Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!

Sundays are, by far, my favorite day of the week. I love gathering with the whole Church and worshipping together. Even though I can´t understand most of the lessons, I am reminded that God is translated the same in all languages, and that whether we speak the same language isn´t important - serving our God is. I also love to think about all the other parts of the body that are meeting together. I think about people I know, love, and cherish -- and I feel close to them when I think about what they are also doing on the Lord´s day.

This particular Sunday, the JOVENES (young people of the church) met to take a picture together. I´ve posted a picture for you to enjoy. In the two weeks I´ve been here, I´ve gotten to know most of them fairly well, and can only pray that our friendships will continue to grow closer - to each other and to God.

Jovenes a la Iglesia de Cristo

After church, Carina and I (and her parents) went into Eagle Pass (the US Border town) to go shopping. During lunch, we had an interesting conversation about church in the States and church here in Mexico. I told them about how large MRCC was, and how big the young people ministry was, and they were blown away! They were really interested in how we managed to have so many active members in the young people classes. I tried to explain to them some of the activities and thought processes I´ve experienced in ministering to young people - establishing relationship first, and then using the trust you´ve built between you and them to invite them to church. Carina explained to me that here in Mexico, it is extremely difficult to invite young people to church. She gave me two reasons: 1.) The Catholic church is dominant here. 2.) and the Catholic church doesn´t set rules (like the CoC does, supposedly), and so young people aren´t interested in changing their ways (i.e. smoking, drinking, etc, etc).

It was slightly discouraging to hear, but as soon as I felt that discouragement, I began to pray fervently for the young people of Piedras, putting my faith in the Lord. I ask that you do the same -- and that somehow we would be able to minister to these young people. Sarai, Carina and I are hoping to start walking the neighborhood and meeting new young people to invite to church. I don´t know when that will happen, but I have a feeling it will soon. Pray for that too!

Carina, Sarai, and I

Last night, the JOVENES met and had dinner and hang-out time. We had burritos (called BURROS here), and then afterwards played some games. One game was called ¨Me Quieres¨ (Do you love me?) and the object of the game goes like this:

The group is sitting in individual seats, while there is one person in the middle. The person in the middle chooses someone in a seat and asks them, ¨Paco, me quieres?¨ (Which ends up being funny... think, Honey if you love me...) Paco will then respond, ¨Te quiero, pero me quieres a...¨ And then calls out another person in the circle - Carina, for example. Now, the two people sitting next to Paco, and the two people sitting next to Carina, must run and find an open seat, but the catch is that the person in the middle is trying to find an open seat as well -- leaving a new person without a seat. It´s a pretty fun game, and it gets even crazier when the ¨Paco¨ gets to call out two, three, or four people rather than just one person. All you Blue Haven people -- a fun ¨get to know you¨ game to play on the first Sunday of sessions.

Carina acting like a chicken during one of our games