Training to be English teachers

Here is a picture of one of the signs that we had up for a month to advertise for the English classes. This is on a main street, through the center of town, less than a block away from La Roca. As of right now, there are over 50 new students and about 35 students from the last session. Elizabeth has said that the last week before the placement interview day, that there are a lot of people who sign up at the last minute. So, there will be well over 100 students total.

WHY TEACH ENGLISH?

When John and Elizabeth came to Mexico almost five years ago, they never planned to teach English. However, after starting up the La Roca coffee house ministry, they still found it hard to get into the lives of the people in Autlan. They decided if they could find a way to meet a need, it would give them an active roll in the community and thus opening wide a door to build relationships. Someone yesterday asked me, "So why teach them English?" Because it is a common goal of most Mexicans. Many need it for school, tests, university requirements, immigration, careers, and to communicate with relatives in the U.S. Elizabeth says, "The goal is to meet a social and educational need, English language learning, to further the sharing of the gospel. Classes are designed with the hope of being salt in the students lives that creates a thirst for a genuine relationship with God. We model this relationship in every class!" Furthermore, the classes are held at the coffee house which give students a very social environment. Some 16 or more have come to know the Lord as their personal Savior through La Roca and the language school and the seeds that have been planted are uncountable.

We are moved

Real quick note. We moved into our house three days ago and we now have Internet. If you want to see our house, before we worked on it, scroll down on this blog & you can see a video. We have so much to talk about, but still so many things that need to be done in our house. To top it off, tomorrow we start our training to teach English, which starts the first week in September. I say all this to say that I will try to update tomorrow, after we get done with our training. We are in a whirlwind right now. We can't even remember what day it is. I hope, also, to add more videos so you can experience what we are going through.
Thank you to all who have prayed for us during this time of transition. This will, hopefully, be the last one for a while, Lord willing.

First Indian Village outreach

Here are some of the pictures we took when we went an Indian camp. The Indians get paid to harvest the Tequila plants, but the houses they live in are in very poor condition. The Indians usually speak Spanish as their second language. They are looked down on by most Mexicans.

1- Pastor Antonio gave a message, with the microphone many people heard the gospel message, even if they were not watching the puppet show or story.
2- The kids, before we sat them down to share a message with them.

1- Kids will play with anything.
2-This is puppet show where the kids sat, watched and heard the story of Daniel and the Lion's den.

A family of Indians who were selling tortilla cloths.

This is our new home! We have yet to move in because of all the work still needing to be done on it.

This one is of the center and of our living room.

The first looks at the center

#1 just after we got up the first day being in Autlan.
#2 is a short video of our rooms before we are unfinished packing.
#3 a little bit of rain

My diploma

After eight months of Language school, I am finished.

Last week in Guady!

Ok, my brother, Ben, said (Hi Ben!) that I hadn't updated in like three days. So, here I am updating our blog in the midst of our chaos. We are moving in less than a week. Before that though, we are having a birthday brunch for Aletta, who is now three years old as of last week. Jessie is out running errands this afternoon and I think we have more last minute shopping before we go to Autlan. We are going to stock up on things like coffee and contact solution. There are other things we might not be able to get in Autlan, but only time and experience will tell.

On different note, I graduated from Harvest Language Center yesterday. Because we all can take finals and be done whenever we finish them, they had a little ceremony for us after the last day of classes. All I have to do now is finish my finals on Monday. I can't believe that I am done with language school. It has gone by so fast.

We are moving to Autlan on Tuesday or Wednesday. We will be packing everything up tomorrow after the party. Nothing like a Saturday afternoon project.

It was the other day I was talking to someone and I realized that most people do not have life changing experiences in that their life is completely changed. One day it is completely different than the next. We experienced this when we came to Mexico in January. We had lived in a townhouse, worked a job, and received a steady paycheck. Now, we live in a 3 bedroom house in a huge city full of people who do not speak the same language and I am going to school full-time. Next week, I do not know what our life will be like exactly, but we will be living in a rural town with cobblestone streets, and with another missionary family. I won't have homework. We will be teaching English to people who sound like me when I speak Spanish. Two times in less than a year that our life is changed completely.

This is just the step we had to take when the Lord called us to go and give up everything that we knew in our life. Things like seeing your sister fall in love and get married. Things like communicating to someone exactly what you need and they know exactly what you mean. All those little things that God asks you to give up, is well worth it. As God asks you to give them up, how can you hold them back from God, who gave them to you in the first place. He gives us the choice to do things His way or our own way. I would much rather do it God's way, than my own way. I am sure with time, I will see the reasons for us to being here. As one of my teachers shared with us, we are to be farmers who keep planting. We may not see the growth for a long time, but God takes care of that part. We need to be faithful in planting, even when there is no visible fruit. The fruit will come if we are faithful to sow the seed. I will get off my little soap box now, but I want to encourage you to ask God if there is anything that he wants you to give up for Him and His glory. You might be surprised in what He might say.