Hi, everyone! Que tal? How's it going? I apologize for taking so long to post again, and I appreciate your patience :) Things here have been going well. Everyone is healthy, and the weather is hot and sunny. Last week was a bit crazy, but I will do my very best to catch you guys up :D

Random tid-bit (Most of you probably already know this info, but I thought the way God put it all together in my mind through His Word was cool, so I'm going to share. Feel free to skip down if you get bored :D): So about two weeks ago, during our personal morning Bible studies, Rob (one of the returning interns) and I were both sitting in the front room studying at the tables. Rob broke the silence with, "Whoa, that's serious!" I, of course, replied, "What's serious, Rob?" He said, "Check out Deuteronomy 21:18-21." Upon turning there, I read:

"If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father or his mother, and when they chastise him, he will not even listen to them, then his father and mother shall seize him, and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gateway of his hometown. They shall say to the elders of his city, 'This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey us, he is a glutton and a drunkard.'
Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death; so you shall remove the evil from your midst, and all Israel will hear of it and fear."

That day I had been reading Psalm 119, which is David's meditations and prayers relating to the Law of God. Over and over again, David speaks of his delight in the totality of God's Law -- all the commandments, precepts, testimonies, ordinances, statutes. David describes them as faithful, just, right, true, everlasting, good, etc. He, a king, values the Word of God more than treasure, and he unashamedly proclaims and boasts in the Law in its entirety. I was blown away: David, who did not have the New Testament, delighted himself in the Law of God (the Old Testament to us), which many people (Christians and non-Christians) consider harsh, boring, or irrelevant. The Law is not a checklist to prevent smiting; it is God's revelation of His holiness and character to fallen, unworthy man. God revealed to me that I should take a cue from David. No iota of God's Law is a thing of which I should be ashamed.

Now, I am not at all saying that we need to go kill some rams and burn them on an altar. There's more: Also that week, the interns and staff were corporately studying Matthew 5-7. I started thinking how the Law, which was David's delight, became distorted by the Pharisees. Jesus, then, in His Sermon on the Mount, raised the moral law by discounting the "righteousness" of the Pharisees. But Jesus did not only raise the law, but He also fulfilled it. Through His sinless existence on earth, Jesus died as the perfect sacrifice and atonement for our sin and was raised with the Father's seal of approval that justice had been satisfied. So basically: God gave us His Law to reveal to us His holiness and to magnify our sinfulness so that we would understand that we can never meet the standard in and of our own will power. God, in His justice, provided Christ to fulfill the requirement of the Law. So now we have Romans 8:1-4:

"Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit."

If you're a believer and you're reading this right now, praise God for His mercy in giving us His Law, but more than that praise God for His grace in sending His Son Jesus Christ! If you're not a believer, I pray that God would give you grace to understand this and that you would see Christ as your only plea before the Holy and Just God.

Whew! Thanks for hanging in there with me! I get a little excited sometimes when the dots connect :D

Last week was yet another trying week, but once again God did not disappoint. We hosted a youth group from Glidewell Baptist in Springfield, MO, who put on a bilingual VBS for a local church here in Alamo. Our schedule was packed! We were on the go from 8:30 am until 9:30 or 10 pm each day. At UTRI in the mornings we had breakfast, quiet time, chapel, and VBS prep. In the afternoon we grabbed lunch and hit some work projects, which included more VBS prep and painting the gym at the church. Shawn, one of our staff, drove our bus to pick up kids in the area, so at 4:45 each day I jumped on the school bus to play bus monitor :). VBS was from 6 - 8:30, followed by the return bus route. Dinner was 9 - 9:30ish, plus clean-up. We had an intern meeting each night after clean-up. Needless to say, none of us slept much. We did get a few afternoons free to "cargar las pilas" (recharge our batteries), which were a complete blessing from the Lord! I can honestly say that physically, the Lord was our portion and sustainer!

The team members were young, mostly freshmen and sophomores in high school. Having deeper level conversations with them was hard, as they were a little slow to open up. For those of you who know me, I do not usually ask questions that permit one-word answers, so there were many moments last week that I became discouraged with my conversational skills :/ However, God was faithful to move in the lives of His kids, even when I least expected it. At the end of the week, the team had the traditional UTRI prayer service. The interns did not attend this service - just the group members, leaders, and UTRI staff. After the service, Clay and Ang came back and told us that the service was awesome! The students opened up a ton, confessing their sins to one another and asking for prayer. Praise God! Later that night, I went by the girls' dorm on my way to bed, and as soon as I put my head in the door, I was bombarded with statements like: "You missed it!" "It was awesome!" "Even the boys opened up -- some of them cried!" I was really encouraged by their words. I am so thankful that God, in His power, is able to move the hearts and minds of men.

VBS itself was crazy, too. First of all, I never want to drive a bus. I have so much respect for my bus driver now. Doyle Criner, thank you so much for bringing us home alive every day. I apologize for my unruly behavior! I am so thankful for Shawn's willingness to drive rowdy kids around on the forgotten streets of Alamo and San Juan, TX. I say "rowdy," but that's an understatement. Many of these kids come from rough situations. To this day, I have not seen a majority of their parents. Most of the kids were dropped off or rode the bus. At registration, they registered themselves, and many of them asked their friends questions like, "What's my address?" "Emergency phone? I don't know who to call. We don't even have a phone." It was really sad. In the case of the older kids, they were so disrespectful to each other and to their teachers. At least one fight occurred every day among the older boys. Even in conversation with each other, many of the kids were so quick to anger. One of the older girls, when getting off the bus, decided that she did not want to wait and began pushing her brother. When he resisted, she proceeded to say many derogatory and profane things in Spanish to him as she climbed over the bus seats. I never in my life thought I would have tell a kid at a VBS not to swear. Mom, don't ask how I know what she said. I was lost once, too :D :/ I am not saying these things to evoke pity from you. I am saying these things to evoke thanksgiving and prayer. The biggest issue here is the problem of sin and that these kids have no saving knowledge of God. Also, most of these kids get neither love nor discipline from their parents; in fact, many of them are victims of malice, deceit, neglect, and abuse. Thanks be to God that He is Our loving Father; that He disciplines those whom He loves; that He saved us from ourselves and our sin! Pray that those planted seeds would be watered, and that a harvest would be reaped in the hearts of these kids through continued work. Dad and Mom, thanks so much for loving and disciplining me. I could be one of those kids. If you have parents that didn't let you get away with anything either, tell them thank you! Ask God to begin teaching you now how to train up your children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Through interacting with and watching the kids, God revealed so much to me about my own sin. I cannot tell you how many times last week that I said to myself and to our staff, "If I were allowed to spank, that one's butt would be mine!" Mentally, my patience ran out quick. The sassy one-liners would trigger that "Oh, no, she didn't!" reflex, and I would be annoyed and offended at such a lack of respect. But God, rich in His mercy, quickly reminded me that I am not so different from our students. Not only was I once exactly like them, but I am still like them on so many levels. I had no right to get impatient with them because God has been so patient, so slow to anger, and so full of steadfast love toward me. Furthermore, my pride and sin offend God so much more than the kids' language and smart remarks offend me. God also reminded that I have extremely limited knowledge of their hearts, minds, and personal lives. For this reason, I was to speak words of love, truth, and life to them at every opportunity, as they may not hear anything other than words of malice, deceit, and strife at home or among peers. Tori Camerer, you couldn't have said it any better -- our ministry is reconciliation. Thanks be to God for Our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us while we were yet sinners and enemies of the Father, and by whom we are reconciled to the Father!

Well, you're all caught up! This week we will finish painting the gym at Alamo Community Church, work at UTRI, go the orphanage in Mexico, and finish some prep for Day of Hope. Here are some things for which you can pray:

Tennessee Baptist Collegiate Ministries statewide: Last week, Tennessee summer missionary Palmer Maphet was killed in a head-on collision while serving in Maine. Palmer was a solid believer whose life testified of the truth of the Gospel. Pray for his family, friends, team, and supervisors as they go through this trial. Pray also that non-believers who knew Palmer would see Christ and believe the Gospel.

Day of Hope: In two weeks, we will have a week in which we minister to members of the Body in churches in Reynosa. This week will be similar to Navidad a Reynosa, but on a much smaller scale and with a more discipleship-oriented approach. Pray for those who are coming down to help us with this event, as well as though whom we will serve and equip.

The Vasquez kids: Gina, Arturo, and Jasmine attended VBS. Pray that the three of them would be loved in their home; that God would protect them from the schemes of the devil; and that any seeds that were planted would be watered. Most of all, pray that God would make these kids realize that to be loved is better than to be feared.

Thank you all once again for your love and support. You will hear from me again soon! Sorry this post is so long. Once again, if you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or complaints (haha), please leave some feedback. This is for you!

Cristo vive por siempre,
Jacq