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!
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
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.
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.
Friday, April 11, 2008
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??
Thursday, April 10, 2008
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.
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.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)