Summer in Review video

hey all, i made this video for our end of summer meetings and thought you might enjoy

Great end to the summer

hey all, hope all is well. The summer ended well, but very busy. I went on a youth retreat with one of the churches I was working with during the summer and gave a talk at their missions themed retreat. It was really fun, although wet as we were camping and it rained really hard and even hailed a bit. I can't believe how fast the summer went by. I was really proud of our team. I felt like they really learned so much during the summer about God, México, missions and life and was just really proud of them. On other news front I talked to the people in Brasil and it seems to be coming together and I got my visa yesterday from the embassy and also picked up my brother at the airport and we spent the day today together. We went to a bunch of different places in Mexico City and then finally went up to La Presa, my first home in México and had lunch with them. It was really cool to see Pete get to meet them and get to know some of my favorite people in México. Much love to everyone. I will be here in Mex with my bro till Monday, then we are off to Guatemala for a week before returning to the US on the 18th. I"m looking forward to seeing all of you.

Been a long time

Hey all, sorry for such a long time between posts, but between not having reliable internet and working with a short term high school team for the last week I haven't had many chances to update things. To go back a bit, on Sunday the 13th I went with Paul, my leader, to La Presa, my first church for their grand opening of their new church building. It was great to see and just awesome to see the huge smile on Pastor Ignacio's face (also one of my Mexican dads). A few young people from the church and the two spearheaders working there as well as myself performed a skit about not wearing masks and pretending to be someone we are not which seemed to go over very well. After the skit I spent a bit of time explaining it and talking about how we no longer need to pretend to be someone if we know that we are loved by the creator of the world. It was a really neat time to see people I hadn't seen in three years as it seemed like all of La Presa showed up even those that hadn't been to church in forever. I would ask for prayer that the church would continue to grow and God would use them to bring his good news to La Presa. All last week I worked with a team of 23 high schoolers from the New England area who came with a program of Gordon-Conwell seminary with their mentors who are seminary students and a seminary professor. I had a great week working with them and getting to know some of their leaders. A couple of them really challenged me a lot and gave me a lot to think about as far as my future and perhaps full time ministry. It is a thought that still scares me, but I feel like God might be pulling me there. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed working with the high schoolers and it was great to see them in spite of language and cultural barriers interacting with the youth at the church we were working at. We spent most of our time doing street preaching in their neighborhood, in the center of the city and by a dump just to the north of their church. We went to the Alameda (sort of a central park) and to Bellas Artes (a big Kennedy center sort of thing) one day to sing some songs and do some skits and I was amazed by the crowd of 50 or so that gathered to watch the skits. Afterwards I was shouting translations of what the seminary professor was preaching and then gave a little message myself when he was done and many people prayed with us which was really cool. The next day we went to visit a landfill where a lot of people live to collect various things to sell. We played a lot of soccer with the kids and presented some songs, skits and told some stories to them. It was a good time, but very eye opening. Afterwards we took a tour of the dump and met a few people who lived there and its just really sad to realize that people live like that. During the week I also celebrated my 23rd birthday and two of the other leaders (one mexican, one from the US) blindfolded me and took me on the metro where they got a bunch of people to sing happy birthday to me before getting me in a taxi, still blindfolded and taking me to Garibaldi which is the most famous plaza for mariachis. They took off my blindfold as the mariachis began to sing the mexican birthday song which was really sweet. On Sunday we went to the church we had been working with (one I have also been working with this summer), they generally have 4 hour services with about 2 hours of singing. It was a really neat service for the kids as most of them had never been to anything like that and it was cool how the church sang a lot of songs bilingually so that they could understand. I translated several testimonies and a message which was cool and just had a great time. I am actually leaving tomorrow to go on their camping trip and share a message there too. i will be there on thursday, friday and leave early saturday morning to make a clown show in La Presa before leaving for Guadalajara to go to a wedding on Sunday, driving back late sunday night to be able to go to the pyramids with the summer team monday morning. It should be a busy but good week. Today I spent most of my day trying to get my visa at the Brasilian embassy. After getting lost trying to get there I waited in line two hours before being told as the first words something about a bank deposit slip which I didn't have, I thought I could pay with cash ($130, all other countries pay $20) but Brasil has a program of reciprocation where they do to your people what you do to theirs which I actually think is a a good policy. I ran to the bank and ran back to get there 15 minutes before closing and find that they had closed early. It was kinda a bummer, but gave me an appreciation for the process most people have to go through to get to the US. Hope that update wasn't too long, but to end I just want to give praise to God for all He has been doing in and through me and continue to ask for prayer for guidance for the future. Much love and God bless.

i'll post more pics later, when I have time, but you can see the ones i have by clicking below
You can see more La Presa pics by clicking here
Or more pics from this past week's team clicking here

paul to the left and my pastor in the middle
the new church building
selling freezer pops at the dump
my birthday mariachis
the group from the week

La Presa, Ignite and Brasil

Hey all, thanks for your continued love and support. I can't believe how quickly my time here is coming to an end. On Sunday I had the chance to go to Puebla and visit my old church and hang out with some good friends which was really refreshing and just nice to catch up. I really miss those guys a lot. On Saturday I took my team to a retirement home outside the city and we sang some songs we had prepared, shared a message and a testimony and then just spent time with the older folks there getting to know them and just showing them that we care. It was neat to see their faces light up and hear the same story about climbing the volcano in Puebla about 6 times in a row from the same guy, but I could tell they appreciated our visit. This coming week is about to be crazy for me as I will also be a leader for the 10 day program of LAM called ignite. I will be pulling double duty as a leader for both programs and will be very busy with the group of 20 something high school students. I'm not really sure what to be expect, but it will be interesting. We will be working with one of the churches that I have already been working with during the summer. The church is called Dios es Amor (God is love) and I would ask for prayer for the church and the group coming down that God would guide their steps and use this time to be of a big impact in their lives and also in the lives of the Mexican people they will be working with. On Sunday I will be going up to La Presa (my first home in Mexico, where I was my first summer her) to celebrate the grand opening of their new church building. I'm really excited for them and its crazy to see how far they've come from that distant dream of a new church building three years ago when I was working there. We are performing a skit called Masks which I think is really powerful and I hope will be of benefit to the congregation and the hopefully many visitors there. I have been in contact with Brasil and it seems I will probably be going, but due to Brasilian immigration laws probably only for 6 months instead of the year I was hoping for. I will keep you all updated. Much love and God bless.

you can check out some other pics here

an arrow to God, recreating Rich Mullins last picture
a great pic that I have the same one from 3 years ago with the same guy

some of my boys from La Presa
my team

John McCain visit

So I don't have a lot of time right now, but today I went with one of the other summer leaders, Kevin to the Basilica of Guadalupe to try to see John McCain who was visiting and we managed to see him. It was really cool because outside of the press and normal basilica goers there was pretty much no one there. We just followed him around with the press, took a bunch of pictures. When he showed up I was shocked to see Lieberman with him and Jeb Bush too. There were a ton of secret service and scary looking dudes with automatic weapons. When he went up on top of the chapel for a photo op I said to my friend that I wanted to say something, but I couldn't think of anything good. Finally on a spur of the moment inspiration I yelled up "Lieberman for vice president". Lieberman looked down at me, gave me a salute and a big thumbs up. It was kinda cool, then as they were leaving I wished them a Happy 4th of July and McCain looked at me and waved. I followed that up with a good luck and another plea for Lieberman for VP. The two of them looked at each other, exchanged a few words and then both waved at me and gave me a thumbs up. It was a pretty impressive spectacle. I mean I do not particularly support him, but I have to admit seeing someone so powerful with that much security, entourage and precision was impressive. It was cool talking to some of the press both from the US and Mexico (not officially, just chatting) and was an odd experience to be able to be that close to a presidential candidate with almost no one around. I will give a better more pertinent update soon, but I just thought that was a cool story. You can check out more pics of John McCain here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2286641&l=b1cd4&id=5706269
and some other pics from various things here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2284615&l=de40c&id=5706269

Notice Lieberman, McCain and even Jeb Bush


not a stellar picture for the Republicans, but I went to Trotsky's house here in Mexico where he was killed which was sweet
a funny picture at the Basilica, I always saw these places that offer pictures and finally decided to get one taken with my co-leader for the summer, Stephanie

God is good

The past couple of days have been busy but fruitful ones. I am slowly learning what it means to enjoy God and to learn to relax and enjoy his life. I feel like it’s been a slow and long process, but God continues to work and shape me to trust him more. The past few days have just been great examples to me of his love and plan for my life. Wednesday after Spanish classes we had our team training session where we worked on our program for visiting a retirement home next Saturday. It was cool to see how the plan my partner and I came up with just really worked great for the message and testimony that our group members where going to share. We were learning and preparing a few songs and were just hovered around the piano as one of our team members (the only guy, Pat) was playing the piano and we were all singing. It felt like a family Christmas sing-a-long or something, but it was just really awesome to sing and praise God together and to just worship and enjoy God. I am reading a book that talks about joy being a consequence of our Christian walk and I really believe that. It has been exciting to see how God is working in my life and in the life of others here in México and just giving more joy into my life. After the practice my partner, Stephanie, and I were going to visit two girls on our team, to see their house, eat with their family and go to their Wed. night service, but first she had to meet with one of the girls for what we call coaching. I decided to kill some time by reading in the park. We had been talking a lot as the leadership of Spearhead about our reactions to those who ask us for money and the beggars on the street and just really been challenging each other to see them as sons and daughters of God, as people and not as just things to push away. I was reading A Long Obedience in the Same Direction when a guy of about maybe 16 years old came up to me and asked if he could make me a bracelet or something or if I just had some change he could have to get something to eat. I barely looked up, not acknowledging him and he continued asking. I kept saying no thanks, vaguely looked at him and shooed him away so that I could continue reading. As soon as he began to walk away my heart sank, I had failed to be Jesus in his life, I hadn’t seen him as God’s creation, but merely as a nuisance in my life. I got up about 20 seconds are he had left me and tried to catch up with him in the park. As I got closer to him, he was asking someone else the same he had asked me when a cop told him he couldn’t do it and told him to leave. That is when I took a deep breath and decided I was no longer going to be a coward and asked him if I could buy him a hamburger. He said sure with a big smile and we walked over the hamburger stand. I felt unsure of what to say, I wanted so badly to be Jesus to him, but wasn’t sure how. We made a bit of small talk, I asked him where he was from and found out he wasn’t from the city, but had some family troubles and came to the city to live, that he had only finished middle school and couldn’t get a job, that he was trying to make so money and hoped to get back to school. I found out his name was Jorge and that he didn’t want to steal from people and was just trying to make honest money making bracelets for people. He, after a while asked me where I’m from (I judge my improving accent on the amount of time it takes for someone to ask that question and the certainty I hear in their voice when then ask me if I’m from around here). I told him where I was from and what I was doing in México. I shared with him that motivated by Jesus’ love for me I was trying to learn to love others. He told me of all the oppression and all the things the government didn’t let him do. He told me of his problems back home. We got his hamburger and a juice and went to sit down to talk more. He shared with me a bit about his life and I shared mine with him. He asked me why I cared about strangers who might take advantage of me, why I loved people I never knew and I told him it was because of Jesus who had loved me first. I told him that if God could love me being a sinner than I should be able to pass that love along. I told him of the revolutionary that Jesus was, of the revolutionary love he showed and how I believed that His love could change the world because it had changed my heart. He thought that was cool , but said he just feels so anxious about life and doesn’t know what I would look like to trust God. I told him I wasn’t sure either, but that I was on my way there, that I was on the path and learning to trust and follow God. I told him of my plans to move to the slums of Brasil and he thought I was a little crazy or some saint. I told him I might be a little crazy, but certainly was no saint. I shared with him about the God who created me and loved me and who chased after humanity despite its sin. I told him of a God who became man and suffered an ignoble death and how the least I could do was serve him and love him. The least I could do was to pass his love on to others, what a privilege it was to do that. I told him how it was the fact that God kept loving me and didn’t give up on me despite my sin and problems and how eventually that love changed my heart. He told then told me of an Aunt that really showed him love and cared about him, but how he never showed her any love, but how he wanted that to change. I told him it could, I told him there was only one thing in this world worthy of living for and one source of hope for the world. He talked about a new and better government and how that could make a difference, but we talked about how imperfect people will always make imperfect governments. I told him Jesus was the only way, the only hope in this dark world. I then asked him if I could pray for him and I prayed that God would enter into his life, that Jesus would heal his broken relationships, that he would receive peace. I prayed that God might move his heart, that God might provide for his needs and change his heart. As he finished his hamburger and I finished my prayer we parted ways, I told him that God loved him and so did I, I told him that Jesus loved him and died for him and offered him a new and abundant life. I told him I would be praying for him, that he might come to know the same loving power that I knew, that he might be able to live for the hope I had, that he might be able to have the peace that passes all understanding. He thanked me for the hamburger, the prayers and the conversation and said that he hoped he’d see me around. I told him that the thanks belongs to God and that he should keep seeking God. He said he hoped to see me around again in that park and I said I hoped so too. His name was Jorge and I would ask for prayers for him and for his life. Pray that God might still use me to be a blessing in his life. I don’t know if I should have asked him to pray some sort of salvation prayer, but I don’t think that is how Jesus did it, I think people saw his love and were attracted to him and I only hope through all my sin and problems that people can just catch a glimpse of Jesus through it all in me. I hope that Jorge saw a picture of Jesus in me. Thanks so much for all your prayers and support. Pray that I would continue to learn what it looks like to follow Jesus, pray for Jorge and pray for Brasil to work out if that is God’s will.

Me and Paul, my program director at a Mexico Diablos baseball game

Ayer te vi...Fue más claro que la Luna

Yesterday I saw you...more clearly than the moon, I saw you in a street child without a place to sleep, I saw you in his extended hands begging for bread to live, I saw you in his beseeching eyes, and in his hesitant smile, yesterday I saw you.... This is my translation of one of my favorite songs by Jesús Adrian Romero who I would say is by far the best Christian singer in the spanish language and just an amazing lyricist and singer. He is from the north of Mexico and sold out 4 concerts in the Auditorio Nacional here in Mexico City with a capacity of 20,000 or so. Originally he only scheduled one concert and eventually kept expanding by one until he had 4. I went on Friday with some friends to the concert and it was a pretty amazing experience and just really challenging, both from his songs and his talking between the songs. There is something amazing about the power of poetry and music to move the heart.
Things continue to go well here, I still don't have fast enough internet to successfully post any pictures, but am picking up a random signal in my room right now. Things are going well with the team. We continue visiting churches and checking up on the summer team. Its been fun to get to know new pastors and families and have various opportunities to share at churches. This past Sunday I gave a message for a youth group at the church where we have our spanish classes and team meetings. It is a presbyterian church, which here is i would say an ultra conservative church (which makes the church I go to in Maryland look like a liberal charismatic one). I gave a message on going beyond religiosity and beliefs and moving to a relationship and actions. I tied the message into my testimony and I pray that it might help some of the youth there to be challenged and continuing growing in their faith. My partner and I finished rewriting a clown show that we will be presenting at a few churches and VBS's and we continue teaching and discipling the summer team. Its hard to believe the summer is almost over, even as I write this its hard not to put in a few spanish words here and there and it is just hard for me to think about not speaking it.
I continue to be in conversation with a missionary in Brasil and it is looking more and more likely that that will work out, but I will give more updates as I get them. Much love and thanks for all the prayers.