¡Pura Vida!

"Virtue is love rightly ordered."
         - St. Augustine, The City of God, 15.22

 

We Love Nancy Honeytree!

Nancy Honeytree is one of the most inspiring people we've ever met.  We've had the privilege of knowing her for several years now and have immensely enjoyed ministering with her in Nicaragua, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.  This morning she came to the morning chapel service at our Bible school and introduced a whole new generation of Mexicans to her music.  The video clip is from her song called "Great is the Harvest" and which Nancy sings in Spanish:

Flexibility is key!

One of our many responsibilities here in Mexico is to train future missionaries. This is done with three separate groups of people:  (1)  our Bible School students (Mexicans);  (2)  the language school students (mostly Americans); and (3)  the short-term missions groups (again, mostly American).   The biggest challenge in the training of missionaries is to get them to be flexible.  That means, to step outside of themselves, to accept new and different things, to break the mold of their preconceptions, to be open to change, and to depend on others - among other things.  This may sound simple but it's not:  Try eating a disgusting, strange food placed in front of you as your hosts eagerly watch your reaction.  Try attempting to express something important to someone in another language, murdering the pronunciation, and getting laughed at.  In fact, try constantly making a fool of yourself for violating unspoken rules and customs.  Learning to be flexible is incredibly frustrating and a very s-l-o-w process but it is essential to survive.  In essence, it's DYING TO SELF and that is never a fun thing to do.  The glory and romance of missions fades soon enough and then it's all about dying.  That's it in a nutshell.      

Hermano Mayor 2008

Hermano Mayor (Big Brother) is our school's annual homecoming that we had last Wednesday to Friday.  Former students came in from all over Mexico for the three-night event.  This year we had a much larger turnout and hosted around 250 pastors and church workers.

                                    Thursday night's opening service.

How to prove God exists...

Go read this post!

IMC Class of 2010

This pic captures their personalities better!

Class Picture Day

Today was picture day at our school.  The photo on the left is our First Years class (IMC Class of 2010).

Here are our Second Years:

Botrero's "Abu Ghraib" Exhibit

Last week the famous Colombian artist Fernando Botrero's Abu Ghraib exposition of 50 paintings opened in Monterrey for a month-long exhibition and talk of it is all the rage right now in the city.   Of course this was something I couldn't resist seeing, so last night some friends and I went to see the exhibit.  Why is this work important?  First, I believe it accurately reflects a deep current here in Latin America toward the United States.  It reflects the sense of disappointment that the United States, long a beacon of liberty and justice for many, would resort to such acts as were committed at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.  Second, it illustrates that, in our digital age, paintings still have relevance - especially political relevance.  Perhaps now more than ever.

Though I hardly believe Botrero is our age's Goya or that this series is our Guernica, I do think his work is an important contribution to world culture and something which should provoke serious thought as to the validity of the use of torture by "civilized" democracies.  Were the acts at Abu Ghraib the result of a handful of redneck soldiers or the methods of interrogation by "professionals" such as CIA operatives and unaccountable military contractors?  The answer is BOTH.   It's time to hold our elected officials accountable for barbaric methods of interrogation such as waterboarding as well as allowing our elected officials (with high level security clearances) to monitor the activities of the rogue elements of our War on Terrorism.   We will reap what we sow and don't think these same elements would hesitate to interrogate YOU in the same fashion. 

Thank you Fernando Botrero for sending us this message.  Now what we do with it will be what matters.