realest of the real

HEY! time flies, April is going to be another fast month. we finally had a work day at the church building again, we took about a 2 or 3 month break from doing the general maintenance and improvements that we used to do every week! needless to say, that was a lot to be done and we did a good 2 or 3 hours of work to the building. sometimes i have to ask myself if this is really what i signed up for... cleaning a churchbuilding? thats mission work. believe it or not! i like lists so here is one that i came up with. things that most people dont think of when they here the word missionary:

1. Fun - thats right, your not supposed to have fun while working for God! the theme is "Git-R-Dun" not "Have some Fun"

2. Manual Labor - mission work isnt supposed to be hands on... arent you to busy with bible studies and mass baptisms?!?!

3. Shabby clothes - hard to believe, but the Mormons uniforms are on point, black pants, white shirts and even name tags. as for us, sometimes we look worse than the people we are ministering to!

4. Relax - how can you relax when you are driving out demons and feeding poor people all the time? yes, we find the time! this can be anything from some coffee at starbucks, a movie at the mall, or just going to the park.

So what was the point of this list? I just want everyone to understand that there are no real guidelines to being a missionary. I would say that the main guidelines are a mentality that you are theologically conservative, and culturally liberal. Thats right, preach the gospel while you are IN the culture. Missionaries are real people, some of the realest people out there! We cant have a mindset that missionaries are just those people who travel to far off places... every Christian is (or should be) a "missionary". so my charge is: GO OUT, PREACH THE WORD, AND BE REAL!!!

change

hey everyone! well its been just a little over a week since my last post. its been kind of wierd getting back into the work, sometimes i have to remind myself that just being a friend to someone is part of why i am here. nonetheless, i am attending a new small group and also studying with 2 young women. last nite i studied english with Fabiola, and she is doing really well. she just needs to practice talking in english and she will be on the right track. im not just her "teacher" though, one of the main reasons i wanted to study with her is because she doesnt have a whole lot of friends here, she has self esteem issues, and its just hard for me to watch a young, awesome Christian stay in their house all day! so after we studied at her house, i took her to the new small group that my teammates donovan and megan started at the nearby Starbucks coffee shop. last nite was the first nite and my buddy Donovan did an awesome job setting it up and leading it. we are doing a 4 week study called "reflections on the cross" and im very excited not only to take part in it but because hopefully Fabiola can now branch out and hang out with some of the other people from the church and whoever else shows up! i know small groups and studies are considered "work" but mainly i just enjoy hanging out with people! yesterday afternoon me and Jazmin and her little brother and sister went over to her grandmas house (her grandma lives pretty close to me) to eat lunch and a rediculous amount of other people in the family were there so i got to meet even more people. Lately i have been learning to cook Mexican food at Jazmins house and that has given me a good chance to sit down with her family and share the Bible if the opportunity arises. I dont feel like this is my "mission field" i feel like this is my community, my home. therefore, i want to evangelize it because i love these people and i want them to know Christ's love!!!!!

good times

hey everyone! i have been kinda slacking on writing my blog so i will give a quick update. i spent a week in Texas from the 13th to the 21st. it was really awesome being able to take a one week break and see old friends. isnt it awesome how God has a purpose for everything? when i went down to Texas, i got to surprise a group of people from my home church in Alaska. it was great to see old friends, but God had a deeper purpose. i have a really good friend from my church whose name is Maria and she is 16 years old. we have been talking for a long time now and i had always thought she was baptized because of how spiritual she has always been and so i never second guessed that she wasnt yet baptized. well when i found out that she in fact wasnt, i studied with her for 3 or 4 days and she got baptized that week! so i knew that God had a purpose for me being there that week. now i am back in Leon, spiritually re-energized and ready to work more. last nite, Megan, Raphael, Jazmin and I went to Starbucks to have coffee but it was to cold outside so we went to Raphaels house to watch a movie. Raphael is an interesting guy. he knows English already so its easy to talk with him. he used to go to a Baptist church but one Sunday he decided to visit out church, and ever since then he has been coming back. he is really good about bringing his family to. sometimes people just come to church because of the love they feel when they are there, so that just tells me something good about the work going on here in Leon. Praise God for his faithfulness!

something

I have so many thoughts floating around in my head lately. The problem is, half the time im a hypocrite for being or acting as the same things I am criticizing. Why cant we seem to understand that Jesus is the point of everything? There are "Christians" who only think that the Old Testament was inspired by God, and not the New Testament. Why do people dislike singing old hymns from "Songs of Praise" songbooks? Its because they are "boring" but it makes me wonder, if they really knew Jesus would they still think that way? The fact is, those songs were written by real people who poured their heart and soul into their songs because they truly knew Christ. I understand that doctrine shouldnt change but cultural standards and beliefs will. Open fist closed fist, good. But sometimes it seems like we overthink and miss the whole point. Jesus. And why do I have such a hard time motivating myself to have a relationship with Him? I am critical of the church, I am critical of everything and the change must start with ME. Thank God that Jesus is the only one who can change me.

Crazy Walk

Hey everyone. I just came inside from one of the craziest walks of my life. I had just left the house to go down to the pharmacy to draw some money out for my rent, which is due tomorrow. Well I got down to the corner and some of my neighbors were outside talking, so I told them good evening, etc. Two of them went inside their houses, but one of them, a lady I have known since i arrived here, stuck around. She is in her 50's, knows both Spanish and English perfectly, and is usually really friendly. After she started talking to me, it was obvious to me that she was very drunk at this point. I had already known that she struggled with drinking, so it didnt come as a huge surprise to me. But the next 15 or 20 minutes or so were very crazy. She began to tell me how she wanted to kill her dog and then take her own life with a pistol that she keeps in her house. She said she is tired of life, that when she goes to America, the people treat her like a Mexican, and when she is here in Mexico, she is treated like an American. She is tired of bad things happening to her, because she thinks she is a good person. She also continued to explain to me how she is a lesbian, and no one will accept her for who she is. She wanted me to go into her house, and I hesitated but eventually went in. She began to cry and ask me how I knew God and am so young, but why hasnt she found him? She let me pray with her, but even as i was leaving, she kept telling me she was going to kill herself. My point is this... some people in this world just need a friend. Of course we want everyone to know Jesus, but sometimes, we have to accept them for who they are, in this case a suicidal, drunk, lesbian. I told her that even if know one else does, I love her, and so does Jesus. By the way, the girl in my picture if my friend Nadia from church, NOT the lady whom I mentioned in the story.

hey everyone, im doing better, right? im trying haha its hard. this last week my whole team went to mexico city to see the current AIM class, but i only went for Friday and Saturday. It was a hard decision to make but for a number of reasons, i wanted to be here in Leon for the rest of the week. Im glad i stayed, i had my friend David stay the nite and we went out to the movies and had coffee, which was good because i havent spent enough time with him lately. I also cleaned the house since Donovans parents were coming and are now here. tomorrow is Valentines Day. being the person that i am, i was already pretty skeptical of this holiday in the first place (maybe more so since i dont have any girlfriend or wife to express my love to) but i had to http://www.wikipedia.com/ valentines day to find out where the origins come from. turns out, St. Valentine is a martyr of the early christian church who was buried in Rome on the 14th of February. Has nothing to do with love, somehow Chaucer put this into the mix and now its a world wide holiday. Now tell me, how would the follower of God, of Jesus Christ, be supposedly killed for his sake, and wind up having a holiday named after him? Not that i really care, because i know that Jesus should be celebrated every day in my heart and by my actions. MAybe someday i can explain this to my wife, in hopes that i dont have to buy her chocolate and roses. just joking, but seriously, we need to keep the focus in our lives on Christ!!!!

Hey yall! things here are going good, we have two young men from the Lima, Peru team staying with us for a week, and then this Friday we are all going to take a bus down to Mexico City to meet this years AIM class and have some fun with them. It has been a blessing to hang out with AIMers from a different field, getting to share our experiences and talk about what God has taught us. Something lately that I have picked is that His grace is so sufficient... more than we can even imagine! Sometimes its easy for us to judge others because of the sins they have committed, in the mean time forgetting that Gods grace has already forgiven that person for what they did - no matter how bad the sin might have been. What a comfort! To know that we can wake up each day with a fresh start and a loving God to trust in. Amen.