Sunset Ventures to León

Last week the youth group from The Sunset Church of Christ in Lubbock, Texas, came to spend a week here in León to do some mission work. God really blessed us with their visit. I spent the week as a sort of translator and city guide for the group and did my best to help them out any way that I could. They brought down a lot of energy with them and some willing hearts so that made it that much better for us. I am really glad that I got to lead them around and get to know them better. We stayed a lot in the center of town giving out 'abrazos gratis' or 'free hugs', singing songs, passing out flyers for church, and putting on some plays. It was really great to get to talk to people about church and meet a few people that I will try and follow up on. We went to one of the orphanage's to put on a VBS and had a work day as well up at the church building to clean, rearrange, and paint. It was a great week and I think some of the kids are a lot more interested in foreign missions now. Praise God!



This is me reading kids the story of Jesus telling the Apostles to cast their nets on the other side of the boat. It was one of the stations at the VBS.








A picture of us giving out 'free hugs' in el Centro! Great Times!









We caused such a scene we had a few different articles in different newspapers from Leon! The title here says 'Regalan Abrazos!' which means 'They give hugs!' We are famous!!!













After one of the plays in el centro the Youth Minister gave a quick message to the people who were watching and I translated!

Happy Tuesday

All you can
Do all the good you can
By all the means you can
In all the ways you can
In all the places you can
At all the times you can
To all the people you can
As long as ever you can

Clases de Inglés!

Yesterday I had my first english class. I had been praying about it all day because I was pretty nervous, but God pulled me through without any major battle wounds and it ended up being a pretty successful class. I have started with 3 students, but hopefully I will be getting some more today. It has been really interesting to have to start from square one with the alphabet. Its taking me back to things in english that I haven't thought about in a long time. I'm really looking forward to getting the class going to get to know my students better, and it is also going to push me in my spanish. I am teaching the class for free and I start with a prayer and end with a Bible verse. So hopefully it sparks the students interest and leads to Bible studies.

We are starting ministries and this is no easy task. We have language ministries and have started going to an orphanage to try and impact some children's lives, that along with working with small groups and all the church events it is becoming insanely busy. We are being kept really busy and I am so happy or that. I would rather be tired at the end of the day from working hard than having a lot of energy from doing nothing. At the same time I am starting to feel like I am being spread thin.

Please pray for our ministries for God's will to be done, productive days, and good usage of time. There is much work to be done, and I am looking forward to the challenge and pray that God uses me to pour out his love on the people of León.

Since Wednesday we have been up at the church in the mornings to help out with a cooking class. Julie Calderon, sister of our intern Bill Calderon, has been teaching some visitors and other women of the church how to bake cakes and some tricks of the trade. It has been really cold here lately which means its even colder in the building we use, but despite all of that there was a good turnout.
We as an AIM team have been up there just helping out any way we can. It was good for the women of our church to come together and learn to bake better, but it was an even better opportunity to open our doors to visitors and just show them love. Since I have been here I have heard many different stories of how people came to Christ and I have learned to never count anything out.
Please keep me in your prayers as I am still trying to grow and spread the good news to others. I'm definitely not a natural but it is something I know God would have me do.
To those who actually read this thanks for your love and support so far. I have been here 8 months and have grown leaps and bounds.

Dios les Bendiga

Monday Night Small Group

Tonight we had small group in our apartment. This will be the one that Renato and I are leading up and I'm really looking forward to it. Ben Baker, www.bakersinleon.blogspot.com , is in charge of small groups this year and for January and February we are only coming together to pray about the coming year. We try to make small groups a big part of the church because of the fellowship and the closeness that it brings. Its really a great opportunity to bring in visitors and have bible studies with them. Please remember us in your prayers as we are trying to use our small groups to help the church grow and reach out into León.

Prayer Night

Renato and I had the opportunity to lead Wednesday night prayer service last night. Omar has started teaching the book of Hebrews on Wednesday night, but once every two months we will set aside a Wednesday night and devote it to prayer. That isn't to say we don't pray outside of that, but its good for the congregation to come together and just focus on prayer. We had four phases of the night with praying as an entire group, then in groups of 4, then pairs, and finally just by yourself. We are trying to put God first in all things this year and really focusing on glorifying him in all that we do. So it was good for us all to anchor ourselves to the Lord and we are going to let him guide us to do his will in 2010.

Spanish Over = Increíble!

Yesterday, Friday, the 11th of December, we finished the last day of Spanish class. This is a great feeling. We have put in our time and now I'm really glad for a break from any kind of school. As AIMers we have a couple things that we want to do already. I'm going with Ramiro to a Children's home to play soccer with them and to start a ministry with them there. The 22nd we have a puppet show we are going to put on for the young kids in the church about why Christmas is really celebrated and we have big plans for that. The Church is taking a break for the holiday with Small Groups and we are chillin' out a bit with that, but after new years we have a lot of big plans so please pray for us! God has blessed the Church here a lot and our time here so far, but we want to keep Growing in the Lord in all that we do. Service, Ministries, and Evangelism to name a few... so please keep us in your prayers!