Week One...

Hey blog followers.  I made it the first week, hallelujah!


I officially started work on Monday and really haven't stopped yet.  I am working with the women's soccer team at UDLAP and the women's basketball team at UMAD (two of the five or six universities here in Puebla).  It's been an awesome week building relationships with the girls through team meetings and bible studies, one-on-one meetings and actually getting to practice with the girls.  That's right, I said practice and for the record, I am not the functioning athlete I once was.  The elevation change here has kicked my butt.  We are above 7,000 feet here so my lungs are constantly mad at me for not getting enough air to them.


This is really a cool city.  Puebla is located at the Valley of Puebla also known as the Valley of Cuetlaxcoapan, a large valley surrounded on four sides by the mountains and volcanoes of the Trans-Mexican volcanic belt.  The views are absolutely stunning and I can't help but think of how awesome our Creator is when I get to constantly look at sights like this:

I snapped this today with my phone as I walked to the church I have been going to.  This weekend they simulcast a Global Leadership Summit put on by the Willow Creek Association and I loved it.  It spoke a lot about working on teams and how to lead successfully by following God's call on one's life.  Really struck a chord with me.  There were some 130,000 people watching all over the world, 540 in this church, Torre Fuerte.  Of course, it was in Spanish but the kind people there were able to hook us up with headphones so we could listen to it in English.  That's just how the people are around here- super willing to help and I don't know if I have met people as nice. 


I have had a few, um, minor problems occur.  The other day I attempted to take the bus to campus and meet my teammate there because, well, I'm arrogant and think I can know my way around a town I've only lived in 3 days in a country that I speak three words of their language.  But, I went nonetheless... and to make things easier, I didn't have an operating phone on me.  I took what I thought was the right bus but was, in fact, not.  The bus system is deceptive around here- there is a series of I believe three thousand numbers on the front of the bus and I am supposed to identify the route by the number.  Now these buses are flying at me at the speed of sound and it doesn't help that I am constantly looking around at God knows what instead of my bus.  So it would only make sense that I mix up the numbers and get on the wrong bus. 45 minutes later the nice bus driver informed me that I needed to get off the bus, that his route was over.  I however did not understand this in the least bit, and smiled in vain attempt to flirt my way into him taking me back to wherever in the world I got on the bus from.  It didn't work.


So I got off the bus into what you could have convinced me was another world.  I had no idea where I was or where to turn.  So what does a good little missionary do at a time like that?  Say a quick prayer and get to stepping.  God must have had some pity on my because I took one of five roads about a half mile, decided to catch another bus that I had no idea where it was headed and all of the sudden this familiar ad appears and I know where I am:

Thank God for the Dixie Chicks.  I got off the bus and walked the rest of the way home. I'm still not entirely sure why there is a painting on the wall of Puebla, Mexico of those three but I guess I'm just glad they are popular somewhere in this world.


Tomorrow I'm planning on taking some time and processing a lot of what's happened this week and hopefully write some more as I think of all the amazing things that have happened to me.  I want to thank you for your prayers this week.  Please know I have felt the unexplainable peace of God in the middle of this chaos and I know it's because I have amazing prayer warriors back home.  I love you all and am praying for you too.