Final thoughts from Mexico:
- Mexicans eat spaghetti. We've had it here more often than I've ever had it in the states. They make it slightly different too. I'm not sure what they do but it's a different flavor. I didn't like it at first but it's not too bad now. Sometimes they put a fried egg on top of each plate. They also have some spicy spaghetti seasoning which is pretty good.
- I'm still not sick of Mexican food. I love tacos, empanadas, salbutes, taquitos, and burros. We haven't really had a lot of this stuff recently for our meals so I'm actually kinda missing it.
- I killed a monster spider in the shower last night. Of course, it had to be Rachel showering so it freaked her out and she ran out of the shower in a towel to come find me because I wasn't in the room. It seems like everytime there's a huge bug, Rachel is the first one to spot it. Only a few times have I found the giant bug first and killed it before Rachel even found out about it.
- It's hot here. I know it's really hot in the states too but most people in the states have some kind of escape from it. We go to our room that is hotter than outside and we have 1 fan that is not very strong. We have 2 convenience stores (7-11 & Oxxo) close by with a/c but you can only hang out in there for so long. But when you come out of those places, it feels so much hotter than before. We start dripping sweat if no fan is on us.
- Rachel and I both have trouble sleeping at night. I wake up probably 3 or 4 times throughout the night. This is weird for me because I rarely wake up at home.
- Roasting marshmallows in 90 degree weather isn't really that much fun.
- I actually enjoyed the kids' ministry that we did last weekend. I have found that both Rachel and I don't really enjoy doing kids' ministry. I love kids but I'm not a huge fan of organizing 100 kids for games, crafts, and Bible stories. But it was better than we anticipated.
- We invited kids from around the area to come for 3 days from 4-6 pm. Almost every day, it didn't start until at least 4:30. It was definitely on Mexican time because none of the parents or kids seemed in the least bit annoyed that we started so much later.
- I got to tell Bible stories and the rest of the team acted it out. That was the highlight for me. We also sang songs, played games, and did crafts with the kids.
- The last day we were going to watch Finding Nemo in spanish. I was going to talk a little bit about the father heart of God afterwards. So we rented the movie from Blockbuster. So Tyler set it up about 30 min. before we were going to start and then we found out that it was disc 2 with only the special features on it. So we had no Finding Nemo and Blockbuster was too far away. Fortunately, the pastor had some kids' movies and we watched Robots instead which also has a good moral to it. But I've only seen it once and I couldn't follow everything that was happening so our translator, Damaris, spoke to the kids afterwards instead of me.
- After that, Shelby and Seung Hwa dressed up like Barney and Baby Bop and the kids took pictures with them. Overall, it was a successful weekend and I'm glad that VIDA is becoming more known in the community.
- Sunday was really cool too. We got to speak to the church about different cultures. We did some skits about how different cultures do things and the confusion that happens sometimes. Then, Yi Rang spoke about culture shock. Seung Hwa, Hyeon Jin, and In Hwan spoke a little about Korean culture and then all the Koreans sang 2 Korean songs. We did a drama and then Rachel spoke.
- I thought she did an awesome job speaking. She spoke about cultural differences and how no one culture is correct or wrong. She talked about her upbringing and how she has had so many different cultures surrounding her.
- Afterwards, pastor Manuel said that it was a great program and really good for his church.
- This is our last week and I think most of us are ready to go. It's a pretty laid back week. We're mixing fun stuff in with some ministry stuff. We're focusing more on prayer. On Monday, we went to the beach for several hours and then we drove around the city and just prayed for different things. Yesterday, we went to a mall and did a prayer walk there. Then, we went to the beach for the evening and watched the sunset. Today, we are going to a water park and tomorrow, we're going to a Mexican market.
- This is my last post from Cancun. This outreach has been an up and down one for Rachel and I. A lot of the people on the team have had a rough time as well. But in the end, we know that it was worth our time here. I realized that if we hadn't been here, there might be some people who would have never met Jesus. We also helped connect VIDA to the community and hopefully that relationship will grow and more people will come to the church. We've encouraged other Christians here too and seen a lot of youth step forward in their faith.
Also, each of us has grown a lot too. For me, I've seen my confidence grow especially when it comes to public speaking. I always knew that God gave me the ability to speak but I never really saw God use it. After speaking on the Father heart of God 2 different times, I was amazed at how all the youth came forward for prayer both times. Carl and Shelby also spoke then too so I know it wasn't just me, but it was just so cool to see God use us like that. It made me more in awe of God because I know it's not my words that were touching people, but it was God touching people.
Randy
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Toilet Seats Optional
More thoughts on Mexico:
- Not all toilets have seats. In fact, I think the vast majority of them do not have seats. It's more of an option but not a necessity. I don't really understand why they don't just have squatty potties if they don't have a seat, but oh well.
- The towns of Buctzotz and Merida are pretty cool. Buctzotz is a traditional Mexican style town. People here call it a village but it's like a small town. Everyone knew that we were the foreigners in town. In the middle of town, there's a park that randomly has free wireless internet. A bunch of old taxi drivers just sit around there waiting for people to need a ride. The taxis are bicycles with carts attached to the front and they have 3 wheels and it costs about $.50 to take a ride.
- Merida is a city with Starbucks and Burger King and whatever else you need. It's a much wealthier city than even Cancun, at least where we live in Cancun. Rachel and I loved Merida because we got to stay at the pastor's mom's home. We had a room with AC, cable, & free wireless internet. We felt so spoiled. It was hard to leave that place. Plus, his mother was like our Mexican grandma.
- Sleeping in hammocks takes some getting used to. We slept in them in Buctzotz and it's really comfortable at the beginning, but the first night we struggled to stay asleep all night. Once we got used to them though, I really liked them. I think they're probably best for naps though.
- We didn't sleep outside in the hammocks. The houses here are set up for hammocks. There's random hooks in the walls and almost everyone sleeps in hammocks. We bought a really cool orange and green one. So now, I have one from Mexico and Rachel has one from Ecuador.
- I'm told I'm a good storyteller. We did a VBS in Buctzotz and I told a Bible story while the rest of the team acted it out.
- Rachel and I do not like children's music at all. The youth group there led the kids in some Spanish songs and all the music was on a CD. I never want to hear any of those songs ever again.
- Fresh fried fish is delicious. We stopped on our way from Buctzotz to Merida in a town called Santa Clara at the pastor's aunt's beach house. We hung out at the beach and some people put up their hammocks and slept close to the ocean. It was pretty cool. The beach was covered with shells so it was difficult to enjoy that part of the beach because it was hard to walk barefoot. The water was really warm and calm. A huge storm hit and Rachel and a couple of others stayed out in the water and enjoyed the rain. They decided to get out when they saw the lightning. Probably a good idea.
- We painted 2 houses purple. I thought it looked awesome.
- I got to speak again on the Father heart of God at a camp with about 150-200 people. I spoke at the orientation for the camp but I didn't know it was orientation. Afterwards, Carl got up and had an altar call and almost everyone came forward for prayer. I don't think most orientations have altar calls but it was pretty cool to see that kind of reaction.
- We were like movie stars at the camp at least for 1 night. That night we introduced ourselves and the youth were already energetic from worship. So everytime we introduced ourselves they would cheer wildly. Tyler and Seung Hwa got the biggest cheers of anyone. We got a pretty big cheer when Rachel said we were married. Tyler was loving every bit of it especially. In case you don't know, he's an 18 year old with blonde hair and blue eyes. The girls in Mexico were loving it. Afterwards, almost everyone got mobbed for pictures. It felt like the paparazzi was after us.
- While we drove, we saw several Mexican ranches, wild pink flamingos, and an absolutely ridiculous amount of butterflies.
- This week, we are preparing to do a children's camp here at VIDA on Thursday-Saturday. It will look similar to the VBS that we did. After that, next week is our final week here.
- For the final week, I don't know exactly what we'll do but we have a debrief week. Basically, our team will hang out together. We won't do a lot of ministry in the final week, but instead we'll do some fun stuff together as a team. Hopefully, I'll be able to update one more time before we leave Mexico.
- Not all toilets have seats. In fact, I think the vast majority of them do not have seats. It's more of an option but not a necessity. I don't really understand why they don't just have squatty potties if they don't have a seat, but oh well.
- The towns of Buctzotz and Merida are pretty cool. Buctzotz is a traditional Mexican style town. People here call it a village but it's like a small town. Everyone knew that we were the foreigners in town. In the middle of town, there's a park that randomly has free wireless internet. A bunch of old taxi drivers just sit around there waiting for people to need a ride. The taxis are bicycles with carts attached to the front and they have 3 wheels and it costs about $.50 to take a ride.
- Merida is a city with Starbucks and Burger King and whatever else you need. It's a much wealthier city than even Cancun, at least where we live in Cancun. Rachel and I loved Merida because we got to stay at the pastor's mom's home. We had a room with AC, cable, & free wireless internet. We felt so spoiled. It was hard to leave that place. Plus, his mother was like our Mexican grandma.
- Sleeping in hammocks takes some getting used to. We slept in them in Buctzotz and it's really comfortable at the beginning, but the first night we struggled to stay asleep all night. Once we got used to them though, I really liked them. I think they're probably best for naps though.
- We didn't sleep outside in the hammocks. The houses here are set up for hammocks. There's random hooks in the walls and almost everyone sleeps in hammocks. We bought a really cool orange and green one. So now, I have one from Mexico and Rachel has one from Ecuador.
- I'm told I'm a good storyteller. We did a VBS in Buctzotz and I told a Bible story while the rest of the team acted it out.
- Rachel and I do not like children's music at all. The youth group there led the kids in some Spanish songs and all the music was on a CD. I never want to hear any of those songs ever again.
- Fresh fried fish is delicious. We stopped on our way from Buctzotz to Merida in a town called Santa Clara at the pastor's aunt's beach house. We hung out at the beach and some people put up their hammocks and slept close to the ocean. It was pretty cool. The beach was covered with shells so it was difficult to enjoy that part of the beach because it was hard to walk barefoot. The water was really warm and calm. A huge storm hit and Rachel and a couple of others stayed out in the water and enjoyed the rain. They decided to get out when they saw the lightning. Probably a good idea.
- We painted 2 houses purple. I thought it looked awesome.
- I got to speak again on the Father heart of God at a camp with about 150-200 people. I spoke at the orientation for the camp but I didn't know it was orientation. Afterwards, Carl got up and had an altar call and almost everyone came forward for prayer. I don't think most orientations have altar calls but it was pretty cool to see that kind of reaction.
- We were like movie stars at the camp at least for 1 night. That night we introduced ourselves and the youth were already energetic from worship. So everytime we introduced ourselves they would cheer wildly. Tyler and Seung Hwa got the biggest cheers of anyone. We got a pretty big cheer when Rachel said we were married. Tyler was loving every bit of it especially. In case you don't know, he's an 18 year old with blonde hair and blue eyes. The girls in Mexico were loving it. Afterwards, almost everyone got mobbed for pictures. It felt like the paparazzi was after us.
- While we drove, we saw several Mexican ranches, wild pink flamingos, and an absolutely ridiculous amount of butterflies.
- This week, we are preparing to do a children's camp here at VIDA on Thursday-Saturday. It will look similar to the VBS that we did. After that, next week is our final week here.
- For the final week, I don't know exactly what we'll do but we have a debrief week. Basically, our team will hang out together. We won't do a lot of ministry in the final week, but instead we'll do some fun stuff together as a team. Hopefully, I'll be able to update one more time before we leave Mexico.
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