Alive and well! (...mostly)

Well, the journey did come to an end, with four solid tires and no more blowouts or other setbacks. We arrived in San Carlos Thursday evening at about 10:00pm tired but glad to have arrived.

The weekend was great and fairly full with meetings between my dad and I, a local missionary who is from BC and a pastor from a local Spanish church in Empalme (just past Guaymas). My dad came out with the purpose of meeting with this pastor who has expressed a lot of interest in running day camp style summer camps in their church, fashioning them after Children's Camps International's successful models (the ministry that my dad is a part of - check them out at www.childrenscampsinternational.com) This pastor, Pastor Ulysses, oversees two other congregations (non-denominational) and has a passion not only for outreach in his community but for children.

The meetings were exciting, seeing the possibilities of ministry out here unfold. God has already been doing a lot of work in this area particularly through an organization called Parters in Christ, bringing a real sense of unity among the churches and pastors in the Guaymas/Empalme area. A couple of weeks ago the churches held some meetings together with Transformation Ministries (of the US) and saw many people make commitments through that weekend. Pastor Ulysses alone is going to have 30 people baptized into his church as a result of those meetings. But the question on many people's minds has been, what now? What can these churches do now to continue in unity, with a common purpose and that's were the possibility of running children's camps has captivated Pastor Ulysses.

This picture is of the meeting that we had with leadership of pastor Ulysses' church and the two other congregations he oversees where the idea of running day camps this summer is being presented. It will be exciting to see how this all unfolds!

For myself, I'm doing alright - I've been sick with a throat/head cold over the past couple of days and am still waiting to see the light. It has been hard adjusting to life back here but good at the same time. It's good to see people that I haven't seen for a while but at the same time I'm missing family and friends back at home. Your prayers are appreciated!

On The Road Again...

Yep, that's right - I'm on the road spending the night in Gallup, New Mexico on the way down to Mexico. Me and my dad hit the road yesterday and are planning to get to San Carlos tomorrow evening. Our plans were somewhat disrupted this evening when, after stopping for supper, we realized that one of my tires was quickly deflating, now that we had stopped. So, instead of eating, we hopped back into the car to drive down the road a little farther while we could to get to a place where we could actually get the tire fixed.

Well, it wasn't long before we heard the pop and smelt the rubber - bring out the donut. And here we've arrived in Gallup where we'll spend the night, getting two new tires tomorrow morning before we hit the road. The adventures of the open road.

It's good to be heading back though I am having mixed feelings. Right now Mexico feels a world away even though its only been two months since I've been there. It will be good to get back into things out there. I suppose it's always hard to leave family and friends behind.

Adios for now!

Mexico Round 2

Yep, it's true. I think I'm tired of trying to stay inside as much as possible in order to avoid the ridiculous cold! More than that though, I'm excited at the God opportunities that exist for returning to San Carlos.

Some of the highlights that I'm looking forward to include my family coming out again for a good part of the summer, my youth group coming out for a week in July doing various types of outreach, and also the possibility of working with some of the local Spanish churches this summer as they run day camps for the first time. Actually, my dad and myself will be driving down next week to meet with some of the pastors to get the wheels in motion for this summer.

More to come as the adventure unfolds! I will try to do a little better this year in updates on this blog, aiming for one a week. In the mean time - check out the map and photo albums on the right.