1000 years later, the biography of Emily

The blog you've all been waiting for (take a deep breath and set aside an hour):

To start off, this is probably the number one hardest thing I've ever done in my life. The homework kills us, and I'm stuck with 6 girls who don't understand that being late means “castigo” (punishment). The other night we were all up until 12am studying and doing homework, the next day we arrived at the group devotional at 8:02am. Devotional time is when we are supposed to turn in homework, they didn't accept it. I cried like a big blubbering baby and they didn't pay me any attention. I think the McNally family has been through too much to care about sensitive wieners like myself. I got over it pretty quickly, that's the joy of our devotional. It started out with one of the guys sharing that we have to be faithful in the little things. I thought to myself, “crying about homework isn't really trusting in God for this little thing.” Although the stress of that day only grew, my attitude definitely changed, I apologized for crying, and later that day, the headmaster of the school said with a Grr, “I'll accept all your homework, but your grades will be severly affected by the tardiness, for which you've been warned before.” Strangely enough, this didn't help the stress factor, or improve my already-calmed-down mood.

My favorite days are Wednesdays and Sundays. Wed is a day that we don't have gym and we get to go to Naciones (the church), for Wed service. It's also fasting day and the heaviest work-load day what with homework and “ministries” they call it, which is basically where they put us to work washing the tops of the classroom tents, the insides of the buses, or the mess tent. Otherwise we usually end up babysitting and giving the regular supervisors a few hours of breaktime from the rugrats. Around 6 someone yells, “VAMONOS!” and we all pile on the bus, students, supervisors, rugrats, and everyone in between and head to the church.

The last two Wednesdays were special. First they asked me to be an intercessor during the service, which means I sit in one of 4 intercessor chairs positioned strategically around the edge of the sanctuary and intercede for the liders, for the congregation, for the worship team, for anything and everything invlolved in the ministry. So cool! The Spirit of God here is so evident in the answers to prayer here, and not only with the success of the ministry, but with the simple things. They pray for provision, but they don't just sit around and wait for it to fall from the sky... but that's a story about a Saturday, not a Wednesday. The second super-cool Wednesday was when they invited me to intercede again! But I couldn't and instead I worked behind the counter of the little “tienda” (snack bar) and got to meet and greet and schmooze with half the congregation. I've been working on building on my courage when it comes to talking to strangers.
Sundays are special for me because we get to sleep in a tad, and then go to Naciones where I get to either play with the kids in the yard, the babies in the nursery, or the little kids (the most difficult) upstairs. Then we go back to the Home and eat lunch with everyone, that is, if we don't have an evangelizing outing. We did that last week. After cleaning up the church we ate there and then they took us to Balcones or Santa Clara (two neighborhoods close to each other) and dropped us off and two by two we went looking for fresh candidates to witness the Word of Life to.

I ended up getting really into it, and by some leading in my spirit decided we were looking for a girl who was just hanging out on her doorstep. It was a dead Sunday with nearly no one in the street, but 2 blocks later, we found her, 14, standing outside the home of her aunt. We started talking to her and found out that she was Christian and went to a small church of about 23 members. I also found out that her family was Christian, but that her father was not and she was the only one, as far as she knew, praying for her father's salvation. Then her aunt came outside, who just happened to be a member of Naciones (our church), and unfortunately has the idea that her calling is evangelism, but she has never evangelized in her neighborhood, nor to her own family. Before coming out to evangelize in the first place, we prayed that God would send us sicknesses that we could pray for, and soon after the aunt emerged, her son also stepped out onto their porch. He had a neckbrace on and a stand-offish attitude, but still hung around for the conversation about evangelism and reaching family and community for Christ. My partner might have forgot that we prayed for a chance to pray for healing, and was about to say good-bye when I interrupted and asked if we could pray for the aunt's son. We asked him if he was a Christian and he said something like, he used to be, but with a wounded sort of tone. So we started praying for his neck and my partner started praying for spiritual healing, at which point he became emotional. As we left the house soon after that, the 14-year old girl came running after us and with a desperate sort of look, asked if we thought her dad would become a Christian. We explained to her the concept of being a witness within the family and the importance of prayer, which even her aunt, who goes to our church, didn't seem to understand fully. We prayed for her there in the street and I'm hoping beyond hope that she was encouraged to continue her pilgrimage for her father.

Then there are Saturdays. Remember I said the ministry prays for provision, but they don't just sit around waiting for it? One of the practical ways they go about their week is every morning on Saturday they go to the farmer's market, which is a huge warehouse compound with thousands of veggie vendors, and simply ask for donations. Correction: they send the students with a few of the kids from the Home to ask for donations. We have to wake up at the buttcrack of dawn to get there in time for people to feel especially generous as their supply of veggies and fruits is still plump and overflowing. Luckily there is a random candy store in the middle of it all and they also feel generous sometimes for the orphans and give us big packages of bubble gum. It's so much fun to see the blessings of God roll in because we aren't afraid to say, “A hundred kids need food, help us out?” I was amazed at the quality and sheer volume that some of the vendors gave. We came away with 8 crates of fruits and veggies and 1 full crate of chickens (kinda gross, but a blessing nonetheless).

Saturdays also usually consist of a challenge from our “Extreme Challenge” manager, Josue. The last two Saturdays were the most difficult so far. First we did a mini biatholon, 50km bike ride up and down hill with the wind of the countryside blowing at our side, and running the rest of the way. About 5 hours of grueling workout. Yesterday (also a Saturday) they took us to a river canyon and said, “Lead us to the dam!” Battling against paths that led to the sheer canyon wall, “bridges” made of twigs and stones, climbing up the side of the canyon and down again to avoid having to swim through suspect-looking waters, and a “team” that has it's own problems... 10.5 miles and 7 hours 20 minutes later we climbed up out of the canyon with one or two close-calls and a couple of splinters and scratches. It was wonderful!

Today has been my only day that I've had two seconds to myself (I apologize to those who anxiously await my blogs -mommy) because I'm sick! I've had the trots since this morning at 3am and another one of the girls has a severe cold and thank-goodness can't talk because of her throat. They sent a babysitter and made one of the other girls stay home from church/evangelizing today. They are big on rules and keeping things supervised and under control. I'm definitely learning to let go of that independent spirit that I came here with! They emphasize sumbission and leadership and how even the Heavens are governed by an hierarchy (the Kingdom of God, Prince of Peace, servants and slaves of Christ, etc). I really should be doing homework or napping or taking some imodium, but I've been dying to write for a while now...
There are 16 of us total in the class this year. I'm pretty sure God had this semester specially designed for each one of us. I told one of the girls (who speaks nearly perfect English), Aurora, that God knew her and I would end up there together because he knew that I would need someone to talk to when I was tired and frustrated – a.k.a. Unable to utter two words of sense in spanish. She has been more than a blessing, a literal Godsend. Fabiola reminds me a lot of my sister, she is patient and doesn't like to complain even though EVERYTHING irks her. She doesn't like the orphans hanging around her, but will help them with their giant boogers or personal problems, and she'll also feed me breakfast in bed when I'm sick with the trots! (Also, she has a HUGE mouth! :) Leidy -pronounced, “lady”- is the young mommy who recently became a Christian through her ex-boyfriend's mother. She left her 2-year old baby to come learn servanthood, but most of the time you wouldn't guess that she's a mommy – 20 years old, 5'2” or so with the attitude and actions of a flirty teenager. Sandy is Leidy's special companion who also takes 4 hours in front of the mirror to get ready every morning, and that's all I really know about her. That's a strike against me, since we're also roomies. The other girls are sometimes a mystery to me. Gladys is 32 and talks to herself and sings a lot at awkward moments and Erika is the 19 year-old Poblana who relates more to the 15 year-olds at the Home rather than her Vina companions. My favorite is our in-home supervisor (also known as, Mama), Ita. She is younger than most of us, shy as a jellybean, and soo cute! She's easy to talk to, you just have to talk to her first. She's very sweet, understanding and funny.

The boys, I can't say much about them other than their names and that half of them came from a rehabilitation “Rancho.” The older ones are the most annoying, only because the one talks about being the oldest and how he should have authority and/or privelege, but in class and other situations his maturity level is that of a 14 year-old (a smarty-pants, know-it-all, attitude-y, laughs out loud disrespectfully), and the other one must have never spoken to another human being before in hiswhole life because now we're all desperately trying to find the “off” button for his run-on sentences and one-sided conversations. The other guys are cool for the most part, they are all dealing with pride and verguenza (shyness? Embarassment) simultaneously. Some of our assignments are to pray or talk in front of the congregation, and the funny gringa girl can do it with a giant shove from a movement of the Holy Spirit, but the other guys who LOVE attention within the group and talk all the time about what God is doing in their lives, won't do it, even with the shove. I asked Juaquin why not, and he said something about not feeling worthy to speak in front of people (he still harbors a little pride in his past life, he's one of the guys from the Rancho). I told him my story about not feeling worthy and finding that it's one thing to ask for forgiveness by the Blood of Christ and a whole other thing to surrender your past and forgive yourself once you've been truly convicted for the icky-ness of your sin. I can be forgiven by God and still walk around like people will judge me for who I used to be.

As you can see, I'm still learning the elementary things in this Christian world, but they are obviously highly necessary for me to grow in character in Christ. I'm definitely learning to be a servant and learning to deal with the little things like no water in our house for 4 days, no hot water for 2 weeks, and the same food involving some hot chili pepper or a tortilla or beans or pasta EVERYDAY. Yesterday they gave us old fruit and it was a treat. :)

I'll leave you all in luxury-land with that last thought. I hope this was informative and also a blessing. I pray for everyone as often as I can and I'm realizing that I need to send postcards or something special, so if you want one or can think of someone who would love to get one, send me addresses!

Love and blessings from your long-lost _______.