What I've been learning lately

Hope- In Christ alone my hope is found. Without Jesus I have no hope. He that is in me is stronger than he that is in the world. Christ is the light of the nations. This light lives in me. I am to be a light to the nations. I am to be different. I am to bring hope. The nations need hope. People need hope. We live in a hopeless world. In Christ alone my hope is found. If we believe what we say we believe, we have to go. Because the world is starving. The world is dying. The world has no hope. It is stumbling in darkness, and we have light. And we are no followers of Jesus Christ if we don't share it. We have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. So go out, and for the sake of the lost, give them light, give them hope. It is Christ who lives in you. The one thing we so desperately need is a Savior.

Feliz Navidad

I miss people today. Christmas is a little different here- no snow, no decorations, no tree, etc. On the plus side, no irritating commercials coming at you from every which way. So that is really nice. I do hate the commercialism associated with Christmas in Canada. And boxing day. But I didn't realize how much I missed snow and all our traditions until now. Maybe it's good to get out of the traditions at least once- then you can a) appreciate them more, and b) realize that they are just that, traditions. They're not vital to life, or to the actual significance of Christmas. I can celebrate Jesus' birth without decorated trees and snow and colored lights and Santa Claus and presents and Christmas carols (which should be sung other times anyway, because they are theologically loaded). Maybe it's good that I only heard the Christmas story (from the Bible) once in Spanish, and then I read it this morning because I felt like maybe I should follow tradition. I can be a Christian without emphasizing Christmas so much. Although we did eat turkey last night, then stay up late playing games. But you know, it's okay. Things can be different. Maybe it just means I'm popping my prairie bubble. I'd like to see it different in Canada, just once. Without the hype. Without the extra church services that were only good because you got candy at the end and the smallest children with the bells every year were cute. Without the Christmas Eve service that drags on when all you really want to do is go home and open your presents. (I do realize I am 21 and saying that I always thought Christmas Eve services were boring. Except for the candle part. Fire!) Without the presents... Without everything we thought we needed. As a good friend of mine once said, "I want to spend time contemplating the theological significance of the birth of Jesus Christ, and it's not even something I get to do very much of in church, because we only sing like 2 or 3 verses of a Christmas carol, and miss all the theology in the other verses of the song." And then we talk about one of 3 passages in the Bible: Matthew 2, Luke 2, or Isaiah 9:1-7.
So despite the fact that yes, I do miss my family today, it's kind of nice, actually, it's really great, that Christmas has been changed up for me. For the better, I hope.
After all that,
Feliz Navidad

21

I would just like to point out that today is my 21st birthday, and it is on the 21st day of the month. And I am very excited about it. Today is also the winter solstice, which means it is the first day of winter and the shortest day of the year, for those of you who, like me, care about such things.

Oaxaca!!!

This week we went to Pinotepa, Oaxaca, for a wedding. If you don't know where that is, google map it. I didn't know. It's a good 18 hour drive from Guadalajara. On the way there it took 19 hours to get there (we got lost in Mexico City for an hour), but the way home only took 15 hours. I don't know why, I slept most of it. On the way there we had 13 people in a 13 passenger van. On the way home we had 14 in a 12 passenger van. Equals 26 both times, I guess. Some highlights of the trip were: driving through desert mountains (with cactuses!!!) listening to Petra's Beyond Belief CD; eating iguana; drinking Coca-Cola like my father does; drinking coconut water out of a coconut with a straw (I didn't particularly like the coconut water, but it was a cool experience); seeing a cockfight (they're not illegal here apparently); wearing pretty dresses; going to both ceremonies (Mexican weddings have two ceremonies: a legal one and a religious one. Both are celebrations); making chocolate covered strawberries for the reception; going shopping in Pinotepa; going to the beach on Saturday, playing Dutch Blitz at the beach; and understanding most of what was being said. On the whole, it was a good week.

Thank you

"One of the most obvious differences between all the poetry I have ever read and all the straight prose (I say 'straight' to exclude prose which verges on the poetic) is this simple one, hardly ever stated: the poetry contains a great many more adjectives. This is perfectly obvious. From Homer, who never omits to tell us that the ships were black and the sea salty, or even wet, down to Eliot with his 'hollow valley' and 'multi-foliate rose', they all do it. Poets are always telling us that grass is green, or thunder loud, or lips red. It is not, except in bad poets, always telling us that things are shocking or delightful. It does not, in that direct way, attempt to discharge or excite emotion. On the contrary, it seems anxious to bombard us with masses of factual information which we might, on a prose view, regard as irrelevant or platitudinous."

-C.S. Lewis, in his essay The Language of Religion

Faith, Christianity, and the Church, A Collection of Essays by C.S. Lewis, page 257

December 1 already?

This last week has been full of slow days punctuated by busy points. At least, that is how it feels. It is hard to believe we've been here for almost a month already. Standing at the crest it looked interminable, and some days it still feels so. Part of me wishes I was doing puzzles at my parents' kitchen table, negative 30 degrees outside and Christmas lights reflecting in the window. Don't get me wrong, so far I love it here. But this will be my first Christmas without snow, and it doesn't feel December without snow.
Anyway, what have I been up to? Well, I have been attending Spanish school, doing homework for said school, watching movies (mostly in Spanish), and spending time with the youth (and other people) at the church I attend. On Saturday night, after youth group, the ladies of the church had a bridal shower for one of the girls who is getting married this month. It was a lot of fun, even though half the time I didn't really understand what was going on. It's cool because by living with a Mexican family, I get to experience so much more of the culture than any tourist ever would. Just because one has been to Mexico for vacation does not mean one knows Mexico. I am not claiming by any means to know a lot of the cultural stuff, but I do think that I have a unique chance to experience more than the average visitor, as most visitors to a country don't spend weeks merely living and learning from a family. I say mere, but it is really anything but.
God has been teaching me humility these last few days. Every time I go out, I have trouble with the simplest things, mostly because I don't speak the language. But I also get looked at a lot, mostly because I am a white girl. I dislike being looked at. But that's life. I can't do the simplest things easily, I get looked at, and I'm awkward and make lots of mistakes. I can't be proud anymore. There is no place for it. People who can't surrender their pride can't learn language. Because you will make lots of mistakes, and people will laugh. And if you can't laugh at yourself, you can't do anything. The other day I tried walking home from school. Partially because I didn't want the people on the bus to look at me. But I ended up getting lost and walking for two hours. I did get home, but I got looked at by an awful lot more people than would have looked at me on the bus. On the plus side, it was a lot of fun, it was really nice out, I got a good feel for part of the area, I got a lot of exercise, and on the whole it was a great experience. But I think I hopefully learned my lesson. Humility is, if not everything, a heck of a lot. "...walk humbly with your God..." (Micah 6:8)
On a different note, I would love to hear from people, whoever reads this. What you think, anything you'd like to hear about, anything you'd like to know about my life or what I'm learning, anything. Feel free to comment. Sometimes I don't know what to write about, so tell me, what would you like to read? This could be an interactive thing.
A couple prayer requests:
Energy and desire to do homework; I've hit that slump right before the holidays where I don't actually want to study anything, let alone learn how to use "this" and "that" correctly, so officially studying Spanish has become harder, and I still do want to learn.
Opportunities to intentionally spend time with people, build relationships, and learn from them.
That I would set aside time to listen to God, spend time with God, and learn to listen to Him.