Mexican Sunday

Hola!

We are finally here at Mexico. All safe. We were warmly welcomed by our hosts Brenda Rushton, and Ryan Thiessen Saturday evening. We did some Mexican market shopping at Nogales, AZ and arrived at San Carlos at 7 o clock ish. We are 2 hours behind you guys at home. Our accomodations are so awesome!! The food here is fantastic, and the beds and showers and facilities and wow, its just such a nice little mexican home away from home. The kids and ourselves have had no trouble adapting. We have eaten some very Mexican meals already and its been so good. Lots of tortias, burritos, etc. The weather here is very hot, but bearable. Kind of the best temperature you can ask for, and it cools down that we wear pants in the evening. Were learning lots about Mexico, and so much about what God is doing in this is area. It is so amazing to see and hear about Gods movement in this area and in this ministry.

Wow, what a sunday. I think we all finished the day very pumped. We started the day off with us going to a local Mexican Pentecostal church. It was quite the service, very high energy. The people were so welcoming and made us feel nice and comfortable, they even worship with some of the same songs we do so we had a powerful time worshipping with them. They also had a group of dancers at the front and the music was so loud, it was thumpin in that town! At this church, after the worship was done, we took over the service: First introducing us, and what were doing and why were here, an english song, a skit, Carlie sharing her testimony, two Spanish songs, and then Kerri gave the message. Everyone did an awesome job! i was so impressed and the church was very grateful. It was such an awesome time and it was cool to bless that church and encourage them in that way.

After, we came home to catch the end of the Canada-China curling game, it gave us pride in our home and native land as Jennifer Jones to the gold. And alot of the day today was more relaxed as we can't do working projects on Sunday. So we went hiking in the oasis close by in the afternoon, followed by hitting up the beach. It was cool to see some sights. We had a good time bonding and having some good times and also learning lots as we hung out with our host Ryan Thiessen from Winkler, MB. He is working for Brenda down here and has done alot of hosting with our group. We learned alot about the culture and area. Things like suicides in the area, the mass amount of partying and substance abuse, the catholic movement in the area (to the extent that there are shrines for Mary in alot of places..), history of Brenda's ministry, etc.

We have been having some really awesome devotion time as we wake up to personal devotions followed by group devotions. We are going through 1 John and its really causing us to ask questions and challenge us in our faith. Tomorrow is 1 John 2. The plan for tomorrow (flexibility is key, but a tentative plan) is to go build a roof for a local family's house (it's so tiny and made of tin but they have no roof so we will be doing that) in the morning, doing some sort of food distribution in the afternoon, and for supper/evening we will be visiting the local orphanage, doing a mini service and playing with the kids. pretty intense day... so prayers for tomorrow would be fantastic, for unity, effectiveness, for us to be a shining example of Jesus.

Thank you all for your prayers, we are thinking about you at home, and can't wait to tell you about all of our stories.

The CSY Mexican Mission team

PS all you youth back at home, were thinking about you and praying for you, have an awesome spring break!