Another Spearhead Summer

Buenas tardes!

I'm finally getting a chance to update! This season of summer ministry has been busier than I had anticipated, and without easily accessible internet, I have been slack on keeping in touch. Forgive me!

After I last wrote, we began leadership training in preparation for the summer. Leaders arrived to Mexico City from all over. Kevin and Leah, two former YearOutters, arrived from California to serve with Spearhead as leaders this summer. They are going to have a little girl soon (yay!), and are planning to start a Spearhead program in Spain. Carrie and Carlos, LAM missionaries here in the DF, joined our team and will stay on to help with next year's YearOutters, as Paul and Nydia are going to the States for a year of furlough. After spending time in Brazil and Colombia this past year, Andrew arrived for his fifth summer with Spearhead, but he's currently recuperating from back surgery, so will be out of commision for a few weeks. Erika (my roommate) and I are both here serving as leaders as we finish up our YearOut experience. Wendy (Spearhead coordinator) and Paul and Nydia (Spearhead directors) led a week-long training time at a camp outside of the city for this group. Although lately it's been pretty hot here, that week at Camp Kikoten was super cold! We had fun getting to know each other better and did lots of team building activities with our co-facilitators.

When we got back, we continued prep work for the summer by visiting the various churches and families that are now hosting our Spearheaders. We try to see the ministry site and home to get an idea of what kind of experience the Spearheaders will have, and also talk more with the pastors and families to answer any questions they have about the summer program. This time was really fun and made me want to live in all the host homes and serve at all the churches we visited! It really gave me a vision for the great things that God could do this summer.

Finally, on June 3rd, fourteen Spearheaders arrived with varying levels of cultural knowledge and Spanish language skills. Their first few days in the city were spent in a hostel where we welcomed them, oriented them to the program and culture, and then sent them out with their families.

The structure of the summer utilizes the idea of partnership and teams. We have two co-ed teams of students, each led by two facilitators, a girl and a guy. Erika and Kevin are leading a team of 6 and Andrew and I have a team of 8. Each team is broken up into roommate pairs, so our team has 3 pairs of girls and a 1 pair of guys, while Erika and Kevin's team is 2 pairs of girls and 2 people (a guy and a girl) who are living "solo" without an American/Canadian roommate. The Spearheaders have Spanish classes 4 days a week in their first month here, and spend the evenings and weekends with their host family and church, learning, observing and soaking everything in. Their second month is "full-time ministry" in which they only have meetings with our team once a week and spend most of their days serving in their churches helping with VBS, leading Bible studies, helping with Sunday school, leading worship, working in after-school programs or just being with their families.

Our job as leaders during the first half of the summer is to greet them and check in with them before/after Spanish classes, train them in the skits, clown shows, dances, that they can use in their churches, meet with team members one-on-one to encourage and assist them as they adjust to the culture and learn to serve in this context. As leaders, we visit different churches each Sunday and families during the week to check in on the students. We also have large group meetings once a week in which we worship, listen to a talk and then meet in small groups to discuss how everyone is doing.

I especially enjoy the one-on-one coaching times and our small discipleship groups. It is such a fun thing to get to know people and help them process and succeed in this experience. My passion for counseling is affirmed more and more during these times. I also really enjoy seeing the great diversity of the church here in Mexico. From large, conservative Presbyterian churches, to medium-sized, high-energy, charismatic congregations, to small, Lutheran cell groups, I've experienced a little bit of everything here and love knowing that we all worship the same God and He is the one who created that diversity and treasures it.

My experience right now is harder to describe than the time at the Casa Hogar, but I hope that gave you an idea of what I've been up to. Once again, thank you so much for your support and prayers. Keep praying for Mexico; it has been a rough year for the country with all the border-town violence, swine flu scare and earthquakes! Also pray for my co-facilitator, Andrew, as he recovers from back surgery, and me as I transition and start preparing for my next step: getting my Masters in Clinical Psychology from Wheaton. I've found a roommate, so that's a huge praise, but I'm still trying to get all the plans in place for the Fall, which is hard to do from Mexico! Thank you! Send me an email and let me know how you are!

Cuidate mucho! (Take care!)