Day 04: Press, Pace, Position, Pray

FOCUS FOX!

Sorry, i'm having trouble keeping my brain together while i am typing. Sheryl is wanting my attention while people are all

Hang on i have to take a pause.

Ok, distraction handled.... Handled in a good way, Sheryl's fine, don't panic.

So, today started out pretty slow in terms of how outreach felt. It didn't feel bad or discouraging, it just was more difficult to get into the gospel and spiritual things with people. We even scared one guy away by talking about how fragile life is.

Lunch was really encouraging, we had some of our contacts from yesterday join us and it looks like they may stick around and get connected, which would be the literal best-case scenario. Please pray for Raul. He's awesome.

In the afternoon, i paired up with Evan Grant (that's my roommate! (there, not here)). We started walking and i looked over and a girl sitting at a table nearby caught my eye (does that sound weird? not like that, y'all, come on). I was apprehensive about approaching her because it was two random American guys coming out of nowhere to talk to her...didn't want to send the wrong message. But we talked to her anyway. Brief transcript:
S: Disculpe, ¿hablas inglés?
AP: Of course, what's up?
S: Oh good! We're from Texas and just visiting for a week.
AP: Me too! I'm just visiting my boyfriend (#bless) for the week. I'm from Laredo, but i study in College Station.

Yup. She was an Aggie. In Monterrey. I don't know if you folks believe in coincidences, but i don't. Especially not when i'm doing outreach on a mission trip. We talked for a while about just about everything. We got to pray for her and share the gospel, she lives about a mile from my house in College Station andgoes to St. Mary's, but is figuring out how her fe. It was a really encouraging conversation, she was fun and attentive and had some profound insight into the world. We got to meet her boyfriend, but we had to part ways. I didn't want homeboy to get the wrong message either, so i gave her my email and Facebook information and let it be.

 One concern: this is live and unfolding, but someone at the Tec today told us we couldn't do outreach without a permit. It was one of the guards and he was on the phone with Mario, he was friendly and said we should be careful. We are trying to decide if we're going to go again tomorrow and just hope it works, go to off-campus areas near the Tec or jump in with the crew that's been going to the Uni... we will see...

We also played futbol today - well, it was the activity our group did - i hung out and played with a frisbee and wrestled Matthew and stuff... And afterwards, ¡tacos!

During dinner, i got to sit and talk with David for a while. He and his wife and a few other couples recently moved to a new neighborhood on the outskirts of Monterrey. The growth rate of the city means that what was recently out in the boonies is now a booming zona (suburb) with all the restaurants and amenities you could imagine. The cool thing is how they're approaching it: each zona in the city has its own culture and feel, but since theirs is so new, they're able to impact the development of the culture they're in. By reaching out to their neighbors and loving people well, the people in their neighborhood are beginning to love each other and develop a friendly, open culture. How cool is that?

Challenge: look at the cultures you find yourself in. You have an opportunity to define that culture, to shape it. So take steps to do so in a way that glorifies Christ.

It's ok if that title doesn't make sense.