School is out... for the most part

The Universities are pretty much done with classes for Christmas break. Some teams are still practicing but the majority have ended for the semester. We ended our prayer walk yesterday at UMAD praying for the team and the coach. It's a Methodist school but have gone far away from Christian values so we were praying that they might come back to those values. It's a pretty powerful time to pray as a team. It's also a huge part of the reason we're down here.

I spent time the other day with one of my buddies from the basketball team. She's the girl that I've mentioned before that wrote to me before I got down here, curious about how Jesus played a role in her life and in basketball. We've spent a lot of time together. She's working on an application video to become an Au Pair in the States. It has to be in English so I was helping her with the language part and then we'll record it on Monday. She still has some interesting views on life that are strongly influenced by Buddhism. Please pray that we'll get to have a lot more talks and that she comes to know Christ.

Today, Katie and I went to see the world's smallest volcano. It just happens to a half hour walk from our house. I'll get pictures up soon. It's super tiny. It's called Cuexcomate (good luck pronouncing it). As we were asking for directions on the street I just had to ask for the tiny volcano instead of trying to butcher it's name. Tonight we're going to walk up to La Paz that gives us a sweet view of the city. Also, super close to our house. Pictures to come... when I actually have them.

I'm super excited to be home for the holidays!! I hope you're all doing great!!!!

Prayer Walks

These last few days and again later this week, our AIA team is dedicating time to spend in prayer on each campus (UDLAP, UMAD, and Tec de Monterray). We're praying for the campuses in general, athletes, specific prayer requests we've seen in the teams, coaches, and administration. It's been awesome to come together as a team and pray corporately for all these things.

Last night we had a 'Posada," which is a Mexican Christmas tradition, with the Tec girls. We started by singing a traditional song (the lyrics are in a picture that will be in the photobucket soon). We divided into 2 groups. One group stayed inside the house by the front door while the rest of us went to the other side of the door, outside, with the door closed. One group sings a certain part of the song, then the other group answers with their part of the song. The video is also in the photobucket. Next, we had 2 piñatas. Things got crazy. A couple girls got hit with the stick, others were tackled... it was nuts. All I got to show for it was a couple pieces of chile candy. Not my best effort.

After the piñatas, we had a gift exchange with just slippers. I got some sweet giant, pink, fuzzy boots. So fitting. To wrap up the night, we had tamales with dessert. It was a ton of fun.

Today during practice, Coach wanted to have practice in one of the classrooms to give Jolita and I time to do our talk and also for the girls to come up with a vision statement for their team. We did a summary of all the things we've talked about as a team this year so far, and then went into the theme of Christmas. We showed the Digital Nativity Story on Youtube (if you haven't seen it, watch it), and the girls loved it. We then got to share the Gospel with them and tell them about our testimonies (the condensed versions) and how God is the reason that we're even in Mexico and working with these teams. It's amazing that we're able to share our faith on a campus in the middle of practice!

I've got a big prayer request for you... The basketball team at UMAD has a new coach as of this year. He's really hard to read and to figure out. He's the kind of coach where the players are trying to do the right things out of fear of how he's going to react. With good reason too. His approach thus far has been to clean house. He's kicked 3 girls off the team within a matter of 2 weeks for no apparent reason. One girl, he humiliated in front of the team, kicking her off and taking away her scholarship for indecent conduct in her personal life. Another girl he bought her ticket back to Ecuador where she's from and took away her scholarship... for no reason. The most recent booting was one of the captains. They had recently played the last placed team (UMAD is in first place) and lost by 2. The coach blamed the loss on this player (even though she had a good game) and kicked her off the team. Administration is turning a blind eye because the team has a great record. The girls are being treated horribly and are being motivated by fear. Please pray for a transformation in the coach's life and for the girls to have hope to hold onto that's not driven by fear.

I hope everything is awesome where you are! Happy Christmas season! We've had Christmas music on for the last couple weeks at our house and we have a tree decal on our wall as kind of a weak attempt at a Christmas tree. It'll most def stay up all year round! Love you all!

Pictures

P.S. There are more pictures... I'm adding to the collection all the time. Just a fun fact.

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

It's December and I'm still getting sunburnt

I'm still amazed at how it's probably close to snowing at home and here, I'm still wearing shorts and tanktops during the day.

The other day Katie and I played on a city team the other day with one of our teammates from the team we were on last time we were down here. We traveled to a gym about 30 minutes from here. It was so great to play together :) It was a really close game but we managed to pull it out with a final score of 75-7. I'm just really excited to play in a game. They play in a bunch of different tournaments so we'll get to play with them pretty often. The women on this team were so nice. They majority of them have been playing together for 10 years.

Yesterday morning, Katie and I woke up at the crack of dawn to go coach a 12-14 year old boys basketball team. Our old teammate and her boyfriend coach this team but asked us to come and plan a practice like we would have in the states. He said he wants us to work them to the point of puking... basically just be brutal. It was so much fun. There were about 18 of them and all had great attitudes. We warned them before we started that it wasn't going to be an easy practice and they were all okay with that. I give them major props because Katie and I stepped in for a 2 minute 3-man weave because there was only 1 boy that didn't have a group. After those 2 minutes, my legs were pretty close to not being attached to my body, so for them to go through the whole practice encouraging each other and without whining was pretty impressive. Lalo, the coach had told us before hand that some of the parents had gotten upset because of the amount of running that he made them do (which was hardly any). He was excited to have us run them... lots. After we finished, they acted like any other group of 12-14 year olds would do when they're about to talk to girls, they huddled in a circle and giggled while trying to figure out what to say to us and whether or not to say it in English or Spanish. They decided on "Gracias" and gave each of us a hug. Adorable to say the least.

After the practice we watched UMAD girls play. They're currently in 1st and were playing the last placed team. Well, they lost to the last place team. They came out of the locker room crying because the coach had called one girl out saying the loss was her fault then kicked her off the team. This girl is one of their best players, a captain, and needs her scholarship to stay in school. This team needs a lot of prayer because they play out of fear of how their coach is going to react to everything. He needs a lot of prayer as well. He's kicked off several players already for no apparent reason and bought a ticket for one of them to go back to Ecuador where she's from. The girls can't respect him, he doesn't respect them (and it's extremely apparent). It's one of those situations where the gym is silent during a time-out because no one knows how to react to his yelling at the girls or the ref or throwing his chair. Please keep UMAD in your prayers.

Tomorrow night the Tec girls, Jolita and I are having a team party before everyone leaves for vacation. We're going to share the Christmas story with them and to tell them that the reason we're here is so that they can know the truth about who Christ is and how they can know him too. Please pray that it's received and they're excited about it.

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

Multiplication

There's another college ministry in Puebla called "El Pozo" or "The Well" that is also known as "La Casa Verde" or the "Green House." We've gotten to know the staff there and have started some great relationships since we go every week and invite all our athletes to their weekly meeting. I hate it when ministries compete for people..... it doesn't make sense but it happens all the time. I digress. Anyway, they had a Thanksgiving party on Thanksgiving (obviously) and planned enough food for 120 students. 230 students came AND THE FOOD DIDN'T RUN OUT!!!! They weren't skimping on the portions either. On the contrary, they were filling up plates and the food ran out when the last person was served. Bread and fish anyone?? Isn't that nuts? I love that story.

This is a crazy full week and I'm starting to get a cold. It could be because it's 7 degrees in our house in the morning and at night and 300 degrees during the day. Or that I haven't gone to sleep before 12:30 yet this week. My plan is to just drink a TON of water and sleep. I heard a rumor that if you go to the doctor here, they give you a shot.... no matter what. My friend told me he went to the doctor for a sprained ankle and they gave him a shot in the butt. Why you ask? Great question but I'm not about to find out.

Today we went to jail. There's a baseball player at one of the universities and became a Christian within the last year. He's a really good friend of our team leaders, John and Natalie. They've been visiting him regularly but today we went with them to let our friend know that we're still supporting him. It was awesome! All the men in there were really polite and just excited to have people in there. They served us coffee and taught us how to play a board game that they play in there alot. At first, I didn't know what to excpect since there was a big group of white folk (of which 5 of the 6 were female) going into the all male jail, and now I can't wait to go back. Our friend was talking about how he's been reading the Bible a lot and, having a lot of time on his hands, has really been able digest and think about it. He said it's been giving him so much peace and his faith is really growing.

We went to 2 girls basketball games in the last 2 days against rivals. It's interesting to watch these games because I don't ever know who to cheer for since we work with girls from both teams. After the game yesterday I was walking outside by myself and just reflecting on what I've been doing the last 2 months and realized, I'm so incredibly thankful for my life right now and the friendships that I've made in such a short time. You know those moments when you such all the sudden get really happy? That's what happened yesterday.

On Friday, Katie and I are going to play on a club team in a city about 45 minutes from here. It'll hopefully become a regular thing. We're playing with one of the girls that was on our team when we came last time (crazy how those connections just pick right back up where they left off). Then on Saturday we're going to help with a little kids basketball camp and then playing in a softball game. I'll definitely keep you posted on how it goes.

I hope you're all doing great and enjoying ALMOST December, which means, almost Christmas. I'll be home for Christmas so I'll hopefully see you :)

Furniture.

Mexico, oh Mexico. We officially have the majority of our furniture in our house. We have a couch, a table with chairs, a shelf (that we put together ourselves. We say it has personality since we didn't do it right and it's kind of lopsided... but it holds stuff), and matresses. The matress store said they were going to deliver our stuff last Wednesday. They called last Wednesday and said they won't be here until this Wednesday. Last night (Saturday) they called and said our matresses will be there in a half hour. It's a good thing I wasn't time-oriented in the States otherwise this could be frustrating. Instead, it's just kind of funny. I put pictures up of the house and of lots of other stuff.

This was kind of an interesting week. Monday was a holiday in Mexico so we had the day off because the universities had it off too. Thursday was Thanksgiving and, of course, being on a team with nearly all Americans, we celebrated. There were about 45 of us at the house that I lived in before our apartment was ready. It was a lot of fun. Families from all over the place were there.

This last week, I gave another team talk on being competent. At the end we made team goals and how they're going to achieve them. They'll be taped up on the wall everyday for practice so they can remember what they're working towards and how they're going to work for it. Tomorrow we're going to talk about being prepared.

On Friday, Jolita (one of my co-workers from Lithuania) and I met with the captain of the volleyball team at UDLAP. She's starting to give some of the team talks because she wants to start taking more of a leadership role. Her team responds to her really well. We met with her in the morning before practice and had a short devo, reviewed her talk, and prayed with her. Her talk went really well!!

The Bible study with the soccer team, that I talked about in one of the earlier blogs, started on Wednesday. There was 1 girl from the UDLAP soccer team that went and it went well! It's kind of a weird time right now because finals are coming up next week and the week after, the soccer girls are leaving to Mexico City for a tournament next week, and the semester ends in the next couple weeks. Schedules are weird so it's hard for a lot of the athletes to fit anything else on their plate right now. We're praising for the one though!!! Next semester it should be easier for more to make it.

Please keep our other roommate, Erica, in your prayers. She's raising support and will hopefully be here in January if everything comes in. Also, her aunt is struggling with cancer right now. Please pray for healing and for comfort for her family.

Love you guys!

A home is where your heart is...

I really hope that saying is true, "A home is where your heart is" because right now, our heart is the ONLY thing in our new apartment. We've officially moved in, however, we don't have beds, couch, chairs, a table, dressers, or anything other type of essencial furniture that most homes have. However, we have walls, a ceiling, food, and bathrooms so all in all, we're doing pretty well. Our fridge showed up today. Things are funny here because they'll tell you a day that they're delivering your stuff but my next question is always, "What time will you bring it?" Their response, "Sometime between 9 am and 9 pm." Awesome. I forget that time and agendas don't exist here. I'm slowly learning. Our beds were supposed to come today but they called and said that they won't be here until next week. This is all just one big adventure. I'll put pictures up when we get everything set up. I'm super excited to be able to start inviting a lot of the girls over and have this be a safe place for them to come and just hang out and just be. That's part of my vision for this trip is to provide a place and friendship for these girls to retreat to. Please be praying for that.

One of the amazing parts about this apartment is that there's a fantastic view of 2 of the volcanoes; Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl (good luck). There's a 3rd volcano and it's called La Malinche but you can't see it from our house. There's a couple different stories that go with Popo and Izta. They're all sort of a Romeo and Juliet type stories. Izta was a princess and Popo was a warrior.

I gave a team talk today with the Tec basketball team and we wrote out team goals and how they're going to achieve those goals. It went well. We've been focusing a lot on values and really being intentional on figuring out what our values really are. Some of them have really put a lot of thought into it... some, not so much. I've been having some great conversations with a lot of girls. I'm going to start meeting with a couple of them 1-on-1 soon because some of them have English tests that they want to practice for. I'm looking at it as an open door to really get to know their heart. Little do they know that I don't even speak English very well but God will use that time.

Tomrorow we're going to spend Thanksgiving with a group of about 50 people and I'm in charge of cooking a ham. Again, little do these people know how lost I am in a kitchen. Pray that it's edible by the time I'm done with it. I hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving!! I'm gradually putting up pictures for you all to see! Love you all!