Sea la Gloria Solo a Ti

Hey everyone!

One of the great things we will all experience in Mexico is singing songs in Spanish. If you are like me, it can be pretty hard at first. Whenever I am in a group singing a song in Spanish, I gravitate towards trying to sing it simultaneously in English. It doesn't work out to well. However, we don't have to have this problem anymore because Sovereign Grace just released an all-Spanish worship CD with songs that we know!

I'd encourage all of you to grab yourself a copy of this CD, and listen to it a lot so you can familiarize yourself with the songs. I'm encouraging you to do this so we can all fully participate in the worship with the kids at the Ranch during VBS! It will go a long way.

You can pick up the CD in the bookstore at CLC or you can buy it online for download at Sovereign Grace's website.

Julie will let you all know soon how she will be using this CD during VBS.

Swine flu virus

I've received many questions about the recent outbreak of the swine flu in Mexico.

I will be looking into the development of this story over the next few weeks, and we will see where it goes. I really don't have a lot of answers right now, other than what the major news networks are reporting. From what I know, the "ground zero" of the flu outbreak is in Mexico City, which is over 1500 miles away from Guadalupe. This is about the distance from Miami to DC. If the flu virus starts making its way north to the border, we will have to note the effects and make a decision about the trip at that point in time.

Please pray that this outbreak gets contained and is kept to a minimum!

A gospel Spanish lesson

Some of the kids at the orphanage don't speak English, and some of us don't speak Spanish. It makes for some fun interactions! In most conversations, you can fake your way through with hand motions and facial expressions! But when we share the gospel with these kids and talk about God together, its good to have some words to go along with what you are saying.

Though there is much that is different between Gaithersburg and Guadalupe, we share some things in common, and those will never change. How cool is it that we worship the same God as they do down in Guadalupe? How cool is it that Christ died for their sins and ours? Here are a few words to learn in order to talk about the gospel with the kids at Rancho3M.

Dios- God
Padre- Father

Jesucristo- Jesus Christ
Hijo- Son
Espíritu Santo- Holy Spirit

Santo- Holy
El Pecado- Sin
La cruz- The cross
El Evangelio- The Gospel
La Biblia- The Bible

La canción del Evangelio (The gospel song)

"Santo Dios en amor hecho fue
Perfecto hombre que mi culpa llevo
En la cruz mi pecado quito
Por su murte vivo hoy"

Make it a goal of your to be able to share the gospel in Spanish!

Adios!

Thanks for coming to the meeting!

It was great being together today! I'm excited to see all that God will do at the Ranch this summer, and in our hearts as well. In this post is a map of Mexico. You can see that El Paso and Ciudad Juarez are border towns to each other. If you get on google maps, you can zoom in to El Paso to check out our route down Rt 10.

Just so you all know, I will be using this blog for a number of things over the next couple months:

1) I want to provide you all the information you'll need to travel to Guadalupe, Mexico. On this blog you'll find what not to bring, what to bring and what not to say when you're trying to cross the border! I will draw from some past humorous examples of how kids got things confiscated at the airport! Let's hope that this isn't you this year!

2) I will provide you some basic Spanish lessons. On this blog you'll learn those Spanish words you can't travel without knowing!!

3) I will use this as a place to get some feedback from you.

4) I will give you ways that you can be praying as the time approaches, both for your own heart, and for the staff down at Rancho 3M.

5) I will provide you some pictures of Rancho3M so you know what to expect.

Adios!