What the Students and New Converts Have in Common…

While my family was here, we visited a nearby Ingidinous comunidad called ¨Zinacatan.¨ As part of the tour, they showed us many of the traditional clothing they make and wear there (remember that each indiginous community has its own attire). Since José Luis and I were about to get married, they asked us to model these traditional bride and groom clothes. I look fat because they wrapped so many layers of heavy fabrics around me!

After a hectic December, I feel like my January has been a slower mes of getting settled into the new casa, getting used to being a housewife (I´m still working on that one!), getting back to old routines, and just taking things easy.

Sleepover in the School (Pijamada en la escuela)

To start, I hosted a slumber party for the girls from church. It was something I had wanted to do for a while, and just hadn´t been able to. Most of them were still on vacaciones from school. Eight girls came in all, and six decided to spend the night. Some of the girls 1. honestamente acted like they had never spent the night at a friend´s house before. I had told them to bring a blanket and pillow, and none of them did. They also told each other when they arrived that they were just going to stay until 11 o´clock or so. But two of the older girls showed up later with their sleep gear, and the rest of them started to change their minds. At 2. medianoche they finally decided that they would stay, and some of the girls who live closeby went to get more 3. cubijas and 4. almohadas for everyone. They wanted to play game after game after game! We played every one I had prepared, and some I had to quickly think up on the spot (that I was remembering from the sleepovers of my preteen days). Oddly, none of them were interested in seeing peliculas. We did not go to bed until 5 a.m. I think all of the girls really enjoyed it (including me!), and some have even asked when we can do it again.

Girls from church racing down these huge slides at a local park (muchachas de la iglesia que estaban teniendo carreras en estas resbaladillas en un parque)

School Visits (Visitas a las Escuelas)
I have also been taking advantage of this month, before I start teaching Inglés on los sabados again, to go and visit each of the preaching schools. First I went to Ocosingo. About 15 students were present, and Antonio, the director has been giving the students preguntas to help them think critically about the passages they read. Many of the students in Ocosingo started out in other religions, so they are not entirely familiar yet with the 5. doctrina of the 6. Nuevo Testamento. Antonio let me know, however, that just about all of them have gotten baptized since they started taking the classes.

Students from Ocosingo eating lunch together after classes (Estudiantes en Ocosingo comiendo juntos después de clases)

Last Saturday I travelled to the coast of Chiapas to visit the schools in Tapachula and Cacahoatan. The students in Tapachula also appeared to be very 7. motivados. They have several good instructores who attended preacher training schools in other parts of Mexico. I am a little worried about the situation in Cacahoatan, however. Fransisco, the director, was telling me how stressed out he feels trying to balance out the demands of the school, the church, and his family. He has cut back on teaching in the school and has not been able to recruit new estudiantes because of it. Although most preachers here earn little to no salary, they work at another 8. trabajo during the day and devote nearly every noche to Bible studies, house visits, and worship services. Francisco was telling me that he works from 7-2 every day in a middle school, goes home and grades papers, conducts worship services for the church in Cacahoatan every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday night, and spends every Monday and Thursday night in visits or Bible studies. Now he feels like being at the school all day Saturday has taken away the only time he has to spend with his familia. I think he also felt a little discouraged that he doesn´t earn more dinero from the other miembros for all his hard work.

Students having classes at the preaching school in Tapachula, Chiapas (Estudiantes durante una clase en Tapachula, Chiapas)

Unfortunately, his discouragement has rubbed off on the entire escuela. When I arrived on Saturday, there were only 5 students (all of them between 13-15 years old and family members of Fransisco), and they finished classes at 12 :30. The first time I visited this school, there were about 20 eager students present, they had four different classes and four different teachers, and they did not finish until about 4 p.m. (the ideal ending time for them to receive 9. credito). This problema—that many of the students quickly get burnt out and for some razon don´t want to continue studying—is one that has affected all of the schools. In Ocosingo, some of the girls got married and then didn´t come back. In Tapachula, some live far away and just didn´t want to pay the weekly transportation fares. In Cacahoatan, many of the teens graduated from 10. la preparatoria and left home to study in other universidades.

New Ideas (Nuevas Ideas)
Nonetheless, we continue to do everything posible for the students who really do care; who really are working 11. duro to finish the 12. programa and graduate. We are planning to have a 13. graduación for the first grupo of students in Mayo. The escuelas in Cacahoatan and Tapachula are only about 40 minutes apart, so I think I will suggest to Global Missions that we combine the groups into one to keep the students from getting discouraged by the small numero. David attended a different preaching training school also, and he says he is the only one in his class of 20 who is still preaching. But David also reminds us that for just one person, the school is worth it—like the one student we have right now who is preaching full-time for the congregation in Cintalapa, Chiapas.

Although we have had similar results in San Cristobal with the asistencia, David recently started up the clases 14. otra vez with a new group of students—most of them jovenes from church. The original idea of the schools was to train young men who want to be predicadores, then send them out to start new congregaciones in other partes of Chiapas. But there really aren´t very many muchachos who want to be preachers full time—mainly for the reasons I already mentioned, that they receive no 15. sueldo and feel constant 16. presión tending to the necesidades of the church and their family at the same time. There are a lot of men who LIKE to preach…but they view it more as an occasional actividad than as a job, filling in when needed and volunteering to go and preach in newer congregations every now and then—as long as someone gives them money for their 17. gasolina afterwards. With the exception of David, very few manage 18. recibir the funds necessary to dedicate themselves to the obra 100%. Anyway, for the first few años, the directores tried and tried and tried 19. persuadir men to come to the classes—all to no avail. Somewhere along the away the focus seems to have shifted from young men to teenagers. I think as long as the schools can keep a group of students, that´s better than 20. nada. I have not been able to attend any of the new classes in San Cristobal yet (since they also decided to change the 21. horario to only Saturdays), but so far between15-20 have been coming. Let´s hope and pray that the schools will continue and that those of us who play a part will not feel so 22. facilmente discouraged.

Teens from church and I at one of the girls´house to celebrate her 14th birthday (Yo con algunos jovenes de la iglesia en una celebración de cumpleaños)

Struggles of New Converts (Obstaculos de los Recién Bautizados)

The problem of poor attendance is prevalent with new conviertos, as well. Back home, when someone gets baptized it´s pretty likely that they´ll stay in church because a.) they grew up in church and their whole family is Christian or b.) they have a good group of friends at church who can 23. constantemente 24. estudiar with them and encourage them. Most of the new converts here, on the other hand, have no ¨support system¨to keep them going strong. David told me that there have been cinco baptisms since the start of the year, but of those I think maybe only one of them is still attending. So many of the gente here seem to have the idea that bautismo is something they do only to be saved and don´t seem to understand that their Christianity is a 25. carrera and could come into jeopardy at anytime. Many never attended church before in their lives and have a hard time developing the habito of going to church every Sunday morning—much less the other times there are worship services. From what I have seen, the biggest reason that new Christians don´t come back is family. Those who have close amigos or familiares at church participate more and stay motivated, whereas those who come by themselves and barely know the other members start to drop off 26. poco por poco. So many of the converts we have had in the past year never came back simply because their family members from another religion pressured them and caused them to question our form of 27. adoración.

Update on Marisol
I´m worried that that´s exactly what´s going to happen with Marisol. The first few months after her baptism she attended nearly every worship service, but since then she has cut back little by little. Now she only comes about one Sunday morning out of the month. She is the only one in her family who is a cristiana. I know her family members have pressured her, because every time I visit her she has doubts like, ¨Such and such a person said they do x thing in x religion and why don´t we?¨ On one side she has devout Catholics influencing her, and on the other side well-versed Pentecostals. To complicate matters even more, she moved to another house a few months ago that is much farther away, and she often uses that as an excusa for not going to church. (I have not been able to visit her as much because of it). Her other excuse is always that one of her kids was sick. José Luis warned me that even if I visited her, that was no guarantee she would come back to church (because the same thing has happened to his family numerous veces). But I told him that it was at least worth a try. This time, rather than preparing a estudio of my own, I asked her ahead of time if there´s anything she wanted to know more about. Fasting. Just as I had expected, her Pentecostal family members told her that in their church they fast every Saturday and wanted to know why we don´t. I honestly didn´t know a lot about fasting before I began to prepare the study, but she told me afterwards that I explained everything really well and she understood it all much better. What a relief! I also left her a handout 28. leer and told her to let me know if she had anymore questions. Nonetheless, she still did not show up for church again on Sunday.

The situation with Marisol is similar to that of many new converts. Sometimes it´s hard to know when to draw the line. When do we stop visiting and calling and inviting them to come back to church? When do we leave them alone and move on to someone else? When do we feel like we´ve done 29. suficiente in helping them obtain 30. salvación? As José Luis says, ¨If we are the ones who are supposed to be encouraging the others, who is going to encourage us when WE get discouraged?¨

Thank you, as always, for taking the time to read this blog. Don´t be afraid to share your opinion about anything I have mentioned; I would love to hear what others think or hear about similar experiences.

My mother-in-law taking a bite out of her birthday cake, a birthday tradition in Mexico. (Mi suegra comiendo una mordita de su torta de cumpleaños)

1. honestly

2. midnight

3. blankets

4. pillows

5. doctrine

6. New Testament

7. motivated

8. job

9. credit

10. high school

11. hard

12. program

13. graduation

14. again

15. salary

16. pressure

17. gasoline

18. to receive

19. to persuade

20. nothing

21. schedule

22. easily

23. constantly

24. study

25. race

26. little by little

27. worship

28. to read

29. enough/sufficient

30. salvation

Our Big Day--AmeriMex Style

After a long absence of planning for the wedding, spending time with my familia, going on a honeymoon, and moving out of the school, I am finally settling back into my normal actividades.

The Pelfreys come to Mexico

My family arrived on Dec. 9. It was the first time I had seen any of them since Junio, and it was really great being able to spend tiempo with them, if only for a few días. It was also their first time to meet their new son-in-law/brother-in-law! We spent the first three days of their viaje waking up early and visiting various tourist 1. locales in Chiapas. We were able to see Palenque, (the Mayan 2. pyramides), two 3. cascadas, two indigenous comunidades, and the cañon del sumidero ( big canyon), as well as a few things here in San Cristobal. We contracted a 4. agencia de viajes ahead of time, who provided us with a 5. horario and 6. conductor for everything we wanted to do. My family stayed in the school. (Actually, I spent the week before they came cleaning up in the school, setting up more 7. camas, etc.) Of course, they had to get used to sleeping in the cold without heat and throwing their toilet paper into the trash can…but I think other than that they really enjoyed everything. I also really appreciated having them here to help me with last minute wedding 8. detalles. Without them we would have never gotten the reception hall decorated in time!

All of my family eating supper with part of José Luis´extended family in their restaurant

My brother-in-law Joe, sister Amanda, nephew Nathaniel and José Luis inside a cave

Here Comes the Bride…
The wedding also turned out really nice. We got married on December 14, Sunday, at 6 p.m. (Actually, the invitations said 5:30, but that´s only because Mexicanos are notorious for arriving at big eventos at least 30 minutes 9. tarde). First we had the ceremony in the church building. As I have mentioned before, this part is known as the ¨acción de gracias¨ (action of thanks) because 10. predicadores here don´t have the legal right to marry the couple. There is no music and no ushers, and it is basically just a regular worship service except with a sermon aimed more at 11. matrimonio. My 12. cuñado Gerardo preached. With the 13. excepción of David, who led hymns, only family miembros participated in the worship service, both fathers and all 4 of José Luis´brothers. The entire wedding was a clash of Mexican and American tradiciones. I had no bridesmaids, but we did have a flower girl and ring bearer. The tradition here is for the bride to walk to the church from her house, and she designates one boy and one girl who carry her train the whole time. I did walk to the church, but only from a short distancia; and the kids didn´t help with my train. Instead of marching in to ¨Here Comes the Bride,¨ the church sang a 14. himno that they reserve only for bodas. They also sang the same song for the recessional. All of the jovenes and niños lined up to blow bubbles at José Luis and I as we marched out. Mexican parejas don´t leave before their guests like we do, but I really wanted to have the traditional grand 15. salida with bubbles. So we decided to change the 16. orden a little and do it in the church. And we did not ask the adultos since they have never done anything like that (and there was little espacio). After the ceremonia, we left together in a 1956 car (pictured below), went quickly to a photo studio for our big picture together, and continued on to the hall.

The Reception

By the time we arrived, the other guests were already waiting for us, and several of them lined up to clap as we entered. The hall we rented had a really nice yard outside with a long brick sidewalk (where we walked in), benches, tall 17. arboles, and several playground activities for the kids. We were blessed that the weather was unusually warm for December. Mexicans believe that for any celebration they have to eat a big meal and get really full, and otherwise it´s not worth their time. So before we even started with supper, we first had to provide 18. botanas and 19. refrescos to every table. José Luis´family owns two 20. restaurantes (Mr. Taco), and we were lucky to have the entire staff from one of them to prepare the food and serve the guests. Our 21. cena was a Mr. Taco speciality. Before José Luis and I could even sit down, everyone immediately approached us to hug us, congratulate us, and give us the gift they had bought (another Mexican tradition). That entire proceso took 30 minutos or more! Then José Luis´ aunt and uncle (our ¨padrinos de anillos¨) presented us with our rings, we read a poem together in English and Spanish, and showed two photo presentations. We could not receive the rings in the church building because normalmente the exchange takes place after the judge reads the marriage 22. contracto (in the civil ceremony).

Odd Customs

Another costumbre here is for the guests to take all of the decorations afterwards (including everything that is on the table) as a ¨souvenir¨of the wedding. Our theme was ¨From now until eternity¨, and we worked really hard for months and months to make all kinds of star decorations to hang from the 23. techo and put on the 24. mesas. Also we gave star magnets with our initials on them as party favors. But just one party favor is not enough! After spending all day Sunday getting the hall decorated exactly how we wanted it, everything got taken down in less than ten minutes! We were planning on using some of the things again in our American wedding, but oh well! José Luis´dad, who is a welder, also made 40 ¨anafres¨--little miniature steel grills with an opening in the bottom to heat food using coals, and 4 grips to set a plate of food on top. We had known all along that he would either have to make new ones or that the guests would take all of the ones they use in their restaurants…but of course there was not one for each person, and some people were practically fighting over who was going to keep them! The waiters could not even refill the anafres at some tables because the guests refused to relinquish them!

Oh, and Mexicans also have the terrible habito of inviting people who aren´t actually ¨invited.¨ For example, their great aunt Tess comes to visit and they say ¨There´s this wedding that I´m going to…and by the way, you´re invited too.¨ Plus, you pretty much have to count on the whole church arriving here—including those who have been ¨missing¨ from services for two months. It´s not like back home where only those from church who know you the best feel comfortable attending. There were at least 15 people at the wedding whose 25. caras we had never seen before. Another 20-30 we kind of knew, but not well enough to invite them; and we have no idea who did. The church building fills up on Sunday mornings with about 100 members. And the hall we rented had seating for 200. Knowing how Mexicans are, we rented enough tables and chairs for another 30 people to sit at the reception—just to be 26. seguro. Well I don´t know how many came in all, but the church was more packed than I´ve ever seen it, and the extra tables and chairs did come in handy at the reception. Plus, the kids were outside playing the whole time and didn´t really have chairs. So I think at least 230 people came—and we only invited 180.

Not so Nice Surprises

It is very 27. obvio to me that Mexicans have not yet learned to respect the 28. deseos of the couple. José Luis and I worked so hard and spent so much money planning how to decorate the church…only to arrive one day before the wedding to discover that the ladies from church had decided to surprise us with decorations of their own! Surprise they did! What are we going to do now, I thought, and why did they have to use pink and red, of all colors??? Some of the ladies must have worked for horas sewing new 29. cortinas, so of course there was no way we could take them down. I know they did it out of the goodness of their hearts with good 30. intenciones; I only wish they had let us know about it ahead of time!

Also, I mentioned that the Christians here don´t use musica in their bodas. We respected their wishes by using only hymns in the acción de gracias and thought it would be okay to play some romantic English and Spanish love songs in the reception. Think again! We were careful to select only songs that had no profanity, inappropriate 31. contento, etc. and played the CD on a very low volume, but even so that was still just too much for some of our Christian 32. invitados. We left the hall for 10 minutes to go take pictures, and by the time we came back, one of the preachers had forcefully replaced our homemade CD with Christian acapella. Being in no mood to argue, we finally just gave in and ended up listening to hymns the rest of the noche. I have noticed that one problem of many of the Christians here is that they don´t understand when something in the Bible is literal and when it is relative. So evidently many believe that when the Bible says to ¨sing and make melody in your hearts,¨ it means all the time, whether we are in a worship service or not. Despite their old fashioned ways, José Luis and I wish they had held out and been more respectful and mature for dos horas rather than causing us to feel so angry and frustrated on our wedding day.

Lame Wedding Services

Another thing that really gets to me is that contracts basically don´t exist here. You know how every wedding book or wedding magazine ever made recommends to get a contract for every wedding service you use well in advance with dates, times, 33. condiciones and prices thoroughly accounted for? Doesn´t apply in Mexico. We ask for a contract, they shrug and say they can´t do that. It amazes me how uninterested some of the people are here in good money and good business! We followed the ¨advice¨of starting to search for a photographer and florist a few months ahead of time—all to no avail. The first time we went, everyone was nice and willing to help us, genuinely interested in our business. ¨We don´t work on Sundays, but we will make an exception!¨ ¨Sure, we can give you a disc, no problem!¨ ¨Yes, we will be here on that day and your flowers will be ready the day before!¨ But when we went back to ¨hire¨them, it was a different story; ¨Nope, sorry, we don´t work on Sundays…and we´re not going to be here that day anyway.¨ ¨Why don´t you just find a friend or family member who can take the pictures for you instead?¨ (Yes, the actual ¨professional¨ photographer told us that!)

To make a long story short, we ended up hiring a different photographer five days before the wedding, and a different 34. florista just a day before the wedding…all because everyone kept changing their word, and upping the precios. The first florist that we had hired actually forgot all about our order! They were going to give us all different flowers (all uglier) and charge us the same price because they had run out of the ones we wanted. ¨That´s the whole reason we placed the order in advance!¨ we yelled in astonishment. Frantic, we started walking through the mercado until we found another flower merchant (NOT florist) who had enough flowers that we liked. We weren´t even too concerned about the colors at that point, we just wanted to find some that looked good and be done with it! I was practically holding my breath the whole time since many of the merchants were left with only boring white flowers due to the Virgin of Guadalupe day just two days before. I think it was only luck (and God´s providence) that allowed us to get our flower arrangements in time with flores that we were happy with. But being so leary at that point, I bought individual flowers for my bouquet and made it myself rather than depending on one of those goons to do it for me!

All in all the wedding was fabulous, and nothing to complain about. Click on these links if you would like to see more pictures:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2046931&l=d5a65&id=64506233
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2046989&l=f7e92&id=64506233

La Luna de Miel (The Honeymoon)

We spent our honeymoon in Hualtulco, Mexico, a spot on the Pacific Ocean about ten hours from here known for its nine beautiful bays. One day we took an all-day boat tour of the bays. We also got to snorkel, ride a banana boat, visit an ecological area, and go 4 wheeling through the jungle. Of course, we also swam a lot and ate a lot of seafood! The honeymoon was very nice and relaxing, and it was very hard for us to come back to freezing San Cristobal afterwards and resume our normal activities! Ever since we got back we have been busy moving things into the cabin we will be living in and getting it fixed up how we like it. (I will put some pictures on here once we finish with everything). The cabin is very cozy, the perfect size for two people, and just a five minute walk from the school. Also José Luis´family owns it, so we are very lucky that we don´t have to pay 35. renta. The only bad thing about it is that I have to get used to walking outside to use the bathroom and sink, and also to wash dishes. (We do have plumbing and the bathroom in not an outhouse; it´s just not directly attached to the rest of the house.) As my mom said, Mexicans built bathrooms ¨as an afterthought.¨ Even so, I am so happy living there just because I now have a wonderful husband who is always by my side, and who makes living in Mexico much more bearable. A Mexican Christmas

This year was the first time for me to be away from my family and out of the country during the holidays. As most of you already know, the Christians here don´t believe in celebrating Christmas. So my ¨Christmas¨was just like any old day. It felt really weird…but I really did not miss the gift giving and everything as much as I thought I would. I think I actually missed Thanksgiving more than Christmas and New Years! I missed my family, of course…but not as much as usual since I just saw them. José Luis´family did take advantage of the two nights they closed their restaurants, Christmas Eve and New Year´s Eve, for all of us to eat supper together (something they don´t normally get to do since they have to be in the restaurants every night).

I also got to experience the holidays from the viewpoint of another cultura. For Mexicans, Christmas is much more of a religious holiday (which is why the Christians here don´t feel comfortable celebrating it). Starting on December 1st, young people from Catholic churches all over Mexico run from church to church with a torch in honor of the virgin Guadalupe. At each Catholic church they come to, they leave one of the torches. They travel by truck and take turns running a distance of about 1 mile each on the 36. carretera. Each relay team decides what their final destination will be and finishes running there on December 12 (the Virgin of Guadalupe day). I really think they put more emphasis here on the Virgin of Guadalupe than on Christ or Santa Clause.

At midnight on Christmas Eve, families eat a big meal together. What they eat varies from family to family, but they do traditionally drink ¨ponche¨ (like punch, but hot). They start shooting off firecrackers in honor of Christ´s birth. Then, from what I understand, Christmas day is similar to our tradition of opening presents early and looking to see what Santa brought. The main difference is that instead of having another big meal together, they eat leftovers from the night before. Then many of the families like to go out and do something together (have a picnic in the park, go swimming, etc.) which is why a lot of 37. negocios here open on Christmas day (including Mr. Taco). It seems that New Years is not much different from how we celebrate it.

I was a little disappointed that the church did not do anything for New Years; but José Luis and I did at least go to one of the local 38. parques with some of the teens. We played soccer, kickball, volleyball, ate together, and also had races down huge metal slides. It was lots of fun.

Prayer Request

J.C. Enlow, who oversees the preaching schools here in Mexico, fell 14 feet from a hunting stand last week and is in critical condition. He has had several surgeries but has improved very little. Please keep him in your prayers.

1. locations

2. pyramids

3. waterfalls

4. travel agency

5. schedule

6. driver

7. beds

8. details

9. late

10. preachers

11. marriage

12. brother-in-law

13. exception

14. hymn

15. exit

16. order

17. trees

18. snacks

19. soft drinks

20. restaurants

21. supper

22. contract

23. ceiling

24. tables

25. faces

26. safe

27. obvious

28. wishes/desires

29. curtains

30. intentions

31. content

32. guests

33. conditions

34. florist

35. rent

36. road/highway

37. businesses

38. parks

Less than 3 Weeks to the Boda!!!

Let me be perfectly 1. honesta and say that the wedding is less than three semanas away and I still have a lot to do and am feeling pretty stressed out and exhausted lately. Plus my family is coming in less than dos semanas and I have been busy getting the escuela ready for them. So…this blog is going to be a short one.

Reuniones de Mujeres (Women´s Reunions)

Lately the hermanas from la iglesia have been having get togethers cada martes, and the 2. varones cada sabado. The hombres meet in the school, and the mujeres usually meet in the church edificio or in one of the ladies´houses. We sing 3. cantos and have a short Bible study, then we do some kind of actividad and eat juntos. One of the ladies taught us how to sew flower diseños on a cloth, and another taught us how to knit. The ladies from a nearby congregación, Teopisca (where there is no full time 4. predicador) come and visit with us every other week, and on the other weeks we go there. I´m not much into sewing, but at least they´re doing algo other than having a Bible estudio and leaving quickly afterwards. Below is a foto of us sewing 5. flores on un día when several damas came:

Reuniones de Varones (Men´s Reunions)

David has been using the Saturday reunions to help some of the men develop their preaching skills. Also, some of them having been going evangelizar every Thursday in areas of nuevas congregaciones. The congregation continues to send men to preach in Teopisca, Chiapas (which I mentioned above), as well as others. José Luis and I go to Teopisca every other Saturday. José Luis preaches or gives a Bible class, and sometimes more. There are only about 15 personas in the whole congregation, and only about 4 of them are men, so they need all the help they can get. Here is a foto of my future brother-in-law Gerardo giving a Bible study at Teopisca and the outside of the church building:

Grupo de Parejas Jovenes (Young Couples Group)

You may remember from a few blogs back that José Luis and I wanted to try to 6. iniciar a young couples grupo. We had hoped that after the first 7. convivio one of the other couples would take the initiative to host another one, but when several meses passed and no one else had offered, we decided to try it again. We invited them to come to the school to watch a 8. pelicula we had rented. We hooked it up to the new LCD projector, so it was almost like being in a 9. cine. And we were careful to tell them it was just a movie, because otherwise they would think that it´s¨another worship service¨and wouldn´t come. But they still didn´t come. Apart from José Luis and I and his brother and sister-in-law (who are the only ones we can really count on), only one other couple showed up (out of ten or more). For the longest time I couldn´t figure out why the other couples weren´t interesados…until David mentioned in a Sunday morning worship service that ¨we can´t have young couples reunions because it´s respect of persons. It´s okay to have get togethers but only if we invite the whole congregation.¨ It´s amazing how much one person can 10. influir the whole congregation! I still don´t understand where the cristianos here get their off the wall ideas …but David´s 11. concepto of the young couples group is just the kind of thing I was referring to in the last blog when I said that they´re not ready yet to accept the kind of plans and ideas that I have in mind. Nonetheless, I am 12. determinada to keep trying with the 13. parejas until they finally decide to give in and start coming (ha!)

¿Puedo cortar el cabello, por favor? (May I please cut my hair?)

It´s a big deal here for women to respect their esposos and ask them for permission for todo. Yesterday I went to a hair salon to see about the hairstyle I will use for the wedding. The hairstylist told me it would be a good idea to cut the ends of my hair first. I mentioned (jokingly) that I hadn´t cut my 14. cabello in a while ¨because my boyfriend doesn´t want me to cut it so it´ll be long for the wedding.¨ I told her to go ahead and do it while I was already there, and she started talking about how it would be better to talk to my novio first to make sure it´s okay and then come back another day. ¨Because if the wife doesn´t ask permission from her husband to do things, there are always problems in the relationship.¨ Of course that´s 15. cierto for some things, but not EVERYTHING. I sent José Luis a cell phone message asking his ¨permiso,¨just to appease her. Luckily José Luis is not chauvinistic like many Mexican men, and we both laughed about it later.

Algunas Dificultades de Vivir Aquí (Some Difficulties of Living Here)

It also amazes me how open the Mexicans can be sometimes with their 16. opiniones. I can´t even begin to tell you how sick I am of people who ask me ¨Why do you live by yourself?¨ ¨Why are you going to use colors in your wedding?¨ ¨Why do you use garbage bags?¨ and any other absurd preguntas! I really think there are still a lot of people here who think that I just stay in the house all day twiddling my thumbs, waiting for someone to give me something to do.

Besides the culture, there are some things about living here that I never really have gotten used to. When I´m ready to take a shower, I first have to go and light the pilot light on the boiler, then wait about 40 minutes for the water to get 17. caliente. Yes, I have suffered through plenty of cold showers since I´ve been here because I didn´t wait long enough. On a good day it only takes me five minutes to light the pilot. On a typical day, I try for several minutes, kick it, hit it…and it still doesn´t work. Now that the cold season is upon us, I shiver myself to sleep every night, wondering how long it will be before Mexicans buy heating systems for their casas. When I wash my face en las noches, the agua feels like ice slashing my face. When I wash my 18. ropa, I first have to wait and wait and wait for four buckets to fill up with water…then, 15 minutos después I have to fill up the buckets again in order for the washing machine to start the rinse cycle. (I foolishly did not realize until several loads of clothes too late that the 19. lavadora doesn´t move into the rinse cycle automatically.) If I am in the middle of cooking something and suddenly realize that I don´t have all of the ingredientes, I can´t just get in a car and drive five minutes to the closest grocery store; I have to wait for the bus, then finally arrive at the 20. tienda nearly half an hour after boarding (and by the time I get back I´m already starving!) If everything goes well, though, José Luis and I will move to the good ole USA together in the summer, so I will only have to put up with everything for a few more meses. Every lugar has its fair share of challenges though, so why am I even complaining?

Las Clases de Inglés (The English Classes)

I have been teaching English every sabado (10-12 for beginners and 12-2 for intermediates). The last time I taught I had a good grupo of intermedios but not so many principiantes. This time I have nine in the beginners class (it doesn´t sound like a lot, but it´s more than I usually have) and only two in the intermediates class (José Luis and his brother). The beginners are good students, but they seem to be on auto pilot throughout the entire class. Once again I feel like I am having to clean up the leftovers of poor teachers who don´t teach the students to think, only to write write write and listen listen listen. Plus, the 21. alumnos are too shy to even open their 22. bocas! In the intermediates class, on the other hand, we have been focusing more on conversation and reading skills. I have been giving them more 23. tarea so that we can make the most of the two hours we have together each week. I must admit that I like the intermediates class more even though there are only two of them.

24. Anoche when I came home, several military guys with big guns and stern faces were surrounding the school. Lately they have been stopping there to check cars for 25. drogas. Even so, it´s kind of weird and spooky to see them right in front of my doorstep!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thankgiving and that you thought of me, turkeyless and familyless, as you wolfed down your meal!!! (Just Kidding.) I spent my ¨Thanksgiving¨going from house to house giving out wedding invitations (since it is not acceptable here to send them in the mail). In half a day we managed only three visitas--and will continue again first thing mañana!

1. honest
2. men
3. songs
4. preacher
5. flowers
6. to start
7. get together
8. movie
9. movie theater
10. influence
11. concept
12. determined
13. couples
14. hair
15. true
16. opinions
17. warm
18. clothes
19. washing machine
20. store
21. students
22. mouths
23. homework
24. last night
25. drugs

Highs and Lows with the Jovenes

San Cristobal in the distance

Allow me to Vent…

I have a new pet peeve. I can´t stand it when people talk to me in Spanish, then a few minutes later ask someone else (NOT me!) ¨¿Ella habla español?¨ (Does she speak Spanish?). Or worse, they talk about me in the third person, as if I´m not even there listening! I just had to get that off my chest. While I´m at it, there´s something else I need to get off my chest too. David is infamous for preaching ONLY about marriage in the weeks leading up to the boda of two church miembros. Last week he mentioned José Luis and I in his sermon and it really bothered me. Actually, I became so mad that I left during the announcements; I was not in the mood to talk to anyone. José Luis immediately went and talked to him about it afterwards. I won´t tell you what David said because it´s so ridiculous; but I will include 1. un poema I wrote in repsone to what happened (at the end of the blog). Each of the church members (including David) have their good 2. puntos and their bad puntos, and of course I don´t want to dwell too much on the bad points. At the mismo tiempo, I don´t want anyone to have the delusion that everyone here is bright and fun and cheery and that I never have any conflictos with them.

Now for the more positive stuff! As you know, our work with the jovenes (like so many other things) so frequently teeters between really great and uplifting and really low and discouraging. For example, one week there are several in attendance, and the next week they´ve all disappeared again. I still haven´t figured out what causes the abrupt changes. But it seems that now we are in a high point again. We have been averaging close to 20 for the Sunday morning classes! José Luis continues to teach all of the teens together, and I only teach the girls once every two months or so.

Unresponsive Girls

Actually, the last time I taught them I was really 3. emocionada because I taught them about Esther, one of my favorite Bible characters. I asked them before we started what they knew about the 4. historia, and no one said anything. But only cinco girls showed up that day, and the whole time I was teaching them they seemed distracted, like everything I was saying was going in one ear and out the other. Also I have been wanting for some time now to help the girls 5. organizar a short worship service for the 6. damas of the congregation (working with the Young Ladies Serving Christ at Mt. Juliet last year inspired the idea). We frequently talk about using our 7. talentos and stepping out of our comfort zones, and I want them to be prepared for oportunidades they may have to lead as they get older instead of constantly being afraid to say a oracion, read a verso, or whatever. But one problema with not having ancianos is that David and Ani tend to take charge of everything. When I mentioned the idea to Ani the first time, she told me we would talk about it later. When I mentioned it again, she told me that I should consider putting tablecloths on the tables for the Sunday morning classes (I am not kidding you!) Obviously the way a 8. mesa looks is más importante to some people than whether their hijos have opportunities for spiritual 9. crecimiento. Also, I had all of the girls note what they would like to do (lead songs, speak, etc.) Then I started thinking that even though they wrote their names, I could not count on them to do what they said they were going to do. The teens have a terrible habito here of saying they´re going to show up for something, and then don´t. I was afraid that only 2 or 3 would show up (like always) and would be stuck doing everyone else´s part. I also didn´t want them to think I was forcing them to participate in something they weren´t comfortable with. So the next time we had class together, I told them to let me know afterwards if they were still 10. interesadas and what they wanted to do. No one did.

All of that was another low point for me. Reluctantly, I have come to accept that the Christians here just aren´t ready yet for the kinds of 11. metas and 12. ambiciones I have had in mind since the very beginning. Who knows when they will be…but at least I can´t say I didn´t try.

A New Take on the Teens´Class

Lately, however, José Luis has been asking the teens what kinds of doubts and questions they have and addressing those in the class. Not surprisingly, many of them were confused about the same topicos. What did surprise me is that they participated much more this time (we have asked them plenty of times in the 13. pasado what they want 14. estudiar and they never have volunteered anything 15. específico), and that some of their 16. ¨dudas¨are actually basic things that we thought they should already know well, like baptism. We started with an explanation of the 17. diferencias between the old and new 18. pactos, and now José Luis will begin to teach them about different parts of 19. adoración, and why we worship the way that we do. He is teaching them those things not just because of the doubts they have, but so they will be better prepared to talk to their amigos and familiares about the issues. José Luis´younger brother, Toño, has been involved in a series of discussions lately with some Pentecostal classmates, and he comes to José Luis anytime he doesn´t know how to counter an argument. So José Luis has used Toño´s preguntas as a springboard for the classes. We have a feeling there are several others who, like Toño, have not known very well how to talk to someone about doctrinal issues but have just been too afraid to tell us.

José Luis teaching the teens one Sunday morning

Reunión de Jovenes en Cintalapa (Youth Rally in Cintalapa)

Two weeks ago we took a group of ocho teens to a youth rally. There are about 30 teens in the congregación in all, and only about 20 who participate regularly. So I think for us to have to wake up early on a Saturday morning, pay public transportation, and go to a city about three hours away, eight is not bad. Remember that for them three hours is much farther away because they hardly ever leave their home towns. Many of them had never been to a ¨reunión de jovenes¨before, and some had also never been to the city where it was held (Cintalapa). Before we left they asked us to take them to the ¨central park¨ just so they could see what it looked like. (Each of the towns here have a big parque in the middle of the city, which is the part of the city you ¨have to see¨ in order to say that you´ve been there.) The only bad thing about the trip is that we had to pay for public transportation, about $13 a person. No one from church who has a car offered to take us, but that´s another story. I really think if it wasn´t for the transportation costs many more teens would have gone.

José Luis was in charge of games, and Cesar (the preacher/youth minister from Cintalapa) did not tell him about it until a few days before. So we spent the greater part of each of those days getting ready for the games. About 70 teens came in all---not bad for this to only be the second youth rally they´ve had. José Luis divided them into eight 20. equipos, and they had to run together to eight different stations to complete a certain activity as quickly as possible. The activities ranged from answering questions and riddles about the Bible to carrying their teammates to balancing water cups on their heads, and the first team that finished won a prize. The teens from San Cristobal and I manned the stations. When we arrived we ate breakfast together, then we received name tags and heard the first sermon. Everything started late and the sermon ran much longer than expected (almost 3 hours!), so we were not able to use all of the games we had planned. But the preacher was very interesante, and very good at helping the teens to think and reflect. After the games we ate lunch together, heard another sermon by the same preacher, and told each other adios. It was certainly not as well organized as an American youth day, and I think it probably hasn´t even occurred to them to split the teens into classes instead of having two long sermons. But all in all it was a success, and a good effort for their primera vez. I feel like the more they have these kinds of activities, the more they will improve.

All of us who went to the youth rally (excepto de José Luis). I told them we were going to take a silly picture, and this is what they did (nothing!)

Un Estilo de Vida Diferente (A Different Lifestyle)

I still have to remind myself sometimes that the teens here are so much different from American teens--not just in their estilo de vida, but in the kinds of things they are exposed to each day. Carlos, a young guy about 20 years old, got baptized and joined the grupo de jovenes a few weeks ago. (Below is a foto of his bautismo.) Actually, one of the girls invited him and studied with him--good for her! So far Carlos has participated a lot in the classes and seems to be really on fire for the 21. Señor. Last week, however, he explained to José Luis that the dueños of the room he is renting are very Catholic. They saw him reading his Bible a lot, and told him that Christians are not allowed to live there. When he tried to reason with them, they did not want to listen. How many American teens do you know who have to find a new place to live just because of their religion? Another girl, Maribel, has been attending with her aunt and other family members. She is 14, but does not go to school. The first time I met her she asked me what she would be able to help me with because she ¨needs to work.¨ Maribel is very sweet and 22. bonita, and on the surface she seems like any other 14 year old girl. You would never guess by looking at her that she had to give up studying and move to another ciudad in order to help her family.

Many of the jovenes cannot participate in as many youth eventos as they would like because their parents do not give them 23. permiso. Deissy and Sonia, however, are cousins who attend every reunión with their moms and abuela and must receive persmission not just from their papas, but from their GRANDPARENTS! It is not uncommon here for several familias to live together all under one roof—abuelos, tios, primos, todos! And those who are grown (with families of their own) but still live in their parents´casa must still consult with their parents first about how to raise their kids; they are not considered capable of making those decisiones themselves until they have their own house. Deissy and Sonia told José Luis that they really wanted to go to the youth rally, but that they are not allowed to go in public transportation. Even if they had been able to go, they said that their grandfather would have had to talk to the driver first!! It occurred to me that they rarely attend 24. cualquier of the actividades unless one of their moms accompanies them—and they are 14 years old!!

I am praying every day that the teens will grow spiritually and make good decisions and that José Luis and I will be good leaders for them. I also hope that we will be able to organize an area wide youth event in San Cristobal before we leave. I told José Luis it would be a good ¨last activity¨to leave with them before we go to the United States and someone else (hopefully) takes over. So please pray that that will also come to pass.

Our ¨taxi¨on the way back from the Tuxtla airport one day

Ceremonias Civiles (Civil Ceremonies)

More good news is that José Luis and I sent off the first part of the immigration paperwork last week—woo hoo!!! We decided to apply for a fiancé visa because it´s about one year faster than a spouse visa. Yes, we are still getting married in Mexico in December—but it will not be anything ¨official.¨ Mexican 25. leyes require couples to get married in front of a judge and two witnesses. The 26. juez reads a statement to them that they must repeat (similar to an American preacher reminding the couple of their vows), and then each of them sign the marriage decree. The judge also presents them their rings. The whole process is very long and boring and unromantic!

Laws here also state that this civil ceremony cannot take place in a church. Consequently, most Mexican couples choose to either have a short religious ceremony in their church first and then go to a public place afterwards for the civil ceremony and food (usually a hall that they rent), or they kill two birds with one stone by doing everything in the hall. José Luis and I decided to have the ¨acción de gracias¨in the church building because we both agree that a church has more romantic appeal and are willing to spend a little extra to make it look really nice. Even if we had decided to have the civil ceremony here instead of the U.S., the costs of hiring a judge and paying a fee for me being a foreigner would have been the same as those of the fiancé visa—and it would have taken up to a year longer. So basically we are going to get married in front of God and all of our friends and relatives but not in front of a juez. As part of the fiancé visa, we will have to get married within 90 days of arriving in the U.S. and send immigration the American marriage certificate as soon as we have it. Please pray that God blesses us throughout this entire proceso.

Mexicans must also appear in front of a judge when a new baby is born. I mentioned a few blogs ago that José Luis´brother has a new baby girl. For the longest time I found it 27. extraño that anytime someone asked they still had not decided on the girl´s name. Then I finally realized that they hadn´t decided yet because they did not have any kind of birth certificate yet! Forty days after she was born, they (the parents), the baby, and two 28. testigos attended a short ceremony in which the baby had her picture taken, put her fingerprints on the certificado, and received her official 29. nombre. They finally decided on Abril Guadalupe. They had wanted to name her Lupita Abril,(after her abuela), but the judge would not allow Lupita because it is a shortened name.

Una Nueva Escuela de Predicadores (A New Preaching School)

On Monday David and I traveled to Comalapa, a ciudad about three hours away, to see about starting up another Saturday preaching school there. We opened up a bank account for the school and met with some of the men who will serve as directores and maestros. J.C. Enlow thought Comalapa would be the best place for a new school because of its central location. But it turns out that the church in Comalapa is very small, and they meet in a casa that wouldn´t be big enough for all of the students. Originally the plan was to start the classes in Comalapa in January, but now we will have to find a good 30. ubicación first. It kind of irritates me that the men have known for several months now that we want to start up a school there but waited until now to let us know that there´s no place for it. But that´s just the way they do things here—and the kind of thing that make my job harder ; ) On the way back we stopped and visited with a few hermanos from other congregaciones who need 31. animo.

And now I will leave you with my poema:

Five Hours

The typical Mexican woman spends
At least five hours of her day
In the kitchen—
Cooking for her family.
She leaves the house only
To go to the market
And MUST have the food
Prepared and ready
At all hours—
To meet the family´s
Differing schedule.
Supposedly this makes her
An excellent mother, a sympathizing wife.

But where is the love
In all of her labor?
Where is the love
When her husband,
Having been gone
Who knows where all day
Arrives only long enough
To eat and instead of saying
¨Thank you honey, that was delicious!¨
Knows only how to say
¨Gimme, Gimme, Gimme!¨

Where is the love
When her husband beats her
With a belt
Because she did not do everything
Exactly to his standards?

Where is the love
When her husband
Gives her no money
To buy the food with
And expects her to make it
Magically appear?

Where is the love
When her husband
Sits at the table afterwards,
Watching TV and relaxing,
As she scrubs relentlessly
On the many dirty dishes?

Is there more love in a pan of
Burnt refried beans
That the wife prepared with
Utmost precision and care?
Or in a feast of chicken and rice and
Tortillas and caldo
That she made only because of
Obligation?
You decide.

1. a poem

2. points

3. excited

4. story

5. to organize

6. ladies

7. talents

8. table

9. growth

10. interested

11. goals

12. ambitions

13. past

14. to study

15. specific

16. doubts

17. differences

18. covenants

19. worship

20. teams

21. Lord

22. pretty

23. permission

24. any

25. laws

26. judge

27. strange

28. witnesses

29. name

30. location

31. encouragement

Parties Galore

For the Mexicans to supposedly be so much poorer than we are, they sure do like to spend a lot of money on 1. fiestas! A few weeks ago we went to the birthday party for a little girl at church who just turned one. Her parents rented a children´s hall just for the evento (Disneyland!) and invited everyone from la iglesia, as well as several other friends and relatives. It is not uncommon here for adultos to attend children´s birthday parties and even participate in some of the juegos. At this particular party, I really think there were close to 200 people—and only about ¼ of them were kids!!! Also, the parents invite any kid they know—edad doesn´t matter.

The little girl, Miriam, was dressed in a Snow White costume. Miriam´s hosts hired someone to paint the kids´ 2. caras, repeatedly brought us 3. refrescos and 4. platos of snacks, and broke at least 6 different piñatas—half for the kids, and half for the adult family members. They gave out nice photo 5. invitaciones of the girl, because a spoken invitation just doesn´t count. And all of the tías, tíos, abuelos, and primos worked together more than a semana to make the 6. recuerdos—decoractive wooden boxes that they hand paintd with various 7. diseños. (Another 8. ¨regla¨of parties here is that every guest has to take something nice home afterwards with the name of the person being honored and the 9. fecha.) Basically a party just isn´t a party here without lots of food, lots of piñatas, and lots of musica. There is normalmente a clown show for the kids, as well. So I must say that they make our traditional invite your 7 closest friends and go to the local pizza parlor parties look like wimpy little nothings. On the other hand, I can´t understand why the parents want to spend so much money on their kids´birthday parties—especially when the kid is only turning 1 and isn´t even going to remember anything! I really think they spend more dinero on the party than we spend on all of the gifts ; )

You may have heard of ¨quinciñera¨; that´s the big birthday party for girls who turn 15. Supposedly the quincieras are like a miniature wedding—with just as many expenses. The parents of the girl find friends and family to help them with all of the major 10. gastos, like 11. pastel and hall, just like in a wedding. And the girls have up to 40 ¨damas de honor¨ (like bridesmaids). And what do the boys get when they turn 15? Absolutely 12. nada! I haven´t actually been to a ¨Sweet 15¨party yet (most of the Christians here don´t celebrate it because they think it´s too Catholic), but I will let you know more about it as soon as I do. Of course, the Catholics here also like to have parties to remember the birthdays of their favorite santos. Well, they say it´s for the Saint, but according to what José Luis has told me, it´s really nothing more than an 13. excusa to get together and gossip with other ladies and take away their boredom.

Wedding Padrinos/Padrinos de la Boda

Now that you know a little more about the festive nature here, let me tell you more about my upcoming wedding. Los padres of the novios only pay one part of the wedding fees here; the rest are divided up among several amigos and familiares known as ¨padrinos.¨ When the bride and groom ask someone to be their padrino, it is considered a great honor for that person, and an 14. ofensa to turn them down. Remember that Mexico is still very traditional compared to the U.S. When the futuro bride and groom have decided who their padrinos are going to be, they cannot just ask them at any time; they must make a formal visita to the person´s casa. And they also cannot make any specifications; for example, with the padrino of cake they cannot ask that the cake be a certain flavor or certain color. To do so would be considered very 15. rudo, because the Mexicans believe that as long as they are paying for something, they should be able to choose how´s it´s going to be. Nor can they ask them how things are going, if they bought the item yet, etc. So basically we just have to trust each of our padrinos and hope they don´t forget about their 16. responsibilidades and pick something we will both like!

Well I say all of that to let you know that José Luis and I are going to have cuatro padrinos: two of his aunts for cake and rings, his brother Gerardo for video, and four of his cousins working together for photos. And my future in-laws are going to help us with the food and location fees. So basically the only things we have to pay for ourselves are our attire, a few 17. flores (which are really cheap because we can just go and buy them in the mercado), and a few decorations. I brought my 18. vestido back with me in June. It needed only one alteration, height (of course!), but I got it done here and only had to spend about $6!! Woo hoo! On an aside…Catholics sometimes have more than 40 padrinos—even for the small things, like the bride´s hairstyle or party favors—and don´t have to pay for ANYTHING themselves! I must say that I am willing 19. sacrificar not having the exact color and decorating sheme for everything in order to have reduced costs. And if something doesn´t turn out well, we will have a second chance to make it right anyway (in our American boda). By the way, we have now completed the first 20. paso of the long and frustrating immigration proceso, as well—getting José Luis´21. pasaporte. It was actually 22. listo on the same day that we applied for it! I will let you know more about the wedding (and immigration stuff) 23. poco por poco as we continue to plan everything…

Another American Teacher/Otro Maestro Americano

Two weeks ago another American teacher was here, and I translated for each of his clases. He taught at the church in San Cristobal on Sunday and Wednesday and at two of our Saturday preaching schools, Larrainzer and Ocosingo, on the 24. fines de semana. He made presentations about some of the Biblical 25. tierras using pictures and 26. mapas of some of the places. Before he came I had to go to the nearest Office Depot to buy an overhead projector and a powerpoint LCD projector. Both were necessary for the class, but now they will come in handy for other classes, as well. I am especially looking forward to using them in my upcoming English classes! Antonio, the director of the Ocosingo school, really went out of his way to invite several brethren to the class. He also allowed us to use his second grade 27. salon for the 28. presentación since none of the local churches were big enough. Over 70 men, women, and children came to Ocosingo, with at least 10 different congregaciones represented. Some of the people who came to the Saturday classes are so poor that they never even leave their home comunidades, so naturally they found it very hard to believe that someone has seen places where Jesus and the 29. apostoles lived. We had to explain to them several times that the fotos were in fact real and that the teacher actually visited those places several times. Once they finally caught on, they were 30. MUY impresionados.

All those who came to hear the presentation in Ocosingo/Todos que vinieron para escuchar la presentación en Ocosingo By the way, we were standing in front of a second grade classroom (to give you an idea of what the schools look like here)

My Visit to Tapachula and Cacahoatan/Mi Visita a Tapachula y Cacahoatan

A few weeks ago I also went to visit the schools in Tapachula and Cacahoatan (on the coast, 8 hours away) and take them their new Biblias. Unfortunately, I picked the worst possible day visitar. I left San Cristobal Friday night via overnight bus and had the hardest time sleeping because hard rains and strong winds rocked the bus all over the 31. carretera. The yucky 32. clima continued most of the mañana on Saturday. As a result, the streets quickly became so flooded that most of the students were not able to attend classes that day (particulary those who live in the 33. montañas and have a longer viaje to the escuela). Only four showed up in Tapachula, and only two in Cacahoatan. In Tapachula we decided to have class anyway—but only for half the morning. Then I spent the rest of the day with Fransisco and his familia (el director of the Cacahoatan school). We went to see some Mayan ruinas, and then ate and hung out at their house until it came time for them to drive me back to the bus station. ¨Cacao¨ in Spanish means cocoa, which the people grow a lot of in that area—hence the name of the ciudad. Francisco was more than eager to show me the inside of a huge cocoa plant, coffee beans, and a few other 34. plantas I had never seen before.

Kids´Class at Church/Clase de Niños de La Iglesia

I have been teaching the kids at church again, on Sunday nights. This class is always a challenge, because sometimes there are as many as 30 kids from ages 2-11 all in one room. The church does not have the space or the funds yet to add more classrooms. A few months ago we started taking up a special 35. contribución to add classroom space behind the edificio. But there is still not enough money to start the proyecto yet because there are so many who said they were going to give and haven´t. Last week at a ladies meeting, however, we did discuss the possibility of renovating another room or breaking the class into 3 groups. It´s nice to know that others feel the same way that I do about the situation.

Many of the kids seem to have the 36. actitud that they can get away with anything just because they´re at church. Therefore, I have been thinking up some new 37. sistemas of punishments/rewards. For example, I have started giving them 38. estrellas for attendance, participation, and good behavior. For every 10 stars that they receive, they get a 39. premio. So far it seems to be working well. I have also started asking some of the teen girls to help me. Sometimes the poor kids act like they don´t even know how to use a glue stick—much less draw something from their own imaginations! And the younger ones completely depend on the older ones to do everything for them. But I can´t help but enjoy teaching them--despite their endless, crazy antics!

The materiales that the Mt. Juliet ladies contributed have really come in handy. However, there were some that the ladies here 40. obviamente had never seen before—like the flannelgraph materials. I told Ani, the preacher´s wife, that I would be glad to meet with the ladies sometime and show them how to use each of the materials. But I guess they thought they didn´t need me to show them, because they jumped the gun and organized everything themselves sometime while I was away. The result? Rather than sorting the flannelgraph pieces according to each story, they decided to put glue and laminate paper around each of them. Their reasoning? They thought it would be too easy for the kids to tear them up otherwise. Well maybe so, but I guess they didn´t realize that the 41. piezas won´t ever stick to the flannelgraph board now! Oops! And they are using the flannelgraph book as the main source for their 42. temas rather than an aid. So they are using the materials, they just aren´t using all of them in the same 43. manera that we do : )

Last week I was flipping through 44. canales and happened to catch the second half of the first Presidential debate. I didn´t even know it was going to be on. Sometimes I feel so estranged from my home country!

Well I better stop this blog here before it gets too long.
45. Cuidense,
Elizabeth

1. parties

2. faces

3. soft drinks

4. plates

5. invitations

6. souvenirs/memories

7. designs

8. rule

9. date

10. expenses

11. cake

12. nothing

13. excuse

14. offense

15. rude

16. responsibilities

17. flowers

18. dress

19. to sacrifice

20. step

21. passport

22. ready

23. little by little

24. weekends

25. lands

26. maps

27. classroom

28. presentation

29. apostles

30. very impressed

31. highway

32. weather/climate

33. mountains

34. plants

35. contribution

36. attitude

37. systems

38. stars

39. prize/reward

40. obviously

41. pieces

42. lessons

43. way

44. channels

45. Take Care

Questions, Doubts, and Immaturity

College Blues

Well it´s that time of year again when the kids are back in school and the older teens are trying to decide what to do with their 1. vida. Several of the jovenes de la iglesia are starting new jobs or starting college. I must say I never realized how difícil it is for them to study exactamente what they want here—and it has nothing to do with dinero. First, they have to know before they start what their 2. especialización is going to be because most 3. universidades only offer a few majors at most. Then they have to take a test to see if they qualify to attend that university. But oftentimes they are competing for just a few open slots out of several hundreds of applicants. Toño, José Luis´brother, had his heart set on a Universidad en Puebla, but he did not pass the 4. examen. So he has begun studying in Tuxtla instead.

But a few of the others have not been so lucky. At least dos of the muchachas want to be teachers, but they were not able to pass an exam after two or three tries. These tests are not like the SAT or ACT in that a passing score is generally 5. suficiente; there were only about 30 slots available for over 200 teens who wanted in. The girls are both very 6. inteligente, I know, but just had slim chances of passing. So they have put off studying another year and are trying to figure out what else they can do. But there really aren´t very many jobs geared towards women here (which is why I think almost every girl at church is studying to be a teacher, nothing else). Since Mexico is still so far behind the United States, the most prominent 7. trabajos are male-dominated ones we tend to overlook, like welding, pouring concrete, or painting carros. I feel really bad for the two girls who still can´t go to college and wish there was more I could do to encourage them. José Luis did give one clase de jovenes about what is truly involved in being successful, and I think most of them really appreciated it.

Daniel´s Story (La Historia de Daniel)

A few weeks ago José Luis and I invited all of the jovenes to visit one of the elderly men of the congregation, Daniel. We had planned on visiting with Daniel for about an hour and going to a coffee shop in the centro together afterwards. A whopping one teen showed up. Sometimes I wonder how many años it will take for the teens here to have the same 8. unidad and love for the 9. Señor as teens from big youth groups like in Mt. Juliet. José Luis and I work so hard to plan actividades they will enjoy and go out of our way to invite each of them, and yet they still take so many wonderful oportunidades for granted. But we have learned not to let it get to us and to ¨try, try again.¨ I think it really helps that we are in it together; that way even if no one else shows up, we can still do something just the two of us. Before José Luis seemed to get discouraged a lot easier. So maybe encouraging him to keep working hard is one of the many 10. maneras I have found to be useful here.

Anyway, we had a good visita with Daniel, and even with only three of us, I know that we were able to build him up a lot. Daniel is about 70 years old, and for the past few meses he has been battling several health problemas. Before his health started to go awry, he attended several of the classes at the preaching school and preached for the congregation occasionally. Like many elderly folks, he had some very 11. interesante historias that he was more than eager to share with us. First, he went to school on the first day of kindergarten and never went back because he didn´t like it. Instead, he devoted himself to milking cows at a nearby 12. rancho, never learning to read or write. He worked hard every year after, and also kept 10-15 13. novias at one time. As a young adult, he lived and worked in Detroit one year. I have mentioned before what a small mundo it is when I find cristianos aquí with connections to people back home, and Daniel was actually living in Detroit at the same time as mis padres. Upon returning from Detroit, he married one of his many novias. They moved to ¨the city¨ (San Cristobal) and started a small convenience store together. Since there weren´t very many convenience stores at the time, their profits eventually allowed them to contract four taxis and build a casa large enough for the whole familia. Daniel also started his own coffee business. He and his esposa and hija became Christians a few years ago after one of his vecinos invited him to la iglesia.

Daniel seemed very pleased to share his experiencias with us, but afterwards his mood quickly changed. It turns out he doesn´t feel comfortable preaching because he still has a hard time reading. And he said various times that he is ¨ready to go and be with his wife¨ (who died a few years ago). But despite his eagerness to go to 14. el cielo, he also told us that he doesn´t have any faith. Apparently he believes that God should have listened to him and healed him of his enfermedades a long time ago. For alguien who attends every worship service and leads 10 minute prayers, it certainly struck us as odd. But it just goes to show that there are many seemingly devoted hermanos fighting battles that we might not ever realize. Daniel´s ¨lack of faith¨ has already deceived him so much that he has started to confuse 15. las ciencias with 16. cristianidad. He wanted to know why, if there is a God, he allows it to rain for days on end in lugares like San Cristobal, but in other places of the world it´s completely dry and no one can grow anything? Why, if there is a God, do scientists say they have proof there were living beings 17. milliones of years before the Biblia was written? Naturally we spent the second part of our visita mitigating his doubts, reminding him of other great men of the Biblia who had great faith in tough times, and helping him to realize what some of his many 18. talentos are.

Babes in Christ (Bebes en Cristo)

Lately I have come to realize that there are many men in the congregation like Daniel: men who are still babes in Christ, trying so hard to understand the Bible while at the same time clinging to their Catholic roots. It never fails that anytime an Americano comes to give a clase, one of the men takes advantage of their presence to ask picky doctrinal preguntas. When Glen was here, one of our preaching students asked what he thought about listening to music. The student believes that it is sinful to listen to any kind of 19. musica at anytime (but really did not know of any versos from the Bible to support his belief other than Amos 5:23). With Kerry, someone asked if there are still people in the world today who can perform miracles, like the apostles did in the book of Acts. Another man, who was losing his eyesight, actually went to visit another religious grupo to see if they could heal him!

Of course David has preached on these 20. topicos. So José Luis and I really can´t understand why these men who have been Christians over a year now still don´t understand such basics 21. principios and don´t talk to David when they do have questions. But I have to remind myself that many of them have little educación; they rarely study their Bibles; and very few of them come to church 22. consistemente. These kinds of doubts and questions also make me aware more then ever, like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, that ¨I´m not in Tennessee anymore!¨ I have told José Luis varias veces that we Americans have a different style of teaching simply because most grew up in the church and are much more mature spiritually. The congregation here may be one of the biggest in Chiapas, with over 100 members, but 23. ciertamente it is still young and in desperate need of guidance and support.

Marisol

I am also convinced more than ever now that, because of simplistic doubts like these, of how crucial it is to continue studying with new 24. conviertos. It´s una razon I continue studying with Marisol, even though she´s been baptized over a year now. In our past few studies we have been studying 25. oración. I told her that I am getting married (she didn´t know yet because she was away all verano), and out of the blue she responded, ¨I never married. I am still living in unión libre (free union) with Abel.¨ She said it like it was nothing. I, on the other hand, had no idea she never married because she has always referred to Abel as ¨mi esposo¨ (my husband). And the poorest of Mexicans don´t like to spend money on engagement or wedding 26. anillos, so it´s not like I could know if she was actually married or not just by looking at her finger.

Naturally she put me in a difficult posición. I want so badly to encourage her and help her grow spiritually, but at the same time I feel somewhat 27. responsable to teach her about God´s views of marriage since I am the one studying with her. But José Luis and I talked about it, and we agreed that I won´t say anything. She has already been discouraged lately and coming to church a lot less, so if we tell her she has to officially get married (to her non-Christian ¨boyfriend¨, no less) we would risk that she stops coming altogether. On the other hand, hopefully she will be able to continue coming to church and studying until she knows enough to make the decision to get married on her own. If anyone else has any other suggestions of how to handle the situation, please let me know.

Good Works (Buenas Obras)

Even though many of the members are having a hard time 28. espiritualmente, I really feel like the congregation as a whole is working hard and moving in the right direction. Who knows how long it will be before we have 29. ancianos, clases for all edades, or several different kinds of 30. ministerios, but at least we do more than most of the other congregations in Chiapas. Speaking of ministries, José Luis talked a few Sundays ago about some of the different kinds of works we can be involved in. I was able to give him lots of ideas of things that have worked for us in the U.S. that most congregations here haven´t considered yet. I also showed him part of the SOS booklet from Mt. Juliet´s website, and he was amazed by all the different areas. For those of you who don´t know, the ¨SOS Booklet¨ is something every member fills out to indicate what kind of actividades he/she would like to help with—some of them as simple as placing attendance cards in the pews, others as complicated as teaching at the local jail. The book is literally about 30 pages long!

Vacation Bible School? (¿Escuela Biblica de Vacaciones?)

This past verano some of the ladies decided to teach daytime kids´ classes. (Actually, I think they decided it just one or two days before they started it—one of the many things that still bothers me about this cultura.) A few of them worked together to teach the niños Monday through Saturday from 10a.m.-1p.m. cada día. I was not able to go because I was busy with one of the American maestros, but from what I heard it went well, with more 31. visitantes arriving most days than regular miembros. So you could say that it was their first VBS. No more than 40 niños came each day, which may seem like nothing compared to our high 32. numeros. But with such a lack of planning, I think that´s pretty good. As long as we are consistent, I´m sure that our ¨VBS¨ will only grow and get better each year.

Problems in Teopisca (Problemas en Teopisca)

Also, as I mentioned in the last blog, more of the men have been getting involved in preaching and teaching. Before they were preaching just to ¨fill in,¨ but now they are having to preach more out of 33. necesidad. For one reason, they are having to take turns preaching in the Iglesia de Cristo de Teopisca—about 30 minutes away. A few weeks ago David attended the Sunday morning worship services at this church to try and resolve some problemas they´ve been having recently. Supposedly some Texans came a few years ago teaching that they should practice ¨one cup¨communion. As I told David, I find it highly ironico that Americans with such bizarre ideas went evangelizar in a little known place like Teopisca when I don´t even know of any churches in the United States that are ¨one cup.¨ But Teopisca is a very poor comunidad where la gente has little to no educación (like muchas in Chiapas). We have a feeling those American 34. evangelistas purposefully seek out places where the people are more 35. ignorante because no one else will listen to them. Actually, David told me that the same men came to San Cristobal and offered him dinero if he accepted their 36. doctrina, but of course he refused. So the Christians in Teopisca adopted the one cup doctrine, and lately they have had some other extreme ideas, as well; for example, they believe that women are never to wear earrings. I don´t know all the 37. detalles, but I think their 38. predicador has a lot to do with it. Fortunately David managed to persuade the majority of members that those ideas had no ground. Those he didn´t persuade, including the preacher, basically split off and have begun meeting in a separate local. But the group that agreed with David is mostly mujeres, so of course they are without a preacher now.

A New Congregation (Una Nueva Congregación)

Also we are in the process of establishing a new iglesia in the pueblo of Pujitic—about two hours away. A brother of one of our ladies lives there, and David began studying with him one or two months ago. Last week we had the 39. privilegio of travelling together to Pujitic and witnessing the man (Antonino) and his esposa get baptized. There are several other religious groups in Pujitic, but no Church of Christ. Actually, Antonino and his wife already know a lot about the Bible (compared to other members) because they were previously Jehovah´s Witnesses. So they are the start of a new congregation in that area. They will travel to San Cristobal for our culto every two Sundays; and on the alternating Sundays, David or one of the other men will conduct the worship services in their home. In the meantime, we will continue taking groups on los sabados to evangelize in Pujitic and surrounding areas.

We took advantage of our trip to the river to go swimming!

All of us who went to Pujitic

I also witnessed a bautismo in Larrainzer a few weeks ago. I had gone to see how everything is going with the preaching school there. (You may remember that those students recently started meeting in their own church building instead of coming to San Cristobal each week.) But in place of classes that day, the students, several others from the congregation and I drove to the nearby 4o. rio to watch an older lady be baptized.

By the way, I really enjoyed watching the 41. Olimpicos this time. There´s just something about being in another país that makes you feel even prouder of your own. I´ve never paid much atención to the medals count before, but this time every time an American won algo I would want to get up and cheer. The Mexians can´t understand how we can win so many 42. medallas and almost feel jealous of our 43. atletas! At the same tiempo, however, they consider a 44. victoria for us a victory for them, simply because we are the closest country to them.

Public busses decorated for ¨Día de Choferes¨ (Driver´s Day), when all the bus and taxi drivers go together to el cerrillo de San Cristobal (the San Cristobal hill) to receive a blessing from the ¨santo de motoristas¨ (saint of motorists). They believe that the saint will help them drive well and protect them from accidents. Supposedly it is strictly a San Cristobal tradición because no other ciudad has the santo de motoristas.

Well I think I have said enough for one blog ; ) As always, I am open to your suggestions and 45. comentarios. Elizabeth

P.S. I still need support money, if anyone can help me out, whether it be a one time donation or monthly. So far I have only received little more than 1/4 of what I need for my second year here.

1. life

2. major

3. universities

4. test/exam

5. sufficient

6. intelligent

7. jobs

8. unity

9. Lord

10. ways

11. interesting stories

12. ranch

13. girlfriends

14. heaven

15. science

16. Christianity

17. millions

18. talents

19. music

20. topics

21. principles

22. consistently

23. certainly

24. converts

25. prayer

26. rings

27. responsible

28. spiritually

29. elders

30. ministries

31. visitors

32. numbers

33. necessity

34. evangelists

35. ignorant

36. doctrine

37. details

38. preacher

39. privilege

40. river

41. Olympics

42. medals

43. athletes

44. victory

45. comments

José Luis and I have a new sobrina (niece)!