John Mark & Moorea

Hello!

Spanish School
John and I have officially been in Mexico for a year as of June 25th. We celebrated the day by starting language school en Guadalajara. We have classes in the mornings, Monday through Friday. The school is called Harvest Language School and is specifically for missionaries. There are about 12 people in the school in different levels. John and I are starting out in the first level. I feel like most of it is review for me, but I have been learning at least one new thing everyday, so it is the right place for me. I do speak a bit of Spanish, definitely enough to converse with people, but there are holes in what I know. So far, the school has done a good job of finding those holes and filling them. Most of the grammar thus far has been review for John Mark too, but he is learning a lot of vocabulary. He understands a lot of spoken Spanish, sometimes even more that I do, but he can't say hardly anything. We are excited about the things that we are about to learn.

Sarcastic 1st day of school picture on the staircase :)
Interns
The last big thing we did in Bucerias before we left was speak for the group of summer youth interns. The interns are made up of young people from the church who were invited to the program. Most of the teenagers/young adults were selected because the' re already leaders in youth group, at the missions, in the kids program, and other areas. They are the most dedicated and the most servant hearted. There are about 15 of them. The first half of the program consisted of weekly teaching sessions about leadership. In the second half, the kids will live at the church and serve full time, helping with VBS, camps, and the regular services throughout the summer. John and I were asked to teach one of the leadership training sessions with a translator. Our topic was Callings, Giftings, and Talents. I taught for an hour about how we are all called to usher in the Kingdom of God by following the example that Jesus left for us in the Gospels. John taught for an hour about recognizing your giftings and cultivating them. Afterwards, we took them all out for ice cream. It was a great time, and the kids seemed to get a lot out of it. It kind of made leaving harder: we love those kids a lot and miss them.

Speaking for the interns. My friend, Paola translated

John speaking

Listening

Our New Home
We left on Saturday after sorting through everything, storing some of it, and cleaning. We moved into a small room at the pastor of La Fuente Guadalajara's house. Pastor Pocho and Elli have been very welcoming. They are a funny couple; it is a blast spending time with them. We are grateful to have such a wonderful family to live with. The parents speak a bit of English since they lived in the States for 8 years, but their four kids (who were all born in the States) speak much less. The first afternoon we were here, I found myself sitting around a table with 12 other people, learning Spanish tongue twisters. I already knew how to say Parangaricutirimicuaro (thanks AJ!) which is a mountain. The name is so difficult that even some Mexicans can't say it. It is a fun party trick. Then, I was prompted to ask simple questions in English to see if they could understand and answer them in English. Things like: What color is the sky? and What is 7 x 2? It is much harder than you would think to come up with questions like that, but it is fun. The afternoon ended with several of them trying to speak English with a British accent. It was hysterical.

Pastor Pocho asked me and John to teach/practice English with their kids an hour or so a week. Since they are all American, he thinks they should be able to speak English. They range in age from 14 to 18. They have all had English in school, but they have not had a lot of practice. There is a big difference between taking a language class and speaking the language. They are all at different levels, so it should be interesting. I am looking forward to it because it will help us to develop relationships with them. I am pretty sure they think that I speak a lot less Spanish than I do and they are shy, so we have not talked much. We will start this week.

There is a wonderful backyard at the house with apple, pomegranate, mango, and lime trees. The mango and apple are both producing right now. Someone always seems to be sitting out there. It is cool and beautiful. There are two dogs (a poodle and a tea cup chihuahua) and two rabbit that live in the back yard. They are friendly, but not too friendly. The poodle will come and sit on my feet when I am out there. John and I may or may not get distracted from our homework by watching them every time we study outside.

Saturday & Sunday
Yesterday, we went to a market in the morning. It is only one block from our house. People set up stalls selling vegetables, fruit, meat, fish, clothes, bootleg CDs, kitchen supplies, cleaning products, and beauty products. It is very cheap so we bought veggies for this week. In the afternoon, we were invited to eat with our house family and their guests. We had chills rellenos (if you have never had this, stop reading right now and find some.), ceviche, and shrimp. They cook shrimp a little differently here. Everything is still intact. head, legs, eyes, long stringy tentacles. Everything is on your plate. I waited till someone else ate them to see how it is done. I was praying that I would not have to eat those bulbous black eyes and the papery shell. I didn't. I just had to peel it myself with my hands. It is very common in Mexico to eat with your hands. Traditionally, they just used tortillas to scoop up everything. Even nice dinners seem informal to me because of that.

Last night, we were invited to go to a market on Chapultepec street by our new friend, Angel (pronounced AN-hel) who also happen to be one of our teachers at school. He is our age and doing a mission program based in Texas, but he is from Mexico City. He is pretty awesome. The market was a mix of art, clothes and book venders, street dancers, traditional handicrafts, and music. It is an odd feeling watching a standing bass and bagpipe duet in Guadalajara. The city is very different from where we have been living in Bucerias. I love Bucerias, but it is fun being in an urban environment again. I told John Mark yesterday, "If we keep our mouths shut, everyone will think we are from here." Really, we don't stand out that much. We stayed at the market till the thunderstorms started. As we walked to our car amid the scurrying crowd, we watched vendors packing up quickly to save the merchandise.

Kids playing with bubbles

People watching

Sunday lunch is a big deal in this house. I hear that there is usually a lot of people here on Sunday afternoons. Today, we have been invited to eat with the family. They are making carne asada, and it smells wonderful. When we eat with them, we usually sit at the table for at least an hour after the meal, talking and joking. It is great fun. (ps you would not believe how tiny our kitchen is considering 9 people live here and more are constantly coming and going. It is the size of a walk in closet in the States.)

New Projects
John has already acquired a couple of new projects. He is going to speak for the youth group here next Saturday. He is a little nervous because he hasn't even met many of the youth, but he is excited. Pastor Pocho will translate. He is also going to be creating more web presence for La Fuente Guadalajara, starting with a website. Since he helped create the website for La Fuente Riviera, he has experience using the programs and templates. Once it is created, he will teach Pastor Pocho's kids how to maintain it. He might also be making a website for the newest La Fuente church in Tijuana which had its first service today. Last week, John helped Pastor Pocho build a wall out of drywall to create another bedroom upstairs.

Thanks for keeping up with us. We are doing really well. Please continue to pray that we will learn Spanish quickly. There is still a lot we don't know.

Dios te bendiga,
Moorea