High hopes and a God who delivers

Hola again!

Just time for a quick one this morning. Last night was spectacular! We went to a small rural community, set up speakers and a movie, and danced and played soccer and football and jump rope with kids and teens while their parents stood by and watched. Then an evangelist grabbed the microphone and preached (I only wish I could understand what he said) but I gather from the emotion that he led anyone who wanted to follow along in prayer and then must have asked who prayed for the Lordship of Jesus in their lives and a great number of little hands and big went up! Praise the Lord for the work He faithfully is doing here!

This morning in Sala (morning chapel) I had the privilege of sharing about freedom. It was a neat experience and I am thankful to have had the opportunity. If I were to sum up the message briefly it would be this: Like a kite is made to fly freely, so are we created to live freely. Oftentimes we think that freedom is being able to do anything we want. But just as often, the things we choose to do with our freedom cause us to be slaves to our sinful nature and its desires. To take our lives into our own hands is to be a kite that says “no” to its string. No I don’t want to be restriced, constrained, directed, or held back. But what happens to a kite without a string? It crashes. It does not fly as it is suppose to. The same string that restricts the kite is the only reason it can fly. To be firmly anchored and held close by Jesus isn’t stealing our freedom, it is actually the only way to experience it.

Of course the youth razzed me as I walked up with my air cast on my foot to the front calling out “break a leg”, but it didn’t phase me! And on that note, I have never been much of one to consider myself really full of faith in God’s healing power. I’d like to believe it more, but I suppose anytime I pray physical healing over someone I do battle doubts. Last night the boys prayed for my foot in our room. This morning, if I was to put a percentage on it, I would say it is 80% recovered. Yesterday I could not put an ounce of weight on it….today the swelling is down and I have to intentionally push myself to feel any pain. I feel my faith growing as my foot is healing rapidly, and I feel my foot healing rapidly as my faith in God’s ability to do so grows! It’s amazing! Thank you too for your prayers…God is faithful and he does hear us!

It’s off to snack time now…today is Scott’s 18th birthday, so any special prayers for that member of our team to be blessed today would be great. We’ve ordered a cake and will be celebrating at lunch time.

God is moving in our midst and as much fun as it is to share it with you this way, we cannot wait to be home and share in person the goodness of Jesus as we’ve experienced on this trip!
Blessings and peace to you!

At least it was me…

Hola!

Today has been a great day for our group. It’s only 2 o’clock and members of our group have already served in the kitchen, daycare, nursery, special needs classroom, orchard, prayer garden, going into the poor communities to dress wounds, and cleaning. Right now half of the group is on their way to child evangelism – traveling out into surrounding communities to play with and share the love of Jesus with kids, as well as to give them milk and peanut butter for protein. Tonight our entire group will head out to adult evanglism where we visit a mountain community, show a film about Jesus, and offer to pray with the locals (as well as distributing food and clothing).

We have been blessed so far with good weather, good travel, and generally good health. As I said yesterday, there have been some headaches and stomach aches, but nothing too bad. Only one person got sick on the plane ride…and you guessed it, at least it was me. Playing soccer last night while we looked after the group home kids I also managed to roll my ankle. The x-ray will have to wait until tomorrow, but the doctor thinks it’s just ligament and tendon tears. A few weeks on crutches ought to do it. On the bright side – at least it was me! It’ll give me more time to pray for those in our group, and perhaps it’s a lesson for me in that I often feel like I need to be involved in everything and this will be a chance for God to remind me that sometimes (perhaps oftentimes?) the ministry he has called me to is to equip and empower others.

So I’d love your prayers. Optimism fills my heart when I see the amazing things going on around me, but it clashes pretty dramtically with my personality when I sit aside and stay behind as everyone else goes to work.God’s grace is what I need most.

But, this isn’t a blog about me! Prayers for endurance for our team would be much appreciated – this place is very efficient and doesn’t leave free time. Breakfast and supper breaks for example are only 15 minutes (lunch, the main meal here is 30 minutes). With a hectic pace and a mighty hot sun, we need the Lord’s grace to give us what we need to serve him. One youth last night had a strange moment with God as he flipped through his Bible after devotions. He said it almost felt as though his finger was stuck to a page, and all of a sudden he really felt like I needed to read what it was. He listened, and having not even read it himself he asked me right away to read it.

Talk about a word from the Lord. In Zecariah 7 (the chapter he gave me) it talks about caring for windows and orphans and about fasting, but also about how the people of God didn’t do those things for God, they did those things for themselves. It goes on to talk about the necessity of listening to God and acting on his behalf, and the danger in not. I don’t have it in front of me right now, but words along the lines of those who listen to God will be listened to by God, while those who ignore God will not be heard by Him end off the chapter. Relevant to where we are at? I think so!

I praise God for speaking, even in unusual ways. It was a good moment for this young man and I to talk about how “God speaking” isn’t this audible voice that only some hear. It’s nudges, promptings, tingleings, feelings, thoughts…fingers being stuck to a page in the Scriptures…

God is good and he continues to talk. Remember to praise him for that today, and to listen even for the unusual voice of God today!

At the Mission

Hey Everyone,

We arrived safe and sound yesterday afternoon. The drive was beautiful, even though for most it was time for an afternoon nap. We really enjoyed Wayne and Claire’s place, and people are already talking about looking forward to heading back there. Today was a great day of work – we had the tour for the first half of the day so really we only “worked” for the afternoon and evening – everything from garbage pick up to bathroom cleaning to weeding to harvesting to dropping of the disabled children at their homes – it was a busy day. Tonight our group split into groups and went to four of the group homes for the orphans of all ages so their house parents could go out for their Monday night dates. It’s a blessing to be able to send them away with some money and hopefully a free mind hoping that God has made us capable with 10 visitors in the house as these amazing couples are able to do on their own!

I haven’t been able to make it to the computer room yet, the schedule doesn’t give more than 10 minutes break anywhere in a day. Right now I was able to duck into one of the staff’s office just to let you know we made it here! Thanks for your prayers. The experience is awesome, if you could be here you would be proud of how our youth are handling themselves – I know I sure am. Continue to pray for us in a few ways:

• health, there have been a few headaches, a few stomach issues…nothing serious, but a few have already had to have some time sitting out to recover.
• for God to speak to each one – it has been really great to hear of some of the desires of some team members hoping to really meet God over this time away
• for our leaders as we seek to lead our youth with fairness and compassion
• for us as we share God’s love (today I was asked to share at Sala (morning chapel) on Wednesday)…since the Bible says we are to be prepared to give an answer for the hope that we have and to share God’s Word in season and out of season…what kind of an example would I be if I said no! Speaking with a translator to a multilingual crowd should be interested, and I’d covet your prayers for God’s words to flow into my heart beforehand and clearly out of my mouth during

Well I don’t want to hold up Howie here, he’s supervising me. Our adult team has really gelled and we praise God for that too. We’ll update you more the next chance we get.
Love and Peace

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Despised & Rejected

Lead Pastor Ken Dryden begins the series Facing the Cross, which will take a deeper look at Isaiah 52:12-53:12, with Despised & Rejected.

Scripture

Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12

Audio

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Blanket Auction

Dustin here reporting for the “Mac”exico blog. As you can see by this post and last, Mac seems to be the most photogenic….at least in hiliarious ways. A compliment? I think so.

Summing up today would be tough, so let me just give you some highlights in point form:

• Half the group moved dirt in the Mexican sun
• Half the group helped Claire with some organization here at there home to prepare for other groups
• We ate authentic Tamales
• Dustin got more burnt than he can explain in a blog…(sacrificing myself for the sake of the object lesson on sunscreen which we purchased immediatly after)
• We went to La Bufadora (the blowhole)…it’s a market and a spot where the waves crash up beautifully against the rocks…you’ll see pictures
• Youth were surprised by having to pay to use the washroom
• We sent Wayne and Claire out on an overnight date on us and had some of our team stay home to babysit.
• About half the team met up with two husbands of workers at the daycare to play soccer with some locals at sunset on a local field
• We had a blanket auction tonight within our group…it’s hard to explain at this time of night, but it was fun and it was a chance for some of our students to donate some money to the daycare here.

It’s hard to explain the plethera of experiences. The prayer guide today asked for prayer for syngery amongst our team, and I’m thrilled to share with you how fantastic we are all getting along. This has taken me nearly an hour because everyone is just sitting around, young and old, roaring with laughter (and then all hushing at each other because there are 3 babies sleeping in the next room). Thanks for praying!

My thoughts are scattered so I’m just gonna call it quits on this one! Tomorrow we head to the FFHM mission. We’ll let you know what’s up next chance we get!