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.