This weekend marked a HUGE first for the ministry of El Pozo. Our friend Elsa got baptized on Saturday, becoming the first student in the ministry to get baptized. Elsa was raised Catholic but, like many Mexicans, it didn't mean a lot to her. She got involved with the ministry a year ago, and slowly overcame her dislike of gringos. (She's from Cancun - her only impression until a year ago was that gringos were drunk, rude, and always in a "vacation" mindset.) She accepted Christ two weeks ago, and spent the time since telling her parents, best friend, and others important to her about her decision to be baptized. Her passion was amazing, and her best friend (a strict Catholic) was persuaded to come in from Mexico City (about two hours away) for the event.
She was baptized along with 23 others at "Aguas de la Vida" ("Waters of Life"), a retreat center outside of Puebla. The other 23 are all active members of Torre Fuerte ("Strong Tower"), which is the church we all attend. The senior pastor allowed Nathan, the head of the staff at El Pozo, to baptize Elsa even though it was a Torre Fuerte ceremony. So, we got there at 10, found out the event would be about two hours later than we were told, and spent the morning talking and playing games. Finally, we all gathered around the swimming pool and heard the brief testimonies of the 24 people to be baptized. Elsa was toward the end of the line, but our excitement didn't fade - after Nathan baptized her, she was met with the claps, cheers, and hugs of all of us. Afterwards, we had a huge "birthday party" for Elsa at the house, including a birthday cake and a huge pinata.
Life here has, otherwise, been fairly uneventful. School is a challenge, but I feel like I'm actually at least able to convey some of my ideas and my sense of humor in Spanish. It's very frustrating to make a joke and see it fall flat because I don't said something wrong; laughter when I try to be funny is such great encouragement to keep trying to talk in Spanish. The people here are so patient, and our friends will even offer advice and suggestions at the end of meeting together, telling us ways that we can improve. Very cool.
Some big prayer requests right now are:
- Elsa's mom accepting her decision to be baptized... at the moment they aren't talking, but Elsa is confident her mom will let it go in a few days or weeks.
- Language partners... I went to an English class and found 16 Mexicans interested in practicing English and helping us with Spanish. Pray that they are willing to meet with us and get to know us
- Student leaders at El Pozo... Elsa's baptism has "started a fire" among the leaders. A couple are considering baptism, and four are considering a summer mission trip to Africa.
- Missing family and friends... all 10 of us are starting to miss home some. Pray that we could keep our heads and hearts here, seeking to love on the Mexicans we meet.
Here are some pictures from yesterday's festivities:
This is me with two of my friends, Jackie and Ivette, waiting for Elsa's baptism. Jackie is from the States, but studying at UDLA for a year. She has quickly become a friend and active part of El Pozo. Ivette is a student leader at El Pozo and Elsa'a roommate.
This is Nate and Elsa during the baptism. Nate's a pretty mellow guy, but he was smiling most of the day yesterday.
This is a group of staff and student leaders from El Pozo after the baptism. From left to right: Sarah (staff), Ivette, David, Elsa, Alex, and Nate
Viva Mexico!
The past few days have been exhausting, but amazing. The fun began on Thursday (with only one class on Fridays, at 2 in the afternoon, we usually feel free to stay out late on Thursdays)... the whole group of ten exchange students, plus several of our friends (Mexican students and some other UDLA exchange students) went to a local salsa club called Portos. We had a blast... I'm definitely NOT a dancer, but I still got out there and tried a couple of times. It was actually a ton of fun, and I managed to not be self -conscious for a little while.
Friday, a group of us went to the zocalo of Puebla for Independence Day. The zocalo, as I've mentioned before, is the city square... each city has one, and it always includes a church and a government building. There are also usually restaurants, a fountain, etc. Anyway, at 11 pm on Sep. 15 (the night before Indep. Day), the local political leader (the governor of the state, in this case) comes out onto the balcony of the political building in the zocalo and gives a grito. Grito literally means "shout," and that's exactly what it is - the leader waves the Mexican flag and shouts "Viva ______" ("long live ________") several things - health, education, etc., and ends with several shouts of "Viva Puebla!" and "Viva Mexico!" After each, the crowd shouts back "Viva!" It was a pretty awesome experience - I'm not great at estimating, but there were definitely tens of thousands of people in the square. I put some pictures at the bottom. After the grito, we went back to Cholula and ended up hanging out at a place called Utopia. We had a blast there, too - karaoke, good conversation, and lots of laughing.
The most exciting news of the last several weeks is definitely that our friend, Elsa, accepted Christ at church, a week ago. Elsa grew up in Cancun, and had a very bad impression of gringos. A year ago this past week, Elsa came to her first En Vivo, and she has been coming ever since. She's going to be baptized this coming Saturday, and we are all SO excited. Elsa has quickly become a close friend to many of us, and her passion has been amazing to see in the past week.
This week should be a great, but challenging one. At our weekly exchange student meeting on Thursday, Angie (our coordinator) talked about how ministry consists of both "inreach" and "outreach." We've been doing a ton of "inreach" (cleaning, helping out, hanging out with student leaders, etc.), but not much "outreach." So this week, we're focusing on the outreach side of things. We're supposed to pretend that we don't have nine amazing friends on campus with us, and act accordingly. That can mean all sort of things - reading outside alone, approaching people we don't know and starting conversation, and finding other ways to make friends. I'm hoping to eat lunch with a few friends who attend El Pozo events periodically, so I can get to know them better. I also plan to get in contact with the Chemical Engineering department here, to see if I can help out there... All of the engineering textbooks here are in English, and understanding/translating everything can be tricky for students. I don't know a TON about ChemE, but I think I could help people understand the tricky words. Other than that, I hope to get better at conjugating in different tenses (past tenses and future tense are still a challenge for me). If you're reading this and would be willing, we could definitely use your prayers this week for all of us to find our niche and to be willing to act on opportunities for outreach.
Here are some pictures from the weekend:
This is the building from which the governor gave the grito. It faced the zocalo, and the crowd stood below. There was also a full orchestra in front of the building.
After the grito, the whole crowd went crazy. People began to spray red, white, and green foam all over the place, people waved Mexican flags, and fireworks went off. We got pretty covered with foam - we think that people decided gringos make good targets. =)
This is our whole group at Utopia, back in Cholula. We got the hats from the staff, and they ended up taking a picture to put on the wall. We thought about buying the hats (only 20 pesos, or about 2 dollars), but decided they would be impossible to bring back to the States. Oh well.
The last week or so has been pretty uneventful, but I'll do my best to post some of what has been going on.
Just like Atlanta, this past Saturday was a big football day in Cholula... it was the first game of the UDLA Aztecas American football season. There are only a handful of schools in Mexico that field football teams, and UDLA is one of them. We played Monterrey Tec from D.F. (Mexico City), and it was a lot of fun. Nathan (the head of the missions team at El Pozo) was actually an exchange student for Globalscope at Tec several years ago, so it was especially fun for him. The level of play, as well as the size of the crowd, were more comparable to a high school game in the US, but we all had a blast. After the game (which was at noon), we had a tailgate party at the campus house. We had a pretty good turnout, and we spent the afternoon/evening eating burgers, playing washers and volleyball, and hanging out and talking. Afterwards, the staff and exchange students stuck around to watch the Georgia Tech vs. Notre Dame game on the projector... the guys all chipped in for ESPN GameDay online, so they can watch any game they want. Unfortunately, the internet connection was slow and the power went out a couple of times (due to bad weather), so we didn't get the full effect. I wish I could have been in Atlanta, just for the atmosphere... even if the game didn't turn out how we wanted it to.
This week is the first week of midterms for the semester. So far, I have had to give a presentation about a Mexican holiday and write a fake news article. Friday, I have a test in my grammar class. It has made things much busier, but our schedules hardly compare to those of my roommates and some of our friends at El Pozo (engineering, law, and architecture majors). Several of us will be playing intramural volleyball. Our first game is tomorrow... I'm not anywhere near great, but I think it'll be fun.
Things at El Pozo are going well. It was pouring rain during En Vivo (the Bible study) last night, but we still had a good turnout. It's so hard for us, to get used to Mexican schedules... we all start to get really scared at about 7:55 when we realize there are only about ten Mexicans in the house. (En Vivo starts at 8) Bible study starts, and by the time I turn around at the end, the "big room" is almost full. It's pretty cool. This Friday, we're having a chocolate-making party for all of the girls. We're all inviting our roommates, as well as all of the girls who attend El Pozo events. We're really hoping for a good turnout.
My goal for the week is to find time to just relax on my own. A friend back in the States pointed out a few days ago that I have a schedule filled with worthwhile, fun, and exciting activities... but I really never just RELAX. I'm either hanging out with people, doing ministry events, in class, doing homework, or sleeping. There's a really beautiful, big garden on one edge of campus... I'm going to try to spend more time out there with my iPod and a good book.
We had originally planned to visit D.F. (District Federal, or Mexico City) for Independence Day (Sep. 15/16). Unfortunately, we've had to cancel those plans. For those of you who haven't been following Mexican politics, they just yesterday declared (officially) the winner of the July 2 presidential elections. The leftist candidate, Lopez Obrador, has been calling for charges of fraud and corruption against the conservative candidate, Calderon; almost all of the charges have been dismissed as unfounded. To clarify, the politics in Mexico aren't quite what we would think of in the States - Obrador is FAR to the left, and is openly a populist ("rule by the people, from the ground" style), and perhaps (but less openly) a want-to-be revolutionary... Calderon is from the "conservative" party, but would be considered moderate in the States. He's for a strong business-oriented economy, something Mexico could really use. Obrador wanted the entire election thrown out as void; the electoral tribunal finally declared yesterday that the election was valid. Obrador, who has taken over the Zocalo (the famous city square of D.F.) with a makeshift tent city, has sworn to create an alternate government. Basically... it's not safe for us to be in the city for independence day. It'd be right in the middle of the action, but in this case, that might put us right in the middle of danger, too.
For an interesting look at Obrador's politics (and why it's not safe for us to be in the city), check out this column from the Washington Post yesterday:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/04/AR2006090400699.htmlI don't have any thrilling pictures to share this time, but I'll stick a couple on here:
This is the UDLA mascot, the Aztec. He was pretty funny, but also a little bit more vulgar in his actions/humor than the mascots back in the States would ever be allowed to be. We laughed at him a lot during the course of the game, though.
This is a picture of Elsa, Ivette, and me at one of our favorite places to hang out. Elsa and Ivette are both student leaders at El Pozo, and they have quickly become two great friends.
