Since we are leaving for Destrito Federal on Sunday, we Stephen and I walked down to Wal-Mart today to look for masks but they were all sold out of masks, and they didn't have any thermometers either. The rest of the day we spent more time at the base painting and doing props for their summer VBS. Yesterday Stephen and I traced a palace onto a very large piece of felt(30' x 10') the palace of Nebachunezzer using an overhead projector. It took us about an hour to trace it all and then today the whole team got to paint it. It took close to 4 hours with 7 people painting with sponges today and we still have more to do. It was enjoyable but very very tedious work. As we were finishing, I was mixing some paint to make some green for the palm trees and I set my cup down on the felt and then the wind came and picked up the felt, spilling my green paint onto the canvas! Fortunately it wasn't on the palace itself but on the blank space above the palace wall. We then decided that that exact spot would be a GREAT and PERFECT place to put another palm tree. It ended up turning out really good but it was just one more thing we had to do. And the pastor's wife didn't seem too happy because that palm tree wasn't in the picture she had given us, but she liked it in the end. Then tonight we went back and worked with the youth group that we had worked with last week. It was a time of prayer and worship which went really well! I had a chance to talk to Alejandro some more and really encouraged him to do DTS. He says he's really interested and wants to grow in his faith and not be a hypocrite so hopefully he will do one in the future. Please pray for him that God will show him exactly what he needs to do and that God's love and acceptance are endless and unchangeable.

Sunday~ We only had a small church service because of the flu but it was still very encouraging and uplifting. After the service, we had a big lunch with everyone out on the grass. Later in the afternoon, we had a team meeting and discussed our situation here in Mexico City. Stephen had talked to the leadership team in Mazatlan and they had brought up the option that maybe we should return to Mazatlan and see how this influenza situation developed and if it got better in a couple weeks then we could return. Our team spent some time in prayer to see what God wanted us to do and almost all of us received verses from God which told us to stay. We received Isaiah 52:12, Psalm 121, 1 Corinthians 15:55-58; 16:13, and 1 Peter 5:8-11. All of these verses confirmed that God wants us here for the time being but Stephen received Proverbs 24:5-6 which reminded us that those in Mazatlan are our authorities so if they feel it would be wise to come home at some point then we should submit to their will. It was really awesome to receive so much confirmation from God and we continue to receive words of confirmation.

Monday~ We were supposed to go to a high school today but since all the schools are closed in Mexico, that fell through. Instead, we were planning on going and doing some dramas at a retirement home but they called at the last minute and cancelled. We ended up painting props for the churches summer VBS. That didn't take too long so we spent the later part of the afternoon playing fubol/soccer with the youth from the church. It's frustrating having all the things we were planning on doing fall through but we are still getting to serve the church.

Today we had a free day so we spent the day practicing our dramas and hanging out at David's house watching Forrest Gump and playing his Wii. The guy that I met on Thursday night came and hung out with us so I got to know him better and we went out asa a group and got DELICIOUS burritos!! We were hoping to go downtown but with this outbreak of the swine flu we were advised by our hosts to not go out into really public and crowded places. So instead we just hung out in the area. The swine scare down here is really bad, a lot of people are wearing protective masks and tomorrow's church service was even cancelled because of it. If you haven't heard of it, please check it out and pray against it with us. I was researching it today and it's some pretty crazy stuff. That is the biggest prayer request right now, not only for our protection but also that it would be safe enough for us to go out and do ministry and that public events would be reopened. 

Well today was our first full day of outreach. We had breakfast at the church where we have all our meals and then we had a time of intercession with some of the members of the church. Some of the things that we prayed about and that you can keep in your prayers are the health of the city and protection for the church from spiritual attacks. Just recently, there has been an outbreak in the city of a virus that has already affected close to 800 people, 60 of whom have died from it. The government announced last night that all the schools, ranging from preschool through university, will be closed until further notice to help prevent the spread of this disease. No one knows what exactly it is or where it came from, just that they don't want it. It's been really weird seeing some people walking around with surgical masks on to protect themselves. It directly affects us because we were going to go to a high school on monday that has never had any church work done in it and as of now we will not be able to go there and do ministry. And in regards for protection for the church from spiritual attacks, there has been a lot of weird things going on in and around the church lately. Last week, the pastors car was stolen from right outside the church (the police found it today) and also two of the women in the church have had dreams and visions of serpents attacking the church. One lady had a dream that there was a giant snake in the doorway of the church blocking her from entering and in order to enter, she had to fight it off with a sword. So please keep these issues in your prayers.

Today we also picked up trash and had a prayer walk through the neighborhood. It was really good getting both to serve the community and see a little bit more of the area as we were praying. Tomorrow is a free day so we'll be hanging out with one of the guys that we met from one of the local youth groups, so it should be really good!

I am now officially on outreach! We took the bus last night to Mexico City and now we're just outside the Federal District working with one of the local churches. YWAM Mazatlan does a lot of work with the family that runs this church and they always treat the teams really well. They set up us guys in a house of our own with queen size air mattresses and I'm even sleeping in a room by myself! Tonight we are going to a youth group to do a drama and give some testimonies. Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we are getting settled in and also pray blessings over the family we are working with, their name is the Tercero family.

Well I'm back. To all of you who were worried, I'm still alive. I leave for outreach to mexico city tonight at 7! We get into mexico city tomorrow morning at 10 and then from there we are planning on working with some of the local churches doing whatever they need to us to do. This may range from kids ministry to building projects to working in the prisons. There is going to be a wide variety of things they will have us doing so we will be very busy and the 7 weeks of outreach will go by very fast. We will be in Mexico City five weeks and then we will spend a couple days in Puerto Villarta for a YWAM staff conference and then we will be in Guadalajara for ten days and return to Mazatlan the 10th or 11th of June. I am super excited and can't wait to see what God is going to be doing. The members of my team are Tim, Remey, Amy, Me, and then our leaders are Stephen and Giselle. If you could pray for each of us for unity and a strong team spirit. This will probably be our biggest prayer request for the whole trip but I will update as much as possible with what God is doing and our prayer requests.