There’s a House Church in the Caderyta?

One of my favorite things that God has given to me in this past year is my house church.  Last week, as I was watching people come in the door, I was amazed at the community that we have with one another.  A community that is more then just family getting together once or twice a year, but a family that pushes, encourages, challenges each other to seek the Lord and glorify him.

The Cadereyta was so much like that today.  This is a squatters village in Monterrey, a place that the government gave to those who have nothing and can afford nothing.  The scenery itself wasn’t beautiful because the land was a trash dump that no one wanted, but the community there was something unlike anything else.  A community that depended on one another and embraced each other like my house church family.

Again, I got to spend the day in the kitchen and learned to make pollo con papas con arroz (chicken and potatos with rice), and of course some more tortillas.  The kitchen was a little bit slower.  The work and prep wasn’t constant, but the women allowed me to help with everything.    While I enjoyed learning how to make the authentic dish, I loved being with the women.  I got to try to understand their conversations, spend time with their children, and intentionally learn more about their culture.  It was obvious that these women cared for one another and those in their little village.  Though it seemed they had less stuff, it was obvious that their friendships were very strong.

After being in the kitchen, we walked through the village inviting families and kids to lunch. One of the women I talked with in the kitchen, expressed such gratitude in the ability to provide a meal for the community.  They were so thankful for the provision of the food, but more thankful that they were able to share what they were given with one another.

There was a spirit of contentment and simplicity in the Cadereyta.  Most of the homes were made of cinder blocks with one rooms and no beds, yet there was so much pride in their homes and the wanted to share.  Maybe that’s the difference of their community.  They want to share.

How often do we desire to share with one another?  How often do we pull out the good coffee when we have friends visit?

When we live in community, we need to be willing to share with one another, and not just material things. This isn’t something that I am particularly great at, but as one of my teammates pointed at being apart of community is not easy.  We [I] have to work at being more intentional about sharing how the Lord is working in my heart, and we [I] need to be more intentional about being involved in the lives of others.

Community is a beautiful thing when it is done correctly- when we are running to the Lord and not to other fillers.  Caderyta has set the bar, building a community that is more then seeing the same people everyday but engaging one another and pointing each other towards the Lord.  So let’s be community builders like those in Caderyta, content in the simple but generous with encouragement and accountability.

Tortilla and Soccer Fiesta

This morning in our small groups, we talked about deserts and springs, and how it is not just the trials that are deserts but anything that is without Christ.  Our challenge was to identify our deserts and choose Christ.  My desert here was choosing to be introverted.  I am an introvert by nature.  I love one on one conversations.  I love watching and observing and soaking in the sights, but when it comes to missions and eventually leading a team my natural introverted nature needs to be set aside.  So this morning, I prayed that God would give me courage to be intentional.

After we had eaten lunch at Casa Hogar Bethany (a children’s home for 25 children), Molly asked me if I wanted to go with her while she filmed the process of making tortillas (this is something that the Casa Hogar Bethany does to produce revenue for themselves.  They make the tortillas and sell them throughout Monterrey).  As Molly was filming and I was watching I couldn’t help but want to get involved.  Those of you who know me know I love cooking and love anything to do with food.  So, I just asked, “ayudo?” (I help?), , and Daniel was gracious enough to agree.  So we mixed the dough, kneaded it, rolled it into little balls, flattened the little balls, pressed them, laid them out to cool, and packaged them in groups of twenty.  It was fun to learn  something knew but more importantly I was so thankful that God answered my prayers of working through me.  It was really God being intentional to His children, answering prayers and allowing us to experience joy together.

Hands after mixing butter and fat together before adding it to the flour, salt, and another ingredient I can’t remember.

There is a technique to this.  It is harder then it looks!

The tortilla press.  Such a cool machine that takes something so little and makes it big and yummy.

We love tortillas!

After the tortilla lesson it was right to play with the kids.  How grateful, I am that God redeems even the things we think are silly.  Though I am no soccer player, I was able to play with a group of kids today and had so much fun.  We started out playing with a  deflated basektball, and even though it was painful to get hit with such a tough ball it was worth every bruise.

While there is a language barriers, everyone understands smiles, laughter, and playing together.  So we learned each other’s names, passed the ball, played keep away and just enjoyed spending time with one another.

When I was in third grade, I was on a soccer team.  The only reason I joined was because one of my friends made fun of me for not having a “real sports” trophie.  So I played only to get the prize at the end of the season.  I didn’t really play soccer, though, but I did play with the soccer balls.  For most of the time, I sat on the sidelines content to name each of the extra soccer balls and make up stories about them.  By the end of the season, I was more concerned about the life of the extra soccer balls then I was with who actually won.   I would say that today’s soccer games were very similar to my 3rd grade soccer season.  It had nothing to do with who won, but with the game.

We get competive in life.  We want to be the best and we want to be on top.  How often, though, do we look at our resources before we look at what is successful.  The tortilla machines are a gift that help another man utilize his gift which helps benefit the Casa Hogar Bethany.  Our soccer game was not about who won or lost, but about building into children’s lives in hopes that they realize they are loved by a God who created the ground we played on.

It’s not about getting trophies.  It’s about the people playing the game.

PS- all photo credits go to Molly.

Mexico: Then and Now

The last time I was in Mexico, it was seven years ago. At that time, I was really beginning to understand what it meant that my identity is in Christ. Taking to heart Colossians 3:12-13, “So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you,” allowing the truth of those words to penetrate my heart and my sin.

That trip was my first God moment. It was the first time that God was more then Sunday Church and Wednesday Bible study. God spoke to me, and for the first time I listened. He was the God that I clung to when I didn’t want to be kind, serve, and forgive. He was the God that showed me how to do that, and slowly began to take away the bitterness that was in my heart.

The change happened in two ways, first my youth pastor, proclaiming truth and challenging us to let the Word work in us each night, and second by two little girls who held my hand for an entire week. I have their picture on a shelf in my room of two little girls. A six year old with a dark curly bob and a toddler sitting in their lap. Their clothes are dirty and they aren’t smiling, but they look happy. I remember spending a week with those two girls. They followed me everywhere. They wanted to sit in my lap and figure out how my purple digital watch worked. They were patient with my Spanish and expanded my vocabulary. I don’t think they were orphans and I don’t know what their life was like at home; maybe they craved attention, but maybe they were just curious about the Americans that had come to the big tree in the middle of their little town. Whatever the reason, they taught me to simply serve. To serve them, to serve my family, to serve my friends, to serve my enemies. It was a lesson in humility, but one that I was so excited to learn.

Sitting on that plane, journaling about that ten day trip on our way back I was so excited to get home. I wanted to show my family and my friends how I had changed. I wanted them to see and hear what God had taught me and how He had redeemed me. It was the first time I couldn’t wait to tell- be on mission- because of God’s redemption.

Seven years later, I have a little more life experience now.  I work with children on a regular basis, have graduated college, and am now considered an “adult”.  Of course, this is going to change my perspective of missions, especially since part of my job is to share the gospel every week with kids in America.  But one thing I am realizing is that kids in every country are the same.  Tonight, I played some of the same games with my kids in the States with the kids in Mexico.  We spun on the swings, tried to jump as high as we could, and went across the monkey bars.

The reality of that, though, is that the same pains of abuse, neglect, and abandonment that the children in Mexico face are some of the same things that the children in the States face.  Even though the language is different, the brokenness is the same.

Now, sitting here at the airport, watching planes land on the runway every few minutes, thinking of how far the Lord has brought me in the past seven years, I am full of thanksgiving. Though, I am no where near where God wants me to be, I have come so far. Some things have become easier, almost second nature, and new things- new sin- has been revealed and redeemed over and over again.

After a 2:00am morning, a plan ride, some prayer, a nap, a pink sunrise, Starbucks, a bus ride, and Casa Hogar Douglas I am resting, again, in the living truth of Colossians 3. Praying that my team will wrap ourselves up in Christ, acting as one body so that we clothe ourselves in compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, and forgiveness.  If we are able to be an example of wrapping ourselves in Christ, maybe these children will understand how to do that in the darkness they live.

Grumblings

Beleive or not Job and the Israelites are in similar situations.  The Israelites are travelling in the dessert.  They are homeless, hungry, and waiting to die.   Job finds himself just as desperate if not more so.  Job is physically sick, mourning many deaths, grasping the loss of his fortune, and surrounded by his three discouraging friends and bitter wife.  They are both broken, hurt, and confused.

So the Israelites grumble and complain.  They are hungry.  They are tired of walking.  The “are we there yet?” question has turned from curiosity to anger as God keeps leading them forward.

And Job, though disappointed, hurt, and aching, declares God to be Sovereign.  ”My Redeemer lives.” (Job 19: 25).

God answers both in very different ways.  He answers the grumbling of the Israelites.  He wants them to know that He is their God.  And God answers Job, but he makes Job wait because He knows that Job has the faith.

As I read and meditate through these words, my heart begins to pray for a little boy I see every week.  He has shared that he has some prayers that God just isn’t answering, and he is starting to doubt that prayer actually works.  His heart is not really struggling with believing that prayer works but having the faith that God loves him.

I find myself rejoicing that God answers our grumblings.  I am so thankful that He hears our prayers and wants to prove Himself to us.  His love is so great, He wants us to get it.  Time and time again, did He show the Israelites that He loved them.  He provided water from a rock, He was a cloud by day and pillar of fire by night, and he provided them with manna and quail to answer their grumblings.

In the same way, I am thankful that God makes us wait.  In the waiting, He shows us our hearts.  He shows us our faith, and He shows us our lack of faith.

This little boy, he is beginning to grumble towards the Lord, so as He waits pray that He sees his lack of faith but also pray that God answers his grumblings so that this little boy may know that God is the Lord his God.

“I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel.  Say to them, ‘at twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread.  Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.” Ex 16:12

The Grace of Change

Change is many different things.  It’s the coins that jingle in your pocket.  It’s trying to figure out where the nearest Target is.  It’s the ring on your finger.  It’s the stir in your heart.  It’s fear.  It’s peace.  It’s joy. It’s new.

I’ve never been a big fan of change.  In change comfort vaporizes.  Suddenly, things are not like they were and you have to adjust.  When I graduated college a little over a year ago, change flooded into every aspect of my life.  For the first time in my life, school was not starting in September.  I moved four different times within three months.  A meaningful relationship ended.  My friends lived in different states.  And I found myself with a kitten, who at the time, was the only thing more pathetic then me.  It was the beginning of an awkward period of transition.  Getting rid of my sea legs, and trying to stand firmly on the land that was placed in front of me.

I’m sure you’ve experience a time like this.  New job.  New state.  Newly married.  It’s that awkward period of transition where your emotions are sometimes out of control, not because you are unhappy but because it’s different. I am beginning to think that this “different” we experience during the awkward transition times is not a curse but a grace (side-note- I am learning that most everything is grace).  In Malachi 3:6, God declares that he is unchangeable.  At first glance, this makes sense to me because there should be no reason God should change.  We see proof of this all throughout the Bible.  He told Adam and Eve to not eat the fruit or they would be kicked out of the garden.  Adam and Eve ate the fruit and they no longer lived in the garden (Genesis 3-4).  God told Samson that if he cut his hair he would lose his strength.  Samson cut his hair and was handed over to the Philistines because he could not protect himself (Judges 16).  God promised there would be a Savior to take away the sin of the world, and Jesus came, died, and rose again so that we can live forever with God (Luke 2, John 1:29, John 19:30, Matthew 28:6).  These are just a few of the many proofs that God is unchangeable.

When we start to experience the different, our focus is shifted from our comfort but to the constant.  And since God is unchangeable that makes God the constant (side-note 2: It’s pretty amazing how well God knows our hearts!).  When we are seeing God as constant, we are confronted with our sin, and all of a sudden our whole world is shifting- physical surroundings, emotional attachments, and spiritual sanctification. This is what makes the awkward transition time heart breaking for me.  Not only are things different and uncomfortable, but all of a sudden I am being overwhelmed with how sin is taking over my life.  It is only through this change, though,  that we see our sin, and when we see our sin we see how we need to change.

J.I. Packer puts it this way, “Still he blesses those on whom he sets his love in a way that humbles them, so that all the glory may be his alone.  Still he hates the sins of his people, and uses all kinds of inward and outward pains and griefs to wean their hearts from compromise and disobedience.” (Knowing God, 79).

When our focus is on God, our constant, we are suddenly aware of how far away we really are from being holy we.  Our pride, selfishness, greed, and need for instant gratification are bpresented to us, and because of the grace of the Holy Spirit we know we need to change.

I’ve been reading through Job, the past couple of days, and have really been struck with Job’s attitude to his surroundings.  In the first two chapters, he loses his livestock, wealth, and family, and after each tier is destroyed he responds in worship.  Yes he still mourns and respondsthe pain (I would also argue heart-break) of the situation, but he worships.

And so should we.  We should worship in the different- in the change.  We praise the Lord- even call out to the Lord- because we see how we need Him.  We need Him to be constant because we never will be.  We will always be full of sin, until Christ comes to redeem the world.  We will always be making and remaking choices.  Our circumstance will always be changing.  So instead of fighting it, dreading it, or even cursing it we should worship it.  The change is a grace that will continue to flood our lives so that our eyes are always on The Constant so that we can be more like He who never changes.

A Cat Named Cheese

I feel like I should introduce you to a very special man in my life.  He has black fluffy hair, quite a personality, and jumps like Michael Jordan.

His name is Cheese.  He’s a cat.  I think you should meet him. (Please excuse the blurry pictures from my ancient less then cool phone).

He used to be really tiny- a pound and a quarter.

Now he’s not.

He used to sleep alot, but then he reached that “awkward” phase, and his personality started coming out.

He likes to drink out of people cups more then his bowl.

He likes windows,

Cuddling with mama,

Wrapping Presents,

Knocking things over,

Boxes,

Christmas,

Hanging curtains,

Making beds,

Eating people food,

Doing the dishes,

Journaling,

Cooking dinner,

Sleeping in drawers,

Flowers (are his favorite)

Bead-Dazzeling,

And tearing toliet paper to shreds.

It has been a year since this fifteen pound ball of fuzz became the man in my life (for now hopefully).  He makes life interesting that’s for sure.  More Cheese stories to come, but right now I have to go get him from the window.  He’s stuck in the blinds.

Provision

The day for camp had finally arrived.  I could hardly believe it was here.  I had spent the last sixth months preparing: calling the camp to make special food arrangements for allergies, calling parents asking them for their paperwork, writing scholarship applications, calling parents again asking them for their paperwork, booking the vans, and finding some volunteers to be counselors for the week.  The list was long, and I worked through it very slowly, but suddenly things were moving and we were on our way to camp.

It was a rocky preparation, a rainy drive, and a confusing first day, but God was so good.

The programming-like Paca the Pinata, who hosted the party, was pinata that exploded often (it was awesome!)- was phenomenal.

There was face painting,

Some of the boys let the girls paint their nails for missions,

It rained during OMC (Organized Mass Chaos) and I was the only one that stayed dry,

And the other counselors were such a blessing!

Our theme for the week was Shipwrecked: God Provides.  Every night, we would begin our Church group devotion time by talking about ways that God had provided for us that day.  Each night, we sat  in a circle talking about some of the ways God had provided for us- giving us a safe drive despite the rain, the food that we ate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, only raining when we were inside- and we were all amazed.  We were focusing on how God provided for us and looking for it each an every day.

I am not the strongest leader.  I have known this, and have been growing in this area for years.  I have always related very well to Moses, and think that if we had been alive at the same time we would have been friends.  When God called Moses, he immediately started to give excuses, “But they won’t know I’m from you,” “But I stutter; I don’t talk very well,” (Exodus 4).  That is often my response to God, “It’d be great for me to serve you this way, but I just don’t think I’m cut out for this job.”  I love, though, that God sees us as more then we often see ourselves.  He had an answer for Moses at every excuse, “Perform these signs,” “I’ll send Aaron with you,” (Exodus 4).  God saw Moses weaknesses and excuses but chose Moses to be the leader of the Israelites anyway.

At the end of the week, when I was finally home and able to think about everything that happened,I began to see how God provided for me that week.  He provided me strength to be a good leader.  He worked through me continually.  I love that.  I love that God sees our needs- not our wants- and provides for them.  Never to much and never to little.

Sometimes we ask for God to fill those needs.  Like Moses, we see them and give them as excuses, and God reassures and blesses and provides direction in our weakness.  Other times, we know they are there, but do not give ourselves opportunities for our weaknesses to strengthen.  Even in those situations, God works.  He works through us, making us stronger in Him so that He is more glorified.

So today, let us put off our Moses attitude, and allow God to work through our weakness not only so that we become stronger but so we can be the witnesses of God’s incredible provision.

“And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19.