You've all thought it before, "Maybe it is greener on the other side..." Well, in this case, it kind of is the case... Did you know that, when referring to the US from within Mexico (at least, northern Mexico), it's often referred to as "the other side," (el otro lado, as in the other side of the border.) So, in referring to Canada, I'm on the other side of the other side, and yes, as you can tell from the picture below, it definitely is greener on the other side (of the other side...) than the Sonoran desert I left behind just the other day.
A LOOK BACKWARDS
The past couple of months since school finished in April, has been a time of getting back into a regular routine (whatever "regular" means...), planning for the coming school year and making new recruitment connections for CEC, among the other extra-CEC activities including being a part of the worship team at SCCC (San Carlos Community Church), continuing to work on some online Briercrest courses, and other opportunities as they arise. In a sense, this time is a bit of recuperation time from the intensity of the CEC course, as well as a preparation for what is to come. This coming year in particular has some very exciting things coming up.
A LOOK FORWARDS
In particular, we at CEC are excited about partnering together with a missionary we have known for a long time who has worked with an indigenous people group in Mexico and has had on his heart the desire to train Mexican missionaries for the work of cross-cultural missions here in Mexico. Beginning at the end of September through to the beginning of December, a training program (run similar to how CEC is run though with a specific missions focus) will run out of CEC's facility. I am looking forward to helping out where I can and will be doing some teaching together with a number of people who have had experience in missions. It's exciting to see what the first time around will hold as there are already a number of excited prospective students. Consiervos is the name of the program, or "Fellow Servants." The first part of the training consists of the above mentioned class-room training and will be followed by a one-year internship program where students will be mentored on the field in different missions around Mexico. Pray for the staff involved and for students whom God would have come this coming September!
Also exciting for us as staff at CEC is the first offering of the 2nd year program. To be clear we actually aren't going to call it "2nd year" but rather "followup" or "seguimiento", the reason being that this has nothing to do with levels but rather just continuing on in being faithful in the call to discipleship, both in being and in making disciples. One never really "arrives" or graduates at being a disciple, rather we just continue on in our call, (hopefully!) growing and maturing in the process. This is what we want to convey to the students, along with the fact that we too continue to be on this process together with them.
The followup program will run from March through April, 8 weeks in length, corresponding with the final 8 weeks of the 14-week program we currently offer. This has brought with it a fair bit of additional planning, and also will make an already-intense 14 weeks that much more intense, but it will be very exciting to see this finally come to fruition. It has been something that we've talked about for years and it seems that the pieces are fitting into place to make it happen (and happen well) this coming year.
So, that leaves me at the present, enjoying some cooler temperatures (and greener landscapes) in Manitoba. This is perhaps the calm before the storm, being able to get away for a bit and spend time with my home Church, family, and friends in Manitoba. Please don't hesitate to look me up! I'll be here through until the middle of August and would love to connect. Thanks for your prayers and please continue to pray for the new ventures coming up throughout the rest of this year and into the next. God bless each one of you! ¡Dios les bendiga!
