Zona 7

Altotonga, Mexico -- Well, I am super excited. We have a busy and exciting weekend coming up. I'm looking forward to see what God's going to do!!

Well, I'm eating on a muffin right now, which is the typical Mexican dinner-- any kind of sweet bread and coffee. But I'm a little early. A lady from across the street just came to the door to borrow an English-Spanish dictionary.

Ok, a recap on this last week. Cesar, the youth who was in the accident is back home-- got home yesterday. They're still going to take him to Veracruz for surgery on his mouth. Actually, he happens to be online right now, and his screen name says, "I am alive", but in all caps. Saturday night at the club, the dance girls did their piece. One of the poor girls looked like she was going to pass out when we were starting. It made me chuckle. They all did fine, of course-- they all remember the tiny mistakes they made. It's ok though. It's not about being perfect.

The kids going to Oaxaca presented the mime piece to Jonah. It went well. And I did the talk on love. We were all sitting on the floor in a circle. I talked about how we understand love, and that God's love is "Love, period." He doesn't love us for reasons, or for who we are, what we have or do or if we do or don't do something. He loves us unconditionally. I wish you could have seen their faces. They especially lit up when we were talking about how to experience it (of course, pointing to God).

There was also a couple of opportunities that I've had to talk to youth who have been going through hard times. On Monday, I went to finish painting the walls on the club-- just 4 hours of touch up work. Then I went with 2 other youth to hang up some 350 or so bulletins about the concert this weekend. It took us about 3 hours.

This morning, I went to buy the bus tickets to get people back to the airport (including me!), to pay the rent and the phone bill. Then 2 meetings, English class, "house shopping"-- the list of things that my roommate and I go in on together for things we use-- dish soap, laundry soap bars, etc. And now I'm here.

Ok, so this weekend-- Thursday, the group gets in. Friday, we'll have 2 programs for the schools. There are 3 schools going in the morning-- where we'll talk about Universal Values and Zona 7 will play as well. And of course, we'll prep for the concert. In the afternoon, we'll do the same thing for the schools that go in the afternoon-- and there will be 4 schools, I think. It's a lot of kids, that I know. But it'll be good for the kids.

Then, Saturday, we'll have something for the core group of kids in the morning with the band. And then in the evening, we'll do the concert. Contests, games at the beginning, the concert, and then presenting the Gospel. I'm really looking forward to seeing what God's going to do. We've been praying a lot for this event. God's done good things already-- we want to see many youth get saved and get plugged in!So, please be praying for us in that. It's going to be a long and busy weekend. And then, after sleeping, probably maximum possible-- 4 hours, I will get up and head to St. Louis!!So, that's what's going to be going on. I'll help particularly with Vonda for breakfasts, and lunches won't be that big of a deal. And then I'll meet the directors of the schools-- which will hopefully open doors.Well, I'm going to get. I'm going to study Japanese tonight and then try to get some rest and relax... since it's been a while. :) Tomorrow will be a very long day-- as well as the rest of this week.