The Beans of Life - Frijoles De Vida

Hey guys,

So we took 5 days and went to guadalajara for a vision trip for a couple people (paul, eric, and lindsey) to show them the city where darren and justin will be planting a church next year. It was a couple of amazing days in this city. We stayed with a couple pastors of a church Rey de Reyes (king of kings) on the outskirts of guadalajara. They were really hospitable, thankfully, and we were able to spend all day seeing the city, the downtown, and also able to spend some time on a couple university campuses there talking with students.

The trip was an eye opening one. Darren and I stayed with the head pastor of rey de reyes, kenton, while the other guys stayed at the english service pastor's house, ray. We were able to chat with kenton a bit who was raised in mexico as a missionary kid then had to leave when he was 14 (both his parents died in an airplane accident). He came back to mexico, however, a while ago and spent 10 years in acapulco pastoring a church and has been in guadalajara for about the same.

I remember one thing specifically he asked us "what do you think the main difference is between roman catholicism and christianity?" The answer was a simple one and one many would have guessed, "catholicism values tradition more than scripture, for the most part". I hadn't actually thought that through or studied that for terribly long, yet it was striking. Catholics here have a respect for the Bible sure, however, it is unfortunately true that many will discount the scripture for the sake of following tradition. That is just how it is here, after a long time of tradition it is just so infused within the psyche here people will take it over scripture saying the opposite.

A thought on evangelism toward roman catholics: Darren actually taught a bible study while we were in guadalajara and he brought up some good points about evangelizing to roman catholics. namely, it is important to reach common ground. for example, instead of pointing out that we don't worship the virgin mary we should talk about that we agree we worship jesus and he is the source of salvation.

Hey friends and family,
So, I haven't been blogging as much as in the past and it has occurred to me that I really should be doing my best to keep you all informed so that you are able to pray for us down here; in addition, so that you yourselves can see God's faithfulness to my team and our contacts down here.

With that- I am back in D.F. (distrito federal, a.k.a. mexico city) and have been off and on for the last couple months. I say off and on because I have taken some impromptu trips to Guadalajara where Justin and Darren Hurst (the guys leading my team) are planting a church there the next year or so. Also, I came back to the states for a couple of weeks due a death in the family. My grandma, my mom's mom, had been diagnosed with cancer in an advanced stage and shortly after passed away. My family and I were shocked by the quickness of her passing only because we expected it to happen- but much later. The time home afforded me the opportunity to talk with a few members of my family about God a little, I am not sure how much of it came through but I hope some of it did. Also the pastor doing the eulogy had several strikingly decisive things to say about death and the afterlife about my grandma's conviction concerning Jesus's salvation. For that, I was very grateful. If you are able I know that my family is still feeling her loss a bit and could use prayer for strength; as well as direction in taking opportunities to share with my extended family.

Another quick family prayer, request is that my grandpa, dad's dad, is now in the hospital! haha, I was like "seriously" now grandpa!? However, fortunately it seems that God is giving him a second chance so to say. He has been immobile for a while and now it appears he might have some hope for walking and recuperating a bit. I gave him a pedicure last time I was over at his house a couple weeks ago and after that service we had the closest conversation than we had ever had about Jesus. So, hopefully things will begin to open up more with him due to his hospitalization, mom says she is amazed at his openness now to things- so pray for him if you would, his name is Len.

Thank you all for your support this year, who ever has been following this blog and/or praying for me I really appreciate it alot and I hope you have been encouraged.

We had a little party for all the americans before we left to come here and vacation back in cali while UNAM is on break. It was a white elephant party! and we had to find a gift for less than 50 pesos so i found a rasta hat with fake dreads! yah! we had a great time watching charlie brown christmas and elf! I love hanging out with these guys they all are so great!

so the soccer guys, the guys from the soccer field from the college of science at UNAM, came over for another hangout time the other day. The first time was when we had a crazy soccer tourney in our house. This time was more tame and had more food! I baked a raspberry, blueberry, and strawberry cheesecake for them and that was a big hit. It is a lot of fun to hang out with the guys but they still aren't showing a lot of interest in Jesus, they need prayer for softened hearts!

Joe Cross, one of 2 of the directors here for enfoque mexico (campus crusade) in mexico city, is leaving to join the marines! he announced this surprise exit to us about a couple weeks ago. This is his farewell party where all the americans and mexicans get together and encourage him on his way home. Joe was the reason that darren as well as me and the rest of our house coming down here to mexico city. He has proven to be a man of vision and a great encouragement to be around and he is just a lot of fun to be around. He said, that the timing just seemed right to leave now and join because he is soon to be too old. He also said that this hasn't come out of the blue: he has had a recurring dream since he was a boy about this particular calling in his life. He is excited and ready to see how he is going to be used in the corp.

so some know and some don't know that mexico city was originally built on a lake.  Here today, there is little water in mexico city; however, there still is a small portion called xochimilco. This lush rural area of the city is home to a wide variety of canals that irrigate the man-made landscape of vegetation. Here they are able to grow vegetables year around as well as provide a fun area for a little R and R. We sat in a boat for a couple hours being pushed around by our host, diego, and being serenaded by a couple passing marachi boats and fed by a kitchen boat that served up some spicy tacos and enchiladas for us! it was so relaxing. Craig, our director here, wanted to get to know us better as well as hang out a bit so Xochimilco was the place to go.

Hey, so here are a couple more contextual shots of what UNAM is like. My friend memo here is one of the guys i spend the most time with on campus. He is a really open and honest guy that like most mexicans is really turned of to bible by the abuses of the religious people he has encountered. Institutions of religion has left a really bad taste in his mouth about God and the Bible, but he has been pretty open about letting me know where he stands thankfully. Recently, his grandmother has been not doing so well so his family is preparing for her to pass on. He seems at peace with her going but she is a huge figure in his life and we have been able to talk about what the bible tells us about heaven. His grandmother, he is convinced, is a believer. Memo needs prayer that he would be less apathetic towards jesus what his death on the cross means for his life and sin. He seems at times disinterested but hopefully he will really be rocked by the conviction of the holy spirit about his life. pray for him.

Our garage went from empty to completely packed a couple weeks ago when we received a shipment from miami of over 200 boxes of bibles. These bibles were given to us for the specific purpose of getting them in the hands of university student who dont have a copy of God's word of their own. This shipment was over a year in the making and only done with a lot of hard work from our director here, craig johring. The bibles in total are 209 boxes, thats about 5,000 of them, weighing over 10,000 lbs, with an approximate value of $100,000 us dollars!

More Resting! We had an absolutely fantastic week! Thank God for giving these people the desire to bless us in this way it turned out to be so good for us! Here is a couple snapshots of how we spent the week! Now its back to work!

So the rest of Enfoque Mexico is going to Acupulco for a week of R and R. So we decided to
follow suit with a week of vacation of our own. We have a few friends in the Cuernavaca area who graciously offered to host us from monday to friday. So we ended up staying with the marquez family who are a christian family who we know pretty well at this point. Darren has come over to spend time with Arturo (26) and Mario (30) a couple of times. In addition, mario and I volunteered for registration during Passion so I got a chance to know him pretty well over the course of a couple days. Mario (senior) and Susie are so nice! They are Mario and Arturo's parents and just offered to let us stay in their bottom floor/ basement type set up which coincidentally had 5 beds! This week has been incredibly restful and rejuvenating. God speaks again and again of resting in the Bible. From resting physically from labor and also finding your rest in Him. He is the great provider of this and we have been so blessed this week to spend a week in the sun, sleeping in, and seeking God.

So Victoriano is this really cool guy i met at the college group we go to on mondays. He is a full-time musician and working on a electronica type music album right now (he says he is kind of really behind on it). So occasionally we get together and go to the center of coyocoan (a colonia) to hit up el jarocho cafe (which is really famous) to get their hot chocolate and get some churros at the best place for it in the city. This guy is a lot of fun to be around. He loves Jesus and has a hilarious sense of humor. He definitely would like prayer for his album to get finised if you guys have time.