Hola!

Wow, I don't feel as happy as that exlamation point. I am currently feeling simmilar to a lolypop that has been scraped with a rock instead of licked. Like ABC gum. Like a cat that lives next to the monkey's cage at the zoo. Or maybe like a toungue that has just sucked a package of sour patch kids. At any rate, my thoat is killing me and my nose is raw and every time I swallow I am assulted by incredibly loud popping noise along with the exruciating pain..... Anyway. I am back from Acuna and so I thought I'd try to give a little update about that.

It wasn't what I was expecting altogether, but in so many ways better. I think I was expecting a little, innocent, "let's have fun for jesus and share the gosple while we do!" weekend. Let me tell you, that wasn't really it. The five and a half or so hours in the van were all fun and games, but when we got out of the van in Del Rio to get briefed on going over the border, I started REALLY praying. Yes, I thought I had been praying ferevently before, I thought I had put my concerns and worries in God's hands. But I think He changed my mind. We weren't supposed to say anything at all while the translator and the border patrol were talking, because they said the littlest thing could get us stuck for five hours and sent home. So we get to the first checkpoint, no problemo. Go over the river, nice and happy. Then at the second checkpoint, being the third van, we get pulled over. I don't know what every one else was thinking, but I was thinking, "Lord, please get us through! Let that guy with the gun ask the right questions, (BOOM BOOM) let Mrs Barron answer them right, don't let him see all that medicine that is right in front of his face! (BOOM BOOM) Give him dyslexia or something, becuase we may be saying that we are just tourists, but two people in this van have on name tags that say they are nurses! (BOOM BOOM) Lord, your in controll..." Yeah, it was pretty much nerve racking. (BOOM BOOM) But after he opened every door (BOOM BOOM), checked us out, and blabbed in spanish with Mrs Barron for about 1 minute and 30 seconds, we were off! It was amazing. It shouldn't have been, but it was :).

So then we went to a little mission church in the middle of a neighborhood of half-houses of cinder blocks and cardbord. We unloaded, and just as we were warned, in about five minutes the two kis standing there had turned in to 20, and abother five minutes, there were 50 people there! The kids kept coming, they came to join the game of "futbol" and then to get piggy back rides, tackle us, play jump rope, catch, bubbles, color, and a bunch of other things. The adults just kept pulling out more and more stuff to play with, and man did we play. It was non-stop action for about five hours! The kids didn't stop having fun for one minute, I swear. I did, but whenever I sat down I was yanked up again by five or so kids. When five tackled me, another couple would pull me up. We ran, we tickled, we cut, colored, jumped, skipped, danced, and smiled, laughing the whole time. And all I knew how to say when I got there was "hello", "goodbye", and around five other words! That handful stretched itself out, let me tell you. My favorite memories from that day were the tackling match with these five boys, who would jump on me every time my back was turned, strategically tripping me, tickeling me, and surrounding me! I'll always remember how much fun that was, and how they took turns helping me up so I would turn around and they could do it again. I taught them ring-around-the-rosey, which they loved. And when everyone else was tired me and a kid named Fransico just danced around by ourselves. I taught them to make snowflakes with the coloring paper, although I'm pretty sure they had no idea that was what it was, and they were thrilled with it! It was like the simplest thing, writing my name, or drawing a flower, or teaching them a handshake meant the world to them. And at the very end, after they had eaten, there was a gospel presentation in spanish. I sat down, and my buddy Fransisco and his friend (I figured out how to ask thier names, but that doesn't mean I understood!) who I'd been playing with all day, sat down next to me. They put their arms around me, and just listened. I had no idea what was being said, but they raised my hand at the right moments, I guess. They were probably eight or nine, and it was like no one had ever hugged them or smiled at them before. They just loved that I would love them, and it was easy to do. They were also thrilled, at the end, to rub bath & body works shower gel all over their faces becuase it smelled so good. They drew on my face, and when they left I almost cried thinking I'd never see any of the kids I had played with again. It was pretty crazy how much I loved all those kids after only knowing them for a matter of hours.
I really don't remember anything after we got to the hotel that night - I was out like a lightbulb.

The next day we went to another church. This one was bigger, and a little nicer, but the neighborhood around it was still very poor. We walked around the neighborhood telling people that there would be a clinic, and yes, people showed up again. It wasn't quite as frenzied, but today was the day of futbol. I started out playing with a group of boys and a couple of the other kids, and all day I played it. I had to take breaks, but once again, those kids never did. The leaders (blue-shirts as we came to call ourselves) had a system of switching out and switching teams, and the kids would come and a few more would leave, but there was a soccer game on that parking lot of rocks and gravel from 9am-6pm. I almost passed out once or twice from the heat, but those kids I swear never faltered. On friday, I kind of got the feeling of "lets have fun!", but on saturday it was more "win or die trying!" I got hit with that soccer ball more times than I care to count (and yes, it was probably mostly due to the fact that I suck at dodging, but that is beside the point), and I thought more than once that I could very well die playing futbol right there in acuna mexico! But oh it was fun. And if I do say so myself I was holding my ground against those little whippersnappers, but man were they tricky. They taught me some of their tricks, though. Again there was a gospel skit, (which was amazing, let me tell you, put on by some of the other kid leaders, with josh as jesus), and a couple of the boys I had been playing with came and sat by me to listen. Over all that weekend 28 people came to christ! That was awesome. I felt pretty helpless a lot, not being able to say a single meaningful thing, not being able to really say anything. I felt useless, but when I did I just tried my best to win that soccer game with my team of mexican tricksters. And I think that just sitting by them sometimes meant a lot. It was a very stretching experience. It made me wonder what I communicate here, where people do understand me. Do they get two different messages when don't have to be jesus just by my actions? Do I only talk the talk when I don't think about walking the walk? I am not sure if any of this is making sense, but oh well.

I also had a great time getting to know the other people who went on the trip better. Maybe 12 hours in the car with josh leyden was a little much...no, I'm just kidding. It was really fun. Josh thinks he saved my life out there playing soccer, and if you ask him I'm sure he will tell you about it. But all of the kids who went were awesome, and so were the adults. I learned a lot from this trip. I have seldom felt I made such an impact with one weekend. I am thinking of another reliantK line that says,
I noticed
I know this
weekend's a symbol of how I use my time
resented,
I spent it
convincing myself the worlds doing just fine without me...
without me...
not doing anything of any consequence...

Well, I didn't feel like that at all this weekend. And that, friends, is an answered prayer. That, my friends, is how I want my whole life to look. Not forgetting my blessings, not forgetting to ask to be used, not forgetting everything but myself. Not forgetting what God can and wants to do with my life. Yes, though it already seems like a dream, that was a pretty cool weekend.

Don't you love it when I end all serious?!