UnFOURgettable Night #3 - 2009

Every October our youth group does something called the "Four unFOURgettable nights". Instead of normal youth group the four weeks in October we do special activities and have special Bible lessons. It is a special outreach event where we invite our unsaved friends to come and have fun, and also hear the Gospel. At the end of the lesson each week, my youth Pastor, Pastor Joe, gives an invitation for the kids to receive Christ as their Savior.
I look forward to the unFourgettable nights each year not only because we get to do special, fun activities during youth group, but also because I know that teens are going to bring their unsaved friends from school, work, etc. and some of them are going to come to know Christ as their personal savior for the first time. They are going to begin an everlasting relationship with God during these four special weeks in October. Isn't that just awesome?! I wish that every unsaved teenager that each kid in our youth group knows would come to the unfourgettables and hear of God's amazing love.
Tonight was night numero three. Different groups learned how to do magic tricks and then each group had someone perform the trick in front of the youth group. We had a good time, and it was really fun.
However, the lesson that PJ (Pastor Joe) gave tonight really meant a lot to me. It was basic and a story that I've been hearing since I was really little, but it impacted me in a new way tonight. I saw it from a different view and it really got me thinking.
PJ talked about how many people in this world have tried to make Christ's resurrection from the grave look like a trick, like something that anyone could do if they were sneaky enough. That after Jesus' brutal, insanely painful, worst crucifiction of all, he just went in the tomb, took a little nap, and three days later he woke up, healed and strong, and pushed away the stone; and that any other man could do that as well.
We know that is NOT how the story goes. That Jesus' death on the cross, and his resurrection from the dead three days later was not something that any sheep from the heard could do. No, only the greatest of all could do this.
Satan thought that Jesus had finally died, that it was finished, that he had won the battle, but no! Christ's death was the real deal. HE rose from the dead by the power of His father to show the world that he was the son of God, and to save the world from sin. Now THAT isn't something that any old guy on the street could do. AND He did it without twisting the rules, with no illusions, no tricks. He did it by the power of his Father, and for the people of this world.
What an amazing gift God has given us!! I am continually astounded by God's omnipotent power and neverending love. I can't belive the people of this world could really think that it was fake, that God cheated some way.
I can't wait for the day when the whole world sees and understands who God really is, and that He does everything by his power, and his power alone. No illusions, no tricks. Just Him.

Thank you Jesus for your amazing, one of a kind, genuine, no illusions or tricks attached, gift; freedom from sin. Thank you for showing the world who you are by conquering death, death on the cross. Thank you for the unbearable pain that you suffered for the world, for me. I love you and I could never thank you for all you have given me. Help me to live a life worthy of your praise, and that I would share your love with the people of this world. That I would share it fearlessly as I should. I pray that more teenagers would come to our youth group and learn of your love, that they would accept you as their personal Savior. Amen

First Week Back

It has already been eleven days since we left Autlan, I can't believe it! We spent four LONG days in the car and finally arrived to our house in Jefferson, Oregon on Sat. October 2nd. It was SO weird walking into the house that I grew up in and knowing that it was going to be my home again for the next three months. I had forgot how small it was!! I am still trying to get used to it. Sharing a room again, not having to walk outside to use the bathroom in the night, drinking tap water, having a dishwasher....so many little things. :)
The day after we arrived in Oregon our home Church, Bethany Baptist celebrated their 40 year anniversary. It was great being there to celebrate that and go back and remember all of the memories we've had as a Church. I also got to attend youth group on Tuesday night, which was AMAZING. Oh man, I love Crosswalk soooo much. My youth Pastor is amazing and so are all of the youth that attend. It feels good to be home.
We had a fun first week hanging out with friends that we haven't seen in a few years, eating at restaurants that we missed and walking in to familiar stores that carried silly things like Twizzlers and Cheez-its that we've missed.
Just today we drove up to Tri-Cities, Washington and we are going to spend a week or two here with my grandparents and visiting some supporting Churches.
Oh how I love seeing and spending time with all of my family and friends!!
Even though I miss my friends and some things in Mexico already, it feels good to be home. Even if I am always wearing a sweatshirt and shivering. :P

Furlough Time

In just 11 short days my family will be gettin' into the car, heading for Oregon for our first furlough since we moved to Mexico. It's been two years!! I can hardly believe it. I have gone through and experienced sooo much since I left Salem two years ago, and God has taught me A LOT. I am so grateful for everything that He has given me in life and showed me by becoming a missionary.
We are going to leave Autlan on September 30th and plan to arrive in Salem, Oregon around the third of October. We are driving, and it should be quite the journey up there. Seven people in one Suburban, four days straight. All night, All day.
We are going to be in the United States for three months. It will be nice to see and spend time with friends and family that we haven't got to see much if at all, in the past two years. I have been back for a few visits, and my mom and two of my brothers visited once, but my dad and two littlest siblings haven't been back at all since we moved! We have lots planned, and I know it will be a fun, event-filled three months. Spending time with family up in Washington, going to youth group, visiting churches, hanging out with friends, christian concerts, Christmas, New Moon premiere, riding snowmobills, TLC, Thanksgiving, visiting friends in California.....we're gonna have fun. :)
We are going to be staying in our house out in Jefferson while we are in Oregon...it's going to be so weird going back and LIVING there again! My dad is going to love being able to tinker around with all of his stuff out in the shop...lol.
I must admit though, I have mixed feelings about leaving Autlan. I have made some really good friends here over the summer, and three months is a LONG time to be away from them. I am going to miss them a lot....but I am doing my best to trust in God.
I can't believe it's only a week away. And we're going to be there for three months.
See you soon, Jessica

Hanging Out at the Park

Two blocks away from our home here in Autlan is a little park. It's not much, just a basketball court, a dirt volleyball court and some toys for the kids. In the afternoons there's usually just a few little kids playing there if anyone, but around 7 o'clock every night it's the place to be. The volleyball court is full, with people waiting for one team to lose so the next can go in. There's always either a group of people playing futbol or shooting hoops at the basketball court, and of course, there's always kids playing.
When we first moved here to Autlan I never went down to "la cancha" (the park) to play and hang out with the other kids. I was much to intimidated by the teenagers down there, and I didn't know anyone that hung out there either. There was no way I was going to go hang out there and invite myself to play with a bunch of kids I didn't know. Months past and I never went. People from the Church would ask me to play but I never would. Then, my brother Brent started to go down there once in a while. Before I knew it, every night Brent was down at the park playing volleyball. He tried to convince me to come every night, but I wouldn't give in. I would not humiliate myself in front of all of them. Brent was really persistent about it though, and after a while he was pretty much forcing me to go with him. Finally one night I agreed to go, just to get him off my back. I played just one or two short games of volleyball, felt really self conscious and still didn't know any of them. The next day Brent wanted me to go with him again, and so I did. Even though I was horrible at the game, it felt really nice to be around other people. Even if I didn't know or talk to any of them. I started going down there more often, and before I knew it, I started to make friends! One by one I would learn their names by hearing the other kids talk to them, and I even began to talk to a few of them just a little.
As a result of going down there and not knowing anyone at first, I now go down there every night and play basketball and volleyball. I am acquaintances with almost everyone, and some of them have become really good friends of mine. Just today two of them came over and we watched a movie and played futbol.
God has also given me opportunities to share the love of Christ with some of them and I hope that just by me going down there and being nice to the kids down there that they will see Christ in me and I can make a difference in their lives.
I still suck at the games, but I usually just laugh at myself and let the crowd laugh with me when I mess up. Who cares if I'm good at it or not, its the relationships and the time spent together that counts. Its being a light.
I am so thankful that God has blessed me with some really great friends as a result of going down to the park. I wish I would have stepped out of my comfort zone and went down to the park a LONG time before I did, I could have made friends months earlier. :)

Please pray for the youth of Colinas Del Sur (the area where I live in Autlan). So many of them are without hope and don't have a purpose driven life. My heart goes out to my friends here that don't know Christ as their Savior. I am asking God to use me to guide them to His feet and show them His unfailing love. I am trusting in Him and trying to find peace in knowing that His plan will come out of it all, and He can change their hearts. I will be here ready to do all that I can to help them. I can't change them or make them want to come to know Christ as their Savior, but God can. I'm praying hard that He will unravel a beautiful story in many of their lives, and they will come to know Him, and that He will use me in the process.

Enjoying my time in Autlan with the awesome friends God has blessed me with, Jessica

SURPRISE!

Lets just say last week I pretty much did one of the coolest things I've ever done in my life. Here's the story of how it all happened...
About a month and a half ago I was talking to the mom of one of my best friends, Jack. Jarren, Coco and Jack had just got back from their visit here to Aultan a few weeks before. We were all still really sad that we weren't together, and Mrs. Cornish could tell. Her and I were chatting online one night and that subject was brought up. All of a sudden Mrs. C got really excited and was like "what if you came to Salem and surprised them?! We could keep it a big secret and then you could just show up one day!" At first I was like "haha, yeah, sure" thinking, 'yeah, that would be fun but there's no way it would actually happen'. Well, God put everything into place and was like "jess, I'm putting it all here for you, if you want it, take it." I took it in a heart beat. Two days later my plane tickets were bought, and I now knew a huge secret. My trip was four weeks away.....

Mr. and Mrs. Cornish were the only people in the whole country that knew what was going on. We worked really hard at keeping it a secret.
Before I knew it the day was finally here. I got on a plane headed to see my friends that had no clue that they would see me in just a few hours. I felt invisible.
The plane ride seemed to take way longer than usual, even though we arrived at our gate 3 minutes early. Mrs. Cornish was at the airport waiting for me as I walked out of the terminal. I was so excited! I had no idea what to feel or think; It was the craziest thing ever.
The drive from the Portland airport to Salem seemed to take forever, but I was distracted for the most part by planning how we were going to surprise everyone.
When we got into Salem Mrs. Cornish called Jack and found out he was out picking black berries with Jarren, Hannah, and Coco. She told him that she needed the car he had to pick up something and asked him if he could drive home to trade her cars quickly. He said he would be there in about fifteen minutes.
We went back to their house and waited for him to come. I went back into her bedroom and hid in the bathroom. A few minutes later he pulled into the driveway and Mrs. Cornish came running into her room letting Emily (Jack's sister) and I know that he was here. When he got in the house she told him that there was something wrong with the TV in her bedroom and asked if he could try to fix it before he left. He walked back into the bedroom and I could see him through the open crack of the bathroom. When he was leaning over the back of the TV I walked out of the bathroom and said "hey you!" He jumped two feet into the air and spun around quicker than I could see. He just looked at me for a second, pure shock all over his face. After a second he started yelling "what?! SERIOUSLY? but.....WHAT? HOW? are you serious?!" It took him a while for him to take it all in, but when he finally realized that I was really there, and that I came all this way to surprise him, he was super excited. For the next hour Jack couldn't calm down! He was so excited and hyper! It was awesome. After we left Jack's house we went to Corban where Jarren, CoCo and Hannah were waiting for Jack. They were waiting on a bench and I just rode up casually in the passenger seat of Jack's suburban. They all attacked me. Jarren was really mad that he wasn't 'in' on the secret, but I thought that it was super awesome that I actually got to keep something totally awesome from him and then surprise him with it! For the rest of the night I went to my close friends houses one by one and surprised them. It was so much fun!
The next ten days were then followed by more surprises, going to Silver falls, eating sausages, swimming, hanging out at the park, white water rafting, etc. etc. It was such a fun trip!
None of this would have been possible with out Mr. and Mrs. Cornish- THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!!! Thank you for opening up your home to me and for everything you have done for me! You guys are amazing.