Hola amigos,
These past couple weeks have been absolutely jam packed with stuff. These past couple days of being sick in bed are the only days I think I have had to sit down and have some deep thought since my last blog. And I am sure many of you feel the same way with December always being incredibly busy!! It has been a whole month since my last post and I really didn't want that to happen ever during my time here because I do want to keep you all posted on what is going on, but it just sorta happened, but it won't be happening again.
This month has been absolutely incredible. I have done lots of travelling, spent lots of time getting to know some awesome new friends, and got to see God do some amazing things through it all. First off things at the orphanage! This was a very busy month for everybody out at the orphanage. At Christmas time, groups from the town of Linares & Monterrey travel to the orphanage to throw the kids a "Posada" which is a Christmas party. We probably were there for about six different groups, but there were also many others that we were not around for. They usually bring pinatas, play some games with the kids, give them lots of candy and then finish the day off with some kind of present for the kids. The groups ranged from 10 people to about 60 people so some days were pretty crazy around the orphanage, but it was all fun! :) For Christmas, they got two weeks off of school, so things were alot more chill and relaxed in the mornings since they didn't really have a timeline in the mornings and the expectations weren't so high. Originally this year, all the kids were not suppose to be going with their families until boxing day, but unfortunately a large group of the kids got picked up the day before Christmas Eve when I was in Monterrey, so I had to miss saying bye to alot of them, which made me really sad because it is a really long time not to see them for. But they are coming back this weekend so I will get to see them on Monday and I am really looking forward to it. The people that pick the kids up are grandparents or aunts and uncles usually, but some even get to go back with their parents for Christmas. For some, this is a really great thing, but for others who's situations really aren't the best, makes it harder on the kids. Not all of the kids have the choice to go see family though, so they remain at the orphanage for the whole holiday time. It was nice though, because we were able to spend some more one on one time with the kids just relaxing instead of only doing chores and with a full house of kids with can get pretty hectic sometimes! But overall, the holidays were an enjoyable time at the orphanage. Busy, busy, busy, but lots of fun for the kids!
My holidays were a very incredible time for me! Christmas down here works very different then in Canada, so this will always be a Christmas to remember! :) The first thing you need to understand in Mexico is that when you make plans, it is VERY rare that they will actually turn out that way, because people showing up unannounced all the time for days at a time and inviting you places on very short notice, so when you think of a quiet weekend at home, it ALWAYS turns into a jam pcked weekend of visits and outings. Not that this is a bad thing at all, it is just one of the biggest differences from Canada and Mexico. The second thing you need to understand is that Mexico does not have a Christmas Day, they have a Christmas night, so on our Christmas Eve at 12 o'clock at night, everybody's families are together opening presents, eating massive amounts of food and celebrating Christmas together. So their Christmas is always a very late night for Mexican families instead of celebrating in the morning and the next whole day. So on Christmas Eve, we had the plan of family time at home, with Christmas movies, popcorn, hot apple cider, chocolate fondue and warm blankets! And that is how the evening began! Until the phone rang with a couple inviting us over later on, around 10. We agreed, because we still wanted some time at home. Then not too long after that, our friends showed up for a visit and enjoyed some fondue with us. About half an hour after that another one of our friend's popped over inviting over to his families house to eat tamales and to meet his family so we couldn't say no. :P So after dinner at his house it was about 10:30 so we went to this other families home. We were only planning on staying a short time but didn't end up getting home til about 1:30am :). When we were there we met the whole family, played a gift exchange game and then had another dinner! :) By this time, we literally could not look at any more food without feeling sick. We ate WAY too much and were filled way past our limit! But it was a great night of fellowship with some awesome people. It also helped that the second house we went had people there who spoke English! Speaking of my spanish, it is continuing to get better. I keep understaning alot and my vocabulary is growing too, but word placement in sentences and all the little stuff in between is what is really getting me. Pronounciation is still pretty funny sometimes too! :) But then I just make them try to say "thoroughly" and I get to laugh at them back! haha. Getting back to my story though. Christmas Day started off pretty normal. Woke up to a stocking with the best gift inside! An air freshener! :) And then we watched the boys open up their gifts. After that we headed out to the orphanage. We were suppose to make them breakfast but they were already eating when we got there so we just hung out there for a bit with them and helped clean up the kitchen. After that we headed back home to make oursleves some waffles and we made a couple skype calls home to our family! Then we started to get ready for our dinner party. Our friend Ramone and his family, as well as another family came over for a big turkey dinner. I made a huge pot of mashed potatoes and Rick made one of the best turkey's I have ever tasted! After dinner I got picked up my friend Dely and her sister Sophie, to head to Monterrey to sleep a bit before we left for our mini missions trip/retreat to Aguascalientes. I am going to write a seperate blog of Aguascalientes because if I included it in this one, this blog would be WAY too long and I thought it would make it a bit easier of a read if they were seperate! It will be posted by tomorrow night I hope, but I needed to get this one posted tonight! Upon returning from that trip though, I felt very spiritually refreshed. Unfortunately, physically I wasn't very refreshed because I came home and had to go to the doctors to check if I had strep throat. That was a pretty interesting experience in itself. We had to change locations about 5 times before we actually saw the doctor! :P And unfortunately, I got told it was strep throat. Had to spend about $80 on my medications after the whole week because during the week of being sick, I got a migraine too! It was not a very good week for me. But in a way it was also an awesome week. It gave me alot of quiet time to think about life and what God wants for me after Mexico and he really spoke to me. Ending up laying alot of exciting thoughts in my mind of visions he has for future of projects at home! And I feel a huge excitement and almost sense of relief when I talk about them to people! :) After I finally was feeling a bit better, Mexico decided to drop in temperature drastically. Just yesterday actually, they were calling for snow. It didn't actually come, but it has been bitter cold the past couple days! In the negatives!! And on top of that we don't have heaters, so inside is basically as cold as it is outside. Cement walls don't do a whole lot in helping with the cold! :) We did have an awesome opportunity to help a family in need though. One of our friend's Mario, actually lives with his family down by the river in a small "house." Since we know it was going to get really cold over the next couple days and he mentioned how cold it was living there, we brought a box full of blankets down to the river. Turns out his family is much larger than I thought. There is a grand-mother and her 5 kids I believe, and then all of their kids as well, which is an extra 15 children, I believe. They all live in these shacks, with matresses taking up all the space. The one shelter we were in had one wall with wood, another with two comforters and the other with a matress. The other wall was completely open to let in any rain and cold weather that may come in. Their mattresses were right there too, with barely enough blankets it looked like to cover them all. They all sat around two logs of wood, with a tiny fire, trying to keep as warm as possible. None of them had hats or mittens, so we decided to run back to the house and grab the box of hats & mittens that got sent down from one of Rick's family members. As we were leaving one of the little girls went up to Rick and pulled on his hand. She looked up to and asked if he had food for her. He told her no, but knew that when we returned we would have to bring something along! So after we picked up the box with the mitts and hats, we took Mario to the grocery store and bought him a cart full of all the basics to feed the family. We went back and gave all the kids a set of hat and mitts! They were so happy! Some of the sweetest kids I have ever seen! As we left the second time, the same girl went up to Rick and looked up at him with her big brown eyes and asked if he had any cookies? And he said go look in the bags! :) She said really?!?! And as soon as he replied yes all of the kids turned and ran towards the pile of bags laying on the mattress with huge smiles on their faces! Overall it was one of the most humbling days I have had in a long time! Made us very careful to complain about anything since then! Makes you really appreciate just the fact that you have 4 walls around you!
God has continued to bring people into our lives over the past month that we feel will turn into some great friendships! Not only just to the family, but some really awesome girls who have been through some crap in their life and are really just looking for a friend! It makes me look forward to new opportunities and chances every day, because you truly never know what is in store! He never seems to fail at anything, and when we feel dicouraged he always brings something back into view that makes us go, "Wow! That was cool! :)"
Prayer Requests
1) Direction: We feel at this point we have a better idea of what this year's focus will be on, so just pray that God will continue to provide opportunities to do some awesome things for people really in need! Also more specifically for me and the things God is laying on my heart. Pray that I would continue to see a clear vision of exactly what God wants for the things he is laying on my heart! And that I would continue to have the drive and passion for it as I have over the past couple days.
2) Migraines: Please pray that I am not effected by these anymore at all, or even just to find a medication that is alot cheaper and actually works so I can keep them more in control!
3) Charitable number for Rick & Lisa: This number is required for their organization to give tax reciepts to donations but since they don't have this donations haven't been made yet and they haven't been able to do as much as they hoped without it.
4) Truck Registration: There have been alot of problems at the border with this since it is a Canadian vehicle so please just pray that God would give them help in figuring out a way to renew their truck registration here in February without too much hassel.
5) The kids: These kids are always needing prayer but mostly that God would continue to heal their hearts from all the hurt and struggles they have been through in their lives so far. That they would continue to follow in the footsteps God has laid out for them and would show them some kind of direction for their future. And pray that we would be able to be shining examples for them to look up to and that they would look at us as people they could trust.
Thanks to all of you have taken the time to read this! Your thoughts and prayers are so much appreciated! I miss you all! And look forward to the day when I can see ya again, but until then I will continue to follow on the path God has laid out for me in my heart!
God Bless each and every one of you!
Check for the next blog about my trip very soon! :)
Rebecca Jensen
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
My apologies!
Well, I am here to write a quick note to apologize that I haven't written in soo long!
These past couple weeks have been crazy busy...go go go...and lucky me has strep throat now! SO I promise to you either as soon as I get better, or during my rest period over the next couple days so I can get bettter, I WILL write you another blog. Probably another long one! :P
So I hope you are all ready for it! :)
Blessings to all of you!
Rebecca
These past couple weeks have been crazy busy...go go go...and lucky me has strep throat now! SO I promise to you either as soon as I get better, or during my rest period over the next couple days so I can get bettter, I WILL write you another blog. Probably another long one! :P
So I hope you are all ready for it! :)
Blessings to all of you!
Rebecca
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Two weeks later....
Dear Andrew and Friends,
I apologize first of all for the lateness of this one. I told myself last week that Saturday's would be my day for writing my new blog, but the past couple days have been very eventful as well as tiring and I kept putting it off! But that just means I have to write more at one time now! :) I am gonna try a lot harder to make sure I am doing it weekly, because I hear some of you actually really enjoy reading these! :)
Over the past two weeks, I have been continuing to learn about God's faithfulness as well as his sense of humor! :) As well as filled with many types of emotions.
As I told you in my last blog, I attended my first youth service two Saturday's ago and again the week after that. It was a change from what I am used to in Canada, one because of the obvious language barrier, but instead of an event or activities and bible study, it is strictly just worship and a sermon. It is hard to be fully involved since I actually don't know what they are saying a lot of the time, but Seth tries to help me out with the words to the songs when he can, so I least have some idea of what I am singing. During the sermon time though, which I have really grown to enjoy, God has shown me a lot through just reading in the word. Every time I have sat down in a service, I have come out of the service with a new understanding of something God has shown me and it is really awesome. I have also been doing a study on end times, which is what a lot of the pastors seem to preach about down here. I have never really studied end times before, so it has been very interesting and I am learning lots about the different opinions and interpretations people have on the subject. The other youth here are really awesome too! :) I can already tell that I am gonna have a really hard time leaving a few of them because we instantly connected. It is hard to understand them but they are really helpful in trying to explain and they are very patient! :) This week coming up, Seth and I have been asked to sing a worship song in English together, so that should be interesting. Not sure which one yet, but please just pray that it goes well, cause I haven't done something like this in a long time and I am nervous!! Last weekend, I went with the youth group to a missions conference, and that was an interesting time to say the least. Very...unexpected, in a way that everything I thought was suppose to happen, didn't really turn out that way haha. I was told that we would be travelling to Monterrey (2 hour drive by bus) with the youth and there would be an English speaker. Well, they were accurate on the bus trip, but they didn’t mention the number of people that were going to be going on the one bus they had. I think the final total was about 70-75 on a bus which is only suppose to fit 65 small children, 3 to a seat, and this group was full of adults, children and youth. ☺ Needless to say their were about 20 people standing on the bus, and lucky me got to be one of those people all the way there! Haha. Then when we arrived at the conference, we found out that the speaker was actually not English, because he actually spoke two nights before. The service was still awesome though, with some of the most energetic adults I have seen in a very long time. So much for adults not jumpin around in church. Didn’t even matter how old, I honestly think there were more adults jumping around than there were youth! Haha. The ride home was interesting too! At least this time I got half a seat, but I ended up getting elbowed in the head like 15 times, and the person didn’t realize what was happening so I kinda had to put up with it. Unfortunately that whole night led into a two day migraine, and the medication down here is really expensive, but I am working on finding an cheaper alternative. It was the second one since I arrived, so prayer that they don’t return would be awesome! ☺
Things at the orphanage, have been going pretty well. As usual, we have our on and off days, some more discouraging than others, but I just have to keep practicing my fruits of the spirit. ☺ Patience, patience, patience! But the kids always know how to turn a not so good day into an awesome, just by one simple act of kindness. One of the boys Jonatan, did that last week actually. He is a 13 year old boy, who is a complete joy to be around all the time. He is one of the kids who, no matter what day, can always pull off a smile to remind you why you are there. When we were here last year, his brother Eduardo and himself were very difficult to get pictures of since they were camera shy “apparently” haha! A couple other of the boys were too, but these two especially were hilarious. I have kept a picture of Jonatan from last year in my bible for a long time now, and I had my bible at the orphanage one day last week so I showed him the picture of himself. He was very embarrassed that I had a picture of him and all day tried to teasingly steal my bible away from me to take the picture out. A couple days after that, I was standing in the living room and he comes up to me and hands me an awesome picture of him, sitting in a chair. I complimented him on the picture and went to hand it back to him but he put his hands up. I was really confused so I asked him if it was for me. He replied with a yes and a huge smile on his face, and then turned and walked away. It was awesome! So now I have both the picture from last year and the one he gave me. Apparently that is a pretty big deal that he did something like that so I felt pretty happy about it! ☺ Another cute story from a couple days ago involved my new best friend Karla who is 11 years. She is an absolutely stunning girl, who also makes your heart melt simply with her smile! She is a pretty quiet girl who isn’t very affectionate and usually takes a while for her to warm up to others. My job lately has been to make sure the girls have their chores done and that they are ready for school before lunch time. Karla and I have a very fun, teasing way of this. Whenever I ask about her job or uniform, she says “Nooo Rebecca!” but in a complete joking, teasing way which we have really come to enjoy about each other. I think we have the same type of humor which is why we get along so well. But there has been two memorable times now with her that gave me warm fuzzies. ☺ One was in the morning, when we arrived during breakfast and the second I walked in the door she jumped of from her table, ran over to the door to give me a big hug and went right back to her seat and just sat there with a big smile at me! The second was when we were all standing in our prayer circle before school and right before we started she moved from her spot, came and stood right beside me and wrapped her arms around me the whole prayer. Things like this, make every not-so-good day, completely worth it and are the reason I get out of bed and keep pushing on every day.
We all feel that God is moving in this place a lot, and we are just waiting to see what he has in store for us next.
Prayer Requests:
1) Direction. Pray that God would show Rick, Lisa and I what our next step needs to be to follow his will for our lives and pray that we would continue to be willing, able and strong enough to keep pushing forward because this work can sometimes become very exhausting and emotional.
2) Spanish. Pray that I will continue to keep motivated to study my books, because listening to conversation is helpful, but also not at the same time if you don’t know the meaning of a lot of the words! ☺ Things are slowly improving, but just continued motivation would be great!
3) My Family & Close Friends. It is hard with holiday time approaching, and even harder that I won’t be attending the normal holiday events etc. So pray that everybody will find a sense of peace in knowing I am where I God needs me to be right now! ☺
4) Safety. We are heading tomorrow to the border to renew the papers for the trailer, which is not the safest place in the world for Canadians to be, which Rick has unfortunately experienced first hand. So please pray that all Transito’s (Traffic Police) and Police don’t stop us and that everything runs smoothly with the renewal of the license for the trailers as well.
5) Migraines. Please just pray that they will not become a regular issue for me down here, and that if they do come that they will not cause me to lose days at a time at the orphanage.
Thanks to all who are reading this right now. Your support means SO MUCH to me and is an awesome encouragement. Your prayers are much appreciated as well and I couldn’t be doing this everyday with out all of your prayers. Don’t hesitate to comment or contact me personally if you would like, and if you would like a mailing address too just let me know! My contact info is on the first blog at the bottom.
Thanks again!
Love and miss you all!
I apologize first of all for the lateness of this one. I told myself last week that Saturday's would be my day for writing my new blog, but the past couple days have been very eventful as well as tiring and I kept putting it off! But that just means I have to write more at one time now! :) I am gonna try a lot harder to make sure I am doing it weekly, because I hear some of you actually really enjoy reading these! :)
Over the past two weeks, I have been continuing to learn about God's faithfulness as well as his sense of humor! :) As well as filled with many types of emotions.
As I told you in my last blog, I attended my first youth service two Saturday's ago and again the week after that. It was a change from what I am used to in Canada, one because of the obvious language barrier, but instead of an event or activities and bible study, it is strictly just worship and a sermon. It is hard to be fully involved since I actually don't know what they are saying a lot of the time, but Seth tries to help me out with the words to the songs when he can, so I least have some idea of what I am singing. During the sermon time though, which I have really grown to enjoy, God has shown me a lot through just reading in the word. Every time I have sat down in a service, I have come out of the service with a new understanding of something God has shown me and it is really awesome. I have also been doing a study on end times, which is what a lot of the pastors seem to preach about down here. I have never really studied end times before, so it has been very interesting and I am learning lots about the different opinions and interpretations people have on the subject. The other youth here are really awesome too! :) I can already tell that I am gonna have a really hard time leaving a few of them because we instantly connected. It is hard to understand them but they are really helpful in trying to explain and they are very patient! :) This week coming up, Seth and I have been asked to sing a worship song in English together, so that should be interesting. Not sure which one yet, but please just pray that it goes well, cause I haven't done something like this in a long time and I am nervous!! Last weekend, I went with the youth group to a missions conference, and that was an interesting time to say the least. Very...unexpected, in a way that everything I thought was suppose to happen, didn't really turn out that way haha. I was told that we would be travelling to Monterrey (2 hour drive by bus) with the youth and there would be an English speaker. Well, they were accurate on the bus trip, but they didn’t mention the number of people that were going to be going on the one bus they had. I think the final total was about 70-75 on a bus which is only suppose to fit 65 small children, 3 to a seat, and this group was full of adults, children and youth. ☺ Needless to say their were about 20 people standing on the bus, and lucky me got to be one of those people all the way there! Haha. Then when we arrived at the conference, we found out that the speaker was actually not English, because he actually spoke two nights before. The service was still awesome though, with some of the most energetic adults I have seen in a very long time. So much for adults not jumpin around in church. Didn’t even matter how old, I honestly think there were more adults jumping around than there were youth! Haha. The ride home was interesting too! At least this time I got half a seat, but I ended up getting elbowed in the head like 15 times, and the person didn’t realize what was happening so I kinda had to put up with it. Unfortunately that whole night led into a two day migraine, and the medication down here is really expensive, but I am working on finding an cheaper alternative. It was the second one since I arrived, so prayer that they don’t return would be awesome! ☺
Things at the orphanage, have been going pretty well. As usual, we have our on and off days, some more discouraging than others, but I just have to keep practicing my fruits of the spirit. ☺ Patience, patience, patience! But the kids always know how to turn a not so good day into an awesome, just by one simple act of kindness. One of the boys Jonatan, did that last week actually. He is a 13 year old boy, who is a complete joy to be around all the time. He is one of the kids who, no matter what day, can always pull off a smile to remind you why you are there. When we were here last year, his brother Eduardo and himself were very difficult to get pictures of since they were camera shy “apparently” haha! A couple other of the boys were too, but these two especially were hilarious. I have kept a picture of Jonatan from last year in my bible for a long time now, and I had my bible at the orphanage one day last week so I showed him the picture of himself. He was very embarrassed that I had a picture of him and all day tried to teasingly steal my bible away from me to take the picture out. A couple days after that, I was standing in the living room and he comes up to me and hands me an awesome picture of him, sitting in a chair. I complimented him on the picture and went to hand it back to him but he put his hands up. I was really confused so I asked him if it was for me. He replied with a yes and a huge smile on his face, and then turned and walked away. It was awesome! So now I have both the picture from last year and the one he gave me. Apparently that is a pretty big deal that he did something like that so I felt pretty happy about it! ☺ Another cute story from a couple days ago involved my new best friend Karla who is 11 years. She is an absolutely stunning girl, who also makes your heart melt simply with her smile! She is a pretty quiet girl who isn’t very affectionate and usually takes a while for her to warm up to others. My job lately has been to make sure the girls have their chores done and that they are ready for school before lunch time. Karla and I have a very fun, teasing way of this. Whenever I ask about her job or uniform, she says “Nooo Rebecca!” but in a complete joking, teasing way which we have really come to enjoy about each other. I think we have the same type of humor which is why we get along so well. But there has been two memorable times now with her that gave me warm fuzzies. ☺ One was in the morning, when we arrived during breakfast and the second I walked in the door she jumped of from her table, ran over to the door to give me a big hug and went right back to her seat and just sat there with a big smile at me! The second was when we were all standing in our prayer circle before school and right before we started she moved from her spot, came and stood right beside me and wrapped her arms around me the whole prayer. Things like this, make every not-so-good day, completely worth it and are the reason I get out of bed and keep pushing on every day.
We all feel that God is moving in this place a lot, and we are just waiting to see what he has in store for us next.
Prayer Requests:
1) Direction. Pray that God would show Rick, Lisa and I what our next step needs to be to follow his will for our lives and pray that we would continue to be willing, able and strong enough to keep pushing forward because this work can sometimes become very exhausting and emotional.
2) Spanish. Pray that I will continue to keep motivated to study my books, because listening to conversation is helpful, but also not at the same time if you don’t know the meaning of a lot of the words! ☺ Things are slowly improving, but just continued motivation would be great!
3) My Family & Close Friends. It is hard with holiday time approaching, and even harder that I won’t be attending the normal holiday events etc. So pray that everybody will find a sense of peace in knowing I am where I God needs me to be right now! ☺
4) Safety. We are heading tomorrow to the border to renew the papers for the trailer, which is not the safest place in the world for Canadians to be, which Rick has unfortunately experienced first hand. So please pray that all Transito’s (Traffic Police) and Police don’t stop us and that everything runs smoothly with the renewal of the license for the trailers as well.
5) Migraines. Please just pray that they will not become a regular issue for me down here, and that if they do come that they will not cause me to lose days at a time at the orphanage.
Thanks to all who are reading this right now. Your support means SO MUCH to me and is an awesome encouragement. Your prayers are much appreciated as well and I couldn’t be doing this everyday with out all of your prayers. Don’t hesitate to comment or contact me personally if you would like, and if you would like a mailing address too just let me know! My contact info is on the first blog at the bottom.
Thanks again!
Love and miss you all!
Saturday, November 21, 2009
As the journey continues..
Dear Andrew & everybody else :P haha
Reflecting back on the week I have had, brings many thoughts to mind.
It has been full of lots of excitement as well as a few frustrating moments.
I have been told I am getting a really good view of how missions is, since I am not only seeing the ups, but I am also seeing the major lows that can occur as well. I have seen God in many different ways this week and continue to see him in everything I do.
First of all, an update from the orphanage. Things this week, have been very off and on. You never really know the kind of day you are going to have with the kids leaving the house in the morning. We had a few days, where the kids moods were very down and we were just continually having to nag them to get their chores done. (Which isn't enjoyable, because really who wants to be a nag?) These days are frustrating, but expected, since you really can't expect kids, who have gone through all they have, to be super positive and upbeat all the time, every day. So some days when one kid is having a good day, the other is having a terrible one, so you just need to try to be aware of how the kids are feeling. Then you have days like yesterday!! It was the greatest day I have had in a very long time!! Every single kid was super happy and in very good moods. They all completed their chores ALOT earlier than usual, which allowed for a lot more free time with them to just hang out, laugh and enjoy eachother's company. I got to do one of the girls hair all up and pretty, so that was fun for me! They had an assembly at school that day, so all the girls were getting all done up. Make-up, hair and they all wore pretty outfits. It was just a really happy mood in the house. Even ironing for a large portion of the morning, was so much fun, just listening and watching all the kids having such an awesome time together! :) Days like these allow me to have reassurance that I am right where God wants me, because I only have Him to thank for them. So overall, things are going pretty good at the orphanage. Besides the off day every so often, the kids are such blessings in my life and I love every single one of them. If you could pray that my friendships with each one of them continue to grow into something which they could rely on and turn to in the future when they need help, that would be awesome. These kids are absolutely incredible, and make me smile just thinking about them! :)
Another cool thing I got to do this week was attend a big Mexican Christian Fiesta. It was a full day filled with christian fellowship, worship, games and activities and of course lots of food!! We got to see our good friend Ramone and his family, who I met last year while I was here. He is the one who made me chop a chickens head off, haha, and one of the men here who I have a huge amount of respect for! He has an incredible heart for God and very humble in all that he does. We also ran into Marco and his wife Bere, who I also met last year, which was awesome! He was just recently married, and it was great to see how happy he is now! :) He is now pastoring in a small church near Monterrey and is loving it. We will be going to visit there at some point during my time here, so I am really looking forward to that. We were also given a tour of the bible school where it was held. It was very nice, and they invited Rick to come preach some time, so we will be going back there some time in the near future.
I also went to a couple birthday parties this week. One being my new American friend Seth's who lived with Rick and Lisa for a month before I came here. It truly was a mexican event, since food wasn't served til about 12:30. Needless to say, we left right after we ate our dinner! Haha. It was a really good time as well though since I got to meet a lot of youth from one of the church's in town that Seth attends. Luckily all the people who talked to me, were practicing there English, and I learned a couple Spanish words during the conversation! :)
Tonight, I am going to youth for my first time with Seth and my Mexican friend Ray, which I am really looking forward to! Even though I probably won't understand half of it, I will still love it since it really moves me to watch people praising God, my same God, in another language! :)
Anyways, I think that was all I was hoping to include in this one, so again thank you for all your continued prayers! God is moving in this place and I cannot wait to see what he has in store!
Prayer Requests:
1) The orphanage. That all things that happen in this place are God honoring, and loving towards the kids. That the kids will continue to grow with God's unconditional love in their hearts and that we will have more days like yesterday! :)
2) My Spanish. I have been learning more and more everyday and can understand alot more than I can actually speak right now, so just that I will have the focus and drive to study more, and everything that is studied stays in my head! :)
3) My close family & friends as well as myself. The hype of me being here is starting to wear off a bit, so just that when the feelings of missing eachother come around, we will all continue to be strong and focussing on the positive fact that I am here doing what God wants for me! :)
4) Rick & Lisa. I have been so blessed to have them in my life down here, and really wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for them! Pray for direction in their future plans and that God would continue to come through for them in all their needs. They have been such a blessing to me, so I hope to be a blessing to them as well, in any way possible.
Thanks again! I will continue to keep you updated on all the excitement going on down here! :)
God Bless!
Reflecting back on the week I have had, brings many thoughts to mind.
It has been full of lots of excitement as well as a few frustrating moments.
I have been told I am getting a really good view of how missions is, since I am not only seeing the ups, but I am also seeing the major lows that can occur as well. I have seen God in many different ways this week and continue to see him in everything I do.
First of all, an update from the orphanage. Things this week, have been very off and on. You never really know the kind of day you are going to have with the kids leaving the house in the morning. We had a few days, where the kids moods were very down and we were just continually having to nag them to get their chores done. (Which isn't enjoyable, because really who wants to be a nag?) These days are frustrating, but expected, since you really can't expect kids, who have gone through all they have, to be super positive and upbeat all the time, every day. So some days when one kid is having a good day, the other is having a terrible one, so you just need to try to be aware of how the kids are feeling. Then you have days like yesterday!! It was the greatest day I have had in a very long time!! Every single kid was super happy and in very good moods. They all completed their chores ALOT earlier than usual, which allowed for a lot more free time with them to just hang out, laugh and enjoy eachother's company. I got to do one of the girls hair all up and pretty, so that was fun for me! They had an assembly at school that day, so all the girls were getting all done up. Make-up, hair and they all wore pretty outfits. It was just a really happy mood in the house. Even ironing for a large portion of the morning, was so much fun, just listening and watching all the kids having such an awesome time together! :) Days like these allow me to have reassurance that I am right where God wants me, because I only have Him to thank for them. So overall, things are going pretty good at the orphanage. Besides the off day every so often, the kids are such blessings in my life and I love every single one of them. If you could pray that my friendships with each one of them continue to grow into something which they could rely on and turn to in the future when they need help, that would be awesome. These kids are absolutely incredible, and make me smile just thinking about them! :)
Another cool thing I got to do this week was attend a big Mexican Christian Fiesta. It was a full day filled with christian fellowship, worship, games and activities and of course lots of food!! We got to see our good friend Ramone and his family, who I met last year while I was here. He is the one who made me chop a chickens head off, haha, and one of the men here who I have a huge amount of respect for! He has an incredible heart for God and very humble in all that he does. We also ran into Marco and his wife Bere, who I also met last year, which was awesome! He was just recently married, and it was great to see how happy he is now! :) He is now pastoring in a small church near Monterrey and is loving it. We will be going to visit there at some point during my time here, so I am really looking forward to that. We were also given a tour of the bible school where it was held. It was very nice, and they invited Rick to come preach some time, so we will be going back there some time in the near future.
I also went to a couple birthday parties this week. One being my new American friend Seth's who lived with Rick and Lisa for a month before I came here. It truly was a mexican event, since food wasn't served til about 12:30. Needless to say, we left right after we ate our dinner! Haha. It was a really good time as well though since I got to meet a lot of youth from one of the church's in town that Seth attends. Luckily all the people who talked to me, were practicing there English, and I learned a couple Spanish words during the conversation! :)
Tonight, I am going to youth for my first time with Seth and my Mexican friend Ray, which I am really looking forward to! Even though I probably won't understand half of it, I will still love it since it really moves me to watch people praising God, my same God, in another language! :)
Anyways, I think that was all I was hoping to include in this one, so again thank you for all your continued prayers! God is moving in this place and I cannot wait to see what he has in store!
Prayer Requests:
1) The orphanage. That all things that happen in this place are God honoring, and loving towards the kids. That the kids will continue to grow with God's unconditional love in their hearts and that we will have more days like yesterday! :)
2) My Spanish. I have been learning more and more everyday and can understand alot more than I can actually speak right now, so just that I will have the focus and drive to study more, and everything that is studied stays in my head! :)
3) My close family & friends as well as myself. The hype of me being here is starting to wear off a bit, so just that when the feelings of missing eachother come around, we will all continue to be strong and focussing on the positive fact that I am here doing what God wants for me! :)
4) Rick & Lisa. I have been so blessed to have them in my life down here, and really wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for them! Pray for direction in their future plans and that God would continue to come through for them in all their needs. They have been such a blessing to me, so I hope to be a blessing to them as well, in any way possible.
Thanks again! I will continue to keep you updated on all the excitement going on down here! :)
God Bless!
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
The beginning of it all!
Well I have finally made it! Yesterday afternoon at around 230, I arrived in Monterrey and was excitingly welcomed by Rick & Lisa. Both flights were good. No issues with luggage or customs or anything for that matter, so praise God for making that day run so smoothly! :) I have been blessed in so many ways already just by arriving. I am staying now with Rick and Lisa instead of Nancy, because a few reasons. Nothing serious, but I was told that things will be easier and run smoother if I am living here so I have been blessed with an awesome family to stay with and a room way bigger than I ever need. I have also been already blessed with some new friends, who are some awesome people after God, and I cannot wait to get to know them more and more!
Today was an...interesting, different, and worryful day. Interesting how this happened on my first day. When we arrived at the orphanage, I got to see all the kids from last year, and it was so exciting. Not too long into our time there, we are told that one of the boys (the one who I became closest with during my time last year) actually ran away the night before. So that was quite the twist on the day. Luckily tonight we did find out that he has returned back to orphanage tonight. We are not aware of what lead him to do this, but we know that this is not in his character to do such a thing so it must be something quite upsetting. I believe the best prayer for him right now would be that, he is shown nothing but love from this day forward and no more harm is done from this situation. He is such an amazing young man and it saddens me to think that something like this occured. So please pray for him.
If you could also keep the orphanage itself in your prayers. It seems very broad and I am sorry for that, but if you could pray for direction in the orphanage and that the real dream for this incredible home may become a reality!
Thanks for all your prayers and support through this whole process! But since your prayers have moved every hurdle so far, I trust that you will continue to keep me in your prayers.
Learning Spanish would be a good request, since it is so hard to udnerstand the kids without the knowledge of the language.
As of now though, I am gonna head to bed. I am exhausted.
So again thank all of you and you are all in my prayers every night!
If you would like to contact me:
Facebook: Rebecca Jensen
Hotmail: becca_gurl2000@hotmail.com
I will be glad to hear from you! :)
God Bless from Mexico!
Today was an...interesting, different, and worryful day. Interesting how this happened on my first day. When we arrived at the orphanage, I got to see all the kids from last year, and it was so exciting. Not too long into our time there, we are told that one of the boys (the one who I became closest with during my time last year) actually ran away the night before. So that was quite the twist on the day. Luckily tonight we did find out that he has returned back to orphanage tonight. We are not aware of what lead him to do this, but we know that this is not in his character to do such a thing so it must be something quite upsetting. I believe the best prayer for him right now would be that, he is shown nothing but love from this day forward and no more harm is done from this situation. He is such an amazing young man and it saddens me to think that something like this occured. So please pray for him.
If you could also keep the orphanage itself in your prayers. It seems very broad and I am sorry for that, but if you could pray for direction in the orphanage and that the real dream for this incredible home may become a reality!
Thanks for all your prayers and support through this whole process! But since your prayers have moved every hurdle so far, I trust that you will continue to keep me in your prayers.
Learning Spanish would be a good request, since it is so hard to udnerstand the kids without the knowledge of the language.
As of now though, I am gonna head to bed. I am exhausted.
So again thank all of you and you are all in my prayers every night!
If you would like to contact me:
Facebook: Rebecca Jensen
Hotmail: becca_gurl2000@hotmail.com
I will be glad to hear from you! :)
God Bless from Mexico!
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