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