the wanderer

Gracias

2008-01-05T17:35:00.000-08:00

First of all I want to say "thank you" to all the people who are supporting me through their prayers and giving. I am very grateful to all of you and you are all partners in the work here.

I just got back to Tlaxiaco. I got to spend 3 weeks at home with my family to celebrate Christmas. It was great to be worshiping in my home church and to see so many friends again. I learned a lot from my family and friends while being home and I am grateful for the chances I had to visit all of you.

I went home hoping to have time to process some of what I've been experiencing and learning down here, it turned out I returned to Mexico from America with plenty more to chew on from the last 3 weeks. I think a lot of it stemmed from Grant's urging to view America as just as much of a missions field as Tlaxiaco. Being back in the states was also a good way to gauge of how much I've changed and grown in the last couple of months.

Good things

2007-12-10T17:59:00.001-08:00

God did a lot of encouraging things in and around my life this week. My friend, A., who recently started to follow Christ is planning to start leading the Bible study/church meeting we hold at his house. This week he and I read part of Luke with a young non-believer and A. was answering the other guy's questions about the Bible. It's a real blessing to see him growing in his faith and taking more of a leadership role. My job is to work myself out of a job, to encourage A.'s growth to the point where he can totally replace me and then we can both start teaching others to follow God. It's the principle of multiplying disciples.

Where is my mind?

2007-12-10T17:54:00.000-08:00

I wrote a song. I thought I'd post the lyrics as it contains some of my thoughts from the last several weeks.

I left home for parts unknown, and a land I’d never seen

I passed by fields unsown and a people who’d never received

Your good news though you love them like you love me

Dear God make me the man they need me to be

Yeah, I went out on my own to seek, and ask, and pray

I lay down on a bed of nails and I cried myself awake

I thought about Jesus Christ and the world He came to save

Tears of sorrow and tears of joy ran streaming down my face

But why is my soul downcast, this darkness will not last

And why do I despair, I know you’re already there

Watching over the women who are living in the brothels

And with the drug addicts who are dying in the hovels

Crying over those who have nothing to eat

Waiting for me, to be your hands and feet

Your word teaches that victory is yours

Salvation reaches to the ends of the earth

And I’ll sing a new song, to the God who saved my soul

I give my life up to the Lord who’s in control

I’ll pray to You in faith, confident of your love

You have all authority on earth as in heaven above

Your very words spoke the stars into flame

You call them each by name and hung them out in space

I am your creation, Lord, made to sing your praise

Give me the face I had before the world was made

I admit I’m wretched and weak, naked and poor

But I heard you knocking Lord and I opened wide the door

Let me stand in your presence Lord for all eternity

You are all I want, you’re everything I need

I came here seeking gold refined in the flame

Clothe me in purest white and take away my shame

I won’t be satisfied with what I can say and do

All I want is everything, everything that’s of you

I’ll follow Jesus Christ to the gates of hell and back

In Him I’ll overcome and there’s nothing that I’ll lack

The angels are all singing, “Holy is the Lord”

And we’ll be praising His name forevermore

Touch and Go

2007-12-09T21:06:00.000-08:00

Today I met up with some friends at the airstrip who were projecting a movie for the neighborhood. By the time I got there the power had failed and we had to reschedule the rest of "Because of Winn Dixie" for Wednesday. But a few things struck me about the incident. One was how the people who had been viewing the movie responded to the problem. They voted as a group on whether to try to fix the problem tonight or come back on Wednesday. There is a strong sense of community in the airstrip neighborhood that is evident even after only being there twice. It would be an awesome place to see a church planted, because church is all about community in Christ.

New Things

2007-11-27T19:33:00.000-08:00

I added the Joshua Project Unreached People Group of the day link to the right side of my blog. It's a great resource for praying effectively for people who have never had a chance to know Jesus. I strongly encourage you to use it!

Here's one of the valuable bits of practical wisdom I picked up from our leaders tonight (and we weren't even in class at the time):

-Rule Number One of church planting: Don't invite your disciple's wife over for dinner...unless her husband can come, too.
-Grant and Dan

Yep, we're learning a lot!

Seriously, being a learner here is bringing me to new levels of insight and humility.

Holy Ghost Stories

2007-11-26T17:56:00.000-08:00

This was my classroom this past week. This week we focused on the Holy Spirit, so we read Acts (all about what the Holy Spirit did at the beginning of the Church) and a couple other books. We didn't have many formal classes, so we spent a lot of time outside drawing closer to God. Honestly, it kind of overwhelms me to know that God is still eager and able to do the kinds of things we read about in Acts in the world today.

Thanksgiving Day

2007-11-26T17:21:00.001-08:00

We celebrated Thanksgiving in real American style; we even had Martinelli's and green bean casserole. There were about 60 people at the dinner. Having Thanksgiving dinner together made me feel even more at home away from home here with my extended family.

Today we completed the celebrations with GFM's annual (American) football game. It was so much fun, but soccer is still a better sport!

I hope you all had wonderful Thanksgivings.

Healing on the Sabbath

2007-11-25T22:01:00.000-08:00

Today we went to Campo de Aviacion; it's an out-of-use airstrip on the far side of town from our base. We set up a medical clinic and a children's craft table for the afternoon. I got to be the "doctor" because I was the only male member on the med team, the ladies let me play with the stethoscope but they did all the real work.

The neighborhood that surrounds the airfield is probably the poorest area I've seen in Tlaxiaco. I hope to go back soon.

God Rocks

2007-11-19T19:45:00.001-08:00

Expressing my thoughts on spiritual matters through other people's rock 'n' roll:

Justice-

Don't believe you when you tell me "There ain't no cure",
The rich stay healthy, the sick stay poor,
I, I believe in love.
-U2, God Part II

(Don't it) make you feel ashamed to live in a land where justice is a game.
-Bob Dylan, Hurricane

You speak of signs and wonders, but I need something other, I would believe if I was able, but I'm waiting on the crumbs from your table.
-U2, Crumbs from Your Table

Heaven-

Suddenly I turned around and she was standing there,
With silver bracelets on her wrist and flowers in her hair,
She walked up to me so gracefully and took my crown of thorns,
"Come in," she said, "I'll give you shelter from the storm."
-Bob Dylan, Shelter from the Storm

-U2, Where the Streets Have No Name (the whole song)

Grace-

It's a name for a girl, it's also a thought that changed the world.
-U2, Grace

Christ-

I feel like trash, you make me feel clean, I'm in the black, can't see or be seen.
Baby, baby, baby, light my way.
-U2, Ultraviolet

Waves of regret, waves of joy, I reached out for the one I tried to destroy, you, you said you'd wait until the end of the world.
-U2, Until the End of the World

Communicating Communion

2007-11-13T20:18:00.000-08:00

Tonight was our second organic church meeting at Armando's house. We talked about the Lord's Supper. Working at communicate things out of the Bible is definitely teaching me a great deal. I am here to be a learner, and it's a full-time, often frustrating, but also fascinating job.

I read that when you move into foreign culture you can know you're really bonding well with the local people when you start to meet your social needs through the relationships you're developing with them. Tonight Eliseo (my friend and neighbor) lit off fireworks (they sell firecrackers here for Christmas, how cool is that) with some of the other students. Learning how to joke and have fun (and nearly lose your hearing and risk bodily harm because you don't respect M-80s as much as you should) with people of a different culture and language is something everyone should do. Being at home away from home is a rich experience. By the grace of God, I am learning to step outside myself and realize that this journey was never about finding myself, but about losing myself to find something bigger.

Just like James Bond (only much more suave)

2007-11-13T20:06:00.000-08:00

We got our visas in Oaxaca City. Their FM3s, special visas for community development workers and English workers. It's almost as big as my passport and it makes me feel like a spy. I got to drive the 15 passenger van to Oaxaca City. My first time driving in two months and I only almost got us killed once. Inside Oaxaca City the lanes get more tangled up than a bunch of junior highers playing Twister, but God (and my homing pigeon-like sense of direction and legendary defensive driving skills) got us to our destination safely. I got to eat at McDonalds twice in one day. 3 double cheeseburgers, a McFlurry, and a softserve cone later I was definitely ready to get back to eating tortillas. I was rather ashamed to learn that the cluster of fast food restaurants and mini-mall in town is referred to as Little America (quite a cultural mecca).

thoughts on the Body

2007-11-11T18:20:00.000-08:00

Matt 18:20
"For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst."
NASU

1 Cor 14:26
What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church.
NIV

Flux

2007-11-11T17:48:00.000-08:00

Being a missionary is all about being a learner. This weekend I learned how to pluck, clean, and butcher chickens (the smell alone will put hair on your chest). We spiced up the evening by first hunting our chickens with our home made bows and arrows (I think they should turn GFM into a reality show). I'm also learning a lot about church planting. This week I attended three organic church meetings, for two of the churches it was their first time meeting. We call them organic churches because they're focused on building faith where life happens. They meet in coffee shops, homes, wherever there's an interest. We want to bring Jesus to the people. They look like free-form Bible studies: people share their questions, problems, insights, even songs they've written that express their love for God. Sometimes we read a single passage of Scripture, other times we jump around, investigating passages of the Old and New Testaments. We want Christ to be the center and to be subject to His guidance. We want build up our fellow believers and give non-believers a chance to get their questions answered and to see a genuine love for God and His Word.

By the way I shaved my head and I love it. Before I cut it all off, my friends gave me the Martin Luther look for the afternoon. I think it's lovably and laughably gross looking, and I thought you'd all want to see

I love you all!

Our Friend's Baptism

2007-11-08T20:04:00.001-08:00

We held the baptism at a park near our base.

2007-11-08T20:00:00.000-08:00

This is the view from the mountain in our backyard. The town of Tlaxiaco lies below.

Joy

2007-11-08T19:09:00.000-08:00

Our friend decided to follow Christ and to get baptized. It was a very joyous couple of days! Now we are holding church meetings in his house!

Home and Back Out Again

2007-09-28T19:50:00.000-07:00

We just got back from spending four days camping in the mountains. We spent the time reading, praying, and learning about living victorously and freely in Christ. It was intense. Tomorrow I plan to go visit friends in Yucuane, my favorite village from last summer.

Shelter

2007-09-10T15:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon I went into Tlaxiaco (the town about 2 miles from our base). We got soaked (we're in the rainy season right now) but we got to meet some friends of the students who were here earlier this summer. I felt very conspicuous walking around as part of a rather large group of gringos. But I'm here to learn how to serve in a cross-cultural setting, so what better way to do that than by crossing cultural barriers. The exhaustion of travel and the self-doubt aroused by being in a foriegn place are being replaced by a growing excitement about being here and all the possibilities the next year holds.

White Guy in Oaxaca

2007-09-09T12:06:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my blog. Hopefully I will be able to post pictures and exciting stories soon.