What I've Been Doing...

I am aware that quite a bit of time has passed since I last blogged. Please forgive me, and rest assured that my time was well-spent on other endeavors. Let me give you a taste of some of the special events in October and November that took place on top of all the regular stuff that goes on while seminary is in session (see two entries ago).

October 4-5: Second annual children’s missions adventure camp for kids ages 6-12 from churches in Ensenada and Tijuana. We had over 100 kids (doubled from last year) and I helped with registration and the “safari” and ran a game that was kind of like sharks and minnows, with a hose thrown in the mix to get the kids wet.

October 10-12: A retreat of around 500 ladies from churches on both sides of the border took place at Agua Viva. Because there were so many people it was all hands on deck and I helped at meal times, mostly by drying dishes so that there would be enough for everyone to eat off of (we only have about 300).

October 16-17: Annual Agua Viva Board of directors meeting held at Rancho Agua Viva. I delivered the financial report (bottom line=we need money) and took notes of the meeting.

October 26 – November 3: Roadtrip with Becky to recruit for our summer staff at different Christian college campuses. Over the course of a week we visited Pt. Loma (San Diego), Biola (LA), Azusa Pacific (LA), Westmont (Santa Barbara) and Fresno Pacific. I would like to give a special thanks to everyone who hosted us along our way. While at the colleges, we would sit at a table (usually strategically located by the cafeteria) with our display and a bowl of candy and talk to students who were interested. I would rate the trip as highly successful, as several people we spoke with followed up with inquiries and are now considering spending their summer helping at Agua Viva. After the college tour was over I got to spend time with family in Hanford and visit Hanford Baptist Church, which generously supports me. I shared with the youth group and attended the service, and afterward went out to lunch with my aunt and uncle and other members of the missions board. They got to hear more about my ministry first-hand and I got to experience their care and support first-hand, a win-win situation if you ask me.

November 4-9: A rare, three day vacation with my mom and dad in San Diego, who both had separate business there during those dates. Then my dad came down with me for the weekend and got to witness a little bit of seminary life at Agua Viva, hang out with other staff members (who are basically family) and even get a little taste of Potter’s Clay. I had a fun time scenario building for my guest of honor and scheming a future family visit for summer 2009.

November 14-15: A special second edition of our children’s mission camp carried out in a nearby town called Porvenir, which has a church that holds a “Missions Month” every November. I helped out with set-up and orchestrated pony rides and did the same game again, only this time without the hose.

November 27-30: A group from Calvary Chapel Mission Viejo was at Agua Viva. We had a big Thanksgiving dinner, but with chicken instead of turkey. And someone had donated several boxes of stuffing so I made that for about 100 people since the instructions were in English. It was fun to be part of meal preparation, I don’t usually get to do that.

December 6: Seminary graduation. After 15 weeks the time came to release the MTI class of 2008 out into the world. Several special events led up to the graduation, for instance a gala dinner on Thursday night put on by the AV staff for the students. Then graduation rehearsal on Friday night, and the big day on Saturday. I helped out as an usher and photographer, and also stayed in administrative mode to make sure the remaining students who had not yet paid their tuition paid.

Now the ranch is very quiet, and we are putting things back in their places and preparing for a staff Christmas potluck for Wednesday night. We are also going to have a white elephant gift exchange, which is a new concept for the Mexicans, so we’ll see how it works out. And then on Saturday I fly home to Virginia for three weeks of vacation and time with family (I’m just a little bit excited). And then comes 2009 and I’ll be back on the job. Thank your for caring enough to read this, and thank you for prayers. Also, a specific prayer request, I have bacteria residing in my stomach again, a strain of typhoid and another of proteus. On Thursday the results will be ready and I should be able to pick up some antibiotics and start treatment, but in the meantime, it’s not fun to have creatures living inside you.

The Latest

A few days back we celebrated Mexican Independence Day (which is not Cinco de Mayo as commonly believed in the USA) with the MTI students at a 'noche mexicana.' People dressed up in traditional clothes, ate pozole (a classic dish), played games, and broke home-made piñatas that the students had made. There were five piñatas and only one had candy in it. Another was empty, one had water balloons, one had flour, one had eggs and the last one had the leftover scraps from dinner! That one was kind of gross, but the rest were really fun. People seemed to really a kick out of my costume...I felt very Mexican.

Each morning the seminary students have a devotional before breakfast, which different people give each day. And last Friday was my turn. I spent an estimated total of about 9 hours over the course of the week beforehand preparing it and translating it. Which was all well worth it because I was able to speak pretty fluidly and cohesively. I talked about the importance of living out our faith, about not just being a Christian on Sunday but being a Christian every day of the week. It is something that I have been feeling more and more passionately about lately and felt like the students needed to hear. It seems like God thought that too because a lot of people (including myself) ended up crying. It was truly special. But afterwards I was just exhausted. I felt like I had used all the mental capacities I possessed between the thinking and the speaking and the praying. I'm so grateful that I had the chance to share.

Most of my office work lately has revolved around preparing the financial report for the upcoming board meeting. And it is a little scary. We have had less groups come and stay at the ranch (both American and Mexican) which means less income. And we have had some big construction projects and many more seminary students than we are financially prepared for, which means more expenses. And then there is the whole economic status in the States. Suffice it to say, we are in the negative...big-time. So please join us in praying for funds. We've been tightening our belts, but I'm worried that by the end of MTI we'll be feeding the students bread and water. So please pray. And possibly consider giving a financial gift to MTI for the students room and board or spread the word about Agua Viva to people who might be interested. Everything helps!!

MTI!

So picking up where the last blog entry left off...I spent the last week of the summer doing work on the new MTI building in the hopes of getting it in (more or less) working order for the start of classes. There were several moments I wish I had pictures of to share with you, for example: sitting on a toilet and painting the walls of stalls next me, up on a ladder sanding a metal beam wearing a dust mask and sunglasses to protect myself from the rust, and laying down on scaffolding to paint the underside of ceiling beams, to name a few. We were able to get two downstairs classrooms and the bathrooms in working order. We finished the office area as well, but the exterior windows haven't been installed yet, so no one can move in. We are continuing to work on the large classroom upstairs a few days per week...it still has a ways to go, so I'm not sure when it will be ready for students.

But at the end of August the students arrived and we have a record number of 57 students. The vast majority are from Baja, but there are others from Sonora, Jalisco, Morelos, and Chiapas. Some have returned from last year, but many are newly beginning the first year. I have had a lot of fun getting to know them at meal times and around the ranch. This is what my typical day looks like during MTI:

6AM: Wake up and go for a run around the ranch (ok so this doesn't happen every day but I'm trying to make it at least an every other day event)

7AM: Shower and get dressed, while hearing the students singing in their morning devotional

8:30AM: Go to breakfast in the dining hall, sell coffee and snacks as a fundraiser for the staff mission trip

9:30AM: Report to work in the office, download emails, check petty cash reports, go to meetings, etc, etc...

11AM-11:30AM: Go to the "bodega" a storage room, where students can come during their break and get stuff they need from me (paper, pens, notebooks, highliters, soap, shampoo, etc.)

11:30-1:00PM: back to the office

1:00PM: Lunch in the dining hall, get to sit and eat with different students

2:00PM: In the office

4:50PM: Leave to pick up seminary student's children's from school, Alejandra (MTI director's assistant who I am teaching to drive) drives there. We pick up four kids at one school, and then another one a few miles away.

6PM: Return to RAV and hang out for a bit

7PM: Dinner in the dining hall, set up snack shop and sell for missions trip again while the kids play their favorite game of pretending to steal snacks from me

8PM: Play volleyball with students or relax at home, depending on my energy level

10PM: Bedtime :)

Summer in Review

First of all, I would like to make you aware of my most recent milestone (I use the term somewhat lightly). On August 6 I crossed the imaginary threshold from the first half of my three year commitment to Agua Viva Ministries to the second. That's right, I have now been here for more than 1.5 years of the three that I committed to. However, I have been by and large too busy to dwell further on this milestone other than to conclude that time is flying and that I am happy to be here.

If you haven't gotten to hear me talk about summer at Agua Viva yet, let me tell you: it flies by. The past 10 weeks have been a fast-paced cycle of American groups coming to serve through Agua Viva Ministries. It all begins on Sundays afternoon, when the staff shows up around 3:30 to put water and toilet paper in the cabins and then welcome the groups when they roll in between 4pm and 6pm. Dinner is at 6pm, accompanied by a meeting with the leaders. Then at 8pm we have a campfire to introduce our visitors to the Agua Viva staff, the ministry itself, and the rules (ie your toilet paper must be tossed in the trash can, never in the toilet!). Monday through Thursday is devoted to ministry at churches in and around Ensenada, be it VBS, sports ministry, construction projects, medical clinics, etc. Work projects take place at Rancho Agua Viva as well, and almost every week this summer someone has been breaking a sweat on our new seminary building. Wednesday night is a special dinner put on by the staff as a fundraiser for the Ministry Training Institute (the seminary). On Friday morning the groups head home, at which point the staff clean up, pull together the loose ends, and prepare for the coming week. All in all, we are looking at about a 60 hour work week.

This summer I have served as the coordinator (read head Agua Viva support personnel) for three different groups, one in June, one in July, and one in August. First was Grace EV Free Church of Elk Grove, CA. I joined them working on the seminary building in the morning, and then we went to do a VBS at a church plant in the afternoons. I even helped translate. Then in July I joined up with Faith Bible Church out of Canton, OH for another VBS followed by seminary building in the afternoon (highlight = climbing into the dump truck to stomp on trash to make room for more). Then just this past week I worked with a team from Lake View Free Methodist church in Seattle at a VBS in a little town an hour inland from Ensenada where the church had never received an American group before. All in all, I have done my fair share of singing, crafts, Bible stories, tickling and memory verse reciting. It's amazing to see how openly kids respond to the Gospel and the love of the Americans that have come to share it with them.

The busy days of summer are practically behind us now, and I am shifting gears into preparations for our seminary, which will begin on August 24. I have been sifting through donated supplies and organizing them into packets for the students. I have also been pulling musty sleeping bags and towels out of storage to wash them and hang them out to dry (I have grown quite fond of line-drying). We are anticipating our largest group of seminary students yet, between 60 and 80. After spending the past several months fundraising for the students it will be a joy to welcome them to Agua Viva and watch them grow in their knowledge and desire to serve our Lord. And it will especially be a joy to see the new MTI building get put to use for the first time. It isn't quite done yet, so I am anticipating that the days between now and August 24 will include a lot of painting, moving furniture, and whatever else I am able to contribute.

All in all, it has been fun to welcome so many visitors to Agua Viva these past three months and serve with them. I have enjoyed getting out of the office and diving into more hands-on ministry. There is nothing quite like summer at Agua Viva. And now it is time to turn the page into a more restful season, and the second half of my adventure at Agua Viva.

Getting Up to Speed

Current Weather: Hot, but cool enough to sleep under the covers at night.

Current Book: The Celebration of Discipline by Richard J. Foster.

Status of Stomach: Awaiting results at the lab tomorrow to see if the bacteria and amoebas are dead or alive after two rounds of antibiotics (I have a sneaking suspicion that some might be alive).

Weekend Plans: Fourth of July BBQ with some of the other Americans Friday evening. Beach trip a few hours south of Ensenada with good friends from the Vino Nuevo youth group on Saturday. On Sunday, breakfast with Pablo and Martha, the associate pastors of my church, followed with training on how to run the powerpoint that projects the lyrics to the praise songs by Martha (who is American), followed by church, followed by welcoming two American groups to AV in the afternoon. 

Recently Achieved Goal: I translated my first VBS. This means that the American group that I am working with did the talking and then I said it all in Español so that the kiddos could understand. At some point, I think it may have been in my Christmas letter, I said that my goal was to be translating this summer. And now it has happened. I'm still considering myself an apprentice, but I'm quickly learning the trade and am quite excited to be contributing to the ministry in this way. 

Coolest Thing I've Seen Lately: Last week I worked with a group from Grace Church in Elk Grove, CA for the second year in a row. We went back to a place called Paraíso, which is probably my favorite ministry site in the Ensenada area. It is way at the edge of town, up a steep hill. It's a very poor community, as far as I can tell everyone who lives there are indigeous Mexicans who have come up from states in the South of Mexico (mostly Oaxaca) to work the fields. Many of the houses are wooden ones that were clearly built by American groups on service projects. Anyways, we came in the afternoons and put on a VBS for the kids. I loved getting to spend time playing with them and reuniting with my buddies from last summer. But some of the men from Grace noticed the T.C. (that's slang for people who think they are too cool) teenage guys hanging around outside. They began playing soccer with the youth and talking with them about Jesus a little more each day. Then on our last day, Thursday, we had a church service in the evening together with the Mexican pastor that has been working in the village, Santos. People invited the youth and they filled up a whole row of seats. Ryan, the youth pastor from Grace who had been spending a lot of time with the guys preached about who God is from his perspective of having grown up without a father. After the sermon was over Pastor Santos invited anyone who wanted to come up for prayer. One of the youth that had been hanging around since day one went up with no hesitation. Soon, all the rest of the row of guys had followed him up and both Pastor Santos and the men from Grace prayed for them. Amen to walls coming down!

Things to be Praying for: With all the groups coming in and out we are all extremely busy and getting tired. Pray for strength and patience and love for us. We are also getting into the home stretch of construction on our new seminary building. Eight weeks to go and we are still finishing laying the blocks for the wall, and then we have the whole inside to do. Please pray for provision for the needed materials to finish the building and hands to finish it before the end of August. Pray for the community of Paraíso and for Pastor Santos as he continues to minister there, that people would know Jesus and know him better each day. 

One of the summer traditions at Agua Viva is a 'Special Dinner' that we put on every Wednesday for our visiting American church groups. The idea behind the Special Dinner is to make people aware of the different aspects of Agua Viva Ministries and to get them interested and involved. This year's Special Dinner is highlighting our seminary, the Ministry Training Institute (which I will hereon refer to as MTI). MTI is a seminary for Mexican nationals in session for three months each fall that provides Biblical/pastoral/ministerial training through three different levels. A startlingly small percentage of Mexican pastors and ministry workers have read the Bible all the way through, and people become pastors because they were the first in their community to convert to Christianity and soon find themselves in charge of a church, even though they have no concept of what a healthy church looks like. Enter MTI, which provides this must-needed training in a short period of time (many of our students can barely afford to miss three months of work, let alone an entire year!) and at a very low cost to the students (they pay approximately 10% of their tuition - $150, and the rest is funded by the ministry). All of us at Agua Viva believe firmly in MTI, because it capacitates people to spread the Gospel in their home communities, which they can do much more effectively than an outsider could. And, in recent years MTI has been growing, the number of students doubled this past year and we graduated 50 students, with a projected 75 students interested in coming in 2008. It's gotten beyond what the ministry can fund on its own, so we are trying to let our American visitors get a better picture of MTI and see if they would like to invest in MTI by sponsoring students and provided funds for their scholarships. And we figured what better way to get them acquainted with MTI than to let them hear from the students themselves.

So in between courses of the meal, the groups visit three different stations, at each of which is an MTI student sharing a little bit about how they have put what they learned at MTI into practice. I want to share their stories with you.

The first station has two soccer goals with a backdrop between them that has the text of Proverbs 22:6 written in Spanish. Here we meet Hector, who studied in the first level of MTI this past year. Through a translator (in this case me) Hector begins sharing about his ministry in the town of San Vicente (two hours south of Ensenada).
What began with playing soccer with his son and a handful of his friends has turned into a soccer league for about 80 kids who play their hearts out, are coached and mentored by Hector and others who have joined with him, and hear about the Word of God. Different churches and ministries within San Vicente have come together and joined in the soccer league because it is such a great way to postively impact the kids. In fact, three others who are involved with the soccer outreach also studied with Hector in the first level of MTI, and all of them want to return to the second

Next we rotate to Manuel's station, where the first thing you notice is the background of huts with palm fronds for roofs, portraying Manuel's home in Chiapas, right across the border from Guatemala. Manuel has a ton of amazing stories to share, and you can tell that he is trying to limit himself to just a few. He shares about going on his own into a community of Zapatista rebels because he couldn't find anyone brave enough to go with him. There the people wouldn't listen to him because he was not a part of the rebel organization, but he left them with an open invitation to come to his house anytime. Looking for another place to minister, he crossed into Guatemala and began teaching people how to read using a program called Alfalit, which uses passages of the Bible to teach literacy. He taught over 70 students on his own and evangelized many of them. Then later, a family of the Zapatistas came to his house because their daughter was sick. As he talked to them he learned that they were involved in witchcraft and told them that the one true God could heal their daughter. The girl was healed right there in his house and the family became Christians! In August Manuel will begin his third year at MTI. He longs to return to Chiapas and work more among the Zapatistas, building their trust and sharing with them about Jesus.

At the final station we find Carmen, who studied at MTI in 2001, 2002 and 2003. She explains that her pastor at her homechurch in Sonora suggested MTI to her for its quality education and affordable price. She originally came to MTI with the intention of learning how to work with the women, youth and children at her church. But the MTI slogan "Enter to learn, leave to serve" stuck with her, and she decided to go as a missionary into a small town in the state of Puebla, in the South of Mexico. Nine people from this town came to her hometown to work in the fields, where they were reached by Carmen's church. When they returned to their community, Carmen went to help them establish a church. She speaks about how they took a television, VCR and video about Jesus and went from door to door and asked permission to come in and show their movie. Many people, however, refused to even open their doors to them. Before long, Carmen learned that the majority of the women were illiterate, and approached the mayor about giving reading classes to the women. She began her classes, but after a few sessions the students weren't returning because they had too many duties at home to attend to. So Carmen began joining them at their homes and doing chores with them (making tortillas, washing in the river, etc) so that they would be free to come to class. There, she used the Alfalit method and was able to share the World of God with her students. Four of the them were baptized and all 23 of them continue to attend the church that is now established there. Carmen is now living and working full time at Agua Viva as the head cook; she felt called to come and give back to the ministry and make it possible for more people to be blessed by MTI.

All of three of them are remarkable people, people who long to serve God with all of their being. Imagine 50 more like them, from all over Mexico, and that's MTI. And that's one of the reasons I consider it a joy to be here at Agua Viva, as part of a team dedicated to reaching Mexico for Christ.

Amoebas, weddings and more!

Everything at Agua Viva is indicating that our busy summer season is almost upon us. Our summer staff have arrived, two lovely girls, one West Coast Westmont student and one East Coast Houghton student. We are scrambling to put together a design for our summer t-shirt and figure out details for the special dinner we will do each Wednesday night with the American groups. But the summer isn't quite here yet, so we can save all of that for another blog entry. Besides, quite enough has been going on as it is.

And a lot of what has been going on has been going on in my stomach. After taking a round of antibiotics to deal with the things discovered in my stomach when I got back from the missions trip in February, I brushed aside wise advise from my mother and didn't get retested, figuring the meds had done their job. But as time went on my suspicion that the medicine had not eradicated everything grew, and last week I went back to the lab to be retested. And it turns out that I still have a bacteria (proteus morganni) and some amoebas. So I have embarked on another course of antibiotics to kill said creatures. Please join me in praying that the medicine will do what it's supposed to do and that no squatters will be left in my stomach. 

For those who may be concerned, be assured that I feel fine in general, just have some minor discomforts.

 I still get to enjoy things like my first Mexican wedding, which I experienced on May 17, when my pastor's son got married. The church was decorated beautifully, the ceremony was lovely, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. And it was all very typical of my church, with the ceremony starting at 8pm instead of 7, the dinner getting brought out around 10, cake at 11, and I didn't leave until one in the morning! The wedding has been the talk of the town, or at least the church, for the past several months, so it was a pretty big deal. I especially had fun seeing the different rituals: the padrinos, the lasso, no father-daughter dance (throwing that one in for you, dad). I feel that I ought to mention that despite my distinct height advantage (as seen next to bride), I did not catch the bouquet.

A few days before the wedding I had some excitement of a different kind back at the rancho. I was out jogging in the evening on a HOT day, running directly towards the setting sun (such that I couldn't see much of what was in front of me) when I sensed a movement near my feet and heard a noise. I jumped a bit in the opposite direction of the noise and looked down over my shoulder to see a rattlesnake, rattling like crazy and coiling up in self-defense. I can say without a doubt that that marked the first time in my life I made a rattlesnake rattle. Unfortunately, Manuel wasn't around with his machete at the time to behead it. I do hear, however, that two days ago he spotted a mountain lion on a hillside on the edge of the rancho and took off in that direction, machete in hand. I wish you could see his machete more clearly in the picture, but trust me, it's there, doing away with plant life and reclaiming brown spaces at Agua Viva. 

Needless to say, life has been keeping me on my toes. And that's not even getting into the ministry aspect. I am currently living out a personal milestone. You see we are going through a book now for our weekly staff devotionals, but the book is in English, so only English speakers can lead the devotional. Brent asked me to take a chapter, which I gladly accepted. And I decided to present all in Spanish (so I translate the key points and figure out how I want to share them in Spanish). I gave the first part last Friday and it went pretty well. I took the time to write everything out in advance so I wouldn't be stuck searching for words. And miraculously, everyone seemed to understand me. It's a joy to think that God has brought me to a point where I can lead a devotional to a roomful of Spanish-speakers and have them get something out of it! 

God is at work in and through me, and I ask you to join me in prayer that He would continue, unhindered. 

Spring Cleaning

The busy summer season is rapidly approaching, so I am trying to take advantage of our last few weeks before the American groups come by doing some serious spring cleaning at Agua Viva and in my home. 

Last week I began tackling the dreaded work room in the Agua Viva office, which I was able to purge of things like phone books that said 'Keep until June 1993', old records, things for typewriters and other old school office equipment that I couldn't even recognize, etc. I also found a lot of useful things that had been buried and are now liberated from the back of dusty cabinets. I have a few more things to get into place in the workroom, and then have big plans to tackle the donations/storage room, and the seminary storage (which will actually be changing locations). This may sound boring to you, but these are the kinds of things that my little administrative self finds exciting. And I guess it's just more proof that God can use anything we have for His kingdom. So if you're praying, please pray that all will go well with my spring cleaning, and that because of it the ministry will have better access to its resources and will be stewards of them. 

On the homefront, I am also working with Becky on getting things as good as they can be in our house. This weekend Jeff, a fellow staff member/handyguy/dad-like figure helped me buy and install a new sink in our bathroom. The old one and all its connections were saturated with green crud from years of leaks with the minerally-water we have at Agua Viva. We also painted the bathroom a few weeks ago, and we just need to finish painting the ceiling. But if you ask me, the house is looking pretty good, but I guess you'll have to come see it for yourself. 

Safe and Sound in Ensenada

I made it back home to Agua Viva yesterday afternoon after a day of travelling without air conditioning and without music. Well, not entirely without music because towards the end I just started singing to myself. But I was able to import the copier without any problems and the questionable Suburban I was driving (254,000 miles and counting) did just fine. So thank you for your prayers in that.

It felt good to arrive at the ranch, park the Suburban (which I have come to refer to as 'The Beast') for good, put my abundance of Trader Joe's groceries away in my cupboards (special thanks to Laura for taking me to TJs) and sleep in my own bed last night.

For the very first time last night I saw lightening and heard thunder here, and today it is misty and gloomy, perfect weather for staying indoors and playing with my new Mac (thanks Aunt Babs!).

Vacation

It's true. Tomorrow I will be embarking on a much-needed vacation! I will be driving up to Alta California for a week to meet up with my parents and go visiting our beloved family and attend Emily's graduation from Westmont on May 3.

I am looking forward to having some time off work, a chance to spend time with my family, go shopping, eat food from Trader Joe's, etc.

But I do have to do a little bit of work. Someone in Northern California (conveniently about 15 minutes from my grandmother's house) is donating a photo copier to Agua Viva. (We desperately need a functioning copier, we have about 4 that don't work). So I will drive up in one of Agua Viva suburbans to have a vehicle big enough to haul the copier around in. Please be praying for my trip, that the Suburban wouldn't have any problems and that God would help my depth perception while driving such a large car.

Please also pray for an open house I will be having with friends in Santa Barbara on May 4. (If you are in the SB area and want to attend contact me for details). Pray that I would be able to communicate about my ministry and give people a better picture of what it is that I do down here. Pray that more people would become involved in my ministry through prayer and giving. And pray that everyone would have fun!

Well, I'm off to pack, get last-minute stuff ready, etc. Bye!

San Quintin

This past weekend Becky and I got invited to go to San Quintin, a city about 2 and 1/2 hours down the Baja coast. We have some friends there that we know through Agua Viva youth camps, in particular, a guy named Cesar and another named Nani. Cesar is our age and helped us do games at the youth camp last summer. So we got to hang out with all week and now see him from time to time at events in Ensenada. Nani is a bit older, and has spoken at several of our youth camps. He is married to a gringa named Cheryl who works at an orphanage. Nani, along with Cesar and some other friends who live in Ensenada make up a ministry called Jabes. Jabes works on outreach and discipleship of youth, particularly street kids. They have some different centers where kids can come and use the internet, do homework, play x-box and just hang out, all for free. They take time to get to know the kids and have meetings and sharing times with them, slowly feeding them the Gospel and discipling them once they become Christians. Jabes' most recent endevour is a skate park, which has an outdoor skating area with ramps and a large indoor space for hanging out, meetings, etc.

So Cesar had invited us to come on Saturday, which would be both the pre-inaguaration of the skate park, and his birthday party in the evening. We got there on Friday evening and Cesar showed us one of the centers and the skate park (making use of our car on the way over to bring some sound equipment they would need the next day. We went out for dinner and he told us all about Jabes and the vision for the skate park and the plan for Saturday.

We headed to the skate park at around 9am Saturday and were put to work cleaning the indoor portion of the skate park, mopping the cement floor, cleaning the bathroom, getting a gazillion spider webs out of the rafters, etc. A small army of teenage skaters worked on cleaning up outside and putting up all the ramps. It was all very Mexican last-minute.

We finished up around noon and went to meet with Nani and our friend Eric (one of the Jabes crew from Ensenada) for lunch. We ate in Nani and his wife's trailer at the orphanage and Nani told us more about Jabes and what they are doing and what they have planned. From my point of view, it's a very cool ministry that seeks to meet the youth where they at, provide them a safe haven where they can be themselves free from the drugs and violence of life on the streets, and take time to know each kid personally and help them get to know Jesus. Nani made us feel very welcome, and told us that we could back whenever we wanted, just let them know when we wanted to come and they would make sure we had a place to stay and food to eat.

After lunch we went to the house we were staying to take bucket showers...in this case drawing water with a cup out of a five gallon bucket...and get cleaned up for the pre-inaguaration and the party later on. Now, I'm still not entirely clear on why it was a pre-inaguaration and not an inaguaration, but whatever. There some government officials present and the Jabes team and a bunch of kids. They shared about the skate park and its function in the community, and one guy performed a rap and another group did a song. And then they sent everyone out to skate, providing them with mandatory helmets and optional knee and elbow pads.





People started skating, while the non-skater types did some graffiti decorations on the big walls enclosing the park. Becky and I even got to tag our names. Eventually we started pulling out the party decorations and getting the inside ready for the birthday party, blowing up a ton of balloons and putting up streamers that kept falling back down. The party was slightly uneventful, due in part to the fact that Cesar kept disappearing. It was typical cultural differences: he left right around seven, the starting time of the party, and then got back around 8:15 and then left again. It was hilarious. Here we are with the birthday boy, when we was actually present at the party:

All in all, it was a really fun weekend. It was neat to see a fresh ministry and hang out with new friends and be in a new place in Baja. I'm hoping we will get to go back soon.

Mission Trip Pictures

Just click on the link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2019128&l=0bfa0&id=65800383

Another Anecdote

After yesterday afternoon I needed to add another experience I had with Manuel. (If you haven't read the previous post, read it first). I went for a jog around the ranch a little after five and I went passed him twice. When I stopped he called to me from where he was trimming grass with a machete (this is the way he spends most of his time). He said "why are you running?" So I started to explain to him that it was for exercise, which is good for your heart, and your lungs, and your muscles. He seemed a little bit skeptical about the whole concept (a new one to him). And then told me that I should machete, which is very good for you and productive. And he gave me some machete lessons. I'll need some more practice before I'm up to par, but I've already added it as another skill on my list. Who needs lawn mowers??

An Anecdote

I just wanted to tell a little story that went down here a few weeks ago...

It all begins with this guy Manuel, who is famous here at Agua Viva. He is a Chol Indian from Chiapas (he lives right across the river from Guatemala) who came to study at our seminary a few years ago. To be able to do so, however he cut down a mahogany tree in the rain forest and hauled it by himself in planks to a highway to sell it. Then he took a five day bus trip up to Ensenada without eating the whole time, because he didn't have any money for food. Also, he is just over 5 feet tall and when in Chiapas, does outreach with the Zapatistas in their territory. So that is Manuel.

He is currently staying at Agua Viva, working here until the next seminary session starts (he will enter his third and final year). He is working with the maintenance staff, and he mostly goes around with a machete and hacks down all the weeds. And I mean all the weeds, he is just constantly macheting.

Well a few weeks ago some of us were getting tools and things ready for the American groups that would be coming, when over walks Manuel, dragging something on a rope behind him. As he gets closer we realize that it's a snake, and that it's alive. And he gets even closer and we see that it's a rattle snake. Apparently he had found it in our workshop when he went to get a rake, so he found a rope and lassoed it up and dragged it down to show us. Not wanting a live rattlesnake around, the men starting killing it, and it eventually got beheaded with a shovel. The head stayed tied up on the rope, still poisonous, while the body kept twitching for a good while afterwards. I wanted to touch it, so they gave it to me to hold, all scaly and limp.

So now I am in the elite club of people who have held a beheaded rattlesnake. All in a day's work at Agua Viva.

Four Weeks of Spring Break

First of all, welcome to my new blog! I hope that you find it a bit more aesthetically pleasing, especially now that I can post photos much easier...like this:

Here you see Becky and I in the little Huichol town we went to on the missions trip. This was the kitchen of the house we were at. As you can probably figure out from the picture, we fit right in.

Anyways, now that we have established that I am using this new blog and everyone is happy, I'll get on with it.

You may have noticed that I called this post "Four Weeks of Spring Break." That would be because we had four straight weeks of groups coming to Agua Viva on their spring breaks.

Back in March I worked with a group from Reno, Nevada. I got to go with a small contingent of them to work on the new house of missionaries from my church. It was really fun for me to get to hang with my church community during the week, since mostly I am only there on Sundays. There was a lot of manual labor involved, digging, pouring cement. And I got to watch a cement block wall being built. And the new skill that I came away with: cutting tiles (for the bathroom). I only had one tile crack on me, which I think is pretty good for a first time.

The week leading up to Easter, known in these parts as Semana Santa (Holy Week) was the week of our bi-annual youth camp (and also the week of Potter's Clay). For the second time, I got to be on the game staff and help put on morning, afternoon and night games for the campers, and help run various free time activities like a volleyball tournament and a sidewalk art/graffiti contest. It was a busy week, I was mostly on my feet, but so much fun. I think all of the campers (about 250 of them) had a great time. I had invited one shy 16 year old, Mariana, from my church to come to the camp. She is extremely quiet and hardly talks to any of her peers. I was nervous for her all week and tried to sit with her at meals and get her more involved. By the end of the week I had convinced myself that there was no way she could have enjoyed herself, but when I saw her at church on Sunday she told me right away that she couldn't wait to go back to Agua Viva. You never know what God is up to.

During the last week of March we switched back to American groups, and we had three in the camp at once. I got to coordinate for a group from Twin Cities Church in Grass Valley, California. It was a pretty large group, 44 people, mostly high schoolers. They worked at a chruch in town and did VBS, sports minsitry, and construction projects. I got to do a little bit of everything, but mostly I helped translate details for the construction work and painted. I did play a little bit of soccer though, I even headed the ball once! They were a really fun group, I had a blast being with them all week.

And finally, last week I was coordinating for another youth group, this time from Walnut Creek, California. We did a work project here at Agua Viva in the morning and a VBS at a church in Ensenada in the afternoons. During the work project I mostly helped put down a cement board floor (new skill=proficiency with a caulking gun). The VBS was especially fun because their church has been working with the church in Ensenada since 1998 and have a great relationship with them. It was fun to see how the kids remembered them and asked about people that didn't come this year. I had also worked with this group last year, so it was fun for me to be working with people for the second time and already have a bit of a relationship with them.

So that is how I spent my four weeks of spring break. Now I am enoying a few more weeks of calm before the craziness of summer begins. There is a lot to get in order and what not.