Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2001 17:02:19 -0700 (PDT)
From: Joy McMasters <maestrajoy@yahoo.com>
Subject: Saludos de México (5)

I have had a very long week already, and it´s not over yet! Here´s what it looked like...

Saturday: My team had its very first clown show and it went amazingly well. Our leaders said it was the best first clown show they had ever seen. We went up and down abandoned railroad tracks inviting the children of squatter families (who live in thrown-together houses on someone else´s land) to go to the park and watch the show. Many came, and there were also tons of other people already hanging out because that´s what people do on Saturday afternoons. We could barely yell over the traffic and other random noise, but people heard about Jesus and we gave out about a hundred bracelets after the show that use colors to explain the Gospel. And I started losing my voice.

Sunday: Our baby brother was presented to the congregation at church and after the service there was a huge party for both the boys since the older one just turned 7. I felt a little more sick.

Monday: I surprised Jon with a picnic lunch before we went shopping at an artisan market called the Ciudadela. It was a fun, relaxing day, but I was really tired. I discovered later that this is because I was getting sick again.

Tuesday: We had more than double the previous number of students in our ESL class, shocking both April and I. I had incorporated Third Day´s "Love Song" into the plan for that day, so I got to tell all sorts of random people who might have never been to church before that Jesus loves them and died on the cross just to save them and be with them forever in Heaven.

Wednesday: I was really sick by this point. I ditched Spanish class and Spearhead meetings to rest. I barely made it through ESL, but we learned a lot about adjectives with opposite meanings. We were back down to our few faithful students.

Thursday: I finally started taking Robitussin and getting better. Other than that, just the usual for a Thursday.

Friday: I rested this morning and then went to the Diego Rivera museum with some people from Spearhead. We had all picked this museum over the other possibilities because we wanted to see his paintings. We didn´t see any. There were a few sketches, but the majority of the place was his collection of pre-hispanic art. The building was really neat since he designed it and the mosaics on the ceiling.

Praises from this week:

• God is continuing to show Himself to be a provider of every last little thing I need.
• My roommate April and I are continuing to get really close to each other and our family.
• The medicine is working and I´m getting better.
• I got some really good rest.

Prayer request:

• Continued improvement and maintenance of my health. I´m not sure why this cold came back after I was well for a week.
• Making the best use of the time I have left. Half the summer is over already!
• Insight and wisdom about what to do when I get back. The only thing I know for sure is that I have to keep taking classes to finish my degree, I´ll be in the same fellowship, and still dating Jon. Everything else is up in the air.
• Successful team events (such as workshops, church services, clown shows, and sharing the Gospel).

My head´s getting stuffy again and I´m out of time so I´ll sign off for now and look forward from hearing from you soon!
Joy<><