Lady's Day

This last Saturday the women of our congregation hosted their 4th annual nation-wide women's reunion. Though, I was not to participate necessarily in the conference itself, I was to help, with the rest of the AIM men, to take care of the kids. It was definitely a job, but we survived and so did the kids. Most of the men of the Church participated in one way or another: preparing food, watching kids, taking care of electrical adjustments, setting/tearing down tables, and clean-up.
The reunion itself turned out great. With as many as 120-130 women from just about all over Mexico here in Leon to glorify God by communing and learning from His word and making relationships. The men glorified as well by serving.
All in all I really believe that this retreat, although one-day long, really glorified the name of Jesus, and after all, isn't that what it's all about?
The next day, on Sunday, we held a potluck in which with the ladies you stayed got to participate and we all got to meet them. It was a blast. I think that we were all a little worn after that day. Praise God for the work here.

Morelia!

Just the other day a few of us went out to a city called Morelia to spend time with the church out there. We went out to a georgeous lake out in the country called Humecuaro. We spent the day out there on Saturday having a good time grilling, playing games, and getting to know the church out there. It was a beautiful place that reminded me a lot of Oklahoma. That night a team-mate, Princeton, and I stayed at the missionaries house to attend service with them the following day. The service was great and I really feel and know that this trip was very well spent and that we touched some lives out there. It is a very nice city and I do wish to one-day visit God's Church in Morelia again one day.

Thanksgiving

Great day of Thanksgiving we celebrity down here! We each made a dish and brought it to our Coordinator, Omar's, house where we all came and shared and gave thanks to God. We not only shared the meal and the time but we also wrote Psalms of thanks to God and we read them to each other. It was great to here the heart of each person express how thankful they are toward God and the things, people, experiences, and of course, Jesus, that He has shared with us as we are equally blessed to follow His plan for our lives. Happy Thanksgiving! I am thankful for YOU!

¡Órale! Six months on the field!

Blessed be the Father whoa carries us to where we need to be from where we are! I think it is aweome that just six months ago we arrived in México not knowing a thing of Spanish or much of what México was like. But glory be to God who gives all good gifts that He has blessed us with our time here. Learning and growing more and more, and putting ourselves in His hands to walk where we can't see and serve those we meet. Learning. That's what we've been doing. I have been personally affected so much here, in this short amount of time, by the culture and the love that the Church has here. God's people are good! Though not all of it has been fun we have been working hard.
Thank you for sharing this blessing with me! I see grace and thanks in the Heart of the Lion.

Mexico Missionary Retreat

Hey! We've been working,praying,and playing hard here in México. Recently we went to the México Missionary's Retreat down on the beaches of beautiful Ixtapa. It was wonderful to meet an get to know all the missionaries that came, old and new. Some that have been in México for several years and some that have hear as long as we have. It was great and very encouraging just to be around a bunch of other people who had the same focus in this country as us, that being, expanding Christ's eternal kingdom. Some great people and willing hearts working for the Lord all over the world. Pray that God opens doors and equips us to walk through them. Thank you! Serving Him In the Heart of the Lion.

God Will Always Be With Us

So think about your life. Where you have messed up. The times where you have fallen. The times where life was hard, either on account of circumstances out of your control, or even the ones that you yourself had caused. What did life look like in those moments? Did you feel broken? Broken to the point of tears? Lost? Angry? What did you feel? What did you do in those moments? Pray to God for grace to save you? What happened then? God lifted you up, didn't He? This is what happens every-time. Whether we see it in the moment or not. Whether or not we deserve it. God comes through every single time.
The beautiful thing is that when we reflect upon our lives and take a long hard look at where God had restored order to the mess that we had created, we slowly begin to realize that this isn't OUR life at all. God is the one that gives the life. From Genesis on that has been the message. In the beginning God made order to chaos and then He gave us life.
Now He gives us a whole different type of life. A life offered through grace through the death of His son. A life to be lived to the full (Jn. 10:10). A clean start that we don't deserve. A life in which He himself said, "And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." (Matt. 28:20)
If also you remember the passage in Isaiah 43:2, "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through the fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall no consume you." And again in Isaiah 40:31, "... but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up on wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint."
God is faithful, and He promises His faithfulness. Not convinced? Read Romans 8, the whole thing, it's beautiful. And, it tells us that we are "more than conquerors through him that loved us." (Rom.8:37) and that, "nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Rom.8:39)
So what am I trying to say? Is this another Jesus loves you pep-talk? Yes, yes it is. You know why? Because, that's the truth. Jesus does love you, and He wants you to know that. I encourage you brothers, to never give up. Even when you think that what you've done is too bad. That when your life seems just too chaotic, remember Who has the control. When you can't walk, crawl. Just don't give up. And ALWAYS put your faith in Him who saves and loves completely. Because, He gave up His life for us to have life, and to put it back in His hands, the hands of the One who breathes it.
And that's what I see, In The Heart of The Lion.

Youth Reunion

Just recently the Church here in León hosted a huge Reunión de Jovenes (Youth Retreat). This was a huge blessing and a great success. It was only a day long with the theme was Rompiendo Cadenas (Breaking Chains). We had six classes to choose from, each having their own topic related to the theme. There were about 140 or so youth that attended. Each was given their own bag, t-shirt, and pen all sporting the theme of the day. Most of the León youth were assigned to some job for the day, whether it was taking out the trash, clean up, making sure there was enough seats in each class, that everyone was able to find their class, registering, teaching, or food. The day went smoothly, easy transitions between classes, and towards the end we played a huge Bible jeopardy type game between congregations and then we had our last meal of the day and a final lesson. Afterwards, we cleaned up and took some of the youth that were able to go to downtown León to hang out and eat. It was nice night and we capped it off with singing in front of a very nice square in front of a very nice cathedral. God is good and works in some wonderful ways to bring His people together to praise Him and get to know each other. Because, we are part of The Body. That's what I see in the Heart of the Lion.

Spanish, Relationships, and Ministry

So things have been going pretty well here with our work and ministry. There is one person in specific that I would like to mention. His name is Abraham. He is about 24 years old, speaks English, and is going through a rough time in life right now. He has been connected with the AIMers and people from the Church here for some time now but just has a lot of questions and doubts because of his past religious background of Jehovah's Witness. He has a good heart and is searching for truth. Please pray that he can find a job and for his heart as we continue our studies with him. I am honored that God has blessed me with this opportunity to be involved in Abraham's life and to help minister the simple, beautiful, Gospel to him.

Also, Spanish is going fairly smoothly on most days, and we are progressing well in our classes. We have also had some really cool opportunities to do some things like visit Mexico's Bicentennial fair grounds near Guanajuato, on more than one occasion, to experience much of the culture and look at cool art and history displays in Spanish! At times it can be trying and cause headaches, and it can get pretty tiring(at best) when people don't even understand your Spanish. So for those of you who have had to learn a foreign language, I feel your pain. But, it is a blessing when you stop to think about it, and I know that God is faithful and I need to just keep striving and HE will keep giving strength.

I am enjoying the people here in the Church more and more and getting to spend more time with them as we go. It becomes easier to want to go hang out with families on a Sunday afternoon or some of the kids with the youth as I become a bit more confident with my Spanish. I believe the key to loving any place and making it feel closer to home is the people. When I think of favorite places or songs or times from back home I think of the PEOPLE who made it so special in the first place. So I think the same concept applies here, in a new country and new customs and new language. The harder you try to love people and get to know them the quicker a HOUSE can turn into a HOME.

Well there you go. Thank you for taking the time to read this and may God bless you in your WALK of FAITH. Remember to grab a hold of the LIFE that HE gives! Live it up!
And that's what I see in the heart of the lion.

Cañada Real

There is a community just outside of the city of León called Cañada Real where the government is trying to build good morals of non-violence, trust, and respect in the children there. So we were invited to help give lessons and conduct activities with the kids using those themes of non-violence, trust, and respect. We made up stories and crafts and snacks for the kids with our groups each based around a different theme. The group I was in had the theme of trust.

It was a lot of fun and I think the kids really enjoyed the time which seemed to go by way to fast. I enjoyed the time with the kids and I pray that, just like with the kids in Chetumal, the seed that we planted, of Christ like examples and stories, can grow in those children's hearts and minds.

VBS in Chetumal

If you recall, I had spoken of leaving for a VBS in Chetumal, Quintana Roo, which is located in the Yucatan peninsula, but I may not have also mentioned that I was incredibly nervous about this trip. I am not one who really enjoys 25-30 hours on a bus, and I knew it was going to cost a lot of money and I don't exactly have the best Spanish. Though, the coordinator of this event does speak English I was still very uneasy about taking orders from those who didn't and If I would have the patience needed to deal with 70 or so kids (all speaking Spanish) everyday all week. Well, suffice it to say that I started praying hard about God's hand on me and my team in this trip. I had already been praying for the kids and the VBS itself and for God's hand to touch the church and the people in the community there, at the request of Carla(VBS coordinator), but I had to pray for something personal. I commenced to pray very hard for my strength and patience and attitude during our journey and during the VBS.
To tell the truth, I went expecting to work like a dog, spend all day with children, and to take orders from someone who I didn't think liked us very much. Though we did work hard and spend our whole day with kids from the area we ended up loving Carla and she treated us very well.
On the second day of our arrival we started to set-up the VBS, and we had our work cut out for us. An event place was rented for the week and we had the privilege of cleaning of the mess of the last party that had rented it. Then we could finally get started setting up our stations and hanging up posters and decorating the entire place to make it look how Carla had envisioned. The first day was a lot of work and we stayed from morning till night fixing up the place.
The whole week was themed. Monday was themed "God is Real"! With the them character being Buc the Horse. Tuesday was "God is with Us," and this day's character was Shadow the Prairie Dog. Wednesday, "God is Strong," and the character Ranger the Buffalo. Thursday, "God is Awesome!" with Skye the Eagle. Friday, was the last day and was themed "God is in Control," with the character Boss the Bull.
Each day was different and each day was amazing. We would wake up about 6 in the morning everyday, the VBS was only about 3 hours a day with at least an hour of clean up at the beginning and end of each day. What I didn't expect, though a pleasant surprise, was the amount of time we had after the work of the day. We had from about 12 p.m.- 11 or so at night, before we finally would get to bed, to fellowship with the brothers and sisters there and get to see the sights of Chetumal. It was definitely worth the time and effort with the kids, which was a lot of fun, to get to spend the rest of the day relaxing in beautiful south Mexico.
I learned so much during our time down there and I feel much more confident about my Spanish after that week. I love God's people and I miss the people I got to know and who got to know me. I had a great amount of fun and I praise God for the work and the opportunity He has given me. He is so beautiful and graceful and always with us. As a wise man once said, "You will see, everywhere you go, God's people are good."

Photos of the week can be found on facebook.com

To Grips

Do you ever find that you just can't seem to get it right no matter how hard you try? Have you ever thought to yourself,"I just want to give up!" Well, you are not the only one. Now, I'm not talking about things like: a great bowling game, fixing your car, or even solving that problem in your relationship you just can't seem to understand. No, what I am talking about are things of the heart, deeper things; trying to understand and to be more of what we are called to be. I'm a talking about trying to be more like Jesus. Having the heart of Christ is quite possibly the most difficult task I have ever encountered. Since it is the one thing that matters the most to me, I push myself to try extra hard. And yet still, I seem to always find myself failing even harder. "Why is this?", I ask. Why, when in all my prayers and petitions, I seem to always fall short? I think all of us who are truly trying to be disciples of Christ ask ourselves this question almost daily, if not weekly.
As a friend told me on the walk home from Spanish class today,"This is not a bad question to ask, it means you are actually trying. Maybe you just have to come to grips with the way things are and move on. You are not going to get it right the first time you know. How many times did the apostles themselves and even Paul have to mess up before they got it right just once?" Even then they still didn't admit that they never made a poor decision again.
We may not want to admit it sometimes but, unfortunately, we are powerless to change the past. We simply have to trust that God can use our mistakes, and move on to forgiving ourselves, which is, at times, the hardest thing to do. I mean, how can we move on to anything else, like loving and forgiving others, if we can't even do that for ourselves. I have the hardest time with this.
So really, in the end, asking God to intervene and make everything pretty again is not a "pretty" process. It actually was a heart breaking, bloody, and passionate process that He started just about 2,000 years ago. So, becoming more like Christ, being more conformed to His image, from what I have seen and experienced, is a lot of prayer yes, but it is also a lot of coming to grips with the fact that it is going to hurt and we will fail and we must move on. Strength, endurance, patience, humility, and all those things that we desire to have from life, comes at a price, just like that perfect bowling game, fixing that car, and solving that problem in the relationship. That is what I see In the Heart of the Lion.