The Beans of Life - Frijoles De Vida

Hey Friends,
After a morning meeting with our team we took the metro to UNAM to do our routine of looking for those divine appointments on campus with christians in order to encourage them to share their faith, start a bible study, or in other ways build up the christian body on their campus and take those opportunities that they might not have in the future to talk with their friends about Jesus. So, during the train ride i ran into Ivan! Ivan is a picture of the culture here: after a few minutes of chatting he asked for my number and asked if i wanted to go to hang out with his girlfriend and him for lunch and just hang out. He was so kind and we became friends instantly, he and his girl friend valerie both are catholics (she seems to be the spiritual one in the relationship, however, they both agree that what my team is doing here is great). if you are able friends, please pray for opportunities to speak truth to them! it seems that Valerie knows Jesus but i am not sure about Ivan (he is definitely nice though). Pray for grace and love to surround my words as we become closer friends!


Also, i went to the post office today. On the way back we took a taxi which was driven by Abel, a friendly 40-something guy with a wife and 2 kids (19yr old son, and 15 yr old daughter). I felt instantly like asking if he wanted to go to church! Abel was at first pretty stand-offish but after we talked for longer he could see i wasn't interested in converting him to my institution. After a few minutes i asked if i could give him my number so that if he wanted to go to church sometime i would love to take him to my church, to which he said "claro que si!" (of course). It was sad and enlightening after this to see his response after thinking about my offer..." Pero, soy pobre y no tengo dinero" (I am poor and dont have money). My response to him was that Jesus didn't ask for money and neither should anyone else because the gospel is gratis... "free". He was excited at this and seemed very open to calling me for church. Keep Abel in and his family in your prayers!

Our house hosted mexican independence day dance party! for 4 hours or so we were entertaining our guests in a circle of crazy dancing latinos and gringos!
We didn't plan any of this, they just asked to use our house to have a "couple of people over" for one of the ministries on campus and then at 9 or so a group of people came in to the house with a trunk full of dj equipment and started a dance party!
me and jen in the kitchen taking a break and making some snacks for our guests!
the d man showing how low he can go with a member of crusade's national staff, alejandra, towards the end of our dance party. I was really glad to see so many non christians come! Darren had invited a group of people he had been witnessing to at starbucks and they showed up! They didn't know what to expect with a bunch of "religious" people on the biggest party night of the mexican calendar, but i really do think that we were able to show them a good example of how in christ we can have tons of fun without a drop of alcohol! pray for those starbucks folks tho as we are still able to see them on a daily basis!

los ninos en la calle (boys in the street) who come from broken homes or no home at all and spend most of their time washing windows and getting high off of paint thinners. Consequently, most of them are fairly malnourished as the paint thinners kill their hunger pains! pray for the bible studies and that God would use us to help these kids get off their addictions and more importantly that they would know their true Father who loves them.

Chris and Scott are just loving this rain however they are also well equipped with shoes as opposed to the sandals that me and tim are sporting. We actually started running and at some point it got so bad i could barely see tim running 20 feet or so in front of me, seriously tho, rain drops the size of fists!
Aaron, my roommate in mexico, and miguel (who plays bass for our church, semilla de mostaza, here in MC) are acting like tough guys. Earlier on miguel, showed aaron a couple moves and had him on the floor pleading for mercy, no lie! haha. Miguel is awesome though, he is helping us to meet with los ninos en la calle (the boys in the street).

A little McDonald's with the guys... :( i do think that of all the places i could get sick in mexico city, mcdonalds ranks pretty high!

so, la avenida de reforma is the most famous street in all of mexico! i am standing right in front of the indepence column that has a golden angel on top. This place will be packed for independence day celebration which just so happens to be today September 15th!

UNAM is a huge campus and it takes so long to get from the metro stop to the central library were most of the students seem to be hanging out. But i love it! The students are pretty nice and open to talking about what they think happens after death. They see that we came a long way just to talk with them as well so they are very welcoming. so far i have met 2 christian on UNAM who aren't already plugged into a ministry like campus crusade or something. When we asked them if they wanted to get involved it seemed pretty natural to them and they were immediately on board to help other students build a community of love and encouragement amongst christians on the UNAM campus!

so here is the stuff i brought!
1 guitar
1 laptop computer
1 desktop computer (monitor + keyboard)
1 printer
1 bag of cables
1 back pack of books
1 big bag of clothes, pictures, and lots of random stuff

Hey friends and family! I am finally here! Well, I have been for the last week or so. This city is amazing. I must say that something were a delightful surprise to me while there have been a few things that i wouldn't want the US to emulate, haha. The Mexican people, in Mexico City specifically, are extremely gracious. Other countries I have been to I have had a similiar kind of treatment because of my nationality; however, here I know these people are just kind and would treat a multitude of different people with this degree of hospitality. I am living in a house with 5 other guys, well 7 other guys technically, but two of them are looking for a place to live still so they are staying with us in the meantime. Our house is very comfortable! 3 rooms upstairs and a living room, dining room, kitchen, laundry room, and garage downstairs, plus 2 bathrooms. The house is a pretty decent size so even with 8 guys in total right now, living is comfortable! Ok, so that was how things are doing here physically. Now spiritually, I have seen some amazing lives being lived in this city by the christians i have met, on the other hand i have seen a good deal of despair in some of the people i have met who desperately need to experience rebirth in Jesus. Very few christians that I have met in MC are anything but completely joyful people who are actively seeking to illuminate the truth of God's great love for us to the people in this city who desperately need it. I'm gonna keep these blog posts to an easily readable amount; however, you can be praying for the team and unity amongst our group, as well as asking God to continue to show us (as He has been) how He wants us to be most effective in this mega city! Thanks and I hope this year will be an encouragement to you guys.

Eric (AKA "Enrique", "Kike)

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mobile blogging has begun, blogging fun wherever i go! boo ya!

Hey family,
www.enfoqueunam.com has gone live. It contains feeds from all the guys blogs, links to updates, donation information and photos! Be on the lookout for updates about the functionality of the site. Currently, it is about 80% functional.
I hope you are experiencing God's full blessing today!
Eric

So the blogging has officially begun! Check here for blogs about experiences, encounters, and other exciting insights into the mission field here!