This picture was taken in Guanajuato, I got to go with some friend this past month and this little alley is called the kissing alley. The balconies above are so close together that there is a legend of a couple that used to kiss across it. Apparently it is 7 years of good luck for couples who kiss on this step..I decided to wait :)

Challenge: In one of our Bible studies we are currently reading the book of Luke as homework. We are assigning 2 chapters each week and this week - for Wednesday night - it is chapters 7 and 8. As your challenge this month I encourage you to read Luke also. Obviously we are ahead of you but I challenge you to catch up and then stay on track with us or to go on ahead of us and finish it. I hope that you all have a daily time with Lord but if not this will give you a chance to start and if you do then you know the joy of reading Luke :) Please pray for the people here in Mexico before you sit down to read each time you take the time and please remember especially this Bible study - Pray that God will bless it and that he will transform it into his church. This is the Bible study you have already been praying for in A A.

In the last month, we have continued moving along in the works we have started. I have a few pictures to show to help you get visuals of some of it :)

M

~ M. this is a colonia we have been working in for several months now. This Saturday we have a conference for parents. Please pray that all the details come together, that the speakers would have the words they need, that the parents of the kids in our kids club would come, and that the youth from my church would have a good experience as they are going to help us with the kids. Also July 13, 14, and 15 a volunteer team from the states will be helping us in M. We are going to clean up some areas that are covered in garbage and glass and form a temporary soccer field and volleyball court. Then we are going to invite the youth in the area to play as a way of meeting them and hopefully starting a ministry to them. These youth, as are many in the city, are involved in gangs and drugs and have not been given the opportunity to have a good education. Please pray over this volunteer team that God will prepare them and use them and please also pray for the youth in M and for their parents that they will be open to us.

A A

~A A. This is the area I talked about in the Challenge. Also please pray over the Vacation Bible school that we are going to have in this area in July - I won't be able to go because I will be working with the volunteer team that is coming but my friend J will be there.

University (this is on the Catholic University Campus)

~University. I have a huge answer to prayer about this university work! I shared this goal with one of the women at my church and she put me in contact with a guy named R who is graduating from this University and has been leading a Bible study. I went to his last study of the year and all of the students in the study were unbelievers which is very cool. I have met with him since and he is going to be staying in Leon for another year working and he wants to continue working in not only his university but others also! What an answer to prayer! we are now working on coordinating and planning how we want to go about it :) Keep praying over this work and over R.

~Please continue to pray for our Monday afternoons in the orphanage. Honestly the kids treat us horribly - they say bad words in English a lot and try to push our buttons - it is very hard to get them to listen to the lesson. This past Monday as soon as I sat down with them they said something insulting to me which clued me in to the fact that they are seriously hurt children. They try to push us away immediately. Pray that we would continue to show them love and that they would learn through us that God loves them even if their parents don't. Pray that their precious hearts would be open to the gospel and that they could live different and better lives than their parents.

~Please also continue to Pray for Jo - we visited him last thursday and talked about Nicodemus and how we have to be born again. He was so much like Nicodemus - he kept thinking in terms of Spiritual birth. We talked to him about his wall that is covered in idols and he said that there is only one he wants to keep and he walked over and picked up a crucifix and said "this is God" when all of us had unbelieving stares he said "right?" and we just shook our heads no. He is so confused as are many people in this city. Please pray for his salvation and for his neighborhood, San JB.

"This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: 'Like these good figs, I regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I sent away form this place to the land of the Babylonians. My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them. I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people, I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart." Jeremiah 24:5-7

To me, this is a really beautiful passage. I believe this is what God wants to do in our lives. He is watching over us for our good and he wants to bring us back to himself. He wants to build us up and not tear us down, to plant us in his word and in his love not uproot us, he wants to give us a heart to know him! It makes me excited to get to know God better. Sometimes when I go to him in prayer I just think "Lord, I can't even picture you. You are too big for me to fathom." But I know that he hears me anyway. God has been teaching me lately that I need to get to know him better. Many times I am praying over things but I don't go to God for the one and only purpose of finding out who he is. I think he calls us to that.