I was asked this week. “What is God teaching you?”
Honestly, I realized that I am watching myself, telling myself to be super careful and observant. I want to blend in and be respectful and polite. I don't speak unless spoken to; make a lot of eye contact and smile all kindly. That all kind of literally went out the window when I was screaming in delight at my youth pastor in the middle of traffic jam from a different car.
Yeah.
Mexicans here like to have fun. The people I’ve encountered don’t take life super seriously. They are not afraid to laugh, and over exaggerate a story to get you to smile.
Most of all I’ve been learning how to have fun. Shame slows you down.
I am person who generally has fun doing everything, but I have been holding my stomach from laughing so hard, wiping my tears from allergies and laughter, and laughing again at the same joke days later, and I've been theratical in my story telling, and these relationships I’ve been building have been sweet.
I’ve been in Mexico for about six weeks - which is insane. I still don’t understand Spanish very well, but the little Spanish I do know I have been repeating resulting in me speaking a lot of Spanglish. I am understanding much more in conversation and I love the sense of humor here, it allows me to have original jokes in Spanish. I am utilizing my awkwardness for even more jokes! So, I am in a happy place emotionally.
I have been working like crazy, staring at my laptop, physically putting together a church sanctuary complete with sound equipment, chairs, and bible verses, I’ve been cooking where I can, and teaching people English while they teach me Spanish, I’m currently helping one of the pastors of my church organize an outreach summer camp, it comes complete with ridiculous stories of what happened last year.
Community has always been important to me, and I’m so glad that I’ve found a community that feeds me spiritually and physically.
Yo, I’ve had tamales more than 6 times in a week. I count that as a solid win.
The church I attend also cherishes the children in the community and does not disregard them, we had a celebration service two weeks ago, complete with one of pastors dressing in multi-coloured scarves, and confetti and balloons for the kids. Every adult in the place was just as excited as the small kids.
It was fun.
The story of Jesus calming the storm was the focus of the sermon that was acted out with the kids and read again with the adults. The whole congregation rocked side to side in their chairs giving the illusion of an unsteady boat. The whole congregation gasped when Jesus whistled. The whole congregation cheered when
He calmed the storm.
Everything around me is in a different language, but God has taught me a lot about people. That is enough.