Balance

One of the things that I think is vital to life, both overseas like me and in general, is balance. Recently I've been pursuing a healthy balance by getting into a rhythm of exercise here!

I started out slow a few weeks after I arrived, heading out to Cerro de las Campanas (Hill of the Bells) for a run by myself. It's a good little run - short, but with a good sharp hill in the middle. I started with a couple of laps of that. My time for a lap to start with was somewhere over 5 minutes.

Since then, I've started going with some friends to run and generally do some exercise. About four weeks ago, Alma Rosa, Danny, Lila and I headed out to the Seguro where there is a running track... and 8 laps later, puffing but happy we got into it! After running, we did some exercises to "bajar la pancita" (get rid of the gut) and then I pulled out my AFL footy and started to teach the crew how to play. They went well!

So now, I've managed to get into a routine of going for a run three times a week... Monday, Thursday and Saturday.

The last Thursday night, Alma and I ran at the Seguro and then asked some guys if we could join their soccer (futbol) game - one on each team. I was a bit worried that my skills weren't going to be up to scratch, but with some good determination I played okay! The guys were of all ages, from about 15 to about 45! After we had played soccer, I got out my AFL ball again and got some of the guys involved in learning which was funny. Everyone seems to go straight for American football when I get it out, but after some explanation that you can't throw the ball, it always ends up a lot of fun.

This morning I went with Yolanda to spinning (pronounced here espining). I'd actually never been to a spinning class before and it was pretty hard work, but great for the legs! She was pretty suprised by how much I sweated, but I told her that it was all my fat falling off!!!



How do you keep balance in your life?



Just to balance things out, I think we're going to eat KFC for lunch... but never fear, I'm heading out to play football or basketball with some young people afterwards!!

An evangelical manifesto

I have been doing a lot of reading lately and a recently published document came across my path today (thanks to Alan Hirsch of www.theforgottenways.org... see his post here). It is called the Evangelical Manifesto and you can read it here.
The writers describe it as follows:

An Evangelical Manifesto is an open declaration of who Evangelicals are and what they stand for. It has been drafted and published by a representative group of Evangelical leaders who do not claim to speak for all Evangelicals, but who invite all other Evangelicals to stand with them and help clarify what Evangelical means in light of “confusions within and the consternation without” the movement. As the Manifesto states, the signers are not out to attack or exclude anyone, but to rally and to call for reform.
As an open declaration, An Evangelical Manifesto addresses not only Evangelicals and other Christians but other American citizens and people of all other faiths in America, including those who say they have no faith. It therefore stands as an example of how different faith communities may address each other in public life, without any compromise of their own faith but with a clear commitment to the common good of the societies in which we all live together.

When I read through the document and found it to be extremely interesting and insightful and would invite you to have a read and let me know your thoughts. I would add that it could be addressed to other "world" citizens as well as American citizens, however, some topics covered are particularly relevant in the US context. I feel that it's not an attempt to promote another type of religion other than Christianity, but to clarify some core beliefs, attitudes and actions. As with anything of this nature there are strengths and weaknesses, but a couple of things I was really impressed by are the defining features and also the confession of our failures and weaknesses.
The link for the source is at http://www.anevangelicalmanifesto.com and there is also a study guide available.

Break a leg...

Bang, bang.... rrrrrr... pchoonk, pchoonk... these were just some of the sounds of progress during the week leading up to Cosas de Niños! The team from Buckhead Church in Atlanta, along with our team and volunteers worked long and hard (those words don't fully describe it!) to get the set ready, the place decorated, lights hung and configured and everything in place for a great start to our kids ministry. By Saturday night (read: Sunday morning when we finished) we were all VERY tired, but very excited because we saw that God had provided everything we needed to prepare and everything had come together!

Construction chaos


Steve rehearsing some kind of dance... I think that maybe, just maybe, that one didn't make the cut for Cosas de Niños


A very tired team just after we finished everything

So once all was in place, all that was left was to bring on the dancers, hosts and actors for Cosas de Niños!!!!
All went really well, we had a lot of fun communicating our theme of serving others in secret and I found it absolutely amazing to hear the laughs, heckling and shouts of the kids as we acted. My character turned out well and by God's grace I remembered most of my lines and was able to make up the rest in Spanish. I was really fortunate that the parts I improvised worked out okay because the night before I had improvised myself into a corner... hehehe... I starting talking about something then suddenly realised that I had talked myself into a world of vocabulary that I didn't know yet... who knows how to say "my secret cameras weren't connected to the video recorder and i missed all the footage"???

We finished with a big party on Sunday night for all the volunteers involved with kids at Horizonte and we ate tacos, had a Mariachi band and danced!!! Sooo much fun!

Preparing for Cosas de Niños (kidstuff)

This week we're working hard to get ready for the launch of Cosas de Niños. Cosas de Niños is an activity that we hope will be dynamic and fun for parents and kids that also brings a positive message for the family. This is going to involve a kids drama production which this month is about serving others in secret. I'm actually going to be one of the actors in the drama which is going to be a lot of fun!

We have a team here helping us out with construction of the set (it's going to be really professional!). They are from a church in the US called North Point Community Church. We're having a lot of fun working together... watch this space!

Installing the screen for the projectors

Steve looking tough

The girls painting the sofa

Framing up the stage

Oh yeah... and I've been helping out with the construction work (along with the rest of the team) and I love that blokey feeling of walking around with a hammer in my hand, building stuff, hammering nails... you know... doing manly things hahaha

Dia del niño (Kid's day!)

In Australia, I used to say: "there's a Mother's Day and a Father's Day, why isn't there a Kid's Day?" The answer I always got to that was that "every day is kid's day!" Well, here in Mexico, there is a kid's day on 30th of April every year!

To celebrate my first ever Kid's day, I was able to get involved with another team of missionaries here and help with a kid's club in a poor area of Queretaro. It was an amazing morning! We met at the house of a missionary from the US in the morning and got the supplies ready to run the kids club and give gifts to the children and their families - clothes, sandwiches, activity books and toys.
When we arrived in the neighbourhood and turned down the lane to the warehouse where we were going to run the program, there was already a line of kids and their mum's all the way up the lane for about 150 metres! Myself, Nolan and Tracey started making and giving out baloon animals to the children (I learned quickly!). The smiles on their faces were priceless!

After that, we joined the kids inside the warehouse in their groups, sang some Christian songs and then started our kids club lessons. In our group of 12 year olds, I was asked to give the story... in Spanish! By the grace of God, I was able to put the words together and tell the bible story of Jesus feeding the 5000+ people (5000 guys plus women and children!). We then played some games and gave the kids some gifts which caused great excitement (and chaos!). All in all, a wonderful experience and in the midst of it all, I met some faithful Christian workers here who are passionate about seeing kids come to know the hope and joy of knowing Jesus.

Party! There were more than 350 kids!

Smile boys!

I want a present!!

Also, in honour of Kid's day, we had a special day at Horizonte. The kids all dressed up as famous characters. The winners were two boys - one who dressed up as a pirate and the other who dressed up as Martin - the pastor!



Afterwards, we had a fair with food for all. Normally we have comida agape where everyone brings food to share, but this time... we had to pay (only 5 pesos) for our food... this was to raise money for Mother's day (I think!!!).

Anyway, it's fun to celebrate the joy of being a kid... and I'd like to think that I'm still a kid at heart.

Thank God it's Friday

Phew – thank God it’s Friday! Last Friday I finished up full-time Spanish school (going to class every day) and this week has been my first week with a schedule consistent with the rest of the team. A few updates on activities… last Saturday I went to a water park in Tarimoro, Guanajuato for our first catch up with our single guys community group. It was a lot of fun and I got to play with my camera’s waterproofness a bit which was cool!

Phil, Lalo, Charlio, Pepe and Olmo

We are planning to start running a drama production every few weeks at our church for kids and I happen to be one of the actors (also in Spanish!). One of the ladies at our church works as a drama teacher and met Arturo who is an actor and drama student through her work. Arturo is helping us out with the drama production by acting and providing drama coaching for all of us. On Sunday night several of us went along to a production of Mamma Mia (in Spanish!) in which Arturo was acting. It was a lot of fun seeing the production prepared by students doing a drama intensive. They prepared the whole thing in only 8 days, but it was very professional! I was a little confused as first because the main character changed actresses a couple of times (to allow everyone to be involved and to accommodate different voice ranges I found out later!) but apart from that I understood what was going on. The songs are quite funny when they are sung in Spanish because they are a bit of a mix between English and Spanish e.g. money, money, money, un poco mas dinero…

Then to an update on my work here… This week has been great! We have been working as a team in the church office during the day and have spent a lot of time this week seeking God for the way forward, planning and dreaming. It’s been so fantastic to have all the team together going through this process and seeing the opportunities for the future.

Our conversations this week have centred around our vision and mission for the team here and indeed those of the church. Our church’s vision is “to guide people to a growing relationship with Jesus Christ”. Our team’s goal in our interaction with the uni students group is to make disciples and train and equip leaders. I love it when I have the opportunity to share my life with others, to support and serve them and to see them grow and develop their God-given potential. We are looking at how we can best equip the young people to have an intimate relationship with God, to have close relationships with their own community and to have a fantastic influence outside their community.

This week I’ve also been able to wrestle with some of my doubts and reservations about our approach to mission and ministry and have spent some time chatting with Martin, our pastor and team leader, which has been super-helpful. We ARE on the same page, and are both dreaming of a missional church that is distinctively Mexican and introduces people to Jesus in a way that is relevant to the culture around us. It’s been a time of growth for me as I’ve had to work through the issues of contextualisation (putting the message in terms that make sense in a different culture – same message, different presentation), being missional (and for me that means crossing multiple cultural boundaries (Australia/Australian Christian/Mexican Christian/Mexican/Mexican young people) because we are seeing in this post-Christendom era that presenting the good news of Jesus means being missional and crossing cultural boundaries even in your “own” culture), receiving and sharing vision and much more. All that training, Perspectives and reading I've been doing is coming in handy.

So yes, watch this space… lots is happening and I can’t wait to see what lies ahead! God is definitely working and with God, life’s an adventure!