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When God Calls, God
Provides ... 
Since we arrived here in Cuernavaca, Mexico in November, our main emphasis has been on learning Spanish. We’re been attending Spanish classes full-time on weekdays and getting lots of practice in day-to-day interaction with people. Up until just over a week ago, we were living with the pastors of our church here, Pastors Jacobo and Marjorie Mondragón. They have welcomed us so warmly that we feel like part of their family now. We have really enjoyed our time with the Mondragón family. They have taught us so much about Mexican culture. Stacey is learning to cook real Mexican food like rice and beans, tacos, enchiladas, tostadas, tortas and of course, piña coladas! We have been learning important cultural graces like the importance of greeting everybody in the room when you arrive somewhere with a hand shake and a kiss on the cheek, and doing the same when you leave. We have also learned a lot from them about pastoring people and having a balanced lifestyle with time for ministry and family.
In addition to learning Spanish, we have also had many opportunities for ministry. Almost every week, John preaches in a different church in Cuernavaca or in one of the small surrounding towns. He is still using a translator now, but our goal is to be able to preach in Spanish by the time we have been here one year. In every church we go to, the people are so warm and welcoming. We have been blessed by the opportunity to experience the presence of God in so many different places, and we have been able to be an encouragement to them as well.
In the last month, we have really started learning how to pray for people in Spanish. It has been a great help in altar times. Now we can actually understand each person’s prayer needs and they can agree with us together in prayer. We know that God is the one that hears the prayer no matter what language it is in, but it makes such a difference to pray for someone in their own language because they are edified by the words as well. Of course we probably still make mistakes, but we can definitely see that the Spirit is moving, and when his anointing is on us the sentences flow more freely. Learning a new language is frustrating because one day you may feel like you’re really getting it and then the next day you feel like you know nothing. Thankfully, lately the majority of the days have been the former for us.
This past weekend, we flew to Merida, which is about three hours from Cancun, to minister in a youth conference in a church there. Merida is a beautiful city, but it was hard to handle the 40-42 ?C temperatures. There were about 90 youth in the conference, and they were all really passionate about God. The whole conference was on the theme of leadership. We both had the opportunity to preach, and an experience with less-than-perfect translators gave us a greater desire to learn Spanish quicker! John also preached at the Sunday morning service in the church there. We arrived home about 1:00 am on Sunday night, relieved to be in our own house, but horrified to open the door to the smell of rotting meat. The power must have gone off a few days ago and the fridge never turned back on. Everything in the fridge and freezer was bad and we had to throw it all out. Fortunately, we didn’t have too much food in there because we had just moved in last week.
Thank you all for your continued support and prayers.
Love in Christ,
Pastors John & Stacey Brown
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