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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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!

Buenos Diaz

We are here! We had a fantastic drive across the border yesterday and are thankful for the change in plans as it afforded us the oppurtunity to enjoy the beautiful drive along the coast as waves crashed up against the cliffs and the beaches. After we arrived we had a great lunch and went right away to the God Will Provide Daycare. There we spent the afternoon playing with the most gorgeous 32 kids you’ve ever seen. We were there for about 2 hours, and then we went to the new building site and got the tour of the new facility that is underconstruction. Today, about half our group is heading back there to haul dirt and cinder blocks around so that construction can continue.

Claire is an awesome cook, so I’m drawn away from the computer by the smell of waffles. Thanks for your ongoing prayers. Yesterday we asked you to pray that God would richly bless the daycare - and it was a great honor to head to Costco with them and load up with nearly $500 of food supplies for the daycare made possible by the great work of the Kidzone bake sale and other generous gifts! Today we will finish our shop for them with some much needed diapers and we’ll put it all together so that the kids in our church can get a visual of the great gift their hard work at the bake sale has become!

Last night we spent time thinking about how Jesus prioritized people’s needs. In Luke 5, the healing of the paralytic man, we see Jesus’ priority being on the spiritual as first he forgave the man’s sins, and secondly (and seemingly with a partial motivation of proving his authority to forgive sins) he healed the physical needs. Please pray that as individuals on our group as we move forward and minister that we would realize the depth of our need first to be forgiven and made right with God!

So close…

We are so close to Mexico, but had to make the decision after our 3 hour plane delay that we would stay tonight in San Diego rather than take on the Tijuana border at 10 pm with a few hours of driving after that. So here we are, 5 miles from the border and settling in fror an unexpected night’s stay at the Super 8 San Deigo. However, God is good and by blessing abundantly our fundraising efforts we can make decisions based on wisdom and God’s leading rather than being driven by fear and financial insecurity.

Tonight we looked briefly as a group at the cost of following Jesus as found in Matthew 8:18. We took time to journal what excuses we would/do give Jesus that cause us to not just up and follow him. After chatting with some teammates about it tonight, I ask you to pray specifically for the ability for us to sense the power of God to overcome sin, and to be made divinely aware of the joy that comes with wholehearted surrender to God.

To sum up today – it went a little outside of our plans, but not at all outside the Lord’s. There is something great about trusting God in that our plans can get flipped upside down but we can still have confidence that God’s plans for us haven’t been changed at all! In light of that, probably the most disappointing part of today is summed up on the picture you see of Mac – Reese in America has a “large size” option, but unfortunatly it’s just regular side to us Canadians. Too bad.

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