Tulips and More

We recently began a men’s Bible study. First night up was a serving of the beatitudes and fresh homemade tamales. We’ve been going now for about a month. Answer well or you may be cut out of the picture…sorry about that Dan.

Thursday worship turned into a birthday party for Brenda, a friend of Christina. We had a typical birthday party meal of cake and jello. Then we sat around the table for a few laughs.

Tis the season for tulips. Vendors set up shop beside traffic lights with promising sales. As you can see one such person came by and indulged in one of those beautiful potted plants. Are any of you green thumbs out there enjoying spring flowers yet?

Looking down into our community of Momoxpan. You can see a number of important landmarks like the church tower and the entrance to the cemetery on the left. We have witnessed many funeral processions on this road complete with playing band, flower petals being dropped and people carrying the casket.

After a long layoff Diana and I have started walking for exercise once again. This is the majestic view that awaits us early in the morning. I lift up my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. Psalm 121:1-2

Beginning to think in terms of a few Mexican backgrounds for powerpoint.

Thursday Night Goings On

We’ve been meeting on Thursday evenings since June and find it one of our best ways to connect. It’s a worship and prayer time that has a koinonia (community, fellowship) feel. Here’s what a “typical” evening is like:

5:35 – I’m “late” and waiting in the papelaria for copies of some new songs we are singing tonight…was suppose to be at the Oxxo five minutes ago for some of the folk.

5:58 – I’ve been at the Oxxo for 15 minutes and no one has shown up yet ………oh here comes three of them now. “We’ve got to wait; two more coming on the bus in 10 minutes.”

6:26 – Finally arrive back home...five more already here. There are kisses all the way around from everyone. Christina and some of the younger ones are outside jumping on the trampoline.

6:34 – Stephen is tuning his guitar….tuning………tuning…. He introduces us to Sam and Kifi who are new to the group. We’ve been meeting for three months now and the feeling of friendship and community is growing. Everyone from El Puente is invited, but it mostly tends toward young adults.

6:40 – Arianna grabs the djembe; Isaias an egg shaker; Esteban a tambourine as we hand out the song books.

6:43 – Finally under way with a Scripture reading. Our first song tonight is Mighty to Save and then we sing Todopoderoso. Worshiping through song, prayer, Scripture reading fill the evening.

7:30 – Diana heads to the kitchen to begin preparing for the meal. She turns on the coffee pot on the way by.

7:36 – Stephano arrives after finishing football practice.

7:44 – I peal off as the group begins to wind down so I can go up the street for roasted chicken, tortillas and soft drinks.

8:10 – The meal is ready for the fourteen of us who came tonight. The roasted chicken with the adobado seasoning is extra tasty. Someone has brought cookies for dessert.

8:20 – Most of us are crowded around the table eating, while a few continue to play guitars. It’s a fun time……..lots of joking and laughing. Arianna connects on the internet with some friends in South Carolina, and we talk. Danielle tells us stories from Maine.

8:48 – We begin to think about going………..Isaias and Nancy stop by for their kids. We stand and talk for a few more minutes. Kisses all the way around for everyone as we say our goodbye.

9:12 – We pile the nine people in the van who need a ride home. Maria goes along. “Could you take Leslie home, too, so she won’t have to ride the bus so late in the night?”

9:25 – With everyone safely home we head across town to drop Leslie off.

10:22 – Maria and I arrive back home. Christina and Diana have done all the clean up and putting things away. It’s been another good evening.

What Has Been On Your Mind Lately?

Well, on a trivial note one thing that is on my mind lately is the weather. I’m not sure if my body has acclimated to Mexican weather, or if I’ve turned into a wimp, but it’s cold down here. I know, I know “cold” is relative. Here we are living with sunny skies with lows in the 30’s at night and some of you are standing in two feet of snow in sub-zero temperatures. But in my defense let me say that there is no heat in this house. Oh how nice it would be to roll out of the bed in the morning and turn up the thermostat. Instead the “thermostat” is a pair of warm-ups over the pajamas, an extra sweater, hooded jacket, and sitting on the couch for quiet time with an extra blanket and cup of coffee while holding the dog.

Much more seriously, Haiti is on my mind. The images of devastation along with the mounting problems of hunger, thirst, disease and looting reflect the pain of the Haitian people. This is not the first time of trouble in this country as an employee of our company wrote a few months ago, “The really poor have taken to eating dirt cookies to fill their stomachs. These cookies are made of dirt, salt and vegetable shortening and then dried in the sun. I have tried them. They do not taste good. But for the poorest of the poor, dirt cookies are eaten when they cannot afford to purchase food.” Their problems have not all been physical either. Another employee described a conversation with a local mayor who said, "As the mayor, I use the services of the witchdoctor. But, so do all the pastors." That comment led him to this insight, “The area is so steeped in Voodooism… that even the pastors are blinded to the truth they presumably teach.” Haiti needs our prayers on many fronts.

In a word - Daniel. His return to West Virginia for work has preoccupied our thoughts, too.

Out there on the horizon is that word………………..re-entry. Re-entry is a time when you come back to your home country and try your hardest not to go through the same “shock” as you did when you left in the first place. I’m sure we will be posting thoughts about it in the future, but for now it’s on our mind a lot. We are giving thought and conversation to what we have learned, who we are now, how all that translates into the future, and we are reaching out to people who can provide insight. That’s what has been on our mind a lot lately.

Charter Member of Our Wisdom Team

Used Prayers

How do you feel about using someone else’s prayers? Not for me I hear you say, they’re stale. Maybe it’s time to recognize that while we can fall into heartless ritual, we can also benefit from the thoughtfully crafted prayers of others. We do well to learn the language of heaven from godly men and women through the ages and today. It’s good for our imaginations to be stirred to new heights and find ourselves joining in and adding on. You’ll find them used but not used up. Here’s a start:

“O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory; I pray Thee, so that I may know thee indeed.” - A.W. Tozer

“Loving Lord and Heavenly Father I offer up today all that I am, all that I have, all that I do, and all that I suffer, to be Yours today and Yours forever. Give me grace, Lord, to do all that I know of Your holy will. Purify my heart, sanctify my thinking, correct my desires. Teach me, in all of today’s work and trouble and joy, to respond with honest praise, simple trust, and instant obedience, that my life may be in truth a living sacrifice, by the power of Your Holy Spirit and in the name of Your Son Jesus Christ, my Master and my all Amen.” - Elizabeth Elliot Gren

“O Lord, we pray for our country that God would bless it; and O that we might have a season of revival of pure and undefiled religion in the land. We perceive that Thou canst turn the hearts of the people, as the trees of the wood are moved by the wind. O that there might come a deep searching of the heart, great thoughtfulness of the Scriptures, reverence of God and the principles of justice and peace; and may this land make another stride in onward progress, and out of it may there be gathered a people whom Thou hast chosen, who may show forth Thy praise.” - Charles H. Spurgeon

Pondering A Decade

We are now entering new territory- pondering a decade. I’m not sure, how meaningful it is to anyone else but after listening to the Truth Project this week I know it’s important for me to look back…and learn. I was reminded, “Where we have come from, the past history is the key to who we are and where we are…and those who don’t know history have no sense of identity and no sense of wisdom as they explore where they are going to go. Without history we are lost both in terms of identity and in terms of wisdom of the way we go forward.”

So here I am a few days later in the Mexico City airport jotting down notes of where we have been in the last ten years. Our life begins to take shape on a brown paper bag from Starbucks. I really want to know who we have become in the decade. I want really want to see how we have been shaped so as to go forward in wisdom. Things that are going on the list are: big events, major books, circumstances that have shaped us, personal growth…

2000 started for us living in a single wide 500 sq. ft. trailer with three small children and a 50 gallon barrel of water in the bathroom waiting Y2K. It ended in Mexico with an 18 year old graduate and the other two close on his heels. The in-between seems like worlds apart.

Charting the big events is the easy part. We moved into a double wide, concluded twelve years of youth ministry to work in administration and resigned three years later, started home-schooling three, moved to Mexico for a four-year stint in missions.

Recognizing some key processes and circumstances isn’t so hard either. Beginning to pray like we had never prayed before, recognizing some certain shallowness and immaturity in our lives in ministry, experiencing life though another culture, thinking through an international third world grid, failing on different fronts…and growing through it, meeting friends from Colombia who introduced us afresh to the gospel.

The hard part is seeing clearly who we have become over the last decade. Harder still is to determine what it means for our future. We rest assured that God will weave it all together for good because we love Him and have been called according to His purpose.

What about you? What has shaped you over the last decade? Who have you become? How has your historical biography of the last ten years given you wisdom to move into the future?