Just three weeks left

It is crazy to think that i have been here for seven weeks-so many people told me that i would look back and think that it went by so fast, but the truth is that i feel like i have been here for seven months. It seems like so much longer becuase so many things have happened, becuase i have learned and been a part of so much, it has been fascinating, at the same time extremely difficult. I apologize for not writing in a long time, which means that i am going to leave out a lot of big things that have happened...gives you all a chance to talk me to when i get home :)
Well the Little Country Team came and went, and i praise the Lord for choosing the time they came and for choosing who came. I needed some of "my" people that week, and the poeple that he brought were better than i could have hoped for. The highschool girls that came reminded me that i have something to go home to. I have been feeling like i could just live here, that i am being used here and falling to the lie that if i go home i will not be used, that there is no ministry at home for me. The Lord reminded how much my heart breaks for high school girls-it's hard to be a high school girl, and i am so excited to get home and be a part of their lives. The Lord also brought adults on the team that were like parents to me, that encouraged me, that told me they were proud of me-something that i have needed to hear. Something that i have always wanted to hear from a certain person my whole life it seems, and never have. During the LCC team's week here i heard it, and it was said so sincerely and with just strength that i heard it from the Lord's mouth himself, and no more do i feel like i need to hear it from that other person. Also-the young men that came on the team were men of the Lord, were strong men with a soft heart and sensative to the spirit, seeing that gave me hope, and sealed the healing that the Lord has b!een doing in me.
While the team was here we had "El Reventon" it was very similar to an Outreach America Blast, and the Lord showed up, people got saved. Also-something for everyone that came down to know-you guys changed hearts of boys that Dan and his staff have been praying for and spending time with for years. I am sure that you all remember Chulo, Papas, and Leo-if not, Tina's brother and two of the boys that worked with us during the week. These three boys have been around missionary teams, and around Christians their whole lives, but never wanted to be a part of it, i talked to some of you about the trouble with all the rules that the Mexicans put on being a Christian rather than a relationship with the Lord. Anyway, the Tuesday that you guys left, that night-all three boys accepted the Lord!!! :) Gracias a Dios!
Ever since the tea left i have not spoken or heard any English except for from Dusten's ipod-it has been difficult, but every day i am blessed that i understand what people are saying to me, that i dont have to translate in my head and think about my words before i respond but that i can have a conversation with ease. This is good considering i am living with about ten missionary students from different parts of Mexico. It has been a little bot difficult for me though becuase of the cultural differences, and the fact that i am the only American. For example, they make lots of comments about the differences in cultures and what they disagree with in our culture and make references to color. I know that it is not to be offensive but simply becuase different colors or cultures is not something that they have ever had to be sensative with becuase in Mexico there is only one color, one culture, one language-growing up in America we learn not to refer to someon by color, or not to disagree with cultures.
I went with the students to some labor camps about two hours away where there are lots of people who grew up speaking another idiom of Spanish, but once they are old enough to work they move from their tribe and only speak Spanish. We went around with a tape player, three different casette tapes and different maps of Mexico. We went door to door asking people if they spoke another idiom and if so where they were from, we found it on the map then searched the tapes which contained 300 different 30 second clips of idioms. When we found theirs i would have them listen to it, and make sure that they understood what it said, i would ask them to explain it to me in Spanish, and they i asked if they would like casettes in their proper idiom of messages of the Bible. It was amzing to see the faces of people when they heard their idiom outside of their tribe. There were so many that were not Christians, that would not have wanted anything to do with the Bible, but to have their heart language readily available for them to hear was an offer they could not pass up. It was great for me to be able to understand, being here and only hearing spanish, or hearing lessons of the Bible only in Spanish, even if i understand it all-it does not pentrate my heart the same way that English does. The Lord speaks to us personally in out proper language, in our heart language. Crazy-300 different idioms and they are all so close to the Spanish we learn in school on America, but here they are all SO different. In these labor camps there were children who did not know how to speak any spanish, they moved with their parents and couldnt play with any of the other kids becuase they couldnt understand each other, it was heart breaking. There was one boy in particular who my heart broke for, his name is Francisco and he is 16- he moved from his tribe to this labor camp more than seven hours away alone to work becuase his family has no money. He didnt speak very much spanish at all, but had sketchy tattoos that someone from the labor camp had put on him, looked like to be a part of a gang. When we began talking to him i was almost in tears just feeling the Lord's heart for this kid and how much the Lord wanted to preserve his childhood-the calling that this kid has on his life to bring truth to his tribe-but how trapt he is in all the lies of the enemy. I was on a team with Tina and Carlos for the casette assignment, she looked at me, and we both knew that we needed to pray for him. We asked him if we could, and then had Carlos pray for him, that way he could lay hands on him and it would not be crossing any cultural borders inapropriately. We are going back to these camps on Friday to hand out the tapes, very excited.
Friday is also the last day for the students that are here, then we have a team from Tijuana coming Saturday for a week. Please be praying for me during that week.
A big prayer for myself that i have had lately is that i will not fall into the trap of thinking that i only have three more weeks of work left to do, but i want to be a slave for the Lord even more so at home than i am here. It should be easier for me when i am at home in my confort zone to serve the Lord, to be sensative to His spirit. Mainly i have been praying that i would continue to walk in the freedom that the Lord has given me here, so many people at home know how stupid i have been in my past, and thinking about how many times the Lord has pulled out of the stupidity and i walked right back into it. Coming here it has been easy to be who the Lord has created me to be and walk freely from my past becuase no one here knows of my past. I am healed, and i am free, i am so thankful, and i am so excited becuase for the first time in my life i truely believe that the Lord has forgotten my trespasses, and He has blessed me, He has answered my prayers that i might forget them as well-and i have! I am free!
People i have been praying for a lot lately-Keely, Girlfriend, Gina, my small group Girls-the Lord has been giving me His heart for you, and He wants you to walk in the same freedom that i now am-He says that you dont have to go to Mexico for three months to recieve it!
Love you all!!!