Mara in Raleigh

Not in Mexico anymore, so if you want to keep up, go to my new blog.

goodbye

So, this will be my last blog entry from Mexico. I am moving back to the states next week. Of course I am leaving with mixed emotions. It will be so hard to leave my friends and home here, but I am excited to see what God has for me this year. All glory to Him!

Please keep praying for the CFCI Missionary team as they share the good news in Fresnillo!

Photos of what I have been up to in my last weeks here. Tita, at her 3rd birthday party with a barney piñata. Last week we climbed a mountain. A big one. Stephen, Katie, me, George.

Outing to the park

Luis, David and Geras spinning very rapidly right after lunch. Only two of them lost it.

Sandra (looking very serious and slightly sad about the half dead cricket she found) and Gabriela.

Holy Week

The kids receive 2 weeks break from school, there are re-enactments of the crucifixion, palm branches are tied to light posts, and everyone goes to church. Holy Week in Mexico does not include chocolate eggs and pink bunnies. As we sang the lent songs and kneeled in repentance and humility before the Lord, cannons sounded from the catholic churches in town. The whole country it seemed was aware of Jesus’ sacrifice, and celebrating or grieving, or both. It began on Palm Sunday with the whole congregation singing Hosanna and waving the branches as we entered the bodega. We danced, sang, waved the palms, and worshipped Jesus as King! Then on Friday we spent the day reflecting on our own sin, our need for salvation and forgiveness, and the incredible Gift God the Father has given us in His Son. Resurrection Sunday was a day of celebration like nothing I have experienced. We sang Alleluia, danced, and beat tambourines to celebrate that Jesus has risen indeed!

I don’t have a photo of the image that would explain the atmosphere, but I will tell you about it.
Doug our pastor in his traditional white robe, and Sammy, his 3 year old son who has wandered to the front of the church. They are dancing and singing Cristo no esta muerto, él esta vivo (Christ is not dead, he is alive). Sammy holds his toy guitar and strums in perfect rhythm as they jump up and down praising God. Half of the congregation is also jumping and dancing, everyone singing to our God. Kids, teens, adults, teachers, factory workers, missionaries, are filled with real joy as we worship our Risen King. It was a fiesta - a real celebration

vacation

Vacation was wonderful. I had 2 weeks in the states. I spent most of it in MD with a trip to Raleigh and one to Pittsburgh. SO relaxing and refreshing. My family and friends took such good care of me. I got fed everywhere and driven all over. I am so blessed.

Wow! God has been teaching me so much! Being a missionary is hard work! I continue to learn so much every day- about Mexico, mission work, and about me. Learning about me is the hardest part. I am being so humbled over and over.

I will leave it at that for now and write more later.

Que tal del aire. (How ´bout that wind?)

Here I am in semi-desert central Mexico, 7,000 feet above sea level and I am just in awe. (coming from the rainy, cloudy, humid, east coast) I love sunshine, and Fresnillo, Mexico has lots of it. In the past 6 months, we have had about 8 overcast days. I am also enjoying the heat, at least for the moment.

On Tuesday we finished our team meeting standing out on the patio under the cover of those rare dark clouds in order to escape the heat of the dining room. When rain started to fall, no one moved. We just let it fall on our faces and praised God.

Two months ago it was already getting warm. Well, for the whole winter the sun was super strong. Even when it was 50° in my room, the sun beating down on the patio brought the temp outside up to 80°. I know 50° does not sound cold but when you are working on the computer for an hour, not moving, you loose a lot of body heat. The great part was that all we had to do was step out of the room into the glaring sun and soak up the rays like Meredith’s turtles.

Shady areas and indoors started warming up just as the wind came. Wind means dust. We get a thin layer of dust over everything- inside and out. After a day of walking (or biking- usually with my eyes closed) around the colonia, I would have dust in my hair, ears, nose, eyes, mouth. We also get remolinas – little tornadoes. When they come by you stick your head inside your shirt, and hold onto any small children nearby. Just kidding, they aren’t that strong but they do slam doors and ruin a recent mopping job.

So its still windy, but the HOT season has begun. I just checked the thermometer. 98.5° in the sun. Apparently this is just the beginning. Sleeping outside, eating lots of ice cream, and playing water games with the kids. That’s how we will survive.

So! Anyone want to come visit?

Family

So the best part of Christmas was that my mom and my sisters, Alison and Anna, came to visit me. They stayed for 4 days. We toured the colonia and visited with some families I love. I am proud of them for trying new food- even spicy food, and speaking Spanish. Best Christmas present EVER!

Well, after they left I had a dream that I thought I would share... with everyone.

I was in a car with my mom, Alison and Anna and two other people I don't know, and someone was trying to kill all of us (thats why he put us all in the same car). There was a big machine on wheels that was going to smash the car. A traffic cop lady was directing this big machine, and we drove by her slowly so I rolled down the window and started begging her to stop the machine, but she just ignored me. I kept asking her, and then I thought "what am I doing? God is all powerful! He is the one who can save us!" So I started praying. And I told everyone else "Hey! we should ask God to save us!" so we did. "Praise Him because HE is all powerful. God, you have our lives in your hands! have mercy on us, save us!" I kept praying like that.

And then I woke up. There was no resolution to weather we lived or died, but I woke up with an amazing peace. It was compleatly resolved in that we asked God to protect us and I knew we were in His hands. We declared His name and power, and trusted Him with our lives and thats what really mattered- not if we lived or died. "for to me- to live is Christ and to die is gain" Phillipians 1:21

Not only did I have peace when I woke up but a renewed fear of God. The dream really reminded me that I am at His mercy- not only does he protect me but he also has the power to take my life- "He gives and takes away" That led me to think about how the colonia is a pretty dangerous place and that God really has protected us and all the missionaries over the years. Not that I am afraid- but I have more reverence type fear (reminded of His power- He is todopoderoso- omnipotent). I am reminded of how I need to seek him for every little thing- not wait untill my life is in danger. I don't know- I was going through a kind of rebellious time spiritually- not praying, not really taking time to meditate on what I have been reading in the Bible, and this was a good wake up jolt for me- but a gentle one. It was a sweet morning. That's the only way I know how to describe it.

La Navidad

Christmas in Mexico- quite different from any of my past Christmases. In Mexico we celebrate Christmas Eve. Some people even think that Christmas is the 24th of December. So Meredith and I started at about 7pm at Medit’s house. She fed us lasagna. Yes, Italian lasagna- not a typical Christmas food in Mexico. It was good though. We chatted with Medit and her family for a bit and then headed over to Olga’s house to meet up with Gaby and Katie. Olga was very excited that we started at her house this year. In the past missionaries have ended at her house and been too full to eat any of her posole or tamales. So she took advantage of it and filled us up. I couldn’t protest since Olga makes the best posole I have tasted in all my 6 months and 4 bowls of posole- no, it’s really good. And I ate a tamal.
Next was Ruth’s house where I got to help finish up the huge job of making over 100 tamales. That's not even half of them in the photo. We ate more tamales. At Ofelia and José’s house we had steak, beans, sausages, and they tried to serve us more tamales. The trick was that we didn’t want to make a big deal about eating at lots of other houses- we wanted to make each family we visited feel special, so really we had 4 decent sized meals over the course of 4 hours. And it was all so yummy. The biggest success for me was only enchilaring myself twice. (enchilar- what happens when you eat more chile than you can handle. enchilaring- spanglish)

Me and Briana and the guitar.
We ended at David and Vero’s house. The whole family (5 kids) were waiting for us to open their presents. That was so special. Each member of the family received one present. Briana, the youngest, was the first. When she opened her “electric guitar” everyone ooohed and ahhhed while David put the batteries in and we listened to her “play” it. Actually when she pressed the cow shaped button it mooed and the music note button played “Old McDonald” (by the time we reached Cristina, I had to take the batteries out to preserve our sanity). But she was the center of attention for about 5 min. Then we moved on to Joel, all the way up to David. Each person had the chance to try out their gift and enjoy it while we all enjoyed watching or helping.

And so we came home around 12:30am happy, full, and with more tamales to eat on Christmas day.

Christmas Drama

Érika, Stephen and I were shepherds with my 7 and 8 year olds. Are they not the cutest shepherds ever? We sang Venid, Adoremos (Oh, Come all ye Faithful), and our one line was “¡Allí está el bebé!” (there’s the baby!). They were amazing. I am so proud of my shepherds.

Here is the whole cast.