RenovArte progress... 23 October... belated

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!!

What a LOOONG day! (day 3)

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!!!

Romi's Christmas Party

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

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!

Cathy and David in Mexico

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!

International Teams Latin America Conference

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!

Passion Mexico City

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!!

¡Viva Mexico!

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!!!  

God’s Way Camp

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!

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

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!

Balance

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

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

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

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

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

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



How do you keep balance in your life?



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

Dia del niño (Kid's day!)

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

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

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

Party! There were more than 350 kids!

Smile boys!

I want a present!!

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



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

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

Mi vida en Mexico (My life in Mexico)

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

Freedom!

I finished up my transition training last week and Monday was my first day of free time to get prepared! I made sure that I got straight into it and had organised to have breakfast with a couple of good mates who are involved in mission work. This was a good (early) start to the day which kicked things off well!
It has been really fantastic to have the time and focus to catch up with my friends and my family, to spend some time chatting and journeying together and to drink lots of coffee. My coffee tally for Monday was 5 lattes ;-) I've been praying that God would give me great times with my friends and family before I go and He's done just that - given me opportunities to be with friends and family and have great times.

I've made myself a BIG list of to-dos (which is still growing!) so that I use my time well leading up to when I'm hoping to leave. I found this cool website for organising your tasks, it's called "Remember The Milk" - www.rememberthemilk.com - maybe you could add "Catch up with Phil for coffee" to your task list!?

Over the last couple of days I have been enjoying working through my to-dos on my laptop whilst sitting in a few of the cool cafes we have here in Melbourne and enjoying the vibrance and diversity of the city. Yesterday I sat at Pushka for a couple of hours and today I was in Richmond helping out a friend so I visited Chimmey's bakery. YUM!

God has been awesome in starting to bring together a group of partners to support me in prayer and financially as I go to serve in Mexico. I'm just under half way there in terms of the finances I need to support me each month, so if you've been praying or considering supporting me, it would be great if you could add "Send off partnership commitment" to your task list too.

I had better get back to preparing!

Wrapping up training

A cool photo of some of us at training.
I'm here with my friends sharing about how to use a blog! It's lots of fun and a great way to keep in touch!



Everyone is having fun... except for Bill... he's a bit grumpy this afternoon ;-) Only joking!!

Teamwork!

Check it out! This is our team's winning baloon tower that we built during a team-building exercise today. It was really interesting to debrief the exercise as we had a team that worked really well together. During the course we have been talking about different personality types and have all completed a Myers-Briggs personality type assessment. It was interesting to be in a group that was weighted with "Feelers" over "Thinkers" and had a mix of other personality characteristics. We all looked after each other and had a lot of fun working together! It's really handy to talk about our personality types with others, especially those who you work in a team with to understand how others think and feel. It's not a chance to pigeon-hole people, but to understand more of how they approach life, challenges and how they get their energy. For anyone that's interested, I identify most closely as an ENFP...

Training is going really well and is continuing to provide some new insights as well as revising some lessons I've heard before. I've met a stack of really cool people and I'm excited to see how others are getting prepared to go to places all over the world to serve God.

If you're into it, please keep praying for me as the course stretches and challenges us that I would be able to learn and grow.

Hasta luego amigos ;-)

Finishing up work

Friday 21st of December was my last day in the office at KPMG for the next couple of years! I put on my out of office reply that says I'll be out of the office until 2010 - wow!

Phil, Martijn and Matt

It was with mixed feelings that I finished up - excitement at the prospect of moving into a time of real preparation for going to Mexico and taking the next step and sadness at leaving a group of workmates who have become my close friends.

Phil, Angy and Noel

I had a fantastic last few weeks at KPMG, especially as it was the Christmas season. It was great to be able to share some good times, celebrations and fun with the team before I took a break from work.

Fantastic steaks to celebrate!

I have sincerely enjoyed my time at KPMG stretching over almost six years. I've had many great experiences and made a lot of great friends, but now it is time to say “hasta luego amigos”.

This is great!

For those of you who are interested in learning a bit of Spanish, a friend sent me a link to the Mariachi Wiggles!!! Enjoy!! Es bonito y muy divertido!