1.14.2014

Animals! I love animals!

So, yesterday, after I touched the disease puppy, my friend gave me a new rule (which, really, if I had been thinking practically, I should have already been practicing): Don't touch any animals!

I'm sure it was perfectly safe.
Then today this happened:

We went to the local feria, which is like a fair, only probably a zillion times bigger, and one of the things they had was a rodeo. My friend saw a guy sitting on the bull (it's a legit bull, which makes it scarier), and he was teasing the crowd, and my friend said she would never do something like that, and I just sort of looked at it and went yessssssss on the inside. So when the guy looked around, he saw me with a challenge on my face, and he picked me out of the crowd. So there you have it. Every time the bull shifted its weight, it felt like riding a small earthquake. I tried to remember what my favorite paraequestrian says about animals being able to sense our fear, so I tried to relax intentionally every time I wanted to tense up. It was awesome. I think I probably have some Mexican streetcred now.

I also went to the store today and bought things by myself, like a big girl, which was pretty cool. I'm getting more comfortable using my Spanish in the street, and it was good to feel some independence.

Class this morning also included a two hour conversation--a really neat time sharing my testimony, my parents' stories, lot of thoughts about Baptists and baptism, and why we do what we do. Then my teacher made me conjugate verbs orally for probably half an hour, which was so hard. But we got to talk about Samuel and Solomon and Deuteronomy 17, which was exciting. It's a really encouraging class, for sure.

Tomorrow my friend and I are prayerwalking with a really awesome lady who wants to start a church in her neighborhood. Please pray for vision with that. We also need wisdom in how to set up our ministry site for the IBC team, so we can be as effective as possible.

We also got to talk to some people at the feria, and we need to come back soon to give one guy a Bible. Pray for my teacher, for G at the feria, and for continued opportunities to share. I feel like most of what I'm doing right now is being helpfully present, but I'm learning a lot. Please pray for health and safety, and, especially for me, street smarts. There are so many possible things to do wrong here, and I'm a really stupid American sometimes. But I am loving being here.

And I got to see King Julian.

3 comments:

Brock said...

A cow, really? Unclean!!!!! Glad things are going well. Praying for you and I will see and join you soon.

Jennifer said...

Actually, some cow-touching is now mandatory for everyone who comes to Leon, so I hope you're ready. :D Thank you for praying!

J. Owen May said...

My sister, the bull rider.