Las Despedidas

I´ve been out most of the time this week, mostly to meet up with people the last time before I leave Queretaro.

This morning I met with Mary, the Compa coordinator here in Qro. We had a wonderful time sharing about ministries, about Compa, about the needs here in Qro, and about our personal stuff too. She said to me: ´Although I´ve just met you, it feels like I´ve known you for a long time and I feel comfortable talking to you´ And it´s the same to me. Her last question for me was: ´When will you be back to be Compa staff worker?´ - I´ll let God answer that question for me:)

Then I went to the Bible Study at the Engineering Faculty for the last time *sob, sob* We ate this fruit thing covered in chili sauce and we need to throw the skin while eating them (forgot what it´s called). I was having a stomach ache the whole time so I was really struggling to listen and understand the study. At the end of study, the group was praying for me. We stood around in circle with me in the middle and each of them would say a prayer for me. And it´s kinda cute to hear the things they pray for me, like: ´Lord, please let Rose come back here to Qro very soon. And this time, let it be forever,´OR ´God, I didn´t get a chance to know much about Rose, but thank you for her presence in our Bible Study and for her to share the yummy little biscuits with us.´ There is a tradition here to throw someone into a pool during the farewell, but I was saved cos there wasn´t any pool around:)

Tomorrow, I´ll meet up with Mia and Jessi, then I´ll have a debrief with Jessi, then I´ll head to Global for work and for my last class with Maricela. On Friday night, we´ll have a real farewell party (la despedida) for me at Global - we´ll need a lot of Kleenex for me:)

Last ministry updates before leaving Queretaro

I love this place! I love my family and friends, the people, the culture, the ministry, todos y todos (everything)! The things that I don´t like are cockroaches (we have lots of them in Sydney, too), the dryness, and the cat calls - but I could live with them! So it´s with a heavy heart that I´m going to leave this place:(

The cafe is going well. Things are not as bad as I feared before. Jessica is coming back to work there next week, but she has continued with her English classes with Pati last week (Pati is a non-Xtian whom Jessi´s following up on). I´ve been encouraged by my friendships with Helena and Jessi. And thank God for Ahide, she has been accompanying me to go to places and help me practice with my Spanish (she doesn´t speak English) - please pray that God would provide a friend and a mentor for her to encourage her to grow in the Lord. Please pray for a guy called Jons, who are in Helena´s Monday English class. He almost prayed the prayer to accept Christ a couple of weeks ago when Rafa shared the gospel to him, but he didn´t because of a little interruption that happened. Since then, we´ve never seen him in Global anymore and we didn´t have his contact (he´s not an official student of the English class, so we don´t have his record). And thank God for my friendship with Maricela, please pray that Lluvia would be able to follow her up when I leave and for me to be able to maintain the friendship with her even when I´ve returned to Sydney.

I´ll be catching up with Mia, another chinita (well, half chinita, cos her Dad is from The Netherlands) from Brisbane, on Thursday. Thanks to Jessi for calling her and following her up. I hope we could continue to encourage each other as we meet up for the last time before I leave. Please also pray for Mia that whether she is to do a mission work or a secular work in Queretaro, she will live her live honouring God and be a witness of the gospel (she has a strategic job of teaching English!)

My family is amazing!:) They love Asian food (it´s unusual for Mexicans), so I´ve been cooking some Asian stuff for them and we had good quality times together. My sister here, Marianita, will go to Uni this July so I´ve been telling her to join Compa Bible Study once she´s in Uni. Marianita is quite different to girls of her age: she loves reading her Bible so muccccchhhhh and she has this huge hunger and passion to relate intimately with God, I find it very encouraging! And my mum, what can I say? I learnt so much from her: she has a stressful job, 2 kids to bring up, chores to do, meals to prepare, Bible study and talks to prepare, meetings to attend, and she does them joyfully without any complains no matter how tired she is! Please pray that God may continue to help this family to grow in their love for God and for one another, and that God may continue to use them to be a blessing to others!

And last but not least, my Compa Bible Study group:) I´m so gonna serve with Compa here if I am going to do a mission work. My friends at Compa here are like my second family. I´m really encouraged by their love for studying the Bible and for one another. I love the way they study the Bible (going through and studying the Bible passages faithfully) and their passion to apply it in their daily lives. I just wish that I could speak Spanish better, because most of the time I could only understand 80% of the discussion and they´ve moved to another topic by the time I finish arranging a simple sentence to say in my mind:) But thank God for their kindness and patient:)

One of the thing I notice from my Christian friends here in Qro is the balance they have in studying the Bible as God´s Words and relating to Him intimately. And I love this balance. Unlike many Western Christians, Christianity is more than a doctrine to them. Relationships really matter to them and thus they want to have a dynamic, intimate relationship with God. The Word of God, the prayers, the fellowships with other believers help them to have this intimate relationship with God and to hear His voice. For me, it´s very refreshing and inspiring to see this!

PS. Feel free to see my photo page to see the people I mentioned and the places I ´ve been to.

Las Mañanitas

Unlike in Australia, in Mexico we celebrate Mother´s Day on 10 May (it doesn´t matter what day of the week it is). And even though it isn´t officially a public holiday, the people stops what they´re doing to celebrate the day with their mums. Most of the students don´t have to go to schools, most of the shops are closed, and most of the people have meals (lunch: 2-5pm) with their mums at the restaurants.

Another custom that is very common here is called ´Las Mañanitas´. It is a traditional Mexican serenade that is sung after midnight for special people during their birthday or during Mother´s Day. To hear the most commonly sung Las Mañanitas, click here.

One day before the Mother´s Day, I was invited by my Compa Bible Study friends to join Las Mañanitas with them. We gathered at Compa´s headquarter at 8pm for practice and we left at about 10pm. There were about 12 of us altogether. We went around to each other´s house and some of the grandma´s houses to sing the ´serenata´. We sang about 3 to 4 song in each house that we visited.

We wake our mums up by singing loudly for them:) And once they got up, we´ll shout ´¡Que salga!¡Que salga!´to ask them to come out of the house. We´re invited to come in to some of the houses and in one of the house that we visited, we were served with warm atole (drink made of milk and some sort of flour) - ¡Que rico! yummmm...

We got to my house by 3am and I felt soooooo bad having to wake up my mum because I knew that she has to get up early in the morning to work. But she is a very nice and appreciative person, so she was very happy that we did the las mañanitas for her even though we wake her up at 3am!

Then, I was going to stay at my home and not finishing the las mañanitas, but thanks to Alvarito who told me that we´re only going to 2 more houses very close to mine, I changed my mind and went with them. And guess what time I arrived back home? 7 in the morning!!!!Jajajaajjajaja......It was a great cultural experience, though!:)

In my opinion, in Mexico, a cultural event like this is a good opportunity to make contact, build relationship, and witness to the non-Christians. Because during the las mañanitas, not only the Compa student came, but also their non-Christian friends and family. During this time, we have lots of time (the whole night) to get to know each other and much opportunity for the non-Christians to see how we act and how we relate to each other. Please pray for the Compa students that they may continue to live a Godly lives and to boldly share the message of the gospel as they relate to their non-Christians friends and family through cultural events like this.

Mexican Life, Culture, and Food

I found that a lot of Mexican cultures to be very similar to Indonesian cultures. Just to name a few:

- Being fashionably late. In Indo, we call it ´jam karet´and here it´s called ´PM´, which stands for Puntualidad Mexicana (Mexican punctuality).

- Our love for chilli. But the difference is, Mexicans have more types of chilli than any country I´ve ever visited.

- Our love for siesta. In Mexico, they have different expressions for siesta: ´tomar/echar una siesta´(that´s the common one), then you also have ´echar un coyotito´, and ´planchar las pestañas´(literally means: ironing the eyelashes)

- How the pedestrian crossing work. Just like in Indo, when you see zebra crossing it doesn´t mean you can cross the street anytime you want! You need to wait until the road is clear before you could cross the street because none of the car will stop for the pedestrian.

- We don´t need to wear sitbelts in cars and you can take as many people as could possibly fit in your car without the fear of being caught by the police.

I don´t think I experience much of a culture shock, because we just have too many similarities!:) Having said that, I find a few customs to be a little bit peculiar, like: the way the camion (bus) works around here, the way guys and girls are relating to each other, the Mexicans love for lemon and salt.

The Mexicans eat anything and everything with ´lemon and salt´. ¿Why? I don´t know!:) Lemon and salt are considered the basic ingredients for any food. They even have a song that goes like this: ´Te quiero con limon y sal´,which literally means ´I love you like lemon and salt´(It means something like: I love you just the way you are, and the way you are is enough for me, awww....)

Another interesting thing I found here is that Mexicans love to eat ´bangkuang´!!!!!!How strange! I thought the fruit only exist in Indonesia! Here, it´s called ´jicama´. And guess how it is eaten? Off course with lemon, salt, and chile!:) (which reminds me of the salty chile that we eat with rujak in Indo!

They also have a fruit salad thing that is similar to our ´rujak buah´ (fruit salad). It´s called ´los gaspachos´here. It´s a mixed of fruits cut in small pieces, mixed with salt, lemon, chile, chamoy (the sour fruit salt), and poured with orange juice! I loveeeeee it! I´m gonna try to make them when I´m back......

In general, I love most of the food here! My favourite is ´gorditas´. It´s a fried tortilla bread, filled with either cheese or migajas (minced meat) and the stuff: either nopales (cactus), or chicarron (pig´s skin), or papas (potatos), and SALSA!:) Will definitely miss it when I leave:P

Photos´ Link

Click here to view more of the photos:)

Ministry Updates - May´07

Where did the time fly? I thought I´ve just written the April´s ministry updates and it´s already May!

This week is tough (but it´s also gonna be a great opportunity to learn and be trained in Godliness). None of the long-termers are gonna be around. Justin and Lluvia are in the States and Jessica has just had surgery. Things have been ok with the cafe and English classes. But there are hitches here and there, like one of the staff arriving really2 late today, we´re running out of the flavour for the coffee, we needed to pay for food order that we didn´t even know, and we didn´t close on-time because of some people from the church came after our closing time and ordered some coffees....I´m just so used to be in charge of things and be work-oriented (instead of people oriented), so I found myself to be very frustrated today when things weren´t perfect and no one was doing anything because there is no one in-charge when the leaders are away. I have to try so much to go against my natural inclination to be upset and take charge of things.

I also find it hard to do ministry while there are so many customers in the café. I´m worried that tomorrow I won´t have time to sit down and talk to Maricela. I don´t know if it´s just me who´s being overly worried about everything and I don´t know if it´s ok to just leave the other staff making coffees by herself...I need God´s wisdom to know what to do and not to be anxious....

In the morning for the next week or so, Helena and I will take turn to visit and accompany Jessica starting from tomorrow. I hope I would know how to look after her needs and not too tired to work afterwards.

Prayer points:

* Thank God for the friendships established. Please pray that I may be able to share the gospel and encourage to the people God has placed around me.

* Thank God for Jessica´s surgery that went well. Please pray for her recovery and for us to be able to look after her well.

* Thank God for the many people that could come to the café. Please pray God may continue to use the cafe, the staff, and the Christians there to be a witness of the gospel as the main ministry.

* Thank God that the staff could have some holiday and rest. Please pray for them to be refreshed when they come back and ready to continue their ministry with perseverance. Please also pray that during their absence, the cafe and the ministry would still go well.

* Thank God for the opportunity to come to Mexico to observe, learn, and minister alongside the people here. Please pray for physical health, strength, joy, patience, and wisdom especially in the last leg of my time here in Qro while the long-termers are away. Please pray that I may not act with my emotions and that I will not be bossy. Pray that I may continue to serve God and the people humbly and gently.

- Thanks for your supports and prayers. ¡Dios les bendiga!:) -

La fiesta de quince años

I had a nice cultural experience last Saturday. One of the girl from the youth group was celebrating her 15th birthday. In the US, they usually have big parties on 16th b´day and in Indo, it´s 17th bday. But in Mexico, they have big parties when they´re celebrating their 15 años! (It´s called ´Quinceañera´ in some part of the Latin world).

It started with a service at 5.30pm at church. The birthday girl, Fatima, was all dressed up in lime-coloured ball gown and sat in a special throne in the front middle of the church close to the flowery gate. We sang praises for 45 minutes or so then the pastor gave a sermon and words of wisdom to the birthday girl. Then the dad of the birthday girl read a Bible passage and he asked the pastor and the pastor´s wife to put on a necklace on Fatima as a symbol that they will help look after her spiritually. Then we had a photo sessions with the birthday girl after the service and we headed to a salon (an open space where they have functions here in Mexico) for the party.

We arrived at the salon at 8ish then we´re served with a simple dinner of pasta and grilled chiken with pasta. Then we were dancing:) At first, Helena (the other intern from the States)and I didn´t wanna dance, because it was quite daunting to dance among the Latins! They are especially endowed by God to be able to dance well:P But we were dragged by Fatima´s dad, so we didn´t have any choice but be polite:) But I loved it, because it´s clean (there are no unusual moves), and we did group dance most of the time:) I went back home with my family at around 11pm, but the party went on until after 2am.

I enjoyed the time so much that I felt very sad when I think about leaving this place, these people, this church, these ministries, and these families....

Please pray that I will live to the hilt even in these last 3 weeks and that God would use this experience to stir my heart in the direction that He wants me to go *muchissimas gracias por sus oraciones* -_-

Random Musings and Pensamientos

*Lluvia & I: Learning Mexican cooking * With my sister - Marianita *

* I didn´t bring camera to Compa monthly fellowship. But it was really good: we sang, we played some games and we heard a short reflection from the Bible. It was really encouraging and I don´t feel left out even though I´ve only met one or two people before the night....

* I love joining Compa´s Bible Studies and fellowship. So encouraging!!!! I think if I do a mission work anywhere in the world, I would do student ministries, it´s so strategic and it´s so encouraging to see these universitarios getting excited about learning the word of God and applying it! What I also love to do also is to encourage these young people to give back and contribute to their local churches.

* I think I like the model of student ministries here in Mexico than in Sydney. In Mexico (or in other parts of Latin America, in fact), the student ministry works with the uni students on weekdays and these students would go to their local churches on the weekends. I think that should be the way. Because if the young people are trained in Uni and go to church there too, who´s gonna help the local church to grow?Aren´t we robbing the local churches from their future leaders? - that´s just my thoughts:)


*With Monserat, the girl from next door´s shop * With some of the Cisneros family @ Guanajuato*

* 2.5 weeks away from leaving Qro and I´ve started crying.....I don´t know if I´ll ever get a chance to come back to this place? - ¿Quien sabe? Si,Si Dios quiere:)

* I´ll be leaving Qro just after my friend´s birthday on 19th May - perfect timing!:)