Houses and Homes

It's amazing how time flies sometimes! Looking back at the date of my last post and thinking about that has taken place since then, I could be writing here for a long time! But I won't take away too much of your time - I'll just share one highlight in particular.

We've come to the end of our busy season with the final mission team have left just over a week ago. It's exciting to look back on this winter season and to see not just some of the projects that have been completed by the many teams that have come but much more importantly the lives that have been changed not only through the opportunities that the work projects have created but also the local churches at work in their surrounding communities. As I said before, I could write for hours here about the different ways in which God has shown Himself and lives have been touched by His grace. Look for a newsletter coming in the next few weeks taking more of an in depth look into this season. But for now, let me share with you the final project that we found ourselves working on.

Some of you have probably met a young man named Alex. He's a living testimony to God's grace and power, and how He can change a life around. By observing him now, you would never guess the past that he has come from. His testimony has left a deep impact on the lives of many who have heard it. Alex was born in the state of Durango but grew up living with his grandmother in neighboring Sinaloa though she struggled to make ends meet, taking care of him and some of his siblings. At the age of 12, he left home began traveling around Mexico, working in a traveling circus. Those of you who have met him probably saw him at some point balancing just about anything on his chin from a spade to a pick axe to even a chair! For about 4 years he traveled around even learning how to ride a motorcycle in those metal, circular cages with up to three bikes going around at once! Growing tired of this lifestyle, along with the drugs that tended to accompany it, he left the circus and ended up staying in a little town about six hours from here, called Banamichi. In this town there was a missionary couple, who themselves were originally from San Carlos and were planting a church. Having found a place to stay renting a room from a Christian lady, he was invited to the Sunday services at this church plant. As weekends were typically spent in drinking and drugs, by the time Sunday morning came around when this lady asked him if he wanted to go to church, the answer was a no! But one weekend, not having had anything to drink nor having had any drugs, the invitation was made and he said yes, meeting the pastor of the church plant, whose name was Nacho. Nacho and his wife, sensing that God had something in store for this young man, built into his life and encouraged him to look to the Lord. Eventually, he gave his life to the Lord and the process began of leaving the old life behind!

He will be the first to tell you that this is not always the easiest to do! Over the past couple of years he made his way down to San Carlos to live and find work here. I remember first meeting him probably about three years ago, helping him patch a tire on his bicycle. Those three years have been up and down for him, leaving drugs behind and then falling back into them. He drifted around from job to job, at times jobless, and moving from place to place, sometimes regularly a part of the local church and at other times not. But about three months ago or so, he came to the point where he had had enough of the old life. He shared with myself and Juan Carlos, a good friend who works here at the mission with me, his desire to leave the old lifestyle behind once and for all. He took us to his place where he had a little stash of marijuana. He took it and spilled it on the ground, (covering it with dirt and gravel so that he couldn't come back and gather it together later!) and together we prayed that God would give him the strength to live as a new creation, leaving the old behind once and for all.

Since that day, the joy that has filled him has been so evident. If you have met him in the last couple of months one of the first things you would notice about him aside from his servant heart and always positive attitude is the fact that he is almost always singing worship songs. It has been a joy to see him walk in this new found freedom!

So, back to the final project of the year, the final team of the year that we hosted was a youth group from Reno, Nevada. Having a little extra time on their hands and still having some extra project money, they took it upon themselves to build Alex a little place of his very own. As we worked to build a little 12' by 12' quarter for him, he would thank everyone of us time and time again, each and every day.

Not many of us would be super content with a little 144 square foot place to call home but for him, it was as if you had built him a palace! A place to call his home...security, something that he had known little of in his life.

The group wasn't able to finish it in the time they were here but we were able to put the finishing touches on it, getting him some basics such as a new bed to sleep on, a microwave oven, some drawers for his clothes, and curtains on the windows, transforming that little room into his home.

Looking back on this season, it is a joy to see God's hand at work in the lives of people. I look forward to sharing more stories soon about this past winter. Until then, Dios te bendiga!

Poverty

I don't know if you ever get used to seeing poverty or if you ever should for that matter! But every once in a while God opens your eyes again to the needs of people around you and He did that just the other day!

We took a group of about 11 Bible School students from Providence College to a small fishing village probably about 50 miles up the coast called something like Sahuimaro I believe. Let me just back up a little bit more first. Two days before this, we went to another fishing village a little ways up the coast where, together with a local pastor from that village, Pastor Guillermo we spent an evening playing with the kids and showing the Jesus film as an outreach into his community. As we were there, he shared his passion for this neighboring village, Sahuimaro, a very poor village with no church, and very little Christian influence. In a couple of days, he, along with the students of a local Mexican biblical training center, were going to spend a day in this town, going door to door, sharing Christ with the people and inviting them to a service he was planning to having with them later in the week. He was exciting at the possibility of having us join them with a kids program and the Jesus film.

So, we packed up the vans and made the two hour trek, first down nice four lane highway, turned into two lane pavement, then pavement with some potholes, the pavement with LOTS of potholes, to pavement which really should no longer be called pavement, to finally probably about 10 miles of continuous washboard. As we neared the village though, the scenery changed drastically as we neared the coast. From desert wasteland densely populated with cactus, large sand dunes of white sand rose up spotted with a type of pine trees. We drove up over a hill and descended into a narrow valley with a hill covered in cactus on one side and a sand dune on the other side.

The village, not having any power or water, was a collection of wood, tin, and tar paper thrown together with the houses sitting very close together, with the occasional cement block structure. Because of the sand dunes all around, there wasn't much room to build. But not only that, as we got there, the wind was howling off the water and I couldn't imagine you would want to build your house too much in the open anyways. The told us that the village would go from 200 to up to 800 people during the high fishing season, though you could hardly imagine half that many people living there in such a small area.

We settled in an area that has been relatively cleaned by the students for our use, at least with as much of the garbage cleared out as possible, and set out to invite the children to come. A modest crowd of about 20 children braved the wind and the blowing sand and we had a great time with them. You could bet we were the only attraction in town that day or that week or probably even month for that matter!

Two things in particular struck me during out brief stay there. One was the passion that Pastor Guillermo had for this place. God had definitely put a passion in his heart for it. It was a dirty, hard to get to place, and with the conditions, the wind and the sand blowing in your face, not an altogether pleasant place to be. And perhaps others had come and gone to share the gospel or reach out to these people, but no one had come and stayed. His desire was to come back and build into this community and eventually raise up a church. He had plans to come during popular party time Semana Santa and even to spend his vacation time here in this village, spending a number of days working with the children and the adults. Praise God for this pastor and his desire to reach his own people!

The second thing that struck me as we were there was the idea of poverty and wondering how God sees poverty. The physical poverty in this place as more than evident in the tar-paper, wooden structures for houses and the lack of basic services such as power and water. I know that God has a huge heart for those in physical need, many times commanding us to watch out and take care of the poor. But spiritual poverty is not always so evident, yet I know that God's greatest concern is for those who do not know Him. Looking over this village it was easy to see the physical poverty but if I had God's x-ray vision, what would I see? What does He see? How would He see our village or town, or wherever we live? If I think about my "hometown" Winkler, a small city with many beautiful homes, carefully manicured yards, what would He see? What would His x-ray vision find? Would He rather see a ghost-town, a bunch of shacks thrown together with spare pieces of wood, tin and tar-paper?

And yet even in this poor village of Sahuimaro, there were little lights that were shining. Dispersed among the tar-paper homes were a couple sturdy, block homes. As we were winding things down and preparing to show the film, a man came up to me and asked me where we were from and whether we were Christians. He shared how he himself was a Christian as well and was excited to see us here. Even in the darkest of places, God has His light shining, whether it was this man or Pastor Guillermo.

Give us eyes to see the true needs of the people around us and help us to lead them to You, the only One who can truly meet those needs!

8 days, 1600 patients, 1000 Bibles, many stories!

Each year we have had the opportunity to host Rocky Mountain Ministries from Montana who put on a medical clinic here in San Carlos and surrounding area. For a total of 8 days we go to different locations and setup a clinic offering free medical care, medications, and reading glasses to all who came. By 10:00 am the clinic would be up and running and accepting patients. By the times the last tent came down on any given day anywhere from 200 to 250 people would have come through, either seeking medical attention or sporting a new pair of reading glasses.

Though it is rewarding to see so many physical needs met from people who just had bad colds to things more serious like a young woman who had appendicitis, the most rewarding part is to help meet the spiritual needs of the people. There was always a table setup, loaded up with Bibles and manned by people ready to pray, share, and speak to these deeper spiritual needs. Personally, this was the most exciting place to be! There was one woman who served in particular the entire week, Maria Jesus. She was rescued from a past of witchcraft and is now a powerful testimony for Christ, sharing boldly with anyone and everyone the truth of the Gospel.

I could share a number of stories, but one story jumps out in particular. Many times we pray in a situation like this that people would be drawn to this place, that people would see Christ in us and that they would sense His presence as they come. Well, God showed us the answer to that prayer in one man...I don't even remember his name! He approached our table and shared how he had once been a devout Christian but had walked away from the faith for the last number of years of his life. He shared how he had a gift of discernment and as he was walking in the street past the clinic he could see a light coming from this place. He could sense God's presence and knew that he needed to come and to give his life back to the Lord. So, with pleasure we prayed with him and for him, and could see the joy in his heart at having come back.

If you want to see a 20 minute video highlighting the week of medical clinics check out this video!

It's exciting to see God touch one life at a time and it's also exciting that we can be a part of that in His ordained time and way. Thanks to those who have been praying! I can't say it enough how you are an invaluable part of this ministry!

Dios te bendiga!