Grab a cup of coffee for this one. . .

Kevin, Nathan, and I arrived in Guadalajara early Friday morning with this question “now what?” We had no idea where we were or where to go, so we jumped on a random bus and hoped to see something worth stopping for. About 30 minutes later good old Wal-Mart appeared and we decided to make a few purchases and freshen up a little by taking something we call a “Cowboy shower.” This is basically a little washing of the face, brushing of the teeth, and application of some deodorant. Don’t worry, this is the only time we did this, but desperate times call for desperate measures. We asked a random person where a cool place to go would be and she directed us to the Plaza del Sol. So off we go on the bus again and we made our stop at a busy area with a lot of younger people. We checked out the scene and during our wondering we stumbled across what we thought was the only Starbucks in Mexico. Being a barista for a couple of years I was drawn in by the power of the green apron and made a pit stop. Apparently Guadalajara has 7 Starbucks, where a year ago they only had one! I picked up a mug for sell with a design of some old cool looking structure on it and I asked the guy where this was. Our next stop was Al Centro to look at some beautiful ancient buildings and to figure out where we would go next. What an incredible sight! The Cathedrals, Basilicas, Government buildings, and artwork were absolutely amazing. I took tons of pictures and I hope to get a USB cable to upload my photos for yall to see. It was getting close to evening time and we finally started looking into where we should stay. After a little research my expert traveling companion, Kevin, located a few hostels nearby. Hostel Maria was quite a find because it was cheap, very nice, and had just enough vacancies, so no more “cowboy showers.” This is going to be a huge entry so I will cut down on some of the details. We took it easy Fri night and decided to rest up for a good Saturday because we planned on going to Tlaquepaque in the morning. Great little town nearby where we tried a traditional Mexican plate with a little side of pigs feet, which was not all that great. My favorite part of this trip was the Mariachis!! Guadalajara is supposed to be the birthplace of mariachis and so we had to see them play and let out a few gritas (yells.) That night we caught with a friend I met in Costa Rica 2 yrs ago that lives in Guadalajara. She took us to meet her family and then later out to another place. We ate some good food, did a little salsa dancing, and then we called it a night.
For our final day in town we went to go see an authentic bull fight, which was the highlight of our trip. Graceful Matadors, a roaring crowd, and moving music that makes one want to jump in front of a bull and hear the word OLE!!! I was very impressed by this city and will definitely be back. It was an incredible weekend that I will never forget and it was a well deserved break from our school and especially Carnaval. It’s back to school in Mazatlan and I’m excited about what still lies ahead.

In Guadalajara!!!!!!!

After the big Carnaval the school gave us a four day weekend. My buddy from Corpus Christi, Kevin came to visit me over this weekend and with another buddy we decided to pack our back packs and catch a bus to Guadalajara! It has only been one day but it has been amazing, this place is beautiful. Please, any of you who want to come visit that would be awesome and trust me I will have more details to come about this trip. Love you all and God Bless!!

YWAM Mazatlan Carnaval outreach: Day 3

This is a little bit of an idea of what has been going on this week. Hopefully I will be on the next video so yall can see me. I work with the Cafe de Esperanza invinting people in and talking with them about Christ. I´m working on getting some photos as well.

Enamorandome (Falling in Love)

This morning I was given an incredible opportunity during our time of prayer and intercession to represent the U.S. here at our base. I was nominated by our class to share about the beauty of the Mexican culture and what we appreciate about our fellow Mexican brothers and sisters. I’m usually not apprehensive about public speaking, but for this particular occasion I was. I wanted to honor them by speaking their native tongue. As you all know, that is not an easy task for me yet. I can get away with communicating a few thoughts in a row, but to say something for more than 15 seconds in Spanish in front of 100 people put a few butterflies in my stomach. In preparation I made some notes, asked for some help, and prayed. I was honored and humbled to do this because I had to communicate how much we loved and appreciated them, which is a lot. By God’s grace it went really well and they received it with much appreciation and it moved my heart to hear a few of them tell me later in the day that they were proud of me because of the words that were shared.

Speaking about sharing words, please be praying about this week (15th-20th.) Carnaval is a huge festival that Mazatlan holds once a year. It is comparable to Mardi Gras in the States where thousands of people come to party. This season of the year is huge for YWAM Mazatlan because they make huge efforts in ministry and evangelism during this time. Several teams from different churches have been arriving over the last couple of days to help out with this week. We have a skate park setup, coffee shop, evangelism teams, and even a beauty salon. We use these different stations to communicate God’s love to the people and share the gospel with them. Since I am gifted in the area of coffee slinging I signed up to work with the coffee shop. Our team consists of 10 people and I am only one of two guys on this team and there are only two of us who can speak Spanish. Be praying for God´s hand on this, protection, and an extended ability to communicate the Father’s love.

Her name is Mexico, if you were wondering about the title. Los quero mucho and thank you for keeping up with me.

The Harvest is Ready!

Last Friday was incredible! My team was planning to head out on Sat. night to the “tolerance zone,” the area of town we minister to on weekends. We planned on having a testimony or study ready for all the teenage guys that hang out there with us. Plans changed at the last minute and we had to go on Fri. night instead, therefore we had nothing prepared. Before we left we prayed for awhile and asked God what He would have us do. None of us really had a big plan, but we brought some Bibles to give to the guys out there. We parked in our normal spot, prepared the coffee, and waited for the regular crew to show up. After about fifteen minutes twelve of them arrived and we began to talk and hang out with them. I have grown exceptionally close to two of these young men over the past month; Mario, who is eighteen and Jesus (pronounced w/ a Spanish accent please), who is nineteen. Mario came to church w/ us a couple of weeks ago and accepted Christ, which was incredible. I bought him a new Bible and ´A Purpose Driven Life, ´ in Spanish of course. Jesus is a little more reserved to respond to the gospel, but I had a vision for him. He is an artist who enjoys drawing and has shared some of his work with me. So, I felt compelled to get him a couple of sketch pads and a nice set of drawing pencils along w/ a Bible. I told him that God was leading me to get him these things so that he would begin to draw and use his gifts to glorify Him. I pray that he would come to know the Lord and that he would create beautiful work through these gifts. Please be praying these young men. Back to Fri. night, I sat alongside of Mario w/ my Bible and wanted to share the story of the Prodigal Son. One of my teammates saw this and asked if I wanted to share in front of the whole group. Without hesitation I said ´lets do it.´ We passed out several Bibles and gathered them all together. I was amazed by their attentiveness and genuine interest in what was to be shard. I spoke about how justice, mercy, and grace was defined through this parable. I wanted them to know about the Father’s love and how grace is something radical and how we don’t even come close to deserving it. For the first time ever I led a prayer to open the opportunity to know, experience, and receive this same love that the son received from his father, but from our heavenly Father. Eight young men accepted Christ that night! I felt so humbled that God would use me in that way and felt that this is only the beginning of what he desires to do through this time. I long for the day where an interpreter is not needed and makes me want to press harder into learning how to communicate God’s message in Spanish. Fruit is being seen through this ministry, please pray about how we (YWAM) would further minister to these decisions.
A huge event called “Carnaval” is coming up and I will tell you all about that later. Yo los quero mucho y los extraño. Thank you so much for your support, prayers, and thoughts, God is amazing!

Time to step it up!

So this was incredibly encouraging!!! Despite all of my studious efforts I have felt like that I needed to step it up a notch and cut myself off from English if big language transformation is going to happen. It is very easy to get away with speaking English and in fact there are people who have lived here for years who can hardly communicate in Spanish. During a time of worship and prayer this past Wednesday my school director came up to me and shard something that was on her heart that she received in prayer the night before. Before I tell you all what she said I need to preface this with the fact that the Mexicans who are here are completely Mexican ,and the Americans that are here are completely American. I happen to be a blend of both because I really want to unlock the Mexican side of me, but at the same time as you all already know I am pretty Gringo‘ish. The word that they use for me is “pocho,” a Mexicano who is born in the States, but returns back to the “Motherland”. Anyway, in recent years I have at times felt ashamed for not being as connected to my culture as I feel I should, but I am trying now and everyone here honors that. Continuing, one of the staff members at the base shared a text that was on her heart about receiving a double inheritance and how God would take away the shame of the people, it is in Isaiah 61:7. Harmony, our school director came up to me while all of us were praying and worshiping and shared a little something. She felt that there is an incredible blessing in me being here coming from the States. That I have such a rich inheritance in my Mexican culture, but also being blessed with how God has molded me and blessed me through the States. She sees great leadership qualities in me and recognizes how hard I have been working on my Spanish, but told me that God relayed to her that it is imperative that I learn and speak the language. It was on her heart to share this with me and that there is no accident that I am here and how there is something big on the brink. She had no clue if this resonated with me at all, but felt led to drop it on me. I gave her some affirmation in what I felt about all of that and decided to elevate my commitment to learn. I announced to the class the next day what was on my heart and that I could use their encouragement and patience because I am not going to speak English 6 out of 7 days of the week! The only time I am is if someone really needs to talk to me but besides that Thurs. is my designated English day mainly because that is when I have small groups. This is the second day of this commitment and it is incredibly challenging. Being an extrovert and priding myself in being able to communicate makes this hard, but I know that this is what needs to be done. The response has been incredible because they admire the dedication and work that this is going to take. For me when God moves it is difficult to not be dedicated and motivated. For those of you who are worrying about me posting my blogs in Spanish, don’t bust out with your dictionaries just yet, this will be a little bit of a refuge for me. I thought this was pretty was “super chido” (way cool)!

This was week 3

The longer I am here the more I love the Mexican culture and where my family came from! The warmth of the Mexican people and culture is absolutely beautiful. The hospitality, inclusiveness, and celebration makes me feel at home. Even though I come from the States they have made me an honorary Mexican here at the base. When I go to church, talk to the kids on the street, and sing songs of worship in Spanish it motivates me more and more to press into the culture, people, and language. I was talking with the speaker here this week and he told me that I grew up as a hamburger, but I am really a burrito. I have been blessed by a fellow Mexican classmate here to become my personal tutor. She feels as if it is ministry to help me out and knows that God is going to use it in big ways. With all that said I made my decision on where I will be going for the second half of this time. On Friday the school presented the class with this years outreach locations: China, Australia, and Mexico. We were to pray about it over the weekend and decide this past Monday. I’m excited about this outreach where we will be traveling all through this beautiful country from Chiapas to Ensenada. Please be praying for all three teams in preparation, protection, and safety. Meanwhile, the first half of this time has been a little bit of a struggle for me. I love the community, diversity, and spirit of this place, but It has been difficult and humbling for me to be taken from a position of leadership with my church at home and placed into the position of a student under new leadership. I have never considered myself rigid, but I am experiencing some hesitation toward some things here. Being a little older and having to abide by rules that sound like they are for kids at camp is tough. I get the principle behind it and I am in support of it, but to be under it has posed itself to be a challenge, but I know that God is at work.