Taking a Look Back

Too often in our lives we become so focused on what is ahead or what we are involved in that we have no time to process what has happened. We give no opportunity for the Spirit to teach us and forget from where we have fallen and can't get up. I think it is safe to say that one of the most dangerous enemies of the Christian is busyness. Most of you have experienced first hand what I mean. There are so many needs, so many people, and so little time. One's response is to push forward, full steam ahead until the mission is accomplished. That is where we were before leaving on our trip to Mexico. We had become so busy that we often neglected to stop and reflect.

Thankfully, over the past few weeks we have been able to meditate upon the past and seek the Lord. Most importantly, we have taken a considerable amount of time to talk and pray about what has transpired over the last 3 years of marriage. God has shown us some really cool things about each other and has also revealed some areas that need to change. We have asked the Lord to show us what He wants to accomplish in our lives individually and how we can continue along the steady path of transformation. We have discussed ministry, giving time to seek the Lord on how we can shepherd the flock of God with sincerity, love, compassion, and understanding, and we have had the opportunity to visit some really cool places and look back upon the history of an ancient culture. All of this looking back has made us more thankful for what has passed and hopeful for where the Lord is taking us.

Two weekends ago, we had the opportunity to visit an archaeological site near Mexico City called Teotihuacan. It was amazing to see the beautiful stone work and the majesty of the pyramids. It is estimated that Teotihuacan was built around 100 B.C. making it one of the oldest cities in Mesoamerica. It was additionally a city of around 125,000 people, which makes it one of the largest cities in the world at that time. Within the city, there are three enormous pyramids. One is a temple of Queztalcoatl, the second is a pyramid of the moon, and the third, which is the biggest, is the pyramid of the sun. The pyramid to the sun is one of the 8 largest pyramids in the world and we got to climb all the way to the top! We had a great time and were accompanied by our good friends Antonio and Juan. Antonio is one of my classmates from Korea as well as our roommate and Juan is from Mexico. Please pray that we may show them the love and mercy of Jesus.

This last weekend, we decided that it would be a great idea to get out of the big city and enjoy and different part of the country. Thus, on Friday we took a bus from Mexico City to a lovely town called Guanajuato. From the moment that we laid our eyes on the city we fell in love. Guanajuato is a beautiful town of different colored houses, rolling hills, and a unique colonial past. The town was established in 1570 as a mining town and was once the capital of Mexico. Much of the colonial architecture has been preserved over the year and makes for a beautiful area. We had such a great time that we did not want to return to Mexico City.


Obviously, we have been able to see and do much more than we can post here, so we will let some pictures tell the rest of the story. We have met many wonderful people and shared many wonderful meals. Please continue to pray that God would strengthen our marriage, fill us with His Spirit, and refresh our hearts for service. So far we have enjoyed taking a look back and the Lord has blessed it. We miss all of you and look forward to seeing you soon!

The Pyramid of the Sun

The Pyramid of the Moon

Kat and Juan

Kat overlooking Guanajuato

Pretending to save the world with churros

Kat's wet leg from a leaky roof

The terrace at the hostel we stayed at

The cute one!

In la Plaza de Paz

The Monument to Independence in DF

A cathedral in Guanajuato

Teatro Juarez

Juan and I doin' it up Sampson style

And finally, for those of you who asked, a video of "lady" wrestlers from the Lucha Libre that we went to!!!

Trials and Blessings

"I can't believe we're actually here" were my first words upon landing in Mexico City. I couldn't believe that after all of the talking, the praying, the wondering where the money would come from, we were actually there.
Here.
In one of the largest cities in the world.

The first few days were spent walking around El Centro Historico, one of the most beautiful and culturally rich places I have ever seen. We stayed in a beautiful little bed and breakfast just a few blocks away from El Zocalo (the square in which we are standing in the photo) and many, many other beautiful places. We walked all over the area, took naps, enjoyed tacos from the local taquerias, and relished in the fact that we were actually here.

Then reality set in.

After those first few days resting and exploring, we started looking for a place to live. We started this task by taking the metro to the University and walking miles and miles until we found CEPE- the Center for Extranjeros (stranger danger!) and waiting a very long time for the person in charge of housing to return to campus. This long wait turned out to be a blessing because we were able to find the local supermarket AND a Wal-Mart (which I never thought I would be so happy to see!) just a few blocks from CEPE. When we finally talked to the person in charge of housing, she sent us a few blocks away to look at the "habitacion" she set us up with- which was VERY nice, complete with a kitchen, washer, hot water, and even a microwave. The trouble was that since we are two people, we had to pay twice the rent, which was unclear in the beginning of the process and which we weren't really prepared for.
The next day, we signed up for a gym membership, which, as most of you know, is a very important part of my sanity! Right before we went, we got an email from our ex-landlord with a receipt of what was taken out of our deposit for move-out cleaning and repairs. This was the second blow, and we were not at all prepared for the amount that was taken out. We were very frustrated because we cleaned VERY thoroughly and repaired any damage that occurred to the apartment while we lived there, and we were confident that we would be reimbursed for the majority of the deposit, as per the terms of our lease. Unfortunately, our landlord chose to hire someone to clean everything that had already been cleaned (and was vastly overcharged), which was not supposed to happen as per our lease agreement. We were pretty downcast at this point, and decided to pray and give it to the Lord rather than acting on it right away.

At this point we went for our first much-needed endorphin session at the gym. During my run, I started feeling so overwhelmed. As I was running, I felt the strength leaving my legs and body much quicker than usual, and right there on the treadmill, I started to cry! Thankfully, I had a distance set that I refused to stop short of, and I continued to run. At this point, an incredibly appropriate song came on my iPod, something I had just downloaded from noisetrade that very day. Some of the lyrics from the most powerful part of the song were simply "Glory, Glory, Hallelujah! Jesus, You are good!" Before I knew it, I had not only run the distance I wanted, but I had surpassed it without even realizing. At this point--after my eyes had finally dried--I felt them well up yet again because I felt the overwhelming presence of the Holy Spirit letting me know that He was with me, that He was going to provide, and that I didn't have to worry because He is GOOD and He desires nothing but GOOD for us. Praise God that He is sovereign and that He has provided and will continue to provide for us. We are blessed and thankful, and we are thankful to know that we have you all at home praying for us.

Here comes our second prayer request! Our living situation is pretty sweet- and we are living with two other people. The first we met is named Antonio and he is from Korea. The second is Gwendy and she is  Mexican. Antonio is in the language program with Adam and is very sweet. We had dinner together a couple of times and he seems like he is very hungry for some companionship. Gwendy just moved in yesterday and we are not too familiar with her yet. Please pray that we would be ambassadors of God's love and that our time in the apartment would be a blessing to them. We are eager to get to know them better and plan on inviting them on our next adventure- a luchador match tonight! (Adam can hardly control his excitement!)

That brings us to today--a beautiful, rainy, and fresh day, that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. We are so thankful knowing that you are all at home praying for us and thinking of us. Please don't forget that we are thinking of you all every day, and praying for you just as often. We feel so blessed by this opportunity and are having a wonderful time despite the setbacks. We know that the Lord is using this time to grow us in our ability to communicate in Spanish (Adam more so than myself) and in our relationship with the Lord and with each other. We can't wait to see the rest of His blessings come through both here and at home, and we can't wait to see you all again. Don't forget to pray for our roommates, Antonio and Gwendy!






I have attached some photos of our most recent adventure- our last-minute trip to Coyocan, the most beautiful place I think I have seen since being here in D.F. The metro ride and walk over was quite an adventure within itself, as we were a little unsure of where exactly the plaza we were looking for was located, but it was a wonderful evening, and we had a blast! Enjoy the photos!

Here we are in the metro, waiting for another train- since the one we were trying to catch closed ONE SECOND before we reached the platform! Oh well!

On the walk over, we found this AWESOME playground for adults! There were a bunch of different kinds of exercise equipment to use, and it was a lot of fun!!

 Here's Adam trying to figure out how to use what he called "The one for the buttocks"

 Here is a picture of the SECOND adult playground we found! D.F. is so awesome!

Here is the list of machines and how to use them

 At this point, Adam got on the see-saw, which I was a little unsure of, so I resigned myself to just take pictures of him. (which I am so glad of, because he is so cute!)

Eventually, he ordered to to get on, and being the sweet, submissive wife we all know I am (ha!), I got on. It was a crazy good abs workout! Mine are incredibly sore today and we were only on it for a few minutes!

 Here is a pretty portion of the sidewalk a few minutes from the playground

And here is Adam, unsure of where to go.

"I think we're going the right way..."

Adam liked this photo so I decided to put it up :)

 Yay!! We found it! This is one of the oldest churches in D.F. I wanted to go inside but it was closed. Sad!

This guy was trying to sell Adam a head-massger!

 Adam said no. (Dang, I really like head massages!)

 This is him being silly

 And this is just him being cute.

 We found this AWESOME fountain, but it stopped spraying water right as we walked up to it!

There were some people standing in front of it for the longest time, but I was finally able to get a picture of it on its own. So pretty!

Again, Adam is cute.

 Soopah cute.

 Here is a little more of the park within the plaza

This man and who I am assuming was his wife played Beatles songs! It was pretty sweet.

 The view from our dinner table And finally, the only decent photo I got of the entire park (below). You can see the fountain spraying water on the left. It was such a beautiful evening and we feel so blessed to have the opportunity to explore such beautiful and culturally rich places!

And to end, here is Emiliano Zapata, just because.

These Roots Run Deep

As we were contemplating our first blog post, it seemed evident that we should start in the past. The reality is that many of you, specifically those who live far from New Mexico, are probably wondering how Kathryn and I wound up in Mexico City for 7 weeks. To be honest, it is even a little difficult for us to understand. Nevertheless, there are two things we can testify to without a doubt. First, when you yield your life to the Lord completely, He will take you on the most amazing adventures all for His glory and eternal purpose. Second, the roots and foundation of this trip run deep and go back to a time that we can barely remember.

I was blessed to go on my first mission trip when I was 4 years old. My family and many others from our church took a life-changing and faith-challenging trip to New Zealand. Our mission was to simply spread the gospel of Jesus and although I was only 4 years old, I remember the Holy Spirit working in amazing ways. That trip was the first of many that I was blessed to be a part of. In reality, the home in which I was raised placed a huge emphasis on taking the gospel to the ends of the earth. By the grace of God my parents were not afraid to go where God told them to, whether that be a place of comfort or a third world country.

Kathryn’s missionary journey started when she was a wee young lass of 5 years old. Her parents were the youth leaders at Harvest Chapel, and they heeded the calling of the Lord to accompany a group of youth (including Adam!) and older church members all over Europe. This was the first time Kathryn was acquainted with Spiritual warfare. Keli Lucero, Kathryn’s mom, became very seriously sick and was faced with a hard decision--stay and risk her life, or leave. Kathryn remembers the comfort the Lord provided when the situation seemed so bleak, as well as the work that the Lord did despite the fact that my mother was not able to stay and finish the work they began there. What a cool testimony of the Lord’s faithfulness to fulfill His will.

Fast forward years (and multiple international trips) later, and you would find me at the age of 22, and Kathryn at 19. Shortly after I became the leader of the Young Adults Bible Study at Calvary Chapel East, I felt God's call to return to the mission field. Although I then had a heart for the Middle East, Kathryn was involved in missionary work in Peña Blanca, Honduras, and at that point in time, I had no desire to go to any Latin American country, let alone Honduras. During this time, Kathryn was praying for a heart for the Middle East, that we might be like-minded in our missionary callings. The Lord had something else in mind, and answered by giving me a heart for Honduras. Although my first trip was not emotionally moving, it did show me a great need. As I left Honduras, I made a commitment to be in prayer for the church, to support it financially, and to learn Spanish so that I could better minister to the people on our short term trips.

Shortly after my first trip to Honduras, Kathryn and I were wed, and ended up back where we grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico. 

We both became students at the University of New Mexico–I began studying Spanish and Latin American Studies, and she continued her studies of Intercultural and Interpersonal Commu

nication and Music. During this time, the Lord has given us many opportunities to cultivate a love for the people and the culture of Latin America.

So that is why we are here in Mexico–because we love these people and want to learn more about them. We have decided to take this opportunity to enjoy some rest, to enjoy learning and practicing the things we love, and to spend time with one another. Please pray that this would be a time of growth in our marriage, in the Lord, and in the gifts He has given us. Thank you for walking alongside us on this exciting journey!