Sueños

Whether you wanna be a concert pianist, collect ceramic unicorns, meet a leprechaun, or fall in love, everyone has a dream, right? Actually, everyone does not have a dream, because not everyone dares to hope for what they can't see. Sounds a little something like faith, huh? 

God surprises me. Constantly. By no means did I think God would bring to mind the subject of having a dream for the future. I'm very much a live-in-the-now kind of girl. I want to love people where I'm at and not think about anything else, because it's more effective . . . it is also easier . . . you get hurt less because your hopes don't get crushed, you know? I wasn't always this way. Could God be pushing me to unchain the bridled dreams inside my heart? What dreams do I even have anyway?

Sueños (dreams) have been swimming all around me here in Mexico. I can't remember how many people have asked me what my dream is, and I've heard so many dreams of Back2Back staff, volunteers, and even kids. Not to mention, my friend Sarah who works with Back2Back asked if I wanted to study and discuss The Call which focuses on fostering your God-given calling. Dreams are a big part of that. I've only been here a week and I feel like God is throwing every asset at me to remind me it is good and even important to dream.

Kids watching the VBS skit. What are their dreams?

Saturday, I went to an under-developed community called Tres Reyes to help with VBS. First of all, I am thrilled that Back2Back is doing Group curriculum VBS. This is the same curriculum I directed for four years at my home church and I am very familiar with the way Group teaches. I had such fun throwing a football around with a few of the kids before the program started. And of course, I was all into doing the awkward but lovable motions to the theme song.

I was the only intern that went on Saturday and I was the only American in a van packed (and I mean packed) full of Mexicans headed to Tres Reyes. Here I learned that there is a perfectly sound reason for the phrase "language barrier." It certainly isn't as passive or tame as a "language traffic cone." I felt exhausted just trying to keep up with the general ideas of what everyone was saying! Everyone was so accommodating and kind, trying to talk to me. I smiled and said a lot of, "Si! Si!" and pretended I knew what they were saying (silly, right?) For a while I tried to ask questions, but in time I simply grew weary of my four-year-old level of Spanish and stopped trying as much. 

It was on this journey that the sueño topic came up again. Gloria (not her real name) is the daughter of two Back2Back ministry partners. She is around thirteen years old and she is awesome. The whole way there, she struck up a conversation with me and persisted through my nonsensical Spanglish. She told me that her dream is to be a missionary in Israel or Afghanistan. I was floored by the excitement and passion in this girl's heart. What a huge and "impossible" dream! Good thing God's specialty is working with the impossible.

Praises: 

• Worship is going well
• The first mission team that has come down is bonding well and seems to be learning a lot. They are getting a lot of work done too!

Pray for: 

• the language barrier not to become too daunting
• General peace--there is so much input in my brain with the bazillion wonderful experiences here but I have had little effective processing. I've had time to process, but have had shallow and scatter-brained times of reflection. By no means do I want to just go through the motions. 
• a good friend of another of the interns to recover from a major accident

We celebrated a girl's birthday from one of the children's homes Back2Back works with by bringing her to the group house and throwing a pool party for her!