Monterrey is 1.25 of those cities, by the way.
It is strange for me, given my extreme compartmentalization, to begin my day in one Life and end it in another.
This morning was just another domingo in Monterrey; wake up, get picked up, set up church, attend church, attend church again, take down church, have a late and long lunch. If I've done it once, I've done it ten times...
Tonight, however, I am posting from my room in the Flagroom in C-Stat (well, Bryan, technically), Texas.
The time between has a blur of long, sad goodbyes, a crowded airplane, a quietdrive (yup) and readjusting my paradigm to College Station.
The nice thing is that I am going from Monterrey, Mexico (where my life is about evangelism, discipleship and leadership...but ultimately, God) to College Station, Texas (where my life is about leadership, discipleship and evangelism...but ultimately, God) with the knowledge that God used our team in awesome ways, grew our team in profound ways (that I doubt we realize currently) and will do the same with the members in their respective roles here in Texas.
So, pray for our team next year; that they might be as united and excited as this year...and that as we sow next year we will also reap and see the fruit of this year.
Thanks for reading.
Sam
Monday, March 18, 2013
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Day 8: Hoga Party...
Today was our official day for servicio social. We went to Hoga (remember your silent H), a center that helps with the rehabilitation of kids with various mental and physical disabilities. There were no kids there, since it was Saturday, but there was a lot of stuff that needed to be done. Our basic goal was to help them clean up before a big fundraising meeting.
The girls went inside to clean and the guys stayed outside to tidy up the property (there had been construction recently and there were a lot of material scattered around). I was put on arbol duty; collecting the big pieces of a bunch of trees that had fallen down, and putting them in a pile near the edge of the lot. I felt pretty tough, no lie, lugging around giant pieces of dead nature, but there was one trunk that I couldn't make any headway one, so after getting the others, I joined Greg, Adrian, and Stephen.
They were working with a few of the Hoga employees to relocate bunch of materials to a space behind a shed. It was basically a big pile of junk becoming a more orderly, less visible pile of junk. While moving stuff, we encountered roughly 82 cucarachas* (i can't bring myself to type it in English - nasty critters), 73 mil spiders, and 2 scrawny (and rather perturbed) opossums. (also, with the physics knowledge and strength of these other three gentlemen, we finally moved the big tree trunk with levers and other crafty stuff).
One tour, eight horses, and 23 sandwiches later; we left Hoga and headed for the hotel.
We thought better of it though and went to the centro instead to snag some gifts for our homies back home. Shopping, shopping, shopping....joking, laughing, playing... then we went to a delicious buffet (Mario joined us) for second lunch/early dinner (4:30 PM ish).
Back to the hotel! Shower! Clean shirt!
Tonight we went to Josue's grupo again and Henry talked about allowing the Spirit to bear fruit in our lives (a la Galatians 5). Afterwards we hung out and talked (some really encouraging talks, too) and told jokes that were funny and told jokes that were hilarious and told jokes that were probably best left untold...it was glorious.
Back to the hotel, had some more good conversations, typed a blog post, and then I went to bed when I realized that my grammar had been steadily spiraling towards oblivion.
Pray for the Church. The whole thing in all of her messy beauty. And for safe travel tomorrow.
*all of the numbers in the blog are potential victims of gross exaggeration and just pure made-up-ed-ness.
The girls went inside to clean and the guys stayed outside to tidy up the property (there had been construction recently and there were a lot of material scattered around). I was put on arbol duty; collecting the big pieces of a bunch of trees that had fallen down, and putting them in a pile near the edge of the lot. I felt pretty tough, no lie, lugging around giant pieces of dead nature, but there was one trunk that I couldn't make any headway one, so after getting the others, I joined Greg, Adrian, and Stephen.
They were working with a few of the Hoga employees to relocate bunch of materials to a space behind a shed. It was basically a big pile of junk becoming a more orderly, less visible pile of junk. While moving stuff, we encountered roughly 82 cucarachas* (i can't bring myself to type it in English - nasty critters), 73 mil spiders, and 2 scrawny (and rather perturbed) opossums. (also, with the physics knowledge and strength of these other three gentlemen, we finally moved the big tree trunk with levers and other crafty stuff).
One tour, eight horses, and 23 sandwiches later; we left Hoga and headed for the hotel.
We thought better of it though and went to the centro instead to snag some gifts for our homies back home. Shopping, shopping, shopping....joking, laughing, playing... then we went to a delicious buffet (Mario joined us) for second lunch/early dinner (4:30 PM ish).
Back to the hotel! Shower! Clean shirt!
Tonight we went to Josue's grupo again and Henry talked about allowing the Spirit to bear fruit in our lives (a la Galatians 5). Afterwards we hung out and talked (some really encouraging talks, too) and told jokes that were funny and told jokes that were hilarious and told jokes that were probably best left untold...it was glorious.
Back to the hotel, had some more good conversations, typed a blog post, and then I went to bed when I realized that my grammar had been steadily spiraling towards oblivion.
Pray for the Church. The whole thing in all of her messy beauty. And for safe travel tomorrow.
*all of the numbers in the blog are potential victims of gross exaggeration and just pure made-up-ed-ness.
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Day 7: Chill Achilles
or: best breakfast food ever.
I woke up this morning and ran with myself for 2 miles. Ate some chilaquiles for breakfast (Stephen has taken to using that word as a greeting..."chilaquiles," not "breakfast").
Adrian came and got us and we went to Juan Manuel's house to practice our karate (i'm told that is a Karate Kid reference. We painted). We moved furniture, laid down drop cloths and set up tape, then painted. We actually did a super good job (i'm very glad some people had more idea how to paint than me...) and the house looked amazing. We all ended up a little painted as well, of course. For lunch while we were painting, Adrian brought us two of the biggest Iranian-Mexican-American Italian food I have ever seen. (we had pizza from a place owned by an Iranian guy).
After painting (which lasted until 5ish), we went to get helado for a while before going to the carne asada planned for tonight. The purpose for the carne was spend time with the people here as well as have a time for our contacts to meet the church... unfortunately, we had it on a weekend before a holiday, so many people had already vacated the city. It was a chorro de fun though, and the food, of course, was delicious.
Towards the end of the night, I got a chance to sit and talk a bit with Pastor Sergio about the church in Monterrey, Fellowship, my homegroup, etc... It was really encouraging to hear how the church had been growing and get another peek at their vision for the future. Pastor Sergio spent a some time asking about my circumstances and talking about how the church in Monterrey needed someone to be there for a few months to a year to help with their vision. Someone very organized and passionate about evangelism; someone with an outside perspective who could help them get ready for their next big growth steps (i figure you guys see where this is going...pastors cast vision and recruit like ballers man) and how I would feel about something like that... but as we talked about my circumstances and what timeframe I could be somewhere besides College Station; he switched gears and asked me to keep my eyes open for anyone who might be able to help.
My propensity, as you well know, would be to go into an existential soliloquy now about my life and future and how confused I feel when I think about it...but I am sleepy, so you are off the hook this time.
Pray for good attitudes and humble hearts ready for service tomorrow.
I woke up this morning and ran with myself for 2 miles. Ate some chilaquiles for breakfast (Stephen has taken to using that word as a greeting..."chilaquiles," not "breakfast").
Adrian came and got us and we went to Juan Manuel's house to practice our karate (i'm told that is a Karate Kid reference. We painted). We moved furniture, laid down drop cloths and set up tape, then painted. We actually did a super good job (i'm very glad some people had more idea how to paint than me...) and the house looked amazing. We all ended up a little painted as well, of course. For lunch while we were painting, Adrian brought us two of the biggest Iranian-Mexican-American Italian food I have ever seen. (we had pizza from a place owned by an Iranian guy).
After painting (which lasted until 5ish), we went to get helado for a while before going to the carne asada planned for tonight. The purpose for the carne was spend time with the people here as well as have a time for our contacts to meet the church... unfortunately, we had it on a weekend before a holiday, so many people had already vacated the city. It was a chorro de fun though, and the food, of course, was delicious.
Towards the end of the night, I got a chance to sit and talk a bit with Pastor Sergio about the church in Monterrey, Fellowship, my homegroup, etc... It was really encouraging to hear how the church had been growing and get another peek at their vision for the future. Pastor Sergio spent a some time asking about my circumstances and talking about how the church in Monterrey needed someone to be there for a few months to a year to help with their vision. Someone very organized and passionate about evangelism; someone with an outside perspective who could help them get ready for their next big growth steps (i figure you guys see where this is going...pastors cast vision and recruit like ballers man) and how I would feel about something like that... but as we talked about my circumstances and what timeframe I could be somewhere besides College Station; he switched gears and asked me to keep my eyes open for anyone who might be able to help.
My propensity, as you well know, would be to go into an existential soliloquy now about my life and future and how confused I feel when I think about it...but I am sleepy, so you are off the hook this time.
Pray for good attitudes and humble hearts ready for service tomorrow.
Friday, March 15, 2013
Day 6: ...like an (almost) unforeseen kiss
In the ever-wise, ever-whiny words of Straylight Run: "I shoulda seen it coming...we left ourselves wide open..." I got kissed today. Not your normal everyone-greets-girls-with-a-"kiss"-in-Mexico-kiss... a kiss. But, in all fairness...he did warn me. Don't worry, it was platonic.
We'll get there.
Anyway, our morning time today was the best yet (a perfect note to end on). We met up, I had asked Greg to share about prayer (yes, i worded that sentence that way just so it would rhyme, so there!), and it was really encouraging... so we prayed together for a bit, then started praying for each other and encouraging each other and we sang a bit a capella, and we prayed for each other some more... it was beautiful. To have our team unified and ministering to each other in the Spirit... so, so good.
Then we went to La Uni to share the gospel in a place most of us had never been. The students in La Uni are mostly Regios (from Monterrey) and don't speak English like at the Tec. We had Josue and Carolina come with us to help translate, which put our numbers at 9 (an excellent, though odd number). UANL (La Uni), is enormous. Each department has its own area of campus and its own mascot as well. We started at FARQ (architecture, the Pegasus) and walked over to where we would meet up for lunch. On the walk over, the unthinkable occurred: Stephen had been threatening to kiss my cheek (a greeting) for about a day and a half. Annnnnd he got me. I recovered though and we went out to share the gospel in teams (though I went solo again for the morning).
The Evangelism went pretty well; La Uni feels a little more like A&M in its size and openness and student body. We had some good conversations, and I got to see the inner workings of the Industrail Design Lab... We met back up for lunch and, while in line, talked a bit with one of the chavos working there, who was from Houston and talked a little English with us.
After lunch, I teamed up with Greg and Josue to try to get some bold, good conversations in Spanish. We got to talk with a few people and went through the gospel a couple of times. It was really encouraging; hopefully some of the people we met will come to church with us.
When we had about 45 minutes left we were walking around, looking for someone to talk to when we saw the guy from the cafeteria again and started talking. He told us he had gotten deported from Houston for getting in trouble with the law, but it was good because a lot of his friends had ended up in jail or dead instead of just deported. He said God had been changing his life and he quoted some scripture to us. We walked him to the metro and he opened up about how hard it was to resist temptation and live a good life and how much he missed having family. He would try and fail and try and fail...de hecho, just yesterday, he told us, he had hit a guy with a rock (in semi self-defense) and the guy got knocked unconscious. We talked a little about grace and prayed for him (his name was Jesus) and gave him a gospel thing with our church address on it... We'll see what fruit it bears (or maybe we won't, who knows?)
After our time at La Uni, we went to eat dinner at Carolina's house with her family. Everyone had an amazing time... Her youngest sister, Lizeth, is ridiculously cute. She made us dance and kissed everyone at least 7 times. We ate some fantastic food, then I ate a serrano, then I cried. :)
I've had this song stuck in my head all day:
Lay your burdens down, every care you carry;
And come to the table of Grace, for there is Mercy.
Come just as you are, we are all unworthy
To enter the presence of God, for he is holy...
Lift up your hearts, lift up your hands;
Fall on your knees and pray.
For the King of Kings and the Love he brings
Is here in this place.
We raise our voices, raise our song;
We offer him our praise.
For the King of Kings and the Joy he brings
Is here—he is here—in this place
Pray for good connections between our contacts and the church as well as for a welcoming spirit in the church members here...
We'll get there.
Anyway, our morning time today was the best yet (a perfect note to end on). We met up, I had asked Greg to share about prayer (yes, i worded that sentence that way just so it would rhyme, so there!), and it was really encouraging... so we prayed together for a bit, then started praying for each other and encouraging each other and we sang a bit a capella, and we prayed for each other some more... it was beautiful. To have our team unified and ministering to each other in the Spirit... so, so good.
Then we went to La Uni to share the gospel in a place most of us had never been. The students in La Uni are mostly Regios (from Monterrey) and don't speak English like at the Tec. We had Josue and Carolina come with us to help translate, which put our numbers at 9 (an excellent, though odd number). UANL (La Uni), is enormous. Each department has its own area of campus and its own mascot as well. We started at FARQ (architecture, the Pegasus) and walked over to where we would meet up for lunch. On the walk over, the unthinkable occurred: Stephen had been threatening to kiss my cheek (a greeting) for about a day and a half. Annnnnd he got me. I recovered though and we went out to share the gospel in teams (though I went solo again for the morning).
The Evangelism went pretty well; La Uni feels a little more like A&M in its size and openness and student body. We had some good conversations, and I got to see the inner workings of the Industrail Design Lab... We met back up for lunch and, while in line, talked a bit with one of the chavos working there, who was from Houston and talked a little English with us.
After lunch, I teamed up with Greg and Josue to try to get some bold, good conversations in Spanish. We got to talk with a few people and went through the gospel a couple of times. It was really encouraging; hopefully some of the people we met will come to church with us.
When we had about 45 minutes left we were walking around, looking for someone to talk to when we saw the guy from the cafeteria again and started talking. He told us he had gotten deported from Houston for getting in trouble with the law, but it was good because a lot of his friends had ended up in jail or dead instead of just deported. He said God had been changing his life and he quoted some scripture to us. We walked him to the metro and he opened up about how hard it was to resist temptation and live a good life and how much he missed having family. He would try and fail and try and fail...de hecho, just yesterday, he told us, he had hit a guy with a rock (in semi self-defense) and the guy got knocked unconscious. We talked a little about grace and prayed for him (his name was Jesus) and gave him a gospel thing with our church address on it... We'll see what fruit it bears (or maybe we won't, who knows?)
After our time at La Uni, we went to eat dinner at Carolina's house with her family. Everyone had an amazing time... Her youngest sister, Lizeth, is ridiculously cute. She made us dance and kissed everyone at least 7 times. We ate some fantastic food, then I ate a serrano, then I cried. :)
I've had this song stuck in my head all day:
Lay your burdens down, every care you carry;
And come to the table of Grace, for there is Mercy.
Come just as you are, we are all unworthy
To enter the presence of God, for he is holy...
Lift up your hearts, lift up your hands;
Fall on your knees and pray.
For the King of Kings and the Love he brings
Is here in this place.
We raise our voices, raise our song;
We offer him our praise.
For the King of Kings and the Joy he brings
Is here—he is here—in this place
Pray for good connections between our contacts and the church as well as for a welcoming spirit in the church members here...
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Day 5: Gangsters and Thugs
Yes, sad to say, that is not just a song reference. We had our first run in with gang activity today...in our own hotel... We'll get to that though.
I got to run with Stephen again today; we were both hurting pretty bad because we've had Cocas so often. It still was a good way to start the day; waking us up early enough to spend some good time getting ready for the day.
We met up for our pre-day team meeting and I asked everyone to share some stories from the days before. Testimonies are always awesome and God has been using our team in amazing ways. Then I shared my favorite passage from my favorite book: II Corinthians 5:11-21. Read it. No, go ahead.
Still waiting...
Good. Wasn't that awesome? (< who says i'm not optimistic?)
We headed to the Tec and I teamed up with Adrian to go Gospelizing. We talked to a couple of guys who were really interested and really interesting. I really hope they come and get plugged in. It was our last day on the Tec campus; tomorrow we will go to La Uni. We'll need translators though. It seems like when the GCLA people came to check interest in Monterrey for a church plant, it was surprising how fertile the ground was. And when they planted the church and started to share the gospel, it was surprising how well the seeds took. And now, it is surprising to see how fast everything is growing and how plentiful the harvest is (Lord, send workers!*)... but maybe it's not so surprising after all...
After lunch, I went with Javier, Lulu (who we met 2 years ago), Sheryl, and a new girl we had met that day. Javier played the guitar and sang Spanish songs, Lulu played the guitar some and harmonized to the Spanish songs, I sat and listened and threw in the occasional musical contribution, Sheryl and our new friend (whose name I can pronounce, but not spell) sat and talked. It was a lot of fun, good follow-up, and relaxing to boot...
After our time on the Tec campus, there was a reunion for the liderazgo in the church, so Mario took us to get some tacos (de trompo for me mmm...) and we laughed and talked and talked and laughed and ate and ate and talked. Afterwards, we went back to the hotel and hung out in the atrium/pool area.
Fijate que, this is where everything just went wrong. Let it never be said that I did not try my utmost to protect my team; but despite my best efforts, we played Mafia ("really sam? that is your gang activity? i read this whole post for nothing!" Well, you haven't read all of it just yet, but yea, that's it). It was fun to play with Mario, he picked it up really quickly (i.e. was the mafia and won. twice). But, as happens with all games based entirely on deception and manipulation, it spiraled downhill and we called it a night. Incidentally, if you do play Mafia, make Stephen Campbell be your narrarator. You will (probably) not regret it, and definitely not forget it. I think I pulled a muscle in my throat laughing too hard.
Pray that our team will find energy and our relationships will continue to be based in love!
* I just want to say: when I ask God to send laborers, I don't just mean to Mexico, I mean everywhere. And I do mean You. We are all called to take part. If you haven't gone on an STM (short-term mission trip), you should. Time is not a valid excuse, I have 6 days off from work this year; I am so glad I got to use 5 of them here. Money is not a valid excuse. Ask any member of our team; God provides if you are humble and faithful to ask. Try it. A group near you has a trip, sign up and go. It is so good, guys. Ok, I'm done :)
I got to run with Stephen again today; we were both hurting pretty bad because we've had Cocas so often. It still was a good way to start the day; waking us up early enough to spend some good time getting ready for the day.
We met up for our pre-day team meeting and I asked everyone to share some stories from the days before. Testimonies are always awesome and God has been using our team in amazing ways. Then I shared my favorite passage from my favorite book: II Corinthians 5:11-21. Read it. No, go ahead.
Still waiting...
Good. Wasn't that awesome? (< who says i'm not optimistic?)
We headed to the Tec and I teamed up with Adrian to go Gospelizing. We talked to a couple of guys who were really interested and really interesting. I really hope they come and get plugged in. It was our last day on the Tec campus; tomorrow we will go to La Uni. We'll need translators though. It seems like when the GCLA people came to check interest in Monterrey for a church plant, it was surprising how fertile the ground was. And when they planted the church and started to share the gospel, it was surprising how well the seeds took. And now, it is surprising to see how fast everything is growing and how plentiful the harvest is (Lord, send workers!*)... but maybe it's not so surprising after all...
After lunch, I went with Javier, Lulu (who we met 2 years ago), Sheryl, and a new girl we had met that day. Javier played the guitar and sang Spanish songs, Lulu played the guitar some and harmonized to the Spanish songs, I sat and listened and threw in the occasional musical contribution, Sheryl and our new friend (whose name I can pronounce, but not spell) sat and talked. It was a lot of fun, good follow-up, and relaxing to boot...
After our time on the Tec campus, there was a reunion for the liderazgo in the church, so Mario took us to get some tacos (de trompo for me mmm...) and we laughed and talked and talked and laughed and ate and ate and talked. Afterwards, we went back to the hotel and hung out in the atrium/pool area.
Fijate que, this is where everything just went wrong. Let it never be said that I did not try my utmost to protect my team; but despite my best efforts, we played Mafia ("really sam? that is your gang activity? i read this whole post for nothing!" Well, you haven't read all of it just yet, but yea, that's it). It was fun to play with Mario, he picked it up really quickly (i.e. was the mafia and won. twice). But, as happens with all games based entirely on deception and manipulation, it spiraled downhill and we called it a night. Incidentally, if you do play Mafia, make Stephen Campbell be your narrarator. You will (probably) not regret it, and definitely not forget it. I think I pulled a muscle in my throat laughing too hard.
Pray that our team will find energy and our relationships will continue to be based in love!
* I just want to say: when I ask God to send laborers, I don't just mean to Mexico, I mean everywhere. And I do mean You. We are all called to take part. If you haven't gone on an STM (short-term mission trip), you should. Time is not a valid excuse, I have 6 days off from work this year; I am so glad I got to use 5 of them here. Money is not a valid excuse. Ask any member of our team; God provides if you are humble and faithful to ask. Try it. A group near you has a trip, sign up and go. It is so good, guys. Ok, I'm done :)
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Day 4: recurring themes
You want to know what is better than running some mornings? Sleeping in.
After breakfast, we had a mini-meeting with the team. I talked about encouragement (remember that for later) in our labor and Bethany shared a verse: Efesos 3:16-18...
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ
We left for the Tec, this time all 7 of us, ready to go share some Jesus. Given the odd number of people; I flew solo, with plans to trade with Greg for the afternoon (who would use his solo time to prepare a teaching to share with us Thursday morning). So... fun fact: I have never gone cold-call evangelizing (i.e. "Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy, but here's my Jesus... be reconciled to him for the sake of his glory and your salvation maybe?") by myself before. So, I went today to try and share with the Tec students in Spanish. The first few guys I talked with were awesome; one guys, David, even came to the grupo tonight.
After lunch, Adrian joined us, so he went with Sheryl (who had been paired with Greg), Greg set out to prepare a teaching, and I continued talking with people. Now, per my previous post, I have been patterning my style on my partners. Today, I mostly started chill and amped it up as the conversation progressed. I generally see myself as a fairly optimistic person; I got hit really hard with discouragement (hm) today after a conversation I had though. I went and sat in a courtyard and read my Bible and prayed a bit to try to shake it off. I ended up in Ephesians and reading the same verse that got shared this morning. Greg and I teamed back up and sat and talked with another girl before we all grouped back up to roll out.
I also talked with a girl I saw on campus...who turned out to be 14 and waiting for her mom to get off of work. I turned my non-creeper vibes on at full strength and we sat and talked a while about her youth group, which sounded awesome, then left without getting any contact information from her (very deliberately)
So, everybody met back up in the plaza to meet up with Adrian....or was it Javier? Or...wait...were we supposed to meet at Javier's apartment? We decided to walk there (2 blocks from the Tec) and see. No one was there, but we decided to wait. Eventually a semi-worried looking Adrian and then Javier showed up. They were worried they had lost their gringitos, but all was well. We had a brief jam session with Stephen and Javier (Stephen played "Safe Place," which references that same verse in Ephesians), then got ready for the group.
David (the guy I met) was the first to arrive. I was super glad he came (I hope he sticks; I really enjoyed talking to him). Javier shared with the group; focusing on the question A donde voy? Where am I going? He started by asking the group where they saw themselves in 3, 10, & 50 years. He then transitioned into the gospel and what happens after death. There were a few questions, but they got handled very well and the gospel was shared very effectively, very beautifully.
(parenthetically, i didn't have any good answers for the 3,10, 50 questions. 3 made me nervous and a bit sad, 10 just didn't compute, and 50 made me feel exhausted).
Quote for today:
"I don't read the Bible in English!" - The Javier Morones
Pray for lasting relationships, team unity, and salvations for our next day on campus.
After breakfast, we had a mini-meeting with the team. I talked about encouragement (remember that for later) in our labor and Bethany shared a verse: Efesos 3:16-18...
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ
We left for the Tec, this time all 7 of us, ready to go share some Jesus. Given the odd number of people; I flew solo, with plans to trade with Greg for the afternoon (who would use his solo time to prepare a teaching to share with us Thursday morning). So... fun fact: I have never gone cold-call evangelizing (i.e. "Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy, but here's my Jesus... be reconciled to him for the sake of his glory and your salvation maybe?") by myself before. So, I went today to try and share with the Tec students in Spanish. The first few guys I talked with were awesome; one guys, David, even came to the grupo tonight.
After lunch, Adrian joined us, so he went with Sheryl (who had been paired with Greg), Greg set out to prepare a teaching, and I continued talking with people. Now, per my previous post, I have been patterning my style on my partners. Today, I mostly started chill and amped it up as the conversation progressed. I generally see myself as a fairly optimistic person; I got hit really hard with discouragement (hm) today after a conversation I had though. I went and sat in a courtyard and read my Bible and prayed a bit to try to shake it off. I ended up in Ephesians and reading the same verse that got shared this morning. Greg and I teamed back up and sat and talked with another girl before we all grouped back up to roll out.
I also talked with a girl I saw on campus...who turned out to be 14 and waiting for her mom to get off of work. I turned my non-creeper vibes on at full strength and we sat and talked a while about her youth group, which sounded awesome, then left without getting any contact information from her (very deliberately)
So, everybody met back up in the plaza to meet up with Adrian....or was it Javier? Or...wait...were we supposed to meet at Javier's apartment? We decided to walk there (2 blocks from the Tec) and see. No one was there, but we decided to wait. Eventually a semi-worried looking Adrian and then Javier showed up. They were worried they had lost their gringitos, but all was well. We had a brief jam session with Stephen and Javier (Stephen played "Safe Place," which references that same verse in Ephesians), then got ready for the group.
David (the guy I met) was the first to arrive. I was super glad he came (I hope he sticks; I really enjoyed talking to him). Javier shared with the group; focusing on the question A donde voy? Where am I going? He started by asking the group where they saw themselves in 3, 10, & 50 years. He then transitioned into the gospel and what happens after death. There were a few questions, but they got handled very well and the gospel was shared very effectively, very beautifully.
(parenthetically, i didn't have any good answers for the 3,10, 50 questions. 3 made me nervous and a bit sad, 10 just didn't compute, and 50 made me feel exhausted).
Quote for today:
"I don't read the Bible in English!" - The Javier Morones
Pray for lasting relationships, team unity, and salvations for our next day on campus.
Monday, March 11, 2013
Day 3: the most amazing things...
Today was a day of "finally"s.
I finally woke up early enough to run today. Stephen and I put in a quick tempo run, just over 3 miles. It felt wonderful. And it was great to run with Stephen. Our team would have been definitely incomplete without him.
We finally got to have a morning team meeting to focus before our day starts. We talked about Joy, and the necessity of operating in God's joy because it is where our strength is... though the meeting was thrown off a bit because,
We finally got hit with some (at least to my mind) spiritual warfare. Erica was sick this morning, which was sad because I was really excited about her experiencing our evangelism out on the campus. But, we prayed for her and got her some medicina and made her rest. By the end of the day, she was back in top form, which is very encouraging.
Finally, we arrive at my favorite "finally:"
We finally got out on campus to talk to people about Jesus. I love, love, love this part because, not only is it the entire point of us being here (and when i say "us," i mean all christians. and when i say "here," i mean earth), but it shows the beauty of how we are all different body parts and God uses us all for his glory. To explain: my strategy in sharing the gospel here is to adapt to the style of whoever I am teamed up with. Sometimes it will be boldly sharing the gospel as soon as we can in every conversation, a veces it will be building friendships and talking a little about God and the church and inviting people to come spend more time with us. And I love it because God is using all of us in exactly the right way to reach exactly the right people.
I went on campus with Greg today and then with Bethany after lunch (lunch was so good guys, Adrian's strategy is working*). A trend I have noticed: as time has passed, I have met more and more people who know and love Jesus here in Monterrey. When I first came, all we found was cultural Catholics and agnostics. Now, this trip, we have encountered other churches hanging out, other evangelical Christians involved in ministries, and Catholics on fire with love for Jesus. I really and truly believe, with every fiber of my being, that a revival is stirring in Monterrey. Yes, I said it, the over-used, under-experienced Christian R-word. But I believe it. I see it. And it is beautiful.
After our time on campus, we went with Javier (speaking of joy...that guy is saturated in it) to watch his intramural team play volibol. Beforehand, however, we got a pick-up game of basketball going with some guys (and a girl (who epitomized the word "baller" (sinkin' 'em left and right man))) in the gym. I tried to sit it out, but got roped in (which my team later regretted). It was a lot of fun though. Afterwards, Javier's team played and then we headed over to his apartment to chill (here is wher Erica rejoined us).
At Javier's, we had a jam session involving two guitars, a harmonica, a lot of singing and some musical selections from the iPad of DJ Ol' Greg. It was amazing (and we had dinner, which, as Adrian expected*, was delicious). Worship, Creed, The Lumineers, Fun, Smashmouth, Billy Joel, Daft Punk and some acoustic rap...to name a few.
Being here, doing what we were designed for, with people who are so receptive to hear, with a team so eager to share... it is hard to beat, guys. I know this is exactly what I am made for. Try sharing the gospel this week if you haven't lately; you are made for it, too. I don't like talking to people naturally, much less about important things, but, the Spirit inside of us craves, yearns to glorify Jesus and make him known. And, despite the "discomfort," there is nowhere I would rather be. (Though I won't lie; sitting here, eating a pink Starburst with The Lumineers still stuck in my head... I won't mind heading back to College Station).
*Adrian's "plan" is to wait to feed us until we get soo hungry that every meal tastes 7x more delicious than it would normally (which, with the food here, which is normally delicious, takes it to a level that transcends description.
Pray for strengthening of the relationships we built today and for good opportunities for new ones tomorrow.
I finally woke up early enough to run today. Stephen and I put in a quick tempo run, just over 3 miles. It felt wonderful. And it was great to run with Stephen. Our team would have been definitely incomplete without him.
We finally got to have a morning team meeting to focus before our day starts. We talked about Joy, and the necessity of operating in God's joy because it is where our strength is... though the meeting was thrown off a bit because,
We finally got hit with some (at least to my mind) spiritual warfare. Erica was sick this morning, which was sad because I was really excited about her experiencing our evangelism out on the campus. But, we prayed for her and got her some medicina and made her rest. By the end of the day, she was back in top form, which is very encouraging.
Finally, we arrive at my favorite "finally:"
We finally got out on campus to talk to people about Jesus. I love, love, love this part because, not only is it the entire point of us being here (and when i say "us," i mean all christians. and when i say "here," i mean earth), but it shows the beauty of how we are all different body parts and God uses us all for his glory. To explain: my strategy in sharing the gospel here is to adapt to the style of whoever I am teamed up with. Sometimes it will be boldly sharing the gospel as soon as we can in every conversation, a veces it will be building friendships and talking a little about God and the church and inviting people to come spend more time with us. And I love it because God is using all of us in exactly the right way to reach exactly the right people.
I went on campus with Greg today and then with Bethany after lunch (lunch was so good guys, Adrian's strategy is working*). A trend I have noticed: as time has passed, I have met more and more people who know and love Jesus here in Monterrey. When I first came, all we found was cultural Catholics and agnostics. Now, this trip, we have encountered other churches hanging out, other evangelical Christians involved in ministries, and Catholics on fire with love for Jesus. I really and truly believe, with every fiber of my being, that a revival is stirring in Monterrey. Yes, I said it, the over-used, under-experienced Christian R-word. But I believe it. I see it. And it is beautiful.
After our time on campus, we went with Javier (speaking of joy...that guy is saturated in it) to watch his intramural team play volibol. Beforehand, however, we got a pick-up game of basketball going with some guys (and a girl (who epitomized the word "baller" (sinkin' 'em left and right man))) in the gym. I tried to sit it out, but got roped in (which my team later regretted). It was a lot of fun though. Afterwards, Javier's team played and then we headed over to his apartment to chill (here is wher Erica rejoined us).
At Javier's, we had a jam session involving two guitars, a harmonica, a lot of singing and some musical selections from the iPad of DJ Ol' Greg. It was amazing (and we had dinner, which, as Adrian expected*, was delicious). Worship, Creed, The Lumineers, Fun, Smashmouth, Billy Joel, Daft Punk and some acoustic rap...to name a few.
Being here, doing what we were designed for, with people who are so receptive to hear, with a team so eager to share... it is hard to beat, guys. I know this is exactly what I am made for. Try sharing the gospel this week if you haven't lately; you are made for it, too. I don't like talking to people naturally, much less about important things, but, the Spirit inside of us craves, yearns to glorify Jesus and make him known. And, despite the "discomfort," there is nowhere I would rather be. (Though I won't lie; sitting here, eating a pink Starburst with The Lumineers still stuck in my head... I won't mind heading back to College Station).
*Adrian's "plan" is to wait to feed us until we get soo hungry that every meal tastes 7x more delicious than it would normally (which, with the food here, which is normally delicious, takes it to a level that transcends description.
Pray for strengthening of the relationships we built today and for good opportunities for new ones tomorrow.
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