First Game for Cuervos Tomorrow!

As the wife to Coach Chad, I offer a slightly different perspective on what it means to serve the football team. Chad is gone for practice from 6pm to 11pm three nights a week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) and now has games on Saturdays or Sundays (usually taking up the whole day). While this a large time committment for him, I am proud that he has been so dedicated to the team and the guys. My role has changed as the season has progressed. Initially, I had to encourage him because he would be a little nervous to go to the beginning practices where he was the only coach. Now usually he is excited, but sometimes he just is tired so like last night I gave him a quick massage, heated up some leftovers for dinner, and he was on his way. When he walks in the door around 11pm, while tired, he is always energized and that is how I know he is being used by the Lord and serving with his heart. And I enjoy getting the debriefing, about how practice went: the frustrations, triumphs, joys, etc.

If you know Chad, you know one of his passions in life is football, and I am happy that he is using his knowledge about the game as well as his skills with youth. One of the best things to see about the progress of his coaching as well as the team is their excitement and energy. For a lot of the guys on the team, football is the reason they are staying in school and its a blessing, as well as a big responsibility, that the team has coaches like Chad, Helio, and Tony to look up to. The video above was from their first practice game against a team from Tecate "The Dragones". Tomorrow they play their first regulation game in Tijuana against "The Osos": (da Bears) And I will be there cheering on the sidelines! Go Cuervos!

Thursday Night Church

Pastor Gustavo, his wife Elizabeth, Erin and Chad

Tonight, the band consisted of Ernesto on bass, Pastor Gustavo on electric guitar, Lynette on the keys, Luis on drums. Elvira, Pastora Elizabeth and Benito sing, and I play acoustic guitar.

Every Thursday, our church gets together for worship and message from either Pastor Gustavo or a guest speaker. Worship was a little rough tonight. We tried a new song tonight and we had a difficult time getting the rhythm. The bass, played by Ernesto, was extra loud. I just learned that he has two extra woofers under the stage besides the one on the stage. It has a tendency to shake my feet while I play the guitar.
After the service, I spoke with Gonzalo and his family about his work and how he has a job for the next couple of weeks. I was glad to hear that. He has been unable to pay for his water bill and trying to find work to feed his wife and three kids. Just after this, I spoke with Elizabeth, or as she is called, the Pastora. She was telling me how worried she is about money and that she wanted us to pray for her. The church is currently housing 13 people. She feeds them everyday and it is getting to be quite a burden.
There is so much unemployment here. I get the sense that our town needs hope. A hope that is bigger than financial stability. I think of the early church in Acts that sold all of their land and lived together as a community. The hope that spills into all parts of our lives.
The question is, where is this going to come from? I believe that we (La Mision Ministries) are in the midst of working toward that goal of empowering someone in this community to be the voice of hope in this hard economic time.

Viva Mexico! Mexican Independence Day September 16th

El Grito: Mexican Independence Day

Circled around the bonfire during dinner

Playing a game , one of three that night

Circled in worship

Erin (being weird) with Gabriel, note that hat was the balloon that went into the fire...

Erin with Jarilyn (a volunteer at Door of Faith Orphanage)

Many of you may be asking yourselves, isn’t Mexican Independence Day have something to do with Cinco de Mayo? And I say no!



Tidbit of interesting information: the 5th of May is just a regional holiday celebrated by the State of Puebla commemorating a victorious battle that was unlikely to be won… (thank you Wikipedia) mostly though as an American you know about Cinco de Mayo and have never heard of the 16th of September as having any significance.



However, the 16th of September commemorates Mexico’s Independence from Spain.
We were invited to join in the celebration by our good friends from church. Miriam Galaviz, who I (Erin) work with at Siloe Community Clinic and her family, had the party at their house out in the courtyard. The party started at 9pm. Mostly the party was attended by people from Templo Elim church. We arrived and everyone was seated in a circle around a bonfire.

Our good friend Yolanda and her husband Jose just celebrated their 22nd wedding anniversary this past Sunday, and Chad and I were invited but decided not to go… When I approached Yolanda at the party, she crossed her arms at me and turned her head away and said that she waited for me but I never came, and she was sad. I felt bad, but luckily after the festivities of the evening, laughter, fellowship, and maybe as a result of my homemade chocolate chip cookies I won her over and we parted good friends.

We started with a few worship songs led by Pastor Gustavo. I felt so comfortable there, worshiping God in Spanish. I surprised myself a little, as I knew most of the songs by heart, which just made joining in the worship that much more meaningful. After worship ended, a few people shared some things they were grateful to God for or that God was teaching them.
After worship ended we gave El Grito, (woo-hoo!) the cry of Independence…which signifies a reenactment of how a leader of the Independence movement rang the bell of his church to call everyone to join in the war for independence against Spain…the war lasted 10 years.

Then we shared a meal together, Chad almost ate pig skin…luckily he asked our friend Helio what it was. We played a few games and had lots of laughter. One of my favorite games is a countdown game, where if you are left without a partner at the end you have to dance around as an electrified chicken. It’s hilarious.
We stayed until 1am, staying together to commemorate the start of the day of Independence (kind of like New Year’s Eve) and we threw a woven balloon hat (like a balloon animal) into the fire which gave off a series of celebratory pops.

Happy Independence Mexico!

Well, we didn't win. We didn't score. My first offensive coordinator gig (if you don't count the pee-wee league I coached at in Northfield during college at St. Olaf).

We didn't allow a touchdown in the first half but we lost 20-0. Their size and stamina just wore us down.

As I look at it, the game did what we wanted it to do. It was a wakeup call and we were outplayed in the second half. We now can see more what we have to work on.

On another note....after the game, the regional assistant director of the football league met with us coaches and said that they were going to buy us away jerseys and some extra equipment. The league believes that if they work with schools, they are able to help motivates young men to have disciplines and stay away from the drug realm.

I was so excited about that. Here I was in Mexico, looking to raise leaders to serve and follow Christ, and I find myself coaching football, because I love it.

Continue to pray for us as we try to win, but also try to motivate these young men.

(ps, I was invited to go drinking with the team after....which seems weird, but the ones that invited me can legally drink.)

(pss I said no)

First game tomorrow

This is me with head coach, Tony, and Helio

Erin and I haven't blogged in a while. We just got back from seeing our friend Sean Whiting get married in California. It was a great wedding, but we were glad to get back home.

It feels more and more like home down here.

It's Friday night. I just got home from practice. I just found out that the head coach, Tony, is not going to be there tomorrow because he couldn't get away from work.

Helio (pronounce el-lee-oh) is a friend of mine. He lives here at the church. I have known since my first trip down here. He asked if he could come with me to practice a month ago and won over coach Tony with his knowledge of the game. Now, he is coming to every practice.

As a result, we are the only two coaches that will be there tomorrrow and I am very grateful that Helio will be there!

Football is not the most important thing that I am doing down here in Mexico. But tonight, I really had a sense of peace about how right it is that I am in the place that I am.

Not long ago, I came to practice and just spent some time playing in the dirt. Now I am a coach. I have earned the respect of all but 3, maybe 4, players. Tomorrow we get to see what we have, and what we don't.

I will write more about our first game, but I just wanted to capture the feeling of peace and courage that I have about coaching football in Mexico...