Mexico!

Yay!!! It´s been a long time gone, and I´m glad to come home. My flight gets in tomorrow around 11pm. A 12-hour travel day...can´t live with em, can´t live without em. So much to tell you! I can´t wait to catch up with everyone. Thank you so, so much for your prayers and comments on this blog these past six weeks. I pray that I would never take you for granted. God bless, Lacey

Hi everyone...turns out I´m staying here in Culiacan for the next two weeks instead of going to Mexico City. I was starting to feel very reluctant about going for some reason, God knows why, and was dreading it so much that I finally told Brisa and her sister. They made arrangements for me to stay with a friend from Brisa´s church for the next week, and I´m very relieved! Even as I inconvenience everyone, all have been extremely kind and accomodating. Please pray that I would know God´s purpose for me this week and why He wants me to stay in Culiacan. It doesn´t make any sense! But I guess that´s the point of God being God, right?

Hi =) Thanks so much to those who have replied to the posts. It makes me feel less lonely! Brisa and I might be going out to La Cantina...a club, I think?...and listen to regional mariachi music. I´m really excited and I hope it works out for us to go.

When we stopped at an intersection today, a Mexican kid came up to the car and started washing the window. He couldn´t have been more than 12. I caught his eye for a second and something about him made me really, really sad. I asked Brisa what the background of these people are, because there are people at almost every intersection washing windshields and selling things and doing tricks for money. She said they aren´t necessarily poor, but a lot of them don´t want to steal money to buy drugs, so they work for it. I don´t know who this kid was, or what his story is...but his eyes said it was very sad, and this whole afternoon I have been noticing new things and asking questions. Why are the old people the ones doing menial labor that doesn´t require skill or experience? Has their whole life lead up to this? Why are there so many men sitting on the sidewalks doing nothing? They can´t all be waiting for a bus... Why are there kids washing car windows for drug money?

But on the other hand, I also ask...Why don´t people here carry the stereotype that all doctors are men and nurses are women? Why do all the neighbors know and help eachother? Why do families eat together every night and so few couples, it seems, are divorced? I think they are also more insightful in that they don´t get married young. They wait and go to college and work... 

I don´t know. I am looking forward to observing and knowing more about all this. I want to sift through all these ideas to find out what´s true. And I really, really want to help the people who need help.

A really cool opportunity I´ve had here so far is to see up-close and personal what the lives of missionaries look like. I have asked a lot of questions of the full-time YWAM missionaries and a lot of stereotypes and misconceptions I had have been replaced with new ideas. More on that in another post if I remember. But the one thing I do want to tell all of you back in the States is this...if you are a Christian or have any heart for people who suffer and want to help out, the missionaries really do use the money down here soley to survive. It´s amazing how easy (relatively) money flows for us in the States and how valuable and well-used it is down here. It´s an amazing investment. Always invest in people. That´s what I´ve learned. Anyway, enough of my rambling. I love you all.

New link on the left side of this screen if you want to donate to YWAM or missionaries.

Not much new to report today...for breakfast, though, I had a taco made of cow stomach. It was really sick, actually, and pretty slimy. Yeah, I don´t think I´ll be trying that one again anytime soon. I had a bite of a cow intestine taco and that one was really good. It tasted like turkey. When you come to Mexico, remember...intestines good, stomach bad. Next on my list is brain taco. Yum, yum, yum.

Why I should stay in Mexico forever: No one is ever on time, which means that no one gets mad when I´m late. Why I should not stay in Mexico forever: Mexicans like to keep the inside of their houses very, very clean.

I think I´m heading to Mexico City in about 3 and a half weeks! I guess it´s so huge it takes 4 and a half hours to drive across the city one way. Very exciting. Yes, I´ll be very careful =)

Missing my home routine a little bit. Today, I wanted to walk back to the base and eat and take a nap but couldn´t because I needed to stick with Brisa. I am realizing over and over that I´m not on my own schedule and I´m becoming used to a small sacrifice of personal freedom. If you can call it that, when I´m by myself in a foreign country =) Trying to make the best of the downtimes. When I get bored, I find a Bible to read (we´re usually in the YWAM office) or remember Spanish words I wanted to look up. The Spanish-English dictionary has become my best friend.

How I am with God right now...I kind of feel like he´s some rich uncle who lives far away but gets wind of what I need and sends it to me. I can´t even begin to count how many gifts God´s given me since I´ve been here and he´s answered every single one of my prayers. But I want to know him, personally and intimately.

Please let me know how you guys are doing, whoever´s reading this. I don´t want to hold a one-way conversation =)

No...put the lime in the everything. And chiles, and salt. My next eating endeavor is a taco de cabeza (taco made with meat from a cow brain). Sounds yummy! I guess they have eyeball tacos and all sorts of other weird things.

I moved into the base last night. Did I say I wanted to work? Really? Yep, it´s recorded, and I was eating my words today. I think I sweated more as I swept and mopped the floor than I have in my entire life. Combined. But it was great to do it for God. 

I met some Americans who speak wonderful Spanish. They´re going to translate the staff meetings for me from now on. My m.o. up until now has been to nod and smile and pray to God that the conversation doesn´t turn onto me. It´s a very humbling way to live for the moment, and I think it´s a good way for God to break my pride.

Two nights ago at 3am I woke up to a loud, 9-piece band band playing outside the window! They were serenading the house across the street. I was all excited, Brisa was just really annoyed. I asked if I could take a picture and exercise my tourist rights, and she said no. She explained in the morning that the people across the street are drug-dealers and they might get mad. Glad she told me!

More later. Love you all.

Hi! I found out that Brisa and I will be living at the YWAM base and I´m totally excited I´m looking forward to not feeling like I´m on vacation anymore and doing something productive, but it´s probably good for me to relax a little. Anyway, here you go!!

JUCUM - Lacey Kirkendorfer
Apdo 2291
Centro 80000
Sinaloa, Culiacan
Mexico

Octopus in a glass, toilets without seats, mayonnaise on chips, late night gunshot outside the window. Fingernails called "pineapples"???

So far, it´s been great to be here =) My flights went wonderfully. Completely nice and uneventful. My guitar stayed with me the entire time, thanks God! It´s really good to finally be here, but I feel completely out of my comfort zone and frustrated that I can´t understand a word they´re saying. It will get better, I know. Please pray for patience!!! I forgot the most important thing when I came down here. Arrived in Mexico with five US dollars and a debit card. Pray that I´m not a burden on this wonderful family. I´ll write again soon!

Hi everyone :) Well...I guess this is it. Everything's ready, I think. I'm going to try and sneak my guitar on the plane as a carry-on. What are my chances? Even if they make me check it, I'll still get a cool sticker on my case that says "FRAGILE" or something like that. It will make me seem sophisticated :) I win either way.

Practiced Spanish today with a lady from Mexico and I'm a little (okay, a lot) overwhelmed. There are a lot of words in Spanish, and I don't know very many of them...even more reason to rely on the One who created all languages.

He's been soooooo good to me today as I've been trying to get ready. You know that commercial for American Express (I think) with Seinfeld? How everything just goes right and easy when he has his card? God was my American Express today. Thanks for your prayers. It's rad to know He answers them.

I'm missing ALL of you already. See you in five short weeks!

Here's how you can reach me by REAL mail:

Srta. Lacey Kirkendorfer (sorry, I had to do it:)
Av. Estatuto Juridico #1220
col. Fovissste chapultepec.
C.P. 80040
Culiacan, Sin.
MEXICO

Nope, I'm not gone to Mexico yet, but I'm glad you're checking out the site =) I'll be gone to Culiacan, Mexico from July 23 through September 3. I'm staying with my friend Brisa and her family, and we'll hopefully spend a lot of time playing with little kids and reaching out to the people in the city. Take care and keep checking the site for loco Mexican stories. God bless.