¡Viva la Vida!

Discipleship, Social Media, Blogging

As the new academic year is underway at the Instituto Ministerial «El Calvario» (Calvary Ministry Institute), I have found myself trying to balance my various responsibilities.  My role at the Bible Institute has shifted somewhat, as I'm focusing more on my two classes and discipleship.  For the past two years I've been Dean of Men - a role that is more about disciplining than discipling - and so I've handed this position over to someone else.  The two classes I'm teaching this term are Survey of the Old Testament and the General Epistles.  The discipleship role involves weekly appointments with the significant increase in students (the student body has increased by 25%).  Jan's helping greatly by discipling the female students while I focus on the guys. 

Social Media - oh how the times are a'changing.  The new social media (facebook & twitter, mostly) has revolutionized the way we stay in contact with our friends and family back in the US...and across the world for that matter.  It's actually made us blog less because we're more in contact with the most frequent readers of this blog.  We're not going to jettison this old, trusty blog any time soon, however, because we feel it still serves a purpose - even in the midst of the new social media environment.  So we'll try and do better at blogging for those we're not connected with on facebook & twitter!  

An interesting read on living in hyperconnectivity:  The Church of Facebook by Jesse Rice

Team building

Introducing Gena & Andrew Thomas. For long-time blog followers, you may remember her, she lived with us in Nicaragua from January - April 2004. This past March she came to visit us in Mexico with her new husband and they felt God calling them to Mexico. They arrived last week. They will both be teaching at our church's new middle school, Gena as the English teacher, and Andrew as the PE teacher. He will also be doing some guiding at Potrero Chico, a world-class rock climbing site 15 mins from El Carmen.

We are so glad to have them here! Our boys love them to death, and we are looking forward to having our first cell group meeting tonight with them... speaking English, eating waffles, and studying the book of Acts. It will be awesome!  You can follow them on their blog:  Not Quite Ripe.  Also, check out their new digs here.

The Importance of Friends

The foreign mission field can be a very lonely place at times. You are away from family, friends, & the familiar. Our first two years in Mexico I was so busy with getting adjusted that I didn't feel the loneliness too much. This past year, though, when I got sick with hepatitis and was pretty much bed-ridden for months I felt so lonely. I began to pray in earnest for one good friend. Someone to take off the masks with and laugh with, someone to NOT talk about ministry all the time with.

David & Monica, our Mexican pastors and next-door neighbors, were God's answer to my prayers. They have been part of our lives since day 1 here in Mexico. I've traveled to India & the US with them, but only this year has the relationship gone beyond ministry. I'm thankful that God hears our prayers and provides for our every need.

Why We Are In Mexico...

Sometimes people ask us why we are in Mexico and not someplace perceived more strategic in the missions field.  Actually the real question they're asking is:  Why aren't we serving in the "10/40 Window"?  The 10/40 Window is a missions concept created by missiologist Luis Bush in 1990 of the eastern hemisphere located between 10 and 40 degrees north of the equator, a general area that in 1990 was purported to have the highest level of socioeconomic challenges and least access to the Christian message and Christian resources on the planet.

The simpliest reason we can give for why we ourselves aren't in the 10/40 Window is that God has not called us to be there.  In fact, I would argue that most American missionaries, due to socio-political factors, would have pretty limited success there anyway based on the fact that they are from the United States.  That being said, the part of the world where the 10/40 Window lies may be more open to other races and cultures - other postcolonial cultures rather than receive further "colonizer" influence (The US & Europe).  Our job, simply put, is to train up Mexican and other international missionaries.  These non-white, non-American missionaries can get into places where we can't.  God has given them favor with other cultures that we don't have.  This is a tough thing to accept for many Americans who still believe the rest of the world loves us!

And Latin America is beginning to produce and disciple quality missionaries to other cultures.  In the foto below are a Mexican couple and their infant daughter who are serving in a Muslim country in the Middle East.  They are the reason we're in Mexico!