Endings and Beginnings

We're just over a week from finishing this year's class - all the students are back at home, carried their by the excitement of the things that they've learned while at CEC, changed by God's hand at work in each and every one of their lives. There were no final exams (actually there were no exams, essays, or similar assignments to speak of at all!) but perhaps they're facing the final exam as we speak - the reality of living the reality they experienced here in CEC now forming their new reality! Have I lost you yet? Let me unpack it a little by the way of "bubbles".

Class of 2019

Every year seems to have its own themes and one recurring theme this year was the talk about bubbles. This was somewhat reinforced with the alumni who returned for a two week celebration of CEC's ten year anniversary. We heard from the returning-students, each one overjoyed to return to CEC, reminiscing about all that they experienced and more than anything, the family that they became a part of. One student in particular made the remark, "I feel like I've come home." Many describe it as a bubble, and in a sense, that is exactly what it is. With no responsibilities other than studying, learning, and memorizing Scripture, one grows in leaps and bounds - one doesn't even have to worry about cooking; other than daily chores and dishes, the time is dedicated and devoted to being in God's Word - how can one not grow??

The evidence of grown comes in many forms in each one of the students. Beyond the perspective-change that comes from a greater understanding of God's Word, transformation takes place as students recognize areas in their lives that need to be changed, decisions that need to be made, people that need to be forgiven, dreams for ministry that form or are affirmed - and all of this builds to the inevitable climax of eventually returning home.

This is where the bubble illustration can break down - it may seem as though each student now leaves the bubble to enter "reality" and yet this is not what we desire for each student to experience. On the contrary, though the time here in CEC has many advantages to it that perhaps one does not experience leaving, what we try to live here during these 14 months, is not just a bubble, as though it's an alternate reality or a make-believe community, but rather reality itself based on how God has completely changed us through Christ's death and resurrection. More than just learning through the classes, our goal is to live in community, learning together, shaping and being shaped by each other and ultimately learning to live in light of the reality of who God is and what He has done for us. Our goal is that each student would learn to live this with greater authenticity, and continue to do so once they leave CEC, in their families, in their communities, and in their churches. If we were to continue with the bubble illustration, it would be to continue to live out what they experienced while at CEC - to take their bubble with them, so to speak.

I know it all sounds neat and tidy on paper, and the reality is messy, but so was life over the past 14 weeks. Living in community is never easy. Confronting areas in our lives (and being confronted) is never easy. But there is a reason the Bible does not condone lone-ranger Christians but rather the Believing Community - the Church. "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing..." More than just "going to church" I believe this is encouraging us to live in community, in spiritual community; "...but let us encourage one another - and all the more as you see the Day approaching" (Heb 10:25).

If you think of it, pray for our students, that they would not become discouraged but that they would continue to live out in their homes, communities, and churches, everything that they learned while in CEC. We are encouraged to hear from them, and to hear that they are encouraged as they do just that. Thanks for all of your continued prayers! ¡Dios les bendiga!

Day Number 17, But Who's Counting?

Tomorrow will bring us to the quarter-way mark of our semester together...in some ways it feels like we've already been together for months and yet it has only been just over three weeks.  I apologize for the lack of updates - don't for a minute think that I don't appreciate you or covet your prayers!  On the contrary we have been lifted up by them and know that many have been praying.  God has been at work not only in the students but in us as staff as well.

This year God brought us nine students, ranging in age from 17 to into the sixties.  Perhaps I identify even more with this group as a number of them are people who have grown up in Christian homes.  They come from different parts of the country though the majority are here from the state of Sonora.  It's an open group, an interactive group, an energetic group (every free moment we're playing...or attempting to play volleyball), and a group that each day is showing a hunger for a deeper understanding of who God is.

Back (L to R): Jesús (Jalisco), Alexis (Jalisco), Leydi (Nayarit), Carmen (Sonora), Dariana (Sonora),                   José Antonio (Sonora) Front: Juan (Sonora), José Luis (Sonora), Jonathan (Sonora)

Being together 24-7 has its advantages and disadvantages.  Last week I "hit a wall" with regards to tiredness, going to bed at 8:00 one evening.  With all that is going on, including teaching, organizing, spending time with the students, etc., one gets worn out, but the advantages far out-weight these inconveniences.

Perhaps the greatest advantage is being able to see and be a part of the change that God does in each one of us, not only through the classes but outside of them as well.  Sometimes I wonder who grows and learns more: teachers or students?  One thing that I've learning personally is connected with the classes I've been teaching over the last few weeks on Spiritual Disciplines.  If I could boil it down to one essential point it would have to be John 15:5 where Jesus talks about us remaining in Him.  I am the vine; you are the branches.  If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing.  Those are humbling and yet empowering words.  Sometimes I'm so much more preoccupied with doing that I forget about just simply being with God and yet this is the source, the only source of life.  On the contrary, when I worry more about being with Him, the fruit will come, I cannot help but bear fruit in my life.  For myself this has become very obvious especially in teaching - for all the preparation I can do for the classes, my attitude, my posture before Him, and my connection to Him are what truly make the difference.

Another thing that I've been learning is to leave each class, truly leaving the class.  Perhaps that doesn't make much sense but I realize how easy it is to take the class with me, running over what I missed, what I could have done, etc., often feeling disappointed with what I thought "could have been."  I suppose I'm my own worst critic and I do want to continually evaluate each class so that I can improve (sometimes it hurts to admit that I am not perfect and that there will always be room for improvement).  But at the end of each class, all I can do is trust that God used it, entrusting the outcome for each person to Him.  Believe me, as simple as this sounds, it has been something that God is reminding me about - once again I believe it comes back to simply abiding in Him, trusting in Him, and realizing that it's He who does the work in each student's heart, not so much my "impressive" (or lack there-of) teaching ability!

On the other side of things, to see God at work in each and every one of the students is encouraging as well.  One student comes to mind in particular.  Without sharing details, one of our students entered CEC having committed some pretty big errors in his life only several months before coming.  In some ways coming here was a type of spiritual retreat to deal with these things personally and to draw closer to God.  Over the first few weeks, though, we as a staff noticed several things that were concerning, making us question his sincerity in being at CEC and in truly being willing to deal with the things he had done.  Last week we took the opportunity to raise these concerns with him personally, challenging him in several ways, hoping and praying that we would see a genuine, sincere response from him.  It certainly isn't the first time that we've done this with students and conversations like these have often lead to students deciding that maybe being here wasn't for them.  Praise God we have seen him respond, rising to the challenges, and most importantly showing through his actions a genuine repentance and desire to seek God.

It's exciting for us to witness these responses, to see not only people's actions but their genuine desire to seek after God - this is probably the doubled edged sword of living in community as we are: you can only hide the real you for so long (disadvantage!) but this is also the advantage in that, that's where change really happens.  This is where God begins to work in us, when we get beneath the layers of who we pretend to be and get honest with Him and with ourselves about who we really are and what is really going on inside of us.

Please don't stop praying for our students and staff!  We're only just beginning - the layers are just beginning to come off as we get to know one another.  It's not always a fun process the but results are always worth it.  ¡Dios les bendiga!

Last Minute

I don't know how many of you can relate with me, but I bet there's a number of you who are "last minute" people like I am.  Somehow we work better under the pressure of having to finish things now as opposed to one week from now or even one day from now.  (As an aside: the fact that I got an assignment for a course I recently took handed in one and a half weeks early, felt nothing short of...miraculous!  It was strange new territory, to be sure!)  I don't want to excuse chronic procrastination, but I can't help but notice that sometimes, perhaps often, God too, seems to work in the last minute.

During the last two weeks of October, we hosted what has become a yearly missions module for students from Millar College of the Bible.  This year we had five students who were interested in learning more about missions on the field instead of just in the classroom; we spent almost two weeks between classroom teaching and off-site ministry experience.  We bring in some local and national missionaries to teach and share from their experiences with the hope not only to encourage some to pursue missions but also to challenge them in the day to day mission work that we are all called to.

This is the third year that we are offering this in partnership with Millar and one would think that it should get "easier" with each year.  For whatever reason, this year was anything but easy in putting it together.  Teachers which we had drawn on in the past were either busy or unable to confirm.  We kept knocking on doors, and waiting, only to eventually hear a no.  It wasn't until a couple of weeks before that we were able to confirm one of our missionary-teachers who would end up teaching a significant part of the course: Worldview, Cross-cultural Understanding, and How to Share the Gospel in different cultures.  Yet, though he was finally confirmed, it still wouldn't be that easy.  Because of his busy schedule, and the fact that he lives in the neighbouring state of Chihuahua, we made arrangements for him to fly in for three days, courtesy of another missionary organization who would personally fly him. The only catch was: flying a little Cessna requires good flying conditions.  The forecast in Chihuahua?  Nothing but rain.  Plans to fly Sunday were postponed for a hopeful break in the weather Monday (the same day he was to start teaching).  As it turned out, though there was only rain in the forecast, there was also forecast a brief break in the weather.  Thankfully, this materialized and he was able to fly out in what turned out to be a mere two or three hour break in the weather, teaching within minutes of arriving at school!  (It was not only a huge relief, but a significant blessing for the students as he really challenged them with his stories and experience.)

Andres the teacher and our class of students

So, is God a procrastinator?  That couldn't be further from the truth!  Yet, He sure does seem to work things out last minute at times.  I'm pretty certain the reasons have much less to do with Him (as if He were busy, or that He forgets, etc.) and much more, well, entirely, to do with me and teaching me to trust Him always, even in the face of uncertainty.

If that were the end of it, I could say the rest of the time would have been a breeze.  However, it would seem the same last-minutedness extended also to our ministry times.  At best it can be difficult to plan things in Mexico as time is of secondary importance and plans can follow very much right behind.  Times can be set and plans made yet in the end, what happens will happen, when it happens!  (If you've spent time down here you will appreciate this!)  Needless to say, our ministry times, which included visiting an orphanage, taking part in some children's ministry, joining a church service, and finally tagging along with a local church who is reaching out to a local community, doing a weekly Bible Study with the goal of planting a congregation.  It was especially this final activity that ended up being particularly difficult to nail down for various reasons.  Between commitments, appointments, and community events, it finally did come together.  The plan was to go with the local pastor a few hours prior to the Bible Study, invite people, play some soccer with the kids, and take advantage of one of the missionaries (who helped put this course together and is also a doctor) to do some free consultations for those who needed it in this community.  This evening, for myself, really captured how this whole missions module has gone.  As we were walking through the streets, the kids would at first kind of "run away," seemingly shy at the invasion of these extranjeros.  My planner's mind starts thinking: is this going to come together at all?  An hour passes as we made our way through the village, having invited people and arrived back to the house where the Bible Study will take place.  No kids.  The soccer ball comes out.  Slowly some kids start to crawl out of the woodwork.  Within ten to fifteen minutes, more come and a second game starts.  On the consultation side of things, we weren't sure if there would be more than one or two who would come for the doctor's consultations but as it turns out, a solid two hours were booked taking us right to the Bible Study.  All in all, we had a great time and an awesome opportunity to see what it looks like to reach out to people here in this culture.  I was relieved and joyful to see how God did bring everything together, not only this evening but throughout the entire course.

What's the moral of the story?  Don't bother making plans?  I think it might rather be, even as I make my plans, to remember it is the "Lord who determines our steps" (Prov 16:9).  I'm glad there is a Mastermind behind everything who is completely trustworthy!  He seems to keep needing to remind me that He is in fact the One who is in control!  As an administrator, it can be hard to let go of the reigns sometimes; and sometimes He just takes them right out of my hand!

We are in the process of getting the word out for the coming school year and making final plans.  We are also excited about the tenth year anniversary coming up of CEC with plans to celebrate it during the school year, inviting alumni back for a two-week session of teaching, encouragement, and celebration.  Pray for prospective students - this is the time of year where we always wonder: will there be students this year??  But each year God brings the right ones...in His time!  Thanks for your faithful prayers!  ¡Dios les bendiga!