{"id":307,"date":"2011-03-06T10:14:22","date_gmt":"2011-03-06T17:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/2011\/03\/06\/one-year-update\/"},"modified":"2011-07-01T16:59:35","modified_gmt":"2011-07-01T23:59:35","slug":"one-year-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/2011\/03\/06\/one-year-update\/","title":{"rendered":"One Year Update!!!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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Can you belive that I just celebrated one whole year in Mexico?!<\/strong> How cool is God’s provision & protection?\u00a0 And I’m looking forward to what God has for me this year.<\/p>\n

\"\"I did have a great Christmas break in Oregon with my family & friends!<\/strong> On January 4th I flew back to El Paso, TX and met up with Amy.\u00a0 Then we spent a day buying supplies for the year, we picked up a friend from the airport to take with us into Mexico, & we had to spend an extra day in El Paso to have new tires put on the car.\u00a0 And then we were finally ready to head back to Mexico & when we arrived home we hit the ground running!\u00a0 We started in on Spanish study again, spent time visiting our friends at church & in the city, and we got back into our regular crazy schedule including English class & visiting the Casa Hogar.\u00a0 I also started learning Spanish with a new friend – Ana, and she is a great teacher.<\/p>\n

On February 2nd here in northern Mexico the Big Freeze came to Chihuahua.<\/strong> And the next morning we woke up to snow on the ground and had below freezing tempuratures.\u00a0 For most of us we can handle freezing temperatures & it’s not that weird, but Northern Mexico hasn’t seen that low of temperatures in more than 60 years!\u00a0 The homes here aren’t built with insulation, and are built with cinder block or brick so they aren’t really built to handle these low temperatures.\u00a0 Almost all of our neighbors had pipes break, some on their roofs, & quite a few pipes broke inside the concrete walls!\u00a0 We had three breaks in our pipes on the roof.\u00a0 Our apartment was so cold that we could see our breath & there was frost on the wall by my bed.\u00a0 So we spent Thursday trying to stay a little warm in our house by having friends over and watching movies.\u00a0 Most of the city shut down because of the lack of electricity in certain parts, there was no water, and some people were without gas to heat their homes.\u00a0 The Big Freeze was a natural disaster here in Mexico.\u00a0 Because of all the broken pipes, the hardware stores ran out of plumbing supplies, the gas companies ran out of LP (it’s what we use to warm up our houses a little), places in the city were without electricty for days, & most of the city spent quite a few days without water.\u00a0 Our house was without water for 7 days!\u00a0 But we were able to find a place to shower after 5 days.\u00a0 For me, it was a very eye opening time to see what are the types of things that I can handle, the things that drive me crazy, & what is very hard for me to deal with.<\/p>\n

In our Sunday School class that week<\/strong> in the book of John we studied Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well.\u00a0 And it reminded me that during this time of lack of water at our house that I have the true and living water that Jesus offered me.<\/p>\n

In the midst of the Freeze, I also had an interview in Spanish & my computer broke<\/strong>.\u00a0 I just received the results from my Spanish interview, and for all the hours I’ve studied I’m right where I should be for as many hours as I’ve studied – Progressing-High! \u00a0Praise God with me! \u00a0I am going to start working at the Capable level – which has three sub levels – low, mid, & high.\u00a0 To finish with the Spanish program I need to reach Capable High!\u00a0 And now to the computer.\u00a0 I’ve already gone 4 weeks without it, plus I think I’ll have to wait another 2-3 weeks while it gets repaired. \ud83d\ude41 \u00a0It’s currently in the US getting fixed, because we don’t have any computer support here this year.<\/p>\n

Praises<\/strong>
\n:: A great Christmas break in Oregon & safety as I traveled!
\n:: One year anniversary here in Mexico!
\n:: God’s faithfulness & protection!
\n:: An excellent Spanish evaluation!
\n:: Surviving the Freeze of 2011
\n:: Amazing friends here in Chihuahua that take care of me!<\/p>\n

Prayer Requests<\/strong>
\n:: Continue faithfulness & amazing times studying Spanish
\n:: Continued growth in my relationship with God
\n:: The new kids in the Casa Hogar – Jesus & Angel
\n:: For the guys at the Home Office fixing my computer<\/p>\n

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Surviving the Freeze<\/h4>\n

We found numerous ways to survive the Freeze. \u00a0July enjoyed sitting in front of the heater, or sleeping under the blankets with us. \u00a0We had friends over to watch movies, we ate meals together, & then there was the Superbowl to watch! \u00a0And of course there was some time to study our Spanish!<\/span>
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Birthdays!<\/h4>\n

We are always celebrating birthdays here! \u00a0Including Amy’s 27th, Hector’s (Amy’s boyfriend), Jose’s, Edgar’s, Lily’s, & there was probably someone else too! \u00a0I praise God for another year of life that He has given my friends!
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Weddings!<\/h4>\n

February gave us two opportunities to enjoy two weddings. \u00a0One was for a couple in our church, Eduardo & Lupita. \u00a0And the other was a collective one with over 1500 couples that got married in the Expo Center! \u00a0In Mexico, a church wedding does not count legally. \u00a0The 1500 couples that got married on February 14th were married in a civil ceremony conducted by the governor of the state of Chihuahua. \u00a0The civil ceremony is important to receive certain legal benefits. \u00a0At the collective wedding, there was a raffle for two train trips, a couple of kitchen appliances, living room sets, & even a house! \u00a0If you took a coupon from the newspaper in to the Expo Center you could even have a free wedding! \u00a0It was definitely interesting to watch & hear the reasons for why it was important to be married!<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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Casa Hogar<\/h4>\n

We are continuing to head to the Casa Hogar every Thursday afternoon for about 3 hours. \u00a0We have 3 boys that have finished the 35 lessons in the Literacy Program! \u00a0Over Christmas break I was able to buy some new Christian books for the kids in Spanish. \u00a0They love reading them, or having us read to them! \u00a0It’s a very precious time spent each week with these kiddos.Please pray for some of the new ones that have started living there: Jesus Ismael (his picture is below) & his brother Angel<\/strong>. \u00a0We don’t know why they are living there, but we are praying for their adjustment to their new home.<\/span>
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Can you belive that I just celebrated one whole year in Mexico?! How cool is God’s provision & protection?\u00a0 And I’m looking forward to what God has for me this year. I did have a great Christmas break in Oregon with my family & friends! On January 4th I flew back to El Paso, TX […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":383,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,3810,143],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-307","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-family","7":"category-ministry","8":"category-news-article","9":"category-prayer-request","10":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/383"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}