Promises of God

I wanted to give you an update on Alice who I seem to talk about a lot. Recently she shared with me some pretty hard stuff that she's going through. We've been meeting regularly since then and I'm so excited to see what God does through this because she is in a place in her faith where she really wants to do the right thing but above all, she wants to grow closer to the Lord! Regardless of what you're going through, if your heart's desire is to grow closer to God, you're in a good place. I ask you to keep praying for her as her faith and her walk with the Lord becomes her own and becomes REAL! I've been beyond blessed by the conversations I've had with her and have grown in my faith because of a lot of the questions she has asked and by studying Scripture together. Needless to say, it has been awesome.

Philippians 1:6- Be confident that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

God has started something in Alice that has her attention and His promise is to carry it on to completion. Keep praying :)

Love you guys!

Race update

Remember how I asked you to please pray about the half marathon?? Well, I finished it :) My final time was 1:50! I think running is a little bit addicting. My next goal is a full marathon. When? Who knows. Probably a LONG time from now but still, a goal of mine.

Thanks for the prayers! See most of you (the Walla Walla folk) hopefully in a week!

Love you guys!

Answer to prayer... again :)

I can't get over how amazing God is! Similar to the story I told about Fer from the volleyball team, there's another girl on the team that is pretty cold, distant, complains about pretty much everything (I'm not painting a very good picture of her even though I like her a lot). I've been praying for her specifically the last few weeks for the same thing, just that God would give us time to talk and something to talk about just to get to know her. This week especially she's been pretty angry and distant and apathetic about everything. Today, out of "nowhere" she starting asking me about the team talks. This was when she was supposed to be warming up. She said, "I don't know if I've told you but my aunt is doing really bad. She has a brain tumor and has to have surgery today. That's why I've been so distant and not feeling like doing anything." She had absolutely no reason to tell me that, nor has she ever really initiated a conversation with me. I told her I'd be praying and if she needs anything to let me know and to for sure tell me how the surgery turns out. After practice she took off pretty quickly but I ran after her to give her a hug and tell her I'm praying for her and her aunt. God's timing is incredible! Will this turn into anything?? Who knows, but I'm praising Jesus for answered prayer even in the small things!

Prayers being answered

The captain of the volleyball team has been pretty cold and stand-off ish (I don't even know if that's a term or not) ever since I got here. This semester I've been praying for her specifically and asking for open doors just to be able to get to talk to her 1-on-1 and not in a practice setting. I was eating lunch with the girls on Wednesday and there were about 12 of us. Slowly but surely, one by one they started getting up and leaving, going to class or wherever they had to go. I just sat there and waited because the one I've been praying for was still there and I wasn't in a hurry. They continued leaving. In my mind it was like this dramatic scene because I'm still sitting there praying and watching God unfold this whole scene. Finally it's just me, her and one other girl. The other girl says she has class and has to leave, which leave me and her! We sat and talked for about an hour about her past and what she's been through and it gave me a lot of insight to why she responds the way she does and why she thinks the way she does. I also now know how to pray for her better.
  God is pretty clever in His ways of answering prayer. Please be praying for more opportunities to talk to her!!
  There's another cool answer to prayer story... :)
A basketball player who we got to know pretty well last year, is the queen of asking questions and it's AWESOME! She's starting to meet with one of my teammates to do a Bible Study! She's been dealing with somethings in her life for a while now and just recently she wanted to learn what the Bible says about this particular issue. She has an incredibly teachable heart and wants to grow and learn. This makes me so excited because I just love her a lot!!!!
  Two of many encouraging things this week :) Thanks for all your prayers! Love you!

People getting married!!!

Abigail is one of the girls on the volleyball team at UDLAP who I've been meeting with for the past year. She loves Jesus and has told me she has dreams of going overseas to do missions. She's been dating her, now husband, for almost 8 years and they got married this month!! She looked BEAUTIFUL!! It's going to be interesting to see how married life is :) Her coach said, "We've already lost her," before she even got married.
  She has been helping Alice with the group that they started and really wants to see change in her team! Please be praying for Abi's marriage and that she continues to grow in her relationship with the Lord.

Love you guys!!!

PALO VERDE DEL MUNICIPIO TLACOTEPEC DE JUAREZ

Try saying that name 5 times fast. The title is the name of the village that we went to this last weekend with a ministry called Living Water. They've been to this village a couple times before this weekend and have been working on building a well for the people there to have clean water. We took 15 of the track and field members from UDLAP, and Alice, from volleyball, on the trip. Some were going because they really wanted to help and get this experience, some went to get social service credit for school, whatever their motives were, they left impacted. God does that :) The amazing part of this ministry is they really live out what the Bible says about providing people with the basic needs, their tangible needs. James 2:16-17, "If one of you says to them, 'Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead."
  The water that this village was drinking was the same water that they were bathing in, washing their clothes and food in, and also the same water that the animals around the area drank. While we were there we helped clean a channel that brings rain into a cistern they have. The problem with this channel is that people and animals use it as a bathroom so the rain washes all of that down and eventually, that's what's being consumed. It's a big project that's being done so that there is a natural filtration system being put in place, there's a channel that's relatively clean, a well that will provide them with safe water. I don't know all the details of how the system works but I know this team is working REALLY hard on this project and are passionate about seeing these people have safe water.
  We also did a little extreme home makeover to an 88 year old man's home. They brought him a new matress for his new hut but he couldn't sleep in his house the first night after we left because the cement floors had to dry so they put the matress in the church for him to sleep. He said, "No, I'll be fine sleeping under these trees for the night." It's incredible!!
  There were also classes given about personal hygiene so that the kids and mamas could learn (most of the men were at work). The mamas learned how to wash fruits and vegetables well and their hands to try and prevent sickness.
  Some of the track kids left that day really being impacted. There's going to be follow-up to hear what they learned, how God's heart is for the poor and to ask questions and hear their testimonies. It was an incredible and humbling experience that we're definitely going to do again (some of the tracksters already said they want to keep going :) ).
  There are pictures posted at

http://s1184.photobucket.com/albums/z327/marnieAIA/

Love you guys!

Race time!

This morning I ran in a 10K race (about 6 miles ish) in 49:33 minutes at UDLAP. Each year they have the Carrera Azteca (Azteca Race) as a fund raiser for the university. There were 2,000 runners of all sizes, shapes and ages, some doing a 5K and some doing a 10K. It was an awesome environment to be in. 5 of our 6 staff from our AIA team ran in it and did so well! I'm debating running in a half-marathon in November here in Puebla. I'll keep you posted.

Love you guys!

God is good.

I always try to come up with some clever, witty title for each post but, alas, I can't come up with anything. My creative juices are NOT flowing.
Cool story. There's a girl on the soccer team at UDLAP who we've known for about a year. She wears a necklace with a stone on it that she believes gives her all the energy she needs to play, study, live, everything. If she were to lose that necklace, it would not be good. Abbey has been working with the soccer team for a little over a year now and last week, she was asked by the soccer player if she could meet her pastors. Keep in mind this was "out of the blue"/ Jesus is working in her heart. She and one other player went to dinner at her pastor's house and then came to Casa Verde (another college ministry here) and are going to be doing a Bible Study!!!!! I mean, going from putting all of your faith in a rock to wanting to study the Bible?? Only Jesus can do that.

We're hoping to take the track and volleyball teams on an outreach with another ministry called "Living Water" to the indigenous villages that are less than an hour away from Puebla. Please pray that all of them want to and are able to go. The people in these villages don't speak Spanish, don't have running water (we'll be helping building wells), don't have any personal hygiene because they've never learned how and don't have the resources. I'll definitely write more about it when we go.

Love you all!

Captain's Dinner

I wanted to let you know about the Captain's dinner. So, we invited 6 girls, the captains of 4 teams. We made dinner (lots of it) bought flowers, made cards, the whole works. Jacky, the captain of the track team came, and that's it. We heard from the rest of the girls that night saying they weren't going to be able to make it and they felt really bad for cancelling. Here's the cool part. I hardly knew Jacky at all but the fact that we were able to have dinner with her and focus just on her was awesome!!! She is the captain of the biggest team, and a co-ed team (which we've been praying for men to step up on the campus). She's an awesome leader and was really touched by the dinner that was all for her :) Please keep praying for Jacky and also for the other captains (Monica, Fer, Areli, Wendy, and Melissa).

It's easy to get discouraged when things don't turn out the way you plan but it's cool to see even the little victories that God gives you in what seems like a failure of an event. He can turn anything good... He's really good at it :)

Love you guys!!

Captains=Influence

Tonight we're having the captains of the volleyball, basketball, track and field, and soccer women's teams at UDLAP over for dinner. We decided we wanted to show them how important their role really is and that we're here to support them in whatever they need. I'm not sure how close the different sports are. What I mean by that is I know all the athletes know each other from the different teams, I just don't know if they're buddies or just know each others' faces. I think tonight will be cool to get them to hang out and get some recognition.

I've been practicing with the volleyball and basketball girls and it's such a different feel to be just at UDLAP. I feel like I get to see all the girls throughout the entire day instead of just during the 2 hours. It's amazing to see how the ground work has been set by last year and now it's just a ton of growth in the relationships that have already been made. This year already has a completely different feel then last year.

Last week I started with the team talks for the volleyball team and made them binders with their pictures, quotes, and places for them to take notes and they loved them!! They're always stoked to get new stuff especially if it has their picture in it :)

A little taste of home.

2 days after I got home from London, I had 3 of my favorite people in the whole world come visit me from home!! It was so INCREDIBLY refreshing to have them here and to be able to get a little glimpse of my life in Mexico. There's something special about being able to combine my life now with amazing memories and friendships of home. They were here for 2 weeks!! We got to see Puebla, the universities, meet the teams and coaches, visit the world's smallest volcano, and tour all the other little perks and quirks of Puebla.

It's an incredible blessing to have friends sacrifice time and money to come down here! Love you guys!!!

London... in a little more detail.

London was a big whirlwind of an adventure. 3 weeks of non-stop going, exploring, meeting and venturing. We were able to meet quite of few of the athletes that were participating in the games from all different sports and nations. They all wore their gear that represented their country so it was easy to tell and easy to approach them. I had my eye out for anyone from Mexico. There weren't very many around but when I saw them, I knew they were from Mexico! They wore their Mexican gear proudly, whether they be athlete, coach, trainer, or just a die-hard fan that traveled all the way to London to support their nation. I met 2 coaches, one an archery coach and the other, well, he just said he's the best coach in Mexico... we have yet to determine which sport and why he's the best. The cool part is that the archery coach lives in Puebla :) I'm praying we get to meet up with him. We met the men's archery team and one of the men's soccer players (an official gold medalist!!!!). It was easiest to approach them because I feel like there was some common ground already being a foreigner living in Mexico. It just felt natural to start a conversation with them. I didn't just limit myself to talking with people from Mexico however. It was AMAZING to strike up conversations with people from all over the world! We handed out DVDs called "Struggle and Triumph" which has past Olympians giving their testimony about how they combined their faith and their sport and how their identity is in Christ and not in medals that they try and win. It was a cool time to be able to explain what we do and what we believe. Majority of them were very receptive and interested. Along with it, we were able to invite them to the Legacy Breakfast.
   What's the Legacy Breakfast you ask?? It was the first year that AIA put it on and this year there was an Eric Liddell (from Chariots of Fire) award. 2 athletes were given this award, Bryan Clay (decathalete) and Debbie Flood (Rower). They shared their testimony about their identity in Christ and how their faith has brought them to where they are today. If you haven't heard the Eric Liddell story I would HIGHLY recommend it. The room where this breakfast was held was the room where the first UN Meeting was held, Queen Elizabeth had been in there for several meetings, so it held some pretty significant historical meaning... and not to mention is was BEAUTIFUL!!!!! There were 400ish people from all over the world that heard these testimonies :)

So much time, so little Blogging I've been doing.

Hello everyone!!!!
I have done such a terrible job at keeping this blog up to date so I'm going to do my best to fill you in on everything without making it brutally long.

A couple weeks ago, I had the amazing opportunity to climb Iztaccíhuatl (one of the volcanoes here in Puebla). She is the love of the warrior Popocatepetl who killed herself after realizing that the love of her life was "killed" in battle. This is part of the legend of the 2 volcanoes. There's more to it but like I said, I don't want to make this brutally long. We made it all the way up to 16,060 feet!!!!!!! There was snow on the trails, INCREDIBLE views, really thin air, and 10 hours of hiking :) All of it was totally worth it!! It was beautiful! There were 3 people in our group that got altitude sickness but were troopers and made it all the way back down.

We've had about 2 weeks of being able to meet with Becky (the girl who recently accepted Christ)! We gave her a Bible and walked her through how to read it. Her response was, "Yay, now I'll have something to read in my favorite spot." :) I was just reading an article called "Lifetime Laborers To Lead Into The Harvest." It talks about how Heaven parties everytime someone accepts Christ. Then it says, 'What a difference it would make if we even celebrate these small steps students are taking to enter His kingdom." It's cool to think about rejoicing and celebrating everytime someone makes even a baby step towards God and how those baby steps are eventually going to turn into something big. I want to apply this idea of rejoicing all the seemingly small stuff because it's evident that God has His hand on these small things too.

Alice, one of the volleyball players, applied to go to Costa Rica for one of their Athletes in Action summer tours. It's just like the basketball tour I did 2 years ago here in Mexico. Things have been kind of chaotic in the process but as soon as she gets the green light saying she's accepted, she gets to start raising support!!! This could be huge for her walk with God because it will take her out of her comfort zone, teach her how to share her faith with others, help build our relationship because we would be doing the training camp material together, and she'll get to practice sharing the gospel!!! I just remember what an amazing time it was for me and how God worked through that tour to bring me back here to continue teaching me things. Please be praying that A) she gets accepted B) She can raise all her support, and C) That this trip would be monumental in her walk with Christ!!!!! That her life will be changed for the better as a result of going on the trip :)

Thanks guys!!!! Love you lots!!!

Finals

The girls basketball had their semifinal game the other night against UDLAP, the #1 seed. They were so pumped going into the game and had been practicing really well the weeks prior to the game. Gameday came, and they lost by 16. It was an INCREDIBLE crowd and a fun game to see but they didn't come out on top. They play today for 3rd or 4th. It was hard to see all their faces after the game (especially Karla, one of the captains because she fouled out early and it was one of her last games she'll ever play with Tec). It was great to be able to hug them after and encourage them as hard as it was. It's interesting trying to figure out what to say after games like that because I remember games like that and the last thing I wanted was for someone to tell me good game or really say anything at all. I mostly resorted to giving them a hug, saying I'm sorry, and leaving it at that. They're such an amazing group of girls and I'm so grateful that God has given me the opportunity to get to know them better and be a part of their lives and vice versa.
The UDLAP volleyball girls went to Monterrey last week for nationals (about a 15 hour bus ride but luckily they got funding to fly). THEY GOT 2nd!!!!!!!!!!!!!! These girls are legit and I'm really proud of them for getting second.

Diana has been bringing her boyfriend to our meetings and we had some GREAT conversation last week. She's excited about inviting her teammates to meet with us too. It's an awesome platform because she lives with 5 of the girls from the team so she sees them all the time and gets to have great conversations with them. Please be praying that more girls from the team would be interested in comoing to talk with us too!!!!

LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!

Summer Stuff

I wanted to give you guys a sneak peak of the summer stuff that's going to be happening down here and to ask if you'd be praying. At the end of May, there are 2 soccer teams coming down from all over the U.S., one men's and one women's. They'll be here for about 8 days and will be playing in a tournament with 3 other teams from around Puebla. The UDLAP soccer coach is organizing everything with the tournament. They'll be spending a lot of time with all the opposing teams, building relationships, sharing the Gospel, and also helping with another local ministry.
A few days after the soccer teams leave, a Sports Performance group, from Liberty University in Virginia, is coming for about 10 days. They're going to be working mainly on 2 campuses with coaches, players, and trainers doing different strength and conditioning, physical therapy, and medical assistance training, etc. There's a pretty big need for that among all the teams down here so I know the teams are excited to have help in those areas. It's also going to be a cool time for some more 1 on 1 conversations to happen.
A few days after they leave, a women's basketball team from all over the U.S. to do a summer project for about 2 and a half weeks. I'm STOKED for this group because the summer project that I went on is what sparked my interest to come down here again!!! My roommates and I will be playing with them in a tournament (well, 1 of the 2 roommates since Katie won't be completely released to play from mono, so she'll probably be our Assistant Coach). There'll be 4 teams in the tournament that we're working closely with the Tec coach to help organize. The rest of the time will be scrimmages, practices, spending time with the local teams and really trying to build relationships in a short period of time. It's amazing what God does through these teams even though they aren't much time at all in the grand scheme of things.
Please be praying for all of these projects and that some amazing relationships will be built and the gospel can be shared and that people from the projects would feel called to come back to Mexico to serve for a longer period of time ;) Hey, crazier things have happened. Please pray that the teams here in Mexico will be excited to really get to know the players coming down and that God will prepare their hearts to want to learn more about Jesus!
I hope you're all doing amazingly! Thanks for the prayers :) Love you.

April already

I have failed miserably at keeping my blog updated, my deepest apologies. My friend from college that I haven't seen in about 3 years came to visit a couple weekends ago. Neither of us knew that we were both in Mexico. She was visiting her aunt and uncle in Cuernavaca and then she came to visit me in Puebla!! It was so good to see her again. We went to African Safari (a massive open land area where they have a ton of sweet animals... see the pictures I put up) and spent the whole day exploring and getting to know the outskirts of Puebla. I'm hoping she'll be able to come back and visit after her meditation class that she's taking now. She got sick all day Saturday the weekend she was here and so our time together was kind of cut short.
We went to a conference this weekend that I wrote about in my newsletter. It was awesome to hear Julio give his testimony in front of everyone. The goal was to keep it to 5 minutes just to be courteous of time and audience friendly but he spoke for 22 minutes! Here's the kicker... he's so good at speaking in front of people and so animated that it felt like it was 10 minutes. Everyone else said so too. Afterwards we talked to him and he said, "I didn't even say anything that I had planned to say. I said everything else though :)."
Katie is still in the states but is feeling better!!!! She should be back here in the middle of this month hopefully!!! Thank you for all the prayers :)
I wrote this in my newsletter but wanted to go a little bit more in depth here. Yost and I have both decided to stay in Mexico for another year. Our first year ends in September so technically, I should be back in the States September of 2013 (unless I feel called somewhere else). We were given the deadline of April 1 to decide and I was a complete mess that first week after I realized how quickly the deadline was coming up. I didn't know what to do, I missed my family and friends and really was just a big crying wuss of a mess. I can honestly say that this is the first really big decision that I have had to make where I feel like I have really tried to seek out what God wants me to do and really remove any selfish ambition that I had (that's brutally hard for me to do). After talking to lots of people and praying a ton, I really feel at peace about staying here. It's kind of a weird feeling because I was CONVINCED that I was going home after this year was up but I really feel like I'm where I'm supposed to be right now. There were some consequences that went along with my decision but I feel like this is the right thing to do.
Thank you all so much for all your support!!!! Love you guys!

Peace.

Hi guys!
In just a couple of days I will have hit the 6 month mark of my adventure down south. I've really been praying alot about what's supposed to come next and I really feel like I'm supposed to stay down here for another year. This has been a process of really trying to trust in the Lord and to wait on Him to show me what's next. I really feel at peace about the decision. It's been hard thinking about another year being away from family, friends and the boyfriend back at home but it seems like the right thing to do right now. Please be praying for this (I have to give my FINAL FINAL decision by April 1).
What I'm really excited about is all the relationships that are being built down here! I feel like God is really opening doors for alot of the girls to hear the gospel and for the girls we're already discipling, they're getting chances to share with their teammates! I met with another girl today from the volleyball team who wants to start meeting to look through scripture and pray together and she's not even a Christian. Pray that she'll want to know Jesus!!!
Also a few updates....
Katie is still in the states but feeling a little better!!!!!!! She's hoping to be back here in the beginning of April (I HOPE SO!). Remember Julio? The guy who was wrongfully put in jail and had been meeting with my team leader. HE'S FREE!!! One of the cool parts about God is that he does the impossible. Julio's case was the first innocent verdict for the crime he was
accused of in two years!!! Pretty incredible. Here's my friend's blog that describes it better: http://www.macfamilyaia.org/2012/03/14/thank-you-from-julio/?logout=1#permalink

Thank you for all the prayers and support! I love you guys!

Possible adventure #2...

I have a prayer request...

Yost and I are considering coming back/staying in Mexico for a second year. There has been so much happening here and relationships are really growing that I feel like I might be called to stay for a while longer. We were told that we need to make a decision by April 1. I'm really trying to seek God on this decision to see what it is that He wants me to do, not what I want to do... because I don't even know what that is. I'm praying that I will be ok with either of the choices as long as I'm walking in His will. I'm trying to be wise about this and it's been a super hard process to think through all the different options. I'm asking you to pray with me that I know what I'm supposed to do next year.

Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love you guys!

Great day :)

Today Pili (one of the basketball captains) came over because she said she really had to talk and also wanted to pray with us. We got to talking and she brought up how she feels like everything around her is crashing and being taken away from her. She said, "I feel like I don't have anything left." I shared the Gospel with her while Yost and I told her about how Christ had changed our lives (and is still changing us to this day... good thing). We gave her a Bible and showed her how to use it. She grew up very Catholic but has lately been going to Casa Verde with us (another college ministry in Puebla) and has been meeting with us with the other captain but now wants to look more into the Bible with us. Her response was, "I don't know if I want to change religions." We talked about religion and a personal relationship with Christ, freedom in Jesus, and a lot of other things. I'm REALLY excited to see how she wants to grow. We had a great conversation and am postitive that there will be more in the future. I'm just really encouraged by her. At the end of our meeting we prayed together and she said that she wanted to too. It was a beautiful time!

We just had the soccer team from UDLAP over to our house tonight, all 25 of them. We had s'mores on our rooftop, pizza and a bunch of other random stuff. Abbey has been working with these girls all year and really has invested a lot in their lives. She made them each a CD and wrote each girl a card with a specific characteristic that they've been studying in the team talks. The cards took forever because she really took time to think of something special about each person. The captain wrote on them too. The girls LOVED them :) There were some tears last night because they were so appreciative. Each girl had a chance to say something to their teammates (if they wanted) last night on the roof and quite a few girls spoke, I was surprised. They leave for Nationals tomorrow morning at 3am so this was a little send-off party for them.

I hope you're all doing great! Please keep the soccer girls and Pili in your prayers. LOVE YOU!

Many stories in one...

I went to Cuernavaca this weekend to visit my college friend. We haven't seen each other since we graduated (almost 3 years ago. I'm starting to get old.) We also didn't know that each of us were in Mexico. It all started because she wrote to my college roommates and I telling us about a dream she had of us. Then we started to talk and realized that we're only 3 hours away from each other. So I went down to see her and it was a ton of fun. She'll come to Puebla at the end of this month. I'll put the pictures up in the next couple days. We had some really good talks and I had an interesting debate with her uncle about our beliefs. Lord knows I don't know where to begin when it comes to debating, so basically I just sat back and listened then chimed in every once in a while when I heard something that was super interesting and WAY different from what I believe.

We're starting to meet with Diana, one of the basketball girls, who is really excited about growing in her faith. We were talking today about what a cool opportunity it is for her to be able to talk about God with her teammates who don't know him. We were able to pray together today and get to know each other better.

Katie, my roommate that went back to the states because of mono, went to the doctor today to get blood work done. Her sodium levels are low and her cholesterol is high and she still has mono. She has some good days and some days where she still feels really sick and super tired. Please keep praying for her so she can come back to us soon!

The other night, we had our AIA team night and we decided it should be 80's themed. We all dressed up and looked GOOD! I still don't really know how the 80's went out of style. Three of us went out and got tacos looking like a bunch of morons but it was a great night!

I have a prayer request... I've been feeling a little overwhelmed today thinking about what the future holds and where I'm supposed to be. I'm asking that you guys would pray with me to be wise about the decisions that I have to make in regards to what I'll be doing. I love you all and appreciate all the prayers and support.

I know there are many more stories but after a 12 hour day, my brain doesn't really work. When they come to mind, I promise to write them.

Jam session

Tonight we had a bunch of the soccer girls over and also 2 girls from our softball team for dinner and s'mores making. We got to talk alot and after our mini bonfire, the soccer girls left. The softball girls stayed and we ended up having a sweet jam session on the roof with 2 girls playing the guitar, me playing the djembe, and all of us singing! We were playing a bunch of worship songs in Spanish and English. It was so much fun! I think we'll be hanging out with these girls a lot. They want to get closer to God because they feel like they've drawn away from Him quite a bit. They're such sweethearts so it'll be fun to start hanging out with them.

This is a short one but I just wanted to share that with you guys because I was excited about it! Love you and hope you're all doing great!

Mexico, Mexico, Mexico

Weeks are FLYING by right now. I don't know if that's good or bad. We've been having some great meetings with our girls (Alice, Abigail, Yun). We were at one of the Tec games last week. It had just ended and they had won by 1 and played really well. We met one of the girls' parents after and she said, "These are the girls from Athletes in Action that I was telling you about." They both got really excited and said, "Oh thank you so much for taking care of our girl. Her faith is so important and we're really happy that you guys can help her." They were really sweet. Starting on Monday, we'll be meeting with her once a week. I'm really excited!
Alice is really excited about the possibility of going on a summer tour with AIA (like the one that I did with basketball). The volleyball tour goes to Brazil (how sweet would that be???) She also might do her social service/practicum for her last semester of school with AIA. What that would look like, I have no idea. She might help us with the summer teams that are coming down. We're waiting for her to get the go ahead from her department. Please be praying for that!
We were at a staff meeting last week and the first question for us was, on a scale from 1-10, how are we feeling like things are going?? My response was about an 8.5. I'm absolutely LOVING what I'm doing and feel like relationships are going really well. The only 1.5 that I was missing was because I felt kind of overwhelmed by all the stuff I had to get done. I want to thank all of you for your prayers and support! They're definitely NEEDED and APPRECIATED!
Please also be praying for London, Mary who is STILL in the U.S. sick but getting better, and Yost's family who is going through some hard times. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Love you all a whole lot!

Almost 5 months in...

To start off, I wanted to give you a little update on my roommate, Katie. She's still in the States and is starting to feel a little bit better. She can still do minimal activity so she'll be up and doing stuff for a couple hours then just has to crash for a long time. Her appetite is back which is a blessing. She went into the doctor for blood work last Friday I think and should get results this week and will hopefully be back here in the next couple weeks!! Please keep praying... we miss her a lot. I've been meeting with Yun (the one who met with the witchdoctor) and she's really excited to start diving into the Bible. We met with her last week and talked about her starting to do the talks to a guys team where she has lots of connections and the coach requested that we help them. We don't have the number of staff to take on another team so we decided to help her along the way so she could do it. She's stoked about that too. She's a great kid who is really excited about lots of things in life... I'm excited I get to spend so much time with her.
This weekend we're babysitting John and Natalie's kids (4,3, and 11 months). They needed a well-deserved mini vacation. I'm learning alot about motherhood and how I'm not even CLOSE to being ready to be responsible for another human being. They are some good kids though.
We had our meeting with Alice yesterday. As she was walking up to meet with us, we realized she brought 2 of her suitemates, a soccer player and a track girl!! We got to study the Bible with all of them! As we were getting towards the end, one of the other volleyball players came up and sat with us, so we had 4 girls with us!!! It was awesome! Alice is really excited about growing in her faith and so she's just grabbing anyone who is willing to listen.
Thank you for all the prayers! It's cool to see all that's happening down here and see how God is working in the hearts of these girls. It has been amazing to get to know them more and see all they're going through but get excited about growing and learning new things... please keep praying! Love you all a whole lot.

Keep it coming...

It's Sunday night and I'm here anticipating waking up super early tomorrow morning to go to practice and do a Team Activity on unity. Yost and I were able to play with the Tec team in a scrimmage game yesterday. We lost. It was the same team that we played against in our first game when we came down 2 years ago... we lost then too. I'm still bitter. ;) It was so much fun to play in an actual game with the team instead of just practice. There's some major division going on however. There are 2 main cliques that just can't seem to get along. This week has been rough for them. They lost Tuesday by 4 to UDLAP, Thursday by 1 to UDLAP, and by 16 yesterday (my incredible number of turnovers probably didn't help the situation.) On Tuesday the coach asked me to sit with them on the bench as his assistant. Before the game he basically gave me the green light to tell him when he's being too negative or out of control and basically tell him what's up if he's going nuts. There have been quite a few of the girls who have told me that they can't perform with the way that he talks to them because he goes crazy, or gives up, or is just super negative. They're also afraid to approach him to tell him any of this. I'm going to talk to him tomorrow (hopefully) to see what he thinks about it. Please be praying.
Yost and I met with one of the basketball girls and she told us about how she had gone to talk to a witch doctor because her dad's secretary had recommended him. He told her things about her past and present that were apparently true and so it freaked her out (naturally). She was worried about her family because he had said that her step mom was going to do something dangerous to her dad and her and her mom were going to get sick (there was much more detail than that but that's the gist). We were able to pray together and look at lots of Scripture that speaks against the work of the Devil and how we already have victory through Jesus' death. We gave her a Bible the next day and she said, "You're going to show me how to use this right?" So now we're meeting with her too!! She considers herself a Christian and a Buddhist (I'm still trying to figure out how the 2 go together). Keep praying for her!
Alice (volleyball), Yost and I have been meeting twice a week and last Friday we had our first Bible study on God's character. We had a really good talk and even started talking about baptism :) She's excited to learn more about God.
Sheri Johnson (one of Abbey's great friends and mentors) came to visit and did a talk for all the teams... well, all the teams were invited. We probably had about 30 which is a good turn out for our first talk. I had to translate (not my greatest skill but still a good experience). She spoke on what she would have liked to have known as an athlete in college (she did track at U of Wyoming). She spoke on how many things that we can control (training, eating right, listening to our coaches, treating people right, etc. will never guarantee a positive outcome. The only guaranteed outcome we have is where we'll spend eternity if we know Christ. John came up and shared the Gospel at the end. It went well I thought. There are a couple girls from the basketball team that are starting to come to Casa Verde (the other college ministry in Puebla) and one is Becky and her roommate that I shared about in my newsletter and another one is Pili, one of the captains that we've been meeting with. Be praying they continue to come and want to know Jesus!!!
This is a long one... hopefully you made it to the end! I hope you're all doing GREAT! Love you all!!

One of the basketball girls, Becky, said she had to talk to me the other day and it was urgent. We went on a walk (she was on crutches at the time so it was a very slow walk) and she was telling me about all of the things that were going wrong in her life and how she wanted to leave Puebla. There were some parts of her story that I couldn't understand. Sometimes I have to ask about 200 clarifying questions to Spanish speakers to make sure I'm understanding what they're actually saying. Poor girl had me asking all kinds of questions. She was telling me she was at her limit and couldn't take anymore!
That was about a week ago. The other day I texted her and said I had been thinking a lot about what she was telling me and wanted to talk to her. I really felt like I was supposed to share the Gospel with her but maybe that other day we were talking wasn't the right timing. We went and had breakfast today after practice and she just broke down and cried in the middle of the cafeteria. She's been with her girlfriend for over a year and they just broke up. She's really afraid of being alone and is just really hurt by the break-up. I shared the Gospel with her telling her that God is the only one that has helped me when I felt like I was at my limit. She was very receptive of it and is really searching. We had a really great talk about how she blocks all her problems out and refuses to think about anything which makes it impossible to process things which in turn just makes feelings and problems drag out much longer than if they're just dealt with. I challenged her to write in a journal, or on anything really, for at least a half hour each day for the next week and a half in order to get some of her feelings and emotions out. Otherwise she's just going to keep them bottled up and never dealt with. She also said that she was afraid to be alone becuase she was afraid she'd do something to harm herself. She has some support here in Puebla but I'm praying that she gets the right support and guidance from the people who care about her. Please be praying for Becky, that she can experience God's comfort in this hard time and also that she feels encouraged to know God personally.
Thank you thank you!! My next newsletter will be out in the next couple days just a fun fact. I hope you're all doing great! Love you :)

God is really, really cool.

One of the many, many amazing things about God is he likes to catch you off guard and give you awesome surprises and gifts. Today, we just got done with practice and were walking up this staircase that I swear is a mile long, when we saw John, our team leader. We stopped to talk with him when 2 other guys came up. John knew one of them because he works in the Athletic Dept. at Tec. The other guy was a reporter from "Sol de Puebla," one of the most well known newspapers in the city. He was talking to us for a while asking about what we do when he ripped out his recorder (no, not the instrument, although that would've been awesome) to interview John. He talked about the teams that we're working with, how we're trying to help them physically, mentally, emotionally, and above all, spiritually. The reporter was really interested and was asking how to get more information. He was asking if he could take pictures of us when his photographer got there in a while. No later than he could finish that sentence did his photographer roll up on his motorcycle. Here comes the best part... but first to give you a little visual. Yost and I had just finished practice so you can imagine how good we looked. I had a Wa-Hi sweatshirt on sporting Devil while we just told them how we're telling the people we're working with about Jesus, and we're thinking by his "taking pictures" he meant 1 maybe 2 pictures of the 3 of us.
We go back down the mile long staircase to the courts when he asks us to grab a basketball. Yost gets one and starts posing like a mad woman! She's doing every kind of high school basketball pose combined with senior picture style and they're just LOVING it! He must have taken 10 pictures of her and she just looked fantastic. Next it was my turn (after I changed my sweatshirt) and to us the word "awkward" to describe me in front of a camera would be the understatement of the century! But alas, he still took about 10 pictures of me too. Then John's turn, after they went to grab the baseball gear since he's a baseball player. We can't take pictures to represent Athletes in Action without props from each of our sports. Then came the group photoshoot. Think of any senior picture pose you can, and we did it.
This article, with pictures, will be posted in the newspaper either Wednesday or Thursday so the whole world/those who read "Sol de Puebla" in the city, will get the pleasure of seeing the pictures. I'll get a hold of 1 or 20 so that I can try and scan and email them out.
How amazing is that though?? God just spread the word about Athletes in Action, and ultimately about Him, to a giant newspaper company!! I didn't wake up this morning looking for a sweet photoshoot looking like a scrub but we went with it anyway :)
Switching subjects... we had 3 basketball girls and 1 soccer girl over for dinner last night and it went really well. We're going to make Sunday our dinner with our girls night every week! I'm really excited! I don't think I could ask for a better job :)

I hope you're all doing amazingly! Love you and am praying for you!

I'm starting to realize that I live in Mexico.... yes it has taken me this long. My schedule is getting more and more packed but that's what I'm used to so it's a good thing. The not good thing is when I forget what I'm doing here and get task-oriented and focus more on getting things done rather then spending my time with God so that I can do other things. Working out of my own strength is not going to cut it. I seem to have to relearn that lesson over and over... and relearn it the hard way.

I'm super stoked for everything that's happening here! I had some 1 on 1 meetings this week that I'm really excited for. There are 2 volleyball girls that Yost and I are meeting with. With one, we're doing the studies on character and working through goals with her. Another volleyball girl has been meeting with Jolita for a while and really wants to be close to God but doesn't know how. She said she's not content with the way she's living her life now. With her, we're going to do a Bible study on God's character. Who He is? What he's all about so that she would know her identity in Him and be able to stand firm knowing that she's loved, royalty in God's eyes. forgiven, during all the hard circumstances she's facing. We're also doing a Total Athlete study that's kind of a Bible study that combines Scripture and your relationshiip with Christ with sports. I'm really excited :) Please be praying for both these girls.

Last night we had our first study on the John Maxwell book, "The Difference Maker" with the 2 captains of the basketball team. They're both liking the book which is a good start. They've had problems with each other in the past and haven't been able to work very effectively together but have been working on it. Last night was great. They were both completely open with each other about stuff they needed to work on and also decided ways that they can work more together so that the rest of the team doesn't see division in their leadership. They're going to start being a part of giving team talks and activities and are going to do it TOGETHER which is the kicker. There was a lot that was poured out on the table and a lot to work on and that was only our first meeting. So, here we go :) Please keep praying for these 2 as well. This is the last semester for one of them before she graduates so there's an aspect of "passing the baton" to the other captain since she's newer in this role.

Update on Katie... she's out of the hospital, praise Jesus! She's at home in Tupelo, Mississippi with a liver that's shot, infections, mono, and an enlarged spleen that's pressing on her stomach and ribs. PLEASE keep praying for her! We're still not sure how long she'll be home but hopefully she'll be back to us soon to this side of the border.

I hope you're all doing great! Thank you for all the prayers and support! Love you!

Also, I put more pictures up... just a fun fact!

Crazy week!

What a week! Update on Katie, my roommate. She's in the States at the hospital. They're keeping her in the hospital until Monday because her liver is in shock. They're also testing for malaria which she'll find out the results on Monday. Please keep praying for her quick recovery. We already miss here here!!!
Yost and I met with Abigail, one of the volleyball players on Friday and had a GREAT talk! She's a Christian that just wants more out of her relationship with God and to be a light on her team. We asked her how she wanted to grow in her walk with Christ and she said, "I want to become a woman of prayer and I want to be disciplined." Her homework for the week was to make goals in different areas of her life; i.e. Physical, Spiritual, Personal, Other, and we'll go over them next week. She really opened up to us about stuff she's struggling with and we prayed with her. We're also starting some sweet character studies with her on Fridays.
One other girl on the volleyball team wants to do the character studies as well. She is a sweetie and I'm really excited to get to know her better!!
Another super highlight this week was I got to practice with the volleyball team!! Volleyball is one of the most fun sports to play... basketball is still my favorite but I always have SO much fun playing volleyball. The coach said I can play all the days that I go to UDLAP. Super stoked! I think this might be a way for doors to open with this team.... Despite the fact that I'm terrible. All that I have going for me in volleyball is that I'm a scrappy little bugger.
The basketball girls had 2 games this weekend away and went 1 and 1. They play home on Wednesday so I'm excited to see them!
Today we played in a softball game with the coach for the UDLAP baseball team. We won 30-14. It was close. It was also amazingly fun! I could play in pick-up games and practices all day long if people will let me. It's nice of them to pick up a scrub and give me a chance. We might be playing with this team every Saturday that we can. I might actually come back somewhat tan.... oh who am I kidding, I can't tan.
I hope you're all doing great! Keep the prayers coming! God is doing some cool things and I'll make sure to keep you updated on all of them :)

Crazy and weird week

Hello beautiful, beautiful people!
This has been just a weird week kind of. I just sent out an email for the prayer request for my roommate so I'm sure you already know about it... if not, she has mono so please be praying for healing and for protection over the rest of the team.

Last night we had the Tec girls over to our house for dinner and games and a good-bye party for Jolita because she's going back to Lithuania for a few months for training and to raise support to come back to Mexico long term. Please be praying for her too! It went really well last night! I'm mostly excited that they know where we live now and feel welcome to come over whenever they want. We played spoons (if you don't know that game, you're going to have to soon because it's amazing!), Pictionary, ate hot dogs (their idea), and got to learn more about Lithuania through Jolita's presentation of her country, family, friends, etc. We're going to start the character studies next week at our house. The material is 7 books of different godly character traits with lots of Scripture interwoven. The kicker is that it's not translated into Spanish yet so that's going to be fun :)

Tonight the volleyball girls from UDLAP are coming over and it'll be the same type of deal. It's really important to us that they know where we live and feel welcome. I feel like things are going to start to get super busy within the next couple weeks so please keep those prayers coming.

There's a video that Yost, my roommate, put together that's on Youtube. I'll put the link at the end so you can see it. She's going to be doing them contiuously throughout the year and being the sweet person she is, she said I could send it to all my supporters. Props to her!

Love you guys and appreciate everything that you do!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXXWRsZvs_g&feature=youtu.be

Fun news

The other day, the coach at Tec (the basketball team Yost and I are practicing with) asked if I wanted to be his volunteer pseudo assistant coach and to sit on their bench during home games and help with the team and help control him (his words, not mine). He also said that he's working on trying to get permission for us to travel with the team for their away games!! How sweet would that be?? There was so much foundation laid before I even got here that those who came before me made my job easy :) Thanks to all those people!! They have an away game on Friday but he still hasn't gotten the official OK from administration so it's a no-go on this weekend but we'll see what the future holds!

I also gave my first talk to the volleyball team at UDLAP last Friday. We did an activity on enthusiasm and the girls did really well. They had to build a sculpture using a random assortment of things that I gave them and then describe how that sculpture represents their team spirit/enthusiasm. One group did an awesome job (they definitely won). I'll put the pictures up and let you guess which team won... shant be hard ;) After the talk/activity I talked with their coach because I noticed that the assistant coach and the head coach were stepping in to play because their numbers were low. So, naturally I asked him if I could play if they ever needed extra people and he said yes!!! I'm stoked! I'm praying that this could open doors for this team because they're definitely more reserved and shut down than the Tec team. These are the girls that are somehow SUPER interested in their phones as soon as you start talking. The timing is just crazy! I'm excited to see what happens. Hopefully he wasn't just saying yes to humor me so I would leave him alone... wouldn't be the first time that has happened in my life ;)

Tomorrow is our team night (dinner and games at our house) with the Tec team then Wednesday for the UDLAP girls!! Our doors are opening!!! Last night we had 2 basketball girls from UMAD over and it was a ton of fun. One of them has a pet duck... I didn't even know that was possible. Right after we finished dinner and they had left, we went to go wash the dishes (which was EVERY dish we owned) and turns out, this side of town ran out of water. Yep, you heard it, we ran out of water. So, this afternoon when we got back from practice we had some again. Never again will I take running water for granted.

Please be praying... Mary, one of my roommates, hasn't been feeling well at all these last couple days and is going to the doctor tomorrow. Pray against this sickness and spiritual warfare because doors are starting to open with her at UDLAP basketball. Be praying for our team nights too please! I'll keep you posted on how they go. Love you guys!!

So much to look forward to!

There are lots of doors opening here :) Thank you Jesus!
I've been practicing with the Tec girls 3 times a week and am at volleyball practice at UDLAP 3 times a week. I feel like relationships are really starting to grow at Tec especially!!! The weeks are going to be packed with getting together with the girls. We're going to start meeting with the captains at Tec starting in 2 weeks. We're going to study The Difference Maker by John Maxwell. I haven't read it but it looks like it's going to be really good. They're excited about it because I think they really do what their team to succeed and they want to know how to lead them well. They definitely have an influence on their peers so it'll be a really good study, for them and for me. :) Lord knows, I've got a LOT to learn!!
There's another girl that I'll be meeting with every week to practice English. Poor girl thinks that I know how to speak English well. We'll see if she can pass her class with a tutor who can't pronunciate anything because she mumbles EVERYTHING!
Next week we're going to have team nights at our house with both teams. Tec will be over here on Tuesday and UDLAP will be here Wednesday! I'm stoked because I'm praying that this will open doors for the girls to feel comfortable to come to our house, know where we live, hopefully break down some of the walls that are built up in some of these girls, and just because it's going to be sweet having the teams here just to have fun!
I'm just really excited about what all is going on here and what these next 9 months hold! It's really encouraging! God's most def on the move :) Please pray for all these different meetings and team nights, that relationships will continue to grow and that our house WILL become a place where all our athletes feel welcome and safe to come to!!
Love you all... lots! Thanks for the prayers :)

p.s. Sorry if there are a ton of typos in my blogs. Odds are good that there are. I haven't really gotten in the habit of reading over what I write. I just get really excited and then hope that all of you can follow my train of thought.

Early mornings and great friends

I'm trying to write in this bad boy often but so far I haven't done a very good job at keeping it updated. This first week of being back has flown by. We have had early morning practice at Tec followed by volleyball practice at UDLAP. I want to share a story about one of the girls at Tec.
Her name is Diana and she's from Ecuador. Last semester she played at UMAD when after the last game, her coach was mad because they lost by 2 to the last place team while they were in first, he picked 3 girls out and told them they were off the team. She was one of them. He told her he had her ticket back to Ecuador ready to pick up. She packed up her stuff within the next couple days, went to the registrar's office to pick up her ticket, and they had no idea what she was talking about. Quite the fear tactic he uses. She is a new Christian and had been meeting with Abbey, one of my co-workers, to be discipled. Well, now she has officially transferred to Tec!! :) I talked to her the other day (she is the sweetest thing ever!) and asked her if she'd like to continue to meet like she was doing with Abbey. She said yes! (Sounds like a proposal). So whenever she figures out her class schedule we'll find a time to meet. I'm STOKED!
Yost (our roommate that just arrived last week) and I stayed after practice last week and shot with 3 of the girls for a long time, then went and ate lunch with them. I have a feeling God has some big plans with this team and UDLAP!! Please be praying that my meetings with Diana and Yun (the other girl I was meeting with last semester) will flourish into something amazing that God does! We have some plans with how to try and reach the UDLAP volleyball girls so please be praying that they work. I'll write about them as we figure them out in more detail.
Yesterday was Hudson's 3rd birthday!!!!!!!!!!! We were there all day helping decorate. Then the kids came and we watched Rio (since the party was Rio themed), played Rio games, had a Rio piñata, ate a cake that Natalie made (I'll put pictures up of the cake because it's AMAZING!), opened presents, then came the big surprise.... The bouncy castle!!!!!!!!!!!!! They LOVED it. Totally worth lugging from the States. A great day all in all.
I'm going to put a list of names and who they are so you know who I'm referring to in my blogs...
John: Team Leader
Natalie: John's wife
Hudson, JT, and Lucia: John and Natalie's kids
Erica or Yost (Most likely I'll use Yost): One of my roommates from Michigan
Mary or Katie (Most likely I'll use Mary): Other roommate from Mississippi
Abbey: Co-worker from Wyoming
Jolita: Co-worker from Lithuania

That's a good start. Hopefully it's not too confusing. LOVE YOU GUYS! Thanks for the prayers!!

I'm BACK!

I have officially made it back to Puebla, safe and sound! It's been a couple days of recoup that were definitely necessary but it feels good to be back. :) I got to spend 2 weeks at home with my amazing family and friends (which made it even harder to leave the second time) but it was so great to be with them especially during the Holidays!

Coming into the airport was fun because I brought back a bouncy castle in my suitcase.... yes, a legitimate full size, kids bouncy castle... don't act surprised. The security gentleman questioned me about what it was (naturally) and I wasn't entirely sure how to describe it in Spanish. So it came out, "a big balloon that is in the shape of a castle that kids can jump in." I'm shocked that they didn't know what I was talking about. :) Then they asked for the invoice that I didn't have because I didn't buy it but also just forgot to put it in my bag. Luckily, John (the one who bought it) was on the other side of the security doors and had the invoice on his phone so they let me free. You may be asking, "Why did you even bring a bouncy castle?" Some of you might not be asking yourself that if you know me at all. But, I brought it for our team leader's son's 3rd birthday party. We've already tested it out and it works perfectly.

Since being back here, I've been reuniting with the team, meeting with them to regroup, talk about vision and schedules for this semester. I have a feeling these next 9 months are going to go by wicked fast! I start practice with Tec tomorrow (they changed their practice time to 8 am).

Our 3rd roommate has arrived!!!!!!!!!!!! Erica Yost is here with us so finally we are all three together! It's so much fun... and ridiculous. :)

Thanks for all the prayers and support! It was GREAT seeing some of you over Christmas! Love you all tons! Please be praying for this next semester, that we'll be able to make great connections with the teams and continue to grow on what's already been planted and established. Thank you , love you, bless you!