Queremos Ver! Queremos Ver! A Jesus Exaltado!

We wanna see! We wanna see! We wanna see Jesus lifted high! I feel like that song was playing on Rosy's boom box ALL week as Chris and I worked with the 4th and final MOST Ministries team of the year to hold eyeglass clinics at San Lucas and Cristo Rey. It works though, huh? I also thought it was pretty fitting that the whole service on Sunday the 24th was themed around the story of Jesus healing the blind man. I didn't notice that at the San Pablo English service; I only made the connection after I heard it in Spanish. We started off the week by going to church at San Lucas on Sunday, making sure we were there early to set up. That didn't turn out to be very difficult, since Mexico's Daylight Savings Time began a week earlier than ours. That meant it was always an hour earlier there so we left when we normally do for services and got there with a little over an hour to spare. It also meant that we could sleep in a little later than normal all week since in order to start the clinics at 9:00 am and have a little bit of prep time, we didn't have to leave until around 8:30 when we were in Anapra and more like 9:00 once we moved to Cristo Rey. Apparently the rest of the world forgot about the change though, because the bridge line to get back on Sunday was crazy long, like 2ish hours. Judging by Monday morning as you'll see below, I was afraid it was going to be a theme...but I guess everyone remembered to change their clocks by later in the week!

The line to get IN to Mexico on Monday morning.

I guess she likes her new sunglasses because that is the BEST smile!

These 2 were very interested in whatever it was we were doing...they kept peeking their heads through the door. I guess they eventually worked up the courage to come inside.

Heidi at the testing table.

Debbie (the group's only RN) with Pedro as her interpreter at the nurse station.

The final station--evangelism. This was SOOOO cool! I don't really remember it being like this in Chihuahua, but maybe because it was kind of a slow week (481 people total), Javier, Rosy, and Pastor Martinez were able to sit down and have entire conversations about the Bible with almost EVERY person that came through our doors.

Monday night I drove the group up to a very cold and windy Scenic Drive...here is me with Jane, Mary Anne, and Heidi.

Arthur (one of the interpreters that Rosy found for us) attempting to figure out this guy's presciption...his eyesight was REALLY bad. It wound up being like 10 something, I don't remember if it was - or +.

Arthur was also super-excited about teaching the eye chart to the waiting crowds. It talked about the anatomy of the eye, various eye diseases and conditions, and foods and behaviors that promote good eye health.

About halfway through the week, I remembered that someone at my church had given me a box of baseball caps awhile ago, and they were still sitting by my desk. I figured this was a good use for them, especially since wearing a hat and/or sunglasses was mentioned in the eye education chart and eyeglass clinics always run out of sunglasses, so Wednesday at the clinic we handed them out and got rid of the whole box!

This guy cracked me up because he put his new one right on top of his old one.

Jose Angel, our optician friend. He saw the report about the clinic on the news (yes, we were on the news again), and came to see what he could do. We were packing up at San Lucas when he stopped by, but we told him we'd be at Cristo Rey the next 2 days, and he showed up ready to work with his tools of the trade and everything. Lois asked him if he was a Christian and he said he believes in God but isn't very serious about it, he just likes to help people.

Pastor Martinez got some new shades!

Fernando, me, and Pastor Martinez. I'm wearing Don's jacked because it was freezing that day! Not really, but it was one of those days where it got progressively cooler, so of course I had taken my pullover off. Later on it started pouring and a cold front blew through, which deterred a lot of people from coming. We saw something like 124 people on Wednesday, 96 of which were before lunch.

Lois is a movie star :)

While at Cristo Rey, we had the opportunity to witness first-hand something I had only heard about at a recent staff meeting: Cristo Rey's efforts to generate some revenue for the church by opening a little thrift store and charging for a hot meal every day at lunchtime.

The group happily helped support the endeavor by having gorditas on Wednesday and chile rellenos on Thursday instead of ham and cheese or PB & J!

Until next time, blessings!

Joys and Struggles of Being a Witness

This was e-mailed to me last week and it was TOO cute not to share. I guess that got my name from the LCMS website or something, but anyhow, it made my day! This is what I wrote back to them:

Dear Mason, Alex, Dylan, and Kasey,

Thank you for the letter--it made me smile! I'm glad you are praying for me, and I will pray for you and your class too.

I like being a witness because you have to learn to trust God, and that's something that's hard for me to do sometimes so it's good that I have lots of practice. My favorite part is making other people smile by giving them things like some toothpaste, or a blanket, or a toy from a Happy Meal, and then telling them about Jesus. Last week we gave almost 500 people new pairs of glasses and then some pastors that I work with helped share with them about the Bible. The biggest struggle of being a witness is that a lot of times I have to work in a place where it can be kind of dangerous. I have to be careful and help make sure that everyone I'm with is too, but most of all I have to trust that God will protect me. I don't know that I've been insulted exactly, but a lot of people have questioned why I do what I do since it can be dangerous sometimes and I could have gotten a job where I would make lots of money instead. My favorite city I've been to in Texas is El Paso, because it's the only city I've been to in Texas (unless you count stopping at a gas station)! I would like to visit Houston though, because 2 of my friends from high school live there now!

I hope you are having a wonderful week at school!

Blessings,
Erin Mackenzie

P.S. If you have a computer at your house or at school and you want to see some pictures of me and what I do, you can look at www.missionaryMAC.blogspot.com.

Halloween

This popped up on Google when I was actually searching for something else...the title of the post is the title of the poem:

On the eve of All Saints Day,
Jack-O-lanterns light the way.
God's children need no longer fear
the ghosts and goblins gathered here.
For evil ghouls with icy breath
must bow to Him who conquered death.

Until next time, blessings!

TWO years in ONE place

After 6 months of living in the dorms, I finally have a space to call my own for the next TWO YEARS! That's right, I don't have to pack up my stuff until, God-willing, I move to Dallas in January 2012 to start my training with LBT! After moving to and from Springfield, MO, for school a bunch of times, to Granada, Spain, for a semester and back, and then THREE TIMES since I've been at the mission, I'm a little excited about that!!!

The outside of my apartment...it's a duplex and Pastor Astorga lives in the other half.

Genaro and Damian installed my stove and they told me that the next time I bake cookies I have to give them some!

Until next time, blessings!

A (Wo)man Among Men

Our first servant event since August was here last week, from St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Barrington, IL. They normally bring 20-25 people and do a medical clinic at one of Pastor Hernandez's (Pepe's) mission sites, but this year, they opted not to cross the border which reduced their team to just 5--all guys. We planned a project in Horizon City for them--Olga Reyes's roof/electric--but they still sent a check down so that Pepe's doctor friend who normally helps them out with their clinic could run one in their stead, the same week even. I thought that was a very cool idea, and I don't remember the exact numbers that Pepe's wife Blanca told me, but he saw somewhere in the neighborhood of 350 people in 5 days.

Barrington's week started off by crossing the border for church at Santisima on Sunday so that they could be there to celebrate Pepe's 20th anniversary as a Lutheran pastor--their church has been working with Pepe for several years now and they were NOT going to miss that. I'm glad we went too...I think Chris and I would have gone even if they hadn't wanted to! The service was PACKED! People came from ALL of the YLM Mexico mission sites to share in the celebration, and it probably didn't help that there was a baptism that day too, and communion. To help shorten things up there was a biography of Pepe instead of a sermon, during which I learned lots of things I didn't know about him. I guess that's not that surprising considering I just met him in January, but who knew that he first felt God's call into the ministry at age 13 so he studied for many years to be a priest? It wasn't until after he married Blanca and met some of the other YLM staff members that he realized his true calling was to the Lutheran ministry...I could be biased but I think that was a good choice!

After the service, there was a party, of course. After a few song and dance performances by the combined youth from all our Mexico mission sites, Pepe called the whole group, Chris, me, Pastor Martinez, and Javier (pastors from Cristo Rey and San Lucas, respectively) up to the head table with his family and other close friends. He kept telling everyone that we got to eat first because we had a bridge wait ahead of us to get back to the mission! Once we finished eating it was starting to get dark so we needed to get going, but Blanca insisted that we eat some of the cake she made (there were 2, hers and one someone brought from a bakery), and since you can't say no to that she gave us some to-go plates!

Back at the mission, the guys told us that after talking to Pepe, they would prefer to work with him all week rather than in Horizon. Problem #1: there were already 71 bundles of shingles on Olga's front porch. Problem #2: we had been promising her for a couple weeks that she would get a roof (which was becoming a greater and greater priority since every time it rained water leaked through the cracks in the OSB and damaged the frame underneath) and her electric run. So, from then on out, the plan became put the roof on in 2 days and then go work with Pepe, and that's exactly what we did!

With the goal of meeting with Pepe on Wednesday morning in mind, me and the guys worked our tails off and gave Olga a darn good looking roof if I don't say so myself...in TWO DAYS! Chris did ALL the electric, and the rest of us shingled like crazy under the direction of their resident former roofer. I still LOVE shingling...you get to be up high but minus the tar...and it was fun showing the boys that girls can shingle too, not that there was ever any doubt about that! We had done it once before, but this time we had a pro showing us how to do it...I think I was a pretty fast learner anyways. Wednesday the group crossed the border to meet with Pepe/scout the project he wanted them to do, and Thursday and Friday their task became to build a porch at San Pedro y San Pablo--buying all their own materials out of pocket--which will provide extra space (and shade!) for Bible studies, meals, and clinics. Chris and I stayed back to finish up the electric on Wednesday and get some office work done the rest of the week. We also got to see Super Josh, one of the 2008 summer volunteers, for a couple days...he's roadtripping around the USA for a month before he starts 2 years of pilot training in MS. Anyways, the porch had been high on Pepe's priority list for awhile, so it was a total God thing that it got done last week--we had told him it wouldn't be completed until at least February! He plans to dedicate the porch on Reformation Day, Saturday, October 31. I don't know if I'll be able to make it since we have other Reformation stuff going on here at San Pablo, but it'll be a neat event for sure. Pepe has been talking for a long time about getting regular ministry going out there and this will bring them one step closer. The guys from Barrington were even talking about what it will be like in 10 or 20 years and remembering what Santisima used to be like...a concrete slab...so who knows?!? OK back to 2009...enjoy the pictures!

Cake #1

Cake #2

The kids all made him a sign that says, in English, "Congratulations Pastor Pepe!"

Enough partying...time to get to work--Chris was the Romex runner extraordinaire.

Ken laying shingles. I never did like working from below like that...probably b/c Jeff taught me how to line them up from above so that's the method I stuck with!

It was important not to put too much weight on our toes so we wouldn't damage the courses (rows...in roofer speak) we had already laid. Dan's technique unfortunately didn't work, but it was too good not to take a picture of.

Dave, the group's leader, arrived late due to a funeral, but he literally got off the plane and got to work!

Even so, everyone who had been there all day thought it would be fun to stand around for awhile and watch him work!

Until next time, blessings!

Solemnly Appointed...AGAIN!

I thought it was so cool the first time around when I received a document entitled, "Solemn Appointment" in the mail from LCMS--it was so formal and official sounding. Now that I chose to extend my term, I got another one! Here's the first paragraph:

To Erin Mackenzie of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Des Peres, MO

Having called on the Lord, our God, for guidance and in the exercise of the authority with which He has vested His church on earth, we, the members of the Board for Mission Services of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, in lawful meeting on September 28, 2009, have appointed you to the office of Globally Engaged Outreach Missionary and herewith extend to you this formal notification of your solemn appointment.

I guess that means I'm off to the races here pretty soon... ;)

Until next time, blessings!

September baseball...in Colorado!

Chris and I got back from our third trip to Colorado on Thursday evening. This was without a doubt my favorite one, mainly because the purpose of our trip was because we had tickets to the ENTIRE Cardinals-Rockies weekend series! Before I get to the baseball, though, check out the cool looking storm we drove through on the way there! It really didn't rain very much on the highway but you could tell the mountains were getting slammed.

We also went to the U.S. Mint on Friday afternoon before the games. They don't allow photography, though...or a whole list of other stuff--pretty much you can bring your wallet and car keys...so I don't have any pictures, but we learned lots of cool tidbits about coins (paper money doesn't actually fall under the jurisdiction of the Mint, that's the Bureau of Engraving and Printing's job). It was interesting but I'm still not quite sure why it's apparently Denver's most popular tourist attraction though...it was CRAZY hard to get tickets!

Friday night was a fireworks game. Supposedly our seats were "fireworks obstructed," probably because they were under the overhang at the top of the stadium and they left the lights underneath it on, but as you can see we had a perfectly good view. We sat in front of a couple other Cardinal fans who were actually from NC so they just picked a team...I told them they made a good choice! It only took about half an hour for them to move everyone from centerfield ONTO the actual field so debris didn't fall on them, too.

THESE were our seats for Saturday night's game--LOTS of Cardinal fans were around us b/c we were right behind the Visitors' dugout. It was obviously the best of the 3 games too...because THE CARDS CLINCHED THE DIVISION!!!

Sunday the whole family went--Ken, Carol, Stef, Mike, and Chris & I. Our seats were in right field this time, right next to the bullpens. There was a divider in between them though, so I couldn't really see into the Cardinals.' The Cardinals lost for the 2nd time in exciting fashion, but I saw what I wanted to see the night before so I was happy.

There was NO rooting for the Rockies going on this trip!

Monday and Tuesday we went bike riding around the Cherry Creek Reservoir, went to the movies, got some $1 scoops from Baskin Robbins, relaxed a lot, and worked a little, and then Wednesday, our last day, we drove up to Idaho Springs. We went there on our April trip too, and I ADORED it, so we got some more Colorado style pizza and toured a gold mine that we almost went to the last time but it was closed.



At the very end of the tour they give you a little baggie of sand and let you try your hand at panning for gold. I was so afraid I was going to lose all of mine in the water but I actually found a couple flakes!

This was inside the gift shop...I'm not really sure what we did...

So now we're back in the swing of things in El Paso. I realized that I write a lot of newsletters because that's a lot of what I've been doing this week--mine, YLM's (Stephen handed it off to Chris and I a few weeks ago), San Pablo's (Chris and I are the PR Committee). I also went to the dentist on Monday. Krysia and Stephen recommended him, and he also knew Pastor Heimer...he offered to help us however he could so we're hoping he'll play in our golf tournament on Nov. 2 and maybe even sponsor a hole! I hadn't been in over a year just because I switched insurance since I graduated, but it definitely made the fact that I'm going to be here 2 more years sink in a little more!

Until next time, blessings!

Happy Birthday Alejandra y Joana!

I hadn't been to Chuck E Cheese since I was like 9...until last week.

One of the best things about my job is the relationships I get to build with the people we work with. Like, a lot of the times I think about how cool it is that when groups have to say goodbye to the families whose homes they worked on or the kids who attended their VBS at the end of the week, I will probably see them again in a few days or weeks. The family that exemplifies this to a T is the Moraleses, whose trailer in Sparks we have worked on extensively--you might even recognize the name because I write about them on here ALL the time ;) Anyways, both 3 year old Alejandra and 13 year old Joana had birthdays in September, so Chris and I took them and the Viramonteses (YLM's office manager Elvira and her family who also live in Sparks; their daughter Camila is the same age as Alejandra) to Chuck E Cheese to celebrate. Chris promised Alejandra that we would go not very long after we first befriended them, and I think she talked about "la pizza" EVERY time we saw them up until we actually went!

We wound up having a few more people than we bargained for join us...let's just say it was a good thing I brought the white van to go pick them up...but we learned our lesson and next time we'll say no when the people we're throwing the party for call the morning of and ask to bring "2" more people!

I made them a "special" joint birthday cake. I'll be honest and tell you that I accidentally added an extra cup of water to the batter, but I threw in some flour and a tiny bit of vanilla, and you couldn't even tell!

Alejandra blowing out her candles.

Then we re-lit them so Joana could blow hers out too!

We had some coupons that included tokens along with the pizza so everyone was able to play a few games...even Viviana (Chata's head is blocking her, but Chris is holding her on the back of the seat...I think she might have been the only one looking AT the screen b/c the other 2 were laughing too hard!)!

It was pretty obvious to Chris and I that everyone LOVED the whole evening, and it felt great knowing that we were able to give them an experience they NEVER would have been able to have on their own!

Until next time, blessings!