Viva Mexico!

Words cannot express how encouraged I feel and how excited I am about the work that the Lord has done this past week in Oaxaca. On Wednesday, Jenny (our field contact) took us to a torta (sandwich) stand in a particular village. She and her husband eat at this particular place on occasion and have become acquainted with the owners. They have been unable to get further connections with this community until this last week when the Lord widely opened up the door. In many of the villages in Oaxaca, there is a certain process that needs to take place in order for someone to enter the community for a specific purpose. This often involves going before the village counsel/leaders and asking permission. Well, when Jenny told our contact at the torta stand that Hannah and I are nurses and would like to see the clinic, our contact offered up information to us regarding exactly who to talk to at the municipal office. We were able to go through the process of meeting him immediately after lunch and he was extremely open to assisting us. He even walked us over to the clinic and introduced us to the doctor and 2 nurses. They were so open to us and invited us to come and learn from them and assist them at the clinic once a week. I think they were almost as excited as we were! They even invited Hannah and I to a special event they are having for the youth this week.

Needless to say, we were beyond thrilled to see the Lord opening these doors for us to get into this community and begin building relationships. It was so encouraging and such a blessing to see the Lord at work. The way that it all happened was evidence of His power and sovereignty because only He could have worked it all out so beautifully. It was also humbling to me to see how the Lord used a variety of situations, circumstances, and our background as nurses to bring everything together at once and show us favor among these people.

In addition to all of this, I'm also super excited about how well the CTT event went on Saturday. We had 4 nationals attend the training event and all seemed excited about using what they learned to partner with us and go out into villages. This week we will all be going out into the same village where Hannah and I will be helping in the clinic. The nationals will share health lessons in story form as well as Bible stories, and hopefully the Lord will continue showing us favor and allow us to use these stories to build relationships and share the truth of God's Word. It has been truly amazing to see our great God working for His kingdom purposes and I am extremely thankful that He chooses to use us in His plans.

 Hannah and her team, Jose and Raquel

 Me and my team, Moises and Rosa

Las tres hermanas!

Our friend and fellow missionary, Jim, who has served the Lord for 30 years in Central America.

Sunday night began the celebration of Mexico's Independence Day. The festivities involve a grito or "cry" at 11pm on September 15th which is reminiscent of the Grito de Dolores or "Cry of Delores" which marked the beginning of Mexico's war of independence from Spain in 1810. Our friends Jose and Moises were kind enough to meet us and escort us during the night's festivities.

We tasted some elote which is mexican-style corn on the cob.

The Zocolo (main plaza) was beautifully decorated with lights.

After the Grito, there were awesome fireworks and a free, live concert. I was so excited because one of my goals for these 4 months was to attend a music concert/event. It was so fun and so crowded. We joined some of our Mexican friends in the dancing and got more than a few stares! It was definitely a fun night that I will always treasure.

Here is the whole group squashed in together and posing for a picture in the crowd!

Viva Mexico!