OUTREACH!

Sorry it's been so long. A lot has happened and I haven't had much internet. But this is my quick attempt to update.

Our last two weeks of lecture in Tecate were great! We had Donna MacGowan come and talk to us about the fear of the Lord, which was amazing, she was amazing! She used a lot of good techniques to have us teach each other, and share what we thought which was very engaging. she also spent a lot of time with us which was good. we baked together, she taught us some good exercises from the ywam fitness school in Denver (where she's from) and she even let me dye her hair (i'm starting to seriously consider the first ywam beauty school/tattoo parlor idea).

Then the next week we had Edgar from Monterrey cone and teach us dramas and dance. I LOVED THIS!!! even though i got nasty bruises and scrapes and unbelievably sore, it was so good! after four intense days of that, we had NIKO. I can't really talk about NIKO because it's a hardcore bootcamp missionary training thing that's kinda top secret. But i can tell you that it sucked. Well, I was pushed past my physical limits, and someone got sent to the hospital so we had to end early. those two things kinda made it a little less than amazing. But i'm sure someday I'll see what all I learned from it. It did have it's good points though. a bit of insanity on my part. but it was alright.

During that week two more of our team went home. two of my favorites. Courtney and Israel. This has been REEEEEALLY hard for me. I'm still dealing.

And now we're on outreach. We're just wrapping up our first week that was spent here in San Quintin and we leave tomorrow morning for Mexico City. We've been sleeping on a cement floor in an "apartment" with a toilet that we fortunately fixed and a cold shower. but hey! there's running water. no electricity, but who needs that when you've got a guitar. me and Dina have been getting sick, so we could use some prayer for our health. and sleeping on a cement floor that just won't stay clean doesn't help. We've been eating amazingly well! Julio, our leader, is from here, and we're staying very close to his parents house, so his mother makes us most of our meals. Otherwise the churches and daycare we've been at have fed us well.

We've done two church services, two VBS style ministries, one day of labor at a daycare painting furniture, and two huge evangelism programs in the migrant camps here. One of them had over 1,000 people living there, and more than 600 came to our program. 50 people gave their lives to Christ. Our programs usually consist of a lot of children's songs and dances, puppets, and such. then a couple dramas, a testimony and a message. Sometimes even a video. I've dressed up like a clown almost every day at some point, which is actually really fun. the kids love our programs. it's completely exhausting though. especially because i'm in a lot of them. I'm the main character in one of our dramas to the song "The Clincher" by Chevelle (i know!) and basically I get beat up the whole time. Literally thrown to the ground. I'll have to upload a video of it if I can. I don't have my camera because I think I left it in the van going to San Diego, but someone has the video of it so we'll make it work. But it's so good. We made people cry. yessss! I love Jesus!

So outreach is starting off well. I've been having fun even though my body feels terrible. But the Mexicans and I are happy. OH! and we have another American, John Paul. He did his DTS last winter in Switzerland (a snowboarding DTS!!!) and he and his dad were called to Tecate, so they showed up the week before we left, and we all decided that he should come with us. So now there are TWO gringos and a bunch of Mexicans again. he's very cool and makes it a lot of fun here.

We have another church service tonight, and then we head out tomorrow morning for our three day straight drive (only stopping for the bathroom) to Mexico City!!! I'm excited, but it's gonna be rough. We have 11 students and two staff now, with all our luggage for 2 months all in one van. we barely fit, we're literally sitting on each other. and we're adding two more staff before we go to Mexico City. yeeeah. it'll be tight. for three entire days. that's a long time. pray for me! haha!