanish, and got lost once, it went pretty well. The people seemed to understand what I was saying, and laughed and said amen at all the right times, so I am calling it a success. Leave it to the Holy Spirit to overcome my busted Spanish. Haha!
I believe we have entered into a transitional period of our time here. As of today, Nicolle is finished with her classes, and as of yesterday, I have completed all projected responsibilities at church. I am hoping that I will get to help with the planning of the next year, or get to teach for the youth group again, otherwise, I will have nothing to do for the next 14 days! We need time to get ready and packed, but not that long! Well, to all the guys out there, thanks for reading, and keep your stick on the ice.

Please pray: that we would be productive and useful to the church in our remaining days; praises for Nicolle’s classes and her having finished her finals with flying colors; that I would have an impact on the kids in the church and the colonia that would move them closer to God.
—Shalom.

2008-11-24T22:05:00.000-08:00

more pictures...

Thanksgiving Week Newsletter

2008-11-24T20:56:00.000-08:00

To our dear friends,
Ladies and gentlemen we can hardly contain our excitement! God has answered our prayers and led us to a totally awesome apartment in the Huntington area! Here is the story. For the last month, Nicolle has been stalking the ads in the Huntington newspaper. She would go on everyday and keep track of which apartments had come and gone, and where the good deals were. All this time, some friends and I had been praying that God would provide us with an apartment that we could afford, one that would meet our needs. Well, the pickings were slim, and going quick, we held on to hope that God would provide. As November rolled around, I began to call a few of the landlords to ask some questions. A few of our choices got knocked off right away when we found out more information. However, we were left with about a dozen apartments to look at. This is where our dear friend Lynette Miller came into play. She is a friend and co-worker at Coffee D’Vine with Nicolle. Lynette was nice enough to drive to the apartments that we were interested in and take some pictures. We then used these pics to determine if these apartments would work out. Well, we stayed up to 2:00am last Saturday because she sent us a new batch. When we saw the large kitchen, the large living room, and all the storage nooks and crannies (Not to mention an attic that we can use!!!) we just had to jump on it. We called the next day and made a deal with the landlord, who is willing to hold it for us until we return. PRAISE GOD!!! We are just so excited to get back and move in! We are looking forward to setting up the place and making it a home.
In other news, Nicolle and I got to baby-sit for our friends the Poulettes this past Saturday night. It was a rather relaxing evening for us even though little Ben was very cranky and fussy. I got to play with Nathan and fly him around the house. He is fun because he weighs like 35 lb. wet, so I enjoy flipping him around and picking him up by the ankle and spinning him around my head, and other such shenanigans (just kidding about the spinning part Dennis haha). I gather from his squeals, giggles, laughter and big smile that he enjoys it too! Hahaha!!
This coming Thursday Nicolle and I are really pumped about going over to the Poulette’s for Thanksgiving dinner! I hear that Dennis has already bought the bird, and Janell is planning on making all the trimmings. Nicolle and I will be contributing deviled eggs and sweet potato fluff (thanks to my dearest, sweet, thoughtful, kind, wonderful, warm, gentle, loving, fantastic mother-in-law’s latest care package which included two cans of sweet potatoes!!!). Our social calendar has another date for this coming Sunday. Right after church Nicolle and I are going to a friend’s house where we will be having a MOVIE NIGHT with four or five friends from the church. We are both really excited about it. I am excited and looking forward to this as a good way to relax after preaching…in big church…in Spanish…possibly without help…
We can hardly believe how fast the weeks are slipping by. In a mere three weeks we will be headed for home to see our long lost friends and family. We are both really excited to be back and see everyone. 22 days!
The last newsworthy note has to do with my homework. It is all finished, and I sent it today. Over 70 some pages of papers, case studies, and journals, pictures, teaching sessions, and more. That is such a relief!
Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please pray for: My preparation for preaching next week; for our ministry with our core kids, that their faith is strengthened; for our continued relationships and outreach with the youth of our colonia.
—Shalom.

Fun and Games

2008-11-19T20:04:00.001-08:00

To my dearest friends and family,
Yes, this update is very, very late. Better late then never! There is a simple reason for this: HOMEWORK! This is the last time I will be able to use that excuse however, because I AM FINISHED WITH ALL OF MY ASSIGNMENTS!!!!! Thank you all so much for your prayers concerning this, and my health. It was tough coming into the last weeks with projects due and feeling under the weather. But, by God’s grace I am better, and the projects are done. Yesterday I printed 70 some pages of papers and projects that I have been working on over the course of my time here. All of this, plus pictures, and a DVD of me teaching must be sent no later then Saturday so that all of the materials make it to my teacher in time. It feels really good to put on the finishing touches, burn a few CD’s, and get all the stuff packaged up! Again, thank you for your prayers.
Not that it has been all work and no play. Last Sunday afternoon I was blessed with the opportunity to spend some time with friends and a few students from our youth group and a neighboring church. We gathered at the local seminary to play games. I got some really great shots of my friends playing soccer, and other games; I also got to play basket ball with them, but I don’t think there are any pictures of that. If you get a chance and want to see the new stuff, go to my blog and click on the photo link entitled “Fun and Games”.
Things to look forward to: Thanks giving dinner with our friends the Poulette’s. I am making sweet potato fluff, and I am trying to talk Nicolle into making chocolate cheese cake!!! Next, I am preaching in “big church” the Sunday after next; and for the youth group the following Sunday. Nicolle and I are really excited about the plans that are being hatched for a home-made-pizza-and-movie-night adventure with some friends of ours at the church. That should be going down in 2ish weeks. Lastly, WE ARE COMING HOME IN 27 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yah, just a little excited about that haha!

Please pray for: a change in the attitudes of the kids in our colonia regarding church (its not scary, boring, bad, un cool, etc.); rejoicing with me that my homework is done! Also, please pray for my preaching preparations; for our ministry with our core kids and strengthening their faith; for our continued relationships and opportunity to reach out to the youth in our colonia; and please pray that we would find a cheep apartment in Huntington that will meet our needs, and jobs to pay for it.
—Shalom.

Eggs

2008-11-16T18:08:00.000-08:00

BIG eggs!!! Double yokes, wow!

2008-11-14T14:48:00.001-08:00

Today is my brothers birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey Chris, happy Birthday! What does it feel like to be 27 year old???

wow...

2008-11-12T13:29:00.000-08:00

I would not have believed it if someone told me, but I saw them with you own eyes. These glorified paint sticks have verses written on them such as the proverb "spare the rod, spoil the child" and other such verses. Yes, these "biblical" spanking sticks are sold at my church. I'm taking orders if anyone wants one. hahaha

2008-11-10T20:44:00.000-08:00

To my dearest friends and family,
Your prayers are greatly appreciated in the following areas. I am sick, again. I had a head cold, it almost went away, and then I got an infection in one of my saliva glands in my cheek. This in turn spread to my beloved tonsils, which brought back the head cold, which has recently moved to my chest…On top of that, I am going to be preaching three to four times before I go home and I need the Holy Spirit’s guidance on subjects and words, and help with Spanish. Lastly, for my homework load. I’m almost finished, but there is still much to be done.
Not much news to tell besides home work and preparing to preach. There is not really a lot of extra time for adventures. However, this last week, Nicolle and I had the opportunity to baby sit for my PRIME mentor’s two kids. We told Dennis and his wife that if they ever wanted to go out on a hot date, Nicolle and I would be HAPPY to come over, watch his kids, watch there cable TV, and eat all there food (haha). So, he and his wife went out for an evening with friends, I got to play with Nathan (about three or four years old I think) and his play-do, and Nicolle sat and read with Ben on her lap (a few months). It was a fun night!
If you have a chance to go check out our Blog you can see some of the shenanigans we have been up too in the kitchen!
Nicolle and I are looking forward to coming back to the Motherland in 35 days. We are currently looking for an apartment in the Huntington area, but finding this search to be a bit difficult. It seems that none of the landlords we talk to can hold an apartment for our return without rent, even if we put down the deposit. The problem is, we cannot afford to pay for a place that we are not staying in. This is also something we would like prayer on.
Speaking of renting apartments, our landlady actually showed our apartment tonight to some perspective renters for when we leave. It was kind of funny to have people walking through our house, which was a wreak because she just dropped by and said “I’m bring some people by to look at the place in about an hour and a half.” Ha, ha!

Please pray for: a change in the attitudes of the kids in our colonia regarding church (its not scary, boring, bad, un cool, etc.); my school load, for getting homework done; for our ministry with our core kids and strengthening their faith; for our continued relationships and out reach with the youth or our colonia; for my homework load; and for finding an apartment in the states.
—Shalom.

I LOVE PB+J!

2008-11-09T13:24:00.000-08:00

Recently Nicolle and I received a care package from Michelle, Nicolle's mom. Why? Because we are spoiled rotten! In said care package there 3 jars of peanut butter, ALL FOR NICOLLE! Now, this can make for interesting debates between the two of us because we both LOVE peanut butter! Well, I love my wife, so I did the thing any dutiful husband would do and let her have all the jars uncontested. Then I gave my PRIME mentor 40 pesos to pick me up a jar from Costco the next time he goes. Unlike most places in Mexico, Costco has real peanut butter, and at a reasonable price. Now we're both happy, and loaded with peanut butter!!!

Cooking Madness!

2008-11-09T13:10:00.000-08:00

Some of you might have heard how crazy spaghetti sauce is here. I'm not joking, sauce is upwards of $3.00 a jar! Because we love pasta, but can't stand to pay for it, we decided to can our own! After conferring with my mom for the How-To part, we bought some fresh produce and started cooking! We washed everything is soapy bleach water, chopped all the ingredients, boiled everything, and canned it. The next day we tried some, and it was fantastic! Not only that, the price is around to $1.20 a jar!

Day of the Dead (El Dia de los Muertos)

2008-11-04T19:40:00.000-08:00

To my dearest friends and family,
I hope everyone got out there to vote!!! I received my absentee ballot this last week, and got it sent on Wednesday. I really hope it made it in time.
On to more exciting things! Nicolle and I really enjoy pasta; and I mean, REALLY REALLY! But, there is just one problem, spaghetti sauce is around $2.25 to $3.00 a jar. No Joke! So, in the spirit of American ingenuity, we are going to can our own spaghetti sauce this next week, and we are really excited about it!
In other news, today is not only the presidential election for the United States of America, it also marks the six week date for our return to the good old U.S.A.! We have enjoyed our time here, I have learned so much and know that I am much more prepared for my future ministry in both the U.S. and in a Latin country, but we are both really excited to come home. We cannot wait to see our friends and family, and celebrate Christmas at home. Speaking of celebrations, some have been wondering what we will be doing for thanksgiving. Well, my PRIME mentor and his wife, both of whom are from the U.S., always have a big dinner for thanksgiving, and they have invited us over to join them. I’m pretty pumped about it, especially because the last care package that we got from my mother in law had cans of sweet potato’s for making the best sweet potato fluff casserole that you have ever had! Mmmmmmm….I am drooling just thinking about it!
The locals just finished celebrating The Day of The Dead. This is more then just the Mexican version of Halloween, it is a combination of ancient native Mayan traditions and other traditions from the Catholic church. As I promised, I took a gazillion pictures when I went down town to see the festivities, over 170. So, if you want a taste of Mexican culture, please go to my Blog and take a look at the pictures! What is the day of the dead you ask? The idea is that one day a year spirits are allowed to travel back to earth and visit family. So, people build shrines for loved ones that have died. These shrines are decorated with bright yellow and purple flowers that are supposed to attract the spirits, and packed with food and drink. The aroma of the food is supposed to feed the spirits, and honor them, and the drink is supposed to quench their thirst from their long journey. After the celebration, the family members consume the food to the honor of their lost loved ones. While we were down town checking out the festivities I was interviewed three times by Mexican high school students who had to practice their English with native English speakers. It was really fun, and even Dennis got to do an interview! We also checked out the Mexico City post office. Dennis asked me if I had ever been to the post office, and sense I had not, we stopped by. It is a beautiful building, solid marble and brass on the inside, very old school, like the post office in Washington D.C. While we were there we were treated to a free concert by an authentic Mariachi band from Veracruz. They were so good! You can also see a video of them playing by going to my Blog.
I think some of the most exciting news I have to tell is from this last Sunday. I had the opportunity to teach for the youth group again. Huberto and I thought it would be a good idea to teach on ghosts, death, the after life, and spirits. The kids were so interested, and asked so many questions, that we ran out of time and are going to continue the teaching discussion next week! I am so excited about the kids and all of their interest and questions. We are talking about some pretty heavy stuff, and they are not only keeping up, they are asking for more. Who says teens don’t like theology?
Well, for the first time ever in my life, all of my Christmas shopping is finished before thanksgiving! I have never done that before. I accredit it to my super organized wife and her shopping skills at the local artesian market, and my mother in-law for giving me a really good idea. That’s all for now, thanks for reading.

Pease pray for: a change in the attitudes of the kids in our colonia regarding church (its not scary, boring, bad, uncool, etc.); my school load, for getting homework done; for our ministry with our core kids and strengthening their faith; for our continued relationships and out reach with the youth or our colonia.
—Shalom.

only 8 weeks?!?!? WHAT?

2008-10-20T17:45:00.001-07:00

To my loyal readers,
I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who reads this letter, prays for us, and sends us notes. You folks have made this adventure possible, this pivotal part of my education a reality, and I thank you. Why all the introspection? Well, it has come to my attention that Nicolle and I have but eight weeks left here in Mexico; it seems as a single grain in the sands of time.
I’m sorry to say that this newsletter will be a shorty as I am currently feeling a bit under the weather. Honestly, I am not surprised that I am sick, only that it took so long for me to fall ill. This month has been a toughy! I have been reorganizing the ministry with Huberto, had a visit from one of my professors at Huntington University, and cramming crazy amounts of homework in every spare second. Needless to say, my egg is fried.
Our food supply plan has been working so smoothly as of late. Nicolle and I had lunch at a church family’s house yesterday and we had lamb, and it tasted like roast beef…kind of. It was good! We also received another invitation for lunch after church for next Sunday as well. If we keep this up we may not have to go shopping again!
In other news, I preached to the youth group this last Sunday, and yes, it was in Spanish. Well, needless to say, I learned some things that I already new. One, I need more practice preaching. Two, I need to study more Spanish. And three, Mexican church services go long…really long. I preached for 45 minutes (fully double what I have done in the past in the states) and still finished almost a half hour earlier than the adult service. So, Huberto came up and helped me stretch out the wrap up. He’s a good man.

Well folks, just as I promised, short, sweet, and too the point. One last thing before I go, I need to say this so that it gets done. There WILL be pictures on my blog from my birthday adventures THIS WEEK. I am sorry that it has taken so long to get them up…stuff…youth ministry conference…preaching…homework…sicky-head…there you go.

Much love from me to allllllllll of you!

Please pray for: a change in the attitudes of the kids in our colonia regarding church (its not scary, boring, bad, uncool, etc.); my school load, for getting homework done; for our ministry with our core kids and strengthening their faith; for our continued relationships and outreach with the youth or our colonia, and for the men's retreat that we are planning.
—Shalom.

Birthday times two!

2008-10-13T20:38:00.000-07:00

Friends and Family,
This week was a bumper crop of birthdays in the church! Seriously, there was like six of them, including mine, Patty (the music director) and the pastor. So, after church on Sunday there was a big potluck dinner for all in celebration of Pastor Sergio’s B-day. What can I say about that? The food was good, the people were fun, and Nicolle and I discovered how we are going to get back under budget with our food bill. Seriously, we were invited to have lunch after church with three or four different families inside of fifteen minutes. Seriously, if we keep this up, we may never need to cook again!
Some of you may be wondering what I did for my birthday. Well, Nicolle surprised me with a picnic in the park, exploring, and led me home to a surprise birthday party. There you have it! See the blog for more details.
In other news, I just found out that Pastor Sergio is actually the pastor of two churches! It is not really a secret, he has the permission of the elders, but conducts himself in such a way that people would not know that he is dividing his time between two churches. What can I say, he is very devoted to both and manages time well. Well, to make a long story boring, I was invited by Pastor Sergio to visit this other mission that he was involved in. When we got to this church I realized that he was going to preach, guest preach I thought. But half way through his sermon a friend of mine told me that he does this every week (that is to say, preach at the church I am involved in, eat lunch, drive an hour, and preach in the evening at this other church)! Apparently this Church started as a small group that the pastor was involved in. Well, it grew…a lot! They are searching for a full time pastor at this time and I hope for Sergio’s sake that they find one soon, because I think he is feeling the strain. So, I got to enjoy two potluck dinners and cake at two churches!
One last thing; when I first arrived I noticed that the bass guitar they had was pretty nice and I let the pastor know my thoughts on the matter. He asked me if I wanted to play it and I said yes, thinking that after the service I would get a chance to play it by myself. Well, that was not what Pastor Sergio was thinking because as he was wrapping up his sermon he asked the music director if they were going to play one last song. When he answered in the affirmative, Pastor Sergio asked if I could play with them! At this point the whole Church started clapping and getting all excited about the visiting white guy playing bass, so, I didn’t really think that I could turn them down. Well, let me put it this way, they are all really good musicians and play without music, which was not exactly good for me because I didn’t know the song! Also, I was standing right next to the drums and couldn’t hear a thing, so, needless to say, it was not the cleanest I have ever played, but it was a lot of fun to help lead worship in an impromptu manner. Praise God!
Oh, yeah, I forgot to say that one of the people that lives in the same apartment complex as me gave me a birthday present from him and his wife. My very own MAN-bag! I have never had one before, never thought I was quite trendy enough (Nicolle still doesn’t think I am). Well, I like it, and apparently his wife made it! Super cool!

Please pray for: My school load, for getting home work done; for our ministry with our core kids and our plans to change the direction of our ministry, for our continued relationships and out reach with the youth or our colonia, and for the men’s retreat that we are planning.
—Shalom.

My birthday awesomeness!

2008-10-10T21:10:00.001-07:00

I’m telling you, one of the best parts of being married is having birthdays! Why? Because I have the best wife ever who spoils me rotten! Ok, here it is; the birthday run down.

We woke up at the usual time. My darling wife got up two hours early to finish preparing some things and make me homemade pancakes! So, after getting woke up by a hug and a kiss and a gourmet breakfast, and a huge happy birthday sign, we headed of for Nicolle’s classes. While there, I studied in the library and reflected on how many birthdays I have had in the past where I have had exams and such to take. In the last eight years there have only been three years (this year included) that I have not had to fill in the bubble or write something. Homework, I can deal with, but... well, I digress…

After Nicolle’s class got out, we headed for the first part of our adventure! I didn’t know she had been planning some things for a month, and first on the list was a picnic in Mexico City's equivalent of central park. She had everything needed packed in her backpack for our lunch of chicken salad sandwiches, salads, juice, and triple chocolate cheese cake (yah, best wife ever, she made it!). After that, we walked around and explored the grounds which were quite interesting, considering Chapultepec Park has a castle in the middle of it! The park was quite pretty with many large rocks, grassy areas, reflecting ponds with fountains, and tons of monuments. These all provided a myriad of places for photo shots, which is one of our favorite pastimes on hot dates, especially because Nicolle got a new sun dress to surprise me!

After the park and the picnic and the exploring we jumped on the subway for the trek home. I thought we would spend the remainder of the evening relaxing and maybe watching a movie or something, but there were other plans… So, shortly after we arrived home Nicolle sent me up stairs to our land lady's house for an “errand.” I didn’t think anyone was home because the lights were all off, and there were blankets hanging in the window…but, being the dutiful husband that I am, I knocked anyway. I was answered by my land lady shouting SURPRISE!!!! That’s right, there was a surprise birthday party with Huberto, friends from our church, and some kids from the youth group! It was sooooo much fun. There was pizza, pop, and cake, and lots of pictures!

God has truly blessed me with good friends and a wonderful wife! And yes, I am a quarter of a century old. Haha! =)

Computer surgery

2008-10-07T13:24:00.000-07:00

Computer surgeon? Why not?!

So Nicolle and I were chilling the other night, goofing off and what not. One thing led to another (no, this is not going where you think it is, this web sit is PG), and she started tickling, and I retaliated by pinching her…lets just say in a place that caused an involuntary kick…that knocked her lap top off of the bed!

Ok, ok, I know what your thinking; but honestly, it would have been a good thing. Our laptops are insured, so if such a catastrophic situation as this would have happened, the computer would have been replaced by a bran-spank’in-new one! The only thing that keeps me from drop-kicking her busted pile of …lap top is that, well, I just can’t bring myself to commit insurance fraud. That, and it still serves us well, all be it, slower than molasses in January. Like I said, would have been a good thing. The computer is pretty much fine because our NON REPLACEABLE $40.00 Magic Jack USB phone port took the full brunt of the fall. It wasn’t pretty.

So there we were, wondering if we could afford a new one, and find a way to get it to Mexico! Well, to make a long story boring, we figured, it’s already broken, I can’t make it any worse no matter what I do! So, I borrowed a soldering iron from a friend, grabbed my old USB flash drive (which has served me well for six years mind you…and Nicolle wondered why I wanted to play taps), took them both apart, and made like Dr. Frankenstein! The best part of this story is, when we finished, we plugged it in and heard a dial tone. IT’S ALLLIIIVE!!!!!!!!

My professor's visit

2008-10-06T16:50:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,
It’s October!!!!!!! Seriously, October already; man time flies. Not to honk my own horn, but my birthday is in TWO days! Yah, I am a little excited about it because Nicolle has plans, secrety plans, and I love surprises! Funny thing, my PRIME supervisor Dennis Poulette has the same birthday as I do, so we are going to get together this Thursday for a little fiesta. Yea!!!!
In other news, one of my ministry professors from Huntington University just came down to visit me! This was sort of a check up to see how my internship is going, its all part of the PRIME package (really, I’m not in trouble or anything…to their knowledge!). While Dr. Jones was here she interviewed Huberto and Dennis to get their take on my progress while here as a minister and intern. She also looked at the lesson plans I developed and gave me some helpful advice. I am really glad that Dr. Jones was able to come, and had a wonderful time with her while she was here. Though I wish a few things would have gone smoother. While she was here she was supposed to observe me teaching, which I thought would be a snap because I teach youth group on Saturdays. However, when 4:00pm rolled around there were no kids…there were also no kids at 5:00…or at 6:00pm for English classes. It was a little frustrating that no one showed up the whole night, not even the volunteers! Fortunately, Dr. Jones has had prior experience with Latin American culture and knows how things like this happen and cannot really be anticipated. Also, Dr. Jones and I went out for a light dinner to talk my time here and we ended up getting caught in a torrential down pore! We were both soaked to the bone and joked about what stories she would tell when she returned. I am glad that she has a good sense of humor! The last day she was here she got to experience the Sunday morning worship service. She learned of how our Church has taken care of us in the last few months and told us that from what she saw, we are VERY blessed to be at this Church. This we knew, we love our Church family here! The last thing we did was go out to dinner on Sunday afternoon to Toks. It is a very nice restaurant similar in class to Cheddars. Not only did Dr. Jones spring for our food (for me, tasty green enchiladas!!!), but also desert! Good times ;)
Our last story this evening comes straight from the Campus of FEC Acetlan, where my lovely, beautiful, gracious, always smiling wife attends classes. As some of you may know, I play piano. I really like to play piano…a lot! However, I have not had the opportunity to play a piano in quite some months. Granted, the church has a keyboard that I occasionally play for worship, but, as all of you piano snobs out there like me know, it’s just not the same. Now, sense I started taking Nicolle to her Spanish classes at FEC Acetlan I have occasionally heard piano music playing, a few stray notes carried to my ears on the wine; but could never tell which building it was coming from. I hoped to fine out so that I could practice a few scales and some things from memory to build up my muscle tone, coordination, and speed before returning to Huntington. How knows, maybe even start a new piece! Well, after two weeks of searching I found the place! I was able to talk to the instructor and the head of the department, but unfortunately, they could not lend the use of their one and only piano to a non-student. Turns out they have 28 students for one piano, and this teacher instructs Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 11:00am to 8:00pm! Sad news, but life goes on.

Pease pray for: My school load, for getting home work done; with only 2 months left, I need help with focusing on the time I have left, and doing my besting this ministry for Gods glory; for Nicolle and her classes, and for our ministry hear with the kids.
—Shalom.

Blue skies and sun shine!

2008-10-02T08:43:00.000-07:00

Today I was on my way to work when I looked up in the ski and saw the first cloud I have seen in almost a week! Seriously, for the last five days or so, everyday has began in the high fifties or lower sixties, blue skies, sunshine, and a light breeze. I haven't breathed such fresh air sense Nicolle and I were in Cuernavaca! it really has been a nice change of pace from the rainy season where, no joke, there was a steady layer of thick gray clouds all day, every day, for a month and a half; and yah, it rained a lot too. But it would seam that kind of weather is behind us for now. I'm not sure what fall and the early months of winter are going to be like here in Mexico City, but so far, I like the way it's shaping up!

School!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-09-28T21:35:00.000-07:00

Friends and Family,
This just in on tonight’s breaking news, my darling wife has just started classes this last week! My informants tell me that there will be exciting pictures on Photo bucket in the coming weeks (visit my blog for the pics http://jonnicolleinmexico.blogspot.com/). This last Monday Nicolle and I went to this school that Huberto and our pastor told us about. She took the written placement exam, and got signed up for classes. On Wednesday she returned for a half day of classes. She participated in a kind of oral exam/get to know you activity and found that she is about in the middle of the class as far as overall ability. This last Friday was her first whole day. She says she doesn’t have any thoughts about it yet, its school. But we think that these classes are going to be really good thing; actually, a Godsend! This school is less then 15 minutes away by buss, has exactly the kinds of language classes Nicolle wanted to further her Spanish, and costing a fraction of the other schools we looked at. And, another bones, I have been accompanying Nicolle to classes (a good thing to do in the big city) and studying in the library which will really help on the home work front. We really only have two months and 15 days left here, and I really don’t’ want to be cramming projects in the last three weeks that I am hear. That being said, my goal is to finish all assignments by the end of the first week of November. Definitely doable.
In other news, I just attended a Youth Ministry conference with my PRIME mentor Dennis Poulette (recently returned from the States), Huberto, and a few of his youth ministry students. It was big fun! I got to hear Josh McDowell speak and was quite impressed with the amount of Spanish he could speak. After he finished his break out session, I got to meet him and speak with him for a little while. He is quite personable, smart, and has a good sense of humor! I really appreciated what he is doing by helping ministers here in Mexico, because big things are happening hear, youth ministry is on the ground floor and needs all of the trained help it can get.
As cheese as this might sound, one of the highlights of the trip was the ride to and from the conference! I had a lot of fun with the other college students riding on the subway and such. They are fun! (again, see the blog for more pics!)

ease pray for: My school load, for getting home work done; for Nicolle and her classes, and for our ministry hear with the kids.
—Shalom.

preaching and playing

2008-09-21T20:50:00.000-07:00

Friends,
Ok, believe it or not, I actually did many, many things this week. However, I do not have pictures. So, I’ll tell you what; next week I will have the camera surgically implanted in my forehead so that I will get shots of everything that I do.
So what did I do you ask? Well, lets just say, if I told you, I’d have to kill you! Not really. But this last Wednesday was really fun because Huberto and I went to a movie with some of the kids from our church and the local community. We saw the new Vin Diesel movie…it was ok, but I wouldn’t go again. Heck, I wouldn’t rent it! It had a good start, a good middle, plenty of action, and the DUMBEST ending of a movie I have seen sense Dule (you remember, the 70’s movie, crazy truck driver…yah, that was a waist of time). Ok, so the out of church movie night was a hit, and we plan on doing it once a month.
In other news, I GOT TO TEACH for the Saturday afternoon youth meeting for the FIRST TIME!! It was a good experience, and I learned much. I think the kids did too, and really, were interested. Actually, just today one of the students asked me to e-mail her all the verses that I had looked up. I am glad that her interested has gone beyond youth group and church and has moved into her personal study. While the kids that I really wanted to talk to (from the local community) did not show up, I think that once the word gets out that the church is not boring, and that we do have something to offer them and their lives—to improve their lives, they will come. But this takes time, and relationships of influence. And that is what you can pray for.
Something else has been going on the last few days, something that I do not quite understand. Drunk people love me, they really do. I have had more conversations with drunk people sense I got here than I ever have in my life! Now, if you think I have trouble with Spanish when the people are sober, let me tell you, I get next to nothing when the person is drunk. And it not for lack of trying. Anyway, there is a guy that lives across the street from the church who has been coming by the church for the last week. He often starts conversations with me, but I, unfortunately, have to ask other people to talk to him because I have NO IDEA what he is saying. Well, today was his second time coming to church, and I really think that God is moving in his life. After church got out, a couple of people and kids from youth group went over to his house and cleaned it up, did his laundry, and got him a little food. This guy has seriously hit rock bottom. While I was there I noticed some of the art trinkets that we helped the kids make in V.B.S. a month ago. Those little cards and toys had bible verses on them, and other like “God is with us,” “God is in control,” and “God loves you.” I seriously think that this guys kids came to V.B.S., gave their dad some of their things, and he saw them and got curious and came seeking. I pray that he finds God and gets cleaned up.
Oh, one last thing! Last Sunday I got to play bass in church! It was great, really. I haven’t gotten to play bass in church in over three months, so as you can imagine, I have really missed it. I think that I will get the chance to play bass in the future, and for that, I am thankful. May God richly bless all of you my friends.

Please pray for: help with my Spanish as I teach on Saturdays, me and Huberto’s ministry here in the neighborhood, for Juan (the guys that lives across the street from the church) to clean up and choose God, and for Nicolle as she starts classes next week.

Independence Day!

2008-09-16T16:10:00.000-07:00

To my beloved fans,
Last night all of Mexico joined in celebration of their independence. It was really fun (see photo bucket for more pictures and videos, http://jonnicolleinmexico.blogspot.com/)! There are many similarities between America’s 4th of July, and Mexico’s 15th of September, like fireworks, the big ones you go see, and the small ones that the kids set off 20 feet from our apartment window…yah, I almost pooped my pants. Seriously, this one that went off, I thought I was going to go out side and find body parts, or a car flipped upside down…broken glass to say the least. But, all was well…until I chase those punks down!!! Ok, not really.
To celebrate Huberto and I decided to take a group down town to see the show, play the games, and what not. We had a great time down there, I even won a Elmo doll by popping three balloons with three darts! I also tried some interesting food that I had never had before, a Mexican Elephant ear for one, apparently their not just popular in the U.S. We walked around and saw all of the carny rides, listened to the ride drivers trying to get us to climb aboard, and the kids screaming in with excitement. They even had bumper cars, which, to be honest, I really wanted to ride! There was also a stage where they had singers performing classic folk songs that everyone knew and sang along to. That was fun because the singers were dressed in full out classic Mexican garb. Sorry, none of the pictures turned out, I was too far away, and it was too dark. After those guys sang, a huge mariachi band came up and played! There were six or eight violins, just as many guitars, four horns, and a bass. I think that was my favorite part of the show. So, at eleven pm the culmination of the party started when the governor of the state came up and presented a little speech where he shouted, “long live Hidalgo!” and other such hero’s of the revolution. Then there were three chants of “long live Mexico!” that everyone in the audience helped with, directly after which they rung the special bell, and the fire works started! It was a good show, but there were times when I was worried. A few of the fire works went off before they reached altitude; I think one of them actually went off on the ground! But, it was really cool!!!

Please pray for: me as I plan and teach on Saturdays, Huberto’s and my ministry with the kids, that God would open their hearts for His gospel, for more Spanish (to understand, and be understood), and for Nicolle as she starts classes at the end of this month. THANK YOU!

a new skill...IT IS TO MANLY!

2008-09-12T21:04:00.000-07:00

So, I have no reasoning as to why I learned to crochet. Nicolle and I were just chilling one night, watching a movie. She said to me, "wouldn't it be cool to tell people that you did that stitch. Well, she helped me do one stitch, then another, and then I practically did a whole square. Its actually kind of fun, and its great to do while watching T.V., it keeps the brain moving. You know, your body burns more calories sleeping, than it does while watching T.V. So there you go, get your self a hook and yarn!!!!!!!!

Holy beginings

2008-09-08T21:19:00.000-07:00

Dear friends, family, and anyone else that may be reading this,

This week has been a little on the slow side. Still trying to get back in the loop after our vacation. My biggest story to tell, unfortunately, has no pictures to accompany it. Please be advised that what I am about to tell you is a true story. Under no circumstances should you try to repeat, or reenact what I am about to share with you, the viewer audience!
What bums me the most about this story is that I literally missed everything by 25 minutes. Anyway, I had just finished another day of office work with Huberto and he and I left for home at about 6:00pm. About 20 minutes later, while the pastor and a few others were setting up the church in preparation for the married couples counseling group, this lady stopped by to say hello to someone she knew. As it turned out, she was pregnant…very pregnant! I am not sure how the order of events took place after that, but the short and long of it is she ended up giving birth to her baby in one of the Sunday school rooms!!! From what I heard there were some minor complications a day or two later, but that the baby and its Mom were in the Hospital and doing well. Too cool!
In other news, Nicolle has taught me another useful skill that will provide hours of avoiding home work in the future. That’s right, I have learned how to do a little crocheting! We are working on a blanket right now, her first large piece of work. So large that she recruited me to help! I’m not complaining, I actually like it because it doesn’t take a lot of brain power, but keeps you from feeling like a zombie when watching T.V. Good stuff!

Please pray for: me as I plan and teach on Saturdays, Huberto’s and my ministry with the kids, that God would open their hearts for His gospel, For more Spanish (to understand, and be understood), and for Nicolle as she starts classes at the end of this month. THANK YOU!

Cooking madness!

2008-09-07T20:15:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,

If you want good Tacos, you have to go to Mexico. Now that I am painfully aware of that fact I have been practicing my taco skills so that when I return i can make them my self! The four tacos of wonderfullness you are looking at are made of left over BBQ chicken, scrambled eggs (yes, they do that in Mexico, and mashed potatoes too), oaxaca cheese, lettuce, and hot sauce on flour shells! so gooooood!!!

And yes, the latest and greatest experiment from me and Nicolle's kitchen it Shish Kabobs! Chicken, pineapple, apple, cucumber, red and green pepper, Lime slices, onion, and a wonderful olive oil based marinade. yah, I was drooling the entire time they were cooking! so, so good; the pictures do not do them justice.

I LOVE GRILLING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.S. yes, the skewers are made of coat hangers.

Birthday surprises!

2008-09-04T08:07:00.000-07:00

So, last Monday was my Land Lady's birthday (Elide, center)! Her children (2nd photo, purple, black, and white shirts) through her a surprise birthday party and it was super fun...I would know, because I WAS INVITED!!! It was lots of fun, and the cake was very good! =)

The in-laws are here!!!!

2008-09-01T16:34:00.000-07:00

Ok, I do have some excuses to offer for missing two weeks in a row. First of all, I was trying to read a book and write a paper before my in-laws came down and this endeavor took up every spare minute. And second, as the pictures and my first sentence indicate, MY IN-LAWS CAME DOWN TO VISIT!!!! Let me be the first to say we had an absolutely fantastic time! Now, for the recap…where should I start…I think the day before Bryan and Michelle came is a good place. The original plan was to have Bryan and Michelle stay at Huberto’s Alma Marta, The Baptist Theological Seminary. Nicolle, Huberto, and I went to the school the day before to make sure that our arrangements were still in place. When we got there to check out the married housing and the “big beds” we asked for (I just couldn’t put my in-laws up on student bunks that are the size of a cot) we were shown a twin mattress, no joke! Now, Nicolle and I aren’t the biggest people in the world, but even we would have trouble being comfortable on a mattress that size! Well, to make a long story boring, we went to Wal Mart and bought an air mattress. That’s right, me and the wife on the floor, and the in-laws on our bed. If you haven’t seen our apartment it is small…let me put it this way, I’m pretty sure my brother’s living room has more square footage than our entire apartment; I mean, they put the toilet in the shower to save room! Well, we were tight, but it was more convenient and we ended up being glad that it worked out that way because we had a lot of fun cooking together, hanging out, and watching movies on the lap top.

Bryan and Michelle were able to stay with us for eight days, and I’m thinking that after the week we had all of us are going to need a vacation to recover from our vacation! We tried not to jam too much stuff in, and we planned some days for relaxing, but it is sometimes hard to relax in Mexico City because to go anywhere you have to fight traffic that IS SO BAD that it takes forever to get anywhere. Case in point, after driving from Ohio to Detroit, flying to Dallas, a three hour layover, and then flying to Mexico City, we picked Bryan and Michelle up and drove them through an hour and a half of the worst rush our traffic that, according to Bryan (a good source as he is a trucker), is only rivaled by New York. Bryan said he will never complain about Chicago traffic ever again… “it could be worse” he said. Not exactly a red carpet welcome, but we were all happy to see each other.

Well, as you can see by the pictures, we took them to see some ruins in Teotihuacan, one of the most interesting and largest ancient ruins in Mexico. The main attractions are the two large pyramids of the sun and the moon, the former being the third largest in the world; AND I HAVE PICTURES OF US ON THE TOP!

After walking all over down town to see some statues and do some shopping, we decided to skip town, leave the smog behind, forget about the traffic and go to FABULOUS ACAPULCO!!!! Well, we got there after battling our way through an hour and forty minutes of rush hour traffic (the store of my life in Mexico…), but this gave way to six more hours of some of the most beautiful country side we had ever seen. We had a grand time chill’in on the beach, catching some rays, playing in the surf, and building sand castles. It rained a little here and there, but that is why we were able to go; the rainy season is also called the CHEEP season. Thanks for the weekend away Bryan and Michelle!

Please pray for: Our ministry with the kids, that we would make the most of every opportunity to love in the name of Jesus, improved Spanish skills, building relationships with the kids, wisdom for the foundation of youth ministry we are setting at Renovation church, and traveling safety, and that God would soften the hearts of these kids. THANK YOU!

a new toy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-08-18T18:26:00.000-07:00

so, if any of you know me and have asked me what one of my FAVORITE hobbies is you would know that I am a grilling fiend! I love to grill, anything! Stake, Corn, Chicken, Potatoes, Burgers, you name it and I'll grill it! Everything tastes better grilled...well, except maybe jello... Anyway, I have been going through withdraw lately because IT HAS LITERALLY BEEN THREE MONTHS SINCE I HAVE GOTTEN TO PUT MEAT ON THE OPEN FLAMES!!!!!!! That was until I was at the market the other day and found this little beauty (see pictures), it was a bargain; really, the cheapest grill I have ever seen. I am truly pleased with it after our trial run with some burgers. I can't wait to try some other things, and invite some of the neighborhood kids over to make some s'mores. YAY!!!!!! I LOVE GRILL'IN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

interesting cars

2008-08-12T20:07:00.000-07:00

A car I have never seen before. yes, thats right, a go-cart with leather and air!

next update

2008-08-12T20:02:00.000-07:00

Friends,

TONIGHTS BIG STORY!!!! This just in, Jon and Nicolle Reid have been married for ONE YEAR!!! Ok, just so you know, this last Sunday makes the third time I have successfully surprised Nicolle sense I have known here; truly a landmark experience. Yes, as I was saying, Nicolle is very difficult to surprise, but I managed to pull it off with the help of some friends both old and new. Here is what went down. Last Sunday Nicolle and I went over to a friends house for lunch after church. She thought we were invited, actually it was all a red haring! I actually arranged the whole thing to get her out of the house. As soon as the appropriate time came, I told her why my socks didn’t match (which she vehemently complained about), I wanted them to match my dress slacks and dress shoos, which would match my jacket, and would go great with her NEW DRES! Yah, she was surprised, and then I wiped out the tickets for the show, and she was even more surprised. It was great! Just like Carry Grant, I invited my woman out for a night on the town, and had a dress waiting for her. It was like a fairy tail adventure! We finished off the evening at a swanky restaurant listening to staple lounge music from the 40’s and eating positively fabulous food. Oh, did I mention, when we got there we had a table waiting for us, with candles, flowers, and a card. Oh yah, I pulled out all the stops, no holds back, all in baby! What can I say, I love her! =)

In other news, please stop sending the hate mail, this letter is only one day late. I know, I messed a week a little bit ago…but that is water under the bridge. I have a good excuse, and a lesson learned: don’t let a Jr. High student whom is un wise about what links to click on use your computer unsupervised. That is what I did, and know I have untold computer problems, bugs, tracking cookies…you just wouldn’t believe it. Don’t fear for the life of your computer, it is under control, but Nicolle spend the better part of a day trying to get my lap top back on its feet.

Please pray for: the continued health of my computer, that Nicolle’s second school choice would work out, for the kids of this community, that God would continue to work in their lives and help Huberto and I to minister to their needs.

—Shalom.

August 4th news letter

2008-08-04T21:45:00.000-07:00

My dear friends,

This week was brutal, but a wonderful experience. It was brutal because most of my days started at 8:00 in the morning with V.B.S. which went to 2:ish, and then we had a soccer tournament for the teenagers in the neighborhood that usually went until 9:30 at night. On top of this I had one of my most difficult projects due for my P.R.I.M.E. internship. But it’s all over now, the project is turned in (14 pages), and V.B.S. is over, and the soccer tournament is over. We really had a lot of fun with the soccer gig, we had eight teams, with five people on each team. Some days, not everyone showed up, but this was not a problem because the kids LOVE playing soccer, and are all too willing to fill in for the opportunity to play more than once.

V.B.S. was a gas! Every day I hung out with a group of 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th graders. We watched a little video, learned bible verses, made arts and crafts, sang songs, and played games. There was a different theme for each day of the week: God is real, God is with us, God is awesome, God is strong, God is in control! All of these themes were intended to teach kids that God cares about them so much that He sent His son to die for them on the cross. I’m really going to miss those kiddy-widdies, they were so much fun! I am also going to miss the group of teens and adults that came from North Carolina to help with V.B.S. There were 14 in all, and the leader of the group is actually a Man named Alex. He was born and raised in Mexico, but now he currently lives in N.C. and is the head pastor for the Hispanic ministry of Apex Baptist Church. Apparently they have been coming down for the last six years and helping with V.B.S.

In other news, things have turned for the worse with Nicolle’s classes at Iberoamericana. Do to lack of communication, getting the run around, billing mistakes, schools canceling their programs, being billed by three different schools and not being eligible for financial aid, Nicolle has decided to drop her classes, and possibly her Spanish minor as well. Instead we are looking for a language school where she can take classes to improve her skills with the language. God willing, we can find a school where the courses will transfer to Huntington and count toward her Spanish minor. But if not, in the end she will speak better Spanish and that is the point, isn’t it?!?!?

Lastly, I am honored to mention that in six days Nicolle and I will be CELEBRATING OUR ONE YEAR ANIVERSERY! Don’t worry, there will be pictures!

Please pray for: Figuring out Nicolle’s Spanish minor and find a language school; for Huberto and I with the future plans and recovery from this last week, and that Nicolle and I would have a great one year anniversary.

—Shalom.

P.S. if you haven’t yet, check out the blog, it’s cool: http://jonnicolleinmexico.blogspot.com/

P.P.S check out photobucket (link on blog) to see pictures of this past week

another shelf!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-08-04T20:31:00.000-07:00

Well, the wife went shopping the other day...again. Is that all women do? JUST KIDDING! Well, to make a long story boring, we still don't have enough storage space, so, I used that as another opportune excuse to GET THE TOOLS OUT AND START BANGING ON STUFF! Well, here are the results: A four level shelf, with two different heights for the difficult to fit cook books, and three different sized shelving widths for everything from a five pound flour bag to a coco tin. Structurally reinforced with cross bracing and built on two full length rails, this bad lad could hold everything and the kitchen sink! (thats saying something, because our sink is solid concrete)

chow!

everything in the world due at the same time

2008-07-30T21:35:00.000-07:00

Did I mention that with V.B.S. going on in the morning from 8 until 2 and the soccer turnament going on from 3 until 9 I am going a little crazy. Oh, yah...I almost forgot, one of my biggest projects that I have due for this internship is due on the first so I have been writing every spare second I have. no more for now, I will write more later and put up a cool new picture! ok, to all of my faith full viewers (two, three, how many of you are there?) I say good night, sleep tight, and don't let the scorpions bite. What's that? you don't have those up there? oh, how about little lizards? my goodness, in the states I had to get rid of ants and flies, here we have both of those and giant insects and whats left of the dinosaurs. hay que pasado...

much love

Vacation Bible School and the Dark Knight!

2008-07-29T07:05:00.001-07:00

Friends and Family,

Exciting happenings are…well…happening here in our little coroner of Mexico! This last Saturday Huberto and I went to the airport to pick up the work group from Apex Ministry in North Carolina. Eleven people in all, the pastor, his wife, a mother of one of the kids, which brings me to my favorite part, 9 high school teens! They are so much fun! Some of them speak a little Spanish, some of them speak more Spanish then me! All in all, we are off to a good start and excited about the week.

Today was the first day of Vacation Bible School and it was a HOOT! We had about thirty or forty little kiddies running around, singing songs, learning stories, and memorizing Bible verses. Today’s verse was Jeremiah 10:10: pero El Señor es el Dios verdadero (for the LORD is the true God). Today’s lessons were focusing on the truth that God is real, good, and interested in them. I had a good time helping out with the kids and going from activity to activity with them. I connected with two boys that I think were probably in the forth or fifth grade, David and Ricardo. Great kids! I also took a gazillian pictures and a few videos that would be on photo bucket (see my blog for the link) but I left the camera in a friends car…oy.

In the afternoons of this week Huberto and I have organized a soccer tournament. Today was the first day and largely, a success. We formed teams and played team building games in which they got to know each other and make new friends. Points were given to the teams that accomplished the games the quickest or with good team spirit. I am really excited about the next few days, excited to make new friends, build relationships, and see God work in the lives of these kids.

In other news, Nicolle’s classes start next week. I think that she is excited to finally have something to do, although if you knew the hassle she has had to get these classes started…it is enough to make some people want to run away to Alaska! However, we have recently found a few nice places for a hot date: a coffee shop, a few unexplored markets, and two very nice malls, at one of which we just saw the new Bat man movie. Incidentally, it was a FANTASTIC movie, Heath Ledger did a breath taken job playing the Joker, absolutely insane.

Please pray for: for all the details of Nicolle’s classes to get worked out, for strong relationships with the kids on the block, for the right opportunity and right words to lead them to Christ, for our friends from Apex. Praise God!

—Shalom.

Night at the movies

2008-07-24T09:05:00.000-07:00

So we went to a mall about 20 minutes away to see a movie. three kids from the youth group came with us and a family from the church. It was so much fun! the mall was really cool, had a lot of stores in it and a HUGE food cort (Nicolle and I want to go back for a date some time). What movie you say? well, we were going to see Bat Man but it was all sold out so we saw Hancock! the new Will Smith movie. Every one really liked it, I thought it was great and would recommend it. It is a well done movie, with funny parts, sad parts, and a good plot. has anyone else seen it? what do you think?

Internet

2008-07-22T20:35:00.000-07:00

I know, I know...I already mentioned that we have internet in our apartment, but c'mon, this is great! I can surf the web in my boxers!!!!!!!! From the comfort of my living room/bedroom/dining room I am writing this to you and I sincerely hope you have a wonderful day!

Jon

opps, I missed a week!

2008-07-22T10:22:00.000-07:00

My dear friends,

I confess, I completely forgot about the news letter last week! As such, there is much to tell so I will try to be brief with the stories in order that they all fit.

First of all, I’ve been making some improvements to the apartment in the last few days. I have been putting to use the skills I learned for my first degree (in tool and die manufacturing) and what my Dad taught me with wood working by building some shelves for the kitchen. I have assembled one shelf so far and have wood for one more. Nicolle is really happy about it because up until this point half of our food storage was a suit case! Also note worthy of calibration, we have internet in our apartment now!!!!!!!!! This will make my school work much easier as I will not have to leave the house and go to the church to use the internet after hours. Yeah!!!!!

In other news, he Wednesday night at the movies saw significant growth last Wednesday, we started out with about 17 or 18 kids. Some had to leave early because they lived far away, others left early because of technical difficulties with the movie, but all in all, it was another fun night. I was most excited to see repeat visitors, and new kids that I did not invite; their friends brought them! Gloria a Dios!

The last big topic I will mention is V.B.S. This is our final week for preparing for Vacation Bible School and we have so much to do! We are planning for both the little kids in the morning, and then in the afternoon, Huberto and I have been putting together a soccer tournament for the kids 11-20ish years old in the neighborhood; the idea being to build relationships with the teens so that we can minister to them in the future. Next Saturday there is a group of teens and adults from Apex Church from Raleigh North Carolina to help us with V.B.S. and the afternoon games. The will be here for the entire week of V.B.S. helping us with the preparations, with the games, and everything else. I am glad that they are coming because there is so much to do, so much. It is going to be a very busy week with long hours for all of us. Please pray for endurance and strength.

Please pray for: Help to get all of the supplies and paper work gathered and finished. Strengthening our relationships with the kids on our block; that they would all come to the soccer tournament during V.B.S., hear the word of God, and be transformed by God’s love and truth; continuing Spanish improvement, and that all of the details for Nicolle’s semester at Iberoamericana would get worked out (don’t ask, it is a long and depressing story; but we need help).

—Shalom.

Movie night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

2008-07-11T12:52:00.001-07:00

Ok, so the church bought a new projector for the worship services and I helped put it up. It is pretty cool, and much brighter than the old projector. This has two, count em two benefits: one, the youth group gets the old projector in the youth room. Cool!!! And two, the new projector is bright enough to show movies!!!! Ok, ok, so there are probably more benefits than two, but those are the ones that directly affect me and my ministry with the kids! Selfish? Possibly. I am straining for a higher level of sanctification every day but I still get excited about such things as MOVIE NIGHTS WITH THE KIDS!!!

On Wednesday last, we invited a bunch of kids from the youth group and from around the block and told them to bring a pillow and a pop and we would bring the movie and popcorn. It worked beautifully!!!! Gloria a Dios! There were 14 kids there from age 17 all the way down to 4 (I’m not sure how the three little tikes made it, I think they were cousins of someone). Here is the best part, I believe for at least 7 or 8 of them it was their first time in the church! It was a great step in gaining relationships in the neighborhood, and I am really looking forward to the next movie night. Thank you for your prayers everyone, I covet them.

P.S. sorry, no pictures. I need to have my camera permanently attached to my face so I can capture all of these exciting moments for all yalls (I think that is vosotros in Spanish).

Cooking at 8,000 feet

2008-07-10T11:41:00.000-07:00

friends,

So, if you didn’t know, one encounters many cooking obstacles when cooking and baking at high altitudes. Also, if you didn’t know, Mexico city is at 8,000ish feet. Add to this a crazy gas stove and you never know weather your food is going to be under cooked or resembling a charcoal briquette. Under normal circumstances (like gages that tell the actual temperature), I enjoy using gas for cooking, but we don’t have that either. I just kind of open the oven door and judge the temp by the heat wave that hits me in the face. Yes, I realize you can buy temperature gages…IN THE STATES! I looked; they didn’t even have one at Wal-Mart! We went to this really fancy, upscale kitchen store in this really fancy mall and found a temperature gage, a laser temperature gage that cost $80.00!. putting things bluntly, cooking in Mexico City is a royal pain in the neck. So far, we have not completely ruined anything, though some baked dishes were unfit for consumption around the outside of the pan…and the bottom… The close calls of date are: broccoli cheese casserole, bread sticks, boiled eggs, pizza, and cookies. Did I mention that rising time is different? Did I mention that all the ingredients are in Spanish, yah, finding baking soda was a gas. Ok, this rant is now officially over. Thank you for listening. I’m glad I have you to talk to, a shoulder to cry on.

I have the best job in the world!

2008-07-07T20:00:00.000-07:00

Loved ones,

Mexican sayings for shopping. What men say: Yo lo quiero bueno, bonito, y barato! (I want it good, pretty, and cheep!). What women say: Yo lo quiero bueno, bonito, y El paga! (I want it good, pretty, and he pays!).

Earlier this week Huberto and I went to down town Mexico city to meet with a Rapper that we wanted to hire to sing for the closing day of Vacation Bible School. Yah, these Mexicans know how to party! Well, it was a fun experience to get down there; it always amazes me just how big Mexico City is. It took us over an hour to get there by car and subway (which, is quite fast). The city is so big that when we got on the subway it was sunny out, and 30 min later when we got off it was raining buckets in a different part of town! At the end of the day I was a little wet, more familiar with the public transportation system, and we have a rapper for V.B.S. Okay, okay. I’m sure many of you are wondering, what on earth do little kiddy-widdies want with a rap concert. Well, it’s not really for them. During V.B.S. week the little ones meet in the morning, and in the afternoon Jr. high, and high school kids are going to participating in a soccer tournament and other games. And the end of the week we are going to have large group games, award the soccer champs, the rapper, and PIZZA! (yes, pizza is the cross cultural church youth group food of choice!)

In other news, I put to use the machinist and roofing skills to use this week. Strange combination, I know, so here is how it played out. The church recently bought a new projector and Huberto and I decided we could put it up. This required drilling and tapping four holes in a steal beam…20 feet in the air! Yup, I machined the holes using the fearless insanity on ladders I learned while roofing last summer.

Coming up, the latest on my level of angst… I have Monday off. Tuesday through Friday I begin to wonder what on earth I am doing in Mexico doing office work and pencil pushing. I really don’t like office work. It is very difficult for me to sit there all day and plan, organize, take notes, brain storm, and search for stuff on the internet. Oy… And then Saturday and Sunday role around and it all becomes worth it. Hanging out with the kids is the best; I really get a bang out of it! So what have I learned from all this? I’ll tell you. When I get into my own ministry, I’m going higher a few secretaries and dump it all on them!!!!!!!!!

Please pray for: Strengthening our relationships with the kids on our block; that they would all come to the soccer tournament during V.B.S., hear the word of God, and be transformed by God’s love and truth; continuing Spanish improvement, and that all of the details for Nicolle’s semester at Iberoamericana would get worked out (don’t ask, it is a long and depressing story; but we need help).

—Shalom.

P.S. if you haven’t yet, check out the blog, it’s cool: http://jonnicolleinmexico.blogspot.com/

accidentle pina colada

2008-07-07T19:28:00.000-07:00

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Funny thing, one of the girls in the neighborhood has a dog, a little dog (with a big heart and bark!) who’s name is “kitty!” I thought this was really funny and thought she did it on purpose, but she didn’t know what I was laughing about. So I asked her what the name meant, and she just said it was a name. When I told her that in English the name meant “little cat” she cried “Oh, no!´ and all of her friends started laughing! It was great!

In other news I ate at another little taco stand that I absolutely LOVE! I’m telling you, the little taco stands on the street corners are three things that Mexicans love: Bueno, Bonito, y barato! (good, pretty, and cheep!). This food was so greasy, I could feel my arteries clogging just from smelling it! And no, if your wondering, I am anything but regular. But I have a secret weapon if I don’t clear up soon. Two slices of six whole grain, whole wheat bread, with a half inch of peanut butter on each side, sandwiching a inch of Wheaties. Nicolle says that if I eat one of those I won’t be able to poop for a week! Heheheh

P.S. I think I may have possibly-maybe-slightly-a little bit-kind of bent the life style agreement. So Nicolle and I bought a pineapple. And guess what, it takes a long time for two people to eat through a pineapple. Possibly, I don’t really know, possibly long enough for it to ferment. Yah, tasted a little strong there toward the end. But no fear, I could still walk a straight line.

Sobering Thoughts (Nicolle)

2008-07-03T16:10:00.000-07:00

Last night, Jon and I were returning from a very late night Wal-mart run and wanted nothing more than to go to bed when we got caught up in discussion with two wonderful women from the church. These women have been such a blessing to us and are so warm and welcoming we never suspected the secrets their pasts held. One had been raped around my age (a little older) and the other had been beaten by her father and married a man that beat her. She takes care of this father, he lives in her house and she changes his diapers, bathes him, cares for him. Her siblings not only do nothing to help, they steal from her and cheat her. I do not know how she makes it through the day with this as her existence. How much bigger she must allow God to be in her life than I allow him to be in mine if I cannot imagine how she goes on.
Today these histories played back in my head and made me think of her children and how much they knew about their father. Regardless of whether they know how their father beat their mother, they know that their father is angry and is unable to be a father to anyone. From an earlier conversation with Huberto, I know this to be the life of many in Mexico. Now having the details of one such story, my heart is torn. I realize that Huberto, who hasn't had a father since he was young, will be a father to many. I know he will do wonderfully and will break this pattern by being an amazing father to his own children someday...but wow how this nation who has no idea what a good father is like, need the Heavenly Father. It is easy for me to believe in a loving Heavenly Father, because I have a loving earthly father who means the world to me, but for these people who need to know God is a loving father, it is even harder for them to believe because so many of their earthly fathers have failed.

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. trust in god; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
John 14:1-3

Mexico city, week one

2008-07-01T13:33:00.000-07:00

Friends,

Well, I have just completed my first week of ministry in Mexico City and imagine my surprise to find out “Mexico Time” is a real thing! REALLY! But, I get an hour for lunch so I shouldn’t complain. Here’s the break down: Monday—Huberto and I are off, I do homework and hang out with any kids that are near (speaking of homework, I have sooooooooooo much!). Tuesday—office work, worship band prep and practice. Wednesday—same thing, except we may go to the movies because it’s half price and the kids are on summer break! Thursday—more office work in the morning and visitation in the afternoon. Friday—more office stuff (blah) and worship band practice. Saturday—youth group in the afternoon! Sunday—church till 3ish and the rest is off for rest and relaxation. I’m working right around 40 hours a week and enjoying everything but the pencil pushing. My favorite part of the day is in the morning when Huberto and I pray, sometimes with the pastor. That truly is the best way to start a day!

Highlights! On Friday, Nicolle and I went to a prayer meeting and with our Spanglish and the help of Huberto translating for us we shared some experiences that we have had in Mexico and how God has been blessing us since we’ve been here. On Saturday, we went to the youth meeting which was a blast! We spent most of the time practicing a skit that they will be performing for V.B.S. in a month, and I played guitar for worship. Have any of you heard me play guitar? Well, I need more practice, and prayer! Yah… Sunday was exceptionally exciting because during the service we were invited up the front and introduced to the entire congregation, which was kind of funny because we had met most of them already between the Birthday party of one of the elders, the prayer meeting, small group, and youth group. After the service, there was a lunch in our honor and THE FOOD WAS SO GOOD! We really like the church; everyone is so warm and inviting. It is a very welcoming environment. Though it has been a very interesting and at times stressful trip to get here I am very happy with my placement, and I believe that God is going to do some amazing things here and am pumped to be a part of the action!

To those of you who have been praying for us THANK YOU! We have seen Gods rich mercy and generosity, providing for all of our needs, even the ones we haven’t prayed for! In case you haven’t heard, we have a new used car and furniture for our apartment when we return(yeah, no sleeping bags).

Much love, Jon and Nicolle.

2008-06-25T09:42:00.000-07:00

Mexico City is Big. Really, really Big. Mexico city is so big that the plants that grow in the south are different than the plants that grow in the North because the clement is different. Yah, BIG! The city is different than I imagined. There are no clean air machines on the street corners as someone told me, the traffic is much, MUCH crazier than I ever imagined possible. I do like the small corner of the city that we are in though, it is quieter than other parts of the city. The streets in the city block are named after different types of beer because back in the day the houses were built by the workers of the beer factory. The next district is named Pastors. This is funny because the church I work at is in the beer district, and not in the pastors!

So far, my favorite Mexico City saying is “this part of the city is so tough, even the dogs carry knives!” This cracks me up, it really does! Fortunately, we live in a part where the dogs play with ordinary sticks like the country dogs. It is a nice part of town.

Today was my first day at work with Huberto. He is a really great guy and we share many commonalities. We have a similar sense of humor (for example, we both like to play on the shopping carts at wal mart), and we both have a passion for working with kids. We are really excited to about what God is doing in Mexico, and especially in this part of town. Why this part of town? Because there are many youth here who are troubled, or worse, board and interestingly enough, open to the gospel (at least, they are not hostile toward it, so keep praying). And why Mexico? I will try to keep this short. In brief, Mexico culture divides the age groups of peoples very differently than in the U.S. We have K-5, Jr. high, high school, collage age kids, young adults, young married couples, and the churches have ministries directed toward each of these groups. Not so in Mexico, there are little kids, and Jovens (young people). The problem with this is Nicolle and I are Jovens, the 14 year old girl that lives above us is a Joven, and the 29 year old guy I know in Cuernavaca is a Joven. All of us are in very different places in life, all have different needs, but are lumped in the same group. Can you imagine being the only teen in a small group of young adults and newly weeds? Or a 29 year old hang out with adolescents? This is assuming that the church even has a ministry for Jovens. As you can imagine this is not an effective way to minister to people and their needs, and the church in Mexico is has realized this and is training ministers to be ministers of youth. The man I work with, Huberto, is literally the first Mexican minister to graduate with a seminary degree in youth ministry. God is doing amazing things here in Mexico, keep praying!

Our apartment is so cool! God has really blessed us with a great land lord, a furnished apartment, newly refurbished, and for less than half of what we anticipated. There were a few things we had to go buy yesterday, like…food! And a few other cleaning supplies ect. Fortunately there is a store called Waldos that Huberto helped us find that is the equivalent of a dolor store. Everything in the store cots 11.75 pesos interestingly enough, this is just about the exact conversation of pesos to dollars.

last day

2008-06-21T13:23:00.000-07:00

Interesting food for fact...Mexicans find it more insulting to be called “unhappy” than “loser”

(Right: me and my favorite teacher at language school)

Even thought it is an absolutely beautiful day this Saturday is bitter sweet for me. Yesterday was my last day at school, mi ultima dia! I can’t believe that one month has gone by already. Tomorrow Nicolle and I are going to Mexico City after church, and even though I am REALLY excited about going and working with Huberto and the Kids I am sad to leave our host family. They have been really kind to us, bending over backwards to meet our every whim. And their kids have been really nice to us too, never missing an opportunity to play, and helping me with or help me with my home work. And even though Terrible tried to eat my Spanish/English dictionary I am going to miss him too, and Caspian, the by-lingual dog. Such is life.

I believe that my time here was well spent. I am now much more confident with my Spanish. I do not speak perfectly but I can communicate ideas and understand a lot more than just three weeks ago. I had a great time with my teacher and I plan to stay in contact with a few. Check out my photo bucket for a few pics of school and my teachers.

Today, relax. Tomorrow, church AND MEXICO CITY!

Jon

Silver, and caves, and my boss; oh my!

2008-06-16T18:34:00.000-07:00

I cannot call this adventure a complete success for two reasons: one, we didn’t buy a magnum bar, which, if I haven’t told you is the best ice cream bar on the plant. And two, w did not get horribly lost, which was a trend we set on our first few adventures. We did have a fantastic time on our weekend adventure to Taxco. We decided beforehand to do a two for one outing. As I mentioned, our destination was Taxco, a town known for its high quality and low priced silver. On the way we stopped at a town where there was supposed to be some really cool caves. Let me tell you, they were just that and more! I have been in several caves and copper mines in the States and none of them were as big as this cave. IT WAS ENORMOUS! The caverns were so big that you could fit a foot ball field in most of them. Likewise the formations of stalagmites and stalactites were quit large as well. Yes, there are some pictures so check em out!

Our tour gook us 2.3 Kilometers into the cave wher4eupon we met a formation that acted as a curtain on a giant stage, baring the way top to bottom and side to side except for two small openings about the size of a door. Our tour guide said that in the past exploring groups have ventured into these holes NEVER TO RETURN…no really, but I thought it sounded good. In actuality, these explorers made it as far as 16 Kilometers. It may be deeper, I can’t say for sure. It was difficult to understand our guide because, well, we were in a cave and echoing Spanish is very difficult. This is a shame as apparently our guide was quite a ham and she had the group laughing quite often. Thought I did not catch all the jokes I was quite amused when she pointed out formations that looked like elephants, pandas, dolphins and allsorts of other creatures.

Taxco was something else. If you check out the pictures on Photo
Bucket (see my blog for a link) they may remind you as it did me of the crazy market scenes in the old Indiana Jones movies. Some kid wanted to sell us gum for one paso, and when we said “no thank you” he went away and pretended to cry. There was also a large assortment of “boot leg” DVD’s for really cheep. I bought some DVD’s of movies that just came into the theater! (Chris, guess what your getting for your birthday!)

The silver was cool, we really enjoyed walking around and looking at all of the artists products. I have never seen so much silver in one place before. Before we left we went to the Grand Cathedral and it was really cool, very ornate, and simply beautiful. I did not get to explore it and take as many pictures as I wanted thought because there was a wedding I.P.

So, after almost missing our buss because of having to work out a problem with our tickets we headed home and considered it a day well spent.

Today I am entering my final week at language school. It was a bitter sweet Monday. I enjoyed my classes, and I like all of my new teachers. But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and am excited and nervous at the same time. I am nervous because I feel like I have so much more Spanish to learn, and a bit sad because I will miss my friends at school and our host family. Yet I am really excited about going to Mexico City and starting work with the church, especially after having met with Huberto this last Sunday! He is really great, and the two of us get along really well. We spent a few hours on Sunday afternoon getting to know each other and discussing our thoughts about the next few months. I am going to be learning so much as he has much more experience than me, and his youth group is in a completely different cultural setting than anything I am used to. I am also excited because the beginning’s of a whole new era of youth ministry is underway in Mexico and God has placed me in the middle of it. Please pray that God would guide Huberto and I in everything we do as we literally lay the foundation for a youth ministry at his church.

More to come later! God willing, the next time I send a news letter, it will be from Mexico City!

Jon Reid

Vista, and I don't mean the one from Microsoft!

2008-06-13T18:04:00.000-07:00

Dear friends and family,

There are many beautiful things in Mexico, and one of my favorite is the mountainous vista. I am blessed to be living with a family that has a flat roof…well, most people have a flat roof here…But none the less, I love it because I like to go up there and relax, think, pray, and read the Bible. Here are some pictures of the view, I hope you enjoy them.

In other news, I just finished my third week of language school. I have but one left, and I must say I am going to miss studying here. It is beautiful, I like the school, and I am learning so much I just hate to leave. But Mexico City calls! Speaking of which, I may be meeting with Huberto (the youth minister I will be working with for the next few mountains) for the first time this Sunday. I am pretty excited about meeting him and will tell you all about it mondayish. Also, around that same time there should be more pictures on photo bucket as Nicolle and I are planning another adventure this weekend.

Peace!

Jon

DOES ANYONE READ THIS THING???

Cultural differences Part two

2008-06-11T19:42:00.000-07:00

Friends and family,

I learned more interesting cultural differences in my situational Spanish class today. We were talking about the drinking habits of Americans and Mexicans, collage age people in particular. I learned that Mexicans think it unusual to hear of college students dying of alcohol poising. My teacher thins the reasoning for this is that Americans slam shots, really fast, and the blood alcohol level rises too quickly. But Mexicans, whom he thinks drink just as much, tend to savor a really good tequila, drinking slowly. He also said that—and by the way, all of this is speaking in general terms—he said that usage of other illegal drugs in Mexico is not as great as in the states because in Mexico it is considered very shameful, and probably a weakness.

In other news…well, I had other news on the bus this morning. But, I did not write it down and I do not remember what it was. Tomorrow I will right down my ideas as they come to me.

Faith, Hope, and Love

Jon

It is DEFINITELY the rainy season!

2008-06-09T15:55:00.000-07:00

Cuernavaca, Mexico...

Rainy and really super foggy here-a good start to the rainy season. I had a first today struck up a conversation with a man on the ruta (bus). It was a first because I generally do not start conversations in noisy areas such as buses as this adds to the difficulty of understanding. However, today I understood about ninety percent of what he was saying and spoke fairly well myself. I credit this to my learning lots of Spanish in the last two weeks and his using small words! HAHA
I learned many interesting things about Mexican culture today in one of my classes. Mexico has different social racism and social class problems than America. In Mexico, racism is not the larger problem, largely people are discriminated by class not race. The largest population is in poverty with a smaller percentage of middle class and an even smaller percentage of upper class. However, everyone is trying to look like they are in at least middle class or even upper class. One difference my professor pointed out between Americans and Mexicans which applies to the above is that Americans carry their cells in their pockets and Mexicans carry them on clips on their pants (outside, where they can easily be seen). The latest cell phones, shoes, fine clothes, fancy cars, etc. are status symbols which separate people and thus provide the division for classes. As with racism, opportunity for jobs and services depend on what class you are in. And even though the color of the skin is not largely involved...moving from one class to another is very difficult.
It's still raining...
PRAISE GOD, he has provided us with a car that is not dying, to drive when we return to the U.S. certainly an answer to prayer! Also, God has provided us with furniture for our apartment, which is good because previously all we had was a love seat... which can get kind of cramped for two. :) Thank you for your prayers please continue to pray...
We would learn lots of Spanish
We would be prepared to go back to the city
That we would stay safe here and there
That we would be used mightily for Christ and Kingdom
That our financial needs would continue to be met
That Nicolle can get her semester abroad worked out

FAITH HOPE LOVE
Jon

I was reading the other day and this passage in Isaiah really blew my mind!...
Isaiah 40

June 9th newsletter

2008-06-08T19:03:00.000-07:00

Hola!

Dear friends and family,

This weekend Nicolle and I went on another adventure to Xochicalco! Personally, I think the mountain ranges of the last ruins were a little more interesting (because we were in them!), but the hike was far easier than last week and the pyramids were much bigger, much more intricate. The difference between the two cultures and the uses of the summits was strikingly obvious. The first site we visited last week was for monks to offer little sacrifices and live in seclusion. However, here at Xochicalco, the priests not only controlled the calendar and the water, but made sacrifices for the people and spoke with the dead. This I found most interesting. The way they did it was to burn pieces of paper soaked in human blood (some kind of sacrifice) in ornately decorated clay pots and look for faces of deceased relatives in the smoke. If someone they recognized poked their head in, they would ask about the future. Now why hadn’t I thought of that?!?!

In other news, I played soccer with some friends on Saturday. Mexicans are really serious about soccer, and everyone knows how to play. I played with seven other guys, ranging in age from eight to thirty something. It was quite fun and I look forward to playing with them again.

Here’s a funny story for you. The day before yesterday it was about 80 degrees raining like crazy! Now I needed to go outside to the garage to get some ingredients for making cookies from the fridge. Not having an umbrella I just put on my flip flops and ran out and back as fast as I could! I still managed to get considerably wet because of the torrential down pore and when I came back to the steps Nicolle stopped me and said “you are giving our host mother kittens! She thinks you are going to catch pneumonia or something!” She kept asking me if I was cold and if I felt alright. She was wearing jeans and a sweat shirt, I was bear foot and in shorts. HA! Where I come from this is considered warm, but for them it was quite cold and called for hot cocoa and a blanket. Hehehehe!

School is progressing slowly but surely. This next week I am starting past tense verb usage. This has really been a crash course in Spanish! I wish I had more time to study more thoroughly but the requirements of my internship require me to get back to Mexico City and begin working with the kids. I can hardly wait!

exciding events

2008-06-05T19:33:00.000-07:00

Today was exciting for the activities that Nicolle and I got to participate in. On Tuesdays and Thursdays there are optional classes in the afternoon that you can sign up for. Some of them cost extra, but others are free, such as today’s dancing lessons! Nicolle and I learned a little bit of meringue, and salsa! It was really fun! Next week may be more dancing, a trip, or art.

Yesterday was also pretty fun because there was a celebration and welcoming party in Cuernavaca for all of the students attending the language schools. There was food and drinks, and a live band playing Mexican style music and some covers of American oldies. Most exciding off all were the dancers! There were a couple of groups dancing with bright colored dresses, and large hats. It was great!

Keep your eye on the photo bucket sight. Nicolle and I are planning on going to another Ruin called Xochecalco. It is supposed to be REALLY cool and I will probably go nuts with the camera. That is all

Jon

P.S. I am dreaming in Spanish. Well…ok, so maybe it is closer to spanglish, but that’s a start, right?Save Now

Interesting conversations on the homefront (Nicolle)

2008-06-03T10:06:00.000-07:00

I was able to have some very deep conversation with my host mom and oldest daughter. It started out with her asking about my mom and how she was doing with me being so far away. I was trying to get the point across that it is hard, but she's not miserable like people seem to expect and ended up getting it across that I live 3 hours from my parents and we live 2 1/2 from Jon's. It is definitely different from the culture down here.
Anyway, we ended up talking about how she lives in a different state from her family and how she was married at 17 pregnant at 18. We talked about the culture here and how it is common to have a lot of kids and I asked why have so many kids if you don't have a lot of money and she told me it is kind of a machismo thing. The more kids you have as a man, the more manly you are. I said that was funny because they don't do all the work, they thought that was funny.
We also talked about how young children are having babies and shoe sizes and just the difficulty of living in Mexico. It was very enlightening conversation. That is all on the homefront...it is long and repetitious days for me :)

Vicious dogs and Pavlov’s turkey

2008-06-02T14:48:00.000-07:00

This Monday of the new week brought me three new surprises. When I arrived at school today I found out that I can sleep an extra hour because I have been placed in one on one classes. These don’t start until 9:00am but I can still accomplish much because I am the only one in the class!

Secondly, I have all new teachers this week! I kind of miss my old teachers, but it is nice to have some new faces and meet new people. The purpose behind this is to force students to learn different voices, which, as you may or may not know, voice quality has a large impact on the level of understanding. For example (por ejemplo in Spanish), I can understand one of our teachers very, very well. I think it has to do with how clearly he speaks, the speed, and how he uses his body language. However, when I get into a store, or try to talk with a bus driver it is sooooo much more difficult than someone I am used to speaking with every day.

The third surprise wasn’t really one of great magnitude for today, because it happened yesterday. The dog, who’s name is Terrible, TRIED TO EAT MY SPANISH/ENGLISH DICTIONARY! Yes, that’s right. Next to my Bible, my most prized book, the same book I use like five billion times a day! Yah, a corner of it is pretty mangled…but life goes on, I can still read it.

Bye for now

Jon

Oh, I almost forgot, your probably wondering what the Pavlov's turkey is all about. Well, if you remember from your psychology classes in College (or for some, maybe that was a purple haze...) Pavlov was that guy that got a dog to drool by wringing a bell. Well, there is a turkey here at our host family’s house who will gobble every time your wistle at it in a certain way. It is really funny! If I can figure out how to load videos I will put in on this blog. Until then, use your imagination!

June 1st newsletter

2008-06-01T17:52:00.000-07:00

Hola!

Dear friends and family,

As you can see from the above pictures Nicolle and I have gone on our first excursion of ancient ruins. The school offers such trips but they were quite expensive so we opted to go by ourselves which worked out really well…until we had to try and find the bus to go home! (Using public transportation is always an adventure; more to come on that note in the future!) Climbing to the ruin was VERY difficult. The altitude in Mexico City is some 8,000 feet, and though Cuernavaca is not quite as high, it is right up there. The altitude makes any kind of labor difficult (and cooking, as our cookie adventure taught us!) because of the lesser amount of oxygen. Another reason it was difficult was because we climbed a mountain to get there…really! Some spots were so rugged that I thought we should have ropes and harnesses. Difficult as it was, our two hour assent was rewarded by a breath taking view of the land below, and the opportunity to climb all over a shrine that dates from 1200 AD.

In other news, language school is going well. Slow, but steady. I have made the biggest gains in understanding. It is super cool to be able to listen to a conversation and understand what is going on. It is sometimes frustrating though because I have an idea what is going on, but do not know enough words to participate very well. But the more I practice, the better I get!

Speaking of practicing Spanish, I had an interesting conversation with a beggar in a wheel chair in town. I was on my way to the post office to male some things and I ran across this gentlemen which struck me as interesting because I have seen him twice before begging at the Cathedral. I stopped to ask him why he wasn’t at the Church and ended up talking to him for 10 minutes! Turns out he is pretty educated and knew some English. I found out that he studied electronics some time ago but there is no work for him, so he begs.

So far, one of my favorite activities is hanging out with the Jr. high aged kids down the street and at church. There is a very talented group of jr. high and high school kids at church that play in the band and I enjoy playing music with them.

That is all for now. Much love from us to you,

Jon and Nicolle.

Our first newsletter

2008-05-29T11:41:00.000-07:00

Hola!

Dear friends and family,

Well, we’re here! Honestly, it is kind of shock to be doing something that has been in the works for about a year, not to mention that I have been wanting to go to language school for three years. Is it living up to my expectations? Well, yes…it is hard! I have so many words to learn. But when ever I get to thinking that it is too hard I just remember that it could be worse, I could speak Spanish and be trying to learn English (for those of you that may not know, English is one of the most difficult languages)!

Dennis Poulette (my PRIME mentor) has really done a great job with helping Nicolle and I adjust to Mexico. We had a very warm welcome from him and his family the day we arrived and he drove us down to Cuernavaca (where the language school is) and showed us the sights. He also introduced us to our host family, one of our greatest blessings here. This family has bent over backwards to help us feel at home. It has truly been wonderful to stay with them.

Today was my first day in language school. As I mentioned, it was difficult, but impossible. One thing that would make life easier is knowing when to get off the bus! Today I had to walk back three blocks because I missed my stop for the school. But this was not as bad as the attempted trop to the school that Nicolle and I made three days ago. Our Spanish is not very good yet and we thought we told the driver where we wanted to go clearly, but apparently not. He told us we were there, and though we did not recognize where we were, we decided to take his word for it and get off. It was not the right stop. To make a long story boring we ended up walking for about 12 blocks which took an hour. Consequently, we were late for orientation. Funny thing, we walked in just as the school superintendent was explaining how to use the public transportation and how to avoid making the mistake we just made!

The food is wonderful…tasting…but our stomachs are having a little trouble adjusting. Speaking of food, a really funny thing happened the other night. One of our friends down here, Faliciano, took us out for some comida Americana (American food); we had hot dogs and cheeseburgers and even though the food looked American and sounded American it wasn’t. I decided that if Taco Bell made hot dogs and hamburgers they would taste like those. It was definitely the first time I have ever had a hamburger with chili peppers on it! A spicy hamburger?

We went to our first church service yesterday; the family we are staying with is Baptist, but the large walk in baptismal in the church is the only similarity with Baptist churches in the U.S. The service lasted from 10:30 to 12:00 with lots of singing and prayer. It was definitely more relational and made U.S. churches look task-oriented. What the say about time in Mexico is true, in Sunday school there was people that showed up 5 minutes late 15 minutes late and 10 minutes before it ended.

I have made some friends with some teenage guys at the church, some of them are very talented musicians and play in the church band. One of them is teaching me to play slap bass. All in all I am having a fantastic time down here. Please continue to pray for Nicolle and I, that our stomachs will get used the food and that I would learn Spanish quickly. Thank you for your prayers and support.

Jon and Nicolle Reid