You Write the Words

There are days when I sing for the masses
When my songs get repeated back to me by thousands
And there are days when I know
That the only one who hears me is you
So what do I do – when

I don’t know what to say that hasn’t already been said
I don’t know what to write that hasn’t already been read
I don’t know what to play that you haven’t already heard
So here’s my song, you write the words
Here’s my heart, you write the words
Here’s my life, you write the words.
- FFH, “You Write the Words”

This song has been the cry of my heart for the last several weeks, reminding me that even when I’m completely clueless and my world feels like it’s falling down around me, my God is still in control, and is calling me to hand over the pen.

Last month, God came knocking, asking for a part of my dream of staying in Mexico, sharing an apartment with my best friend here and ministering side by side on college campuses around the city, when He took my roommate and best friend, Ashley, back to the States. This month, he came knocking for the rest of my dream, because I simply won’t have the funding to stay. All this in the midst of transitioning between houses and trying to get my ministries at my church and Compa going, and while studying for seminary classes in Spanish.

To say that this month has been hard is an understatement, but I also know that our hurts force us to depend on God and our community more. The most beautiful part of all of the pain was watching my Compa staff team and students rally around me. They’re not carrying my financial burden, but they are coming alongside and carrying some of the emotional burden with me for a while, and in doing so, somehow, my burden has become lighter.

As mentioned, I continue to work with Compa and see God’s glory in the way he is moving among them. My staff team and I continue to study Ephesians together, through a class from Moore Theological College in Australia, and week by week I am becoming more and more able to comprehend and contribute to our discussions. The students in my celula at UNAM continue to amaze me as they craft wonderful thematic Bible studies, while making me laugh because they don’t quite know how to get all the plates spinning at once just yet. But it’s always fun seeing what they want to learn about each week! And I recently was able to return to my other campus, the ESCA – Tepepan, where I attended a celula last fall. It was so good to reconnect with my wonderful students there and to see a new member to our small group! Vladamir is Maricela’s younger brother and is a second semester freshman! His involvement is an answer to prayer, because it means that this celula can remain active until he graduates in 2014!

Things also continue to go well with my church, where I have recently unknowingly become one of the founding members of the jovenés worship team, as lead guitarist, because my “mad skills” are the best in the bunch… Needless to say, I’m terrified, particularly with our first song including B-minor, a bar chord, which involves holding down all strings with a single finger, which I still haven’t mastered. However, I must learn, so here goes nothing!

Finally, I am so thankful for the generous financial support that I have received thus far. However, I am facing a very grave financial deficit. I have a monthly deficit of $870 and, as of now, I will run out of funds at the end of April. I cannot stay if I begin to run a deficit with LAM. Thus, in order to stay here through the summer, I will need a grand total of $3300, which is a very reachable number, except that I have no one new to ask. At this point, I am more than happy to receive one-time gifts to fill in the gaps, but one-time gifts will not re-open the door to remain for a second year, and I will more than likely be returning in August, if not sooner, if my financial situation does not improve.

Please pray for:

• Funding, as I need to raise $3300 more to stay through the end of our summer program, the piece I’ve been most excited about since I decided to come to Mexico a year ago.
• My ESCA and UNAM students, that they would lead Bible studies that are powerful and Christ-centered, and that they would be growing in their faith and sharing it with others.
• With my return to the US pending, that someone else would be raised up to work with my students at the ESCA-Tepepan, empowering Vladamir to continue meeting with believers on his campus and that he will grow into a powerful leader there.
• My emotional health, as I will begin counseling to deal with some of the emotional issues that have come up as a result of the chaos of my life over the month and a half.
• That I would hold loosely to the many dreams I find springing up inside my head on any given day, remaining open to the things God wants to do with me.

God bless!

Nicole

Transitions and the Fingerprints of God

Howdy y’all!

I am more thankful for your prayers and support this month than I have ever been, as God has been doing some strange and stressful, but good things in my life and in the lives of those around me.

It has been a month filled with transitions for me. If you remember, in my last update, I was excited and hopeful for having just moved in with my new host family and roommate and was hopeful that I would not be moving again until August. Well, in both of those things God had other plans. Although our new family was very welcoming and wanted our trust, we encountered some of the brokenness of Mexican family life in a new way this month. Unfortunately, that brokenness inhibited Ashley and I from truly integrating with this family in a positive and healthy way. The added stress also brought to light some emotional issues in Ashley’s life, which she will be leaving Mexico to deal with more effectively. Between the two pieces, it became clear, both to my leaders and to me, that it would be best for everyone if I also move when Ashley leaves. At this point, I will be returning to the De Alba home for a few days until a new host family can be arranged.

Despite the chaos in my living situation, it remained a place of deep ministry for me. Just two weeks into my time here, I happened to be present for a conversation between my host mom, Hermana Ursula, and our cousin, Samuel, in which Hermana Ursula was presenting the benefits of faith in Christ to Samuel. When I got a chance to speak, I was able to ask Samuel if he even knew who Jesus was and thus earned the opportunity to share the Gospel of a Lord who would leave everything to become a man, even more, a baby, and then live a perfect life that we could never live and then be unjustly and cruelly murdered, but then not stay dead. Instead, this Lord was raised to life and lives to restore our world to its intended glory. Later, I got to ask a few more questions and eventually Hermana Ursula was blessed with the opportunity to lead Samuel in prayer to accept Christ as Lord! I was also able to minister to Ashley in a way that could only have been possible through the grace of God as she began dealing with the depth of her emotional issues.

A month ago, I was also nervous about finding a new church, having left my wonderful and loving church on the mountain but not having the opportunity to visit my potential new churches. This month, I visited two churches and saw God’s hand at work in amazing ways. Within minutes of walking into the first church, I knew it wasn’t the church for me, because it was simply too big for me to get involved with. Yet, the following week, when I visited the church that I would choose, I knew just as quickly that it was the right church for me. My new church is La Cuarta Iglesia Nazarene de la Cuidad de Mexico and is located just three minutes walk from my current house. Although I will be moving in a few days, I will remain with this church, for which I am truly thankful, as I am already starting to build friendships there. Thus far, my ministry consists primarily of attending services and observing at jovenes group activities, however, I look forward to having a greater voice among them as I get to know them better and am hoping to lead an inductive Bible study with a few of the more spiritually mature jovenes and leaders.

I have also had a wonderful month with Compa and my ministry there. I attended my first celula (small group) just a few days ago and look forward to getting more involved as the celulas actually get started. I have also been attending staff and leaders’ meetings and have enjoyed getting to know the members of my area staff team, Ada, Hendi, and Benjamin, better. Together, the four of us will minister to roughly eight campuses and seventeen celulas located in the southern part of the city, including La ESCA, where I attended a celula in the fall, and the UNAM, one of the largest universities in the world, with a student body numbering over 315,000! I will continue working with the students at La ESCA and have already begun a celula with the Facultad de Derecho (Faculty of Law) students. I am also hoping to get involved with a celula for the Facultades de Ingeniro y Arcitectura (Faculties of Engineering and Architecture), which I am truly looking forward to! Having grown up with my parents, both with degrees in engineering, and having attended Texas A&M, where every other student, or so it seems, is or has been an engineering student, I have been surrounded by engineers for nearly my entire life. In fact, I’ve never been away from them for this long, ever. Needless to say, I’m looking forward to being around engineers again!

One of the craziest new developments this month has been the introduction of seminary classes into my schedule. I will be taking two classes, via distance education, with Moore Theological College, located in Australia. The bigger shock, though, is that these classes will be conducted in Spanish, and I currently have about a fifth grade reading level in Spanish. And if this doesn’t seem insane or crazy to you, you didn’t read this paragraph very carefully… The incredible part, though, is that I do have a fifth grade reading level in Spanish, having studied Spanish for all of eight months of my life. Eight!

Overall, this month has been one of my most difficult months here in Mexico, but also the one where I most clearly saw God’s hand at work in the various parts of my life. From watching God move to care for Ashley and I in a deeply emotional time, to welcoming Samuel into the family, to meeting some of my new students, God’s fingerprints have been everywhere I look.

Please continue praying for:

• Ashley, that she would be restored to full emotional health and that God would lead her in this time of unexpected transitions
• All the transitions that are continuing to occur in my life, including Ashley leaving, moving in with a new family, and my seminary classes
• My students at the ESCA, that they would truly be ready to share their faith and be intentional and invitational with their fellow students, giving their celula a chance to continue into next year
• My Derecho students, that God would be at work among them and be growing them into men and women who look like Him!
• My Ingeniro y Arcitectura students, that God would give them a passion for sharing the Gospel with their fellow students

Love in Christ!

Nicole

Moving and Pink Bows

Howdy y’all!

I hope this update finds you in good health and growing in your walk with the Lord! I pray that in these days He would teach you to pray, even as He is teaching me!

I said goodbye to my church from the fall, Iglesia Cristiana Sion, almost two weeks ago. It was a sweet and beautiful goodbye from a people that I have grown to dearly love and will miss as I move into a new and equally wonderful, but very different, season in my life and my ministry. During my final Sunday in church, Johan, my pastor, singled out pretty much every member in the congregation over age 9 to say something to me, with sweet responses ranging from “Thank you for being an example to me,” to my dear Lupita, 11, who couldn’t speak through her tears, to Johan’s many sweet memories. These included teaching him English, the many, many conversations during our rides up to the church, my favorite food – Tacos al Pastor (tah-coes ah-l pah-store) and the silly jokes I liked to make when the car proved just a little too short to clear the topes (toe-pays; road humps – those bumps in the road that are way bigger than speed bumps). I later found out that one of my jovenes (hoe-ben- ace) also jokingly requested that they stick a pink bow (to match the gifts they gave me) on him so I would take him back to the States with me… Needless to say, it made everyone laugh!

Since then, I have been waiting anxiously for school to start and for my students to return from their far off lands of Puebla, the Estado de Mexico, and who knows where else, to begin their classes. For my students at the ESCA, this will be the beginning of their final semester and, hopefully, an evangelistic outreach that will allow their celula (cell-oo-lah) to continue into the coming year. I will also, most likely, be getting involved with at least one celula, possibly two, at UNAM, which is possibly the largest university in all the Americas, boasting a student body of 315,000, well over six times that of my beloved Texas A&M University, which currently ranks seventh largest public university in the United States.

I am also looking forward to beginning the process of finding a new church. I took last week off to visit my friend and YearOut teammate, Stephanie, at her church, Iglesia Bautista “El Buen Pastor en Getsemani” (Ig-lay-see-ah Bah-oo-tea-st-ah Ayl Bwayn Pah-store En Hayt-say-ma-knee). I enjoyed my visit there, but I am also excited about finding my new church and settling in there.

Finally, I have moved twice since my last update. I spent a little over a week with my director, Paul Johnson’s, in-laws, the De Alba’s, as interim housing, while my new family finished putting in a new, tile floor on the first floor of their house. My roommate, Ashley, and I met our new family and moved into our new home just two days ago. We live with a single woman, Hermana Ursula, and her three children, Ernesto (32), Ursula (30), and Ere (26; short for a name I can’t begin to pronounce, let alone write). Ashley and I share a small room with minimal furniture. We’ve managed to find places for most all of our things, but are still eagerly waiting for bed-side tables to create just a tad more shelf space, to augment the portable armoire, a small bookshelf, and the window ledges…

As you pray for me this month, please pray specifically for:

• My relationship with my new roommate and host family.
• My search for a new church home here in Mexico.
• My students, that they would return to school ready to graduate, but also ready to see their small group grow and continue on into the coming year.
• My funding! I sent out almost 60 letters just a week ago and am desperately in need of a good response from these letters. Please pray specifically that people would open their hearts and give as God leads them.
  

Much love and God bless!

Nicole