Prayer

Pray for my Spanish. In Spanish we call it confianza- it means more than confidence. Pray I would be brave to speak, and pray out loud. Pray I would be disciplined in studying.

Self discipline. This has always been a weakness of mine. Pray especially that I would be disciplined in spending a good amount of time with the Lord each day. Also pray I would find a good system to keep track of all my various jobs.

Health. All but one or two of us on the team has had some digestive problem, or a cold or something in the past two weeks. Pray for us to stay healthy.

Club teachers. Erika and Stephen are my club co-teachers. Pray for us to love, unity and communication between us.

My 7 and 8 year olds.
Pray for all of them to know that we love them because Jesus loves them. Pray they would accept His gift of abundant life. Pray I would have the words to explain this to them, and wisdom on how to show them God’s love.
Pilar- dad is absent, mom is almost since she works all the time. Pray Pilar would know how much her Heavenly Father loves her.
Sarai- Have not seen her in a while, she is with her mom taking care of a sick aunt.

Kids on my inviting routes:
Jocaline is 5, about 2 months ago her father and another man raped a woman. The police have not found him yet, and he is back at home now. Her grandmother who lives with her is a witch. Jocaline has such a sweet spirit and a great appreciation for beauty. Pray that God would protect her and rescue her (spiritually) from such a dark home.
Carolina and Manuel 4 and 5 I think. A few weeks ago their father stopped letting them come to club. They love club and their mom trusts us. Pray that their dad would have a change of heart. We have heard of a teacher or priest at a Church in the area who has been speaking against us. Pray for this person, and for the truth to be know.

Juan. He did come to Cell group a second time. Now he is back in the rehab center. Which is much better than getting high every day. He really does want to get better. Praise God for that, and for his mom who is wise to send him to rehab. Pray that God would capture his heart and give him the strength to stand up to temptation when he gets out.

I know this is a lot. I would love it if you could pick one or two of these things to pray for. Not to spend hours in prayer for me every day (if God leads you to, great! Go for it!) But just whenever you think about it during you day, lift up the colonia, the team, or me.

Safari in Patria

On Wednesday, Katie, Elizabeth and I happened to go to the same house to visit our respective girls who are sisters and cousins. We were deeply enthralled and focused on making play-doh tacos when all of a sudden the kids jumped up and ran out to the street. At first we were a little frustrated and confused, not realizing that it wasn’t an ice cream cart or the gas truck. (We have already tuned out vehicles with loud speakers) But when we saw the lions we too, forgot the play-doh and ran out to get a closer look.
In Fresnillo, this is how the circus advertises. They drive around with a cage on a trailer with lionesses and baboons or they ride an elephant around the colonias. The next day when I went to go meet the lions, a man offered me tickets for just 5 pesos. It was a good thing I had decided beforehand that I didn’t want to go or he would have convinced me to buy tickets for myself, my husband and my kids.
So the lionesses were curled up in the corner together. One of them was awake. She watched me as I crouched down a few feet from her head and just stared. I could have petted them if I wanted to. Actually I did want to, but honestly I was a little scared. I love lions. They are so beautiful. But also so powerful and dangerous- it was thrilling being that close to them. Kind of like being on top of a cliff (I am specifically remembering Pilot Mt.) The view is breathtaking, and it just adds to the beauty that there is a real danger a few feet away.
So it was fun to see lions up close, and cute that they feed the baboons tortillas, but the poor lions all locked up and bouncing along unpaved streets listening to the loudspeaker all day. We prayed that they would not go crazy and bite off some kids arm.