Check out the photos!

I figured out how to upload photos. Sorry there aren´t more, but it takes a while to upload them. They are under old blogs, and the blog is the same, just with new pictures...

what i´ve been up to...

Hi folks!

It is my day of rest today, so I thought I would update y´all on a few cool things that have been happening here in Mexico.

So, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were Spanish class days this week. We are in class from 10 until 1 (until after next week) and then we usually have meetings or errands in the afternoons. My class is interesting. Our teacher, Javier, is one of the more "abierto" or "open" teachers and his ministry is mainly with jovenes from the street, although he also teaches English as a full time job. He definitely has a lot of vision, so for our graduation from classes, which will be next Saturday, he has planned a skit that our class (5 people) will do that will hopefully draw some new people to Christ´s love and forgiveness. I have to sing (yikes!) in Spanish (big yikes!) so keep that skit, the preparation and the people who will see it in your prayers.

Wednesday, we went with some people from our church and our mama and papa and baby Caleb to a lady´s house who goes to our church. We decided to go because she always comes to church, but her husband and two children do not, because they are not believers. When we got there, she had snacks out for us, and mango juice, but best of all, she had homemade chocolates! I soon learned that she and her husband are chocolate makers by trade, so I hope that this visit to her house is the beginning of a beautiful, chocolate-filled friendship... I ate more chocolates than everyone else combined, and felt almost sick later, but I did not regret one bite! Anyway, some of the jovenes led some songs on the guitar, and then a lady from the church gave a short message, and then they asked us if we wanted to say anything. Of course, I was struck with fear, and my roommate, who struggles with Spanish even more than me, was delighted. She started to speak, and it was so incredible. Her Spanish was fluid, and made perfect sense, and related to what the lady probably needed to hear. I truly believe it was miraculous. Then she was like, "Lauren, do you want to say anything?" I wanted to say no, and I almost did, because I had absolutely no clue what to say to this chocolate-making woman I had never met an hour before. But then Karen prompted me: "What´s your favorite verse in the Bible?" and then I truly believe that the Holy Spirit really took over. I thought of the verse, "Faith is the guarantee of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" from Hebrews 11:1, and I knew it it Spanish, so I said it and I then said that I know many times there are things we really hope for and want badly, and we wait and wait, but nothing ever seems to happen, but if we continue to pray and then wait in expectation, God is faithful and He´ll hear us. I thought that was appropriate for her situation since she has probably wanted her family to come to church with her for years, and it has never happened. Of course, I didn´t realize the potential helpfulness until later, because I really was not completely in control of my own words as I was speaking. So the moral is that God is faithful and He´ll give you what you need if you just obey Him one step at a time.

Then on Thursday, we all went to the Basilica, which is the second most visited spot for Catholicism in the world, right after the Vatican City. It was incredible. Although the whole campus was beautiful (there are several cathedrals, some ancient and some modern), it left me feeling so empty. We have made such a mess of religion! The site´s main focus is all on the Virgen of Guadalupe, so every church has her as the focal point of the altars, paintings, etc. In one church, we even found a glass coffin with Jesus in it! Jesus really is dead to the Catholics of Mexico City, while the Virgen is very much alive to them. So that of course really opened my eyes to the needs of the people here. Also, I got a better idea of the amount of trust that they have in authorities that do not have their best interests at heart. There was one station out in the plaza of the Basilica with a man taking people´s money and sprinkling them with water...while he took a sip of his Coca Cola. Things like that make me really want to communicate the fact we can have direct access to God and a relationship with Him through Christ. We don´t have to depend on faulty human priests to get a prayer to God´s ears. I found this verse this morning and thanked God for this promise:

"In my anguish, I called upon the Lord, I cried out to my God, and he heard me from His temple, my cry came before Him, even unto his ears." Psalm 18:6

We also went Thursday to my favorite place in Mexico City: the mercado! It is a place with endless rows of handmade Mexican crafts, blankets, bags, earrings, etc, etc. It is overwhelming, but a very fun place to visit!

Today I am going to have a more relaxing day. We have been here in the internet cafe for a while, and then we are going to see Principe Caspian in espanol at the movie theater with some girls from the team and then go somewhere to get something to eat.

Tomorrow, we are going to a place called Cuidad Azteca. We are going to do a really profound skit about how humans are always performing and putting on different masks depending on who they are around, when in reality they do not like or do not know their own identity. The skit then shows that through Christ, we can live without performing and learn to love our real selves. We are going sing some songs in English to play up the "gringo factor" and attract a crowd, and then do the skit, and then one of the girls is going to tell her story about trying lots of different things in her life and finally deciding to surrender to and follow Christ. You can pray that people will come and be touched and that we´ll be able to lead them towards God and that they´ll have some deep soul need met.

That´s all for now, thanks for reading and caring about my life and for your prayers!

Love, Lauren

Hi again!

My roommate wanted to go to the internet cafe today, so I figured I would write another short update while I´m here. The last few days have really been great. I credit that to the prayers of you all reading this!! So thank you.

Friday, a lot of the people from our team went to Chapultepec. It is technically a ¨bosquë" or forest, but there is a zoo, anthropology museum and, my favorite part, a real CASTLE! I went to the zoo last time I was here, so this time, we went to the museum and saw a LOT of ancient pottery from the indigenous tribes here in Mexico. It was really fascinating, but it did get repetitive after a while, because it is huge! We saw the piedra del sol, which is a really big stone with Aztec symbols. It was a place where they used to have one on one battles, but most people think it is the Aztec Calendar. Anyway, we then went to lunch and had some very authentic Mexican food at a little restaurant in the bosque. I had hueraches...or something like that...it was really sabroso, but pretty messy too. Then we went to the Castle, that belonged to the French emperor when he was in charge...we evil Americans actually attacked it and were in charge for almost a year or something. You´ll have to check my history because everything we read in the castillo was in spanish, so I´m not totally sure. But there were a lot of things that belonged to royals, and everything was refurbished and it really made me want to be a princess or something!

Then Saturday, we had a work day at our church and everyone came and we all painted the entire church all day. And I learned something new about Mexican culture. Apparently, they think that if you stop working to eat, you won´t do anymore work, because you´ll be tired and full, so they just don´t eat until they are done. Since all I had for breakfast that day was a little cereal, that was obviously not an option for Lauren Three-meals-a-day Bruton, so at around 2, I finally asked if we were ever going to eat, and Rachel made me a ham, onion, avocado and crumbly cheese sandwich, which is probably the best sandwich I´ve ever had to date.

Sunday was another good, long day- my first at our church. I met a lot of new people and all their names are a little tricky so I´m working on that still. They were all precious though, and very welcoming. Our pastor plays the piano, and there are a few electric guitars and a drum set, so the music is beautiful and more contemporary, although we do sing hymns, too. We are supposed to have a service at 10, Sunday School and then another service at 5, but here, time is really relative, and nothing is when it is supposed to be. For example, this Sunday, they had a meeting about church business that lasted from about 2-5, then we broke for dinner, and then finished the meeting from 6:30-8:30, and didnt´have the second service. So Karen and I pretty much just go with the flow, never knowing what is going to happen the next second. You can pray for that, that I would just relax and get out of my North American efficiency mindset, and try to become like the Mexicans with their conception of time.

This week begins another week of Spanish classes. We are also going to be helping with the prayer meeting, which is on Thursday. I am looking forward to that, and also I can´t wait to start helping with their jovenes group, which is like a youth group. We have many active youth who I can tell are lots of fun, but need some Christian guidance from good role models. That may just be our niche this summer...but we´ll have to wait and see.

Thanks to all who have been praying for me and keeping up with all that´s going on down here. Please keep praying for my emotionally stability during this time of even more transitions. Pray for my American family as my mom and dad move and have to adjust to another life, and for my sister as her husband, George, adjusts to his residency program at UNC. Also please keep my college roommate and one of my best friends, Heidi, in your prayers in the coming week. She is having a surgery on a spot of melonoma, and we are praying that it has not spread.

Love!

I have arrived...!

Hello all!
I am not going to write much today, but I did want to let everyone know that I arrived safely and immediately moved in with my Mexican family for the summer. I have an American/Canadian (she's kind of both...) roommate who has been very welcoming and sweet. Here she is in our room.

Here´s a picture of our house.

To the left is our room(newly painted green), and then the next three doors are Sunday School rooms and a closet, then my bathroom is on the end at the far left. To the right is our kitchen, and that room is connected to the dining room, then the living room, then our hosts room and bathroom. And the dog house is "Jackie," our dog´s room.

My family here is wonderful. We live in the church with this family. The mama is Rachel, and she's actually only 21, so my mama is younger than me! My papa is Issaac, and he's 33. They have one son, Caleb who is nine months old, and they already have another one on the way who is due in November! Caleb is adorable! The church I'll be working at is called "Iglesia Bautista Cristo Viene," which means literally, "Baptist Church Christ comes." The church is small; we currently have 30 members, but I haven't gotten an idea of how services will be quite yet, as I haven't met our pastor yet.

I am very happy here, but of course, it is extremely overwhelming to be in a new city, with all new people, and with my family at home moving, my leaving college, etc., there is a LOT of transition, change, adjustment going on in my heart and head lately. Please pray for my adjustments to this new life and that God will give me fortaleza (strength!). Tomorrow is our "day of rest" so a bunch of us on the summer team are going to visit the Anthropology museum at Chapultepec. That should make for a more relaxing, easy day. I am missing all of you very much and I will update you more later on what I'll be doing.

Thank you so much for all your prayers and support. Please keep praying for me! I need every bit of it. Pray for my emotional adjustment, the language barrier, and for my relationship with my family and roommate.

Love!