Arrived in Esperanza

So with a very full van we headed out from Campbell River to Tahsis, BC.  It was quite a beautiful drive, we didn't expect snow capped mountains on the Island!  The road was mostly paved, but a significant portion was gravel, very windy, and steep drop offs.  For the most part there wasn't much traffic, although we did come across at least one massive logging truck (probably 20ft wide).  

Once we reached Tahsis, the boat shortly arrived and we loading up all our stuff, and we were on our way!  About a 20 minute boat ride.

We are staying in a two bedroom house, heated by a wood stove - and this is the view from our deck!  I don't know if the picture does it justice, but it is seriously beautiful.

Nevae & Kez are thrilled that there are two dogs at Esperanza and are already making friends.  

This is "Chums"

For Bonus Points - guess where we ate in Campbell River?

Loaded Up

Buying groceries for a month is not exactly a simple process - we're looking at 26 suppers, 24 lunches and 25 breakfasts!  It kind of feels like we're stocking a kitchen which I guess we basically are.  Let's just say the van is getting pretty full and we still need to buy our fruits, vegetables, meats and breads right before we head out.  Julia has been so well organized and I have full confidence we'll eat very well.

We've really enjoyed the scenery here already and this morning there were six eagles and two seals right near our hotel, not to mention two dead crabs.  It has however been quite cool and blustery so we're hoping for the weather to warm up!  The girls are doing great, and have enjoyed swimming in the pool and have all of a sudden discovered swimming in deeper water and diving down to the bottom.

Tomorrow we leave for the camp (about a 3 hour drive) and hop on the boat!  I'm assuming we'll have Internet at the camp...

Back in Canada!

Fairly surreal walking by the water in Victoria after starting the day in Guadalajara (with a flight delay it ended up being about about 14 hours of traveling).  We keep saying "hola" and "gracias" out of habit and getting strange looks by people, ha!  Thanks to Diana and Janice for driving our van to Victoria! A new chapter begins soon!

Adios Mexico!

It’s hard to believe our time in Mexico is coming to a close, it’s been so good to experience life lived in community and a discipleship environment.  It kind of reminds me of those summers long ago working as staff at camp: fulfilled, ready to be done, but looking forward to doing it again (here we come BC!).  Nevae and Keziah have had lots of fun, but are looking forward to being back in Canada.  Nevae is craving white milk; it’s just not the same here!  Tuesday (tomorrow) we land in Victoria and get ready for our next chapter in our sabbatical.

We had a great time at church last Sunday - met pastor David who planted the church three years ago and it has grown to over 150 people, 80-90% in conversion growth - wow!  I had a conversation with a former gang leader who was deported from the U.S.A. (where he learned English) and we met Luis, a young boy who comes to church all on his own, his family as of yet wants nothing to do with church or Jesus. This church definitely was alive with the power of the Holy Spirit - “Let the weak say, “I am strong!”  Joel 3:10 & Luke 10:17-21 was the theme of the service and many came forward to receive and acknowledge that they need the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives.  It was really powerful to see men and women who are dressed up in their “Sunday best” kneeling on a dirt floor.  The girls even went off to children’s Sunday School on their own which was really neat to see, and Keziah said she prayed in the classroom too.  We headed back to Casa de Paz for worship again yesterday - it’s great to observe “church” in a different setting and to see how much is similar, and yet how so much is different, especially in a latino culture.  For example, those attending for the first time stand up, are introduced, and then usually ten to twenty people around them, shake their hands, hug them, kiss them, embrace like friends they haven’t seen in a long time, and then the whole church says “Welcome!”  Yesterday’s message focused on how it’s the primary responsibility as parents to teach and explain to our kids about faith, and how our relationship Jesus shapes the decisions we make and why - sounds familiar to WMBC!  

I’ve read far more than I expected this past month.  I read “Missional Leader” (this quote stood out for me, “Missional leadership cultivates an environment in which the people of God imagine together a new future rather than one already determined by a leader.”), “Spiritual Warfare for Every Christian” by Dean Sherman (great reminder of the reality of the unseen battle going on), “Tangible Kingdom” by Hugh Halter (excellent!), re-read “The Shack” by William P. Young, and made it through most of the Steve Jobs biography.  All of it good stuff!  Julia is also reading a book by Henri Nouwen called “The Way of the Heart” and has been very meaningful.

I’ve also been reflecting on the book of Ephesians, listing all the things that Jesus Christ has done for me, and it’s crazy good!

• blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ
• chose us to be holy and blameless
• predestined us to be adopted as his sons
• redemption through his blood 
• forgiveness of sins
• made known to us the mystery of his will
• marked in him with a seal the promised Holy Spirit who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance
• made us alive in Christ even when we were dead in our transgressions
• God’s workmanship
• brought near to God through the blood of Christ
• access to the Father
• no longer foreigners and aliens

Sometimes I feel like I fall into the trap of trying to live like Jesus, rather than realizing that Jesus actually lives in me, i.e. “what would Jesus do?” has great intentions as a concept, but falls short in so many ways - Jesus isn’t just the example or model of how to live, rather it’s in him or ultimate him in me that makes a changed life possible.  The spirit of Jesus resides in me (mind blowing), it’s his Holy Spirit that enables me to live a different life - not because I have a great example to follow, but because He is literally transforming every aspect of my life (i.e. look at what He’s done for us based on Ephesians) by his indwelling Spirit.  

Tuesday I led the students on two sessions, “Knowing Yourself as a Leader” and “Relationship Between Church and Missionary”.  They typically start with an hour of worship and prayer (9-10am).  Sessions from 10:00am-2:30-3:00pm.  Lunch.  Then they have one on one’s with leaders, reading, chores, etc.  The teaching was well received (even with having to translate from English into Spanish) and we had some very good discussion.  On Friday the group surrounded us in prayer and spoke words of strength, encouragement and hope!  We came to bless and have been blessed in return...

It has been very hot this last week, 35-38 degrees and we’ve definitely noticed the nights not cooling off like they did the previous weeks.  Someone said it had been 39 in the city.  We got the pool working again! We discovered that the chlorine kills the minerals in the well water, leaving a bunch of rusty, brown “stuff” in the water so for now we’re not adding chlorine until they get a pool vacuum.  The girls love it!

In terms of work projects we’ve built some cement pathways with a tiles to go on top right near the main building, and we tried to replace some of the broken clay tiles on the roof.  The last couple of evenings we’ve had thunderstorms through so we’re trying to fix all the leaks!  Julia finished her last meal today - Watermelon and Roll Khuchen (spelling?)!  She did so great, and even made cheesecake one day.

Here are pictures from our outings and relaxing at the Center!

Mole! 

Gym Class with Dad

Yummy!

Ice Cream Serenade

Jen & Sandra - part of the MTC Team

Painting & Cooking

Last Sunday we stayed at the church for a potluck.  I ended up helping out with worship playing percussion.

                                      


With the team away at the beach this week we decided to bless them with painting the upstairs at the center and freezing some extra meals for them.  It was nice to have the place to ourselves, and to only cook for our family (steaks!), but we also kept ourselves quite busy trying to get stuff done while the team was away - this was definitely the busiest week.

 


On Wednesday it was a Mexican holiday so the pastor and his family came over to the center and we hung out together in the afternoon a bit.

                                    

Keziah and the little bird

 The pool got gross in a hurry, (something wrong with the filter and pump) and they were fixing the timer on the sprinklers, so one day we tried out water balloons.

Today we took a day off to go into Guadalajara to check out the market (it's the largest covered market in Latin America) and stroll in the air conditioned mall - yahoo for Starbucks and cool air!  The girls picked up some souvenirs, I found my Del la Rose Japones Peanuts, and Julia ate at McDonald's so it was a good day for everyone!  Pictures are on the camera so we'll have to upload the pictures next week.  

Thank you for all your prayers.  Next week I'll lead some sessions with the students, and we're back to the schedule.

Week Two

Here are some pics from the Children's Carnival, over 300 kids and 100 adults, 70 volunteers.

Students from the Matthew Center - late night Tacos after the Carnival

These are students hanging out with the girls.

This week, Trevor Goddard, one of the main leaders at Matthew Training Center came back from a week spent with friends.  It was great to connect with him and hear his vision for the property and the ministry here.  I forgot to mention that last week, Keziah lost her front tooth while eating an ice cream bar - and we never found the tooth! 

Kez also cut her finger this week, but she quickly got over it and was her giggly self in no time.  Julia and I gave our testimonies to the students on Tuesday, not always an easy thing, but sharing our God stories always brings community and gives Jesus all the glory!  

Julia has received many compliments on her cooking and is doing a fantastic job.  It would be great to come back when they’ve renovated the kitchen as many items are stacked in plastic bins, or tucked in the back of a low cupboard so it does make the whole cooking process a little more complicated. I should also say that “lunch” is actually eaten around 2:30-3:00pm as the main meal of the day.  Typically supper is eaten anytime between 9:00-10:00pm.  I still really haven’t got used to eating that late and surprisingly after that afternoon meal we really haven’t ate very many suppers.

We’re fixing up the sprinkler system here at the center and running a power line for the pump for the pool - lots of trenching!  I’ve worked alongside Raul and Chappe (spelling?).  The gringo (me) using a pick axe broke one of the main water lines on the first day working with them - they assured me it wasn’t my fault as they didn’t know the line was there either, and we soon had everything connected again. 

The girls had a blast with new water in the pool, lots of fun!  It's basically 30 everyday and in the afternoon it can feel very hot!

Cleaning out the pool!

We've had some practice on the tennis courts as well.

It was Mother’s Day on May 10 in Mexico - it was probably a once in a lifetime experience for Julia, we love her lots! 

I can feel myself finally starting to relax and start to think about what God has for me and how to reconnect with him. I’ve started reading quite a bit, which feels great!  Here’s a couple of quotes that caught my attention, the first one comes from Brennan Manning’s book, Abba’s child. 

“I knew I was broken.  I knew I was a sinner.  I knew I continually disappointed God, but I could never accept that part of me.  It was a part of me that embarrassed me.  i continually felt the need to apologize, to run from my weakness, to deny who I was and concentrate on what I should be.  I was broken, yes, but I was continually trying never to be broken again, or at least to get to the place where I was seldom broken.  I came to see that it was in my brokenness, in my powerlessness, in my weakness, Jesus was made strong.  It was in the acceptance of my lack of faith, that God gave me faith.  It was in the embrace of my brokenness that I could identify with other’s brokenness.  It was my role to identify with other’s pain, not relieve it.  Ministry was sharing, not dominating; understanding, not theologizing; caring not fixing.”

The second quote comes from Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Life Together, 

“He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial.”  Said another way, people who only dream of community usually destroy it, but those who love people without expectation unknowingly create it.

This coming week the students at Matthew Center are having a retreat in Mazatlan.  We decided to stay back at the center and do some painting and make some extra meals for them.  I'm sure we'll have a chance to explore some in Guadalajara too.  

Right now we're catching internet at the church.  We just finished a very nice mother's day celebration and we're soon going to have a potluck here.  

Off to the Races!

Sabbatical Blog

May 5

What a great start to our sabbatical!  We’ve had the opportunity to meet people from all over the world (Columbia, Brazil, Mexico, South Carolina, and Canada) here at the Matthew Training Center, and we’ve been warmly welcomed into their community.  We’ve been able to ease into the cooking schedule and get accustomed to the kitchen. 

 The Center is located outside Guadalajara on a large property that is walled/fenced in.  we are staying right in the Center (essentially a large home) in two of the bedrooms on the main floor. 

No, the pool does not work...

The Center has a large outdoor area that is shaded, and that is also where the kitchen and eating area is located. 

So far the girls have been fantastic and each day they’ve had some school work to do with dad. 

They’ve also had lots of fun playing catch with the dog and playing with another four year old girl here, Anna Mar. 

On Thursday we went to a river that is fed by a hot spring and other than some bug bites, we had a great time on our first outing off the base.

Today we went into the city for church and right now I'm in a stairwell catching internet in a Mexican home.  Outside there are probably two-three hundred kids that are taking part in a church sponsored carnival on the street - we just blocked it off and set up!  It's hot, dusty, and everyone is having a great time!  There are six MB churches in Guadalajara, I've been able to connect with pastor Enrique, who is pastoring the oldest MB church in Guadalajara, 43 years; I made sure to mention that I too was pastoring, and also the oldest MB church in Canada. Unfortunately my pictures are not uploaded yet, but I'm sure we'll get internet again! (probably about another week)

Appreciate your prayers as we serve here.