3-2-1 MEXICO!

Hey!

That's right! In 3 days people, THREE DAYS I will be flying to Mexico where I will be living with extended family for 2 months. Now, if you've read my profile you'll have noticed that I list Mexican and Spanish as part of my nationalities unfortunately I only understand about 35% of spoken Spanish on my good days and I am able to respond correctly (with the right vocab and grammar) only about 20% of the time.

Now for a person who is intent on living and working in the largest Hispanic community of Chicago this is a serious problem (ya think?)! You see, while the children I tutor and mentor are mostly bilingual, very few of their parents are, and while at this point in my life my focus is mainly on the children, my desire is to minister to the families as a whole, and of course this is only more difficult with the obvious language barrier.

I knew God was calling me to La Villita when I was beginning my Senior yr. of high school. After I had graduated I took a year off to focus on my ministries while taking Spanish 101 and 102 at the community college in my area. But I knew that I was not going to learn the language unless I was completely immersed in the language.

I spoke with my parents about living with my grandparents in Mexico (who do not speak English) for 2 months. They agreed with me on the notion that I would learn faster if it was a matter of survival (haha). My mom then suggested that I look up some churches in the area and try to make contact to arrange for some service I could participate in so that I would not be idle or wasteful of my time. In the end, through some contacts at my church I found out about a Christian run orphanage located close to my grandparents home. They agreed to let me come and serve with them for part of my time.

And so my dear reader, here I stand on the brink of my departure. I have not been to Mexico in 11 yrs and, with the exception of my grandparents, have not seen most of my family down there for the same amount of time. It will be an adventure, that's certain! But I go with the Lord so all will turn out well :)