Y'all. I am sleeping really well here. My bed is the perfect amount of firmness, and my back really likes it. I'm using a pillow, which is confusing, but not unpleasant.
Woke up, felt good, read some Romans. Prayed a bit. Sat outside and sang a bit. Had a couple of teammates come join me on our patio, which was nice :)
After some breakfast (banana this time), we had a team meeting and got ready for the day. Our team does a great job of sharing deeply and vulnerably in our times and praying together. I wonder how much of that is the fact that it's primarily made up of powerful Jesus-loving women, without any their-aged guys to make it feel some kinda way (if you're reading this and you're a woman and you go to FC, sign up for Women's Retreat fr though).
Anyway. We went to the UNI campus today. We arrived and waited for our universitarios from GranCo to join us so we could do a miniature heart/paradigm sort of training/conversation I had planned. They didn't come for a while, so we paired up and got started.
Rose and I walked around and saw a girl who looked unbusy and so we decided to talk to her. ...but she was inside a fence. So, we walked to where there was a sidewalk that crossed where the fence line went. ...but it was fenced, too. So, we followed the fence line and then walked around a building to get to the other side. ...but that was also fenced off. Who was this young women, and why was she so casually protected? (it was a very short fence, but it felt rude to step over it) So, we walked until we found a break in the fence. Oh! it was a COVID fence! We had to temperature check and get hand sanitizer before we could enter the department's area for its students. So, we got hand sanitizer and scanned our temp (36°, suckers). ...but then a guard appeared out of nowhere and asked us (en Spanish) what department we were from. I explained who we were, and he said "wait here." (again, in espanol).
Nervous. Were we in trouble? Is this where I get us banned from campus. We've been asked not to come to certain campuses before. Oh good, first day. So much plan changing (this is Uncertainty Avoidance, for those following on Hofstede). Blech.
A lady came out from the office; very professional, very no-nonsense. Then she smiled at us and offered to tell us more about their department and give us a mini-tour and maybe connect us to students.
Oh good, I Didn't Ruin Everything Today. (roll credits).
Oh yeah! Cool thing, before we paired up and went out: when we got to campus, we noticed that there were a lot of signs and graffiti and tents set up in their front plaza area. As we got closer, we saw that the signs were all very well made and taped in nice rows to the giant torch statue (la flama) in the front of the university. Also, the areas that had been graffitied had been wrapped in seran wrap first, so that nothing would be damaged. Wow, what a thoughtful, well-organized, yet powerful protest. We looked at the signs and the protest was the women on campus protesting against sexism, sexual abuse and harassment, and general badness directed towards them.
Moving forward, during our mini-tour, Rose and I found out that Cristian y Hugo had arrived. So, we bailed and went to find them. Rose and Cristian paired up and I went with Hugo. He and I had a pretty chill conversation with a guy from a different campus, who was studying to be a nurse. He bit on 0% of the subtle things I put out, and when Hugo straight-up asked him, "so, do you want to learn about the truth of God?," he let us know he wasn't interested. I loved the boldness though.
Got lunch, tried to sit on the ground on the civil engineering side of the outdoor lunch seating area and were told we couldn't. When I told Rose, we decided that wasn't very civil of them. We all split up and ate at different tables inside. I sat with Cristian y Hugo, and picked up about 15% of the conversation. Whew, it was moving fast. We talked about guns in Texas for a minute, then I think it was mostly school stuff for them. But it was cool that we got to just chill in the same space.
A couple of other pairings had really good conversations! "I've been looking for a church to join and so has my boyfriend. I used to go to church, but have questions about a relationship with Jesus." wut. Praise Jesus.
We had a couple of people who we thought might be coming to our casita that afternoon to hang out, so we went home to rest a little and prepare the house in case they did. They didn't, so we hung out for a little while with Henry y Hugo, then we went back to campus and did more outreach that evening.
Our pairs in the evening had some good conversations with some strong Catholic students. One of our teams had people immediately redirect them to ask for their thoughts about Mary. I wonder if, for these students, this is the same thing as students at A&M asking about evolution or homosexuality. I think when we try to get access to deep spiritual things, or it gets too personal, people can try to move the conversation into a topic that is more of a theological/philosophical/whatever debate in order to distract from their heart. When that happens, I think it's good to briefly address the topic, but move back into the realm of the heart. It makes me think of John 4:16-24.
Hugo y yo had a great conversation with a Catholic guy who seemed very aware of the gospel, and was very open to talking. It was a whole mood though. A little ways into the conversation, he busted out his cigarettes and passed them around (our group grew a little while we were there). So we sat and smoked cigarettes and talked about the gospel and how God wants our hearts, not just our behavior (not "we smoked," (@mom) but you follow the mood i'm expressing, yea?).
Did you know that in Spanish you wouldn't say "no problema," but instead you would say "sin problema?" I learned that.
I think Monterrey is like Pittsburgh. It makes a lot of steel and very tangible things that are part of the foundation for Mexico's economy. DF, for example is mostly computers and politics. So, Monterrey: steels / DF: steals.
"Thanks Sam, your comparisons between the cultures of cities in Mexico is why we read your blog."
I thought as much.
We came home. Ale joined us (!) and Henry ordered us pizza and we hung out and talked. While, waiting for the pizza, all the women went into one room to play a game and encourage one another and all the men sat in the other room and talked about how toilets were made out of clay with plaster molds made from wooden molds. We also talked about the Bible. Again, it was a whole mood.
We ate pizza, we talked more. The hermanos left and our team debriefed the day and prayed together. I think we're feeling a little discouraged right now about our outreach. I also think that may be (at least in part) my fault (stronger word maybe than I mean) as a leader in the expectation I've inadvertently set. Our outreach and conversations are really, really encouraging to me. We're doing exactly what I'd hoped, but I think maybe our expectations for ourselves as a team are higher than they maybe need to be? Though the language barrier is more intense this year than I've ever seen before, and that can also be discouraging.
After our prayer time, I did get to have a couple of very good and encouraging conversations, and even saw some stars from our patio. In the middle of the city. Who knew?
Ok, pictures and prayers. I don't have any pictures right now, so it'll be an animal I imagine. Also, I think we're back to left-aligned prayers today:
-for us to walk in step with the Spirit!
-for us to have God's perspective on the work we're doing
-for God to connect us to people who are hungry for him!
-for protection from being sick and stuff
-for more universitarios de GranCo to do outreach with us
-for the students we are partnering with (Cristian, Ale, Quintin, Roberto, Diana, Hugo)
-for schedules to line up with the people we met today (Monday)
No comments:
Post a Comment