Phil and Sandy's Journey

Conexion Vertical

2012-01-05T20:40:00.001-06:00

Here in the first Conexion Vertical for 2012, Pablo is sharing from the word of God what it means to be a church, as Jesus designed it.

It's cool to see how God is growing and using this ministry to reach young people and how RenovArte can support this emerging ministry to glorify God.

Some photos from our first anniversary

2011-11-22T08:27:00.001-06:00

November 15 marked the first anniversary of RenovArte Cafe. Wow, what a ride!!

God has done amazing things over this past year and all the glory and praise is for Him.

This is just a sneak peek at the celebrations.

The new sign

2011-10-28T13:18:00.001-05:00

We are about to complete our second week in the NEW RenovArte Cafe space - God is great!!

One of our urgent needs after the initial fit out of the local was for a new sign. There was an existing sign for the restaurant that was in the local before us that advertised tortas, hamburgers and tacos, but we really needed to have RenovArte Cafe to let people know that we are there. Several times this week people have come in asking for tortas and the other day someone asked Sandy what flavours of hamburgers we had!

We were looking at various options and I called a Cheistian friend who has a design and signwriting business asking him for a quote. He asked me the size and then said "send me the design, it's been paid for!"

"What do you mean?" I exclaimed.

"The One who provides for you has paid for it!"

God always provides.

On Wednesday they installed our new sign and it's fantastic. We were able to make use of the structure and illumination of the existing sign and put a new covering on it.

Now people don't ask us for hamburgers and tortas, they go straight to RenovArte Cafe.

RenovArte Renovation Special

2011-10-28T13:10:00.001-05:00

God is moving and so is RenovArte Cafe!

Phil, God has given us the opportunity to move RenovArte Cafe to a larger premises with better exposure to the student community.

Why the change?
The RenovArte Cafe ministry is growing and we are excited about making more connections with university students and developing the relationships and activities we have started. We have also started hosting a weekly outreach Bible study called Connexion Vertical each Thursday in conjunction with another developing student ministry - last week 13 students attended and three made a decision to accept Christ. The new bigger premises will give us the opportunity to continue growing these outreach events and better develop the ministry.

What is the plan?

Whilst we have been praying for some time, the opportunity to move came up very quickly and we needed to act fast. We have secured the new premises which was previously a small restaurant and we are currently cleaning, repairing, painting and fitting it out in true RenovArte style. This involves quite a lot of work (see photos below) as the restaurant was in very dirty condition and had not had adequate maintenance. We continue open to the public in the present premises whilst the renovations are underway. We hope to complete the renovations this week to be able to move this weekend (15-16 October) and open on Monday in the new space.

What is the need?
Most importantly, we need your prayers. Please pray for the following:

Strength and endurance for Phil, Sandy and Romi as a family and all those that are helping us

For the volunteers that are lending a hand

For wisdom in decision making around fit-out decisions and negotiations with the building owners

The new ministry opportunities that this move will provide

For financial provision for the additional expenses of renovation, moving and ongoing rental

We also need additional financial resources to meet the needs of the fit-out and rental. We pray that this new premises will be a huge blessing - the students that regularly come to the cafe are excited about the change and are even volunteering to help us. This is a sign of God's grace and what He is doing through this ministry.

God bless,
Phil and Sandy

Aussies in Mexico

2011-08-18T12:02:00.001-05:00

I'm starting to get my Aussie slang back, bit by bit. I said that our pastor lives in "woop, woop" yesterday. It catches you by surprise, but it's moments like these that I remember that I'm still an Aussie.
We currently have Janice Collins and Adam and Naomi Jones visiting with us from Sydney Australia.
We are having a really fun time sharing with them what God is doing in the cafe and also showing them some of the sights of Queretaro. I think it's all worth it when Adam starts smiling and giggling like a kid about how good the latest Mexican meal was and how he didn't like Mexican food until he arrived here.

It's been a full on week with some unexpected occurences that have pulled us in all directions but God is faithful and He is sustaining us moment by moment.

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie... do I hear an...
Oi Oi Oi!??

A couple of days rest in the sun

2011-07-15T16:35:00.001-05:00

Missionary life is busy. This year we have felt the weight of serving many hours in the cafe and trusting God to work through us. We love what God has called us to do and it's a joy to go to the cafe each day and see what He will do through us in the lives of young people.

Sometimes though, we do need to take a break and recharge our batteries. This week Romi went to a Christian kids camp. It's her first time at camp and we are praying that she will really enjoy it and learn lots. Sandy and I escaped to the beach for a couple of days to RELAX and rest.

It was great!

We can't tell you how much these few days away have refreshed us ready for the next semester of ministry. We slept a lot, ate a lot and had some quality time as a couple.

We are currently on the bus on our way back to Queretaro and the responsibilities that await us there, but we are ready to take good grasp of what lies ahead and serve diligently.

Thanks Lord for a great break and new strength for what lies ahead.

The RenovArte experience

2011-06-14T18:30:00.001-05:00

A quick update on life at RenovArte.

The Market

2011-05-13T12:11:00.001-05:00

A couple of times a week we go to the market for supplies for the cafe, our home and bits and pieces. This week we have been to three different markets for various supplies.

The Cruz on Monday for trays for the cafe and a yummy breakfast of tamales. The Tepe on Thursday for mangos for the cafe, some fruit for our family and a breakfast of freshly prepared fruit juice. We have also found cheap second hand clothes in the Tepe that costs about $2.50 per piece so Sandy was able to get some new jeans and a blouse.
The big banger was Friday in the abastos (supplies) market. This is the biggest Market in Queretaro and is the source of wholesale trade. We were able to buy 5kg of strawberries for just $6.50 and 5kg of blackberries for $11.50. These are our main ingredients for our natural fruit smoothies.

Here are a couple of photos from the Tepe.

The view from the back of the bus

2011-04-06T09:28:00.001-05:00

I just thought you might be interested in the diversity of people here in Queretaro. I'm in the bus and just snapped a quick pic.

He's got the whole world in His hands.

Random.

RenovArte News 4 April 2011

2011-04-04T18:39:00.000-05:00

Colombian conference

2011-03-18T12:47:00.001-06:00

We are just on our way back to Mexico after the iT Latin American conference. We had a great time getting refreshed, encouraged and sharing with others. God is doing great things in this region and we are humbled to be a part if His work.

We are stopped over in Miami and quite tired so we are going to gave a snooze. More later.

Rock in RenovArte

2011-03-13T18:02:00.001-06:00

Since opening the cafe, one of our goals has been to connect with the arts and music students from the university in particular. We want the cafe to be a place where they feel at home, can be themselves and through forming a genuine friendship with them, we can show them what Jesus is like.

On Friday night we got RenovArte rocking with two bands from the fine arts faculty in the UAQ. Wolf Season opened with some alternative rock and Buffalo followed with fast, melodic rock. It was loud, it was fun and we made a significant connection with a bunch of students. They even got me up on stage to play a song with Buffalo on the drums.

We are seeking to share Jesus in relevant and real ways to these young people and I think it was cool for them to feel the vibe of the cafe and see how one of their gigs can rock without alcohol.

We are excited to see how live music develops in the life of RenovArte Cafe and we already have more events planned.

Watch this space!

Valentines Day at RenovArte Cafe

2011-02-15T14:03:00.001-06:00

Valentines Day at RenovArte was full of surprises!

God always invites us to trust in Him and sometimes puts our faith to the test. We had put a lot of time and effort into preparing something special to celebrate the 14th of February, known here as the day of love and friendship. We got up extra early and went for more supplies followed by arriving at the cafe and decorating.
We enlisted the help of Denise to cut out hearts as Phil didn't pass cutting out classes in kinder.

We were all ready but we lacked one vital thing.

People!

We had been praying for this day that God would allow us to share and celebrate His love as well as the love shared by friends and family on this day. But we had very few customers come in during the morning and early afternoon. We were also a bit anxious because we had invested in the decorations and financially we needed to sell some coffees to keep things ticking along.

Phil went down to give our flyers.

To make things even worse, our friend who we had booked to sing romantic songs live pulled out on us.

By 6pm, we were all a bit tired and ready to shut early. But God had other plans.

The cafe began to fill up with young people.

First two of them arrived, then another, and another until we had rearranged the furniture to make room for them all.

We also had a few couples come in for a romantic coffee.

We were able to serve those that came with a smile, a good chat and encourage them. We also had a strong day in sales which in practical terms for the ministry really helps. God once again caught us by surprise and reassured us of His protection, provision and calling in the ministry.

This morning I arrived and there were some friends from Student Life waiting for me to open. God is good.

Please keep praying for us and the ministry and we we hope that this Valentines Day you remembered the source of all love - God. God is love!

-Phil

A day in the life of RenovArte Café

2011-02-10T14:53:00.006-06:00

6:35am. Alarm sounds. Snooze. Wake up. Out of bed. Getting ready. Car. Romi to school. First visit to RenovArte – turn on the espresso machine. Home. Shower. Supermarket. Supplies. 10:00am. Arrive at RenovArte. Open doors. Tables. Pray. Clean. Devotion time. Ready…

This is how a normal day starts in our ministry at RenovArte Café, making disciples of Jesus Christ amongst uni students.

On an average day, Denise comes in for her cappuccino at around 10:30am and if she’s sleepy, it comes with a double shot of espresso. Normally, Denise stays around for a while to chat with us or sits down and talks with Sandy until her next class. Conversations range from last night’s dreams and design projects to personal problems and family stories. We have had the opportunity to share our stories with Denise including how Jesus has changed our lives. Just yesterday Denise wrote us a message in facebook saying thanking us for our friendship and saying she can’t face the day without us. God is at work.

Later, Toño comes in with his friends Sajid, Victor and Hugo. These guys study Psychology here at the uni of Queretaro. We always sit and chat for a while about all that is going on. On the first day he visited the café, Toño asked me why I came to Mexico. I told him that God had changed my life and that I have a new life and a new hope in Jesus Christ. I shared with him that this was such good news that I wanted to share it with everyone and that my heart beats for young people to know Jesus – not in a religious way, but a personal, relevant and organic way. It seems that every time he and his friends visit, they ask me more about why I’m here, why I chose to be a missionary and why all missionaries play musical instruments!!! (Yesterday Toño told me that he has several Christian friends and they all play instruments or sing. I told him that it’s a prerequisite. Joking.)

Marissa and Ere pass by in the afternoon before their first class at 4pm. Sandy takes a few minutes to talk with Marissa and listen to what’s going on in her life. Ere helps us out preparing coffee and we eat together.

In the afternoon, Ramses arrives, a few minutes late, but bursting with energy. He puts on his apron and asks “what do you need me to do?” Once a week we take a decent time out from work to chat about what’s going on in our lives and dive into the word of God, exploring what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.

This is RenovArte. RenovArte is all about seeing young lives transformed by faith in Jesus Christ and helping them grow as disciples that impact their world. There are many more stories to share and new stories that start every day. Journey with us to see God at work in the lives of young adults in Mexico.

Friends in student ministries

2011-01-28T19:19:00.001-06:00

We are excited about what God is doing in RenovArte! Over the past few weeks we have been able to connect with other student ministries in the universities located close to the cafe.
We have welcomed both Compa (IFES) and Vida Estudiantil (campus crusade) into the life of the cafe. The other day I was chatting to one of the VE leaders about our ministry and the cafe and he said "well you're doing well because the students invited us here."

It was great to hear this encouragement and know that by God's grace we are on the right track.

We had the guys from Compa here last night chatting with students about evangelism and growth in the word of God.

Compa

Vida Estudiantil

Australia Day

2011-01-27T00:08:00.001-06:00

We celebrated Australia Day in RenovArte Cafe inviting visitors to try Vegemite toast and Lemon, Lime and Bitters. It was lots of fun and we had a great time with a bunch of young people today. God is good!

Happy Australia Day!!

¡Feliz Navidad! Happy Christmas!

2010-12-21T17:34:00.008-06:00

The Jones family dreaming of a white Christmas

We want to take this opportunity to wish you all a merry Christmas and a safe and happy new year. We also want to say thanks to everyone who has supported us, prayed for us, visited us and kept in touch throughout this year. Each one of you who maintains this connection with us, even by just reading the blog, is a massive blessing to us.

We invite you to remember the reason for the season - that the Creator God loved you and I so much that he sent his one and only Son, Jesus, to the Earth as a baby. At Christmas time we remember that Jesus was born, God in flesh and blood, living to show us what God is like and to show us how to live God's way in perfection. We also remember at Easter time his death, buying for us forgiveness of our sin with his blood. This is the good news - that God is not far off, God does not live in religious practices; God is near, a God of justice and forgiveness, a God who extends his grace to us and invites us to an intimate relationship with our Creator.

Have an excellent Christmas and don't forget the Christ in Christmas.

Phil, Sandy and Romi

RenovArte Update 30 November 2010

2010-12-01T17:35:00.000-06:00

Grand Opening of RenovArte

2010-11-26T13:44:00.004-06:00

On Thursday, we had our grand opening for the uni students at RenovArte Café. What an awesome day!

It gave us great joy to see God's hand at work and to see the café full of almost 20 uni students at one point during the afternoon. That is why we are here - to make connections, to live out a life transformed by Jesus Christ and to make disciples!

RenovArte - NOW OPEN!!

2010-11-17T15:58:00.005-06:00

Thanks so much for your thoughts, prayers and encouragement over the past months. It's big news... RenovArte is NOW OPEN!!!

We are very excited by what God has done and is doing.

RenovArte opened its doors on Monday whilst we were still doing some minor renovations and installing the speakers for the audio system. We had four customers which was quite good given that it was a public holiday and there were no students in the university. We still don't have our signage up so we are working on getting the word out through the plaza and inviting the uni students.

This Saturday we will have our grand opening for friends, family and our church to celebrate God's goodness and share with them the vision for our ministry amongst uni students. The following week on Thursday we will be having an official opening for the university students and inviting them to "come and see"!

Check out this short video giving you a quick glimpse of RenovArte cafe.

RenovArte progress... 23 October... belated

2010-11-09T14:12:00.000-06:00

We are progressing well with the cafe/gallery fitout although things have been slower than we would have liked. The video report above was prepared three weeks ago and things are considerably more advanced now - some more photos to come!

We have been troubled by slow workers doing some of the more specialised jobs and some badly completed work that we had to get the workers to come back and fix. God has been forming our character through the process and helping us to be patient and to trust in Him!!! We are very excited that things are almost ready... get excited...

RenovArte cafe is very close!!

Cafe progress

2010-10-14T20:00:00.004-05:00

Hi all,

I know it's been a long time since we last updated and much has been happening. The reason for no updates has been our level of busyness - we're flat out!

Here are some recent photos of the constuction process - we're underway and with the pedal to the metal to get things ready. We haven't got a definite opening date because there's still many things to get done, but we are aiming for the last week of October or the first week of November.

God has been good to us and we have been given the coffee machine, grinder and coffee bar along with a few other items from the old Global Grounds café. We are managing the budget to try and fit out the café in the coolest way possible to make it an attractive hang-out for uni students.

We would love you to get excited about this ministry project and pray specifically that God would help us every step of the way in the cafe setup and opening to make an impact for the kingdom of God. Our goal is to make disciples and on the way to make some great coffee. Satan does not like it when God's people rise up to share the good news of Jesus and we have had some challenges along the way. Please pray for God's protection and strength each day as we seek to be and make disciples through all that we do, including the setup of the cafe.

We can't wait to share more of this exciting ministry project with you, so stay tuned!

Expocafe

2010-09-09T11:05:00.004-05:00

We are SO excited about what God is doing in our ministry. We have been able to progress with the cafe/gallery plans to the stage where we are purchasing equipment and preparing the shop space. From 2-4 September, Sandy and I went to Mexico City to ExpoCafe which was a national coffee event. The purpose of our trip was to contact suppliers, look for equipment and gain information and skills in the world of coffee. It was a very beneficial time and we were able to put a deposit on the workhorse of our cafe - the espresso machine.

Check out the photos!

Thanks Reachout!

2010-09-01T12:15:00.000-05:00

We have been so blessed by God's hand in our lives and ministry. The Reachout missions event in Katoomba (http://www.reachoutmissions.com.au/) was moved by our project and has provided a significant gift to support the opening of the café gallery ministry. If you were at Reachout, we want to say a huge thankyou and we are so grateful for the way God has worked through young people in Australia to help make this dream a reality. Here is a short video that talks about our plan for the ministry here in Queretaro - it is the extended version of what what shown at the Reachout conference.

Our vision for reaching out to Mexican university students in Queretaro with the message of Jesus through a café/gallery space.

If this ministry project moves you to pray, give or go, please email phil.jones@iteams.org!

Goodbye Carlos and Stefanie

2010-08-15T10:15:00.001-05:00

On Wednesday night we said hi again then goodbye to Carlos and Stefanie. Carlos is one of the guys I have been investing in over the past two years and he has finally been granted his fiance visa to enter the US. He and Stefanie will be getting married on the 9th of October this year in Michigan. We have seen their journey and their love grow as they seek to live as disciples of Jesus Christ and honor Him with everything.

It was a privilege for us to be there with other young people to pray God's blessing and guidance for them in this new step in their journey of faith.

Please pray for these guys too that they would be able to give glory to God every day in the preparation for their wedding and in their new life together.

We're back!

2010-08-15T10:00:00.002-05:00

We arrived back in Queretaro late Tuesday night again tired after more travel but excited to be home and see Sandy's side of the family. Sandy's parents took us out to eat tacos - our favourite Mexican food and they were delicious! We got straight back into things as Phil had an urgent ministry task to do on Wednesday and Sandy lots of support to give in getting groceries and starting to tidy up the house. We have been busy unpacking but we are very excited about the next phase of our ministry here. We visited the uni on Wednesday and saw lots of young people who need to hear about Jesus.

God bless guys, we'll be in touch soon!

Enjoying Australia

2010-07-27T02:59:00.000-05:00

Just a quick update to say we are enjoying Australia and having a lot of fun. God is amazing and has given us the opportunity to experience new things, try new foods and see the diversity and richness of His creation. We have also been able to use the time to make good connections and share about what God is doing in Mexico. We are very excited about the next steps in ministry and our Lord is opening up the doors for exhilarating new opportunities. Please keep praying and more news soon!

We are currently on the Gold Coast staying with some of our dear friends and partners in ministry and we have been to visit AMT today. More updates when we have a good internet connection.

Sharing at Canterbury Gardens

2010-07-18T07:11:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

We are having a great time here in Australia and seeing and doing lots of things as a family. Today we went to Canterbury Gardens Community Church and Phil was interviewed about our work in Mexico. He shared about our passion for making disciples and the new project we are planning to open a cafe and art gallery space for uni students to connect, express and learn about Jesus.

We have almost 600 photos already, so I will try and find a few highlights to blog over the next little while.

Take care!
Phil, Sandy and Romi

Meeting details

2010-07-08T20:40:00.002-05:00

Hi all,

We've safely arrived in Melbourne and we're getting our heads and bodies around the time change. We are enjoying catching up and spending time with the family and Romi is having fun playing with her cousins.

For those of you who would like to see us and hear about what God is doing in Mexico, the organised meetings are as follows:

Sunday 11 July - Balwyn Gospel Chapel - service 10am, community lunch after the service and presentation at 1pm. 2 Leonard St, Balwyn, 3103.
Sunday 18 July - Canterbury Gardens Community Church - 10:30am http://www.cgcc.com.au/
Sunday 1 August - EDGE church Doncaster - 10:30am http://www.edgechurch.net.au/
Sunday 1 August - The SHIFT missions experience - 6:30pm at Montmorency Gospel Chapel http://www.montychapel.org/
Tuesday 3 August - International Teams Journeys - 7:30pm St Jude's Anglican Church 235 Palmerston St, Carlton

Ready to go

2010-07-03T23:17:00.001-05:00

Hi all,

It's late, we're tired and the cases are still open with things popping in and out. We are very excited to be travelling to Australia tomorrow and can't wait to be on our way! Please pray for us as we travel over the next 48 hours and arrive in Melbourne on Tuesday morning at about 8am. We will be flying from Mexico to LA and then to Melbourne. Please pray for our health as we've all been down with a cold and also that God would protect and guide us every step of the journey.

Our desire is to be a blessing to those around us and to bless others in our trip to Australia.

Take care and see you soon!

Phil and Sandy

The Soccer World Cup... a link to the good news

2010-05-24T19:44:00.004-05:00

Last week we started sharing some great little booklets that have been produced by a youth ministry here in Mexico with students in the UAQ university. The booklets contain a plan of all the soccer matches during the world cup in South Africa and also the good news of Jesus with a testimony of a famous soccer player.

We have been inviting these students to our weekly outreach Bible study in the university. Please pray that God would prepare the hearts of these young people as we share a message of hope with them and that God would grow our Search group in line with His will.

Hasta luego!!

Back to the blog

2010-05-19T14:17:00.000-05:00

Left to right - Sandy, Phil, Romi, Carlos, Ellen, Nano, Stephanie, Carlos, Laura and Ingrid

Hey all... on Sunday night we had the chance to reconnect with a great friend - Nano (Bernardo) who has been studying and volunteering in Chicago. Nano and I shared an apartment last year for about four months and we shared great times in the word of God too. It's been an exciting five months for him also as he just got engaged to a girl from the church he attends in Chicago. We got to meet Ellen who is a great girl, studying to be a doctor and with a vision for serving God.
I don't know if there's something in the coffee, but it seems the guys I have been investing in are all getting married (and all to foreigners!). I assure you that this ISN'T the focus of our discipleship times, but it is a joy to see these guys growing healthy relationships with Christian girls who have a vision to be disciples and make disciples.
So congratulations Nano and Ellen - we continue to pray for you both and God-willing we would love to be at the wedding!

God is working

2010-04-30T11:27:00.004-05:00

Hey all,

Just a quick update to let you know that yesterday we had six uni students in our group La Busqueda UAQ (The Search). Yesterday we talked about some of the questions that the young people had and also about the revolutionary identity of Jesus Christ - the only one who can save.

It was good to see some new faces including Nyelli and Carla, and see some familiar faces return with Ere, David, Ana and Marta.

Praise God for what He is doing in our university ministry.

A great week

2010-04-13T11:04:00.004-05:00

Can you feel the fun? This is a glimpse of the action during our holiday club last week. I am putting together a DVD for each of the families that has this video, some photos and a little message from us to each of the families.
We are planning our follow up with the kids and we are hoping to have an afternoon of activities at least once a month. Please pray for God's working the lives of these children and their families.

Day 5 - the last hurrah!

2010-04-09T20:07:00.003-05:00

We had a fun last day of our holiday program today and God blessed us with good weather, lots of fun and great opportunities to share. We had another child come for the first time today which was good.

In the teaching time, we shared God's plan of salvation that we have been learning all week. Today, we gave the kids the opportunity to respond to God's invitation to be His friends because of what Jesus has done for us. We explained what Jesus has done for us and that we all have to make a decision to accept Jesus. We explained that we won't give any prizes for accepting Jesus and that each one has to make their own decision in their heart. Six kids responded to the invitation and asked Jesus to be their Saviour and friend. How exciting! We will continue to follow up and share with these kids as we have the opportunity.

The week of fun, tiring work was worth it. Today I went and knocked on Memo's door and he came along to the program. He's actually playing in our house at the moment because his family has all gone out. We have been able to open the door to many kids here in our neighbourhood and share with them the love and hope of God. We continue to pray that God would continue this work as we open our home and our hearts to be the hands and feet of Jesus here where we live.
It was an encouragement to receive the appreciation of one of the mums who said "Thanks so much, you guys are sunshine here. The kids loved it and I've got lots of friends that want to send their kids to the next one!" She also said that she liked that we were teaching the kids about God and the creation and things. God is at work!

So we say a tired goodbye to this week of excitement and look forward to seeing God continue to work in and through us here in Querétaro.

Holiday club day 4

2010-04-08T19:32:00.000-05:00

Today we talked about how Jesus is God, that Jesus showed that he was God in the way he lived and the miracles that he did, and that Jesus wants to be our friend. I shared that the best decision I have ever made was the decision to believe in Jesus and to live His way. We shared how the kids can talk to God whenever and wherever and how they can accept Jesus and ask for His help.

We also had lots of fun and games, although poison ball is still the favourite!

Sandy helped the kids make creative cards to give to someone special.

And this is the "after" photo!

What a LOOONG day! (day 3)

2010-04-07T22:15:00.004-05:00

Hey all, this is a quick video of our holiday club. We had a long day today with a bit of a mad house as all the kids went wild in the pool. Today we taught about Jesus coming to earth to live and die for our sins so that we can be friends with God and have eternal life. The great news of today is that Memo the eight year-old boy that we have been praying for came along to the club. We also met his grandma with whom he lives and we were able to offer that he comes over to our house when he's going to be home alone. Today he hadn't eaten breakfast, so he ate with us.

Ok, very tired and must go to sleep... Hasta mañana!!!

The holiday club day two

2010-04-06T20:56:00.000-05:00

Day two of our holiday club went well. We had the same number of kids as the first day but with two new kids. It was a hot day again so we tried to keep things active. Phil shared the teaching time with the next part of the story - Adam and Eve's disobedience and our separation from God because of sin. Sandy taught the story of Noah's ark. Our craft of the day was animal cutouts and we got out the sparkly puff paint which was a real hit. The kids are addicted to poison ball, which was new to them.

Phil sharing with passion (it's my explaining pose!)

Crafting it up

Tomorrow we are going to put an inflatable pool that some friends have loaned us. We cut the grass this afternoon so now the backyard looks a lot nicer. Next stop... day 3!

We ended up worn out and tired

2010-04-06T07:16:00.000-05:00

But happy!

Day one of the holiday club

2010-04-06T07:09:00.000-05:00

We are praising God for His goodness on day 1 of our Holiday Club. We had 9 kids and the program ran smoothly. The kids heard the biblical creation story and did some creative arts and crafts. We played games and we all had lots of fun.

Looking out for others

2010-03-23T18:05:00.004-06:00

Our street

We are renting our new family home in a locality with lots of families with children. The street is private (it has a closed off gate) and there are 51 houses in the street. It's cool because the kids can play on the street and as long as we keep an eye on them, it's relatively safe. We've been able to make friends with most of the kids that live in our street and they enjoy playing with Romi.
There are some kids in our street that have parents that work lots and often they are left alone at home. There's one little guy who's eight years old and spends most of his time home alone. Sometimes he doesn't even eat in the afternoon because there's nobody in his house to prepare his meal.
We really want to help out our little mate Memo so we often ask him over to our house to eat if he hasn't eaten and make sure he's okay.

In the school holidays, God has put it in Sandy's heart to run a holiday program here our garden for the kids, giving them activities during the holidays and sharing with them a message of hope in Jesus Christ. Sandy used to work as a preschool teacher as well as being a mum so she's well equipped to share with these kids.

Please pray for Memo and pray for our plans to reach out to those amongst whom God has placed us. We are building relationships with several families here and we pray that as a family, God's light would shine through us to every house in our street.

A new friend

2010-03-19T10:36:00.002-06:00

Yesterday we made a new friend. Her name is Christian. She arrived at our Search group at the university... searching! She works full-time and is studying English at night in the university. She saw our posters and they grabbed her attention. She has lots of questions and wants to know how she can draw closer to God and how to make wise decisions.
Sandy and I were able to share with her, along with another friend there in The Search group. We gave her a lift to her work and we're going to keep catching up with her to support her and share Jesus with her.

Please pray for Christian as she's searching for God, searching for answers and I know that in a relationship with Jesus, she's going to find all that she's looking for.

Coming back to earth

2010-03-12T10:07:00.003-06:00

Hi everyone... thanks for your patience! I'm coming back to earth after getting married, going on our honeymoon and setting up house. We are settling into a routine now and trying to make the most of every day.

At present our efforts are focussed on sharing with uni students at the main university in Querétaro, the University Autonomous of Querétaro. Please keep praying for these students and particularly for our Thursday afternoon The Search group.

More to come, with photos!

Romi's Christmas Party

2009-12-31T14:24:00.001-06:00

I'm back to the blog!

Just before Christmas, we had the opportunity to host the Christmas party for Romina's class at school. Sandy had been working closely with Claudia, another mum from school, to organise the Christmas party. With lots of back and forth looking for venues, we invited the families from Romi's class to our house for the party. It worked out well since we are still lacking furniture, there's lots of space!!!
(I have moved into the house that we will be living in once we are married, Sandy is just visiting with the rest of the party)

Socialising

Romi and her friends playing on the roundabout

TACOS!!!

MORE TACOS!!!

It was a great opportunity to open our house and share with a bunch of families that don't yet have a relationship with Jesus Christ. Both Sandy and I were very excited that we could build relationships with other families and use the house we have rented to be a blessing to others. We have formed a good relationship with the other parents that helped to organise the party and we are praying for opportunites to share the good news of Jesus with them as build relationships and live a transformed life in Jesus.

Tacos with friends

2009-11-04T14:27:00.002-06:00

Sarah is a good friend of ours who comes from the US. Sandy often goes out for coffee with Sarah to catch up and share times of encouragement together. Recently, Sarah's parents came to visit, so in our true Mexican style, we took them out for tacos!

The tacos were a BIG hit! Glad you enjoyed it guys!

The Wedding in Caanan

2009-11-03T19:31:00.001-06:00

Jewish wedding music... check. Pottery cups... check. Grape juice... check. Bible... check. Ready!
Last week in our young adults group, we studied and experienced the wedding at Caanan. We are studying the life of Jesus and in this event, we saw the humanity and the divinity of Jesus.

As we sat around the table, we chatted about how Jesus went to the wedding with his mother and his disciples. Jesus was a part of a family, he had brother and sisters (Mark 6:3) and was an active member of the Jewish society.

Jesus was and is the Son of God and at the wedding, he revealed his glory and his discipled believed in Him (John 2:11). Jesus did the miraculous and showed His power in the middle of the ins and outs of ordinary life.

May you today, get to know Jesus more and more, and believe in Him and learn to trust Him in every situation.

Cathy and David in Mexico

2009-10-21T20:53:00.003-05:00

My sister Cathy and her husband David came to visit Mexico and see what all the fuss is about. We had a FANTASTIC time catching up and for them to get to know Sandy and Romi. Check out their blog for all the news http://home42.blogspot.com/

They are actually very good at updating their blog, so you might need to scroll down a bit to find the Mexico bits and pieces. Have fun!

The Proposal

2009-10-21T20:38:00.001-05:00

The time had come and all was ready. I had prayed about it, thought about it, had the ring and I was ready! My sister and her husband were with us and very excited about what was about to happen…

I took Sandy out for a romantic dinner that I had organised for the two of us. Sandy thought we were going to the restaurant, but we took a shortcut which took us to a lookout with a waiter, table and red roses waiting. We sat down to a lovely dinner and enjoyed chatting about how God had brought us together, some funny and candid moments we have shared and our dreams for the future. Sandy was enjoying herself, but had no idea what was to come…

After we had enjoyed main course, we stood up to enjoy the view. The background music playing was by Luis Miguel and Sandy started singing the first song and proceeded to tell me it was a song dedicated to a woman that he was no longer with, hmmm, I let that song pass by. The next song started and Sandy said “This song is beautiful!” so I thought, “This is the moment!”
I felt the ring in my pocket and started to pull it out as I got down on bended knee. The breath escaped from Sandy’s lungs as she gasped with surprise. “Sandra García Estrada, ¿te casarías conmigo?” (“Sandra Garcia Estrada, will you marry me?”)

“¡¡¡SI!!!” (“YES!!!!!”)

I put the ring on her finger and I couldn’t wipe the smile off her face as I gave her a big hug! We enjoyed dessert and tea and coffee as a newly engaged couple. We asked our waiter to take some photos for us to capture the moment (sorry, the proposal photos are a re-enactment, that’s why I have a goofy smile and I’m looking at the camera whilst I put the ring on her finger.) It was an amazingly special time and a celebration shared with my sister and her husband visiting from Australia.

Wahooo!!! We’re engaged!!! That’s Lord for your love, grace and faithfulness!!!

Thanks all for your support, congratulations and prayers. We still don’t have all the details for the wedding as we are praying for God’s timing and direction. We would value your prayers as we take this important step of faith and as we seek to glorify God in our decisions and our future together.

Reaching out to uni students

2009-08-27T08:57:00.002-05:00

Hey all,

Today I will be starting a bible study group for uni students with one of the guys I am discipling. We have the opportunity to meet with a group of students, both Christians and seekers, at the main university here, the UAQ. A couple of other missionaries had started the group at the end of the last semester, but they have moved to their permanent ministry location and the group was left without leadership.

We are really excited about the potential to share clearly the message of Jesus, form true disciples of Jesus and invest in future leaders. I am also encouraged to be able to invest in the life of my friend and disciple, Carlos M.

Please pray for the group as we start things up today, build relationships and seek to reflect Jesus in our actions and words. Please pray for young people that don't know Jesus to enter into a life-changing relationship with the Saviour of the world. Please also pray that we would be able to impact lives as we seek to make disciples.

Living for the glory of Jesus,
Phil

Finishing well in Costa Rica

2009-07-13T16:38:00.006-05:00

I have had an incredible time in Costa Rica learning, growing and serving alongside an excellent team of people who love and follow Jesus Christ. I have been challenged and transformed by studying the life of Jesus chronologically and learning from the Master to be a disciple-maker and leader who serves.
I have made deep and lasting friendships here and I will miss sharing with those whom I have become so close with here. Here is a photo of the guys with whom I have shared my life and times of discipleship - being and making disciples of Jesus together.

Top row - Phil, Diego and Mark, Bottom row - Norman, Jorge and Checho.

I have been thinking about the words of Jesus' prayer in John 17 and I have been challenged by these words:

John 17:18 "As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world." (Jesus here is praying to his Father)

Jesus has given us as his disciples a sending into the world, to make disciples and to reflect Jesus to those around. As I have spent this time in Costa Rica, I have drawn closer to Jesus and I feel more than ever this call to go into the world (for me right now this is Queretaro, Mexico) and to make disciples. I know that this will mean suffering, difficulty, persecution, hard times and the need for lots of patience. But I also know that there is joy in serving God, blessing in obedience and the amazing privilege of serving the living God and being an ambassador for Christ.

Please pray for me in the coming days as I return to Mexico to continue being a disciple and making disciples of Jesus!!!

20 June Video update from Costa Rica

2009-06-20T15:46:00.006-05:00

I hope you enjoy this video update!

Finishing up at Spanish school

2009-06-11T14:29:00.005-05:00

"Espero que haya mejorado mi español"

I finished up at Spanish school on Friday the 5th of June and have said farewell for now to my Costa Rican familiy in San Francisco (San Francisco of the Costa Rican variety). I spent four weeks doing an intensive course of advanced Spanish. I feel like this has really helped me understand better why I speak like I speak and will give me a stronger base to continue perfecting my Spanish. Here is a photo of the graduating students and teachers from my intensive course. ¡Que chiva!

Jars of clay

2009-06-11T14:06:00.007-05:00

2 Corinthians 4:5-7
⁵For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. ⁶For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. ⁷But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

On the 28th and 29th of May, I attended and was involved in the Sonlife seminar - Jars of Clay (Vaso de barro). I both served at the seminar helping to set-up and playing drums for the alabanza and took the "Come and See" course which covers the first 29 years of Jesus' life.This was an awesome time of seeing God bring together a group of about 60-70 young leaders to worship Him, learn more about Jesus and be equipped to be and make disciples. I praise God for what He is doing here in Latin America to equip a new generation to be disciple-makers and live out what it means to be a follower of Jesus in today's world.

Some of the most impacting things for me were seeing the deep obedience to God of Mary and Joseph as parents of Jesus and the full implications of the way Jesus entered the world in the society both cultural and religious of that day. Also it has been impacting me in my study of the life of Jesus in God's word, the amazing mystery of the complete humanity and complete divinity of Jesus Christ.

I pray that you too will be challenged to take a fresh look at the Jesus of the Bible, God's Son who humbled himself and became a human being to save us from our sin, show us what God is like and reconcile us to a restored relationship with God.

Serving at Principe de Paz

2009-05-25T18:37:00.007-05:00

Since I arrived in Costa Rica, I have been attending church at Principe de Paz. Woody and Su Roland go to this church, as well as my friend David Obando whom I met at the IT conference in Ecuador.

During this time that I am taking Spanish classes, I am living quite close to the church and God has given me the opportunity to serve with the youth at Principe de Paz.

Each week I go along to the planning meeting with the leaders in formation and help out David (the youth pastor). On Saturday afternoons we have the youth group meeting and I have been able to help out being a part of the group, chatting with the young people and helping out with some of the activities and teaching. David has asked me to share with the youth in one of the bible teaching sessions in the next few weeks which is a real privilege. I have also been helping out with the music where I can... good times!

My heart is to see Latin American young people encounter Jesus and enter into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ. I pray that in my time serving with Principe de Paz I can be a blessing and be used by God to help some young people take the next step in their journey of faith in Jesus.

Here are some photos of the crew taken last Saturday night...

Phil and Chris (a.k.a. negro... meaning black in Spanish, not insulting black people)
Da boyz
Jose Luis and Phil

Back to school

2009-05-11T21:50:00.003-05:00

Today I had my first day of a one month intensive Spanish course here in Costa Rica. My aim is to take my now fluent Spanish to the next level. I am currently at a level where I can understand pretty much everything that people say to me, apart from technical terms or local idiosyncracies, and can be easily understood by those that hear me. I particularly want to work on my accent and correct some aspects of my grammar. Even though lots of people tell me that I speak very good Spanish for the amount of time I've been in Mexico, I still have a long way to go in terms of improving, refining, expanding my vocubulary and starting to speak more correctly and eloquently.

Today, we started with an orientation session and a written and oral exam. There are about 18 of us in the intensive course and everyone else is from the US. I'm proudly flying the flag for Australia and have had lots of questions about the good old Land Downunder.

The Spanish Language Institute is one of the largest in Latin America and caters primarily for missionaries heading out to serve in Spanish-speaking countries in the region. In our first classes today, we did some revision on past-tense verbs in grammar class and then two hours of conversation. I am struggling to get my brain back into gear to learn grammar in classroom-style repetition but I think it will be helpful. The conversation class was interesting, but I'm praying that somehow I can find the way to make it push me because I'm used to conversation all-day, every day in Spanish on a variety of subjects.

Please continue to pray for my time here in Costa Rica, I'm enjoying it and wanting to make the most of every opportunity that God gives me to learn, grow and serve Him. Please also pray for the Costa Rican family that I am staying with for this month that I reflect Jesus and point them towards His saving grace.

Over and out... Phil

Getting to know Jesus better

2009-05-04T16:47:00.001-05:00

A big part of the ministry here in Costa Rica is Sonlife – discipleship in the life of Jesus. I am spending as much time as I can learning about the life of Jesus with the Sonlife team and learning about leadership Jesus-style. There is so much richness in the Bible, the word of God, when we read it, study it and interact with it at a deeper level of understanding. A lot of the time we think about Jesus as God and don't think about Jesus as being fully human, a man, as well. Others go the other way and focus so much on the humanity of Jesus that they lose the truth that he is also fully God. It's a profound mystery and an amazing truth. As I get to know Jesus better (know Him, not just know about Him), my life is transformed and I am called into a deeper level of trust, amazement and obedience to God. My desire is to be more and more like Jesus in my character, in my habits, in my leadership and in my relationships with others.

What is discipleship all about?

Firstly, discipleship is about BEING a true disciple of Jesus Christ – seeking to develop the character of Christ. As disciples of Jesus, we are committed to be true disciples of Christ, actively seeking an intimate relationship with our Heavenly Father, and letting Him transform our lives to reflect Jesus Christ. We aim to live a style of life that shows that Jesus lives in us and works through us.

"…it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. This life that I live now, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave his life for me." – Galatians 2:20

Secondly, discipleship is about MAKING disciples – Jesus' priority. As disciples of Jesus, we are committed to make disciples, intentionally investing in the lives of others. We don't just want to share the good news of the gospel, we want to share our lives with others.

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." – Matthew 28:19-20

On Saturday I went to a Sonlife seminar about Forming Leaders – Developing a Movement of Discipleship. In this seminar, we looked at how Jesus formed leaders for his movement of making disciples and announcing the Kingdom of God. Jesus had been calling followers, preaching to the masses and training disciples for 18 months to two years before he chose those who would be leaders. Jesus didn't stop working in the lives of the other disciples and followers, preaching the good news and investing in others, however, he did invest specific time and training in those who would be leaders. With his chosen leaders, Jesus first worked on their character, their very being, then he worked on the doing, how they were going to lead a multiplying movement of disciples. We looked at some specific events in the chronological life of Jesus immediately after Jesus chose and established the 12 apostles who would be closest to him.

Jesus chose leaders to be formed in his image for two reasons – to be with him and to send them out to preach and share (Mark 3:13-19). Jesus worked on forming four specific areas of his leaders – prayer, love, authority and obedience. He taught them to have a new understanding of these concepts that reflected Jesus' way and was very different to the world's view of these things.

As I follow Jesus, I am called into a new depth of prayer, intimate communication with God and listening to His voice; loving in the way that God loves, forgiving others even when they hurt me; having a new concept of obedience to God, doing His will always and obeying immediately, completely and joyfully; understanding authority from God's perspective, that I am under God's authority and He has given me all authority to serve, love and wash others' feet in humility, and to make disciples in Jesus' name.

Being a disciple of Jesus is a big call and it is only possible by the power of the Holy Spirit whom God has placed in me and by dying to myself and letting Christ live in me.

Contracorriente... youth in Belen, Costa Rica

2009-04-27T15:28:00.004-05:00

On Saturday afternoon I went with Diego and Wendolin to their youth group at Belen. On the way there we met up on the bus with three of the leaders being trained and discipled by Diego and Wendolin. Jonathon was giving out tshirts to the others and then he pulled out his first brown prototype which he gave to me! I said a big thanks and now felt part of the group!

On Saturday we went across to San Rafael and joined with their youth group to talk about discipleship. We had a good time of worship, getting to know each other and a challenging talk from Diego about discipleship.

In the gospel of John, Jesus says that he is the Way, the Truth and the Life. When we talk about Jesus as being the way, we can easily accept that... yeah, Jesus is the way, I'll cruise that way. But when we start to think of Jesus as the truth, he challenges us into deeper commitment and obedience. Finally, when we start to see Jesus as the life, it changes everything. Jesus calls us to give up everything, deny ourselves and follow Him. When we accept Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life, we start on a journey of being a disciple (learner) of Jesus. To be a disciple of Jesus is to live like Jesus did, live out the stuff that the Bible teaches, and to share Jesus, calling others to the same radical obedience to Jesus and sharing the journey with them.

Jesus has changed my life, is changing my life and will continue to change my life... where are you at with Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life? He continued to say that no-one comes to the Father (God) except through Him. Jesus is the only way and he's the BEST way because he meets you where you're at with grace, forgiveness and love and will take you on a journey of transformation that is beyond your wildest dreams.

Growth, Equipping and Service in Costa Rica

2009-04-22T17:38:00.008-05:00

Hey all, I'm going to take the time over the next few days to get up to date with some blogging and communications. I'm currently staying with Woody and Su Roland (International Teams Regional Directors) in Costa Rica! Why, you say?

I'm here in Costa Rica for a period of around three months to spend some time serving the regional team here in terms of crisis and security plans (which was my job for 5-6 years prior to joining International Teams), spending some time taking my Spanish to the next level and also getting trained and equipped with the SonLife team with a focus on being and making disciples of Jesus Christ.

I am particularly excited about the opportunity to grow in my personal relationship with Jesus as I study the life of Jesus as a basis for making disciples. We have a massive need for deep, intense, biblical discipleship amongst young people in the ministry in Queretaro, so I'm very privileged to have the opportunity to be here for this time of training so that I can put it into practice in Mexico.

Here is a quick video about the SonLife ministry here in Costa Rica...

I have a growing album of photos of my experience here in Costa Rica. Click here to see them!

Regent College

2009-04-02T16:09:00.001-06:00

I am currently here at Regent College in Vancouver, Canada. It has been a great day experiencing a little of life here on campus and learning. I caught up with the President and have visited a couple of classes. It would be excellent to study here at some time in the future!

More updates to come...

Geolocate this post.

Posted with LifeCast

Arrived in Canada

2009-03-31T15:23:00.001-06:00

Hey all,

Just a quick one to say that I'm having an amazing time with my parents. It's been refreshing to spent time catching up, sharing Mexican life and culture and just seeing them again!

We've just arrived for a week in Canada where we will be catching up with some friends and seeing Regent Bible College.

Photos to come...

International Teams Latin America Conference

2009-03-11T09:21:00.004-06:00

Wow! It was great to travel again and see new sights, meet new people and be refreshed in the word of God and in community. Last week I had the privilege of going to Quito, Ecuador to participate in the International Teams Latin America Conference. It was a huge encouragement to see what God is doing around the world through teams and individuals committed to sharing the love of Jesus in innovative and transforming ways.

We had some great bible studies shared with us by Mark that were both challenging and encouraging. I personally had a real time of growth in my relationship with God as I was in a different context for a week and had time to reflect and catch up.

The location was excellent, both getting to know the city of Quito and the Youth World ministries there, and the San Luis Hosteria where we stayed.

Here are some photos of the experience.

Can't wait for my parents to get here, they arrive next Monday!

Goodbye 2008

2009-01-30T23:08:00.002-06:00

What a huge year! 2008 was a year of immense change and growth for me. I moved to Mexico, started in mission service, made new friends, moved house in Mexico and so much more. Here are some of the scenes and moments from the year that was...

A forced vacation...

2009-01-19T19:30:00.003-06:00

Last Wednesday night I started to feel sick. Well, not super sick, but I didn’t sleep well and had a temperature. With a true blue Aussie, she’ll be right, I decided to rest on Thursday but not take any action. I went to eat with some friends in the afternoon but totally didn’t feel myself. When I got home, I planned to go and rest in my room, but I thought – hey, maybe I’ll go to the doctor on the corner, it’s only 20 pesos and get checked out. The doctor examined me and took my temperature… 39.5 degrees! She was surprised that I wasn’t convulsing. Anyway, she injected me with medicine to lower my temperature and sent me for some tests.

I went home and had a shower and followed the doctor’s orders to keep my temperature down. By this time I was feeling very uncomfortable. In the morning, I went to get the blood tests done and I was shivering with fever. I went to a friend’s house and their family looked after me for the day until we could go for the test results and back to the doctor. The doctor saw the results and was worried about my platelets being surprisingly low so sent me to the hospital for more tests and observation.

Wow – my first Mexican hospital visit… as the patient! I got to go to urgencies and got a rude doctor to start with, they took more blood and then left us there for about 3 hours with my temperature and very little attention. Eventually my friend went to ask what was going on and they said that they were waiting for the doctor to come and take my case seriously. We weren’t very pleased with that! Anyway, they moved me up to a hospital room to wait for the doctor. We waited. And waited. At about midnight we called the nurses and they said the doctor had been around the floor and had left for an emergency. About 1:30am, finally the doctor arrived. Funnily enough, the only food we could find (we hadn’t eaten) was biscuits and coffee from a machine. I drank the coffee and finally my temperature went down! Dr. Phil now prescribes coffee for fever.

Anyway, I had another two days of solid fever in the hospital before on Monday morning finally it went down and got under control. They did a stack of different tests, poked and prodded and still don’t know what was wrong with me! I had a throat infection, but they thought that there must be something more going on, but haven’t found it! Overall, I’m feeling better, still a bit tired from being in the hospital and having a fever, but much, much better.

Maybe it was God saying – Phil, take a real break!

Christmas in Queretaro... part 1

2008-12-23T11:35:00.007-06:00

Queretaro is an amazing city to be in at every stage of the year. I love the atmosphere, the markets, the street stalls, the energy and vibrance of a city that loves to share and showcase culture. Christmas brings even more vibrance to this city with all the streets of el centro decorated with lights and Christmas ornaments and the famous Christmas scenes in Jardin Zenea.

From Christmas in Queretaro 08

Nativity scene (apparently the baby Jesus doesn't appear in the scene until the 24th)

From Christmas in Queretaro 08

Wise men

From Christmas in Queretaro 08

Adam and Eve

From Christmas in Queretaro 08

They even have a scene for the devil trying to attack the Christians however the truth is that the power of God has overcome the devil and he is condemned for eternity

Thanks to everyone who reads my blog, is patient when I don't get around to updating it and who supports me in one way or another. I wish you the very best for this Christmas season and my desire is that you would encounter the reason for Christmas in Christ Jesus, the Savior of the world, who longs to be your Savior, friend and Lord.

Merry Christmas!

I've moved!

2008-12-23T11:27:00.004-06:00

Ok... so I'm still here in Queretaro, Mexico, but I've moved house. I've had a fantastic nine months living with Yola, Ruben and during the holidays, Alex, but now it came time to move house. Alex has finished his studies in music and worship in Monterrey and has come back to Queretaro and another family member is going to stay with Yola.
So... after much prayer and waiting on God, he provided a place that is excellent and provides exactly for my needs. In my new place I have a great balance of care and independence. I now live with a Señora, an older lady who is the mother of the family I stayed with in 2006. It's a big house and she rents out some of the rooms so I live here with her, another doctor called Pablo and another doctor and his wife who live in the bungalow.
The Señora prepares my meals for me and has a lovely manner of looking after me. I feel very blessed to be so well looked after and that God has provided for me just what I need.

If you would like my new address, please email me or check my next newsletter for the details.

My truck!

2008-11-28T14:27:00.007-06:00

God is huge in his grace and provision... and he has allowed me to buy a HUGE car to get around and to carry the young people for activities and after our student group. I bought a 9 seater, Chevrolet Suburban 1997 with my savings and it is BIG! I have been super-excited to have it, but it also needs a few repairs which have been a bit of a stress... it has something going on with the transmission that we didn't find before I bought it (I had a mechanic mate check it over) that is costing me a bit to repair.
As they say in Mexico... mi Suburban es tu Suburban! (hehe well actually, it's "mi casa es tu casa", but you could sleep in this baby!)

People searching...

2008-11-25T21:59:00.000-06:00

Just got back home from having a coffee with a friend and his cousin. My friend has been chatting with his cousin about Jesus for a long time and his cousin is on a journey of questioning and searching. We had a great time chatting and then waited with him for his bus.
Afterwards, my friend and I were waiting for the bus on the other side of the street when a young woman selling tamales (umm... a corn/wheat thing) came and offered us tamales. We started chatting with her and she asked me for how many days I was here. The math was too difficult to work out on the spot, so I told her I was here for two years and she asked me if I was studying or working. I explained that I was working with the Christian community here, particularly with young people. We got to chatting about the church community that we are a part of and she started explaining how difficult life is and that she has lots of challenges in her life. She was interested in coming along to experience church with us so we wrote down the church's details for her and invited her along on Sunday. She said she hoped the 10% tithe wasn't too much there and we chatted about our belief that what we give as an offering to God is voluntary and an act of thanks and worship to God - not an obligation. She seemed pretty relieved.

Hmm... it reminds me that people all around are searching. Searching for meaning to their exisitence, and help in their tough times. I regret now not buying a tamale from Jessica, really, I just wasn't hungry! But I pray that the conversations that God brings my way, the kindness I am able to show, reflect Jesus Christ to the world that really needs His love.

Passion Mexico City

2008-10-21T16:35:00.010-05:00

Greater things are yet to come, greater things are still to be done in this city.

Ok... here I am catching up! Passion Mexico was INCREDIBLE! It was a massive time of excitement and blessing for our uni students and leaders. Just before lunch on the 3rd of October we all piled into our hired bus and headed on down to Mexico City with a group of 25 students from Queretaro.
Chilling out on the journey, we got ready for a big weekend. Finally all the stress and work of preparing was making sense, God was and is control of every detail! We arrived in Mexico City and checked into the hotel in the centre of the city before heading out to the first session of Passion Mexico City!!!! Wow!!

The event was excellent. I was impressed by the way everything was directed and done in the name of Jesus Christ. There was no other name lifted up, praised, exalted, promoted, except for Jesus. I was refreshed to once again hear the story of God's grace presented to a group of uni students that desperately need to take hold of the depth and amazingness of a God who offers us unmerited forgiveness as a free gift.

Friday night we ate convenience store food and a few brave young people tried the tacos outside the convenience store... bad planned, but hey, we ate okay.

I felt a few tests of my leadership thoughout the weekend, having to make some quick and tough decisions to lead the group, but God was right there beside me guiding me and helping me.

I was blessed by God's hand in everything and saw him working to transform lives. We had a new girl who came with us - Alexandra - who hasn't yet accepted Christ, but God is working in her life.

You can actually read a little more of the individual stories here at Jessica's blog... she did the hard work of writing down a big story so I thought I might sponge off her a bit..

Here is a video of the introduction... an amazing moment!

We all had fun, were encouraged, lifted up and challenged to be the generation that lives for the name and renoun of Jesus Christ. That's what my life is for, that's why I'm here in Mexico!!

Oh yes... and when they mentioned Australia, I yelled and screamed for all of us and I am pretty sure that I was the only Aussie there!!

Way behind!

2008-10-13T15:50:00.002-05:00

Hey all... I haven't died, disappeared or got a tropical disease... I'm still here. Just got a lot of things that I'm juggling right now. Thanks for your prayers and emails, I appreciate keeping in contact! Soon, I'm going to give you all an update on what's been happening... here is what you can expect:

A song that God allowed me to write with a friend to express our pastor's journey
Passion Mexico City - wow! how amazing is our God!
Yes, I'm feeling better... but still laying off the tacos ahhh!
Lots planned for uni students here in Queretaro

In the middle of all that is going on, I have a distinct peace in Jesus that He has everything in control and is looking after the busyness of life here. He has a purpose and a plan for me here and he is showing me how much is mercies are new EVERY morning and His faithfulness is MASSIVE!

Ok... going to help one of the young people paint their apartment... see ya soon!

Busy

2008-09-24T23:09:00.003-05:00

Hey all,

I haven't forgotten my blog, just pretty busy keeping up with things at the moment. Passion Mexico City is in 9 days and getting ready for that is keeping me very busy and a little stressed trying to get everything under control with logistics (I think I am the ideas person and need someone around me who is really good at organising events). The IT Adviser in me made a cool spreadsheet to work out the costs though... Matt O'Keefe would be proud...
Got a cool God story to share about the weekend, but will have to wait for the moment. Been a bit sick in the stomach over the weekend and until Monday but feeling better now.

Will keep in touch!

¡Viva Mexico!

2008-09-16T18:46:00.012-05:00

These were the words that resounded in our ears as we celebrated the shout that started the Mexican revolution that subsequently led to Mexico's independence in 1810 which we celebrate on September 15 (the shout) and 16 (Independence Day). Last night at approximately 12am, we had our "grito" and shouted Viva Mexico! Viva!... and so on with the names of the Heros of Independence... and finally Viva Jesucristo... VIVA!

Jean Paul gritando Viva Mexico

Plaza de Armas all decked out for the party

Here's where it all started!

I celebrated the occasion with some close friends and we had a night of Mexican celebrations which I think helped me become even more Mexican... check out the photo...

We ate pozole and enchiladas which are both VERY Mexican and danced some very Mexican dances. It was cool to see my friends dressed up in traditional Mexican dress from different parts of the republic - Jalisco etc...

The dancers

Traditional Mexican dress with Ruthie, Lucio, Sandy and Romi... (ok, the moustache isn't part of it... that was mine!)

So next year, look out - the celebration of Mexican Independence Day is coming to you - get into it!!!

¡Una boda! The wedding of Jessica and Jean Paul

2008-09-02T17:01:00.006-05:00

On the 9th of August, one of our team members got married! Jessica tied the knot with Jean Paul in a fun and meaningful ceremony at Horizonte. I played drums in the wedding (I think that's at least three weddings now "the wedding drummer") and also helped out with the serving at the party. Congratulations JP and Jessi!!

From Boda de Jessi y JP

God’s Way Camp

2008-09-02T14:07:00.002-05:00

Cruising down the highway for Cuernavarca, I didn't have any idea of how fantastic the weekend would be. After a quick stop-off in the city of Cuernavarca for the comida, and following some of the organisers down the wrong road (they were collecting the signs they had put on the road giving incorrect directions to the camp hehe), we arrived at Camp Kikoten.

Camp Kikoten is just out of Cuernavarca which is about 45 minutes or a bit more south of Mexico City. The theme of the camp was 1 Timothy 4:12 - Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.

One of the most impacting times for me was in the Friday night session when we had a time of worship and we sang (in Spanish) the song "Lord I Give You My Heart". This song was the song I chose for my baptism just about 10 years ago. It connected with me in a new way as I remembered how God has brought me through so many things to arrive here and that he has much more in store for my life. I can't believe that I'm here in Mexico, serving Him, being used to impact the lives of others. God is growing me lots and in that moment I remembered once again that I have to leave everything in God's hands, let go of my own pride and let God work. After I spent a little time reflecting and writing some things down that I wanted to say to God, I felt so much joy and freedom! I wanted to shout out how good God is! It was something really cool for me and another step in my journey with God.

The rest of the weekend was awesome also – a great balance of fun activities and great bible teaching. My favourite was a talk on love and purity by Jaime Foote (www.semillacuerna.com) which was very relevant and impacting for us blokes.

Check out some of the photos!

¡Sezza en Mexico!

2008-08-07T18:41:00.002-05:00

Last week I had the excitement of another visitor from Australia – Sezza B! Unfortunately, her flight was cancelled last Sunday, so she ended up only having three short days in Mexico! However, we did our best to pack the mexperience into those three days.

Quick note: Mexico City now has two airport terminals, T2 is actually a new terminal (absolutely amazing actually!) that is separated from the other one and you have to take an aerotrain or bus to get to the other one. That caused a bit of fun when picked Sezza up from the airport as things weren’t the same as two years ago!

Anyway, on Tuesday we ventured out into the big wide world of Mexico City for a whirlwind tour of some of the city sights. After passing by the Angel of Independence, we had breakfast at the historical Sanbornes in el centro, then on to the Palace of Bellas Artes to look at some interesting (and some kinda crazy out-there) Mexican art exhibitions.

After feeling nice and arty farty, we headed through the crowded streets to reach the Zocolo which is the main square, surrounded by historical government buildings. Zocolo is used for a range of events from big concerts to protests to showing off the new Mexico City tram that’s going to be put into service. On one side of the Zocolo is the Iglesia Principal (main church) in Mexico City. We went inside to have a look and it is HUGE! I found that there is a Saint Felipe who was the patron saint of youth which I thought was pretty cool...

After that we started looking for a market I went to two years ago, but unfortunately it’s been cleaned up, so we chatted to an information guy who ended up being a tour guide trying to sell us tours, but we ended up with a cheap ride to the arts market and later to the bus station.

Rocking our way back to Queretaro by bus, we headed out for a farewell pozole for Nolan at Job and Sandy’s house. The pozole was great and Sezza was impressed (if not a little overwhelmed) by a big Mexican cena. After dinner we jammed out some worship songs with Job and Nolan on guitars and me playing the makeshift djembe on a water cooler container (sounds really cool!).

On Wednesday we went for a lap of the Queretaro sights and sounds taking in Theatre of the Republic (where the Mexican constitution was signed), el centro including the plazas and gardens and andadors, some quick shopping, Templo de la Cruz and the convent and finally los arcos!

Wednesday night after our uni students event, we headed out for some authentic Mexican tacos at Tacos Francia and Sezza really got into those tacos de pastor. It was Nolan’s (by the way, Nolan is a mate from Atlanta who has been a missionary here for over two years) last night in Mexico so there were a stack of young people hanging out, which turned into arm wrestles on the pavement – goodtimes!

Then Thursday flew by with a late brekky, a bit of a wait to go out and some rapid shopping for souvenirs before rushing to the bus station a little stressed but all good. Sezza came and went on her whirlwind tour of Mexico!

Thankfulness

2008-07-21T17:31:00.006-05:00

Sometimes what is apparent is just the surface...
10 days after our event on the 5th of July, we had a party to celebrate what God had done in and through the event, to give thanks to God for being so good to us and to share stories!
We resurrected the Global Grounds space at the church which turned out to be really, really cool and got a band together to help us sing to God that He's the best!
Here are some photos of the fun!

Lots of stories were shared, actually, everyone got up and shared something that God had taught them, someone they met, how they had grown or some encouragement for those around.

Ric shared how he was amazed by the way God stopped the rain the week before the event for our bonfire, then on the day of the event (when even the pastor said it would rain!) so that we could enjoy the activities outside and the beautiful sun.

One of the teenage girls shared how she had arrived at the church early by chance and really didn't want to help out, but everyone kept asking her to lend a hand. She told us how God had used this to help her see how cool it was to help out others and then how she was impacted by the presentation during the event and even though she had grown up in a Christian home, decided it was time to give her whole life to Jesus.

Another guy shared how he had come to know Jesus because one of the other teenagers had prayed for him and invited him along to the youth events just over two years ago. He is so thankful that he knows Jesus as his friend and saviour and is part of the community. Now he had the opportunity to invite his friends along to the event (and he brought lots) to introduce them to Jesus too!

Another one of the teenagers was going to go on holidays on Saturday morning and wasn't going to be able to go to the event. She said she had been praying that something would change and she would be able to go because she really wanted to be a part of it. Through a turn of events, the family's travel plans changed and she was able to go to the event and then leave for her holiday afterwards!

A lot of the young people shared that they were excited about the event, but really believed that nobody would come. One by one they shared that that had been suprised and impacted by God's faithfulness in bringing along people to the event - friends, relatives, neighbours, people that we didn't expect - and that there were lots and lots of young people.

For me, the event was impacting in a stack of ways. I was excited to see the teenagers playing music in front of their friends for the first time and singing that they believed in Jesus and give Him glory and honour. I was excited that we had several teams of grafiteros come along and express themselves with awesome artwork. I was amazed by the quality and message of the winning artwork. I was encouraged to see the Global Grounds cafe space fully decked out and operating again. I was encouraged to see the way God is putting excitement in the hearts of young people to reach their world and to live a life worth of the calling that have received. I am excited that God is allowing me to be a part of what He is doing here in Queretaro!

Amazing experiences in the north...

2008-07-14T20:27:00.003-05:00

I’m writing this from the aeroplane heading back to Queretaro (sidenote: Volaris is highly recommended! They even have powerpoints for every seat!). It’s been an absolutely amazing five days in Ensenada and Tijuana. I personally have grown, been challenged and seen God’s hand in so many things.

The reason we went to Ensenada and Tijuana was to attend a conference for pastors and leaders of Calvary Chapel churches in Mexico. I started with the attitude that we were there to receive teaching, resources and recharge. But God by His grace had much bigger plans. When we arrived and were able to see what God is doing here, He allowed us to be a part of it! To listen, pray and share with the people we met and to serve them was so much more meaningful than just receiving. The coolest thing was that, when we served, encouraged and shared, we ourselves were massively blessed and encouraged!

The conference itself was really helpful. The time was intense and full of lots of teaching from a range of pastors. There were eight talks in total and we listened to five talks in one day on Friday! Through all this, God was speaking to me, guiding me and giving me renewed faith in His perfect plan. One of the challenges that impacted me was to have the passion and thirst in Christ for the people of Mexico that says “Give me Queretaro (for Jesus) or I will die”. Knowing forgiveness, love and hope in Jesus is the best thing that’s ever happened to me and I LONG for all of Mexico, all of Queretaro, the whole of the university of Queretaro to Jesus personally and intimately.

Another thing that impacted me during this time are these words that Jesus said to his disciples when we was on earth:

Jesus told him [Peter]: You can be sure that anyone who gives up home or
brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or land for me and for the
good news will be rewarded. In this world they will be given a hundred times as
many houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and pieces of
land, though they will also be mistreated. And in the world to come, they will
have eternal life. (Mark 10:29-30 CEV)

I really miss my family in Australia – my mum and dad, my brothers and sisters, my nieces and nephews. However, I have discovered in a new light during this time how much I have gained hundreds of brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, nieces and nephews here in Mexico. I feel so much a part of the family of God and have been encouraged and blessed with the generosity and openness of brothers and sisters here. Over the past few days I have met so many people with whom I’ve talked and prayed – sharing each others’ burdens and problems, joys and triumphs.

It has been particularly special to stay with Chris and Rosalba who opened their home and their lives to us. Our time with them has been awesome and I’ve got a stack of really cool memories. Chris is a bigtime encouragement. He pastors two churches in Tijuana and has been working here as a pastor for about 18 years. He is a massively humble guy and I appreciated the opportunity to share with him what God was doing down in Queretaro and the challenges we have been and are facing. It was exciting to hear of his heart to see people encounter Jesus here in Mexico and to raise up Mexican leaders to strengthen the church here. I also appreciated his balance of wisdom and a great sense of humour!

I’ve also had a lot of fun over the past few days. God knows that I love surfing and I was able to go for a surf at Cantamar where we were staying. Chris has a longboard that somebody gave him and he hasn’t used yet. He said GO FOR IT! So I went for it. As I was getting ready, I was so excited – the others could see that I was about to jump out of my skin. I ran down to the beach with the board and jumped into the water. It was great to get back out there even though I realised that I hadn’t been surfing for several months!!!

On Sunday night Martin, Sara and I went along to a Christian café in Tijuana called Todo Por Ti (All for you) with some of Sara’s friends. We drove through a maze of backstreets in Tijuana until we arrived at a big shed with a little door – Café Todo Por Ti: Café Cristiano. When we entered the little door we were transported into a vibrant space for young people complete with fuzball tables, air hockey, a pool table, indoor volleyball court, stage with musical instruments, indoor soccer field and lots of tables to hang out with friends. The café is open during the evening on Friday, Saturday and Sunday until late as a place that young people, particularly Christians can come to hang out with friends in a relevant atmosphere free from the pressures of bars and clubs. For me, it was a great place and mmmm, the coffee was really good too!

Tijuana part 1

2008-07-10T22:54:00.004-05:00

Wow! I’m learning so much. The last day has been huge in terms of God working, building relationships, seeing more of the church in Mexico and opening my eyes to real poverty.

Yesterday, Martin, Sara and I left Queretaro at 4am to drive to Leon and take a flight from Leon to Tijuana. When we arrived, we met Pastor Chris Martinez and various others from the church here in Tijuana. We left directly from the airport with Jaime and Chris to meet some visitors from the US. When Korean Ken and his team arrived, we went to the first rehabilitation centre to see what God was doing.

In this rehabilitation centre, somewhere in the suburbs of Tijuana, 50 guys have taken the step to get free from addictions to drugs, alcohol and other destructive things. In the centre, they experience the love and message of Jesus Christ as the one who can help them out of the hole and lift them up into a new transformed life. That’s exactly what we saw – transformed lives by the power of the Spirit of God. After praying with the team and the guys at the centre, we proceeded to our next stop.

We arrived at a building in another part of Tijuana called Rosarito with all the crew. We were met with smiles by Victor and his wife and had the privilege of seeing a great facility dedicated to the glory of God. This guesthouse is used to facilitate short-term mission teams who want to serve the people of Baja California and share the message of Jesus Christ. It provides a safe, comfortable place for the teams to rest, debrief and get recharged. The ministry also assists short-term teams to serve in areas where there is genuine need so that they can be most effective for the kingdom of God.

Next stop was Tacos Manuel. These tacos were big, man! We ate two big quesadillas each and enjoyed the big flavour of the rich barbeque meat.

We proceeded, feeling fairly tired, down to Ensenada to The Ranch. This ministry only started up last September, but it was the most impacting stop of the day. The Ranch is a rehabilitation centre run by the Calvary Chapel here in Tijuana. After meeting the crew and the donkey called Dulce, I went down to the paddock to see the other animals with three of the guys there. There were rabbits, chickens, goats and pigs hanging out in their pens. The goats decided to give us a bit of entertainment when one of them did a pee and another decided it might be tasty to drink. When we started yelling out that it was gross, the goat started laughing at us which was hilarious! One of the guys started to share his story with us, a story that demonstrated to me just how much God longs to transform lives.

Alberto was an alcoholic, his Dad taught him to kickbox so he was fighting all the time with other guys, he was into drugs and crime and he told me that he was hopeless. The crowd that he hung out with weren’t real friends and he was living some really full on stuff. Alberto lost hope and decided that it was better to end it all. He tried to commit suicide four times, but God had his gracious hand in the situation and each time Alberto wasn’t successful. Later, one of his friends who had been living these full on situations with him told him that he had something that was even stronger than the drugs he was taking and asked if he wanted it. Alberto was up for it! This time it wasn’t a new drug, it was Jesus Christ. Later, someone invited Alberto to the church because they were going to have free pizza. He went along to the church simply because there was going to be pizza and he hadn’t eaten for three or four days. That day, Alberto accepted Jesus and his life started to change. Now Alberto is in the centre, knows Jesus as his salvation and only hope, wants to live every day for Jesus and tell others about Him, loves reading his bible and has recently been baptised. His ambition when he leaves the centre is to tell others about the power of Jesus to heal and transform lives.

Later, the guys showed me the dormitory where they sleep, we listened to some worship songs in Spanish including La Niña De Mis Ojos that Alberto really likes because it says (translated roughly to English), you found me when nobody else cared, you called me by my name, you are my child, the child of my eyes. We read the bible together and prayed together – thanking God for His son Jesus who has transformed our lives and given us new hope. I am praying that God would continue to work in the lives of Alberto, Javier and Aaron and see them grow in their relationship with God and impact the lives of others with their stories.

Later, we arrived here in one of the poor neighbourhoods of Tijuana called Pedregales de Santa Julia at one of the churches where Chris is pastor. The poverty around us here is profound.

We arrived for the Wednesday night service and Martin shared the word of God in the service. By God’s design I’m sure, we sang La Niña De Mis Ojos, which now has even more significance for me because I see in the lives of my new brothers in Christ, the depth and strength of God’s love for us in Jesus. Martin was talking from Luke 15 about why tax collectors and “sinners” – those who were not holy and righteous – were attracted to Jesus, the one who is holy and righteous, and why Jesus was attracted to them. We saw in the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the prodigal son, God’s amazing desire to “seek and save that [those] which was lost” (Luke 19:10).

Later we listened to the story of a brother from Chiapas who has a mountain of problems – economic, family and personal. We saw the love of another brother who has taken this guy in and is showing him the love of Christ – tangible and practical. We prayed together and once again, I was impacted by the love and compassion of our God who knows each personal intimately and has a plan for each of us.

This morning we met for morning devotions with about 18 people here in the church. I played the guitar and sang a couple of songs in Spanish (it was a little bit dodgy, but God uses even the least of us for His glory). Chris shared a really cool devotion from Daniel 4 about God’s transformation of Nebuchadnezzar. We saw that sometimes God has to take us to the floor before we lift our eyes to Him. Sometimes our pride is too much and like Nebuchadnezzar, we fail to acknowledge the king of glory and trust in our ourselves. But God is gracious and when we come to our senses, He saves us.

More to come…

Faithful God!!!

2008-07-07T15:57:00.006-05:00

The lead up to "5 de Julio" had been going for about 6 weeks with lots and lots to get organised! The aim of the event was to reach young people who don't know Jesus personally with His love and His message of hope. We also worked really hard as a leadership team to involve the young people of Horizonte in the process and see them grow throughout all the planning and preparation. I was in charge of organising publicity and live music for the event.

On Friday night, the 4th of July, we had a band rehearsal to prepare for the event. We played from just after 6:30pm until 11pm and rehearsed about 16 songs! Afterwards, I was stuffed! I was already starting to get a cold and my head felt awful! I wondered at that point how I was going to get through the day on Saturday with all that I had to do to help out. There were loose ends that had to be tied up and apart from that, I didn't want to just be there, I wanted to be there serving at 110% and chatting with young people! Also, the weather forecast didn't look too promising and most of the activities were planned for outside. In desperation, I prayed and also sent out an email to my friends to pray for me and the event. And guess what!? God answers prayer!

I woke up on Saturday morning, still feeling tired and a little bit under the weather, but got going and felt even better. I arrived at the church just after 10am and we were also supposed to have a rehearsal for music on Sunday morning (which I just didn't know how I was going to fit in doing that too!). Fortunately, not everyone was there so I started cleaning up the area ready for the band and getting the sound system ready. I then popped back in and we rehearsed a couple of songs and then went on with what we had to do. Meanwhile, there were thick clouds covering the heat of the sun trying to poke through...

We lifted up all the sound gear to the top of the Ark (yes, it was a Noah's Ark) via the ladder and I kept saying that I've got faith that it's not going to rain! Even so, we put some garbage bags and tarps up there just in case.

The loose ends started to tie up when some others on the team were able to help out getting some things printed and the event started!! The young people started to arrive and God continued to do His stuff!

Here are some photos of the event, including some of our final rehearsal.
The event included a rock climbing wall, grafiti competition, the Global Grounds cafe space (looking very cool I might add!), volleyball and ping pong, videogames, live music and food during the afternoon and a concert and panel discussion in the evening.

Our special guests from 100% were actually filming their TV show with us in the evening (which I didn't know beforehand) which made it both really cool, and a little bit clunky when they had to film a few entrances and exits for the show. The band was really, really funky and the young people got into the songs. Later, the panel worked really well around the theme of "Why?" with the young people submitting some awesome questions and the panel responding really well from a biblical point of view. The guys from 100% and the band Juan were good blokes with a huge heart for Jesus. At the end of the night, the young people were given a chance to respond to God's invitation to new life and forgiveness of their sin. We had quite a number of people respond both to accept Jesus for the first time or to give their WHOLE life to Jesus. We prayed with them and there was a party in heaven!!

Overall, I was really, really tired, but super happy to see what God did with our humble hands, feet, voices, drumsticks, coffee machines, church... etc... to impact young people for His glory! Thanks so much to those who have been praying for the event and the young people - I'm sure this is just the start of what God is doing here amongst the youth of Queretaro!! We still have lots of work to do!

Chain, chain, chain... chain of prayer

2008-07-07T15:16:00.000-05:00

Apologies to Aretha F. for that title...

In the lead up to the event on the 5th of July, we spent a lot of time praying. We pray(ed) because we know that what we're involved in is bigger than us - it's something that God is doing. Also, we pray because we know that as humans, we stuff a lot of things up, and more than anything, we NEED God desperately to give us the strength, guidance, wisdom and life to be and do things that have forever value.

One of these times that we prayed was last Wednesday, 2nd of July. We had planned to have a bonfire with the youth and pray for the event on the 5th of July, but it was raining cats and dogs! Sidenote: Here in Queretaro, everyone is scared of the rain and nobody goes out when it's raining - some for good reason, others are genuinely freaked hehe. I had also forgotten to organise the rest of the band to play some music and lead our worship in song to God due to changes in plans. So we thought that nobody would show up and it would be a failure. God had other plans...

Nolan was coming to help me check out the sound gear, so he agreed to play bass. Job had been running a music and worship workshop with the youth so he agreed to play guitar and lead things and I asked myself and agreed to play drums. It was still raining when we started singing praises to God, but we lifted our 15 or 20-odd voices (about 15 or 20 of us, and only some of our voices were odd) and worshiped our Creator and Savior with all we had. It was a really awesome time! It was about half way through when I caught the reflection in the glass of the door... something yellow and orange, and moving!! Then I realised, the bonfire was lit! Afterwards, we went outside, the rain had stopped and gathered around the warmth of the flames. We joined together and thanked God for what he was doing, we prayed for our friends, we prayed for ourselves, we prayed for Queretaro, we prayed for the event and God heard and acted (see the post Faithful God).

God answers prayer.

Thinking about connecting...

2008-06-02T13:04:00.006-05:00

“God did not intend for us to walk alone. The Church seems like it is going in this crazy direction of huge multimedia presentations ... but I really think that people want other real people."

Faith No More is a really interesting article that I just read on Relevant Magazine.com. I found it particularly engaging because it talks about an issue that I've been thinking a lot about lately... that people want, and need, other people who are willing to be there for them, love them, and walk together through the messy stuff of life. As a person who is involved in working with university students, aiming to see them encounter Jesus Christ as their answer to their questions of life, and working to help them grow in their life as followers of Jesus to serve and influence others, it's this tension that I struggle with... what is a relevant atmosphere and environment? How do we introduce young people to the reality and authenticity of Jesus - the man who was fully human, who ate, drank, partied, cried, loved, served, healed, related to others, taught, was tempted, was beaten up, who was perfect, who died and who came back to life... and who at the same time IS GOD!

I think that sometimes presentations, multimedia, events, concerts, music, cool lighting and things are cool. But sometimes I think we focus too much on having events that are "cool" and forget about those conversations in the street, or sitting around the kitchen table, or drinking coffee, or running together, or just being... together. I think that what Jesus came to do, and what we need to take note of, is to show people what God is like, and to save them from a life of ignoring God and rejecting the true Life that is God. He didn't run huge concerts, but he spoke to lots of people. He didn't just talk his message, he LIVED it. That's why he said "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."

Man, that's what's really cool. That Jesus IS God, and that he SHOWS us what God is like by BEING God right here with us, as a human being. That for me is good news. That God himself was prepared to come and BE human to show us that he's not just some far off diety, but he is a God that is personal and relational. And then, this Jesus, who is God, was prepared to die in our place for our crimes and brokeness and shame and dishonesty, our rejection of the perfection and life of God... our sin... so that we could be restored, forgiven, made new... but more than all that... so that we could be connected in a relationship with this God, through Jesus.

So I'm interested in your thoughts... what are your deep questions, that may be uncomfortable or unanswered? Do you connect with God through Jesus or think it's just a fairytale? What does it mean to be relevant? Hmmm...

Balance

2008-05-31T15:40:00.003-05:00

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

2008-05-24T15:07:00.004-05:00

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...

2008-05-24T12:51:00.004-05:00

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)

2008-05-13T08:48:00.006-05:00

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!)

2008-05-05T15:29:00.005-05:00

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

2008-05-02T23:13:00.004-05:00

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!

The wild brumby runs free... an update on the past month

2008-04-27T15:53:00.007-05:00

I’ve been busy! Sorry that I haven’t been very active in updating my blog – I hope to work on that! It’s been great to receive emails and remain in contact with friends and family back in Australia. I’ve also been excited to hear news and updates from other friends who are leaving to work in other countries - God is faithful and keeps on providing the resources again and again for his love to spread around the world!

The last month has been full of more new experiences, challenges and fun times. I took the following picture that describes my life at present when I was feeling a little bit arty or something.

1. The bible – God’s word has been my guide and sustains me in my relationship with God
2. The Cross of Christ – that’s the reason I’m here – the cross of Jesus Christ has changed history and gives us the opportunity to have a restored relationship with the Creator God and to discover a full and meaningful life now and forever
3. 501 Spanish Verbs – yes, there are many more than 501 but I’m still learning and speaking Spanish. I’ve been really excited that I can now converse pretty comfortably in Spanish and my Mexican brother told me (in Spanish) “you’re speaking really well, a lot more clearly and rapidly than before – it’s good!”
4. I took the photo in Mexico… i.e. I’m in Mexico

Earlier in the month, we had a break from our youth ministry for about a week and I had the opportunity to head to the beach for four days! YAY! Being close to the beach is one thing I really miss about Australia so this was a real treat. I went to a beach called San Blas which is in a state called Nayarit on the west coast of Mexico. It was about 7-8 hours drive from Queretaro on a freeway with lots of toll gantries! We passed Guadalajara and Tepic on the way as well as seeing signs to the town of Tequila (that’s really where Tequila comes from!).
San Blas was great – very quiet (tranquilo) and not full of foreigners (apart from me!). We ate on the beach, listened to some roaming musicians for the birthday of one of our friends and played AFL footy on the beach! I managed to go for a surf even though the waves were a bit small.

Me, Alma Rosa and Sarahí

Yes!!!! The Wild Brumbies continue to run free!!!

Some authentic Mexican tunes!

Footy on the beach - they're not bad... I'm gonna start and AFL development squad...

Amidst all the fun, I have actually been doing something! We have started working as a team to form the way forward for our ministry. It’s helped a lot to have the team working together at the church to improve our communication and sense of community. At present we are working hard to build up a strong group of young Christians and involve them in reaching others.
We’ve had various activities in the church that I’ve been involved in and guess what… one of the other team members has blogged about that so I’m going to link to that to save me some time! You’ll see some photos of Conectate and Universitarios. I helped to run games at Conectate (a day to connect with a community group in the church) and also I’m a leader in the uni students group. Click here to go to Jessica’s blog post…

I’ve made some cool new friends like Bruno who I have been catching up with over the past few weeks. I’ve also been catching up with some young people from the church and I’ve made some friends with whom I can play music which is really awesome.

My real passion here is to see young people encounter Jesus in an authentic and relevant way, see their lives transformed by God’s power and invite others to meet Jesus. It’s so cool for me when I see young people who are passionate about God and who live out what it means to be a follower of Jesus in way that is truly relevant in their life (fully Mexican, in all areas of their life). This is how I long to be – not simply a missionary whose job it is to share the gospel of Jesus, but a radical disciple of Jesus who lives in Mexico and invites others to come and meet Jesus in their context and culture.

Global Grounds moving party!

2008-04-08T13:34:00.003-05:00

Once we decided to move the location of Global Grounds we just HAD to have a party! So, we asked some friends to play music, invited people and had a rockin' night of celebration on the 28th of March!

Global Grounds has moved!

2008-04-08T13:26:00.004-05:00

It as been a big month of change for the ministry to university students here in Queretaro. Over the past months, the team has been grappling with some difficult decisions. The rent and other costs for the Global Grounds café location have been very high and the income (from sales and donors) insufficient to sustain operations. We made the difficult decision to relocate the café to the church premises to assist financially as well as to refocus the ministry and seek God for the best and most effective student ministry possible. Global Grounds has been an amazing space to hang out, build relationships, drink coffee and explore faith in Jesus Christ. We want to continue to create spaces where we can engage with young people, make disciples and equip leaders for the kingdom of God.

In the new café location, we have created a new, relevant space for young people to enjoy that is well connected with the church community. We are also taking a fresh look at how we reach out to young people with the message of Jesus Christ in relevant, authentic ways and make disciples who will be leaders for the kingdom of God here in Mexico and around the world.This time of refocus and change is challenging, however, I can see amazing opportunities for God to work through this change and help us build a strong, effective and sustainable ministry with uni students.

Trip to Bernal (i.e. big rock!)

2008-03-25T20:30:00.002-06:00

Hey all! How are you? I hope things are going well for you wherever you may be. I thought I'd let you check out a few photos of my trip to Bernal last Friday. Bernal is about one hour from the city of Queretaro, though there was lots of traffic so it took quite a while to get there. It's a little puebla but the main event is the big rock there. It's supposed to be the third-biggest monolith in the world after the Rock of Gibraltar and some other rock I hadn't heard of. I'm not sure, but I think they may have overlooked Uluru? Does anyone know if that's like a monolith (i.e. one big rock) or not?

Anyway, I went to Bernal with some of my Mexican friends that I met last time I was here in Queretaro - Pablo, Aixa and Alma - and with some of their friends too - Felipe and Martin. We had a lot of fun/exhaustion climbing up the side of the rock. The date that we went - 21 of March - is primavera or the first day of Spring and there were LOTS of people. Some people believe that on this day (or actually it's the equinox that counts apparently) if you go up the rock, wear white and perform some type of ceremony that you receive good energy. Well, I didn't believe it in the first place, and I didn't wear white, but I think I proved it pretty much false by how tired I was after climbing the rock and coming back down - a lack of energy!

Here is most of the crew near the top of the rock - Aixa, me, Martin, Alma and Felipe... Pablo is behind the camera.

Afterwards we went and had a BBQ back at Felipe and Martin's house - it was almost Australian!!... well, apart from the tortillas, the location... ok well, it was a bbq!

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers, there are lots of exciting things happening here at present both in the city, in our work with the church and our focus on uni students.

Video update

2008-03-17T17:13:00.006-06:00

Here is a quick video update too! Wow - so many updates, so little time!

Mi vida en Mexico (My life in Mexico)

2008-03-17T17:05:00.003-06:00

El Centro in Queretaro - beautiful!

Wow! How time flies! I’ve been here in Mexico for only a week and a half, but so much has been happening that it feels like weeks! In the last week and a bit I’ve been to church twice, worked in the café twice, been to two uni student events, done a week of language study, met lots and lots of people and settled into my new home with a new family! Phew!

The family that I’m living with here in Queretaro is great! Jolanda, the mum in my Mexican family, is really nice and she’s also a great cook. We enjoy watching telenovelas together in the evening (telenovelas are HUGE here and have a big following – they are kind of like soaps, but not quite so slow moving and hideous) – her favourite is “Tontas no van a cielo” which roughly translates to “Stupid women who aren’t going to heaven” hahaha. There are two sons in my Mexican family – Ruben and Luis. Ruben lives here and studies business at the Uni of Queretaro and Luis studies in Monterrey so he’s just back for the uni break at present. Both guys are really into music. Ruben plays the bass guitar and Luis sings and plays keys. We’ve had a good time sharing our music tastes and good bands.

Hector, Charlio and me

I’ve already had some great opportunities to build relationships with young people in the café and through our uni student activities. Here are some photos of us hanging out at the café and the last photos is us at the market after having tacos!

I love this city, it’s sights, sounds and heritage. I went on a bit of a tourist cruise with Rebecca (another team member), her sister Pam (who is here for her uni break on holiday) and Maricela (one of the young people who have come to know Jesus through the ministry at the café) to some of the sights on Saturday. I managed to get a photo of me with “Los Arcos” or “the Arches”. They are the arches of an aqueduct that used to provide water to the city.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the photos and the update and I look forward to sharing the journey with you as God continues to open doors and provide opportunities to share His love and His message with people in Queretaro.
Hasta luego,
Phil

Estoy aqui! (I am here!)

2008-03-07T16:26:00.004-06:00

Hola everybody! I have arrived in Queretaro and started settling into my new home here. It's really good to be back here and to see the pastor and team leader Martin again and to meet new friends!

Last night we went down to the market at La Cruz and had gringas which are these yum type of tacos. Then I went and met my new family which was really exciting! I have a nice room and it was great to unpack and have somewhere to lay my head.

Today I've been on a tour of the city with Rebecca and her sister Pam - it was lots of fun! I was surprised at the number of places I remember and also really encouraged that I have been able to get by with my Spanish. Definitely looking forward to learning more Spanish so that I can understand even better and have more interesting conversations!

Please pray for me as I start language learning and meet up with the team again that God would continue to lead, guide and be my strength.

Phil

Unexpected layover in Los Angeles!

2008-03-05T19:37:00.003-06:00

Hi all,

I'm writing this from LA which is kinda cool and unexpected. My flight through to Houston was delayed which meant that I would miss my connection Queretaro... so here I am put up by the airline in a hotel!

It's actually been good to break the journey and have a little bit of time to adjust to time and culture differences. I'm quite tired, but determined to have a little look around here whilst I've got the opportunity.

This was the last that I saw of Australia...

More photos to come...

Phil

On my way... hanging in Sydney

2008-03-02T18:47:00.002-06:00

I've made it to Sydney after Melbourne farewells yesterday. I've got a couple of days here with my brother and his family which is really special. I'm also going to be involved in the International Teams Journeys night tonight at Mars Hill Cafe.

Some photos and updates to come!

Ready to go

2008-03-01T07:33:00.002-06:00

Yes, I'm behind on my blogging and have lots to catch you up on... but the reason I'm behind is because, guess what!? I've been getting ready, and now...
I'm ready to go!
So in the morning, I leave home behind and say hasta luego to my Mum and Dad and head off to Sydney, a stepping stone on my journey to Queretaro.

I've still got my Australian mobile number and will be on that until Wednesday (and after that for sms only - only checking occasionally).

I'll update you soon!

Please pray for these last few hours in Melbourne and Sydney that I might make the most of my time and be a blessing. Please also pray for safety and protection in travel.

Phil

Adventures in Queensland

2008-02-16T22:19:00.001-06:00

"Beautiful one day, perfect the next" was Queensland's tourism jingle at one stage. Fortunately my time up there was beautiful one day and perfect the next, but not so much because of the weather, but because I had a really fun time catching up with family, friends and the team at AMT. I even managed to squeeze in a trip down to the Gold Coast where I stayed with some relatives and went for a surf. It was great to be back in the water and I AM going to miss surfing when I'm in Queretaro, however, it will all be worth it.

I have included some photos of my travels with this update, I hope you enjoy them.

Here I am with the crew at AMT. It was really good to drop in and meet the office staff, enjoy a coffee and some yummy morning tea and pray together. I appreciated getting some words of wisdom from Ken who is on the board of AMT and also on the board of International Teams (the best of both worlds!). They also let me use their guillotine the Cutmaster 3000 which was excellent (and saved me lots of time cutting up my brochures one at a time!).

This is me beside the pool and the canal down on the Gold Coast. It was really enjoyable to spend a little bit of time relaxing and exploring the coast and having a surf. It was cool to catch up with the Criddles and I appreciated their hospitality lots!

This is me with David, Trina, Zac and Karli - it was wonderful to see my family, though sad to say goodbye for the next couple of years. I know that we will keep in touch and that God will bless us and keep us all wherever we are in the world!

My big bro and I!

So now I'm back in Melbourne and focussing on getting everything prepared and in order to leave on the 2nd of March for Sydney, then on to Mexico on the 5th of March. I'm starting to feel the pain and stress of saying goodbye and packing up. I would appreciate your prayers and thoughts through this period - I want to leave well! I've moved back to Mum and Dad's house and now have a LOT of stuff to sort through and pack up (and I'm already over it without starting!!)

Don't forget the BBQ next Sunday, 24th February, 12:30pm at Deepdene Park in Balwyn. Drop me an email on phil.jones@iteams.org for more details!

Lucky the people are good...

2008-02-11T19:59:00.000-06:00

I'm up here in Brisbane and the rain continues to fall! Lucky I'm here to see people and not to enjoy the sunshine! I flew to Brisbane last night and I'm enjoying spending some time catching up with David and Trina (and Zac and Karly!).

This morning I went down to the motor auctions with my brother (as he's in the car industry) and saw cars flying under the hammer. Very interesting. Didn't buy anything though ;-)

Tomorrow I'm going to visit AMT which is our church denomination's mission agency and also catch up with a friend from KPMG.

As usual, I'm in a coffee shop working away on my laptop - so here's me saying hi!

Still got lots to do to prepare and starting to count down the days - under three weeks until Melbourne departure!

My first video update!

2008-02-10T06:43:00.000-06:00

Touring Tassie

2008-02-03T17:48:00.000-06:00

I'm currently down in Tassie, our very own 'south of the border' state. I've had a wonderful opportunities to catch up with lots of relatives and connect with people down here. The photos below show me catching up with an Uncle and Auntie of mine and also enjoying a mini-Magnum with my Mum.

I talked about my Mexico journey at Hope Christian Centre on Sunday morning and also had a great Aussie BBQ at my uncle's house in Devonport in the evening - an update on that in my next post!