Life in Mexico for us

We stopped by the house of Gonzalo and his fam


Here I am wearing Adrian as a sombrero

This is Erin with Griselda (picture taken by Efren)

Last night, as I was getting ready for bed, it hit me that we were in Mexico. We had just finished watching a TV show on DVD and had to blare the sound because the "circus," which is right next door, performs every night and cranks their music from 8 to 11:30pm. We weren't able to do the dishes because the water was turned off, and flushing means going outside and getting a bucket full of water from a barrel (it's back on this morning). So, after brushing my teeth with a glass of drinking water, Erin looked for bugs to kill (only one big one last night and a little mosquito), and then we went to sleep with the dogs barking both near and far.

I don't bring this up to complain. Just the opposite. I love it. I love everything about it. Plus, we know so many people who are in much worse circumstances. We just went over to Gonzalo's and his family on Sunday afternoon. The kids were just taking a bath and getting ready for the start of school. It was going to be the first day of kinder for the twins. Gonzalo told us that he had been working for someone for the past three weeks but they hadn't paid him until just now. Because of this, they had to skip church to go and buy the uniforms for the kids, and they couldn't afford to pay the water bill, which was shut off.

Erin and I love this family, but we don't really know what to do. We want to help, but we don't have money enough to pay for their bills, and we don't know what God wants us to do. We also know many other families who are in this situation. Is it right for us to help this family just because we are closer to them and not others?

The only conclusion that we came to is that entering into their situation with compassion and sympathy is doing something. We know that we will continue to give what we can to them, and they will likely continue to make us food as well. But our problems seem so small compared to theirs. And yet, they have incredible joy that is beyond their circumstances. We continue to pray for them and to have God do what God does...

That is what I am learning. Life is made up of so much more than what we have and what is comfortable. There is a certain richness to living life here, a richness that I am learning about more and more...

A new direction

Here I (chad) sit.
I just finished my cup of coffee. The breeze is coming in through the window, smelling like fresh air or burning garbage. Erin is at the clinic downstairs. I am currently soaking pinto beans. Its my first time trying to make them.
I just read through the first half of the book of Acts. I am trying to imagine what it would be like to be there. Everything is new. Jesus just left. The disciples, while Jesus was with them, were always confused, close to faith, but not quite there. Peter walked on water, but then sank when he doubted. And now he was asked to lead the Church.
So they get together. They pray like crazy. They put all of their belongings together. And they start to proclaim boldly what they had seen, and what the Holy Spirit was doing.
So I started thinking. We are down here in La Mision. I would say that I don't know why. Erin and I just heard the voice of God tell us to go, and so we went. Now we are here. We both believe that we are here to spread the message and Gospel of Jesus Christ. But we don't know how. We also believe that we can only do a little, but if we raise up leaders to spread the Gospel, the message could continue to spread further and further.
On my way to football practice, I heard a podcast sermon by Francis Chan. He talked about his dream of a church that consisted of only co-workers. The Church is made up of a lot of people asking for something or trying to be "fed." But we should be more interested in joining as a team to accomplish our common mission. This not only creates a bond between us, but it also enables us to be more effective.
So I started thinking, what if I would assemble a team of people down here who get together and pray like crazy, and listen to the Holy Spirit, and RESPOND...?

I started thinking about the people I know that I would like to invite and I started getting excited. What if we joined together as a team of coworkers and began to boldly respond to the Holy Spirit.
When Jesus left, they didn't have a plan. They didn't have many traditions. They couldn't ask Jesus to explain his parables directly. Instead, they prayed. They responded. They healed. They got arrested. They got killed. They lived fully in the midst of the Holy Spirit and they did things that were new.
It is time for us to begin to build our team of followers. A team that is led by the Holy Spirit. Humbly responding. Working together to encourage, uplift, and seek the newness of what God plans to do in La Mision.

When the Circus comes to town, you gotta go.

On Saturday, a couple of trucks pulled into our neighborhood, right next to our church compound. On Sunday evening, they blared out of their speakers that they were ready, and would be putting on their show at 8:45pm (which of course, means at least 9:15pm in Mexico). So Erin and I asked the Pachecos if we should go, and they said they didn't know but we should tell them how it is.

So we walked over to it. Some guys had parked their horses in front and most other people walked. We payed our $4 and got our 5 pesos in return and we sat. We saw some kids we knew from the church and didn't know too many other people.

Soon the show started. It consisted of a guy who was funny and attempted slapstick comedy and the hypnotist, a young boy and a young girl.

All in all, we were not too happy. The one guy was funny and the people seemed to laugh, but the young kids were not funny and the little girl did a dance that just seemed wrong. The hypnotist finally came on and no one was willing to volunteer. They ended with a crossdressing dance/lip sync and we then were able to leave. No lions, no bearded ladies, no trapeze acts=no good. I am glad we went, but not for the entertainment value, just for the experience of seeing how people try to make a living moving town to town.