hola ¿cómo estás todo? Hemos estado entrenando ocupado y se prepara para ir a México. yay!
Hello all. How are you? We have been busy training and getting ready to go to Mexico. Yay!
On Sundays from 2-4 we meet every other week. We have been meeting for training since February. Many things have happened at training and we wont go into depth but just want to give you a run down of what a basic training day looks like.
We are memorizing a section of the Bible. John 15 These are the verses where Jesus talks about him being the vine and how his father is the gardener. His father cuts off every branch that does not bear fruit while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. It goes on to say that like any branch we cannot bear fruit unless we are attached to the tree trunk for nutrients. Jesus is our tree trunk and we wanted the youth to memorize these verses to remember where our strength comes from. That we cant do it on our own we need his help. We are excited to see what he will do through us as we faithfully obey and go to Mexico to minister his love and salvation to the children of Mexico.
The next thing we do is talk about the book we are reading. We share anything that sticks out to us about Gods character, this mans faith or anything at all. we have had deep and profound insights about trusting God from this missionary who started an orphanage with no money, to laughing at some of the "silly" old names contained within. I highly recommend this read to anyone. It is a great read and inspiring to see that people do live with radical faith in the Lord and witness his miracles because of it. This book has challenged, convicted and grown all of us as we read and share from it.
After discussing our book we move into trust and team building exercises. The one pictured below is an obstacle course that we had to navigate blinded. Lane (The missionary who is helping us train to go) had one of the team try to walk through it blindfolded with no instructions. Didn't go so well. The second time he had a team member line up, put on a blindfold and then he gave them all the instructions at once to get through the maze. Little better but didn't go so well. Lastly he put a hand on their shoulder and gave instructions as he walked beside the team member, pausing in silence and waiting at random times before resuming his instructions and bringing the team member safely through the maze. This was to show us how God directs us. He moves us like the third example guiding us actively, not silent, not spewing out information and hoping we get it right. Instead he lovingly leads us but when we don't pay attention or when we move with out his instruction just like in this exercise we crash into something in life we didn't see coming.
Also we have lifted each other a couple feet in the air and passed people through rope holes, We have lead each other blindfolded and we have raced with each leg of the racing having to be done different ex. (hop on one leg, crawl, army crawl, log roll) until the race was complete. These have been fun and challenging exercises that help us see our strengths and weaknesses as a group. It sure has been fun but we still have a bit more to go.
We also usually do a little bit of Spanish. The hope here is not for fluency but to communicate that it is hot, or if we want to play with a child, or if we would like water to drink. el gato es roho will not help us...translation (the cat is red) but knowing how to tell them we like the food or that it is too spicy will help us get to know the people and help them get to know and enjoy us as a team.
It has been great fun preparing with this team of 12 people. We are excited to see what God will continue to grow in us through training and what he will accomplish through us as we go and minister. Please pray for us as a team that we would grow closer to the image of christ through both the training and serving. If you would like to partner with us you can in one of two ways
Every student needs to have 5 people as part of their prayer team for when we are down in mexico. that is 5 different people committed to pray for them every day of the trip. The second way is of course funds. You can drop them in the offering on Sunday and mark it Mexico missions trip. Please do not direct your regular giving toward us, only what God directs you to over and above your usual giving.
Stay tuned I will have an update next week about training on Sunday as well as an interview with one of the students.
