Day 9: Airport Reflection

or: what is the meaning of life?
 

 As we drove into Querétaro, Chris and I were discussing the nature of mission trips. Appropriately, as we sit in the airport, preparing to fly out of Querétaro, my mind is on the same thing.

I’ve found that – during any given mission trip – evangelism and purposeful relationships comes far more naturally for me than at home. I cling more passionately, more desperately to Christ. Encouragement flows from my lips for those around me. Every person I encounter and interact with presents an opportunity for ministry. Yet, when I get home, this clarity begins to fade and I fall back into the daily distraction. I think the reason for this is (as always) threefold:

1.  We aren’t at home.
2.  We are here for a purpose.
3.  We know time is limited.

Ah, it starts to make sense. And yet… something about those three things doesn’t allow me to move on so quickly. In fact, rather than letting me off the hook, those three explanations force a greater responsibility on us: Our lives are, in essence, mission trips.

Let me ‘splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up:

We aren’t at home.

I feel pretty comfortable saying this is a recurring theme in the Bible (Hebrews 13, 1 Peter 2, for example). The earth is not our home, our citizenship is somewhere else. The discomfort of life on earth (sickness, battling the flesh, death, Justin Bieber) is nothing more than culture shock.

We are here for a purpose.

So, what’s the purpose of Life? One of my favorite passages in the Bible is 2 Corinthians 5. Between that and the Great Commission, it seems pretty clear that God has us here to proclaim his name.

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Matthew 28:18-20

Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

2 Corinthians 5:11-21

We know time is limited.

Another recurring theme of the Bible (and life) is the brevity of life. I’ll reference James 4 for this, but it’s everywhere. We’re only here for a little while, and then we’re with God forever. Outreach is temporary, now is the only time we have to do it.

All that to say: though it is easier to live deliberately for the gospel while on a trip like this one, a change in perspective helps me undertand a bit better what we're actually doing here.

Day 8: Always Run Through the Tape

To be honest: I came into today very relaxed (read: mentally done). We had done our Outreach, we had done our Follow-up... now we would have a party and be done - nothing crazy, nothing intense.

Yea.

Everything started according to plan (yes, I said that in Spanish), I went running with Chris (ese vato is fast), got a chill breakfast, we snagged some supplies and headed to the Aguilar house. We played around, hung out on the playground, spun Sam in a swing until he felt sick... just standard shenanigans.

Then some stuff went down. I had to just watch as a friend walked through some heavy sadness. I learned a bit about death. I was placed in a world where words wane powerless. It was...humbling, to say the least.

A trip in a taxi, souvenir shopping (being approached by a random guy and connecting him with the church), paletas (popsicles, but magical) and payasos (clowns) in the plaza... and we all found ourselves back at the Aguilar house (the lengths this family goes to for hospitality are....intense). We watched a movie (that is a-whole-nother story) and prayed before getting back to the hotel late and packing.

On the drive to the hotel, I was asked me what I had experienced on this trip and, as is my wont (not to be confused with my won't), I made some less-than-serious comment; because, honestly, I am not sure yet how I would sum up my experience here in Querétaro (take a moment to appreciate how long that sentence lasted). One thing I did experience today: being humbled by how others follow God.

As I think about the Aguilar family, I am left feeling nothing but overwhelming respect. This family came from Honduras, where they were part of a huge and successful GCLA church. Now they are in Querétaro, where they are the GCLA church. The parents, Frankie and Ines, have had the vision to plant a church since they got married (23 years is a long time to wait on the Lord to fulfill something). The kids though - Juan, Sara and Abisai - didn't ask for this; they are being brought along with a vision God gave someone else. And yet, rather than feeling ill-used or bitter, they have jumped on board in dedicating their lives to what God is doing here. Be praying against the attacks they will experience as hey continue to pursue God...

Spending a week here was glorious, but I am about to (as far as we know) head back to my comfort zone where my family is two hours away when traffic is bad, where my church grows and flourishes - even if I have an "off" semester, where I have lived for a fourth of my life...that is a blessing, but do I rely on it?

ck: 21

Day 7: Tourists and Immigrants

If I wanted to describe how I feel in one word, it would be: "crunchy."

In my defense, I used sunscreen.

For breakfast today, rather than eat at the hotel, we went to the casa Aguilar. We had delicious tacos called baleadas and a lot of fresh fruit. After we ate, we filled roughly 50 bottles with water and made around 80 more baleadas, which we loaded into a cooler. We stuck everything into the vans and rolled out.

After a brief roadtrip, we arrived at our first destination: La Peña de Bernal (the third largest rock in the world). We grabbed water, put on sunscreen and started hiking/climbing/running up the trails. It was hot. Amazing and fun! ...but hot. It was good that everyone had a chance to let out their playfulness; we laughed and sang and climbed cliffs and slid down some smooth rocks (sometimes on purpose)... We did a little shopping and got a snack lunch (yum) to tide us over until dinner. I was rather sunburnt by this point (and a little grumpy because of it).

Our second destination was Tequisquiapan (so much fun to say), a beautiful little city nearby where we spent a little time being tourists and shopping and stuff. We took a billion pictures (literally), bought some stuff and then headed out.

The third destination was a railroad track. We unloaded all of the previously mentioned food/water bottles and took them in to a little building beside the tracks. One way that a lot of people from Central and South America get through Mexico to get to the U.S. border is by hopping on trains. However, a lot of these people don't have access to food or water as they ride, so a charity in the city throws food to them as the trains go by.* We helped them pack some of the bags they give away and then Kristina was attacked by puppies (imagine that being in a cute way, not a snarling, rabid way) and we packed up to continue our day of adventures.

We went to the (self-proclaimed) "most parisian cafe in Mexico," a little cafe near the plazas to get dinner. Due to limited seating, Javier and I ended up at a table by ourselves. After perusing through the menu and looking at baguettes, crêpes, pastas and a variety of other delicious-and-fancy sounding foods, Javier and I walked over to an Oxxo (corner store) and got some microwave pizzas and talked about the deep things of the Faith. We headed back and sat outside the cafe, still deep in conversation until it was time to head to the hotel. After losing people, losing patience, finding people and hugging it out (very few of these activities involved me)...we all ended up safe and sound. So now we sit, soaking in salve and praying for tomorrow, when our contacts will have an opportunity to meet the church.

*fun conversation: what are the moral implications of giving food and water to someone who is trying to illegally enter your country?

I would say that, regardless of how we view their activities, we are called to love people. In this circumstance, that looks like providing some food and water to be tossed to them so that they won't die on top of a train. Immigration is something I'll leave to the political sphere.

kc (pwhsmoipc): 18

Day 6: Sowing Season

So, we're not dead, circumstance just prevented me from updating last night (read: I was asleep).

We started our last day of campus outreach at the UAQ, our goal to meet back with people we had met previously and share the gospel with them if we hadn't. After lunch, we planned to head over to the ITQ. Kristina and I didn't have anybody at the UAQ to meet, so we went early to the ITQ, where we met Esthela. She said she was a part of a church, and proceeded to tell us about the time God had miraculously healed her from a heart condition that had caused doctors to say she wouldn't live past the age of 6. Well, she's 19 now, so.... We went through the gospel with her, she seemed to know the story, but not the implications of it. It's good to meet someone in a solid church here though!

Afterwards, we met up with my tocalla, Samantha. Kristina and Ana had met her before and she had some really guinine, but tough questions. We talked to her about the Bible and gave her some answers therefrom (i don't think that's a word, but i like it) to some of her questions. She was remarkably kind (we later found out she's super tough, like a Mexcian cowgirl with a truck and guns and a horse and stuff) and it was encouraging to talk to someone who was seeking God honestly...

Something I've never done before: we were invited to a professor's math classroom to give his students a "cultural experience." around 6 of us sat in a classroom of 30 and talked about culture and stuff. When we tried to take it to a more spiritual discussion, the students seemed open to it, but the professor gently redirected us (because beer and sexual innuendo was acceptable, but not religion, heh). We did make some good contacts with some of the students after the class was over though!

For dinner, we had yet another delicious meal at the Aguilar's and went to the plaza. By this time, most of us were just burned out fromt alking to people (turns out we have a team of 70% introverts), but a few groups went out and had some great conversations with the people chilling there...

Back at the hotel, we went for a little walk and bought some contraband - street tacos. They're just so delicious, we couldn't help it! But we didn't eat very many, so everyone is still feeling good this morning...

Day 5: "Of Course, You Know This Means War..."

Today's theme was the Spirit's power...

This morning, some conversation revealed that we had a few people having weird dreams last night. Weird in a spiritual attack sense, not in a Joel 2:28 sense. That, along with some other occurences, led us to feel that our group needed to pray for strength and shift into a more deliberate wartime mindset... I love that spiritual attacks actually only serve to remind us what's going on and encourage us to press further into the power and protection of God.

For those who were wondering: Yes, I did quote Groucho Marx in reference to spiritual war. No, I'm not sorry.

Heather and I started together today, hoping to run into Isaac (see day 3). Feeling a bit disconnected, we opted to use the first 30 minutes or so of our evangelism time to spend time with God. One of the things prayed for was that someone would approach us, someone we could both talk to. After we prayed, we started walking and within 3 minutes we heard, "Hey, do you guys go to Texas A&M?" (in English). So that was how we met Mixtli, a guy who had spent some time living in Dallas before returning to Querétaro for school. He said he was looking into a lot of religions, seeking truth and that he would love to talk with us after his class about what we believed. While he was in class, we walked over to the other side of campus and stopped to talk with a girl who said she did not have much time to talk and did not speak English very well. We talked to her briefly and then prayed for her and left. As we walked away, Heather felt we should leave a copy of the gospel with her, so we walked back to see if she was there still. She was... de hecho, she was sitting there with tears streaming down her cheeks as she explained that being prayed for was exactly what she needed at that moment (! way to go, God). We took some more time to tell her how much God loved her, go briefly through the gospel and invite her to come experience a community where she could have a spiritual family... (Please pray that she will be able to come to our meet-the-church event on Saturday)... We met back up with Mixtli and share the gospel, though he was less receptive (and a little less friendly) than we had hoped. It was a good conversation though and we were able to plant some good seeds.

We had lunch at ITESM (essentially, the Tec de Monterrey, but in Querétaro), got a campus tour and went to talk with people. Chris and I met our first Mexican Buddhist (as did Justin and Ana) and had a really good talk with a guy named Mario (though I don't think that we will see the fruit from that one). I found a tennis ball on our tour. He now has a sharpie smiley-face and is on my dresser.

We got some logistics done at the hotel (making our follow-up list for the Aguilars (this was frustrating for me, heh)). Afterwards, we headed to their house for some dinner and fellowship (this was beautiful and encouraging). I've loved watching Justin very casually, yet deliberately provide discipleship for David during our times at the house. Tonight he (along with Rodger) encouraged and challenged him to think on spiritual gifts and what that's all about.

An encouragement (per a late-night conversation in a mini-van): we are called to be story-tellers; to bear witness to 1) the greatest story ever lived out (i.e. the gospel) and 2) the miniaturized, individual stories of what God does for us. Everything from salvitic testimonies to stories of encouragement unlooked-for give glory to God. If God does something in your life, tell people; else you are robbing him of the glory due his name. Our lives stand as living monuments to the work of God, but monuments without explanation lose their meaning. Nobody knows why Stonehenge is there; it's cool, but ultimately meaningless apart from its mysteriousness. I don't want my life to be a mystery; I want everyone who thinks about me to think about Jesus, everyone who looks at me to see Jesus, everyone who talks about me to mention Jesus (Breastplate of St. Patrick, anybody?). Is there anything in life more worth striving for?

Pray that our last day of campus evangelism (Thursday) will go well, that we can meet back up with our previous solid contacts and make some new ones. Pray for physical and spiritual protection for our team and the Aguilar family...


ck: 15

Day 4: Man's Wisdom/God's Power

My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.
-1 Corinthians 2:4-5

We started off today with an encouragement from Craig to see through people's veneer of self-sufficiency and see the need that is all around us.

We went today to ITQ (Instituto Tecnológico de Querétaro) instead of UAQ. When we arrived, we had to check in with the guards at the gate to make sure we were allowed to be there (we were, Frankie had gotten permission for us to come as a "cultural experience"). After we cleared security, we paired up and rolled out. Justin, Ana, Kristina and Kassy set up the Soularium (an evangelism method using pictures that allows and encourages people to open up in really impressive ways) while the rest of us went walkabout in pairs to get our Gospel on. 

I teamed up with Craig today, which was really encouraging for me. We've lived together and done ministry alongside one another (though in different spheres) for a while now, but never had we ever ministered together. We had a few decent conversations, but then we met Jesús and talked to him for a long time and followed him around on some errands. He was yet another one of those contacts that I really want to see get plugged in to the church here...We didn't go through the gospel with him before he had to go to class, though we touched on some spiritual stuff...

Chris and David Aguilar went together again (these two are a dynamic duo), and their experience was essentially a real-life telling of the parable of the soils. They talked to some people who were indifferent, some who were friendly but didn't understand the importance, some who got actively angry (ask Chris sometime) and then... they shared with a young man who was excited and interested through they're whole presentation and who joyfully prayed to receive Christ afterwards!

In the afternoon, we switched up teams a little, spent another hour out sharing the gospel and then came and relaxed at the hotel for a little while before heading to a plaza to talk to people. When we arrived at the plaza, there was already a group of guys open-air preaching to all the people there. Talking with them revealed that they were part of a different church that was being planted here, which is so fantastic!

We ate dinner at the Aguilar house tonight and spent some great time getting to know the family better. All the guys sat outside and talked (I dunno what the girls did inside) and joked and (unofficially) climbed on the side of the building. Talking to David and Juan about this church plant and about evangelism was encouraging, humbling and mind-blowing. These young men have such a passion for the things of God, it leaves me stunned. Be praying for this family and what God is going to do in and through them. Pray for protection against the attacks of the enemy.

I wish I had more anecdotes to throw in here, there is so much laughing on this trip; it's kind of ridiculous. I feel that the dynamic of this team is more unique than any I have ever been part of. The people here are in so many crucial and even broken places that God is able to receive all the glory for the work that is done and is doing such powerful works in the lives of this team. If you have a person who is on this trip, be prepared for them to return changed.

kc: 12

Day 3.2: A Thought on Outreach

"I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ." - Philemon 7

A brief exhortation: If you aren't actively sharing Christ with those around you, you are not operating in the fullness of your relationship with God. Beyond our primary motivation of having God's name known and of seeing people enter into the beauty that is relationship with him, we are missing out on how we are designed to live as Christians. Yea, it can be scary and yea, it will probably be awkward. Allow me to say: it's so worth it.

Day 3: Hitting the Campus (and some walls)

Craig, Chris and I woke up at 6:45 to go running today...then promptly decided that was dumb and went back to sleep.

We got a less-early start with breakfast at 8:30, got some good time as a team (talking logistics with a brief encouragement to meditate on the intense beauty of what God has done in our own lives) and rolled out.

UAQ (Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro) (pronounced "OOO-WOK" (yes, this did prompt a slew of "walk" puns)) did not know what hit it. Our desire, our prayer was to encounter the Person of Peace (Luke 10): people who were interested in the gospel, who we could build solid relationship with, who were hungry for God. Our teams broke down asi:
-Justin and Ana (yea, it is adorable)
-Chris and David (Frankie's younger son)
-Craig and Kassy
-Kristina and Javier*
-Heather and I

Nervous and excited, we prayed and went out into the campus. Our goal, as I said, was to make fewer, stronger contacts than we did some years in Monterrey. Between conversations, Heather and I saw our groups scattered across the campus in conversations with the students. Sometimes, we dive right in with, "Hi, we're from Texas, visiting some friends in a church here. We're spending a week on campus, talking to students about God and spiritual stuff, do you have time to talk?" (imagine that in Spanish). Other times, we'll just chill and talk with the students and bridge into God-talk more naturally. Anyway, we met up for lunch and heard some amazing stories of God bringing every group into touch with at least one really open and interested person who we can meet up with Wednesday when we come back to this campus (there's three we're visiting this week) and hopefully get connected with the Aguilar family. After lunch (my first legit tacos this year), we headed back out to keep going.

Heather y yo had a bit tougher of a time. We kept hitting walls. Some people didn't want to talk, others didn't have time, others we had a hard time communicating with. We finally met an awesome guy who I'll call Isaac (mostly because that's his name) who wanted to practice English with us. Isaac is a student and on the fútbol team for UAQ and was a lot of fun to talk to. Right as we were transitioning to the good stuff, however, he had to go to class (be praying we can meet back up with him Wednesday). In the afternoon, we shook off the discouragement and - joined by Adrian - decided to be a little more bold, with the hopes that we could get into the gospel. My prayer: "God, lead us to someone we can talk to, who has time and wants to talk to us..." So we met Rodrigo, the young English teacher who was done with classes for the day and loved the idea of chatting with some real live gringos. We talked with him for two hours about God, the Bible, Jesus, the Church...all of it. Granted, we talked about all of that because Rodrigo was a staunch agnostic who had some intense questions. We hit the gospel hard, Heather shared her testimony, but ultimately Rodrigo was closed to the idea of God revealing himself to us. It was a good conversation, but difficult.

Dinner...yea, delicious.

We got out of dinner late and walked to the plaza *insert a long story about keys and people getting locked out of their home* to hang out. Heather and Javier sat and had a long conversation with a girl who was open, interested and even offered a lot of much-needed encouragement to Heather after our time on campus. I was able to have a good talk with a German gentleman (Hubert) who was visiting for work and had a lot of interesting (though sad) things to share.

(Ask Craig about the time he almost got "arrested" in Mexico).

Sorry for the length, I feel like I could talk for a long time about the people we met today, because each one of them is a life, a soul God is pursuing. Each one of them has a story of hope and hurt, of loss and learning, of fear and faith. For several, I experienced a simultaneous and sharp awareness of God's deep, deep love for them and of their current rejection of his love. It was heavy, but God's love is so patient and beautiful. He will hold out his hands to us in love our whole lives, hoping...hoping.

Please pray for continued contact with our new friends from today, for renewed strength for tomorrow and for great contacts at the other campuses.

*Did I mention Javier joined us from Monterrey today? Having him join us such a blessing. Anyone who knows him doesn't need to have it explained why.

ckc:8

Day 2: Training, Church and Mexican Hipsters

Today kicked off with a 2-mile run with Chris and Craig. It felt really good in this weather, though three gringos running by does merit some double-takes. Granted, the hotel security meant that we were locked out afterwards, but fortunately the owner was up to let us in...we've acquired a remote to get back in next time...

After breakfast, we spent some time together as a team; talking logistics, sharing what God's been teaching us lately and praying. The Aguilar family (that's the church-planting team) arrived and we had a church service in the hotel lobby (yea, that's right, we're so gonna share Jesus with the family that runs this joint). We sang some songs that had popular versions in English and Spanish, then we patched into the sermon from the church in Monterrey (with limited commercial interruption (at least it was the Noah movie...)).

Adrian took us through the Multiplica Multiplicadores training that GCLA is implementing (the link is to the English version). It is a fast-paced evangelism and discipleship method that is very similar to the style that Fellowship's latest Evangelism Training Seminar covered. These new methods that are springing up and catching on stem from the wildly successful church-planting movements in Asia. Essentially, it's training new believers to share the gospel immediately in simple, easily reproduced ways and systematic discipleship that draws them in to a deeper understanding of God. GCLA has tweaked it for their church structure and created what has the potential to bring an explosion of new churches across Mexico. Apparently, the plant here is one of three that are getting started - one led by an old friend from Monterrey!

A brief trip to Walmart (sigh) preceded us going to yet another plaza in front of Convento de la Cruz, which is older than the country of Mexico and has a huge aquaduct (no longer in use) that runs across the entire city. We arrived at the church plaza during Mass, so we didn't get to go inside to see the Árbol de la Cruz, said to have grown from a walking stick that a friar stck into the ground hundreds of years ago. The thorns are said to always grow in the shape of a cross, which has brought the church and convent a lot of attention.

We ate dinner in the plaza at a cafe famous for gourmet tea and pizza. As it turns out, Sunday night are live music nights, so we enjoyed some jazzy jams from a funky quartet while we ate our pizza surrounded by Mexican hipsters...(it was glorious). It was busier than expected, so by the time we were done it was too late (and too loud) to do any evangelism today, so we'll start by hitting the campuses hard tomorrow.

I can sense a growing restlessness in the hearts of team, including Frankie Aguilar, the leader of the church plant. He has a passion and a gifting for evangelism and is eager to see it start. Our team has been learning, praying, talking and dreaming about evangelism since we had our first meeting about this trip. The eagerness, the nervousness, the joy, the vision...the fire that I see in everyone's faces makes my heart tremble with anticipation for tomorrow.

It's gonna be good, y'all.


Pray for all things evangelism-related tomorrow. Pray for us to be in-step with the Spirit, pray for us to encounter ripe fruit, pray for clear communication...above all, pray for God's will to be done.
(also pray for health, we had some stomachs disagree with lunch today (granted, the shrimp did still have faces (I named mine Cameron (that's a Spanish joke)))).

ckc: 5

Day 1: Meeting the City

If today was any indicator of the nature of our trip; we're going to have a host of excellent stories to relate to all of our unsuspecting friends back home... "this one time in Querétaro
..." (though I'll probably say México, because Querétaro is a mouthful)

We met at the church office bright 'n' early at 7:25, loaded our luggage, loaded ourselves and rolled out. To prepare ourselves for international cuisine, we got breakfast at McDonalds on the way to the airport. I can't speak for the crew in Pastor Rodger's truck, but the peeps in my car laughed the entire drive.

Arriving at the airport with enough time was a nice change from last year (sorry 2013 team, my bad, heh). We needed the spare time when we hit delays in the check-in process, due to a new - and somewhat unruly - automatic check-in system. After escaping the technology and getting through security, we heaed over to our gate, glad to be done with the complications... from here on out it should be all smooth saili-KRISTINA RENEE CARTER PLEASE RETURN TO SECURITY.
dang it.
...fortunately it was just a case of misplaced identity, which was quickly remedied.

The plane trip was wonderfully complication-free... Chris Langham and I learned that making card houses on a plane is nigh impossible (even if you have cool cards from the D.R.). We landed, eventually figured out our customs forms, got high-fived by the drug dog, etc. (Ask Craig Plata about about that one time he got pulled aside and searched with a bag of white powder (climbing chalk) in his bag)...

Adrian and Frankie picked us up at the airport and we headed towards the hotel. We stopped for a mini-meal/snack and got our first taste of that Mexican food I've been craving for a year now. Two pepperoni pizzas from Papa Johns (which were delicious... PJ's in C-Stat needs to step up their game) with a brief stop at Starbuck's. As we were preparing to re-board our vans (one rented, one belonging to the family here), we saw the shiny, brand-new red scratch on the side of our rental van. *sigh* That will be figured out later, asi es la vida.

For now, we're chilling in our rooms in a house-turned-hotel, which is beautiful and right next to both of the campuses we hope to visit. Tonight, we're going to go walkabout in the city (which is ridiculously safe, for those who were wondering) and grab some dinner. Kassy Sanchez has asked us to turn it into a prayer-walk, which is perfect.

Please be praying that our excitement will continue and that we'll be safe from discouragement as we get started.

some notes:
-I'll stop using last names tomorrow, I promise...
-Italics generally means I'm thinking it in an accent
-Mejor (better) Pizza is not the same as Mujer (woman) Pizza. One is a slogan, one is cannibalism.

Pre-trip: Psalm 63

¹ Oh God, you are my God,
    earnestly I seek you;
My soul thirsts for you,
    my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land
    where there is no water.

² I have seen you in the sanctuary
    and beheld your power and your glory.
³ Because your love is better than life,
    my lips will glorify you.
⁴ I will praise you as long as I live,
    and in your name I will lift up my hands.
⁵ I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
    with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

⁶ On my bed I remember you;
    I think of you through the watches of the night.
⁷ Because you are my help,
    I sing in the shadow of your wings.
⁸ I cling to you;
    your right hand upholds me.

God, do not let us set our eyes upon anything less than you. Do not let us be content anywhere else but in the center of your perfect will; in the shadow of your wings. Remind us of the richness that is intimacy with you, cause our souls and bodies to long for you...then satisfy that longing with your presence. Be the one we think about day and night. Let us see you with our eyes, praise you with our lips, glorify you with our hands. And God, use us to bring others to that place of knowing you deeply, of experiencing you truly, of worshiping you only.

Amen.

pre-trip: Update!

Wow, I'm already slacking.

Updates: The money is all raised, we're just waiting for the checks to all make it in to GCLA. We've been praying and prepping and planning and soon I'll be packing.

My friend Elliott agreed to be my "prayer buddy" and committed to pray for me each day of our trip, which is just awesome.

We're leaving Saturday, at which point I will start my daily updates...be praying for us!

pre-trip: Team Training (and multiplica multiplicadores)

Saturday was our all-day training for the trip. We met up at Justin and Ana's house in the morning and discussed everything from cultural differences to packing lists.

We also received our trip schedule from our friends in Mexico; it looks like we'll be doing outreach both on campus and in some open Plazas that people enjoy spending time in during the evenings. It's a good opportunity for the new church to build relationships with their neighbors, though we may encounter less English-speakers.

We also got a look at the church's evangelism/discipleship strategy, called "Multiplica Multiplicadores." It's similar in structure to the Discovery Bible Study Method that Fellowship has been learning about lately. What this method is, is a Evangelistic Bible study method that allows rapid church-planting growth and equips new believers to share their faith and build community almost immediately. The goal is to spend an evening in a person's home, taking them and their family/friends through a Bible Study that focuses on the Gospel and then Discipleship. These types of methods are being used with amazing effectiveness in community-based cultures all over the world. I am super excited to have our team take part in this strategy. Check out this link if you want to look at the materials they use (it's in Spanish though).

pre-trip: no worries

God knows exactly what your faith needs.

I feel like the most common thing for me to say to people struggling with worry or stress is what Jesus says in Matthew 6 - seek God, do what he says and everything - every little thing - is gonna be alright (yes, I did just quote Bob Marley to quote Jesus).

Yet, when things in my life start to get cloudy - when all the promised support is slow to come, when the team goals aren't being met, when the people in charge of our trip start to talk about cancellation - I am reminded how much easier trust is to say than to live.

God knows exactly what your faith needs. And what your faith needs is for God to be glorified in and through your life. Sometimes that will look like immediate results; 1 Kings 18, Elijah-style fire from heaven stuff. And that brings God so much glory (be sure to give it to him by telling people of his faithfulness)! Other times, however, God is most glorified by stretching your trust in him. He's taken me to the very edge of my faith so many times, and when I come to the end of myself and cry out in my doubt; he swoops in and provides for me and it brings him so much glory and grows my faith for the future!

God brought me to the edge of my faith today. I have $150 of $1,500 raised for this trip and we're 2 weeks past our $600 deadline, 3 weeks aways from our final deadline. I started analyzing today which bills I could postpone to meet our deadlines without incurring any undue financial wrath. I wanted to be angry at people who ignored my letters, I wanted to be angry at the deadlines and those enforcing them, I wanted to be angry at God for not coming through. But none of that makes any sense. I am so thankful that God always does what is best for me (in this case, revealing my lack of trust). I am so thankful for Rodger and Justin and Jenni for doing all of the things for this trip that I cannot (which is virtually all of the planning, heh). And I am so thankful for the 6 people who contacted me to say "hey, I'm supporting you; it's in the mail!"

God knows and does what is best for us; I call that love :) 

Please pray for our team; that we would do all we can in our support-raising and trust that God will take care of us...

pre-trip: Can I get a witness?!

(1) In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: (2) Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. (3) For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. (4) They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. (5) But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
(2 Timothy 4:1-5)

I've known this verse and always liked it, but I read it recently, looking at verses for a Homegroup teaching and was completely blown away by it. So, feeling it highly applicable to our trip, I wanted to share it here.


(1) In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge:

That is an intense introduction to a charge if I ever heard one. God doesn't take things lightly that use his name (commandment #3 (or #2 for our brothers and sisters in the Catholic church)) and Paul was definitely aware of this. Read through it again and look at each clause; Paul wanted Timothy to take what he was about to say very, very seriously.

(2) Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.

"Preach the word." Everything else in this charge is clarifications on how, why and when this is supposed to happen. All of the weight of Paul's introduction gets channeled into this one command, "preach the word." I have had seasons of my life that are evangelism-centered (mission trips, HG focus, Outreach Class, Spirit's leading...), but what do we do when we don't feel actively called to Witness? (Answer: we witness anyway). "Correct, rebuke and encourage" are part of the preaching of the word (both to believers and non-believers, Paul doesn't specify). "Encourage" sounds great, but "correct" and "rebuke?" Those aren't always received as well.
   
(3) For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. (4) They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
This sounds all-too-familiar to me. There will always be different points of the Gospel message that are contrary to the culturally-held values around us. We mustn't sacrifice the message of the cross for "helping" it to go down more smoothly. Let us not speak the words that itching ears desire to hear, but those that dying souls need to hear.

and my favorite part:

(5) But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

I love this verse. We are to maintain our God-given, God-centered perspective at all times; faithfully discharging everything God has given us in the face of hardships (they will come if we do this). Earlier, Paul has said that the Holy Spirit has given "some to be prophets, some to be evangelists and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service..." (Ephesians 4:11-12). When I was younger, I had a friend who I looked up to (on a trip to Monterrey) tell me that he didn't have the gift of evangelism, so he just prayed instead of sharing the Gospel when we were out on campus. It sounded off to me, but I didn't know why until I read this verse. "Do the work of an evangelist" Paul doesn't say Timothy is an evangelist. Timothy was a young pastor; I feel like teaching and discipling were probably more his focus. But Paul tells him to witness, regardless of his gifting. You are called to do the work of an evangelist... at all times, in all places, to all people.

pre-trip: bitterSWEET

We had some bad news this week: Sheryl won't be able to come with us on the trip. It's sad, but it's because she's preparing to follow God and fulfill her dream to go to Mexico full-time, so it's bittersweet... or bitterSWEET, as with all the hard things that we encounter while following Christ. She is still, of course, involved in our team and will hopefully be able to come to the rest of our training times.

Speaking of: today we had our support-raising training time at the church office. Jenni (our church's Missions Administrator) led our training. Our team has historically been very laissez faire when it comes to support-raising, but Jenni's skill and experience have us feeling very much more prepared (our letters are all written and addressed and stamped)...organizational magic! We needed this training time because we're behind in our support-raising, but it was a great time nonethless.

It was really encouraging to see the whole team together. We've had prayer meetings every Sunday morning (Sheryl's organized them, heh), but haven't all been able to make it to any of them. Our team dynamic is not only really exciting on a ministry level, but it seems like it will be ridiculously fun as well.

pre-trip: The Scandal of Grace

I've been thinking and learning about Grace a lot lately. Frequently a word taken for granted or thrown around without understanding, Grace (charis) has been on my mind and, given the nature of our trip, it seemed apropos to include my thoughts here.

The tension of the Gospel is the conflict between Grace and Justice. I grew up understanding Justice like Physics (those of you who have heard my diatribe on physics will have to set it aside): Justice is the irrefutable, inescapable Law. Action to reaction. God is holy and an action of unholiness is countered, balanced out by an action of punishment. The same law applies on a smaller scale for humans (micro-justice): if you hurt me, I have a right to compensation (hurt you, talk bad about you, receive an apology). Like Physics, I was glad when Justice applied to the world at large; it keeps things orderly and prevents anarchy. However, I frequently want to be the exception. I want the good things I "deserve", but not the bad.

Allow me a brief tangent on Rights and the word Deserve: As an American, I appreciate rights and have grown up with them as a cultural value (and they are a good thing, thank God for the blessings he has given us to have them). As I've walked with Christ though, he has called me again and again and again to lay down my Rights for other people (each time so painful, like prying a Dr. Pepper away from me right before the first sip). Ministry is laying down ones rights for other people. What do you feel entitled to? The parable of the unmerciful servant comes to mind (Matthew 18:21+). "Deserve" is a dangerous word to use as a people redeemed. We deserve death in all its forms (physical, spiritual, eternal) as rebels against the God who is Life.

Back on point, our world is dark. The very ground cries out to God because of the brokenness and the darkness. We need Justice so very badly (I think of Psalm 94:3-7, "How long oh Lord?"). Wickedness does indeed seem to run rampant in our world. Young boys forced to kill their families and become child soldiers, young girls forced into things that make my heart weep, people starving while leaders pocket illicit fortunes... Liars, thieves, traitors, murderers and rapists populate the earth. And what is our God going to do about it?

If they want, he'll forgive them. He'll honor them, rejoice that they want him, call them "friend" and "beloved."

Will Campbell sums up the Gospel like this: "We are all bastards but God loves us anyway." He chose his words both for shock value and for the literal sense of our illegitimacy before God adopts us as sons and daughters.

The unfairness of Grace throws me off. As often as I claim to be grace-filled (definitely not graceful though), would I forgive someone who hurt those I love? Do I even forgive that guy who is rude to me in traffic? Anger (not inherently a bad thing), is our God-given response to injustice. Yet we are called to offer Grace.

As soon as I get upset by that, God reminds me which side I was on; that apart from Grace, I was a Wicked One. My labels now are beloved son, heard of God, friend of God, righteous, holy, included in the Bride of Christ. Apart from Grace they would be liar, adulterer, enemy of God, child of the devil, object of wrath...

The message we preach, however, is not that God let all of this piled-up injustice slide by. Any God who did that would not be Just and therefore not be Good. No, the truth is much harsher, much more beautiful, much more humbling. The truth is that God stored up all that wrath from all the sins from all the people from all time. He took it all, focused it into one powerful, wrath-filled stroke, and unleashed it onto his only-begotten, beloved, perfect son, Jesus. Jesus didn't just die. He died under all of the wrath we deserved. Grace isn't unjust, but it sure is unfair.

Thank you Jesus. Thank you.