Hola! Como estan?
I hope that this email finds you all doing well. I send you warm greetings from team Mexico! Our team arrived safely exactly a week ago today, and we are blown away that the time has gone by so quickly.
The Lord has gifted us with a group of amazing servants. We have gifted musicians, plenty of fluent Spanish speakers and teachers, cooks and a very effective leader.
Our team members have been able to spend more time with their host families this year, which has been an incredible! Katie and I have been tremendously blessed to be a part of the Contreras family this year. They are an incredible example of a Godly family - Luis is incredibly humble and selfless, Robin is the model Godly wife, and the kids are... kids :) Olivia is 6, Rodrigo (Gigo) is 5 and Ana Gabriela is 3. They have been so much fun to be around! Last Sunday, we helped to lead worship at Iglesia Naucalpan, where Luis Contreras introduced the team to the congregation and explained the purpose for our two weeks here. Many of those families participated in the VBS this past week and will also be involved with the youth conference next week.
VBS flew by. Our theme had to do with changing, and the kids were given a passport with pages for a different country they would be "visiting" on each of the 5 days of VBS. We led them in singing, had puppet shows and announcements, then broke up into different age groups for the lessons and activities. Each day was also paired with a story about a character or characters in the Bible. All of our snacks and crafts were tailored to that character and to the country. For example, on Thursday, we talked about the apostles, the country was China, we made little fish necklaces and the kids had fried rice as their snack! I got to do a chopstick demo and teach them a few Mandarin phrases, and the kids were surprisingly skilled (even the 4-6 yr olds!). We were very impressed with them. Praise God also for our highest attendance yet. We peaked at 65 kids on Friday (compared to 50ish last year). We didn't expect to have that many kids, and we barely had enough supplies and food for everyone. The Lord is really using this VBS as an effective Gospel ministry to these children!! Yay!
Individual team members lead devotionals every day and after VBS, we have been cleaning and painting Iglesia Remanente (where the VBS and youth conference are held). Our worship team has also been preparing to help lead worship at next week's youth conference. We have had 3-4 hour rehearsals every afternoon with a local worship team that we are collaborating with. That has been a great and wonderful challenge for us, too. How amazing it will be to make music for the Lord with our Mexican brothers and sisters next week! We will have a combined worship team of 12 people - 1 drummer, 1 keyboard, 1 trumpet, 4 guitars and 5 female vocalists. It's going to be really awesome... And learning all these Spanish worship songs has been SO much fun :)
We have had several evenings of fellowship as well - a pupusa party (thanks to our team member Armida), and last night we spent the evening with Josiah and Crystal Grauman (and 3-month old baby Abby; she's ADORABLE) and Jim and Carolyn Dowdy (neighbors of the Graumans' - the share a wall). The team loves to laugh, and we seem to laugh at everything when we're completely exhausted. Armida and Henry are particularly funny. Today we had a group outting to the famous National Museum of Anthropology. They have a lot of interesting things there, and Rosie Martinez remarked that it's a good reminder of where she was before Christ - completely pagan and then completely astounded that God would allow her to see her sin, repent of it and be saved! Preach it, sista! We went to lunch at San Angel afterward (like last year).
Anyway, that's everything in a nutshell. I'm excited to share my pictures with you when we return home (next Sunday). Next week, we will be spending a lot of time at the Contreras household in the mornings/early afternoons doing painting and cleaning, as we did last year. The youth conference will run in the evenings.
Please continue to pray for...
1. The hearts of the kids and families that came to the VBS - that the planted seeds would be nurtured and Lord willing, they would come to accept Christ
2. Next week's youth conference - for our own hearts and the hearts of those that will be in attendance (theme is on Colossians - setting your minds on things above)
3. Health and safety - praise God most of us have been ok so far, though Jhaneth and Wendy are coming down with colds now
Until next time, Dios te bendiga!
By His grace,
Vanessa =)
Posted by yours truly,
tiara
I hope that this email finds you all doing well. I send you warm greetings from team Mexico! Our team arrived safely exactly a week ago today, and we are blown away that the time has gone by so quickly.
The Lord has gifted us with a group of amazing servants. We have gifted musicians, plenty of fluent Spanish speakers and teachers, cooks and a very effective leader.
Our team members have been able to spend more time with their host families this year, which has been an incredible! Katie and I have been tremendously blessed to be a part of the Contreras family this year. They are an incredible example of a Godly family - Luis is incredibly humble and selfless, Robin is the model Godly wife, and the kids are... kids :) Olivia is 6, Rodrigo (Gigo) is 5 and Ana Gabriela is 3. They have been so much fun to be around! Last Sunday, we helped to lead worship at Iglesia Naucalpan, where Luis Contreras introduced the team to the congregation and explained the purpose for our two weeks here. Many of those families participated in the VBS this past week and will also be involved with the youth conference next week.
VBS flew by. Our theme had to do with changing, and the kids were given a passport with pages for a different country they would be "visiting" on each of the 5 days of VBS. We led them in singing, had puppet shows and announcements, then broke up into different age groups for the lessons and activities. Each day was also paired with a story about a character or characters in the Bible. All of our snacks and crafts were tailored to that character and to the country. For example, on Thursday, we talked about the apostles, the country was China, we made little fish necklaces and the kids had fried rice as their snack! I got to do a chopstick demo and teach them a few Mandarin phrases, and the kids were surprisingly skilled (even the 4-6 yr olds!). We were very impressed with them. Praise God also for our highest attendance yet. We peaked at 65 kids on Friday (compared to 50ish last year). We didn't expect to have that many kids, and we barely had enough supplies and food for everyone. The Lord is really using this VBS as an effective Gospel ministry to these children!! Yay!
Individual team members lead devotionals every day and after VBS, we have been cleaning and painting Iglesia Remanente (where the VBS and youth conference are held). Our worship team has also been preparing to help lead worship at next week's youth conference. We have had 3-4 hour rehearsals every afternoon with a local worship team that we are collaborating with. That has been a great and wonderful challenge for us, too. How amazing it will be to make music for the Lord with our Mexican brothers and sisters next week! We will have a combined worship team of 12 people - 1 drummer, 1 keyboard, 1 trumpet, 4 guitars and 5 female vocalists. It's going to be really awesome... And learning all these Spanish worship songs has been SO much fun :)
We have had several evenings of fellowship as well - a pupusa party (thanks to our team member Armida), and last night we spent the evening with Josiah and Crystal Grauman (and 3-month old baby Abby; she's ADORABLE) and Jim and Carolyn Dowdy (neighbors of the Graumans' - the share a wall). The team loves to laugh, and we seem to laugh at everything when we're completely exhausted. Armida and Henry are particularly funny. Today we had a group outting to the famous National Museum of Anthropology. They have a lot of interesting things there, and Rosie Martinez remarked that it's a good reminder of where she was before Christ - completely pagan and then completely astounded that God would allow her to see her sin, repent of it and be saved! Preach it, sista! We went to lunch at San Angel afterward (like last year).
Anyway, that's everything in a nutshell. I'm excited to share my pictures with you when we return home (next Sunday). Next week, we will be spending a lot of time at the Contreras household in the mornings/early afternoons doing painting and cleaning, as we did last year. The youth conference will run in the evenings.
Please continue to pray for...
1. The hearts of the kids and families that came to the VBS - that the planted seeds would be nurtured and Lord willing, they would come to accept Christ
2. Next week's youth conference - for our own hearts and the hearts of those that will be in attendance (theme is on Colossians - setting your minds on things above)
3. Health and safety - praise God most of us have been ok so far, though Jhaneth and Wendy are coming down with colds now
Until next time, Dios te bendiga!
By His grace,
Vanessa =)
Posted by yours truly,
tiara
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