What can I say: Papa me hables, si es verdad (Father speaks to me, yes it is true)

Honestly I don't know how to start this post or what I should say, but I guess I could start with an apology. Sorry there are no pictures up yet, but the connection is just to slow so I can't download them.

Honestly since my last post not much happened, that I thought worthy of writing about except the amazing conversation I've had with my mexican mama about God and the problems in the world. Secondly going to a Salsa Party, and if you can believe it, I didn't dance, these people were so amazing they could have been ina competition, but I think they all take class. so Man I am determined to learn how to salsa and salsa very well!!!

Well again I say not much has occured that I wanted to talk about until this morning. So my friend and I had an encounter with two young gentlemen which is common here, in which they were trying to find a way to date us, and this included a jewelry and flowers, very sweet, but that's not enough, in the sense that I DON'T KNOW WHO THEY ARE!!!!! Well the point being that this situation bothered me for the next two days and this morning before going to church I felt the Lord leading me to James, not any particular chapter so I started with 1 and that was exactly what I needed. James 1:1-18. The whole section touched me but I want to talk about just one versus 13-15.

When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

Basically like all females I like to be thought beautiful and receive flattery and compliments, but I admit I don't try and go out to find it especially in Mexico, it kind of finds you. At the same time I find that I would prefer not to entertain even though at times I have, because my value and love is not from man but God. I feel that this is a life long struggle that women go through, but today I had a wonderful picture from God. I could see myself as a women, very beautiful dressed in a wonderful long garment, kind of like Lord of the Rings dress, and before me is God who is my father and I run to him and embrace him, and I feel so at home. Here I am in his arms and their is no greater love that I can feel and I know that all that I am is his and I give it freely: My being, my body, my emotions, my thoughts, my desires, all belong to him and they are not my own. Yet I know also that if I am to be given over to someone in marriage one day I want my father to chooses, and in this image I see myself telling God this.

Point being, my own desire for affection can lead and entice me to a place I do not want to be and this can birth forth sin and eventually death. Yet I choose not to fall into this trap and persevere because my worth is in the Lord, as James 1:12 says,

12Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

This is only one of many things that the Lord showed me this morning in James, I wish I could share more but I don't want this post to get any longer, yet I encourage all to read it, because it is soo powerful.

A Poem

OH so I don't have much to say other than the Lord has been faithful, and shown me unbelievable love. One of the ways of course is through the family here. The husband and wife, Lupita and Jorge are truly in love with each other it's pretty amazing to see. For example almost everyday at the table after eating, Jorge just stares into her eyes and she into his. Today as I watched them express their love for each other in a very silent but sweet and powerful way I thought of God's love for us. Is this not the relationship he desires to have with us and does he not stare at us with this powerful love for who we are. Are there not times when we do the same with the Lord, lifting our eyes up to him, not saying a word but knowing that we are in love with him, and it becomes so clear why. We can't always express it in words but we feel it, this deep and powerful connection with our God, our savior.
So as I was walking to La Casa De Oracion (HOP) I was dwelling on this and when I got there I was extremely exhausted and had a headache but I decided to praise God anyway, after all I walked all that way to get there. Well after about an hour in I really felt God's love with me and I think what was truly in my heart at that moment started to come out. I decided to write it in this poem.

To tell the King that my heart overflows because my friend, the one I seek, he loves me.
He loves me so much.
He's seen me at my worst and at my lowest, with the darkest of spots but still he says,
He loves me, and I , I am beautiful.
Yes he loves me when all others flee.
His love is perfect and most importantly he looks at me and sees who I am, not who I try to be, and still he says, He loves me.
Yes he loves me.
It is a beautiful and needed love.
And all I can say is thank you for this love, this free and needed love, that takes my heart and lets me rest and lets me be.
Yes he loves me just as me.
My God he loves me and God I thank you.
Yes he loves me, he loves me.

So I don't know, it's not a complex poem but it express my heart. Pictures will be coming soon but I want to do it when I have a lot of time, maybe Wednesday, b/c the internet connection here is really slow, until then:
Doy gracias a dios por todo que tu haces y por amigos y famila, que siempre estan en mi corazon.
Translation: I give thanks to God for all that he does and for friends and family, that are always in my heart.

Different and not so great ways to learn spanish

Que Pasa Uds! Yo espero que todo sea bueno en Clevland. Solo dos dias desde mi primera entrada pero mucho sentimientos han occurido en los dos dias.

Translation: What's up you guys! I hope that everything is great in Cleveland. Only two days since my first entry, but many feelings have occurred en those two days.

Sooo, what's new. A lot and at the same time not a lot. Friday I basically spent most of my day walking back and forth to the Casa De Oracion-CDO-(House of Prayer), which is about 40 minutes each way, or praying at CDO. Then I went to bed, I was so exhausted from all of the walking, still it was a great day.

Most of my adventures occurred on Saturday, today. First I went to UNITER to take my test which wasn't processed so I don't know what to think about that other then the fact that I have to meet certain graduation requirements so I will fight to get into the classes I need, with a Godly attitude and heart, of course. After, I was invited to Martin's birthday lunch, that was a lot of fun and I met some new people there, including a recent college grad from South Carolina, teaching English full time in Cuernavaca. The food was great, except for this dish where the meat looked like the foot of a pig, FUCHILA (GROSSSS)!!!!!! The worst thing about it is I think it really was the foot of a pig.
So everything was going great and on the way home I wanted to share a cab with Kendra, the other girl from Cleveland. Well this is were I learned a funny but not so great way to learn spanish. NON STOP for about 20 minutes the taxi driver was hitting on me, he said he was 30 but I think he was 40. If you have ever been to Mexico, you might know that the men are extremely forward and will even ask you to Marry them or tell you they love you, though this is the first time they have seen you. Strange I know, but you get use to it quickly. So the taxi ride was extremly comical and I had the opportunity to practice the spanish Word NOOO!!!, many times, LOL!! He went from you are beautiful to will you be my girlfriend, all in spanish of course. It's funny b/c I remember one girl who would pretend she didn't know spanish in a taxi ride to avoid this, maybe that is a good idea, but you do get to practice the most when in a Taxi, I don't know, the jury is still out on this matter.

Well other than that my emotions where up and down b/c trusting God for money was really getting to me. I'm good for the first six weeks but it's up to Christ after that, but I do have one student to tutor, so PRAISE BE TO GOD for that!!!! Going from stress (test) to sad (money) to amused (taxi driver), has really worn me out. So even though it's early I think I'm heading to bed.

Genesis 15:1 "Do not be afraid Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward." And so the Lord shall be for me, thank you Christ.

Aqui en Mexico: finalmentehe llegado

Hola, Como estan mis amigos? No se preocupan esto blog no va a ser en Espanol sino ingles, pero aveces neccesitare praticar escribiendo en espanol.
Translation: Hello, How are my friends doing? Don't worry this blog will not be in spanish rather in english, but sometimes I will need to practice writing Spanish.

Well on with what I really wanted to say. I'm sure everyone is either excited or shocked that I even started a blog but, I thought it a good way to stay in touch with everyone, so here I am. I'm finally in Mexico after many months of praying and waiting on the Lord, I'm here and each day I am more confident that this is where the Lord has me. So far everything has been great, my flight was a decent time frame but I was ready to get to the house when I arrived since the family I am staying with moved to a new location. I figured that it might be smaller than the one before since their family is shrinking from 5 to 3 in about 2 1/2 months, and I was right. Still it was beautiful because what they bring to the table is more than money but a true glimpse of how a family should be, not perfect but full of love for one another.

The first night was fine and I slept like a baby, probably due to traveling all day, and feeling sick from the disgusting unbelievable sickening smog in Mexico city. You can tell the difference when leaving Mexico City to go into Cuernavaca, the temperature raises about 10-17 degrees and the air is fresh and SMOG FREE, YAY!!!! The second day was great. I didn't do much but hang around the house and take a walk to the University, Universidad Internacional or UNITER for short. It's great, in this new house the school is within walking distance which is a great way to save money, and I think I will be doing a lot of that. It's not that the taxi's are expensive only that the price adds up after a while, 3 dollars here and 2 dollars here, the next thing you know you spent 25 dollars in a week just on transportation, so walking is now my best friend. Well back on track, at the UNITER I ran into an instructor I had this summer, he knew I had plan on coming back so now we can hang out, he is so much fun.

Day three is when God really started to speak to me in different ways. You may or may not know but the family I am staying with is Christian, protestant not Catholic. I don't emphasize that to disregard Catholicism as being Christian, b/c it definitely is, I say it b/c it's really rare in a country where every body is catholic and their is a shrine of a saint on almost every corner and in many of the shopping plazas. My point being this was completely orchestrated by God. Today being the third day I was here I had the opportunity to really think about the Mama of the family, Lupita. I believe that she might be the only true following believer in the family, that makes this even more profound and wonderful. Despite not going to "church " every Sunday b/c she doesn't have the chance to do that, she is truly a very strong believer in Christ. It's soo great talking to her because you can see how much she loves God and desire to live according to his word and will. It really is a powerful testimony to others believers and non believers and I believe and hope that the Lord will use this to touch her children to follow after him like she does if not greater. This touched me so because I also may not have the opportunity to go to "Church" every Sunday or spend time with so many believers as often as I did in the states but it doesn't matter because as a believer in Jesus Christ, his word says he lives within me which signifies that he is with me all the time and I will always be able to commune with the Lord most high not matter what location I am in or what language is spoken the Lord is always with those who believe. This wasn't the only great thing that happened today. I also was finally able to go to La Casa de Oracion (Internacional House Of Prayer) after sending many emails and leaving messages to find out the location. As soon as prayer began the Lord had a scripture for me, whispered to me by one of the prayer leaders. All I can say is wow, I'm in a different country and the Lord can still find a way to single me out, how profound of a love is that. Things to read Psalm 116, it's amazing.

All I can say and think right now is FAITH, this has been and I believe will continue to be a trip of faith where I need to trust on the lord, "leaning not on my own understanding" but listening to the sweet voice of my great and loving Father. Yay, so please continue to pray for me in the area of trust, faith, and finances, I'm just trusting that everything is going to be taken care of. I guess to top it off I may have a new job, tutoring little kinds in english, conversation only. So the Lord is providing and I know he will continue to, because I am his beloved and he is mine.

Matthew 6:25-27
25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?