My new home - Queretaro

I left Mexico City on Friday to continue the journey to Queretaro (Qro). I was really spoilt during my stay in Mexico City (errr, except for the cold shower:P). It almost felt like going back to Jakarta, where you have your home there, where you speak familiar language (English) all the time, where you´re surrounded by the people you know well but you haven´t met for a while, where you have friends to hang out with and to drive you around, and where you always try the new hip places in town. It´s a mix feeling that I have to leave Mexico City (sad to leave the familiar people, but glad to start getting involve in ministries at Qro)

My new family in Qro is amazing! I wouldn´t have chosen any other family even if I could:) My mum, Sylvia, is a very Godly, hardworking single mother. My sister, Mariana, is a very warm and beautiful girl who loves anything Japanese from anime, manga, cherry-blossoms, to Japanese food. And my brother, Alan, he´s a cool dude with dark curly hair and his electric guitar, hehehe....I´ve settled well into the family ever since I stepped into the house - that´s how amazing they are!

During my second day at Qro, I had an orientation trip to El Centro (The city centre). I was given an instruction sheet of what to do and which buses to take, I was accompanied by another intern and a Mexican friend who weren´s allowed to give me any clue on where I need to go at all:) I didn´t get lost - yay! But I was concentrating so hard to find my way that I didn´t get a chance to enjoy El Centro:P (But, don´t worry, I have plenty of time to do that!)

So far, I love the city. It´s full of colourful colonial buildings, soooooo beautiful! Just like the scenes in the telenovelas!:) The food is also interesting:) - I´ve tried eating cactuses, pig´s ear (well, we had that in Sydney and Indo,too), enchiladas, tamales, chicharron (fried pork skins), and gorditas (fried tortillas stuffed with various things - they´re so yummmmyyyy!!!)

I´ve also visited the church (Iglesia Horizonte) once and I´ve had a brief coffee making training yesterday. It´s quite daunting to take the orders and stuff in Spanish - arrrggghhh:) I´ve met with a few leaders from church and had a chat with Justin and Lluvia, an amazing missio couple whom I´ll be serving alongside with:) Exciting, exciting, exciting! (Mexicans would say: ¡Que padre!)

My family speaks English well and they speak English and sometimes Spanish to me. The ministry team here speak Spanish and Spanish only:) Some of them are very nice in making efforts to speak English to me, but in general they speak Spanish to one another. My Spanish has improved a lot since I got here, but it´s still very frustrating not to be able to express myself in Spanish. I could understand more than I could speak, so at times I find myself just just nodding and smilling.

Prayer Points:
- Thank God for the safe journey so far.
- Thank God for the great family I´m staying with and the ease to settle into the family
- Please pray that my language ability would improve soon and that the language would not be a barrier for me to minister to the people here.
- Please pray that I would not be timid in making friends with the Christians and non Christians alike and that I would have the courage to share my faith and my life with them.

Thanks for praying and God bless!