As is often the case with a summer of working in Mexico, I am left at the end sifting through the many and varied experiences in an attempt to assign a theme to help define what the season meant for me. As I do so, I am bombarded with memories and images of people, places, and projects all differing as widely in their impact as the circumstances involved in each.
Some are as poignant and indescribable as the joy and anticipation on the face of a mother watching a group of strangers, motivated only by love, build a home for her family. Some are as tangible as seeing a church being built from the ground up and knowing in a few short days people would be worshipping in the space we helped provide. Still other memories involve observing the life-changing effects of a short-term mission experience on the lives of participants in nearly every stage of life.
Many of the memories are as personal as sharing a meal with a family I have come to know and love (which involved some of the best pollo con molé I have ever had), or simply finding time to move with my roommates and get settled in the little time we had between groups during the busy summer (we moved at the beginning of July but couldn’t have the house warming party until September).
On the other hand, many experiences are as shared as a whole community coming together to help us build a school wherein classes would be starting in a few weeks. How incredible it was seeing teachers, mothers, government officials, businessmen, bus drivers, neighbors, and pastors, joining together with a group of sixty youth from the Seattle area to finish a two-classroom building. Yet another such moment was being able to take part in a community outreach in one of the areas where we work a great deal. This involved several of our pastors from different denominations pooling their resources and partnering with a sponsoring church from Los Angeles to provide lunch, music, games, an evangelistic program, and a hilarious puppet show for the hundreds in attendance.
In the end, I know no theme can be attached to a summer that has been so emotionally all-inclusive. But I am left thinking that throughout it all we are all part of a community stretching farther than we normally assume. And though I normally would treat the idea of “global community” as another modern day catch phrase, I am beginning to understand we are really separated only by our decisions to remain separate. Coming to know this has made me suppose we truly have a call as followers of Christ to seek to help those in need despite cultural and geographical division. Indeed, no one forces the more than twenty thousand participants we have yearly to embrace the needs of those less fortunate just as no one forces those of you who cannot be down here full time to partner with me financially and prayerfully in a mission with the propensity to touch so many lives. However, I believe it is through voluntary acts like these we can establish a sense of community defying normal boundaries giving us a chance at changing the world.
Accordingly, I want to ask you to consider being an integral part of the team of people that allow me to continue my ministry here. My position is fully supported, meaning I am responsible to raise the funds necessary to live and work here. Because Amor Ministries is an American organization with its head office in San Diego, I need to raise San Diego living wages even though I spend a majority of the year working in Mexico. As such, I need people to consider contributing to my financial needs on a monthly basis. Additionally, I am always in need of prayer as the demands of my position can be extremely taxing on me physically, spiritually, and socially. For those of you who have already joined me, I thank you from the bottom of my heart and ask you to share this with someone else who may be interested in supporting our ministry. Please let me know if there is anything else you would like to know about Amor Ministries or me. God Bless.
Some are as poignant and indescribable as the joy and anticipation on the face of a mother watching a group of strangers, motivated only by love, build a home for her family. Some are as tangible as seeing a church being built from the ground up and knowing in a few short days people would be worshipping in the space we helped provide. Still other memories involve observing the life-changing effects of a short-term mission experience on the lives of participants in nearly every stage of life.
Many of the memories are as personal as sharing a meal with a family I have come to know and love (which involved some of the best pollo con molé I have ever had), or simply finding time to move with my roommates and get settled in the little time we had between groups during the busy summer (we moved at the beginning of July but couldn’t have the house warming party until September).
On the other hand, many experiences are as shared as a whole community coming together to help us build a school wherein classes would be starting in a few weeks. How incredible it was seeing teachers, mothers, government officials, businessmen, bus drivers, neighbors, and pastors, joining together with a group of sixty youth from the Seattle area to finish a two-classroom building. Yet another such moment was being able to take part in a community outreach in one of the areas where we work a great deal. This involved several of our pastors from different denominations pooling their resources and partnering with a sponsoring church from Los Angeles to provide lunch, music, games, an evangelistic program, and a hilarious puppet show for the hundreds in attendance.
In the end, I know no theme can be attached to a summer that has been so emotionally all-inclusive. But I am left thinking that throughout it all we are all part of a community stretching farther than we normally assume. And though I normally would treat the idea of “global community” as another modern day catch phrase, I am beginning to understand we are really separated only by our decisions to remain separate. Coming to know this has made me suppose we truly have a call as followers of Christ to seek to help those in need despite cultural and geographical division. Indeed, no one forces the more than twenty thousand participants we have yearly to embrace the needs of those less fortunate just as no one forces those of you who cannot be down here full time to partner with me financially and prayerfully in a mission with the propensity to touch so many lives. However, I believe it is through voluntary acts like these we can establish a sense of community defying normal boundaries giving us a chance at changing the world.
Accordingly, I want to ask you to consider being an integral part of the team of people that allow me to continue my ministry here. My position is fully supported, meaning I am responsible to raise the funds necessary to live and work here. Because Amor Ministries is an American organization with its head office in San Diego, I need to raise San Diego living wages even though I spend a majority of the year working in Mexico. As such, I need people to consider contributing to my financial needs on a monthly basis. Additionally, I am always in need of prayer as the demands of my position can be extremely taxing on me physically, spiritually, and socially. For those of you who have already joined me, I thank you from the bottom of my heart and ask you to share this with someone else who may be interested in supporting our ministry. Please let me know if there is anything else you would like to know about Amor Ministries or me. God Bless.
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