Week 2

Wow.  Another week has flown by in the village.  We were so busy this past week, I feel like I barely had time to breathe!  God definitely sustained me and the team in magnificent ways, meeting needs and wants in unique ways.  It's amazing how He does it.  When one of us is tired and can't seem to function anymore to entertain people or make connections, it seems He always provides the other two with an extra boost of energy to get the work done with a joyful spirit.  It's amazing each time it happens.  Or, when one is going through culture shock, the other two are just content with life.  God definitely provides in each and every circumstance.  If there is any element of truth that He has continually reaffirmed in my life this trip, it is that He provides.  Always.  Physically, mentally, spiritually, etc.  In every form and fashion and even in ways we cannot see, He provides.  Always.  Amen!  Hallelujah to that!

Anyways, so, hang on to your hats because this week was beautiful but bumpy.  Before we begin, I must also introduce someone!  Our previous translator got sick, and so he couldn't come with us that week!  We were very sad.  However, we had another translator!  We will call her MB!  MB was such a Godsend!  Having her with us allowed for so many open doors with many different types of people. (She's the girl in the picture with the popsicle!)

Okay, let's get started.

Thursday, June 18th:  We wake up and get ready to leave Oaxaca to head back to the village.  I am getting nervous about this next week.  After being in the city for a couple of days, I didn't want to go back to the village and experience culture shock again, even though I knew what to expect.  I was praying that God would give me a joy and excitement to return and calm my fears.  And, God always provides such sweet, tender peace.  I could almost hear His voice saying "Kate, I'm here."  Anyways, we begin the trek to San Caliente* which includes a four and a half hour van ride through the mountains, a 20-30 minute colectivo ride, and then another hour colectivo ride.  We arrive in San Caliente at about 6 or 7pm that night.  As we are coming in, some of the kids come running up to us! It was such a sweet greeting!  After that, we go to find food because we didn't bring any groceries with us. So, we walk to the area where many people are playing soccer and bought some empenadas from these street vendors.  Then, we stayed there and began to stuff our faces!  Haha!  We looked up at one point, and I kid you not, like ten people were watching us!  I could almost hear their thoughts.  Wow, Hungry Gringas! haha!  I went to bed with a full belly and a happy heart! 

Friday:  Friday, we had a team meeting about everything we wanted to accomplish that week, and then went to Hualtulco to get groceries!  We ate ate this nice cafe where they had wifi because we all wanted some kind of American food.  I had a wonderful burger and frappucino!  :)  I know that I'm so white girl right now, but hey!  You got to have that frappe every now and then!  Anyways, we got our groceries, and it was the funniest sight!  Three gringas and a Mexican walking around, lugging our groceries through the streets of Hualtulco!  We all looked at each other at one point and just died laughing!  Like, what is our life right now? Anyways, we got a colectivo back to the village, and our taxi driver was so much fun!  We were laughing and joking with him.  At the end of it, we ended up getting to pray with him!  I attempted a prayer in Spanish, and it was rough! Haah!  But anyways, one of our friends Y came over to our house that night to hang out with us.  We sat on our front porch and started talking, and he started sharing some of his testimony/story.  His testimony is pretty intense.  He started sharing about how four years ago, he had this alternate person inside himself that he wanted to be, but then, the person made him start doing bad things.  Basically, he was demon-possessed and would do really bad things.  It was kind of rough for MB because she heard all the details of the story in Spanish, and she didn't want to translate everything for us because it was so intense, but she was really frightened.  It was weird because he never got to a part that said and Jesus made them leave or whatever, but he said he dealt with it four years ago?  Anyways, so we prayed over him and also shared the story of the demon-possessed man with him and talked about how Jesus heals all things, and that in the name of Jesus, the enemy has to leave.  It was a pretty intense story with details that I won't give you, but it was creepy.  We prayed together that night before we went to bed that God would protect us from the enemy.  And, God always provides.

Saturday:  Saturday morning we get up ready to go to the youth service at 10am!  We start walking there, and then, we find out that they aren't having it because they needed the guys to work on the roof of the kitchen.  So, then, we decide, okay!  We are going to accomplish some things.  Brittany and MB went to the hotel to ask Nikki* if we could have classes at the hotel, and Anna Beth and I went to change and start working on preparing stories and other things.  Brittany and MB get back and said that Nikki told them to come back at 6pm that day to teach.  We were like uhhh...lol.  So, we started prepping for the English lesson. We started to prep and realized it would be much easier if we had one person in charge of each lesson, and Brittany decided to teach the first one.  So, we modeled and practiced a greeting in English, went over the alphabet, and also did numbers and time.  That day, it was so hot.  Even hotter than last week.  It was like a blazing fire on my body constantly.  It is like a constant state of stickiness from the sweat.  Anyways, we headed to the hotel that night at 6pm, ready to teach, and it turns out that she just wanted to discuss and talk about having English classes!  Praise!  Because we were a little nervous about teaching right then!   We scheduled to come back and teach her and her friends on Monday at 6pm.  God provides!  Anyways, one of our friends named Eva* was with us this entire time.  She's a younger girl and is really seeking a friendship with us!

This is her!  She is a sweetie and is patient with us when we try to understand and speak Spanish with her!  

Sunday:   Sunday, we wake up, and I am not having it this morning.  All of sudden, I was experiencing culture shock big time.  I didn't want to go to church.  I didn't want to go see people.  I didn't want to do anything.  We got to church, and I was just so angry the entire time.  I was tired and exhausted.  I get home from church and don't even go to cook lunch.  I just needed to lay down and rest.  So, I nap for only like 5 minutes because it was so hot.  I couldn't sleep.  Even with a fan.  The fan was blowing hot air making me sweat even more.  Anyways, I get up and go outside and there are people at our house.  Let me explain something about this culture.  People just come by to your house at whatever time.  They don't just stop by to say hey.  It's like hey, I'm going to come sit and visit with you on your porch and expect that you provide coffee and crackers.  So, you literally have to drop everything you are doing and go entertain these people.  At this point, I am like no.  No.  Tell these people to leave.  I don't even know who they are, but God provided strength to smile.  I asked the other girls if it was okay if I got MB to ask the people to leave in kind words because we still needed to make lunch.  It was like 2:00pm at this point.  So, she did, and we invited them to come back later to our English class that night after church.  That afternoon, I stayed on our porch with my teammates, and we listened to American songs.  Once again, God provides.  Just listening to American music lifted my spirits.  That night, Anna Beth taught at the church.  She taught a story called Creation to Church which gives a brief overview of the Bible in about 6-8 minutes.  She shared this story and asked questions, and then got one of the church members to repeat it back.  The church we are working with do not outreach very much to their community.  So, we tried to teach them a story that they could use to tell people whenever they want to share the Gospel. We told them that this is a tool we use to share the Gospel with different people, and that it is a tool they can use as well.  It was so good to see how God opens doors for teaching opportunities for us and for them!  God provides!!   Afterwards, we had an English class with the church, and it was so enjoyable!  The people that had come by our house earlier that day came to the church for the service and for the class too!  The people were so excited to be there, and it was so cool to see them work together and have fun with all the games too!  I went home that night excited and ready for the week!  God provides joy in every circumstance!

Okay, I'm going to finish the week out on another post because this one is getting long!  God provides in each and every circumstance!  Praise!  Gloria en lo alto!