We have friends!!!

A lot has happened since our last update! On Wednesday of last week, we went to Tec de Monterrey and Tec de Pachuca. There weren´t many students on the Monterrey campus, and we found out that it was a very cold campus toward religion (But we found out later that some of the directors are actually Christians). We met with about 6 students as well on the Pachuca campus and were able to share with them. All but one wanted to receive Christ that night! We wanted to follow up with them today (a week later) but none showed up. I pray that God is still working on their hearts.



Thursday the boys met with Francisco, a student we met on Tuesday last week. They went through a GTV with him and did some follow-up, they had a great time talking with him. Later that night we watched the soccer game and ordered Pizza Hut pizza...it was awesome!



Friday was my (Michelle) birthday! We are supposed to do service projects about once a week, but had a hard time scheduling one in Guanajuato. We emailed YWAM (Youth With a Mission) here in Pachuca to see if they had any ideas for us. Ricardo, the director, invited us over for lunch on Friday. We arrived to eat KFC and some homemade Mexican food. There we also met Javier and Luis Daniel. Ricardo shared with us his vision for Pachuca and Javier and Daniel shared with us their vision for the students on their campuses.

Saturday we went to Real de Monte, the highest town in Mexico. We ate pastes, Pachuca´s famous dish, much like a Runza, but you can choose from several different fillings.

Sunday Javier invited us to his church of about 3000 members. We enjoyed the worship so much! Afterwards we met the pastor, youth pastor, and Main (another student and friend of Javier) and got several contacts for the future. All of the Christians that we´ve met here in Pachuca have amazing visions for reaching their city with the Gospel. We have been meeting with them and sharing our ideas with them, praying with them, and building relationships.

We have spent most of this week hanging out with Main and Javier, investing in them, discipling them, and sharing with them techniques that they can use to share the Lord with their fellow students. They are amazing students, only 18 and 19 years old, but have so much faith and so much passion for the Lord. Please be praying for them to know exactly what to do in the fall when they go back to their campus and how they will be able to reach students there.

We are excited to be leaving for Ixtapa next Monday to debrief with our whole team and think about what has happened the past 6 weeks. We are also looking forward to our return to Nebraska!

Day 2 in Pachuca

Hi everyone, it´s Michelle! Today on campus we had the opportunity to talk with several students. I was surprised to see so many students hanging around during finals week, willing to talk with us. We have three meetings set up for Thursday with students that we met today. One of those meetings is to start a GTV. Pray that we would be able to meet with them and have time to go through a GTV with them and that this would be the start of a movement on the largest campus in Pachuca.

Throughout our time in Mexico I have been learning a lot! The biggest thing that God has been teaching me is how to be a prayer warrior. Because I don´t know much Spanish, I can´t speak with the students unless they speak English, so the best thing I can do is pray...needless to say I have been doing a lot of that here! (I have been able to pick up some Spanish, though, and find that I am understanding more and more each day!) This trip is designed to help us become leaders, we make our own hotel and travel arrangements when we go to a new city, we research and decide which campuses to go to, we are given a set amount of money and must budget to stay within our means; all of these things have been a learning experience for me and have taught me a little bit about being a leader and depending on the Lord.

Thank you for your prayers!! We are encouraged each day as we see what the Lord is doing here in Mexico.

Second Phase of the Journey-Pachuca

We made it safely to Pachuca after a 6 hour bus ride. We are staying in the Holiday Inn, which is a major blessing. It´s sooooo nice. There is a restaraunt inside with a heated pool too. It´s a major step up from the previous hostel in Guanajuato. From our savings at the first hotel, we were able to afford this. Our team had a big budgeting meeting to see if we could afford it with the discounts they gave us, and by God´s grace, we could!

Our first day out on the town going to campuses was long. We couldn´t find the right bus to get on right away, and so we eventually ended up on the opposite side of town, near the boonies. There aren´t many Americans here, and so we are stared at a lot. After traveling around for nearly 2 and a half hours, we got on the right bus. The campus was only 13 minutes away from our hotel. Oh well, we did get a free tour of the city.

Nate and I broke off in our own group and talked with 6 students. One was already a believer. We found him reading the Purpose Driven Life. He really wanted to start a movement. He said that he often buys books and bibles and gives them to his friends. He loves the Lord, and he wants to reach the campus for Christ. The last guy that we talked to also received the Lord. Be praying that we can follow up both Adeberto and Idgar. It was interesting to talk with the other students too. They all have such interesting stories.

Hi, its Michelle. I went with the girls today, we began talking with a girl named Draina. She has no spiritual background and didn´t really seem very interested in what we were talking about, but our conversation led to a Gospel presentation. Draina ended up accepting Christ as her Lord and Savior! She also wants to start a GTV with her friends, which is so exciting!! Draina lives in a town about an hour away and just finished her finals and will not be returning here to Pachuca, so we will not be able to follow up with her. Pray that the Lord would be working in her life and that she would be able to start a GTV with her friends in the fall.

After our conversation with Draina, we had to use the restroom. We started talking with a girl in the restroom who spoke some English, but she had a friend who spoke more English. She ran out of the bathroom and yelled for her friend (they were all supposed to be in class at this time) and a whole herd of girls came into the restroom to talk with us. We got to talk with them for quite awhile, we learned more about the school, students here, and the city. They were very friendly and they invited us to come to a traditional Mexican dance on Friday or Saturday this week (one of the girls will be dancing).

Thanks for your prayers so far. Only 20 more days till we´re back home! We look forward to seeing you all soon.

Michelle´s Pics

Hi everybody, I uploaded my pics so far on the journey. If you want to see more people than scenery (than Jared´s pics), check my pictures out on facebook. Here are the links.

http://unl.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2102395&l=9e2a7&id=17201426
http://unl.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2102393&l=7ecb0&id=17201426

More Pictures

Hey Everyone,

I uploaded the rest of my pictures so far. Here are the links to the new folders:

http://unl.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2102260&l=b7bad&id=17216906
http://unl.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2102122&l=4a203&id=17216906
http://unl.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2102267&l=079e9&id=17216906

Today we went back to the University of Guanajuato. There were a bunch of high school students taking an entrance exam for the university, so we did some mnistry while we were there. Michelle and I got to talk with one student who already knew Christ as his personal Lord and Savior. We talked about starting a GTV in the fall when he begins his college career, and got his information for follow-up.

Michelle and I also talked with two other prep students who received Christ after Michelle shared with them the four laws! They said they were going to attend UG in the fall, so we are really excited about the possibility of them beginning a GTV (Life Transformation Group). The only problem is that they live in Leon, so we cannot follow up with them directly. We will try to stay in touch through Email, but we have to submit them to the Lord´s care for the summer. Hopefully in the fall they will be in contact with the team already in place in Mexico.

It is interesting to note the way that Universities work down here. Apparently there is an entrance exam to UG that around 1000 students take, but only 45 get in. If they do get in, then their entire schooling

Photo Update

Hey Everyone,

I updated the pictures from our first leg of the journey. They are not all up yet because the computers are slow here, but you should definitely check them out. Here are the links.

http://unl.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2102127&l=ae0c6&id=17216906
http://unl.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2102132&l=eea78&id=17216906
http://unl.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2100206&l=ca574&id=17216906

Also, we were able to set up several appointments from contacts we met the first week. Please pray for the times that we meet with them that the Lord would be able to use them in mighty ways to reach their campus.

Mexican Hospitality

Friday we met a few more students who are interested in starting a GTV, who we can connect with Cesar and his friends to begin the movement on the main campus in Guanajuato.

We went to Monica´s house (the Mormon girl who invited us over) on Saturday. She picked us up near our hotel and paid for our bus ride to her house. We got to her home, which was beautiful and very American, and were greeted by her family and a lot of food! It was the first homemade Mexican meal for most of us, and it was amazing! Monica and her mom planned to grill some meat and make quesadillas for us, but they didn´t know how to work the grill as her father usually takes care of that. The boys had to help them get it started, so we ate the homemade guacamole and pico de gallo as we waited. Her mom also made horchada (a common Mexican drink made by soaking rice and cinnamon sticks in milk and then blending...it´s really good!).

After we ate, we went inside so Amy could play her keyboard (she was missing the piano, we haven´t seen any pianos here yet). Monica´s brother, Edgar, hung out with us too, he was around our age. We got to talk to them about their Mormon faith. We found out that they are in the process of figuring out what they believe, but we got to share our faith with them and let them know that we would be happy to talk with them about any questions they have. It was really a great time to build a friendship with both of them and experience hanging out with Mexicans in their home.

Sunday morning we went to church at a small church that we found. Afterwards, we met the pastor and his family. His son, Pepe, is a college student here in Guanajuato. Pepe and his friends took us out for pizza after church (and paid), so we got two free meals this weekend!! They also invited us to hang out that evening with them. We met back up with them Sunday evening and went out for coffee. We had a blast! We exchanged slang and sang songs together (I know it sounds kind of cheesy, but it was fun to be able to connect in that way).

We are going to meet up with Pepe and some of his friends tonight for a Christian concert/meeting tonight.