School's In! (Almost...)

Those dreaded words for many as a kid..."School's starting!" have come and gone for many.  Fortunately for us those aren't dreaded words but exciting ones!  Also fortunate for us, we still have some time before school is in session.  We are heavily under way in confirming plans, teachers, schedules, and students for the quickly up and coming school term which begins in January.  I know it sounds like a ways away still but it is hard to believe that we're already closing in on the final months of this year!

Here's a couple of highlights as well as some up-and-coming things to take note of:

Canada

What a great time I had spending just over a month in Canada, having some time to rest, connect with many of you, share about what is going on down here in Mexico, and escaping a little bit of the San Carlos heat!  I had the privilege of driving up with a good friend of mine, Rafael, whom many of us know as "Junior", along with his family.  They spent the time with me at my parent's house while Junior, who had gotten to know a number of people in the Winkler area over the years, was invited to come out and connect with people who have been closely involved in supporting his families ministry efforts in Guaymas through children's ministry.  It's always a pleasure to connect with so many of you!

Foot Fracture

I have to say that having your ankle fractured is not all it's cracked up to be (yes, pun intended!)  Well, I suppose that no-one ever recommended it and I don't know that I would either!  However it does come with some benefits: such as mandated rest.  That might be the only one I can think of...perhaps the other would be a legitimate excuse to temporarily ditch the exercise program!  Seriously though, it has been a long and slow recovery with weekly, slow but steady improvements.  I still have discomfort and pain, especially if I'm on it too much but we're slowly making progress.  I am thankful, though, for the time it has allowed me to do what is often difficult to do: rest!  I was able to enjoy time reading, taking care of things on the computer, etc., things that I hadn't had time to do otherwise but needed to be done.  So thanks for those who have had to exercise patience with me in the meantime and for the many prayers!

Planning

One significant change over the course of this year is that one of our main administrators, Katie Dyck, is no longer with CEC.  She filled a big hole here and her absence means a fair bit more on my plate, along with others as well.  Part of those responsibilities is having a more hands-on role in planning the course schedule and being in communication with the teachers.  We are in that full force now as January seems to be just around the corner.  It is always a huge rompecabeza (literally "head-breaker!"), the Spanish word for puzzle, and I'm feeling it's effects!  Pray for direction and just for God's hand to be over all these details - we want it all to be for His glory in the lives of the students.  Oh yes, and pray for the prospective students as well!  Without them we would have nothing to do!

Visit

I'm coming back to Canada again!  I'm not sure how this worked out but I'm going to be tagging along with Benny (he's running a rehab center in Arizpe) who has been invited to come share about his ministry with a group of supporters in Minneapolis the end of September.  Because Winkler is so close, and because there are many of you who know him from the Winkler area, we are going to spend about a week there as well, connecting with many of you.  Our plan is to arrive in Winkler sometime on Sunday, Sept. 17th, spend the week there and leave for Minneapolis on Tuesday the 26th.  There are several engagements already planned and you are more than welcome to attend.  The following engagements are tentatively set for Sunday, Sept. 24th:

• 9:15 AM - Sharing at Sunday school at the Blumenort Mennonite Church in Rosetown
• 10:30 AM - Benny preaching at Bethel Bergthaler Church, south of Winkler
• 7:00 PM - Benny, myself, and directors Howard & Susan Dyck sharing about the ministries down in Mexico: the school CEC and the rehab center Vida Nueva in Arizpe (see link)

Please come on out to any or all of these events!  Of course we will be around during the week prior if you want to grab a coffee!

Thanks so much for all the many prayers that are offered up for myself and for the ministries down here.  I don't know where we would be without them!  I'm looking forward to seeing many of you (again!)  ¡Dios les bendiga!

Thoughts from a Wandering Heart

Summer is in full swing here in San Carlos, which means a bit of a slower pace - thanks largely due to the temperatures in the mid-30's with high, HIGH humidity!  Preparations continue as we look ahead to the fall and the coming school year.  I'm packing my bags to spend some time in Manitoba over the next month and hope to see many of you over the next several weeks!  Here's some midsummer thoughts from this morning, some reflections from a wandering heart...see if you identify...

There’s something within our nature that pulls us towards complacency - at the very least spiritual complacency. I suppose it is simply our human nature - bent towards evil (which often looks innocent on the surface.)  But our tendency is to live without You, disregarding You, in isolation from You, essentially replacing You with any number of things other than You.  This has always been the error.

I believe that we are all deep pits, black holes with a tremendous appetite.  We consume and we consume because that was how we were made - not complete but empty, essentially lacking in and of ourselves.  There is a negative value of pressure, one that always pulls on the surrounding environment, sucking in whatever it can because of this deep void within us.  There is only one thing that can fill us to completion, to bring us to that point where we are no longer lacking but overflowing, but it is only You who fills us to that measure and only You who possibly can.  That’s how large and deep this void is within us.

The reality of our appetite does not often help us though discern what it is we really long for and really need.  So many things are offered to fill us up; so many things disappoint, and yet we continue in this quest, searching down mistaken paths.  Why does my appetite for You so easily get diverted to other things?  Why do other things hold such a sway over me sometimes?  Why am I content just to dabble at the edges rather than fully submerse myself in You?  It does not make sense, but once again our human nature was never known for its wisdom: our default gravitates away from You.

A part of the hymn Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing sums up this battle within us and how to respond to this grim situation: that what we truly need is the very thing our nature shuns.  What can we do?  What hope is there for this situation?  What can we do other than to cry to God for help?

Oh to grace, how great a debtor 

 Daily I’m constrained to be

 Let They goodness like a fetter 

 Bind my wandering heart to Thee

 Prone to wander, Lord I feel it

 Prone to leave the God I love

 Here’s my heart, oh take and seal it

 Seal it for Thy courts above!

What hope would we have would it not be for You?  What chance would we have if it would not be for Your grace and Your endless patience with us?  Where would we be if we had not found favour in Your eyes (favour alone by the cross of Christ!). But we find these things without measure, seemingly endless in their supply.  They do not run out because You do not have limits; they are infinite in magnitude because You are infinite in magnitude.  From Mount Zion, the perfection of beatify, God shines in glorious radiance! (Psalm 50:2)

Keeping a Foot Up

It was one of those all too ironic situations that has lead to my need to, as the title of the blog says, "keep a foot up..." It all started innocently a week and a half ago, climbing a local hill or mountain (or somewhere in between) called Tetakawi. Yes, those of you who have visited San Carlos no doubt know exactly the one that I'm talking about - it hovers over the horizon of San Carlos, kind of a local landmark:

It's a 350m vertical climb with an amazing view of the ocean as well as of San Carlos:

The ocean on the left, San Carlos on the right in the distance.

It might be the fact that I grew up in Manitoba where the only escape from the flatness of the prairies was driving up the "Pembina Hills" (hills being a fairly generous term!) but I love being able to hike up and see the perspective that many of the hills here around San Carlos offer.

I've hiked Tetakawi many times over the years and had in fact been hiking it once a week for about a month and a half, and never with an incident.  That was about to change a week and a half ago!

As it turned out, as I was on the way down (after a gruelling hour-long ascent) I heard this cry for Auxilio (help) and sure enough I came across this young man who had fallen and was significantly injured - it didn't appear that he had broken any bones; he was able to move around but had been bleeding significantly from his head and was in need of help.  I couldn't get to him because of some cliffs between him and myself, though I was probably within about 50 feet of him.  I could converse with him and he was lucid enough to respond but the guy definitely needed help and I don't know how far he would have been able to make it on his own.  Calling the ambulance I stayed with him for a bit before I realized that I had better try to get to him as he didn't have any water and the sun was beating down on us.  So, with the emergency help on the way, though because of the height at which we were at, it would take some time for them to arrive, I began the decent so that I could come back up to him from a different route.  With the obvious urgency in mind and feeling comfortable on the path I went down at a good rate until I twisted my ankle good and proper, hearing and feeling that popping sound that you never what to hear.  My personal rescue mission quickly came to an end as I had to now concern myself with just getting down myself!  It's a fairly steep descent and so it lent itself to getting down practically sitting, little by little, until I made it to the bottom.

To make a long story short, I made it, and the young man was rescued as well, over 3 hours after I had made the initial call, as it was a difficult ascent for the rescue crew to get to where he was.  Praise the Lord he was OK; after being rushed to the hospital it was reported that he had broken his nose and had chest injuries, along with bruises and cuts.  He needed surgery but he was ok!

So, of all the times that I have hiked, probably one of the most inopportune times to twist an ankle was exactly when it happened!  One has to wonder about timing sometimes, and why God would allow these things to happen, but one also has to be thankful with how things do work out in the end, though often not in the ways that we (in our humble opinion) would have thought best.

It's been a week and a half and its slowing getting better.  It has lent itself to allow me to do other things that have been neglected - things that we've been wanting to do with regards to the school, things that can be done from the couch!  One of those is developing a website for the school, which should be ready for viewing soon - I'll keep you informed!  Another has been putting into writing and restructuring many things with regards to the school.  With 8 generations of students having passed through the school, we've learned a lot along the way and feel we're getting more established in the way things are done and how we want to move forward.  There's always changes and tweaks needed but we have felt that it was time to define some of who we are and how we do things more clearly.  One of those tasks has been to collectively write a Mission, Vision, etc. statement.  It's still in the fine tuning stage but I wanted to include it here so that you could get a clearer idea of what we are about as Centro Educativo Cristiano.

Before I post it though, I've found it interesting, with more time needed keeping this foot up, I've been able to do some reading.  I've been reading the book by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, (an excellent read!) but along with that a biographical book on his life.  He was truly a visionary and a forward thinker in his time and perhaps one of the most impactful things about his life is that, though he preached, taught, and wrote some difficult things, he absolutely lived them out in his life as well - it wasn't just talk.  Of particular interest, he lead for some time a Bible School in Germany, as Hitler was coming into power, but it was a Bible School of a very different variety to what was common in the day (typical seminaries).  It was a school based more around discipleship, and living in community - practical, personal, not merely theoretical or theological.  As the biographer was describing Bonhoeffer's focus and passion for the school, I couldn't help but see how similar the vision for CEC is - what a neat realization to see how God is indeed timeless, that He speaks and moves today just as he did almost a hundred years ago.

Please take time to read our Mission and Vision statements - I hope that it resonates with you as it does for us. Pray for us and for the mission of this school!  Thank you so much for all the prayers!  ¡Dios les bendiga!

 If you can't see the Mission/Vision document, just click here to view it.