My Weekend

Let me tell you about my weekend. So I woke up friday (my weekends start when class ends on thursday) at six. I worked at seven for four hours. It was nice to work in the morning again but I was anxious to leave which kind of ruined it. Ruined is too strong because I did have a lot of fun but I couldn't appreciate it. Anyway when I was off at eleven I briefly went home to get my stuff and the headed to Nogales. This weekend was the Confraternidad of the free methodist churches, affectionately referred to by most simply as "El Evento." So at five I went to the auditorium with Caroline because she was supposed to practice or something but we really just ended up sitting around talking to people. The service that night started at seven. The worship was great. Caroline sang a song called "Rey de Justicia" beautifully much to her surprise because she had a "sore throat." The sermon was heavy on anecdote and light on Bible but it was good for a first-night-break-the-ice-kinda-thing.
Afterward, everyone was talking and hanging out, when Albano got all the youth from Manantial de Vida together to tell us that the youth group from Los Encinos had invited us to go with them to pray the next morning at five. I was not entirely enthusiastic about getting up at four but I agreed to bring the suburban to transport people. Let me clarify that I did want to go to pray but being asked to get up at four the morning after staying up jumping and singing until eleven is not exactly desirable. I did succeed at waking up on time and drove to the church. There I picked up a couple of people and went to met everyone else at the SuperVal. So with about 28 people packed into three cars we drove to the hills at the southernmost part of Nogales. We went up to the side of a hill clearly visible from the main road going into the city and proceeded to start clearing an area of the hill and collecting rocks. See we weren't just going to pray, we were going to make a sign with rocks saying something like "Jesus Vive." While everyone was working groups were rotating out to pray for Nogales and the gang violence that has been sweeping through the city recently. It was a great time.
Saturday afternoon was the service for the youth groups. A few different bands played including our group from church. I played electric guitar and sang on one of the songs. The sermon was frustrating for me because again there were hardly any Biblical references involved. It was mostly just a scolding from a guy who didn't really know anyone in the crowd. However the end turned out all right with a time of prayer.
It ended about half an hour before the main service was supposed to start. So at seven we all went back in. The evening featured a new speaker from Texas named Hugo Martinez. He was entertaining and had some really good things to say about attitude directed mainly at the youth in the crowd.
That night I slept very well after being up all day saturday. Sunday morning rolled in with the promise of a great sermon with hang out time afterward. And it didn't disappoint. The service included great music, a good sermon, and me losing my voice. While the afternoon was one of those that makes me wish I lived in Nogales. Youth from Centro, Los Encinos, and of course Manantial de Vida all came over to swim and eat pizza. We played Marco Polo, Bulldog and had the return of Flavio (for more on that search flavio gonzales on youtube). We watched Walk the Line and afterward I drove back up to Tucson.

Overall, lots of fun, some great prayer time, and valuable hang time with the fam and friends.

Be back wednesday.