Cumbres

Last week was the best and busiest week I`ve had in Mexico so far. The team I worked with was from Clover, SC, and was a very mature and experienced group. We had more work than we could possibly do in one week, but we succeeded in building the walls of a sactuary for the new location of Cumbres Presbyterian Church and moving the church from its old location to the new. The first service was great and I experienced yet another moving sermon, this one on Psalm 36.

I don´t have much time to tell you all about everything I did, but it was refreshing to get into a regular schedule every day. Before I went to sleep every night, I would read a chapter of Francis Shaeffer`s Genesis in Space and Time, Abraham Verghese´s A Doctor´s Story, Colossians 2, then pray. This weekend has been too hectic to find time to read, but I hope to stay on this kind of schedule as much as possible.

I´m preparing this week to teach a ESL class to about ten adults at a church called Bethel on the outskirts of Monterrey. I´m excited about this opportunity and am starting to prepare the five 90-minute lessons I`ll be giving. Pray that the people who come to the class will be encouraged.

I´ve experienced much-needed brokenness the past few days and am thankful to see God continuing to make my heart more focused on His Kingdom and less on mine. Pray that I would continue to be drawn away from my selfish desires.

One evening last week, I had a brainstorm in the shower and came up with what I think is a solid outline for a (Kafka-esque) short story. I can`t wait to write it on here, but it`s midnight and I have yet another early morning tomorrow. It`ll just have to wait. Thank you all for your prayers.

Pictures of Week 4

On the hike this morning to the top of Cerro de la Silla (Saddle Mountain), we encountered this awesome- looking rodent, and I still have no idea what it was. Probably the coolest animal I`ve ever seen. The picture doesn´t do it justice.

The view of part of Monterrey from the top of Cerro de la Silla. Smoggy, but still breathtaking.
It took us 2.5 hours to get up and half of that to go down.

The other part of Cerro de la Silla.

Me, Jose Luis, and Noah at the top of the mountain.

Posing about halfway down the mountain. The trails here are all dotted with shrines of different kinds, many of them to the Virgin Mary / Guadeloupe.

Pictures of Week 3, part 2

Pablo giving a little speech after we finished (kind of) the work on the sanctuary.

After: The semi-finished sanctuary of Cumbres Presbyterian Church.

The South Carolina team in their blue shirts plus everyone else.

Basically the same exact picture.

Me, Stephanie, Andres, Ruth, and the South Carolina team.

Pictures of Week 3, part 1

Cumbres Presbyterian Church at the beginning of the week.

Jeff and Tim, members of this week´s group from Clover, SC, putting in the metal studs that will become the walls of the new sanctuary.

Me, Griffin, Jose Luis, Marcela, and Yolanda at one of this week´s fiestas.

Me (Speedy Spackler), Griffin (Count Spackula), and Jose Luis (the architect) in front of a heck of a spackling job.

Me, Griffin, Jose Luis, and a bunch of other people at the small group that met Thursday night. We went through Acts 2:40-47, the marks of the church.

Pictures of Week 2

The dudes of the Pinewood PCA, FL team plus Noah plus Benito plus me outside of the orphanage that we painted (Casa Hogar).

Marta (the founder of the orphanage and a truly incredible woman) and me in the orphanage.

Juan (the oldest boy at the orphanage) and me. Great young man, he looks out for the younger kids and is a good student.

Me representing the Wolfpack outside the Cave we went to with the Pinwood group.

Noah, me, Michael, Richard, and Scott Craig at the bottom of the mountain near the Cave. Michael, Richard, and I raced down the mountain on a very rough trail. I won.

Pictures of Week 1

Sorry it took so long, but for all of you visual people, here are a few pictures I´ve taken of my first month here. These five pictures are of my first week here: Here´s a picture that doesn´t do justice to the beauty of the Chipinque trail.

Noah and I atop the abandoned mountain home of a General high on Chipinque.

Noah, Stephanie, and I on the Chipinque trail.Robert Bristol (a missionary who just left to go back to the States), Noah, Robert`s daughter Sophia, and Stephanie at the park in Chipinque.

The polished concrete slide at the park in Chipinque.

Palabras III

I brought my little notebook and dictionary with me to church this morning and wrote down a bunch of words I wanted to clarify in my own mind. I`ll share them (and some other ones) with you all here:

talavera = pottery

rostro = face

rizo = curl

cabello = hair

hospedar = to stay (i.e. at an inn)

fijar = to fix, fasten

titulo = degree

beca = scholarship

tinajas = jars

farmaceutico = pharmacist

muebles = furniture

ahorrar = to save (saw it on a Wal-Mart billboard)

yeso = chalk, plaster

alcalde = mayor

coger = to catch, seize

pila = battery or basin

zacate = grass or hay

red =net or network

cereza = cherry

suegro = father-in-law

tonto = stupid

derramar = to spill

carmesi = crimson

anhelar = to pant, to long for

digno = worthy

alabadle = praiseworthy

Padre Celestial = Heavenly Father

hacia = toward

La Tierra Prometida = The Promised Land

castigo = punishment

semejar = to resemble

juicio = judgment

Casa Hogar

Finally, I have a chance to tell you all a little about what I did last week. I worked for four days at a local orphanage called Casa Hogar, which literally means "House Home." I spent most of the time either painting or hanging out with the kids. I got to know the team pretty well, especially the four high school guys who came. I also had a couple impromptu ESL classes with a wonderful elderly lady named Marta who cared for the kids. She would read the Bible in English, I would follow along in a Spanish Bible, and I would correct her pronunciation and explain any words she didn't know. Apparently she reads the Bible in English every day, which was encouraging to me on two levels (that she found time to do it despite her busy schedule and that she was able to have a quiet time in another language). I also had the privilege to sit in on several of the team's devotions, in which one person would share their testimony and something that God had taught them.
This Sunday was another good worship experience. The service was much shorter and the sermon was more simple, but it was still a good experience, and I'm really coming to appreciate worshipping in Spanish, since I have to concentrate in order to understand what is being sung or said.
Ben, my friend from NCSU, was here for a few days over the weekend, and we had a good time catching up and sharing with each other. Right now, I'm in the middle of a four-day break, and will head down to a place called Saltillo on Saturday morning for a week of working with another team on a construction project and an after-school program (or something like that, I'm not exactly sure!). I would appreciate prayer for my health, which has been spotty this past week, for the work of this next team coming in, and for peace about all the changes that I'll be coming back to in the fall. God has really confirmed my direction towards medical school, but my priorities are going to have to undergo some major shifts.
And as always, pray for the Kingdom.

Palabras II

The little kids at the orphanage taught me a lot of words this week, but didn't actually write any of them down. Here are as many as I can remember. I also learned a lot from church the last 2 weeks (but I'm cheating by looking at a bulletin right now).

lentes / anteojos = glasses
brincolin = trampoline
brincar = to jump
guaraches = sandals
columpio = a swing
tubo = pipe
trapo = trapo
parpado = eyelid
cejas = eyebrows
llanta, neumatico = tire
palmear = to clap

projimo = neighbor (from the sermon about the Good Samaritan)
alabadle = praise him (alabar = to praise, alabanza = to praise)
gozarse = to rejoice (gozo = joy)
alegrarse = to be glad
rendir = to render, to pay tribute
lino = linen
cordero = lamb
coro = choir
brotar = to sprout, to spring, to come up
incoparable = incomparable
consuelo = consolation (consolar = to console)
para majores informes = for more information
boletin = bulletin

And the word of the day is...
hermoso, which means beautiful. As in Jesus.

That's all I have time to write right now. It's been a pretty good week so far. I'll try to write more later.

Cabin Fever

Looking on the bright side, I should now have immunity to at least one local strain of intestinal flora. On the other hand, I've lost two days in which I had hoped to meet this week's team and start working at the orphanage. And in lieu of the actual fever that kept me awake all last night, I now have a bad case of cabin fever.

Through sheer probability, brief little realizations have puctuated the inordinate amount of time I've spent languishing in the past couple days. Firstly, I've realized through reading the blog of a buddy of mine that my time here is really whatever I make of it-- and the relationships I make can be as superficial or as deep as I (and the other person) decide. However, I'll be spending most of the summer with people who are either much older or much younger than me. Though I desire fellowship with people who are at the same stage of life as me, I'll have this fellowship for at least the next four years, and probably for the rest of my life. I'm not sure what God has to teach me by putting me in this situation, but I know that it'll become clear sooner or later. Last summer, it took me a while to figure out that I was in Guatemala so I could come to a fuller understanding of the difference between living with unbelievers (which is what I did) and Christian fellowship. If you don't think there's a big difference, talk to me and I'll change your mind. I pray that this summer, I'll learn more about what Christian fellowship really should look like.

I've also been reading a lot of Franz Kafka (the guy who wrote The Metamorphosis), who wrote a lot of pretty dark stuff about the weakness and helplessness of man. But as I continued to read, I kept getting the feeling of there being a way out-- out of insanity, of captivity, of self-delusion, of ignorance. Indeed, these are the ever-present plagues of humanity, infecting us all like the culture in which we live-- insidiously, from the moment we are born. Yet Kafka's characters (and Kafka himself), just like most people, never find this way out, and often don't even realize their real problem. Our role as Christians is to be salt and light to people who are perishing in this darkness.

Anyway, I hope to be back on the job tomorrow, and to have lots of stories to tell by this weekend. Much love.

My first Sunday in Monterrey

This morning, Noah and I went on a 2- 2.5 mile run up the mountain behind our house then back through the neighborhood. It was a bonding time and was the start of a number of good conversations with him today. At noon, I went to Cumbres, the Presbyterian church in the neighborhood of the same name where I've been staying. It was about 90 degrees in the cramped church (really a converted house), and the service lasted about 2 hours. I sweated like a pig, but it honestly didn't really bother me because I've been in a lot of hot weather over the past month and a half and have become acclimated.
So despite the heat, I had the best worship I've had in a long time. Part of it was that I had to really pay attention to every song, the announcements, and the sermon to be able to catch what was being said. But I was really blessed in that the preacher enunciated his Spanish well, so I understood about everything he said (although I missed some words and phrases and zoned out for a period of 2-3 minutes). He preached on Luke 10:22-37, which is the passage about the scribe who questioned Jesus about the greatest commandment and Jesus' parable to him about the Good Samaritan. It was honestly the best sermon I've ever heard on this parable, and believe me, I've heard a goodly number. He pointed out that Jesus said that the scribe was right that the greatest commandment was to love the Lord with your whole being and your neighbor as yourself (which probably made him quite happy), but immediately followed it with, "Do it, and you will live--" which brought him back down because in a couple words, Jesus transferred the discussiong from theology-- religion de la mente-- to a religion mas abajo, de la corazon (of the heart and will). The parable of the Good Samaritan was the logical follow-up that exemplified this love in action, the love that provides for the physical, emotional, spiritual, and financial needs of one's neighbor (anybody that you encounter in your life).
I can think of several other sermons and talks that have permanently taken root in my heart, and I know that this one will be one of those. Also, hearing people praise God in another language makes God bigger to me and helps me see His love for all his creatures. I'm meeting some great brothers and sisters here and have been really encouraged over the past few days even though I've contributed little to the ministry so far. Indeed, the best thing that can come out of my presence here would be relationships in which I encourage people and am in turn encouraged, and share the Gospel in both word and deed.
I continue to pray for most of you reading this, and am greatly appreciative of all your prayers for me and the church here in Monterrey. May His love reign in your hearts.

Palabras I

I'm probably going to misspell some of these, but you'll get the idea:

machos y embros: males and females (animals)
colchon: mattress
chido: cool
manda?: what did you say?
remolque: tractor-trailer or trailer
llevar a remolque: to carry in a trailer
estacionar: to park
chabo: dude (I think)
pegamento: glue
vale la pena: worth the pain
disponible: available

Word of the Day: mostaza: mustard (ketchup = catsup and mayonnaise = mayonesa)

First 3 Days

Well, it's midnight here and I've finally gotten around to posting something after reading a powerpoint about HIPAA protocols and catching up on some other stuff. During the last few days, I've gotten to know Noah, a 15-year-old guy from Baltimore who will be an intern for the next few weeks, Stephanie, a 17-year-old intern who will be an intern here all summer, most of the missionaries, and a couple of the local pastors. We don't have a team come in until Tuesday, and that one is only 5 or 6 people, so the next few weeks shouldn't be too busy. I've learned some Spanish, picked up a few games from Ben, painted some stuff, helped move some stuff, and hiked on a mountain with some beautiful vistas of the metropolitan area of Monterrey. The size of the city is mind-blowing-- buildings stretch almost as far as the eye can see from even the top of the mountain. But despite the sprawl, the beauty of the city still comes out if you can get far enough away from it to see it in its context of rugged mountains and expansive pancake-flat valleys. Monterrey encircles several chains of mountains like an ocean surrounds islands, and juxtaposes nicely with the natural greens and greys and contours of the mountains. I like it here.
But it's hot. I was drained this afternoon after painting in the sun all morning, and am thankful for the tradition of siestas from 2 to 4 every afternoon. There are a lot of differences here, as you would expect. For instance, lunch and dinner are eaten at about 2 and 9 here, and there are absolutely no traffic laws. The people are very friendly and more relational than people from the U.S., and as a result, time is much more fluid here.
I've got to go to bed here, but I'll leave you all with a couple prayer requests:
-The grandson of Scott and Cathy, the couple I'm staying with, sustained a head injury today and was taken to Johns Hopkins (he's 2 months old). Pray for his quick recovery.
-My relationships with Noah and Stephanie. I am seeking to serve them and ease their transition to their new situation here in any way I can.
-The church here. That it would grow, and that we interns and the short-term teams would properly serve its spiritual and physical needs.

I love you all and am praying for as many of you as I can think of!

Pray

Here is a thought on the eve of my departure:

-Pray. Right now. For others, and for yourself.

"Remember my chains." -Paul

"Above all, look well to your own hearts, and to the lusts thereof, for the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." -Pilgrim's Progress