Day 6: ...like an (almost) unforeseen kiss

In the ever-wise, ever-whiny words of Straylight Run: "I shoulda seen it coming...we left ourselves wide open..." I got kissed today. Not your normal everyone-greets-girls-with-a-"kiss"-in-Mexico-kiss... a kiss. But, in all fairness...he did warn me. Don't worry, it was platonic.

We'll get there.

Anyway, our morning time today was the best yet (a perfect note to end on). We met up, I had asked Greg to share about prayer (yes, i worded that sentence that way just so it would rhyme, so there!), and it was really encouraging... so we prayed together for a bit, then started praying for each other and encouraging each other and we sang a bit a capella, and we prayed for each other some more... it was beautiful. To have our team unified and ministering to each other in the Spirit... so, so good.

Then we went to La Uni to share the gospel in a place most of us had never been. The students in La Uni are mostly Regios (from Monterrey) and don't speak English like at the Tec. We had Josue and Carolina come with us to help translate, which put our numbers at 9 (an excellent, though odd number). UANL (La Uni), is enormous. Each department has its own area of campus and its own mascot as well. We started at FARQ (architecture, the Pegasus) and walked over to where we would meet up for lunch. On the walk over, the unthinkable occurred: Stephen had been threatening to kiss my cheek (a greeting) for about a day and a half. Annnnnd he got me. I recovered though and we went out to share the gospel in teams (though I went solo again for the morning).

The Evangelism went pretty well; La Uni feels a little more like A&M in its size and openness and student body. We had some good conversations, and I got to see the inner workings of the Industrail Design Lab... We met back up for lunch and, while in line, talked a bit with one of the chavos working there, who was from Houston and talked a little English with us.

After lunch, I teamed up with Greg and Josue to try to get some bold, good conversations in Spanish. We got to talk with a few people and went through the gospel a couple of times. It was really encouraging; hopefully some of the people we met will come to church with us.

When we had about 45 minutes left we were walking around, looking for someone to talk to when we saw the guy from the cafeteria again and started talking. He told us he had gotten deported from Houston for getting in trouble with the law, but it was good because a lot of his friends had ended up in jail or dead instead of just deported. He said God had been changing his life and he quoted some scripture to us. We walked him to the metro and he opened up about how hard it was to resist temptation and live a good life and how much he missed having family. He would try and fail and try and fail...de hecho, just yesterday, he told us, he had hit a guy with a rock (in semi self-defense) and the guy got knocked unconscious. We talked a little about grace and prayed for him (his name was Jesus) and gave him a gospel thing with our church address on it... We'll see what fruit it bears (or maybe we won't, who knows?)

After our time at La Uni, we went to eat dinner at Carolina's house with her family. Everyone had an amazing time... Her youngest sister, Lizeth, is ridiculously cute. She made us dance and kissed everyone at least 7 times. We ate some fantastic food, then I ate a serrano, then I cried. :)

I've had this song stuck in my head all day:

Lay your burdens down, every care you carry;
And come to the table of Grace, for there is Mercy.
Come just as you are, we are all unworthy
To enter the presence of God, for he is holy...

Lift up your hearts, lift up your hands;
Fall on your knees and pray.
For the King of Kings and the Love he brings
Is here in this place.
We raise our voices, raise our song;
We offer him our praise.
For the King of Kings and the Joy he brings
Is here—he is here—in this place

Pray for good connections between our contacts and the church as well as for a welcoming spirit in the church members here...