Long time...no blog. Here's the latest....
TEAMS ARE SET! Total on High School Team is 122 students and adults. Total on Family Team is 182 people of all ages.
AIRLINE TICKETS ARE BOUGHT...ticket prices are sky-high... Continental Airlines is now charging for everything from checking second bags to using the bathroom...but....we have the tickets and we're on our way!
TOTAL HOUSES TO BE BUILT...We are set with 17 teams getting ready to build 17 houses. Don't forget to bring the most important tool....the pvc chicken wire magic tool!
FOOD...We have our two cook teams set. We'll eat well!
FUND RAISING...PCNP fund raising brochures are out and available. You can download one at www.pcnp.org.
VBS...we'll run one large one each week. More info on these from team leaders.
PRAYER...please do! Pray for our team leaders...our team members...God's provision of money and other needed things...the leadership of Amor...the 17 families waiting for our arrival.
Lots more info to come...we'll be surfing the banos in 10 weeks!
How Do We Have A Global Voice?
by Gayla Congdon, Founder and CSO
Do not 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. - I Timothy 4:12
Every year about this time, I reflect back on this verse and think about the thousands of young people that cross the border into Mexico to spend their spring break. Some of them come and make complete fools of themselves, with a willing media ready to show the world how they are acting. They come with a total disregard for where they leave their alcohol bottles and trash, leaving the community a mess.
Then I think about the thousands of young people that give their spring break to serve with us, with very little fanfare or attention. They come to build a community of homes, schools, churches, even a fire station in Rosarito Beach, Mexico, a well-known venue for many of these spring break parties.
Timothy has been a hero of mine since I was young, growing up in the church. I remember the first time I heard about Timothy because I could not believe that in the culture he grew up he was sent out to minister. He seemed to be taken seriously and when I was young, I very much wanted to be taken seriously.
It was not until I spoke quite a few years ago on a college campus that I began a real examination of I Timothy 4:11-16. My original intent was to focus the message on the first part of verse twelve where it talks about not letting anybody look down on you because you are young. Scott and I started Amor Ministries in our early twenties and I wanted to encourage them that even though they were young, God could use them to do amazing things.
But, it was in that process of studying the text for my series of messages that I began to ask myself a really important question. Why was Paul willing to entrust Timothy with his own ministry at such a young age?
Integrity. Timothy had to be leading a life that stood out, a life that lived out the second part of verse twelve. He set an example in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.
In verses eleven and twelve Paul is telling Timothy to be strong, to take charge and to lead. Paul separates authority from seniority. Authority had nothing to do with age or experience. Authority is a reflection of how one conducts his or her life through integrity and by example. Obviously, Timothy, by how he lived his life, had already developed the credibility to be listened to.
That part is crucial if we want to be taken seriously, no matter how old we are. Integrity is conducting oneself the same way when others can see you and when they cannot. The way I believe Timothy did, which is why he was able to have the ministry he did at such a young age in a culture where that just did not happen.
Christians should set an example in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. We need to raise the standard and have the courage to look one another in the eye and tell the truth if our conduct demeans that global voice in any way. We can be a voice of reason in an irrational society, pointing to the character of Jesus and live out his character the way Paul saw Timothy.
This is my 28th spring break in Mexico and I can say that I am looking forward to the coming weeks just as much today as I did in those early years. It is my privilege to see the thousands of Timothys crossing that border choosing to live their lives with integrity and giving the church a global voice.
"More than a third of Mexicans live below the poverty line of about [one US dollar] a day." Saturday Nation- January 5, 2008
I read that quote on Scott Congdon's blog today. My reaction was something like..."what?!!?!" One third of the people of Mexico live with less than one US dollar a day?? A soda in Mexico (like in the US) costs a buck. Couple of candy bars...one dollar. A gallon of fresh water in bottles...dollar. So how do they do it? Live on less than a dollar a day? Impossible! And yet...they do it...somehow...until they realize there is the potential to earn more on the other side of the border.
And so they come. According to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, 10% of Mexico's 107 million citizens and 15% of Mexico's labor force currently are in the US. The article (couple of years old, but still accurate) on those stats is : http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/05/21/MNGFQIVNAF1.DTL
Bottom line...this migration splits families. While there's no easy fix, having a decent house goes a long way in keeping families together. That and a job and a community with a church and pastor that care... and the Lord Jesus at the center of it all. In the end, this is not about money! So we go to Mexico this summer with our eyes open. We go as learn-ers...pray-ers...servants...co-workers with the Lord as He answers prayers for decent homes to keep families together. What a privilege to be a part of that!
I love this photo from a few years ago on a high school mission trip to Mexico! An Irish high school student with us using an American snowboard in Mexico decided to snowboard down a steep dusty road. I stood there that day and watched her courageously jump on the board and sail off into the great unknown. When she got to the bottom of the hill, she crashed...tumbling...laughing hysterically! When the dust cleared, she stood up and said "Aye!! Me bum hurts!" We all laughed till we cried..
What a great memory! Where else in your life do you step out of your comfort zone to do something you've never done before in a part of the world you normally have no business being in!? Doesn't happen often, that's for sure! But....for nearly 300 people this summer...God is opening a door for exactly that! This summer we Americans and Irish get to walk down dust covered streets with no names in rural Tijuana and for that week...we belong there! We become part of the fabric of that community. We get to do things we've never done before in a place we'll probably never be in again. We get to spend time with the people of Mexico and receive from them something really special...a relationship that supercedes words. So get ready to be stretched...challenged...and changed this summer as you take one of the greatest rides of your life!
By the way...we left the snowboard at the basecamp that year...it's probably still there waiting for you. Surf's up!
IT...IS...FINISHED!!!! What's finished you ask??!!? The first step...maybe the most difficult step...the "responding to God's call on your life step". Both exhilarating and agonizing to watch, once again this year God has had His way with hundreds of men, women, students and children across America and reaching all the way to Northern Ireland. God calls...we wrestle with it...He wins. This past few months that was repeated exactly 290 times. 290...that is the total number of men, women, students and adults who will make up our version of Mexico '08(along with a couple of waiting lists). Here's how the teams break down...
HIGH SCHOOL TEAM...120 people total...35 from Richmond...11 from Northern Ireland...74 from Jersey. Total teams and total houses - 7. One Vacation Bible School. Total vehicles in caravan going into Mexico-15. Total number of tacos eaten whin in Mexico....who knows?!!? Total lives changed...more than we'll ever know.
FAMILY TEAM...170 people total...15 from New York...50 from Boston area...5 from Northern Ireland...80 from Jersey. Total teams and total houses-10. One Vacation Bible School. Total vehicles in caravan traveling back to USA...18. Total late night trips to the banos...way too many!!! Kingdom-advancing moments in people's lives....too numerous to count!
Bottom line...God has assembled the largest number of Mexico house building Gospel sharing servants ever! We are going to Mexico to do...but even more importantly...we are going to Mexico to be! Be servants...be available...be present...be learners...be Jesus' hands and feet...just be. It's easy to do. It's difficult to be, but it's in our being that we become all God wants for us!
Ephesians 2:22
And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
