Day 1: Some stories and a brief gospel tangent

Sometimes days with the least structure can be the most rewarding (this thought is a stretch for me). We went into today knowing we were going to do something involving volibol (let me know if you need help translating that) and a flagpole. We ended up doing... a lot of everything.

The church has procured a huge, 15-passenger van to transport their gringos from A to B; with our team of 13 + a driver + Sheryl, we pretty effectively fill it to the brim. I'm not saying we stand out when a dozen-plus Americans roll up in a giant maroon van...but...yea, we do. We've scraped bottom more than once on the hills here, and had to actually get out and walk a bit to get the van through into one of the parking lots.

Sheryl joined us today, she flew in from San Antonio to start her mid-term mission stint (8 months - a year) and will be spending the week with us. She was unable to come to Querétaro last year because she was getting ready for this trip, but her heart's been in Monterrey anyway, so it was a worthwhile sacrifice.

We started in the mall today, to change some dollars for pesos, then went to have a volleyball "tournament" in a highschool gym. *insert anecdote about van and scraping bottom trying to get into the parking lot* The tournament consisted of half our group jumping in and playing with some highschool students and the occasional adult from our church here (I use the designation "adult" loosely - including myself in this). Though team Duro somehow remained undefeated (way to go Craig and Kaylen), they were the only team with any semblance of identity or unity (hm...maybe it's not so surprising that they won).

So...that took three hours, then we went to Obispado (some background info: Monterrey sits in a giant mountain-bowl, the roads and buildings fill up every available space that isn't a mountain and start to crawl up the side as far as is practicable (sometime more so). This city structure has led some anthropologists to describe Monterrey as "Mexico's cereal" (I use "anthropologist" with all the gravity I previously used "adult"). Ok, back on track: Obispado. In the middle of the mountain-bowl, there's a large hill that has an enormous flagpole on top. We spent some time on top of the hill, playing and talking, then praying over the cereal-city.

My heart always gets overwhelmed when we visit Obispado. To see so much...humanity (oh! the humanity!) stretching out in every direction, as far as the eye can see, is sobering. To think how many people are working, playing, loving, hurting - living - without the "encouragement from being united with Christ, the comfort from his love, the fellowship with the Spirit, the tenderness and compassion..." (Phil 2:1 paraphrase) that we have as Christians breaks my heart. Jesus is our Hope (1Tim 1); he's the thing that has made me able to just hold on and move forward when the darkness in and around me makes me want to give up. And so many people don't have him.

But then I remember: Jesus is our Hope. It's been 9 years since the very first time I came to Monterrey; 7 years since my first trip with my church. And I can confidently say that there is a change in the spiritual atmosphere of this city. The students' hearts are more open; in the churches here (ours and others), people are beginning to seriously reconsider what it is to relate to God. People are starting to feel that no amount of going to the right church, praying the right prayers or doing the best they can to follow the rules is ever enough to rid them of the guilt they carry inside. They're realizing that their solutions aren't sufficient. And it's only from a place of understanding our helplessness that we can actually give control to Christ and let his sacrifice do the thing we can't - make us right with God.

So, there's the gospel. Yea, we prayed and then we went to dinner at Los Generales (it was flantastico). Summary: amazing food, even better people, laughing, snout-licking, salt-and-sugar-roulette...it was exactly what we needed to unite as a team before we dive into the week. 

Oh, so the words in italics are just words that happen in a Spanish accent in my brain (except italics, that's just for visualization).

Come 'round now if you can hear me

I love airports. I think I've mentioned that every year, but I'd hate to break tradition (thanks and gig 'em), so: I love airports.

We're in the airport, currently and feelin' good. We had quite the roadtrip up here; once we got Craig's shoes, that is (thanks Brandon!). I managed to follow the wrong car, got on an accidental tollroad and ran the TxTag lane (sorry Houston)...but we got here!

So we sit, all a little week-weary (weak, weary - the week before spring break is never relaxing), but ready for our trip to start.

I'll be updating every night about our day's activities (though it might be late late sometimes), please be praying for us!

With apologies for my negligence...

A recent comment from my boss (hi Summer) brought to my attention that I have been somewhat less than faithful in updating my blog as we prepare for our trip ("somewhat less than faithful" translates to, "I haven't done it at all").

I anticipate being much more deliberate to chronicle our trip as it actually happens, but here's an update on our preparation:

Everyone on our trip is fully support-raised. That, my friends, is glorious. God came through (using many of you!) in powerful and exciting ways this year that make me more confident than ever that we have an amazing trip ahead of us!

Our training times have been awesome. We've had a few training times, including:

Cultural Training, or, "how not to be perceived as an obnoxious tourist." I strongly believe that different cultures (just like different people) reflect unique things about God's heart (this makes Revelation 7 particularly beautiful) and I love the things in Mexican culture that taste like Jesus.

Conflict and Spiritual Warfare Training. Sometimes those are the same thing. Talk about intense. You don't go out to point people to Jesus without some resistance from the enemy. For Western Christians, sometimes realizing that there is a War is half the battle. We spent time confessing our sins to one another (in smaller, gender-specific groups) and praying for each other (James 5, yo). Conflict happens, how we deal with it makes it good or bad.

Evangelism Training. We'll get a bit more of this in Mexico (IGC has their own method), but we went through some easy-to-learn gospel sharing techniques that are rocking the church-planting world. The heart and soul of our trip is telling people about Jesus; that God loves them and provided a way to be reconciled to him.

Prayer Times. These haven't been official "training" times, but nothing better prepares one's heart for missions than prayer. We plan and prepare and organize and strategize, but prayer is where the power is. If you aren't praying, then you are wasting your time. In fact, take a minute and pray (it's ok, my captivating words aren't going anywhere). Pray for yourself, that God would draw you closer to him (that's my prayer for you). Pray for our team, that God would lead us and we would listen and follow (please). Pray for Mexico, that God would stir a revival in this country (he does that kind of thing, you know, and the foundation for it is already there).

Suffice to say, beloved, I am so ready to see God move through this trip. Our reach is global, our tower secure. Our cause is noble, our power is pure (yes, I did just do that). All of my confidence and passion for this trip is founded in God though:
We have Faith for He is Faithful

We have Peace for He is Strong
We have Hope for He is Constant
We Trust for He is Trustworthy
We Love because He is Love

May our God, the source and goal of life, receive glory and love for He alone is Worthy.
Amen :)

Is this the real life?

Is this just fantasy?

I'm not too keen on Queen (don't hate me), but this does feel pretty surreal: I just finished typing my support letter for our 2015 trip to Monterrey...

There was much questioning about where we would go this year. Last year, we went to Querétaro (QTOSTM.blogspot.com) to help with the church plant there. And - as with every city in Mexico - we fell in love with it. Not just the city, but the Aguilar family (and Bono!) and the campuses and the students too.

We're heading back to Monterrey this year and (with much love to the Aguilar family) I couldn't be more excited! I love Monterrey... the sites and sounds, the culture and the campuses, the friends and the food... going back to see my church-away-from-church, my third home and my third family... It's going to be so fantastic!

And! We have an amazing team this year...I'm so stoked friends.

Day 9: A Tale of 1.5 Cities

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

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.

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.