some photos

9 Days Away

We finished up on Friday and I am now a YWAMer having graduated from their Discipleship Training School. The entire experience was absolutely amazing and God has revealed so much to me especially about what I am to do next. Inspirations, work, frustrations, hope, struggle, joy, sweat, tears, vision, answered prayers . . . it was all a part of these past six months. What's next? I will be in Corpus Christi for a few days (July 12th-14th), from there I go to Austin to pay some visits (15th-17th), and I will make one last stop in Houston (17th-18th) before heading back to Corpus Christi. I plan on spending some time with my family and working down there anywhere between 6 months to a year. I know that God has called me to for a season to help my family, further foster this cultural change I am going through, and place myself in a better position to make a longer stay in Mexico possible. I have a heart to make an impact in the Spanish speaking culture both in the States and Mexico and in order for me to do that well and excellent I have to be able to identify even more with the people. This means that I can not only communicate efficiently but effectively by being fluent. This leads me to spend at least a couple of years in Mexico to truly crystallize all that I have received. I would love to share this vision I have personally with each one of you all, so please if you can e-mail (LS1130@hotmail.com) me if you are in town for the days I am visiting and your phone number. I lost my cell phone in Chiapas, which means that I lost all my contacts. Thank you so much for all your support and prayers and being a critical part to all that has happened and where this is all going. I love you all and God Bless.

On my way back . . .

I can not believe it is almost over. We are out of the jungle and back in San Cristobol for a few day until we start the road trip back to Mazatlan. It is nice to have a bathroom, clean clothes, and not perspire every moment. Although the last few days in the jungle were incredible! We put on a kids program for all the neighboring villages and shared God´s love through games, piñatas, stories, skits, and even clowns. It is hard to express how these people have touched my heart. It was such a blessing to have my talented beautiful good friend of mine Esther Havens come pay us a visit for a few days in Chiapas. She took some absolutely wonderful images and I can not wait to share them with you all, but of course in good time because she sacrificed so much to join us. Besides being darker and probably a few ( I use that term loosely) pounds heavier my life has changed so much. With the outreach part being over I am left now with heavy reflection, decisions, anticipation, and excitement for what is next. At the beginning of my time here over 5 months ago I heard God promise to show me new things in my heart, identity, and vocation. I waited but I knew that it would happen towards the end and sure enough it has. I have a healthy fear in me for what is next but just like all the pivotal moments in my life, He has provided and affirmed the visions I have had and will continue to have. Even though I feel like it is the end, the reality is that it is truly the beginning. I can not wait to see and visit with everyone of you all who has been a part of this journey. I do have some needs in returning back to the States because my resources are just about depleted, which leaves me without a ticket back and start up expenses until I get a source of income. Please pray about this and if you are able to respond and support my e-mail is (LS1130@hotmail.com)I love Mexico and want to come back but I would like to come back to the States first before making the move.

Puebo to Pueblo

These have been the most challeging days for us on our outreach because we went from ministering to Guadalajara, which is one of the wealthiest cities in Mexico, to now in Chiapas which is one of the poorest. Besides the bugs and bathroom, or lack of bathrooms, it is amazing. We are surronded by such a beautiful scenery with everywhere you look being green and rivers and lakes being blue to green. I must admit that I am actually enjoying the bathing in the river part although I am not much of a fan of having to do my laundry by hand in it. It has been a blessing being here becuase the people in these communities are the most hospitable and hubmle people I have met here. I would venture to say that the Mexican people are the warming loving people one will ever meet on this planet. They greet you with open arms and offer everything they have even if it is not much to fill your belly and make sure that you feel at home. A pastor/missionary named Jose Cano who has been working in Chiapas for ten years is leading us throughout different Pueblos for 14 days. We put on a service and minister to the people every pueblo we go to. On Saturday we are heading out to the jungle to dispense food, clothing, and share God´s word with the lacandones. These are tribes people who live in huts made of suger cane and leaves called palapas. It is a little dangerous for us becasue we will be camping in the village with some risks of being visited by scorpians and snakes. Please pray for safety and healing with some illnesses falling on the team and that the love of Christ would be seen to the indigoenous people. I should also report that all 7 girls on my team are doing incredible under these conditions and I am not going crazy, but am very impressed by their flexibility and willingness in all this. I can not believe we leave back to Mazatlan in 10 days! I should be back in Texas in a litte over a month and God has given me some amazing vision for the next season of my life.

Chiapas

I apologize for not being able to keep up`very well with my blogs but it has been tough these last few weeks to get away and write. We have been on the road for a little over three days and we are finally in Chiapas!!! We have a couple of days to get settled in and so I plan on catching you all up on everything tomorrow. We are safe, healthy, and excited about this place. I must say that I am loving Mexico even more and God has been giving me some visions about my future concerning this beautiful country.

Back in Guadalajara

It has been over a week since we arrived in Guadalajara and it has been great so far. Our team has been split up into several groups and we are staying with host families who are very kind and hospitable. We have been doing a lot of work with one of the local churches here called Palabra de Vida. This past weekend we went to a city a few hours away to help with putting on a mini VBS for a rehabilitation center for kids on the street who have been on drugs. It is a government program that takes kids in for 3 months and teaches them about values, principles, and social skills with full time workers such as psychologists and medical doctors. A huge opportunity opened up when they agreed to allow a church to come in and teach these kids about the fruits of the Spirit. It reminded me very much of my VBS days as a Shepard for Lake Hills and it was incredible be with these young ones and to share the love of Christ with them. Another day we hooked up with a Pastor from a different colonial who took us out to the local market to ask for donations so that we could dispense them out to people in need in a pueblo a few hours away. That morning went amazing with heaps of vegtables and fruit that were given to us to give away. We put together huge bags full of a variety of the food that was given to us and put on a kids program, shared testimonies, and prayed for the people. We have a few more projects like this left here in Guad and then we are off to Chiapas in a few weeks. Also, an amazing photographer by the name of Esther Havens along with her assistant Kevin came to pay the team a visit to shoot some of the work that were are doing these last few days. Please continue to pray that God would bless this team, our efforts, and vision for what is next.

Off We Go!

We have seen some miracles done in these last few days in the area of financial support. Almost everyone has there support with exception to a few Mexican students on the Australian team who leave Saturday. Everyone on our team was given the green light on Monday and we leave this afternoon to Guadalajara around 3 p.m. Please pray for safety in traveling especially since the staff sees me responsible and fit to drive, which has placed me in the position of the second primary driver of this trip. I´m good for the long haul but the twists and turns around the mountains to Guadalajara makes me a little nervous. It is a seven hour ride so we should get there around 10 p.m. I love my team so much and there is no doubt that God´s hand is over this because of our cohesiveness and vision that stands out amongst the other teams. The time has finally arrived and I can not wait to see what is going to happen.I have 2 1/2 months left in Mexico and I know that this time is going to shape what I will be doing afterwards. Many people ask me "what is next?" and I was given the offer to come back on staff last night by our school director. Pray that God would give me clarity and affirmation for the next steps to take after my time here because decisions will be coming up sooner than I know it. May lives be changed through radical love and selflessness.

Intense Times!!!!!

A reality bomb has been dropped on our school with deadlines for outreach coming up in days. YWAM Mazatlan has put on four of these schools and they have sent teams to Egypt, Morocco, Mexico, Spain, Bolivia, Turkey, Congo, and France. They have never held anyone back from their outreach because they lacked the financial support to go. Now the school has seen some big miracles done at the very last minute and that is where we are at right now, the last minute. We have been trusting God to provide the entire time and now our faith and trust is being pushed more than ever. Many people are waiting on responses and we feel like all our efforts and contacts have been exhausted. Our leaders are stressing out and especially our accountant who is dealing with all of the money and responsibility and I can say that I do not envy her job at all right now. My team is on board with the rest of the school because after the incredible gift we received which has enabled almost all of us to go we brought on another team member and there was a few other costs that came up which has now left us $1,000 shy of taking two of out Mexican teammates. Our deadline was originally today at 2 p.m. which left us in much despair because the minutes were ticking away to a reality of a first that this school has not seen before in not sending anyone on outreach.

We just found out that our deadline has been moved to Monday (4/16) which is good but at the same time I fear that we will have another nail biting day like today. It is crazy because rationally as an entire school it is hard for me to see all the needs: Team Australia $7,000, Team Asia: $20,000, Team Mexico Family: $5,000, and us Team Mexico $1,000 (total: $33,000) come through in a matter of days. Faith is what this organization ahs been built on and this is how they are going to continue. Please be praying for all the needs that are left and for peace to be over this place. I can not say that I have personally been around many situations that seem impossible and have to trust God to make it possible, but I am in a place and ministry where my faith is being stretched. I thank God that my outreach is covered and that I am leaving on Wednesday, but I am in a community where I rejoice with those who rejoice, mourn with those who mourn, and care for those in need. At the end of the day I know that no matter what happens God will be glorified.

One Week Away

My team and I are about to pack up our things, load up the van, and head out to Guadalajara one week from today. We have been praying and meeting all week about what we will be doing and who we are going to work with and we are excited about what is ahead. One of our ministries is going to be blessing the kids who are abandoned on the streets to fend for themselves. These would be the kids who jump on your car to wash the windshield while you are at a stop light in Mexico. We are going to ask them how much they make in a day and pay them more than what they would earn and give them the day off. With this time we will take them out to do normal kid things like going to a park, zoo, or just out for some ice cream. We will break out into two teams and do this three days out of the week and follow up with the same kids every other week. When I went to visit Guadalajara over a month ago I noticed men who would wash parked cars along the street in hopes that the owner would come back soon and whether they requested for it to be washed or not would pay a little. I want to spend the day getting to know these men and their stories. I want to see how they see and experience what they experience and share Christ’s love with them. I wish to pay them their salary at the beginning of the day and work alongside of them without charging the people and telling them the work has been done out of love. My conviction is that I do not want to give money and tell them that Jesus loves them but to get to know them and show a faith that does more walking, caring, and loving than just talking. My team has the same heart beat and that is why we do not have many dramas lined up or tracks to hand out but instead we have our hearts ready to love in action and do more investing. I trust that God is going to do something amazing out of this and that these ideas and ministries are going to lead to even more opportunities and communities to reach out to. We are also hooking up with a couple of churches during that time and will be working with their youth programs. After our month of Guadalajara is up we will travel way down south to Chiapas where God has shown us some incredible vision and opportunity. I will give you the run down on that trip on a later date. Please pray for protection, unity, and further vision as we move forward.

I Can Not Describe

I can not even begin to describe how incredible this trip back to Austin was for me. It was absolutely blessed from the moment I arrived to the moment I left to Mexico. My soul was refreshed and inspired by being around every one of you all and it was just what I needed. There are so many things that God revealed to me this weekend I could write for pages and pages about them, but I will share them over a period of time. One thing that I do want to share that is very hard for me to articulate was the response of my Mexico outreach team when I got back. My team consists of seven girls and two guys (pray for me) and we represent four nations (United States, Mexico, Egypt, and El Salvador.) These last few weeks have been intense for the entire school because of passport complications and support that is needed for all three teams (China, Mexico, and Australia.) Part of my trip back was in hopes that I could help raise some finances to meet our needs. I had just a little bit of news for them last Monday for our meeting. I casually informed them that our entire need to send our team was met through one gift. A one hour meeting went on to become a two and half hour meeting with much crying, shock, disbelief, and praise. There is no way that I could recreate that moment if I tried and I found myself in tears because of this generosity and God’s faithfulness. Many of us were becoming challenged with despair since deadlines were approaching, especially my Mexican team-mates (it is tough to raise money in Mexico.) This trip was not only a blessing for me but for many. We are getting ready because in three weeks we will be heading out to Guadalajara for a month, then Chiapas, and finally Mexico City. Our plan is to split up the time between city life (Guad/Mexico City) and indigenous life (Chiapas). Please be praying for vision as we are meeting and praying about how to uniquely impact these cultures and people groups. God has given me a couple of visions for Guadalajara and Mexico City that I have shard with the group. I will give you all details about this later this week after we meet and begin to put wheels on this idea. Thank you all so much for making this dream a reality and I look forward to updating you on how God is going to use us in transformational ways for this outreach. School, community, and Mazatlan have been good but the miraculous is yet to come.

¿Sabes Que? (Guess What?)!!!!!!!

I will be coming to Austin next weekend to pay everyone a visit(22nd-25th.)I am about midway through my time here and I would love to catch up with you all and share stories and pictures. I got the green light from my school and I can leave on Thursday the 22nd and have to be back on Sun. 25th. Many of my Mexican classmates have traveled to their hometowns to visit famalies, friends,and churches to give updates, raise support, and to just hang out. They have inspired me so do the same, so it has been on my heart to drop in. I am so incredibly thankful for the opportunity and blessing I have to to make visiting a reality and I look forward to seeing yall next week. Holy Guacamole and Santo Avacado I get to see yall!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I´m just a little excited!

Week 10

I can not believe that I have been here for 10 weeks and in 5 more weeks I head out to Chiapas and then Mexico City. This weekend was humbling because we had the opportunity to minister to a local community that lived at the city dump. Last week because of some government issues about property, 40 families were relocated. We went out to the new site and helped in anyway that we could from building homes to helping a local church serve food. What was inspiring was the fact that 38 of these families are Christians because of the investment of the church. I was amazed how they were smiling and talking about how good and faithful God is when what little they had was taken away. These are people who reside in homes made of literally four inch tree trunks, blankets, or any other material that may provide some protection from the sun. As I walked near their homes to see if they needed help they would invite me in to sit and talk. We also spent some time blessing all the kids there by playing games, painting their faces, and having a water balloon fight. Their faith was very encouraging to me and it has added greatly to my experience here.
Some future thoughts. . . I spent a lot of time wondering today. Wondering about what I am going to do after all of this. Go home and work and then come back, thoughts of possibly coming on staff here have begun to emerge, going to other Latin American countries and doing more work. My heart sings for Mexico, but where in Mexico and in what ministry does it bleed for? What is my future ministry going to look like? I had just spent a year of clear direction in getting here and I am asking the question "where exactly do you want me to go with all this?" God is faithful but please pray for clarity and direction in my calling because I know that four months is going to fly by.

More to Come

I hope yall enjoyed the photos and this was only a test run so I did not get all the ones I wanted up. Friday is my designated blog day so I will get some new entries up for yall. God is no doubt at work with good stuff and challenging good stuff and I look forward to writing it all down soon. I want to give a shout out to my brother, I love you and I am praying for you. Your faith is so encouraging to me and I am incredibly blessed to have you as my big brother. I dream of the day you and I get to do some mission work together!

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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!