Merry Christmas! I can hardly believe I am sitting here in my parents’ home in Parker, CO with two feet of snow covering the ground. I arrived Friday afternoon, after trying to drive here on Thursday. Anyone who lives in Colorado knows that was when the lovely blizzard was still coming down! The Lord provided abundantly for me, giving me a very cheap hotel room in Pueblo to safely stay in Thursday night. I was able to get to my brother’s house Friday, and then out here to the country where my parents live. This is quite a feat, considering that it usually takes the snowplows a couple of days to reach them. Praise the Lord that I got here when I did! There’s nothing like being home for Christmas, and I know thousands of other people felt the same relief I did when they finally arrived home.

Being home gives me lots of time to reflect and get caught up on things that I haven’t had a chance to do in Mexico. I can hardly believe over three months have passed, and yet at the same time it seems like so much has happened. I think back to driving down in September, filled with uncertainty and trepidation. I had such different expectations from what this journey has turned out to be. I thought I was being sent there to minister to kids in orphanages. I thought I would be mentoring girls in Casa de Refugio, a girls’ rehab center I fell in love with a year ago. I thought my being placed at the school I’m at was just a channel to lead me to other opportunities. Yet, when I reflect over these months, the school and the community the Lord placed me in are not just a means to lead me to ministry; they are the ministry. How amazing and faithful is the Lord? How would I have ever found this on my own? Especially over the last month or so, the Lord has been opening my eyes to the immeasurable beauty He placed in Felipe Angeles, the community in Juárez where I live, and the magic He is working in my school, Colegio James R. Ganley.

Over the past month, I have finally felt like I am becoming a part of this community. Earlier, I had felt so disconnected. I would see the moms volunteering at the school every day, say “Buenos dias” and try to have more than surface interaction with them, though with varying success. They are all about my age—it seems only natural that they could be people to develop relationships with. But at first it was so difficult. Then all of a sudden it seemed, the Lord gave me these warm reassurances that friendships are being built—with kids, with moms, with the teachers. And each relationship is an open door to share His love with someone!

I was not too modest in letting the kids know that my birthday was at the end of November. We had lots of fun pretending they were going to give me everything from new cars to hundreds of boxes of chocolates. So, word spread, and suddenly, a few days before my birthday, the cards and gifts began. Now, I like presents just as much as anyone, but it wasn’t the gifts that mattered so much to me. People who I thought were just acquaintances started telling me how much they loved me and how much I meant to their children as a teacher. I got cards from moms who attend my adult English class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, just wishing me well and thanking me. The teachers took me out to a restaurant in downtown Juárez, warmly showering me with affection. Around the same time, I started getting little notes from students, thanking me for teaching them. It has been humbling, because I still feel like I am doing so comparatively little to what needs doing there. But it’s like the Lord wanted me to see that it’s not me working at all. He has chosen for me to be there, and He is working! These reassurances have been priceless jewels! I am not just a stranger to the community anymore. I am becoming a part of it. And I love it.

Just being able to spend time with people in more than a working setting has reinforced these beautiful new friendships as well. I’ve become very good friends with Susy, the unofficial secretary at James R. Ganley and mom to three of my students. It’s amazing to me how she will suddenly open up to me about very personal struggles in her life. Another mom, Ellie, has had me over to her home to share meals with her family, and told me that her home is my home, that she wants me over whenever I can come. I continually grow closer to the other teachers, as we spend days together loving our students and sharing with them about the Lord. Maria and Gilberto, the school directors, and their three boys, have become a second family to me. The girls who come to my Tuesday night girls’ nights become more and more open with me. Our last girls’ night before I left for Christmas, we wrote letters to Jesus telling him what we wanted to give Him for Christmas. I was so amazed and blessed to see how hard these girls worked on their notes—they didn’t want to write just one! They wanted to write several and decorate them beautifully for the Lord. And my students—my precious students—I feel such a strangely strong connection to them. I know it is from the Lord. I am not just there to teach them English—the Lord has made me a part of their lives, of their community, of their world. I get to help in teaching them about Him. I get to be friends with their parents. I get to talk to them and hug them every day. My heart is overwhelmed with love for them. And in the midst of all this, I still get to be a part of the orphanage ministries in Juárez, being blessed by the children there, and learning about the Lord’s provision in the lives of His children.

I am so thankful and blessed beyond belief! I know I will be sad to leave Colorado once again in two weeks, but how glad I will be to see my kids and all my new friends in Juárez. I wish you all could be at the school and feel what I feel. It is a beacon of a place, shining brightly in the midst of so much darkness and hopelessness. Sometimes when I am there, I get this overwhelming feeling that the Lord has bigger plans for that school, community, and city than any of us can possibly see with our eyes or comprehend with out finite minds. I want to be a part of what He is doing, for as long as He wants me there.

Originally, my commitment with International Family Missions was to intern in Juárez for six months, putting my departure date at the middle of March. Since October, the directors have been asking me to stay at the school until the end of the school year at the end of June. In recent weeks, through the gifts of realizing these relationships exist, I feel so called to stay there past March and to finish out the school year. It took three months for depth of relationships to really begin—I just feel I can’t leave in only three more months! I know even six months will seem short, but the Lord can use it abundantly. I don’t know all the Lord has planned, but I know He has me there for a purpose.

I will be sending out more support letters and am going to take this opportunity to ask for your support once again. Currently, I don’t have enough money to stay through March, let alone all the way through June. I am so thankful for all your prayers and financial gifts that have allowed me to be in Juárez this long. But now I am asking for your prayers once again, and for your financial support as well. I have “estimated” that I will need another $4000 or so for the next six months. Between student loans, car insurance, healthcare, gas, living expenses---well, you all know how it goes. The Lord has blessed me by giving me a place to live for free there, and so many people who will always make sure I am taken care of. I am so thankful I can live on relatively little money, and ask you to pray about how you might be able to be a part of keeping me there to finish out the year. I want you to be a part of the blessing as well. Please consider if you could make a donation, either one time or monthly—both of which would bless me immeasurably.

If you can contribute to the continuing mission the Lord has for me in Juárez, please send a check made out to International Family Missions to:

International Family Missions

P.O. Box 309

Lafayette, CO 80026

Please attach a sticky note with my name on it.

More important than your money are your prayers. Please pray that God will use me according to His will in Juárez and that the way will be made for me to stay as long as He chooses. He’s already done so much and answered so many prayers. Let me leave you with the words of a song I wrote in September, just a few days after I arrived in Juárez. He is all I need and more, no matter what the coming months bring.

All I Need This isn’t how I pictured itI had such different things in mindLord, what are you planning here?Jesus, what did I come to find? You call me to a quiet placeWhere I can see your face. What lies beyond the seaYou are parting to make a way for me?I walk through on dry landAll I need is you to hold my handAll I need is for you to hold my hand Lord, it is no accidentThat I’m here in this place, this timeI may feel I’m in a wildernessBut it’s just what you had in mind By day I follow your cloud of lightYour fire lights my way by night What lies within this landYou brought me to by your mighty hand?I don’t know exactly who to beAll I need is you to live in meAll I need is for you to live in me By the time this journey endsMay more souls know you are their friend What lies within these daysOf living and loving in your ways?I don’t know what’s behind each doorAll I need is you to call me yoursAll I need is for you to call me yours.