the price of produce

Injustice is ugly, and I have seen the ugliness of this reality firsthand the past 6 months. The lifestyle isn’t fair. The oppression is real, and the suffering is great. 

The Los Angeles Times has begun an investigative series called the "Hardships of Mexico's farms, a bounty for U.S. tables."  It tells the story for many in Baja. Take a look here: http://graphics.latimes.com/product-of-mexico-camps/

I don’t have to read an article like this to be totally distraught with sadness and feelings of helplessness. I actually didn’t make it down to the bottom without crying and having my heart broken.

I cry because I see the stories of our friends.  I see families that I have come to know and love so much. I see God's beautiful children like Sarah (above) growing up at a labor housing facility in San Vicente. I see homes without running water, electricity, or warmth this time of year.  I hear their sadness of being separated from family and living far from home for work.  I see physical pain from such labor intensive jobs, and the health problems that arise because of it. I think of payday when the earnings are often exchanged for alcohol, and the family that is left without proper nourishment. And I feel the tears we have shed together.

I also feel conviction. Conviction that we have a higher hope than the hardships we face in this life, and we as Christians are called to share it wherever we may be.

Jesus took our suffering, sin, fears and failures and squashed them when he went down the pit of hell and overcame darkness.

Darkness is looming in the fields of Mexico and across the whole Earth, but the LIGHT IS SO MUCH BRIGHTER.

We must be reminded of this daily. We can’t give up.  We have to be strong for our brothers and sisters that currently find themselves in this harsh environment. 

The church is so beautiful because the message of Jesus provides a higher hope. I have been a witness to the great things God is doing in 14 of His churches throughout Baja, and I know the same restoration is happening all across the world. 

Change is going to come. One person at a time. We can’t start at the top of the big corporate giants. We can’t begin to adjust the multi billion-dollar produce industry that Mexico provides for the US, but we can be vessels of hope. We can walk beside our brothers and sisters and believe in their dreams.

Lord willing, we have some new plans for 2015. 

I ask for your prayers!!! We need your help!

We are stepping out into the unknown and letting God takeover.

We are ready for continued spiritual warfare and cannot wait to go where He leads.  

We pray for more souls to come to Christ in this time of suffering.

Salvation belongs to our God! – Rev. 7:10

We are going to overcome by the power of our testimonies! – Rev. 12:11

WE ARE GOING TO REJOICE IN OUR GREAT HOPE!

new life for dead dreams

The retail world in Baja consists of mostly second-hand shops. Meaning that if you were to go look for clothes, furniture, appliances, bicycles, random Christmas decor etc. they would most likely come from a "segunda" or "second-hand" store.  I enjoy some good thrift shopping, but my reaction says doesn't this get old? Isn't it nice to get something new every once in awhile?

Maybe this is a stretch, but thinking about the desire for newness got my wheels turning as I thought about how we often settle for second best in life.  That perhaps we sink into routine and accept our circumstances instead of reaching up and grabbing hold of the new things God has for us.

Our God is a Creator and Sustainer of life. One who takes great delight in blessing His children. A God that forgives, forgets, heals and restores. And a God that has made us new!!

Let's not limit God for settling for second best.

Let's not settle for living vicariously through someone else or being jealous about someone else's situation, but instead step out in faith and take hold of what he has for YOU.

Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart's desires.

Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you.

Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act.

Psalm 37

just when you need it

Tuesday morning I was driving in to the office feeling a little bland and searching for a change up in the everyday routine.  I like mornings because you never know what a new day will bring.  So I was praying for a new encounter this day or a spark in my spirit to not be caught in a rut...

Well the day passes along. Boyd Buchanan school from Chattanooga, TN blessed us with their presence this week, and they were serving lunch to the babies and boys dorms when I walked in to refill my water bottle and was asked to share my story at the group's devo that night.

This really excited me because I love opportunities to share what I have learned in my faith journey especially since I was convicted on a mission trip here just as these students may be experiencing as well.

It was a great experience to be able to spend the evening with the group, and afterwards they gathered around me and had a prayer for me. It was amazing! I truly felt God's love in that moment and his reassurance for my work here.

It was such a blessing to receive that touch of the spirit just as I had been praying for, and I am so thankful that the Lord answered my prayer and gave me exactly what I needed!

What if I had never cried out to God that morning? I may have missed this opportunity to testify to his goodness and receive the blessing of his spirit once again through our brothers and sisters in Christ!

Thanks to this team reaching out to me and being a great encouragement just when I needed it this week.

Hallelujah!

real

Being real. Being yourself. Something that has slipped away from me the past couple weeks. Still taking on a new culture and new challenges, pride and a desire to "prove myself" so sneakily gets in the way of my reliance on God.

I was challenged by a great message this morning (here) that helped me refresh and restart in a way that I have been searching for the past few weeks. By being too consumed with trying to measure up and being questioned in my doubts of: is my spanish good enough, am I qualified to be in ministry, am I the right age for this, will people like/understand me, can I have sad times as a missionary? has caused me to take control into my own hands trying to prove what I can be instead of plainly answering: no!  I can't do all of this, and that is what is so awesome about having a God who longs to be in control of my life and allow me to do things I could never do own my own. It is ok to have emotion. God wants us to be open and exposed before Him to show us where we need to lean into Him most.

I have never taught a Sunday school class, and here I find myself teaching a class to the sweetest girls in a different language! It is humorous really. And that they even receive a message! But how easily I can be too concerned with trying to get the grammar right to resonate the deep love God has for them when all the while it is God that changes hearts anyways! Amen?

So it is cool. And being open and transparent on a blog is kind of intimidating to me- but I know that we all experience similar seasons. And in the days that you feel like your communication is really one-sided with God, and you aren't getting any words back from Him, maybe it is time to push the re-start and re-surrender to your inadequacies! Because then we see the miracles of God, who can use us for far greater things than we could do alone!

In celebrating His presence, we had an awesome week here at the City of Children with a fall break team from Goodpasture in Tennessee. What used to be the ole "high school rivals" are now my friends- yay Jesus! This was their first trip here, and they jumped in and handled it like pros.  Their group leader and Spanish teacher, Kate, is a dear friend of Baja and has been serving here for many years. They had the best attitudes and were such an encouragement to all of us here with their presence. The theme for the week in VBS was using your spiritual gifts which was cool because I also saw their group as really diverse with lots of different personalities and gifts.

They also served in the community by painting an elementary school that many of the kids here attend and delivered food packages to church members of Chapultapec (pictured above).

We are thankful for these students and adults that gave their time to bring a refreshment of His light and love!

I also had the opportunity to witness the goodness of God Wednesday night, when we got to take a huge food basket to brother Samuel, one of the church members at Colonia 89. His wife died about 2 weeks ago, and he has been really lonely. He has the sweetest spirit and cannot see very well. We have been worried about him living alone, and he often mentions of how much he misses his wife. A group from here got this basket together to send him and has been lifting him up in prayer. What a beautiful picture of the church!

I hope you are enjoying fall wherever you may be! Here in Baja we have also received cooler weather which has been a great relief!

lots of blessings!

belief

Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her! -Luke 1:45

Filled with the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth's responds to Mary with these words as they share in the excitement of their pregnancies. Both chosen by God to fulfill big time callings. To be the mothers of John the Baptist and Jesus. Elizabeth in her old age, and Mary a virgin. Both seemingly impossible by human standards. Both filled with awe and wonder. And belief. 

Would you believe it if an angel appeared to you to proclaim your divine calling? How would you react?

In disbelief like Zechariah? Or like Joseph, wanting to flee from the relationship in fear of what people would think of your wife being pregnant before marriage?

Or do you chose to believe, and trust in the promises of God. 

We all have a big role to play in God's story. Each character is equally important. Zechariah was silenced for months because of his disbelief and could not speak until the baby was born- having to see to believe. Matthew tells us that an angel came to visit Joseph to talk him out of plans to divorce Mary- for this baby was going to save people of their sins! Wowza- right!

Are we allowing our disbelief to silence us?

Are we ready to walk fully in the plans that God has for us, or are we too worried about what other people might think?

It may be scary. We may not have all the answers upfront, but maybe God is waiting for us to fully believe to reveal all He has planned.

To believe that His thoughts are higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:9), and that He created good works in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:10). To believe that He is the God of Heaven and Earth and able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20). 

How cool is that! How much burden does that take off of us? Let's throw away the stress and worrying about making all the right moves to be where we want to be in 10 years etc. and start with saying- yes God, I believe in you and all that you have for me! And there, in the surrender, we find our voice.

For no word from God will ever fail.

Luke 1:37

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[update]: Just read some much more eloquent thoughts from Justin Fung on this same story and doing the impossible with God here. Good stuff!

books

Hi friends!

Throughout this new journey, I have been the first to admit that I have lots to learn about missions, development, Latin American culture, women's ministry, and the list goes on. God has a great way of continually humbling me in all these areas. 

This past month, I read some great books that I wanted to recommend for anyone else interested in similar topics and share a few quotes that inspired me. Thanks to all for your recommendations! 

  

1. Serving with Eyes Wide Open- David Livermore (Doing Short-term Missions with Cultural Intelligence)

We have been so influenced by science and the comforts of life in the West that the miracles of Jesus often seem like a first century phenomenon rather than reality for today.

Missions is about giving people a living picture of who God is, what he cares about, and how he acts.

As we understand the people God has made in cultures all over the world, we're drawn to worship him.

2. Half the Sky- Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn (Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide)

Education and empowerment training can show girls that femininity does not entail docility, and can nurture assertiveness so that girls and women stand up for themselves.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) summed up the mounting research this way: “Women’s empowerment helps raise economic productivity and reduce infant mortality. It contributes to improved health and nutrition. It increases the chances of education for the next generation.”

3. When Helping Hurts- Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert (How to Alleviate Poverty without Hurting the Poor... and Yourself)

Indeed, the very nature of the question—What gifts do you have?—affirms people’s dignity and contributes to the process of overcoming their poverty of being. And as they tell us of their gifts and abilities, we can start to see them as God does, helping us to overcome our sense of superiority; that is, our own poverty of being.

God has indeed placed good gifts into every community. While sin has brought enormous brokenness, Christ has been sustaining all of creation—including culture—since the dawn of time and is in the process of reconciling all of it.

4. The Hole in Our Gospel- Richard Stearns (The Answer that Changed My Life and Might just Change the World)

There should be a balance of internal and external ministry. When our churches become spiritual spas in which we retreat from the world, our salt loses its saltiness, and we are no longer able to impact the culture. 

We tend to drift away from God's bold vision, replacing it with a safer, tamer vision of our own.

God can't give you the blessings he has for you until you first put down the other things you are clutching in your hands.

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The most generous God who gives seed to the farmer that becomes bread for your meals is more than extravagant with you. He gives you something you can give away, which grows into full-formed lives, robust in God, wealthy in every way, so that you can be generous in every way, producing with us great praise to God. 

Carrying our this social relief work involves far more than helping meet the bare needs of poor Christians. It also produces abundant and bountiful thanksgivings to God. 

2 Corinthians 9:10-11 MSG

48 hours at Oasis

Most students here go to school in the morning or afternoon. The morning session lets out before lunch and the kids from this rural town scurry back into the streets. Back into their world. When your parents work long hours in the field, you are trusted to be responsible for your siblings the rest of the day. You get around by foot or bike and are fearless to roam for whatever you may need. There's pretty good accountability in small towns, but there are also lots of potential dangers to encounter at a young age.

Left on your own after school, what do you eat for lunch?  It is likely that you do not have a kitchen or even electricity at home to warm up some leftovers. To satisfy the immediate hunger, you pull out a few pesos for some chips and a coke at the market. If there are no parents home, who is going to ensure that you do your homework? Who will come watch your soccer game? Who will know that you aren't being lured into the temptations of the streets such as vandalism, stealing or drugs? 

Oasis will. Just as the name describes, this is a place of protection for kids in Vicente Guerrero.  I wrote a bit about this program (here) after spending a week in the town this summer. Across the street from the Baja Missions church,  the vision began from the members there, and is now beginning it's fourth year as an after (or before) school program for kids of all ages. We had the opportunity to help with various projects at Oasis a couple days this week, and I loved getting to see it fill up with precious hearts and contagious laughter.

Oasis is a Christian environment that provides a safe place for kids to learn, grow and be loved. They have teachers that help with homework and provide various classes such as Bible, English, computer, or music. Oasis provides a hot nutritional meal, which may be the only one they eat all day. They talk about dreams and encourage children to pursue their passions.  They play, form friendships and have mentors that desire to guide them along good paths.

This great place was started by our friend, Karly Dallas, a native from North Carolina who moved down with big dreams, a bigger heart, and huge trust in God to create and sustain this program. Karly meets with parents upon their child's enrollment and gets to know each child and where they come from. A Spanish and Psychology major from Pepperdine, she reasons with the children out of love and has fostered this program's continued growth each year. She fights for justice and equality for the migrant workers and their families by seeing that the children receive adequate education in fulfillment of their often discriminated rights.  The list goes on and on in the many ways that she is a light to this community!

It is so fun to be at this place and absorb the growth that is taking place each day.  Please pray for Karly, her staff and all the lives they will touch as they kick off a new school year.

We are so thankful to be friends of Oasis and wish many more great days to come!   

daily desperation

I have safely returned to Ensenada from a great trip back home (Gracias a Dios!). Slowly hit with reverse culture shock upon arrival in Nashville, the phrase that kept ringing in my mind was our daily desperation for Jesus. All of my life, I have never been desperate for primary needs such as shelter, food, water, health or even emotional and spiritual ones such as loving relationships or a church family. Wow. Even to type that is such a blessing. Riding on our various comforts in life, I have been so easily blinded to the daily desperation we have for Jesus each and every day.  Yes, we cry out to Him as our Lord when we face a disaster, loss or sickness and we trust in Him as our Savior that will be there to meet us when its all said and done but what about right now? What about when we are so blessed to go through each day with minimal worries and often allow the devil to fill up our thoughts with unneeded stress and negativity?  He reminds me that even we are too distracted to notice, we are just as desperate for Him.

As I have shared with many of you, something I love so much about the Christian faith here in Mexico is that the plan making is left up to God. Meaning that the conversations go something like this: "In December I am going to visit my relatives if God wants" or "If God allows, we plan to be there on Saturday." Also, when you thank someone for a meal a common response is "Thanks be to God."  The first few times I heard these phrases they stopped my continually churning brain to look up and say- "Yes, God. It is you."

It is He who controls all that we are. He created us and knows each one of our days to come. As we often reflect on having too many possessions, I am challenged by the reality that the excessive planning and striving may point to some doubt that HE is not enough. How often do we equate enough by having enough stuff? Enough money, enough qualifications on our resume, enough clothes, enough food? In my few years of life, I can testify that each of these things will never last. The money runs out, someone else is always more qualified, the styles are always changing faster than the seasons, and when we think we don't have enough food there's usually a full pantry and fridge full. Why are we striving so hard to keep up with the ways of the world?

It is all about perspective. Jesus is just as alive today on Earth as he was 2,000 years ago. May we continually strive to fix our eyes on His goodness and fall before Him in daily desperation as our Creator, Friend, Provider, Defender and True Love. Through this, may our "have tos" become "get tos" and our reactions in all situations be filled with His praise.

He is living in us, fighting for us and more than capable to provide for us. Let us rejoice in who God is and trust that He is enough! His grace is sufficient. His mercy reigns. We are desperate for Him. We are desperate for His spirit. A resource that will never run dry. Thank you Jesus!

The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. 

Isaiah 58:11

Your heart is my home

I am not alone. Your heart is my home.  Let the world hear your beautiful voice...

Something they need to hear. Something I need to hear. Something we all need to hear. The voice of Jesus.  I meet families like this, and I feel helpless. I fear for their loneliness and days of temptation.

I had the chance to work with the last City of Children mission team from Pennsylvania this week on benevolence visits to the church members in Maneadero.  It was a great blessing to meet and share moments in song and prayer with our brothers and sisters there.

On Tuesday, we met these sweet siblings who received us in their home alone. It is not unusual to meet young children home alone during the day while their parents are at work.  They know and trust the preacher and will allow us to come in. These kids did not have parents at work but three older brothers. The oldest is 20 followed by an 18 and 17 year old (I believe). They work full time and only the youngest two are still in school.  Five siblings. One girl and four boys. They live alone and support themselves.  Their father lives in the U.S. and their mother abandoned them some years ago.

We share how proud we are of them for going to church and taking on such great responsibilities at such a young age. They shyly sing 'Cristo me ama' (Jesus loves me) with us and allow us to pray for their family. Their faces light up as we leave behind some candy in addition to the food packs, and we hope to brighten their day with smiles and hugs.

I leave there feeling so empty. With so many questions. Their small 2 room house was one of the cleanest I have visited. It is overwhelming to think of such a lifestyle but amazing to remember that God holds these children in his Hand just as tightly as each one of us.

What a blessing it is they have this church family to care for and look after them. What a greater assurance that they have a loving heavenly Father who knows them and longs to show his love for them.  I pray that they hear the voice of God and feel his love, peace, provision, hope for their futures, strength in their weak moments and protection against the evil one.

His heart tells us we are not alone.

My sweet friend Cristina, who has spent the summer serving at the City of Children also wrote a beautiful piece on the loneliness and hopelessness that so easily overcome our precious niños at the orphanage here.

We often do not know the right words to say, but we are here to be Jesus. The one who rescued us from the enemy and lights up our darkness. 

God's way is perfect. All the Lord's promises prove true. He is a shield for all who look to him for protection. 

Psalm 18:38

grand finale

My last week with the Baja Missions summer groups was spent with a blended team from Florida to California that came to support the church in Vicente Guerrero and Oasis. Oasis is a Christian after school program for children that helps with homework, provides computer classes, teaches the Bible and English, and provides a warm meal. It is very common for kids to be left alone all day when their parents are at work without any supervision with the responsibility to care for the rest of their siblings. Oasis provides a safe place for children to learn, grow and be loved.

The group installed a new water system at Oasis and added on a storage space, an extra bathroom and an office for the director, Karly. Karly moved from the U.S. 3 years ago and began this program. They now have over 90 kids enrolled with a waiting list of about 30.  Located across the street from the church, they have a great partnership and are making a great impact on the community.

Besides construction, the group hosted a VBS at the church in the morning and a traveling medical clinic.  We sat up the clinic at the Oasis building, Trique village (people originally from Oaxaca who speak Trique), the church in Colonet, and Las Aves (a nearby area to Vicente Guerrero).  

We had a great week with the church members and enjoyed partnering together to serve a small portion of the surrounding community. We had a joyous ending to the week with a wedding in the afternoon and a baptism later that night for our brother Isaac. God is good!

We have one last team here now with Baja Missions from Ohio working with the church in Camalu. Please pray for these efforts! It has been a crazy whirlwind working with groups since the end of May. We are so thankful for all of those who take time out of their summers to serve God's kingdom in Baja.  Dios bueno es!

looking backwards

I got to spend the week of July 13 with a group from Massachusetts, Texas, and Virginia. This was their first time coming as their own group, and we had a great week serving in Papalote.  The group planned fellowship activities for the first three nights having a cookout, movie night, and game night. It was great to see the participation and community that has formed at this church in just one year.  The last 2 nights, they hosted a VBS with classes for the children and adults. The kids learned about the armor of God and created some of their own armor in crafts.  

During the day, this team worked tirelessly at the building. They painted the entire inside of the church building and finished out the front wall, put up the walls for the classrooms and painted them, installed door frames and exterior lights, re-touched paint on the exterior walls and much more. Also, the team made almost 30 house visits. They had a doctor who was able to provide medical attention on some of the visits and delivered benevolence bags with bath soap, towels, and detergent.  For a team of 19 people, each person used their gifts in great ways and served with great joy.

Thursday morning, Alfonso and Angie took us out to La Lobera a beach lookout south of Papalote. There was a big hole that you could look down into and see sea lions swimming around. It was a beautiful way to end a great week! 

Bendiciones

Hola amigos! It is safe to say Baja summer is in full blast, and I struggle to find the time to give a couple updates about the blessings God has been sending us lately. Two weeks ago now, I worked with the second team from Mayfair. Over 90 people came down to serve that week, and it was an action packed blast. They had a full medical clinic during the days, renovated the teen classroom, made numerous house visits and evangelized in surrounding neighborhoods, had a special lunch for the teen girls with painting, set up a full barber shop outside and gave numerous haircuts, participated in a spirited Mexico vs. USA world cup soccer game with home made jerseys, and had a powerful VBS focused on reviving our heart, mind, soul and hope.  I had a chance to give the ladies' class on hope Wednesday night, and it was a great blessing to share each night with them. We are so thankful for the work and dedication that Mayfair provides year around for Baja. It was so neat witnessing many friendships that were formed many years ago.

I am just returning from a great week in Papalote with a team that came together from Massachusetts, Texas, and Virginia. Angie described it best when she said "Normally we receive small blessings a little at a time, but right now I feel like they are pouring down."

The blessings continue to pour in today as we set out for Vicente Guerrero with the Oasis group. Please pray for this work!! Dios les bendiga!

family and sacrifice

These two words have been on my mind this week.  I spent the past 6 days in San Quintin with a youth group from Mayfair in Huntsville, AL.  This was the first time they have brought specifically teens, and it was a blast.  One of my favorite things was getting to witness many families serve God together. There were various parents and kids, whole families, and even 3 generations in the group.  It was exciting to see the passion these parents have for putting God first and the amazing ways we experience His love serving together.

During the week, it was also fun to see the families to introduce their sons/daughter/parents/siblings to our brothers and sisters here at the church in San Quintin.  We were extremely touched by the family we were building a house for and learned what being a family is all about.  We heard amazing stories of their sacrifice for one another and the love that they have as we got to know them throughout the week.  This family had been living in a one room house made out of cardboard with an open roof.  It had one bed where the six kids slept, and the parents slept on the floor. We learned that the parents work in an onion field about an hour away, and the mom wakes up a 3 am to start a fire to prepare lunch for the kids before she and her husband leave for work before sunrise.

Thanks to God's provision, this group built the family a new two bedroom house with new beds, mattresses and a stove.  It was a very emotional morning as the group said goodbye celebrating our bond as a church family as our hearts were broken in awe of how hard these parents work to provide for their children.  They taught me about what it really means to love someone so much to sacrifice everything for them.  I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to meet this sweet, loving and humble family and am looking forward to spending more time with them.  I am shaken with a new image of the great love God has for us to sacrifice all he had to give us a better life as His children.

Lord willing, we are headed back down to San Quintin this weekend with another group from Mayfair. Dios bueno es!!