It's been a little while...

I just wanted to share something that I've been learning from a Bible study I did on the book of Daniel. I've been sharing with people all kinds of stuff that I've been learning because it's stuff that I really want to apply to my life. The first half of the study was about living a life of integrity and how that's not a very common thing in our world. It makes you reflect on what things we do that we know we can get away with... even the small things. Antoher thing it has opened my eyes to is that it's not a bad thing to not go along with what culture tells you. If you realize that you're the only one doing something, and it's something good, it's not a bad thing. I've caought myself thinking and overanalyzing situations where I feel like I'm thinking in a completely different way than the people around me. Then I look at what the people are doing around me and realize, I don't want to conform to any of what they're doing.

I'm pretty excited about the whole thing. This last year and a half has been full of different lessons, challenges and refreshing revelations :) Obviously the study I did went into a lot more detail but this is the super super super shortened version. I love that I'm going to spend my entire life learning more about God and learning more about myself. He's so big that we won't even get to know a fraction of Him even after following Him for a lifetime... it's pretty incredible.

Love you all!!

Big Change.

There has been a big change in our Mexico AIA family. Yost (Erica Yost) my roommate is going to be working in Xenia, Ohio at the Athletes in Action Headquarters for the next couple months. This is a huge transition for all of us and I ask that you'd be praying for us, especially her, as everything is going to be different. I'm going to miss her like CRAZY because she is one of my best friends, but I know she's going to do some really great things in Xenia. She's here in Puebla right now to pack up and say goodbyes to all the teams. Needless to say, when she leaves on January 17, it's not going to be fun.

Thanks for all your prayers!!

Short note about the teams

It was so fun to come back and see the volleyball and basketball teams!!! I know it's only been a couple weeks since I've seen them but it was still great to be able to hang out again. Volleyball is just as awesome as ever and I've spent all week at their practices. Basketball can use a lot of prayer. Recently (over break) their coach took a job in the U.S. The thing with majority of the sports in Mexico is their season lasts the entire year. So, in other words, their coachless for the second half of the season, including the Finals in May (I think). They've interviewed a couple people but so far nothing left. Their games start next week and they have yet to practice. Please keep them in your prayers both for their feelings toward the old coach and for someone to take over that will do a good job. The kicker is that it's a guys team and a girls team that he was coaching so now both are coachless. I know they'll be fine but there are a bunch of changes happening so we'll see... I'll keep you posted!

Since I've been gone....

For some weird reason the Kelly Clarkson song, "Since You've Been Gone" just popped in my head so I figured I'd title this blog, "Since I've been gone" (from Walla Walla, and been back here). It's a stretch, I know, but just humor me. :)

There's have been incredible things happening already and classes haven't even started yet!! I got back last Thursday. By Saturday, Alice had come down from her hometown where she was with her family to stay with us for 2 days while we got to talk a LOT! It was so great because she's going through a really difficult time and transition that is really confusing. The awesome part is that she's so willing to change and seek for help, that she left her vacation early to come and have a mini get-away with us. We spent 2 days, Alice, Abbey and I, talking about how to spend time with the Lord. It's really confusing and hard to be alone with God and get something out of it if there's no direction to it and if you've never done it before. There's a "5 P" Bible study that we went through that talks about
1)Position Yourself (Get away from distractions to a place where you'll be able to focus and try and hear from the Lord.
2)Paraphrase/Pour over the passage (don't just read it once. Paraphrase what it's saying in your own words so it sticks in your mind and makes sense)
3)Pose questions (Ask yourself the hard questions about what it's saying, are we doing that in our own lives...etc)
4)Pull out the truths and promises (What does God say is true and He promises in that Scripture. These are things we can hold on to and know they're never going to change or leave).
5)Plan and put a date to obey (whatever we're learning can be applied to our lives so if there's a big decision that needs to be made or a change that has to take place, plan how we're going to do it and a date we're going to do it.)

It has been such a blessing to spend so much time with her. Even yesterday we got to spend all day talking. Please continue to pray for her. She's in such a cool spot of seeking the Lord and trusting Him with something that's really hard for her and affects a lot of other people.

LOVE YOU ALL!

Happy New Year!

Happy 2013!! I hope you're all starting out the year with gusto :) Any New year's resolutions? I don't think I've ever made any resolutions. So maybe that's my resolution... to not make resolutions.

I went home for 2 weeks for Christmas and New Years. I thought I was going to spend New Years in the plane since my flight was on New Years Eve BUT, I wasn't really emotionally ready to leave my family quite yet on that Sunday night and God blessed me with a few extra days! My airline called me Sunday night saying my flight was cancelled and changed to Wednesday!!! It wasn't 4 hours earlier that I was on the phone with the airline checking how much it would cost to change my flight to the next day. $800 seemed pretty steep to stay an extra day so instead God gave me 2 extra days for free :) I love how He works!

My time at home was incredible!! Spending tons of time with family and friends, playing lots of basketball and eating more than the average human. I always feel refreshed after being with the people I love and not having any other agenda. Just spend time and BE! Nothing else. It was amazing.

I loved my time there but I also love being back here in Puebla! I think it's so cool and super hard to be put in different cultures and situations and try and apply all the things that I've been learning and put them into practice. It's completely different apply different things the Lord teaches in one culture and surrounding than another. I found that out just recently (seems like a pretty obvious revelation but alot of things take me longer to learn. Good thing God is patient). Needless to say, I'm still growing and learning alot in my walk with the Lord and am excited to be back to Mexico to continue to be challenged and to grow and to see all the people I love down here too :)

Love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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.