The 2018 Tour of Students

With one week having passed from our whirlwind trip across Mexico, including about a dozen stops and over 6,000 kms travelled, I wanted to share a little more about the students we reconnected with, the people we met, and the many ways we were blessed over and over again. Thanks for the prayers that protected us along the way! Click on the map below to see a view of our route, where it took us, and the students we met with along the way. To hear about our first half of the journey, read the previous blog post HERE.

In our plans we figured that the above route would take us perhaps 2 1/2 weeks but as it turned out (helped in part by an alternator that needed replacing) we ended up being on the road for exactly four weeks, finally arriving at the destination of Cuernavaca, just south of Mexico City. It is there that Jose Luis, Chayo (two of our teachers) and their daughter Edith (our new office administrator) live. Though it is tiring living out of a suitcase and not always being sure where you would spend the next night(s), we were blessed beyond measure, and I don't think that anyone of us was really ready to reach our final destination. If it wasn't for commitments that I already had in place back in San Carlos, we might all still be on the road!

Though we were only going to spend a couple of days at our furthest destination (Miahuatlán, Oaxaca), each day we extended it another day or two until we actually did run out of time and had to hit the road.  If you could have spent a day or two with us, I think you would have probably wanted to just stay there as well! If there's one word that would describe the lifestyle there I think it might be the word: simple. From food cooked over a fire (including freshly made corn tortillas made from freshly ground corn each morning), to the people living off of the land, not only for food but for employment - a farming community which was a reminder of the simplicity of the past (see the video below). Perhaps our accommodations were nothing to write home about (if you wanted a hot shower, you had to heat up the water over the fire; the washroom was an outhouse about fifty feet from the house), but I can't tell you how much we felt at home! We were just out of reach of cell service - if you walked about ten minutes from the house you could just get enough to show three bars of signal, but not enough to even check your email! But the simplicity of life was infectious; I got a taste of it hands on when the father of one of our students asked me if I wanted to come and see them plant corn. In the first video below you can see our student, Rafael, leading the yunta of bulls working the ground followed by someone sowing corn.

In this video you can observe someone who very obviously has never "driven" a team of bulls, though he did in fact grow up on a farm and thought he knew something about seeding.

It's pretty easy to pick out who the expert is, isn't it?

In some ways the church community reflected the simplicity of life as well. It was a fairly "traditional" church, where the men sat on one side and the women on the other. But one of the common denominators that we found in each and every place that we have been at on the trip was this: that genuine warmth of truly being among family. We could almost sense a "fight" brewing between members of the congregation as they said to us: "You've spent a week with so-and-so. Why not come spend a week with us?!" It was neat to see also that in this particular village (probably several hundred people altogether), a large number of the community were Christians who attended the church. But not only that, their vision for reaching other communities was evident as they have "missions", neighbouring towns where they go and hold weekly services.

Though we wanted to be an encouragement in each place we arrived to our students, I think more often than not we were encouraged to see them hard at work, even seven years after the fact that some had graduated from CEC, still living and serving the Lord with their whole hearts. If anything else had a great impact on us during this trip, it was a reaffirmation to keep doing what we've been striving to do as a school. We often tell others when talking about CEC that we are not a typical theological Bible School. Don't get me wrong, theology is important, but equally important is that the truth that is encountered in the Bible, takes root in each person (students and staff), becoming something real and practical. We want to continue to focus on this practical aspect, where life and ministry really are the same thing, where there is not "clear" distinction between the two. Maybe that's what struck me particularly during our last week: seeing this fleshed out in the simplicity of where we were staying. It was decided, after multiple delays in our departure, to have an impromptu service one evening in the home we were staying in: just a time of worship, prayer, and listening to some share from the Bible. Throughout the day everyone who came by was invited and a group of about 25 people or so showed up later that evening. One got the sense that this was just normal, just part of life here in this community. I'm already thinking of when we can head back there!

Thanks for all of your prayers! We were cared for and protected all along the way. Keep praying for our students as they continue to serve and live out their faith in their families and communities. Often the greatest challenge is in leaving CEC and returning home: learning how to take what has been learned and live it out. Without a doubt, as with all of us, there are ups and downs but the great news is that "he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." (Phil. 1:6)