Saying Good-bye to Cuecuecuatitla (1 of 2)

The last week at the Ranch was lovely, but insane. My music classes just wouldn't seem to work right, I ended up cancelling about half of them, which made me sad. My friends gave me quite the send off. La Hra. Mirella, who teaches in the kindergarten, and her sons Jorge and Joel had me over for some Mexican food I hadn't tried before, as well as some video games and long conversations. Dulce and I put music to and recorded some of her original worship songs for youtube, which was a dream of hers and really cool.

On Friday Vero and Adrian invited me to go with them and some friends to a waterpark. The whole group proceeded to nap after lunch, so I went exploring and found a spring with rocks overlooking it where you could jump in. Although I've done things like this before in NorCal, there was one rock that made me really nervous, one of those where you have to jump out past more rocks in order to reach the water some 15-20 feet below. It's funny, how we get soft. How the things we did in the past seem crazy or terrifying when you face them again. Like you run out of money and even though you know God's provided in the past, you freak out. Like I know that leaving is a part of life, and that I'm better for my time in México, but it's still hard. Like new missions in new places call me, but I'm nervous and unsure. You still have to jump, and that lump rises in your throat...what if...

One evening I went to tea with the Zaragozas, interviewed them and kicked myself about not having done that at the beginning of my time in México. What stories! God has lead them to something completely unique and completely complimentary, and completely reflective of them as a couple. More than anything, they had testimonies of God's provision both financially and spiritually throughout their lives. More than anything what stuck out to me was Victor's insistence that we must walk by faith, sometimes leaving on missions trips where the return trip wasn't yet funded, and Julie's admonition to never give up my quiet times with God, saying, "I know I need at least thirty minutes, ideally more like an hour and a half to two hours."

On Saturday we went to the "Marcha de Gloria," a large Christian rally on Mexico's capitol square. It was a great time, but the rally itself I felt was much more an insult to the holiness of God than a glorifying to him. I responded here (in Spanish), and am thinking I'll transform this into video form.

On Easter Sunday Angie Zaragoza, Dulce, and I played "the nails in your hands" for the congregation at church. Afterwards we went to Coyoacán as sort of a good-bye with a group. It was fun, we sat and on a park bench and I played pop songs, and then sat by a fountain and we sang Spanish worship songs.

Monday I taught my final English class, showing the claymation "Wind in the Willows," and spent the whole afternoon in the kitchen. I decided to go ahead and make a feast, as I couldn't really think of a better way to say "I love you" in spite of my leaving. I blocked the windows to the school, and set out candles and tablecloths. The meal was a Cajun Boil, with Apple Crisp (with apples chopped by Jocelin, and lots of set-up and clean-up help from Hra. Mirella) for dessert, a meal for 28!!!

Tuesday I gave my final English tests, and spent the entire day burning discs and writing good-bye cards, making sure that I had a gift for each kid. We played a traditional going-away two-hour soccer game for Fidel, in which I scored 15 goals (yes, there were other adults playing). :) After dinner, I gave out my gifts and then had youth group, except we had like 8 kids, because a lot of the younger boys decided to join us for the group. We did a prayer walk through the ranch, an open sharing time, and extended worship. It was lovely, and amusing how much the younger kids liked it, some of them remarking "if I knew youth group was like this, I would've come sooner." Oh wells.

I packed in a fury, between 9:45 and 11:30pm. I had come down in a couple bags, so it wasn't too traumatic, but my baggage allowance didn't go as far as I hoped it would. At 11:30pm, Vero and Adrian generously took me to the airport where I spent the night before heading to Tijuana and San Diego.