2 WEEKS TO GO

Okay, just a short update on whats been up.

I haven't been able to write very frequently as so much has been happening but don't worry, I'm still alive.

God has been awesome. So many people have turned to Jesus and they want to change their lives and there have been some awesome testimonies. We´ve seen people come to Jesus everyday from so many different backgrounds.

God is so amazing. People's faces just change when they accept Jesus in to their lives. I can't explain it. It's too cool.

Erm, what else..

2 more weeks to go. Kinda sad that we're leaving now that we're beginning to see transformation. I'm so excited to hear what's gonna happen at the end of the year.

People used to be threatened with weapons when sharing about God on the street a few years ago..but now people just want something more and their open to God's love.

God's love changes lives. It's so awesome seeing that. Too little time to explain in detail. It's so cool seeing the church get excited too.

Alright, that was a pretty rubbish update.

Miss you all x

Day9: Walking, singing, and meeting congressmen

Due to the lack of time, I´ll just quickly write what's been rocking here in the DF:

Today, Pastor Ismael (the awesome dude that's been planning or schedule and stuff) took us to see the President of Naucalpan. Naucalpan is bordering south of Huixquilucan so it was pretty cool to come out of our region into a more built up environment. Our area really is a mix of country/urban scapes. Oh, and the colony we`re at is called Canteras and the city centre of Huixquilucan is half an hour away. It´s similiar to ours, but busier. The rich area of Huixquilucan is called the Residental Zone where everyone looks like a rock star.

Anyways, so we met the President and other congressmen which was such an honour. She asked us to sing for everyone in that room which was a little frightening but cool. It´s just cos we thought that we were gonna spend the day prayer walking and worshipping publicly so I lugged my guitar with me. So we sang `God of this City`which is pretty much our theme song now cos the churches love it and it's an awesome song too.

So that was pretty much our day. Rocked up to the Residential Zone and did more walking and praying and singing in public again which was fun.

On monday we're going to the centre of the city to do some fun stuff like visit the markets, do some sight seeing and learn more about Mexican history and culture. Can't wait!

Erm, what else have we done?..we've done work with 3 churches so far- teaching them, praying for them, and just showing them how to love their community cos there is no point saying we love God if we don't prove it by the things we do. Faith in Action! woot. So yeah, im learning a lot. Learning to speak more spanish, learning to be more confident in teaching (it's pretty cool how our team are made up of young ppl and we're just teaching ppl way older than us), and getting a greater heart for missions and people. I'm really encouraged and touched when the people we've worked with really value is and it makes me want to stay with them and keep building relationships, but because of time strains, we can't. At least we're building foundations for the next teams coming in after us.

Alright, i'm out.

Awesome fluff: mariachi bands, jelly, sunshine instead of predicted heavy rain and more tacos! Oh, and mexican christians becoming excited to reach out to their community!

Not so awesome fluff:jen and sven (team mates) aren´t feeling well, so pray for us!

Day5: Tortillas is the staple food + I don´t speak much Spanish

I´ve been here for almost a week now and I´m beginning to get a hang of things here. We´re staying with a really sweet lady called Margarita and her hyperactive son, Brian. They are from one of the 12 other churches in the region that YWAM Perth are partnering with for the year. They are situated in what´s considered, the ´country-side´of the Huiquixlucan though it is still part of Mexico City. It´s pretty much the periphery of the city. We have yet to venture into the heart of the city, which we´ll hopefully get to do next monday during our free time. It takes about 3hours to get into the city. Yup, Mexico City is massive.

The urban district of Huiquixlucan is home to the more privileged and wealthier few, where you can easily find a familiar franchise chains like Starbucks and Burger King. No, don´t worry, there is no way that I´m going to opt for a Whopper instead of a cheesy beef tortilla. This area feels drastically different to the area we´re staying in. There is an absence of street venders, dogs running about and people talking to one another just outside their houses (that sums up our street). I´m glad we´re not staying there. Our area has more character and the people here are much more friendly and courteous.

Our team has met a lot of people from Margarita´s church just down the road. We´ve been invited to eat dinners with them, help out with the kids and just teach them more about God. It´s been really awesome as I´m learning a lot just being with them. Their simplicity of faith and lifestyle has really encouraged me. Mexicans are very warm and hospitable. We´ve been fed very well as it is polite to ask for more food and to finish everything on your plate. I´d say they´re my kind of people. haha.

Thank God that we have Daniella on our team who can speak Spanish so she´s been translating for us everywhere we go. We would be like walking dumplings with no clue without her. haha. It´s a bit of an issue that 8 out of 9 of us can´t speak much Spanish as conversations take longer than usual and I feel a little embarassed and rude that I´m never really able to answer the locals´questions. I can only get as far as ´Hi, what is your name? My name is...', 'God bless you' and 'How do you say...(and point)'. But before I came to Mexico I couldn´t say any of that, so I have made progress! Yes!!

We´ve also been doing lotsa prayer walking- which is basically sight seeing and exploring but asking God to bring transformation into the city and to ask Him what His plans are for us to impact the people here. It´s been really fun as everything is really new to us. It´s also been quite exhausting as the area is really hilly and some streets can be really steep. Today, we were walking up a really steep hill that I could barely breathe and pray at the same time. The view from the top was amazing though. We got to see two snow capped volcanoes in the distance which was pretty epic.

Two days ago, after a time of singing and playing the guitar in the streets, we decided to go prayer walking down and up this valley to get to the other side of the region. It was such a mission with my guitar in one hand and me trying to grip at rocks and grass so that I wouldn´t fall into the river. I was more concerned for my guitar rather than myself.

Alright. That sums up what we´ve been doing. We´ll be doing more of that in the next few days but with different churches and in different places. Woot!

The awesome fluff: The food! Oh my goodness. I don´t think I´d ever be satisfied with the food from Chillis ever again. The tortillas here are so fresh and so cheap! My favourite so far is a 'huarache' which is like a longer and bigger tortilla and you get beans, meat, cheese and salsa in it. it´s great and it´s only 20pesos which is like less than 2AUS dollars. Also, the people are really awesome too. Can´t wait to meet more! The houses- self built, colourful and dogs are sometimes put on the roof. haha.

The not so awesome fluff: Getting used to not flushing TP down the toilet.

Day 2 in Mexico City

So after my 35+ hour journey, i finally arrived in Mexico City at midnight. Everything went pretty much smoothly and I was glad to have made it safely by myself. However, I thought that the plane to Mexico City was going to crash because we were flying SO low and it was so turbulent that it looked like we were going to crash in to some buildings in the way. The airport is built in the city itself where it is densely populated.

Anyways, I reunited with the rest of my team here. We are based in a region called 'Huiquixlucan' (pronounced Whiskey Lucan) which is I think west of the city centre. The area is rather safe and very family orientated with lots of little convenient shops, kids playing on the streets and dogs everywhere.

The food here is awesome, as expected. A kilo of corn tortillas cost less than an AUS dollar and it is freshly made just down the road.

We haven't done much yet as a team except read the whole bible in 77hours which was quite alright cos we were all jetlagged anyways. We taught some school kids a song and played soccer with them.

Okay, my internet time is up, but I'll write more later and put some pics up, hopefully.

Adios!