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March 14th, 2008
Day Two – Mexico Mission
We are in Ensenada, Mexico. The thing I discovered is that after taking two years of Spanish in high school, I have nothing to show for. It also struck me that I had spent so many days on my Dad’s work site (He finishes concrete) and had some many opportunities to learn about the work he does. I thought about how relevant that knowledge would be in the heart of Ensenada. We are building a house for Rosalinda, a local here in Ensenada. She has two kids and we just heard that a week ago her husband left her after his father passed away. Rick has encouraged us to worry more about the relationship than the construction project we have. The pace of the culture is so much slower than ours. The question was asked during out debriefing, what do you expect God to do? I always seem to have an answer for everything, and this time was no different. I really felt a prompting from the Holy Spirit (and we ran out of time) to just wait and listen. So I did, I listened to all the high school students answers to the question. What I wanted to say was truly and honestly a reflection of my own heart. The pace is slower because their priorities are different; relationships are far more important than anything else. Our fast paced country that we live in has a lot to show for but little to love. The heart of average American has many calices on their hearts. The push and drive for “success” appears to be healthy, but has truly destroyed the basic foundation of relational living. . God has made it very clear that his desire for me this week is to step back, and watch; His desire is for me to see life in the lenses of another culture. I think for the first time I am excited about listening first, making speaking secondary. I came down here more because of the need; both from our churches stand point, and from the countries stand point. God designed this trip for me because of the spiritual need my heart had. My prayer is that I don’t get lost and miss what God is doing, my prayer is that God will constantly remind me of my blessed epiphany, my prayer is that my flesh doesn’t not waste another precious day with the Mexican people.
God, I love you, you are holy, you are holy, completely perfect, set apart from everything I know and see. You are worthy of my worship, my praise, my heart, my life, all that I am, is for you. I can’t fathom a moment in your presence and yet I long for it. I love you, intercede in my heart this week. Be more than just a religious figure, be more than just words from my lips, be more than just my routine moral thought process, be all that you are, be everything I sing you are. My God, My Savior, My King.
March 18, 2008
Day Three – Mexico Mission
Another day in Mexico, its Tuesday and today we worked another day on Rosalinda’s house. We also worked on the roof of Ricardo’s church. There are five pastors that are connected to Rick and Tammie; Ricardo, Faustino, Risario, Francisco, and Sammy. For me today was physically exhausting, I don’t really know what it is. I spent much of the day shadowing Neal and trying to take in the small details involved in a mission trip. The funny thing is that the details, while important, are not nearly as stressed as the interaction with the people. The missionary said it yesterday but today I saw it lived out. I heard a message that Louie Giglio gave last week called the Global Mission. He talked specifically about the mission that Jesus laid out in the Great Commission, and then he talked about the party that will come when His kingdom comes. The point of the message was “to the degree we embrace the mission, is to the degree we will enjoy the party.” He visually tied a rope between a sign that read “Go” and a window that used to symbolize the party. The message became a humbling reality today as I hesitated to embrace the people who were not as “clean” as me. I can barely hold a decent hello, goodbye conversation but I can tell you that the more I embrace the people of Ensenada, the more I fall in love with this city. It is different, completely different from everything I know, but where our culture lacks, this place thrives. I will rest tonight knowing that in four days when I say goodbye to the five pastors and missionary family, knowing that goodbye is only temporary, because we as a mission team decided to embrace the mission and someday, as a result, we will enjoy the party all the more.
March 19th, 2008
Day Four – Mexico Mission
The day started on the roof of Ricardo’s church. It was by far the craziest thing I have done in awhile. We had a 20 foot sketchy latter that couldn’t reach the top of the roof, and so we backed a pick up and wedged the latter from the bed of the truck to the top of the roof. The latter could barely hold a person, and on top of it all we carried fifty pounds of roofing material up the sketchy latter. It was a great way to start day four. We continued to Francisco church to do a little VBS. It was our smallest crowd and I will be honest, it was tough to get up for. I browsed the kids in preparation for what was about to come and a phrase Chris Lyons had always said to me hit me “Jesus spoke his most powerful sermons to the smallest crowds.” I was reminded of the opportunity that we had, the small chance to show the joy of Jesus, and while we could not directly communicate without a translator, eternal joy is universal. Taylor sang some songs, in English, and we showed the kids and their parents the dance moves. At first, all we got was crazy looks, but it wasn’t long before we had the whole Mexican crowd doing the hand motions to “waves of mercy, waves of grace.” I lost myself in the moment, completely taken over by the overwhelming exciting of what was going on. I didn’t realize the significance until Tammie leaned over and said to us as we were walking to our cars “That is the first time I have seen them join in and participate with the American songs, that was great.” It’s so important to remember that God message is not sensitive to just the number of listening ears, all he needs is one heart to touch, and somebody willing to be used.
We had a earlier dinner because of two different church services; both Ricardo’s church and Reynerio’s church. Neal leaned over to me at dinner and asked if I would preach and two hours later I was in front of 40 locals and 10 of our own missionaries. It was a interesting experience to speak to people who have no idea what you are talking about, they can barely relate, all that they know is that we worship the same God, and that concept alone is worthy of a listening, and so they did. We talked specifically about the feeding of the 5000, and the idea that our greatest need is Jesus, and the more we understand that as a need, the more we will desire it. I was privileged and humbled to give my American perception of God to these people, but I have a feeling that these people have given me more than any 15 minutes sermon I could ever provide for anybody. I was talking to Matt (One of our High School Leaders,) he talked about how blessed he was to be with the people of Ensenada. We stood atop a mountain and took in how little the live by, he confessed he was in tears more than once today. They are decades behind how we live, decades, but they do not lack one once of passion, not one pinch of love. The people we have encountered have everything we need to live, an eternal savior, food to eat, what they call a house (what we call a shack), and relationships. Their needs are met, because God provides, in every valley, on every mountain. His glory is everywhere…
Mexico Mission – Day 5
March 20, 2008
This entry will be much shorter, I am very tired tonight. God worked today, in the heart of our students and in the lives of the people we came in contact with. I met a young girl named Annacita. She was 8, beautiful and smart… She brought me a lot of joy, thinking about how bright her future could be. I got to preach again today, the translator read from the wrong book. We didn’t realize it tell after. It was pretty funny. It was a good day.
Thank you Jesus for another great day to serve you. You are indescribable, unbelievable, and absolutely extraordinary. I love you
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