Perhaps this will help...

I just wrote a monstrous e-mail to people who had been asking me questions about life here in Mexico... a lot of basic stuff. I figured a lot of you would like to know the answers to those very same questions, so I am going to put this e-mail up on my blog as well.

I hope this answers a lot of your questions about what we are doing here.

_______ .. _______ .. _______ .. _______ .. _______ .. _______


Well hello there!

So many questions! Haha... Let's see if I can answer them all...

So, tell us more about Maneadero and your new home?

Maneadero is a small town outside Ensenada. It is about a 25 min drive into downtown Ensenada, give or take 10 minutes depending on time of day and traffic. Our "home" is right on the main highway (which very much resembles Rt 38 or 73 for its 4 lanes and plethora of businesses and stores that line the road). Obvioulsy, it looks nothing like Rt 38, but that is the closest comparison I can make. :o)

The poverty here is very much like what we have seen on the border. Some people have houses that are built from cinderblocks and have bars on their windows and such. Further off the highway here in Maneadero, there are many houses that have been put together with plywood and other random things that people can find to make into a house. The closer you get to Ensenada along the highway, the more put together the houses are.

Maneadero has two parts, la parte alta and la parte bajo (the high part and the low part). To me, the high part (which is called such just because it is higher in the mountains) seems to be more impoverished and has less businesses. I have been told, however, that the high part is safer. We live in the high part. The low part is closer to Ensenada and the houses are closer together, there is a soccer field, more gas stations, and apparently more crime and drunks on the streets.

All in all, I feel very safe in Maneadero. Our "home" is called the Segundo Piso (the second floor) because we live on the second floor of a building that doubles as a home and business. It is simple and pretty spacious considering the size of many of the houses here in Maneadero. We are working on getting bars on the windows to make it a little safer, and to prevent theft. Apparently most theft here occurs during the day and people usually suspect that it is an "inside job". So we just have to be careful who we trust. We are the only ones with keys to the Segundo Piso at the moment, so our stuff is safe.

Currently, we aren't actually living in the Segundo Piso. We are living in Rick and Tammie's house, house-sitting for them. Rick and Tammie are the missionaries who work down here. The left for sabbatical the first week in September and will return at the end of October. In their absence, our ministry opportunities are limited, but I will explain all that later. But for right now, we are living in their house, making sure it doesn't get robbed, and keeping an eye on the Segundo Piso as well.

Do you have far to go to work?

Well, in order to answer that question, we have to define "work". Work for us right now is getting to know the pastors in the churches, getting to know their congregations, learn about the ministries and needs in each church and pray about where God would have us work within the context of these six churches. Once Rick and Tammie get back, we will start working alongside them and work more directly with the churches and be more of an active support rather than the semi-disconnected support we offer right now. This is a very loose job description, but it is currently manifesting itself as going to ALL the church services each church has to offer as often as we can and as equally as we can. We are inviting people over for meals and to hang out, hanging out with the pastors and their families, participating and lending a hand with the different ministries they have (for example: Rosi and Ricardo have a good children's ministry, Reynerio does a movie ministry to get people to fellowship, Francisco is leading a Bible Inistute, and Ruben has AWANA going on at his church for youth). We have helped out with nearly all the ministries, but have been asked not to take any leadership roles in any of them at this time. The focus of this mission is to empower and come alongside the Mexican church to build it up, to help them build up leaders in their own church and not fill in gaps with Americans who will be here for a while and then leave. The idea is to help the mexicans take ownership of their own ministries and churches. So, for these reasons, our job right now sounds to be a little "fluffy", but Casey and I are taking it very seriously because we need to earn the trust of the people before we work with them and we also need to understand them and their ministries in order to avoid coming in with the wrong attitude and trying to add or change (all with good intentions) and then ruining everything because we acted before understanding. Training for short-term teams and our jobs while they are here will take place most likely when Rick and Tammie come back at the end of October and we'll probably get on-the-job training as well. So, to answer you question: the chuches we work with are all within a 15 minute drive. Work mostly consists of being at these churches or at the pastors' homes. So, no, work isn't far. haha

We aren't working on that church plant really anymore, or the youth center that was originally supposed to go up because the situation with the pastor has changed since the program was originally created. We are still working with the pastor, Ruben, but the church plant has morphed into a church adoption and the fascility for the youth center is already there, along with a strong congregation that could get it running. We will be helping with it for sure, but it is no longer one of our main focuses. There may be an entirely different youth center project starting up when Rick and Tammie get back, and we are really excited about that, and I would ask that you all pray about that because it is in the preliminary stages and we would love to see this get off the ground.

Is it hot?
Yes... dry and hot. still.... I went through three shirts all in one day... haha

What are the similarities to Acuna? Differences?

It is quite similar to Acuna, really only differing in the fact that we work with 6 churches, and not just one. The people work in factories here, too, and still have a hard time finding work. The tacos here are better.... haha.

The short-term teams are run generally the same. There is a VBS project, there is a construction project, we eat REAL mexican food, prepared by one of the pastors' wives. The construction is usually a house for church members or construction of churches.

VBS is kind of different because they do it differenly according to how many times a group has been back. Tammie told me that they invite groups who have never been here before to plan one good, full day of VBS and we travel to the different neighborhoods with that VBS. Another option is to do it like we have in Acuna, which is stay with one church and do a consecutive VBS throughout the week.

Another differenence is that they do trips Saturday to Saturday. We get to worship with the churches and it is a really cool experience.

Meals are eaten in a Dining Hall (which is actually the Segundo Piso). Most of the time, the pastors join us for meals and their families do as well on occasion. The last night is often dedicated to eating with the families we have served in the construction projects all week.

That's all I can think of right now... haha.

When do you anticipate your first mission team will arrive?

Well, we already worked with two teams. We weren't in charge or specifically leading the teams, but we helped with the many behind the scenes things that need to be done when there are teams here. Our next team is supposed to come over Thanksgiving. Rick and Tammie are currently touring churches in the states and filling our calendar for 2009. We are expecting teams in the beginning of December, January, and a team in February. All those are tentative commitments.


Once again... thank you so much for your continued support and prayers. I'm sorry I haven't e-mailed you all very much so far. I have been busy with services and taking care of business while Rick and Tammie are gone, but also, it is just hard to put all of this into words and explain it all. It is so different from what I had originally expected, and therefore, everything needs to be explained. Haha... I was praying before I came that God would keep me flexible because, going into this, I knew life never works out exactly as we plan it to. God has been faithful and has kept us flexible. :o)

Sorry this was so long, but I wanted to make sure I gave you a clear, honest picture and explanation of what is going on down here! I hope it was helpful!

You can also be checking my blog (www.prayformexico.blogspot.com). I update it pretty regularly and I try to keep it up to date with the work we are doing here.

love love love you all!

Kourtney