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.