Faith, Doubt and Hope

Hey all, so I just finished up this week working with the team from Colorado and I thought I'd give you a quick update on how things went. We went on Friday to a small little town that felt in many ways straight out of the 19th century or something. The team had donated a computer to the little school building that they had also painted and we arrived on friday the next day to be received by a group of probably 50 parents and students as well as local politicians to officially thank us. I felt like they were such typical politicians straight out of a movie called Herod's Law about old school politics in Mexico. We played soccer with some kids for a while with some soccer balls we donated before heading back to the town center to do a program for kids. We were driving back expecting to have to go out and invite kids, but when we arrived the local politician had already gathered together probably 80-100 kids just waiting for us as if we were some kind of celebrities. We played some games for the kids before we brought them into the community center building to do a skit, sing some songs, make the wordless bracelets and do a little skit for them. It was an experience to translate all that in front of probably 125 or more people counting parents, especially not knowing there reaction as the little village is strongly Catholic and does not really have any evangelical church. The presentation went well and we left to go back outside to play some more soccer and invite people to come to see the Jesus film that night. Much to our surprise the mayor used the Catholic church's sound system to announce the movie and probably over 100 people came to the movie and heard the gospel. Living the town I felt like there is much happening there and pray that God will move there. One of the churches in Puebla will be doing follow up there and I hope to go with them to go back and visit. It's hard for me to believe that I only have 6 more weeks here in Puebla before I go to Mexico City for the summer. Part of me is ready to move on and part of me sad to say goodbye to so many good friends. I think I would love to find a job here in Puebla and stay here, but who knows. On Saturday we took the team around the center of the city in a tourist kind of day and I realized that I had gotten comfortable working with the team and realized how much I enjoyed being around Americans again and how easy it is just to slip back into that. I had my church youth group at 6 and they were going to visit one of the pyramids here in Puebla around then and I was so torn inside that I had to leave, the tug to be with people of my own culture and language was strong and I left with a heavy heart, as much mourning that I still longed for that American culture as anything. But, arriving at my youth group and hanging out with them for the evening made me realize what a blessing they are to me and how much I have learned and been blessed by them. I realized that I have experiences and friends that I would never have if I stayed in my little (or in this case pretty big) American bubble. I am so thankful for the friends I have made and the things I have experienced that are so unique. I have learned so many things that you can't learn in any schools and am grateful for it. I pray that God would give me strength and i would have faith to continue on with His work here in Puebla and not start looking forward to moving on. Much love to all of you and God bless. Sorry I don't have any pics from the week because I kept forgetting to bring my camera, but maybe I can get some later from someone on the team.