Football

Last night, I went to football practice and things were different. The coach showed up. He was the head coach and decided that it was time to show up and get things started. I don't exactly know why, but I was glad.

Antonio speaks good English. He took control right from the start and made the guys run until they puked. (actually, at least two of them actually threw up) They ran and did drills for two hours. After some catching up with the coach, I learned that he had some US people helping the team in the past and they weren't that great and showed up drunk. So they got rid of them. Some footballs were donated from a supporter of La Mision Ministries and we had them there (however, they didn't really get to use them). The coach decided that it would be best if I was in charge of the quarterback and wide receivers which is exactly what I wanted to do. He said there was another coach who is the offensive coordinator and he, the head coach, was in charge of the defense. So I worked with the QB, Allan, the center, Memo, and three wide receivers.

There were about 28 guys there last night. They only have 25 helmets and sets of pads...so we will see what happens when we distribute them. Coach Tony didn't want them to get their equipment without earning it, which is cool. They don't have uniforms and about half of them have cleats.

All in all, I am more excited about this than I was before. We will keep you posted about the Cuervos of Cobach.... (Cobach is the name of the High School in Rosarito, and Cuervos means Ravens.)

Busy Friday Night...

What a busy Friday night. We had planned to have a couple of meetings. Unfortunately, I did not remember both of them happening at the same time. I double-booked. And because of their importance, there was no way to postpone either one of them. The first meeting was a video conference with our board members. Erin and I sat here at our kitchen table in Mexico, and Nancy and Vance Ekrem, Ben and Alison Potter, and Daniel and Shena Hinds all gathered at the Ekrems and we had a great meeting with them via the internet.
Erin and I were able to share with them all of the things we were working on down here in La Mision. They asked us questions and tried to understand what it was that we were doing. This was such a great exercise for us because living down here, you don’t thoroughly understand what is going on until you are able to take a step back and compare it to another situation.
I was able to see some things in a different way and able to put words to feelings that we were having as we were seeing the needs in the community. As a result, Erin and I walked away from the call with such a renewed sense of our mission and we felt encouraged and loved and called to continue to do the things that we are doing. What a blessing! We both wanted to keep talking with them about it! (that is a great sign of our first board meeting)
But we could not continue.

Our other meeting had arrived during the first.

Erin was busy making dinner for our next crew. We asked Edgar, Sofy, Angelica, and Laura to come to dinner at our house. Sofy, who acts as our interpreter, did not get home from school until 8pm, so we were forced to speak in Spanish until then. These people are going to be the youth leaders of the church. We talked about what it means to be a leader and I tried to begin the discussion of how to do good ministry here in La Mision.
Please pray for us as we try to discern what it means to do youth ministry. I don’t want to just do the youth ministry model that I have done before in other situations. I believe that God calls us to follow His lead….and His lead is always new. I think of the ways that Christians in the past have thrown their culture on others and how that seems to rip the dignity from them. I want us all to follow God into a new realm which brings out the greatness of both our cultures, and gives us both, a new culture to strive for.
As I tried to communicate this, it was hard for us to hear. I think this will take some work. I feel like the prophets of the Old Testament when I talk like this. I am reading through Ezekial right now and no one wants to listen. Jeremiah faced the same thing. But when we don’t listen, and we don’t obey, God gets pretty mad.
I have football practice tonight and the principal is going to be there. Pray for me on that too!

Meet Efren, Adrian, and Adriana. I just returned from their house that we are hoping to work on with the upcoming groups. This family lives in this room where I am taking a picture. It is about 10x10 and has a kitchen, a bed, a crib, and a small TV. They have a roof on it, but it is just a tarp and some wood. The rest of the house is actually very nice. It is brick walls that were built and have remained not finished. Probably because the twins, Adrian and Adriana, are expensive. They all go to church and are very happy and loving. There smiles are obviously unbeatable and I became friends with them the moment that I met them. Efren even gave me a big hug right after meeting.

Even though the floors are dirt and there is no roof on the house, it really could be a nice place to live. But until then, these kids laugh and love and aren't even bothered that where they live is so small.

Of the four groups that we have been working with, two have cancelled, and one is having a hard time convincing the group. The other is coming at the end of this month and this is one of the two projects that they will be working on. The other is a floor for a 20x30 house that will provide shelter for three families so that they can build a house for them. It will be built on this piece of land as shown to the left.

I love being able to work on projects like this and to figure out a way to make things like this happen. Continue to pray for the groups that are coming and that God would be able to help us worship Him and serve Him in this context.

Parental Visit

My mom and dad drove down here from Pheonix. We had a great time. We made them dinner and showed them around the church on Friday night. Took a trip to wine country in Ensenada on Saturday and celebrated Erin's birthday. And on Sunday, we all went to church and then we took a trip to the orphanage where my mom had bought some supplies for them.

It was a great visit. It didn't seem like a big deal to me, because I am familiar with the area and have been coming down for a long time. But my parents had a lot to take in in a short amount of time.

Their visit really was a meaningful and enjoyable time and Erin and I really were impressed with their effort to come and share it with us.

Birthday Feast

For Erin's birthday, Elizabeth made a huge feast including homemade tortillas (the best in the world), chicken burritos, salsa, her famous guacamole, some chicken mole, and some beef soup! I was stuffed and Erin seemed to enjoy it. Then we had a tres leche cake that they bought. Phenomenal! We love our family here so much. It is such a blessing to live in community like we do.

We have a group coming down here from Seattle from Calvary Fellowship in Mt. Lake Terrace. We are very excited about that because a lot of groups are cancelling. We have lost two out of the four that we were coordinating and the third is likely going to drop out. The orphanage we work with is also losing groups by the truckload.

Our life is starting to take shape even though we are still in the learning phase. We know that we are investing in the church, and we know that being a part of this community is an important thing. We have loved getting to know more and more people.

We also know that we are trying to be response-able. That is, able to respond...to use the words of Pastor Tom Patterson.

We went to a church leadership meeting on Sunday. They were wondering what we were doing with the youth group. It is a strange thing because we haven't been given any resources or any information as to what we need to do for it. It was at least a nice thing to be a part of the leadership meeting to get an idea of what they were looking to accomplish. As a result, I felt that we needed to recruit some of the people who were at the meeting who might be good at doing youth ministry. We hope to meet with them and begin to train them to serve high school kids. The team would be Sofy, who is in high school, Angelica, Edgar, and Laura. They were excited about this when we asked them to do this.

Our aim is work with them to build relationships with the youth and get them to explore their faith in Christ. Most of the current youth that go to church are from the orphanage. We will have to continue to explore the needs of the community and the resources we have in our ministry and with the church here.

In other news, my parents are coming down here today to visit us from Pheonix. It will be fun to show them around and to spend some time with them.

Feliz Cumpleanos a mi!

Hello its my 24th birthday and I just wanted to say thank you to friends and family who have made this a special day for me. Thank you for your love and support. I love you. Here is a picture of me in 'awe' of the flowers Chad gave me at the local florist shop. (They were only $4!) Thanks again!

Football Practice

I drive into the school yard through the security post, and park in a nice place in the dirt. I walk over to the bench and set down my football. The lights slowly come on. It's seven o'clock. The guys slowly trickle over to the field. The field is dirt. No lines, no grass. Just dirt.
The begin to warm up by doing some stretches and running. I take over. I prepared some drills that I had done back at Eden Prairie High School. Of course, we had pads on and practice jerseys. They did not.
Its the second year of the football team here at Cobach High School. Last year they sold burritos at the local gas station to raise money to buy some pads. They took third place against the teams in the area. I don't know how many teams there were. They apparently had a running back who would run over guys. But he wasn't too smart so he got expelled. Bummer.
I woke up yesterday morning so excited about getting to coach. I love the fact that they are there and that they really want to learn how to play football. I didn't know how much I could offer, but at practice, they asked me questions and really listened to my response.
I will learn Spanish better because of this, but it is nice, because three of the guys do speak some English. Of course, football talk is another language altogether. Many times I say, "what's the word for holding?" And they say, "Holding."
Our season begins in August. We will increase our practices from once a week to more in April or May.

Focus, Hone, and Seek

Every day is different in La Mision. We meet new people, learn new things, and now are staring to see where God is using our skills to help. Chad and I are starting to focus our time and attention at more specific projects.

I am starting a grocery/food donation program where I put together basic food staples for 5 families and then the church decides who they will go to. Today I bought some groceries at the local Monday market to go with Elizabeth tomorrow, to visit and pray for a family whose father was killed in an accident while working construction on the highway.

Today Chad will go to his second Football (American) practice, yet I am still undecided on whether I will take up the task of coaching the women’s soccer team. I keep going back and forth. On one side, it would take away from my time/opportunities to help in La Mision. Also, the schedule varies throughout the week, so I would have to be in Rosarito maybe 3 times a week (a drive of about 30 min.) for multiple practices and games. However, the team really needs more equipment ie. Soccer balls, cones… and I believe I could help try to get donations in that area. Also there is the chance to develop new relationships and be a leader to these young women. I am praying about it and have been to one practice so far. Even though I am unsure of where God is leading me in this area, I am patient and listening.

Every Wednesday, I have also been assisting at the medical clinic that opens at the church, run by a missionary from the orphanage, Door of Faith. I foresee myself trying to recruit dentist/medical groups for short term trips, and get more medicine donated.

Chad and I also are working on a sustainable business ministry for the youth of the town. Part of our non-profit mission statement states we want to raise leaders to serve and follow Christ. We hope that by getting the youth involved in something that is run by them, as well as ministering through this form of a ‘youth group’, we would be achieving this mission. We are still in the brainstorming phase (and Chad has blogged about it before), but we hope to develop a business that teaches a skill , is run by the youth, and can continue even when we have left this area. We are really excited about the idea of roasting coffee and then selling it to raise money for the youth (to provide support for school, families, health etc.) We think we could get green coffee from South Mexico and then we would sell it to the US, Churches-as a missions support, and/or to groups who come down for short-term projects. Let us know if you have any ideas or comments on this business idea, or just pray for this to come to culmination in the way God desires it.