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.

Movement Launched!

We went back to the University of Guanajuato this morning to meet with Cesar, a new believer from Monday. Nate and I talked with him about the first follow-up and about starting and running a GTV. He said he already had two friends in mind that he wants to share with. He also wanted more students from Mexico City (maybe some stinters or other students) to come visit him in the fall. Movement launched! Our team will be praying heavily for Cesar and his friends. It was amazing too. While we talked with him, a few of his other friends came over. One girl was very outspoken and she spoke amazing english. She´s learning to be quatrolingual (is that a word?). She said she is a mormon, but she invited us to hang out at her house on Saturday and offered to chill with us next week. I can already see that she would have an amazing impact on the campus if she were to come to know the Lord! It´s great making some new friends to hang out with next week since most of the schools will be out for the summer. God rocks.
Team Guanachuca

Wednesday

Today our group wanted to go to the University of Guanajuato of Chemistry and Nursing again, but God had other plans. The bus that we got on took us to a different campus. We went to UCEA, another public university. The campus was beautiful. There Nate and I talked with two girls who actually attended UG of Chemistry and Nursing but were hanging out at UCEA (STRANGE). But anyway, we got to share the gospel with them and they both accepted Jesus! They were even interested in starting a GTV (small group bible study) next fall too on their campus. God was truly working today. Most of the campuses are in their finals week this week, so next week we may try to visit some of the surrounding towns to find more information for next years projecters.

It is interesting so far in Guanajuato. It seems to be a huge tourist place. I feel like I have seen just as many americans down here as I have mexicans. There are about 60 to 70 students down here right now studying abroad, and I think we are going to try to do some evangelism with them while they are here.

The weather is beautiful too. We sat outside one of the main park areas last night for our date night with Jesus. It was only about 70 degrees and a slight breeze. There were live bands, some mariachi players, and candlelit tables at the restaraunt we ate at. It is so beautiful that we ate outdoors and enjoyed the atmosphere. It was a nice restaraunt too. We only paid 5 dollars for our meal! The market seems to be a great place for students to hang out, so we are going to try to go there each night.

Second day in Guanajuato

What an interesting day! We decided to go check out Universidad de Santa Fe. Well...looks like "School´s out for summer". The place was deserted except for a few security guards a few guys in the office. We got in and one of the guys spoke very good English, so he asked what we were interested in. We said we wanted to find information on schools that offer exchange programs. It was a nice cover for ministry. Then he took us on a short tour of the campus. Very beautiful! and it looks like they´re doing a lot to improve it and get it going. It´s only 15 years old. He also told us some sites to check out while we´re here. Then we wanted to check out another school, Universidad de Leon. It was a high school and a university. They wouldn´t let us roam around..but we got a lot of information about the school. Then we went to Escuela Normal, and it was an elementary school. Oops. Then we went to another and the classes were out for summer. Overall, we did some decoding of the city and it´s campuses. We received lots of information on different campuses and info on their exchange programs! haha.

Finally, we went to University of Guanajuato´s chemistry and enfermeria (health) school but we didnt stay there long. we felt the Lord saying our day was done. Especially after someone on our team (who shall remain nameless) sat on some gum! haha. It was a very interesting day even though we didn´t get to speak with many students.

First day in Guanajuato

We made it to Guanajuato yesterday. The bus trip took about 5 hours. We were able to ride pretty comfortably, and we even got to watch 3 movies! Our hotel is not too bad. We got two rooms for the five of us for only 600 pesos a night! That´s about 12 dollars for each person. We spent the rest of the night last night doing some exploration and finding out where the necessities are.

Today we went to the University of Guanajuato. The university is very old, and the architecture is sweet. It is divided up into different majors. We first went to the language school to see if anyone speaks english. Michelle and I went in one group while Amy, Andria, and Nate went in the other. After a couple of conversations without finding anyone who wanted to make a positive impact on their campus or who loved God, (strange isn´t it?), we went up to four students who were studying for their finals. We got into a spiritual conversation with them, and Michelle and I both were able to take turns sharing the gospel with them. I was able to tell them my testimony too. It was an easy conversation for us since they all wanted to talk in english. Their final was an oral exam in english, so they wanted us to help them.

When it came to the decision for Christ, they all wanted to pray to receive him. After we prayed, they were all excited. One girl kept clapping her hands and smiling big. Another guy said that he was always looking for a way to know God without having to go to church to confess or pray to idols and stuff. He understood that God lived in his heart and that is exactly what he wanted. We had a great time explaining the gospel to them, and it was so much fun to see the twinkle in their eye.

The four students also wanted to start a movement on their campus. We are going to try to meet back with them on Thursday to help them start their small groups. We can´t wait to see how God will use them on their campus!

Quick link

Hey everyone,

I wanted to let you in on a couple of things. If you want to see some of the pictures from our trip so far, I´ve uploaded a few on Facebook. Amy Nealeigh has also uploaded a few pictures herself. Here are the links to see them. I will be posting more photos as soon as I can get some time to git r done.

Amy´s sight - amynealeigh.blogspot.com
my photos - http://unl.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2100203&l=a6ad3&id=17216906
more photos - http://unl.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2100202&l=c7546&id=17216906
yet more photos - http://unl.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2100206&l=ca574&id=17216906
there will be more to come from the first leg of our journey!

A great end to week 2

Hello everyone!

Well, we've had another great week in Mexico. We finally know our groups which we will be traveling in for the next four weeks. Jared, Michelle, Amy Nealeigh, Andria Armstrong, and Nate Fries will all be traveling to Pachuca and Guanajuato. It is a blessing for us because all of the UNL people were able to be kept together. We will be traveling to Guanajuato first, and then to Pachuca. This project really develops our leadership training. From what we have seen God do already here in Mexico City, the expectations for God in the next two cities are pretty high.

However, before we get too excited about the next cities, I want to give a little update on this week. Michelle and I went to the campus UACM, and were able to surface a group of six believers who had the vision to reach their campus for Christ. They were struggling to find some good materials to hand out to students. It was a blessing for us to put into their hands gospel tracks and brochures on how to start small group Bible studies. I was amazed at their passion for knowing Jesus and even moreso, sharing this passion with others. Surfacing this group also allowed us to connect the three new believers we saw come to know the Lord in a personal way. God is teaching us so much about passion. People will follow passion, whether it has a point or not. I feel so privileged to be sharing a passion that has an eternal point.

In addition to launching a movement on UACM, God also allowed Jared and another one of our teammates, Eduardo, to personally see a student come to know the Lord. The students name was Eduardo also, (in Spanish, when two people have the same name, they call it tocaya). I was fascinated with his thirst for the gospel. He had never heard anything like it before, and he said he wanted this passion we shared with him. After accepting Christ, he said he felt so much peace and utter joy. Eduardo and I followed up with him on Friday, and we talked for nearly three hours about God, music, movies, and friends. It was great to develop a relationship with him.

In addition to ministry, our group has also had a lot of fun growing together. We took one night to visit the "Beverly Hills" of Mexico City. Our group ate some sushi, had some ice cream, and spent the night on a date with Jesus. (Most of us went to Starbucks to settle in for a great conversation with our Lord.). We've also enjoyed a sweet dance party at one of our stinter's apartments.

Praise the Lord for keeping us all healthy and safe. I have been the target once of some pickpocketers (thankfully our group looks out for each other). We have also seen a few protests (some people were even naked...really awkward). One of our members even talked with a couple of drug cartel members about Jesus. We've had a great experience thus far, and my heart is filled with nothing but joy for the next legs of our journey. Thanks for your prayers!

A Great End to Week 1

Thursday and Friday we went back to the campuses that we visited Monday and Tuesday. On Thursday, my (Michelle) group went to a school for medical students. This campus is very spiritually dead. In the two days that we spent there we didn´t find a single believer. When we visited the first time, I had the opportunity to be a part of leading a girl named Eveline to the Lord. She began a relationship with Him that Monday, so we got to meet up with her again on Thursday, which was neat. We also talked with a soccer player for the school named Omar. He seemed very interested, but didn´t make a commitment to the Lord that day. We later found out that his girlfriend had been talking with other people in our group...we´re praying that the Lord will use those conversations in both of their lives. What a difference the two of them could make on their campus!

Friday was the best day yet! The first few days we had Crusade staff people walk around with us to model conversations and to help us out with our Spanish. They decided we should start having conversations on our own that day since we will pretty much be on our own once we leave Mexico City. Jared and I walked around together. This was a little bit scary since I can´t speak any Spanish and Jared is limited in his Spanish speaking. The second guy that we approached, Marcos, was sitting by himself reading. We started talking with him and found out that he was already a believer. [It turns out he was reading his Bible, but we didn´t even notice that initially:) ] Marcos explained to us that he was involved with a local church and wants to reach out to the students on his campus. He already goes around with some friends each week evangelizing. This was so encouraging! He had a couple of his friends come talk with us as well who are a part of his church group. They were really excited about starting a movement on their campus.

That afternoon we talked to a couple more people who made decisions to accept Christ into their lives, so now we can connect them with Marcos and his friends! This is exactly what we pray for, for each of the campuses.

Saturday morning we went to the pyramids to do some sightseeing. That was a great experience. We climbed a lot of stairs! Once you make it to the top, the view is amazing! You can see a lot of the city and the other pyramids. It was pretty warm, a lot of people got sunburned, and we were all exhausted when we left.

Today we went to church, we split into two groups. Our group traveled two hours to get there. The service was two hours long and then we traveled two hours back. It made for a long day, but it was well worth it. I couldn´t understand most of the sermon, but the worship music was great. The worship leader was a native who jammed out the whole time. He swung his hips around, bopped his head, and really sang from his soul. It was fun to see him sing with so much passion. We talked to him later (he spoke English, which was refreshing!), he said that he is in a band here in Mexico.

This evening the Crusdae staff members had us over for dinner. It was our first homecooked meal for over a week, and it was wonderful! It was a great to bond with our team and the staff outside of ministry. Afterwards, they took us a few blocks away to get ice cream. This area is the nicer part of Mexico City...we called it the Beverly Hills of Mexico City.

Thanks for your prayers! We´re having a wonderful time here, we´ve all grown a lot and are looking forward to the next six weeks!!

After the first week...

Hola todos! Holy cow, we can´t believe the amazing time that we are having down here. I (jared) have experienced so much in this past week that it is hard to pick and choose what I will write about. I´ve already filled over 10 pages in my journal of just God stuff. We´ve already seen several new believers, but most importantly, it is the new movements that we are launching that are really getting me excited. Everyday we break off into groups to talk with students about finding christians who are excited to start something amazing on their campus. Just today I was with a group who met Gabriela, a girl who leads a small study on her campus. We were able to introduce her to another group doing the same thing. We listened to them talk a while, and we could already see the big things they had planned for their campus that only their combined groups could do.

I´m amazed at the openness of the students down here and their incredible fire they have for the gospel. It blows my mind away. The culture down here is so much more open. Everyone is willing to talk about spritual things. Compared to the states, any conversation that started with spirituality would be over before it began. It´s just the mindset that I see in the states. But here, everyone has a story to share, and a story that they want to hear from others. It is so easy to reach people down in Mexico.

The language barrier is still tough on us. I´ve only had 4 years of high school spanish, and yet all of the conversations down here have been in spanish. But God is gracious and has helped me remember a lot of what I have learned.

Accompaning the open culture, there are many things that give us culture shock. I´m amazed at the many public displays of affection for couples. It is a little awkward, but after a while, you get used to it.

On wednesday, our team went out to do service projects for the community. The boys went to a group home to clean and play with the kids. We went to a local dirt field and played a rough and tumble game of soccer. The ladies went to homes for single moms with small children to clean and also play with the kids. In the big cities, especially a city with 28 million people, you can find whatever you want. The one thing that they all share is the brokenness that comes with a fallen world. God is in the big cities, I have learned, and he wants desperately to reach them. But if we reach the city, so the surrounding country will follow. It is a great vision to live by.

One last thing is that there are many different denominations down here. (Like I said, you can find everything here). I´ve seen huge cathedrals, extremely nice Mormon churches, and run down evangelical churches. It is interesting to see the variety.

Right now our group is staying at Casa Gonzales, a hostal type place located only a few blocks from the main street in Mexico City, Plaza de las reformas. if you watched the Miss Universe pageant a few nights ago, the location was right up the street from us! We are also located less than 3 blocks from both the british embassy and the US embassy.

Wow, I´ve written a lot. Hope to update again soon!

First Day in Mexico City!

Hola todos!

For our first full day in Mexico, we spent the morning getting to know our group and eating a great breakfast. The night before we all went out to eat and had one of the best steaks of my (jared`s) life. In the afternoon, we got a chance to see a little bit of the city as we went on a scavenger hunt. I saw lots of things from beautiful statues to the location of the miss universe pageant on Monday! I even saw a few of the previous contestants. Tonight we are going to go salsa dancing at a local club and do a little shopping. But above all else, Im already seeing God work in how we got down here, and the safety that he is already providing us. I have a better picture of the vision down here, and i cant wait until we go to the schools on monday. Adios!

We made it to Mexico!

We made it to Houston yesterday at the same time that our flight was leaving to Mexico City, so we missed that flight. We were on standby the rest of the night, we didn`t end up on a flight, but we did get to stay at the Marriott for free (the girls got a suite!). We had confirmed flights for this morning and we all made it to Mexico City by early afternoon. We had our first authentic Mexican meal and it was really good! Nothing like Taco Bell or Tico`s, but very good. It has been a crazy journey so far and we are extremely exicted to see what God has in store for us the next couple of weeks! Thanks for your prayers!

May 13, 2007

Welcome to the Mexico Journey Summer Project blog! We can use this to communicate to people back home while in Mexico. If you want to contact anyone, you can email Jared at jaredpcarlson@gmail.com. We're excited for our adventure in Mexico!!