Today:*
We had a pretty chill start to the day. DIY breakfast with our supplies from yesterday. Some people made oatmeal or granola, Ismael came by and made an amazing smoothie (milk, strawberry, banana, cinnamon coffee creamer). I made myself an apple!
The team just chose to have extended times with God. I didn't say anything, they just went for it. What rockstars. Again, very proud of them.
Around 11, Ismael took us to the airport to get Alexis. The airport's a ways away, and traffic was slow, but we got there in good time and picked up Alexis without issue. There are so many keys in the world, you know? It feels good to have everyone here. Team matters to me more than I admit (to all the people on a team with me: I value you, I don't work as well without you, I need your voice and influence in my life, God works mightily through you), so having ours incomplete felt off, but it's better now.
Having our full, united, complete team, we did the best thing you can do with a completed team: we got lunch. We got lunch at El Buey. We got tacos de trompo at El Buey. It was, in fact, everything I hoped for.
Being back in Monterrey is a weird feeling. It really does feel like home, but like home when you don't live there anymore. It's how I feel when I drive on 183 in Austin. Comforting, familiar, nostalgic, and a little bit sad I think that it's not mine anymore. Not sad because I want it to be mine, just a sadness of a healthy loss.
After lunch, we went to the Fundidora park to walk around, bike around, hang out, and - if the opportunity arose - hang out with any groups of college students that were playing in the park together. So, this park is huge, by the way. It's like TAMU campus big (but like, just central campus, don't get crazy). Our group split into a bike group and a walk group and... well... biked and walked around.
I was #teambike. The bikes were Veoride-style cruisers with back-pedal brakes, so that was fun. We cruised around and enjoyed the lovely (if chilly) weather. The only college-aged people we saw were all couples making out in different shaded areas of the parks, so we didn't join them (not that kind of trip, you know). We saw a group of high schoolers kicking around a soccer ball, but it looked like some kind of organization, and we were primarily looking for college homies, so.
We returned our bikes and saw the walking team. They had found... Javier and Aimee and Derek! So, that was exciting. I've missed everyone here a lot, and the more I see, the more I remember how much I've missed them. It's encouraging, reminds me I do love people and miss them (even if I don't pay attention to how much).
Ooh, there's a train driving by right now. I wonder if part of why our Airbnb (have I mentioned how perfect it is?) was such a good price is because it's right beside a train track. That, for me, is a comforting thing. Train sounds are soothing. This is a good thing, because I've lived very near tracks for the last 15 years (College Station).
From the parque, fuimos a la casa and just hung out for a while. I got overwhelmed with the amount of Spanish and Adult that was happening, so Derek (7? 8?) and I went into the little courtyard we have and threw around a tennis ball in Spanish. Imagino que having kids is tiring (that's what parents say), but playing with kids is just less tiring than playing with adults. Especially when there's a language barrier and you don't really know them, kids are content to just receive attention at the other end of a tennis ball. It was refreshing. Derek earned his yellow belt in taekwondo today. When I told him I had a friend who used to teach TKD, he was very impressed.
So, sometimes you can look at a situation and know a bad thing is going to happen to you because of who you are and how the circumstance is. Do you know what I mean? Like, if I walk into a house with cats, I know I will play with the cat and the cat will poison me with its secretoglobulins and I will feel itchy for the next day. Or, if a recovering alcoholic comes to a party and everyone's drinking, they should probably not stay. That was me with the floors in our house. Yesterday, when we walked into the house, I announced to my team that I would, at some point during the week, slip and fall on our smooth marbley floors.
Anyway, unrelated, I threw a ball around with Derek in the courtard/patio area. The ball bounced really well off of the walls and the nice, smooth, marbley floors.
A few of us walked over to the playground/park area beside our Airbnb and threw around a frisbee while Derek played with other kids on the playground. Javier and Eliana are good at frisbee, we all had fun though.
We got dinner (trompo negro is apparently a thing. it's a very good thing) and had a team meeting to pray (I think I will try to end each day like that, thanks Rachel!) and to talk about The Plan, which I will now clue you in on as well:
Friday/Saturday: Chill, settle in, collect the team, meet some brothers and sisters in the church, eat tacos, feel more comfortable with Monterrey.
Sunday: Go to church (maybe even help with setup *grin*), meet everyone else. Spend some time with the college students we will be working with this week.
Monday: Get on campus (UNI), partner with students in the church here, do outreach. Maybe have a board games/blideo bames (?) hangout at our Airbnb to invite students to.
Tuesday: Get on campus (UNI Maderos), partner with students in the church here, do outreach. Maybe have a sport-type basketball hangout at the court next to their church to invite students to.
Wednesday: Get on campus (UNI), partner with students in the church here, do outreach. Maybe...do...something? idk, remembering things is hard
Thursday: Get on (you guessed it) campus (UNI Maderos (see the trend?)), partner with students in the church here, do outreach. Spend time in the evening with 180° (yes, I did say that number in Spanish, you can tell because it's in italics).*
Friday: UNI campus, have an end-of-week carne asada at our casita.
A big focus in our outreach will be looking for ripe fruit. In real life, I have very mixed feelings about this approach to outreach, but I won't talk about that now. The idea is to pray for and look for people who are spiritually asking questions, already aware that God is after them; people who are actively looking for truth and connection to a church. Our time, and the church here's people resources are very limited (as is the space in our Airbnb), so even if we meet some cool people and like them a lot, if they aren't spiritually hungry, we aren't going to invite them to come hang out and meet the church. At times in the past, we've left the church here with (no cap) over 100 names to follow up with after a week of outreach, and only seen (again, no cap) 1 or 2 stick. Hence our approach this week.
The problem is, God is often calling the ones who don't seem the most likely. Also, everyone needs Jesus, and just because someone isn't aware of it, doesn't mean they aren't worth pursuing and pouring into. However, the goal is to come alongside what the Holy Spirit is actively doing in someone's life. If he doesn't call them, they won't come to him. But, sometimes he calls people through the process of being exposed to Jesus-loving community, even if they come for bad motives (free food or cute Christians).
Oh, I guess I was going to talk about it now. Maybe I should delete that. Naw.
We saw some good team bonding today and yesterday, which I have been worried about. I've gotten to have really good conversations with a few members of the team that have felt discipleship-y and like good clarification about expectations and hopes for our team. I really, really like this team y'all.
*Did you see what I did there? I waited until it was basically midnight though, so if you hadn't yet, that's not on me. Also, happy daylight savings, suckers. Mexico doesn't have it until April (which means we'll get it on the plane ride back)
*180° is the highschool ministry here. Long-term, the church is hoping that Fellowship will send a worker or two to spend 6 months or a year here to help them develop their youth group, so we want to expose our teams to this part of the church.
Ok, pictures and then prayer requests:
I didn't take any pictures today. But this picture is cute.
September 17 is international red panda day.
PRAYER PLEASE
-for our team to walk in step with the Spirit and be driven by love for Jesus
-for us to connect well to the church tomorrow
-for us to meet the students God is calling to connect to this church
-for God to stir a revival in this church's college ministry
-for us to sow good seeds of discipleship, mobilization, and passion for Jesus in our interactions with the students already in the church
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