While I wait for my laundry to finish...

I figured I could take this time to share a little about why I am sitting here waiting for laundry at 10:40 pm on a Thursday. On Saturday I will be joining 10 other young men (that's right, I'm still claiming to be a young man... it's my blog, my right to be irrational) as we venture into southern Mexico to the Purepecha village, Angahuan. We will be meeting up with friends of our who are missionaries there. (For more on them check out their blogs: sharonsteffler.blogspot.com and missionmeseta.blogspot.com) There is one other guy meeting up with us in Mexico bringing our grand total to 12. Now I've done a number of trips with our fellowship and have experienced a number of different types of missions works, but this one is a first for pretty much everyone involved. We are going to play basketball. That's right our missions trip is to go play basketball. Well, technically our trip is for 9 of us to play, one of us to referree, one to take care of all the technical arrangements (me) and one of us to assist the leader.

Now I'm sure a few of you are wondering "How is playing basketball a missions trip? Will you be preaching too?" And the answer is no... well, not exaclty. You see we are going to an area of Mexico where open preaching of the gospel isn't a good idea. So for some time our friends, the Stefflers and the Allens, have been reaching out to the local people through acts of goodwill (i.e. teaching english, medical missions, fixing homes and fences, etc.) So we are going to show some more goodwill ourselves and hopefully increase the standing within the village of our friends and open more doors for the gospel to go forward. This approach goes right along with our stance in Adopt-A-Child. "People won't care what you believe until they believe you care." Here's a list of the things we intend to do while in Mexico. (I say intend because if you have ever been on a trip in Latin America, you know that plans simply mean this is what might or might not happen at any given moment. :D )

- We will playing basketball (and other things) with anyone who wants to play. Basically a "hey come play the white guys" basketball tour. Should be fun.

- We will be helping improve one or more basketball courts for a school/schools. We will be doing such things as putting up backboards, painting lines, mending fences, whatever.

- We will be going to a youth conference a week from Saturday and will hopefully have a chance to speak some.

- The newest development is we will be playing in a basketball tournament on Sunday (right after we arrive). This is a level one (high level) basketball tournament. Various towns in Mexico send teams to play and the winner gets 35,000 pesos (about $3000 american). We have been asked to play and represent the village of Angahuan. We have NO idea what the skill level of the other teams are, and we may get out butts whipped soundly. But either way we will represent the village and gain respect for the Stefflers and Allens with our willingness to play. And who knows, maybe we will win a game and give instant cred to the missionaries. Either way, it's like I told the guys, how often do you get to play in an international tournament and represent an entire village? So stinkin cool. (Oh and if you want to pray for a God-type blessing on our playing ability, we wouldn't be opposed. :D )

- We will be taking a horseback ride to the lava ruins near the village... one of my favorite places anywhere.

- We will be doing whatever else we can to be a blessing to the Stefflers and Allens, to be a witness to the villagers and have fun at the same time.

Our flight leaves O'Hare around 8 pm on Saturday and we will land on US soil again around 5:30 am Sunday Aug. 2. So if you want to pray for us while we are gone, please feel free. I'm certain I will have a TON of pictures to put on facebook when I get back, so you have that to look forward to as well. Until then, God bless.