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.