Christmas in Tecate, Mexico

I'm sending you the happiest of (late) Christmas wishes right now from a internet cafe in Cuzco Peru... My team just arrived in Peru after spending 2 weeks ministering in Tecate, Mexico, where it was 65 degrees and sunny on Christmas, so at least because of that, I didnt miss the Chicago Christmas :)

In addition to the weather, I really enjoyed the ministry that we did in Tecate. To catch you up, I left Ensenada 3 weeks ago after finishing the "Lecture Phase" of my Discipleship Training School. My team began our ¨Outreach Phase¨of the DTS in Tecate Mexico, about 1 hour northeast of Ensenada, on the border with the US, for 2 weeks.

The past two weeks in Tecate we have been doing several different kinds of ministries: visiting nursing homes, praying for the sick in hospitals, leading church services, painting and other work projects, hanging out at an all-boys orphanage, handing out hot chocolate and LOTS of kids programs. About once a day, I found myself in a clown costume, doing a drama, singing spanish songs about Jesus and telling the christmas story to cute mexican children :)

Our last weekend in Tecate, we split our team into pairs and each stayed with a mexican family from the church we had been working at. My friend and I were with the pastor and his family. They lived in, well you can't really even call it a house... there was a little part with 2 bedrooms, concrete for the floor and plywood for the walls. They had no bathroom or running water, just a hole surrounded by a curtain and a bucket to shower with. It got below 40 degrees at night and we froze, both inside and outside.
I thank God that one of the daughter's gave up their bed for us and so we had lots of blankets to sleep with and we cuddled enough to keep ourselves warm. During my time with this family, I recognized the great sacrifice that this family is making to serve God as pastors in this community. This family lives with the joy of the Lord in their hearts, willingly welcoming us into their home and then including us as one of their own. They really dont have any material possessions to keep themselves occupied - no tv, dvd, videogames, etc - but they find joy in spending quality time together, laughing over meals and continuing in sharing stories long after they've finished. Each cares for one another, the pastor's wife always cooks food for her 11 person family (plus us this weekend) and waits for them all to finish to make sure they've all eaten enough before she even makes herself a plate. All the way down to the 12 year old son, who is always looking out for his 2 and 3 years old nephews. Although I wasn't able to feel my fingers or toes for the 2 days I was there (seriously, they went numb!), the love that I saw and experienced in that family warmed my heart and soul.

Brian and Kevin, the pastor´s grandkids and my new friends

This Christmas, I celebrated in Mexico with my new friends from around the globe: Canadians, Germans, Japanese, Indian, and of course Mexicans and Americans. On Christmas Eve, we had a traditional Mexican Christmas dinner, complete with tamales and champurrado (thick hot chocolate made with flour). Then we had a pinata, ate lots of candy, and stayed up until midnight to open our presents :) On Christmas morning, we sang christmas carols, opened presents from our secret santa and had an american christmas feast, with ham and christmas cookies included.

Gordana (germany), Joseph (India) and me

For more pictures of my time in Tecate, Mexico, CLICK HERE

For more pictures of my Christmas in Mexico, CLICK HERE


I hope you had a very Feliz Navidad :) And I wish you a very blessed New Year!

Thanksgiving in Mexico

Although they don't officially celebrate Thanksgiving in Mexico, we still had a thanksgiving dinner at the YWAM base here in Ensenada. Very traditional - turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie, the works. And it was a very international event - I ate thanksgiving dinner with a German, a Canadian, a Norwegian, and a Romanian/new American (Lily just became an American citizen before she came to visit me!)... it was very cool. I missed you all, and hope you had a great day with lots to be thankful for. Love you!

Homes of Hope - Ensenada

This weekend I served a translator for a Homes of Hope team, it was wonderful because I got to spend my time building a relationship with the family and I loved it, here is a peek at our build site (below are the English words to the song the girls are singing - so cute!)

Habia un sapo (sapo, sapo), que nadaba en el rio (rio, rio), en su traje verde (verde, verde) y temblaba de frio (frio, frio)
Su mama la sapa (sapa, sapa) siempre le decia (cia, cia) que tenia un amigo (amigo, amigo) que se llama JESUS!
There was a toad, who swam in the river, in a green suit, and shivered from the cold
His mom the toad, always told him, that he had a friend, whose name is JESUS!

Also, CLICK HERE to more pictures from the build, and see me learning to cook Mexican food!!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040635&l=578e3&id=41603236

Homes of Hope in Tijuana

Check out this video of my Discipleship Training school building a house for a needy family in Tijuana. We finished in just two days!

Here are some pictures of our build...

This weekend in Ensenada...

This was our first free weekend in Ensenada... on Saturday, I helped one of my friends on base repaint his apartment, then we went out for lunch to eat empanadas. Empanadas are sort of like a homemade Mexican version of a Hot Pocket - a hot pastry stuffed with all kinds of goodness, meat, cheese,veggies, bacon, mushrooms, chile, etc. They are one of my favorite foods down here, along with tamales. Tamales are made of corn meal dough called masa stuffed with a delicious filling and then wrapped in corn husks and then steamed in huge covered pots. These can also be filled with a variety of things, like meat or cheese, or be sweet and have fruit inside, like pineapple. I have learned that you will find the best tamales being sold out of someone's house or from a little stand on a street corner from a local. :)

Saturday night we all went to the circus! It was set up right behind the Walmart in town, so we all headed there for a fun night. I realized that I had never been to the circus before, even in the US, so I was pretty excited. At first I didn't really want to go because I thought it was with all those crazy rides and dumb arcade games, but then I realized that was a carnival, and that the circus would have animals and that would be fun. So I imagine the Mexican circus is pretty much the same as the American circus - clowns, acrobats, trapeze artists, mini horses, panthers, tigers, etc. The one thing that was alittle strange is they said the kids that were on the trapeze were only between 11 and 14 years old... I guess those kids really did run away from home and join the circus.Gordana and I pretending to be tigers outside the circus, haha.

Real tigers jumping through a fiery hoop!

Sunday was a ridiculously fun day, I went with my friend Giezi (who is also on staff here) off-roading in his jeep. We picked up some lunch in the morning then headed out with his other friends in their jeeps up to the mountains of Baja. We caught the most beautiful views of the coast. By the end of the day I was covered dust and dirt, but I didnt' care. It was really an unforgettable experience..I can only hope all my weekends here will be as memorable as this one :)

A tour of Ensenada's Harbor

Last week, our staff took us on a surprise boat tour of the harbor in downtown Ensenada. Ensenada is a port town on the Pacific ocean, and often there are cruise ships here. Tourism is a main source of income, as well as fishing. Here are a few pictures from our tour...

This ship was sinking, but it made a nice place for all these sea lions to sun bathe!

A view of the YWAM base from the ocean, it's the big red building in the middle, and check out those beautiful mountains in the background!

The Black Pearl from Pirates of the Caribbean movies is docked in Ensenada!

Me, Gordana (Germany) and Brandon (Minnesota) on the boat. Good times!!!

Susie's Tour of YWAM Ensenada Base (part 3)

Take a look at my room in Ensenada...