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.
Yep, That is the World Series trophy.
I know... you're jealous. It's ok. Just repent of your sin and become a Cardinal fan.
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Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Because I know you've been dying to know...
I shall now give you a quick hit list of all things "us", that way you can get your fix and return fully focused to your lives. :D
- Tomorrow is Kaylee's 3rd birthday. I would say I can't believe she is that old, but on most days she acts much older than a 3 year old. For instance, one of her favorite shows at the moment is Hannah Montana, her favorite movie currently is High School Musical 3, she knows the Jonas brothers, and when I don't do what she wants she will sigh big, put her hand on her forehead and say "oh good grief" (or something similar). At this rate we will hit the "teenage years" by the time she is 6.
- For her birthday we are heading to St. Louis tonight and going to the zoo tomorrow. Here's for praying rain away tomorrow.
- We spent a week in Carrollton, GA (outside of Atlanta) for the CFN church conference. It's always a great time and this year was no exception. We got to spend time with old friends, meet new ones and even got to see the Schroeders, who had moved there from Arthur early last year. Unfortunately, as with every conference, we didn't have nearly enough time to spend with everyone, but I still wouldn't pass it up for anything.
- At the conference, one of the speakers was Daniel Juster. His intelligence level is astronomically high. Even though it left my head spinning, one of the best sessions I've ever been to, anywhere. :)
- I have been "reassigned" at work for the village. I now only work in the visitor center on Saturdays and the other days I work for the streets and alleys dept. I am the whatever guy and do whatever is needed when I'm there. Lots of scooping horse poop, weed-eating, watering and other various things. It's a nice change of pace and at least I won't be pasty-white from sitting behind a desk all summer. :D
- I'm still buzzin off the high that is the Guatemala trip. I'm missing all of my new friends from that time and long to see them again. I'm fairly certain I will be back next year, with Jenn this time. She needs to experience it and I need to get back. :D
- With Guatemala done and past, the next trip on the docket is Mexico. We leave July 25 from Chicago and fly to Morelia Mexico. We will spend a week there and return on Sunday Aug 2. We are taking a team of 12 guys down to play in a basketball tournament of sorts and do various odd job projects. Our goal is to help connect the local youth to our friends in ministry. I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am about this trip. I'm excited to see what God has in store for the people there, I'm excited to see our guys grow and mature in God, and I get to see some dear friends in the process. PLUS you just can't beat authentic tortillas.
- On a side note with that trip, I've decided that while I'm not a proponent of "God our mother", I am certain that God is a feminist. My wife gets to say "I told you so" much too often for that not to be the case. I was freakin out about the plane tickets because we were having serious issues getting them booked. Every time we would raise the amount needed the cost would go up. So here we are about a month out and no tickets (not good for my state of mind) and the whole time I'm freakin, Jenn is saying "God knows and we believe this is His will to go, it will work out..." Well, this week we got the tickets and the price dropped to below the original price 2 months ago.... sigh. She is ALWAYS right. Grr. :)
- We thought Mexico would be our last trip for this year, but there is a chance we will take another trip in the fall. As we are becoming increasingly involved in Adopt-A-Child (more on that in the future after some of the dust has settled), we believe we might be going to a conference they have in September. The best part, it's in Northern Ireland. :D Nothing definite yet, but we REALLY, REALLY, REALLY want to go.
- Don't ya just know that when God starts moving and things are happening the attacks come? After the amazing week we had last week at the CFN conference, this week I have pulled a muscle in my back, had a random allergic reaction that swelled my eyes almost shut, had Jenn's paycheck have an error, my paycheck have an error, both paychecks being small to begin with because of the time taken off for the conference, the gas on the stove left on for an entire afternoon (even though neither of us used the stove that day, which was strange), the air conditioning drain plug and leak into the utility room, the a/c vents in the back half of the house quit working after they fixed the drain, me spending a day under the house finding out that the previous drain issues had filled the a/c tube under the house with water and having to fix it, and have the shocks in Jenn's car sound like they are about to die. I REALLY hate when the minutiae of life gets in the way of doing Kingdom work, so as you can imagine I've been a little annoyed this week. The good thing, I'm not discouraged or complaining, just explaining. And rest assured, this just fires me up to do more. Like I've always said, the attacks come when you are doing something positive for the Kingdom. Enemies don't attack places that aren't strategic.
Ok, that's enough rambling for now. I'm sure I've forgotten a thousand things that are going on, but that's enough for now. I pray all is well with you. God bless.
- Tomorrow is Kaylee's 3rd birthday. I would say I can't believe she is that old, but on most days she acts much older than a 3 year old. For instance, one of her favorite shows at the moment is Hannah Montana, her favorite movie currently is High School Musical 3, she knows the Jonas brothers, and when I don't do what she wants she will sigh big, put her hand on her forehead and say "oh good grief" (or something similar). At this rate we will hit the "teenage years" by the time she is 6.
- For her birthday we are heading to St. Louis tonight and going to the zoo tomorrow. Here's for praying rain away tomorrow.
- We spent a week in Carrollton, GA (outside of Atlanta) for the CFN church conference. It's always a great time and this year was no exception. We got to spend time with old friends, meet new ones and even got to see the Schroeders, who had moved there from Arthur early last year. Unfortunately, as with every conference, we didn't have nearly enough time to spend with everyone, but I still wouldn't pass it up for anything.
- At the conference, one of the speakers was Daniel Juster. His intelligence level is astronomically high. Even though it left my head spinning, one of the best sessions I've ever been to, anywhere. :)
- I have been "reassigned" at work for the village. I now only work in the visitor center on Saturdays and the other days I work for the streets and alleys dept. I am the whatever guy and do whatever is needed when I'm there. Lots of scooping horse poop, weed-eating, watering and other various things. It's a nice change of pace and at least I won't be pasty-white from sitting behind a desk all summer. :D
- I'm still buzzin off the high that is the Guatemala trip. I'm missing all of my new friends from that time and long to see them again. I'm fairly certain I will be back next year, with Jenn this time. She needs to experience it and I need to get back. :D
- With Guatemala done and past, the next trip on the docket is Mexico. We leave July 25 from Chicago and fly to Morelia Mexico. We will spend a week there and return on Sunday Aug 2. We are taking a team of 12 guys down to play in a basketball tournament of sorts and do various odd job projects. Our goal is to help connect the local youth to our friends in ministry. I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am about this trip. I'm excited to see what God has in store for the people there, I'm excited to see our guys grow and mature in God, and I get to see some dear friends in the process. PLUS you just can't beat authentic tortillas.
- On a side note with that trip, I've decided that while I'm not a proponent of "God our mother", I am certain that God is a feminist. My wife gets to say "I told you so" much too often for that not to be the case. I was freakin out about the plane tickets because we were having serious issues getting them booked. Every time we would raise the amount needed the cost would go up. So here we are about a month out and no tickets (not good for my state of mind) and the whole time I'm freakin, Jenn is saying "God knows and we believe this is His will to go, it will work out..." Well, this week we got the tickets and the price dropped to below the original price 2 months ago.... sigh. She is ALWAYS right. Grr. :)
- We thought Mexico would be our last trip for this year, but there is a chance we will take another trip in the fall. As we are becoming increasingly involved in Adopt-A-Child (more on that in the future after some of the dust has settled), we believe we might be going to a conference they have in September. The best part, it's in Northern Ireland. :D Nothing definite yet, but we REALLY, REALLY, REALLY want to go.
- Don't ya just know that when God starts moving and things are happening the attacks come? After the amazing week we had last week at the CFN conference, this week I have pulled a muscle in my back, had a random allergic reaction that swelled my eyes almost shut, had Jenn's paycheck have an error, my paycheck have an error, both paychecks being small to begin with because of the time taken off for the conference, the gas on the stove left on for an entire afternoon (even though neither of us used the stove that day, which was strange), the air conditioning drain plug and leak into the utility room, the a/c vents in the back half of the house quit working after they fixed the drain, me spending a day under the house finding out that the previous drain issues had filled the a/c tube under the house with water and having to fix it, and have the shocks in Jenn's car sound like they are about to die. I REALLY hate when the minutiae of life gets in the way of doing Kingdom work, so as you can imagine I've been a little annoyed this week. The good thing, I'm not discouraged or complaining, just explaining. And rest assured, this just fires me up to do more. Like I've always said, the attacks come when you are doing something positive for the Kingdom. Enemies don't attack places that aren't strategic.
Ok, that's enough rambling for now. I'm sure I've forgotten a thousand things that are going on, but that's enough for now. I pray all is well with you. God bless.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane...
I do love that song. Well, loyal readers... yes, both of you, I am now about 8 hours from venturing out on this latest expedition. We are taking a train to chicago friday, then flying out early saturday morning. We spend 2 days in germany and then off to albania. So I won't be net surfing until we get back September 3. (And even then probably won't be on until Sep. 4 due to jet lag, haha) I had a whole blog with substance planned, but due to time quickly disappearing (due mostly to packing issues) I'm too tired to try. I hope you are all well and I'll talk at ya soon. God bless.
-The rookie world traveler
-The rookie world traveler
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