Back in the (sweaty) swing of things!

Have I mentioned that summers here are pretty hot?  It seems that spending a bit of time in southern Manitoba during summer makes you forget about things like mid to high 30's, just about a constant 80% humidity, showering several times a day, and not drinking water by the cups but by the liters or even gallons some day it seems!  It makes me sweat just thinking about it!  Nonetheless, it is good to be back in Mexico!  Between hosting weekend retreats, connecting with the pastors and churches that we work with, the days are pretty quickly filled up with things to do.

It's neat to see how God continues to work in people's lives here.  One such story is a young man, about my age, who is from San Carlos.  Over the past year he's been working with us, volunteering as much time as he can, though he was not actually a Christian.  He came from a past that had nothing to do with God whatsoever, involved in a typical lifestyle of alcohol, relationships, etc.  About a year ago, he just sensed that he wanted a change in his life; he wanted something different.  Being a good friend of Agustine, he began hanging out with us at the center and accompanying us as much as his job would allow as we would be out doing ministry with the teams.  Though he loved knew he wanted to change his life and believed in God, throughout the past year he never made the actual commitment to follow Christ.  We could see that God was at work in his life, though, and coming back now to Mexico, I found out that he finally took the step of giving his life to the Lord - something we've been praying for for a while now.  Some of you may have met him if you've been here in the last year or two.  His name is Omar, though we all know him as "Gummy".  I'm not sure how he came to that name, but we are so excited to know that he has made a commitment to follow the Lord!

On the other side, though, is a prayer request.  Many of you know Alex, if you've been here at any point over the past couple of years.  I believe I've blogged about him recently, in how God has been at work in his life.  He too comes from a very difficult background, having left his home at the age of 12 or so to travel around in a traveling circus.  Several years later he ended up in the home of a pastor couple in the town of Banamichi, about 5 hours east into the mountains from here.  During his time there he gave his life to the Lord and though it has been a tough road for him, we have seen a lot of growth in his life over the years.

That takes us to the summer, though, and coming back I have found that he has returned to a life of drugs and alcohol, a life he has come back to from time to time, though this time, he doesn't seem to want to have much to do with us.  I know that he knows the mistakes that his is making, and that the life he's living isn't what's truly going to give him joy but for whatever reason, he's returned to that life.  Please pray for Him that God would soften his heart, and drawn him back to Himself.  Pray for us as we reach out to him, that he would truly desire to leave that lifestyle behind him once and for all and run after Christ!

For myself, I've been busy, buried in the books these past few days, having been asked by a pastor last week if I would preach this Wednesday at a service at his church.  Ironically, or rather appropriately, I'm planning on speaking about Peter walking on the water, and how it's those times outside of our comfort zones that we, as we truly put our faith in the Lord, that we will experience Him in new ways and draw closer to Him.  I would love your prayers as yes, preaching in Spanish is something that is far out of my comfort zone!

God bless!