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.

Jessica's Song

Last time I was in Salem two of my friends, Joel and Richard, wrote me this amazing song and played it for me in front of the youth group right before I left. It meant sooooo much to me, and I thought I would share it with you guys.

Jessica's Song:
This is the part that no one likes,
The time to say goodbye,
But God has moved you,
To reveal what He has in life,
We remember the memories,
That we all shared.
So don't worry about us,
For they will always be there.
Remember this is your family,
We will miss you so.
We will always love you,
If you're here of if you go.
And our God has blessed you so,
And more is to come this I know.
He cares for you,
We care for you,
And through God's grace,
We are joined as one too.
So get your shield,
And grab your sword.
And get ready for life to come,
That brings so much more.
And everyday He thinks of you,
And everyday we will too.
For God has made you special,
He will never let you go.
He will hold you n his arms so gently,
Just like we would, forevermore.

Thank you to all my friends in Salem for constantly reminding me how much I am loved. I am so blessed to have you all in my life. And special thanks to Joel and Richard for writing me this incredible song. :)

Autlan- California Style Part 2

Wow, talk about an incredible week!! It was SO awesome having this group from Thousand Oaks California here! Everyone on the trip was amazing. I got to know everyone on the trip throughout the week, they are all such cool people. I especially became pretty tight with almost all of the teens. By the end of the week it felt like we had all been close friends forever. I am amazed at how much people can get to know each other, and how much fun they can have together after only knowing each other for a week. I love all you guys!!

Some of the highlights of our week were: SERVING GOD! cleaning up the park, playing cards, VBS, hanging out at La Roca, painting, Ga-Ga, volleyball, playing "the loner game", car rides, going to the indian migrant camp, youth group, going shopping downtown, and of course, laughing for hours and hours and having a good time with each other. :)
This group inspired me in so many ways. They all work together using the gifts that God has given them, and they serve Him with their whole hearts! Even if they weren't able to communicate with the people, or help as much as they wanted to, they still made a HUGE difference here. You guys were so awesome!!
You guys also made a huge difference in my life this week, and I would like to thank you for that. Seeing your guys' love for God, and passion to serve Him with your lives inspired me so much. Your attitudes were awesome, and Christ is evidently living in you all. Plus, you were SOOOO much fun to hang out with, and I appreciate that you guys really made me (and my family) a part of your team. Like I said, by the end of the week, it seemed like I had known you all forever, and like you were all close friends. Thank you so much for that!!

As the vans pulled out of the driveway after we said our sad goodbyes, everyone in the car rolled down their window as they passed by and yelled "WE LOVE YOU GUYS!!". And I want you to know, WE LOVE YOU GUYS TOO!!!! Thank you all for coming on this trip! You guys were incredible. See you all next summer! I can't wait!!