Just a space and a dream...

We have an idea.

We think that what we are supposed to do is make an internet cafe here at the church so that we can offer internet to people in the community.

At first, it may seem like something that is not very compelling to support. Here is my rationale for a coffee shop.

First, we are here to raise leaders to serve and follow Christ. We desire to cultivate some leaders in the community to do the work of Jesus and for them to take that leadership, and change the community.

Second, in order to do that, we need a place to engage with the community, employ people, and to be able to train people with computers and internet skills.

Third, ministry takes time. We want to be able to have a safe way to engage with people. Evangelists aren't the easiest people to approach. Coffee shop people are less threatening.

Putting all of these things together, we dream of a place where people in the community can come to the church, use the internet, learn what it is like to drink a freshly roasted latte with the "God shot" of perfect crema.....a quote from Pastor Dahlstrom at Bethany Community in Seattle(we would like to have our own roaster), engage in a community of love and acceptance, and to feel the hope of people who believe in them and want to see them succeed.

That is why we are here. We want to spread hope into this place that is filled with unemployment, despair, and a basic distrust that anything good is going to happen. I believe that God has a different plan. He wants to show people that He can bring beauty out of nothing and He asks us to be a part of it.

If this interests you as well, let us know how we can include you in creating a coffee shop in a place where people don't drink coffee yet. We would love to partner with you to make this happen. The space here at the church has been given to us by the Pastor. They use it for the nursery right now but it will be available to us soon. The space has a lot of windows and cool wood beams on the ceiling.

We are starting with nothing. No latte maching, no counter, no computers, no idea of how to run a internet cafe. Just a space and a dream.

Chicks

We went over to the house of Gonzalo, Griselda, Efren, Adriana, and Adrian to look at our baby chicks. The family is now living in a house four times the size because they have a roof over their heads and now can spread out a little more. The kitchen is now able to not be in the place where they sleep. So progress is happening.
We don't know what we would do with the chickens or how we would raise them, but it might be a challenge that we try to make happen. After all, you don't get offerred baby chickens that often and they were very cute. The kids were super excited to give them to us as well. It just makes your heart feel good.

Happy Easter!

We just got back from a wonderful Easter celebration. It started with a 5am service here at the church followed by pancakes and then a little nap. We left at 10am (mexican time) and we drove to a park where there was a pool and picnic area. The pool is filled every day with fresh water from a hot spring. So it was very pleasant. They played some music and then had a baptism for about 20 people. One of the people getting baptized was Gonzalo, who is the father of the three kids that I blogged about before who just received his new roof. He was so happy and he invited Erin and I to his house and said he was going to give us two chicks. Erin was excited, I just got hungry for chicken...
After the baptism, there was a feast of food and fun. We played volleyball and it was so fun to see a whole community swimming and laughing. One guy got thrown into the pool and couldn't swim. He totally panicked and Jose Luis had to go over and literally save him. It was scary, especially since everyone who threw him in was laughing and didn't realize how scared he was.
All in all, it was a great day full of fun and fellowship. I hope yours was great as well!

Building a House

There is a group here right now from Seattle, Washington. They drove all the way down here to help us with our mission. They arrived on Monday afternoon and started to dig the foundation for a house that we are building up in the hills. It is a 20x30 house and it will house 14 people when it is done. Some of the ladies and children of the family showed up to look at their house-to-be and we were able to get a picture with them.

They also led VBS during the afternoon and a church service at night. It is exciting to get so much done in so little time. We will write more when we have time but we just wanted to give you an idea of the house that we are working on...