October Newsletter

Dear Friends, Family, and Partners in Mission,

I can hardly believe that another month has gone by! Casey (my co-intern) and I marvel daily at the fact that we are actually living in Mexico and doing all that we are doing. Time is moving along so quickly here!

In this past month, we have continued to visit the churches and get to know the pastors and the congregations. Our schedule involves going to a different church service every night of the week at a different church, and two services each Sunday. Because we are working with the six different churches, we put a lot of thought into where we go to ensure that we are visiting them all equally.

We're past the "new kid" stage here. We know the churches, and they know us. We are greeted warmly in each church, but the greetings are different now because the relationships are different, more developed. It is funny to think back to just two months ago, and think about the "deer in headlights" look we must have given everyone then, and rejoice now at how far God has brought us in our relationships.

In addition to visiting churches, we also have been inviting the pastors over for dinner and time to fellowship. This has been a great way to invest in these relationships because it is a time to get to know them better, share our stories, and share our hearts. Because we are not leading any ministries in any churches at this time, it has been a great way for the pastors to get to know us as well!

We also have been acting as liaisons between the pastors and our missionary hosts (Rick and Tammie Romano) as they are touring the US to raise support for the ministry and further build relationships with the churches that come down to Ensenada to work with us. It has been a great opportunity and blessing to be able to be this involved with the ins and outs of the ministry. Because the pastors must go through us to talk to Rick and Tammie at this time, we are gaining good experience in the nitty-gritty of the ministry.

A major portion of our time at this point has been dedicated to our studies. A dynamic of this Praxis year involves Biblical and Mission studies. We meet with our teacher, Chuck, twice a week to discuss the studies and study independently each morning using the materials he has given us.

This month, we have focused on the book of Colossians and different techniques of Bible Study. Each unit focuses on a different study method, each one moving from observation and questioning to application.

As we send all our work to Chuck, who is in California, via e-mail, we essentially have a personal biblical tutor. He sends back feedback and questions to push our thinking and processing. It has been a very cool process and I have been amazed at how much I have been pulling out of each study.

These studies were slightly intimidating for me at first because I have no training in theologies or formal Bible studies. However, it has been a blessing to be able to discuss all these things that are so new to me and so relevant to our lives, both at home and in Mexico.

Above is a picture that was taken on October 4th outside the Alex Campos concert. They had a parade to escort us all into the concert.

Talking sincerely…

A few nights ago, we went to Roca Fuerte (Strong Rock) church. Casey and I have been trying to get a feel for all the ministries at the churches, so when the children left for "Kiddie Church", I left with them. Roxsy, the pastor's wife, normally leads children's worship, but due to unforeseen circumstances, she was unable to prepare the lesson. She asked me if I could do something, and we wound up teaching the story of Joseph, together. It was nice to be able to help out in a pinch, but the best part was the time we had to talk afterward. Roxsy shared with me a lot of things that had been on her heart about their church and the things she was struggling with. It was a great time to talk about the issues the churches here are having, get to understand her better, and pray for her and Roca Fuerte. Encouraging the pastors in their ministries is one of the big goals Casey and I have here; and to be able to start doing that because our relationships have a strong base now, was so exciting!

Let's get personal…

This month has really been full of a lot of ups and downs for me. Homesickness finally set in, providing some downs, but God has also shown up in powerful ways, with some awesome ups! One such up is that I was baptized on Oct. 5 in the Pacific! After much prayer, I made the decision to be baptized in obedience to God's command for all believers. We had been studying baptism in our Bible Institute with Pancho, and I decided to respond to God's call.

Casey and I have also been praying that God would give us His eyes to see where He wants us to work and what He wants us to do, and it has been awesome how He has been opening doors through conversations and the relationships we've built.

Above is a picture of Jesus and Leo (left and middle), two of the people with whom I was baptized. They are a really awesome couple. Please be praying for them because they might have to move from the area if they don't find work soon.

PRAYER IS FUEL!

Please join us as we pray for the ministry down here in Ensenada, Mexico. Specifically we ask that you would pray for these things:

o Unity among the pastors as they work together within the Alliance

o Guidance for Casey and me as we seek God's will for us within this ministry

o Safety for the children, as October is a month in which many children are kidnapped and sacrificed by the Satanists (a practice that is much more common here than in the US)

o Flexibility as life is going to change drastically when Rick and Tammie get back to Mexico and we start different work with them

Thank you for all your prayers. It is an encouragement to know that so many of you are interceding on our behalf!

love.love.love

Casa Gabriel (Gabriel House)

::Background info:: Gabriel House is a ministry that houses and cares for children with special needs here in Maneadero, Mexico. I went today to visit to set up a time for a short term team to come work with the ministry in June. I had never met any of these people before, and was being oriented slightly with the ins and outs of the ministry, while metting the children and the people who run the program.

The sun was warm on my face and arms. The sound of children laughing and playing sang joyfully in the background as I was being given an explanation of Gabriel House. I had been playing with a little girl named Irene, helping her on and off the trampoline, and now she was in my arms.

The explanation paused, and suddenly I heard, "So I see you've met Irene. She is 5 years old, but she's not as active as she should be because we have her on sedatives. She has ADD and is HIV positive. Due to her ADD, she has been overly active and excited, and bites people..."

The rest of the explanation fell on deaf ears because I was immediately transported to a different world. I thought of how many sermons and talks I had heard about people suffering from HIV, and suddenly, all those people and this big disease that before seemed so far away were crashing into my world. It was no longer a disease that I know about because Bono speaks out about it. It was no longer a (RED) GAP shirt that I wear to show solidarity for a cause. It was no longer a red bracelet around my wrist; no longer a month in which we wear red ribbons on our shoulders. It was (and is) a disease running through the veins of little Irene in my arms.

Sadly, in the shock of this knowledge, my initial reaction was to think about my own health. I felt my body tense with momentary fear. I instantly felt guilty for my selfishness. I thought about all the times I had been taught exactly how HIV is transmitted, and knew that holding this little girl was actually somewhat dangerous because of her biting problem, but I felt my arms wanting to hold her tighter and show her that I cared about her.

This all happened in an instant, in just a moment in time, but the impact it had on me will be everlasting. My heart aches for Irene and all the other children in Gabriel House that are affected by HIV. I'm overwhelmed with emotions I don't even know how to express.

Words are not enough to express the intensity of emotions that are running through me right now. I have never personally encountered HIV before now, and any of you who have, probably know the kind of feeling I'm talking about, but it isn't just shock, there is something so much more here. All of me aches from this emotion that I cannot adequately express with words. I'm sorry that this is so jumbled and all over the place.

I don't know where these feelings will lead me or how the Holy Spirit is moving in my heart exactly at this moment, but I do know that my heart is different. The feelings are too strong to ignore and there is no doubt in my mind that God is showing me something here. Please pray for me as I try to discern what it is.

Baptisms!

On October 5, 2008 I was baptized on the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Baja California, Mexico.

This is something I have been thinking about doing for a long time, but waiting for confirmation from God.

Mat. 28:19, 20 "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."

Nowhere in the Bible does it say that baptism saves you, but Jesus DID command his disciples to go out and baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Baptism is done when someone repents of their sins and turns to God as an outward sign of our commitment to follow Christ. It is a symbol of my willingness and commitment to live with Christ and partake in His life, death, and resurrection. I was baptized as a baby in the Episcopal Church, but that was not my decision. Since I HAVE made a decision as an adult to follow Christ, I wanted to make that declaration for myself and obey His command to be baptized as a believer.

There were 6 of us who were baptized, two at a time. It was really awesome to be baptized with these people, especially Chuy and Leo, a couple from Reynerio's church. They recently made the decision to follow Christ and are SO on fire! They were both so excited to be baptized. I've been able to get to know them better in these past two months and they have a VERY special place in my heart.

Below is a slideshow of some of the things we've done in October -- the concert, the baptisms, and Beer-in-the-Rear Chicken (HEY! it merited photos!)... enjoy!

Three musketeers...

BTW-- we are soon to be three instead of two...

Another lovely young lady named Sarah will be joining our Praxis number in November. She was here this summer and will be back to work with us for the rest of the year. :o)

Casey and I are really excited... it's gonna be great.

Variety is the Spice of Life

I'm guessing you're all getting bored with these heady and seemingly very unhelpful updates about what I've been up to here in Maneadero. I get caught up between pouring my heart out into cyberspace and giving you all tangible things to think about!

Just to give you an idea... Last weekend was jam-packed. Saturday, we drove down to San Quintin in the van (which Casey and I have lovingly dubbed the "Man Van").

One thing I am quickly learning is that EVERYTHING in life is an adventure. :o) It was an adventure just organizing this trip because between all of us who wanted to go, we had to figure out who could drive. There were about 30 of us who WANTED to go, but no one has cars that can make the two and a half hour trip to San Quintin (besides us with the Man Van). Not wanting to squeeze 30 people into the van and be responsible for them while driving down crazy winding highway in Mexico, I had to put my foot down and only take as many people as I had seat belts (8). That's not the Mexican way, but, like I said before, I'm not Mexican. :o)

So in the end, only about 20 of us went, and Isai's car was packed well up to maximum capacity, not at all taking into account the number of seat belts. But even once we had the transportation settled, it was crazy to figure out when to leave. We agreed, after much discussion, on 12pm, in order to get to San Quintin with enough time to enjoy the festival and then be there for the concert.

We have a running joke here that whenever you make plans with some one, and you set a time, you usually also have to specify whether you are talking Mexican time or American time. American time means that it WILL happen at the hour agreed upon, Mexican time, however, means that you could wait up to an hour, or even hour and a half, before the plans actually come to fruition.

We wound up leaving on Mexican time... 1:15pm on Saturday. After much waiting, stalling, coordinating, we were FINALLY on the road to San Quintin for this concert that was promised to be AMAZING! Casey and I really wanted to get there because, thinking like pragmatic americans, if we were going to drive 5 hours (there and back) for this thing, we wanted to at least BE in the place we were going longer than the travel time it took to get there and back! With each minute that passed our pragmatism diminished slightly...

So, we were at least on the road at 1:15--not so bad. We're driving along, I'm following Isai because I have no idea how to get to San Quintin, and after about 15 minutes of travel, Isai pulls off the highway and into the "parking lot" of a convenience store... mind you, we had just been at a gas station where they had a convenience store only 15 minutes earlier...

I'm the kind of person who embarks on a road trip and DRIVES until the gas tank runs out, making people "hold it" until we either run out of gas or reach our destination! (Must have something to do with how we did road trips growing up...) Casey and I exchanged glances and both threw our hands up in the air... "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!". We walked in, grabbed some grub with the rest.

::NOTE:: Please know that all this is being written with a huge smile on my face, because you can't help but embrace the differences in culture, the differences in views on time, planning, and road-tripping. I LOVE these people and it makes me laugh to experience all these things that are SO far out of my normal realm of experiences. Please also note that not ALL Mexicans show up late. Very many of my friends here try to be VERY conscientious of punctuality ::NOTE::

The trip itself was not all that bad. We drove down highway 1, the only "major" highway that goes from the top of Baja to the bottom. It was windy and curvy and nestled in the mountains that run along our beautiful peninsula.

We got to San Quintin at 3:30ish to find that there wasn't actually a festival at all, but rather, a long line of people waiting to get into the concert (that started at 6). So all our rushing and planning and pushing really was a joke in the end anyway, because we really didn't need to get there as early as we did! It seemed like icing on the cake of our day of inside-out, upside-down, cultural baptism by fire.

The concert itself was AMAZING! One of the best parts was that it was FREE! Other than paying for gas and food, we didn't have to pay a thing. The headlining artist was Alex Campos, who I had never heard of before. He is from Colombia and has a really cool latino rock sound to his music. I really enjoyed the concert and bought his CD on iTunes when we got home! His lyrics are really powerful and he has a great mix of sounds and beats on the CD. I highly recommended you go get it if you can (and if you speak Spanish)!

The concert ended at 11, we were all tired and ready to go home, but we couldn't find Perla and her friend Blanca. We sent the men out to look for her and the rest of us waited in the cars. Finally, the two girls materialized with the "search party".

The way home was fine, everyone fell asleep, but I told Casey that if she was going to sit in the front, that she wasn't allowed to fall asleep--it's the rule! It started to rain on the way home, for like the third time in the past 100 years (haha, not really...). Since it barely rains here, the people are not used to driving in the rain--they are EXTRA cautious, so cautious that they drive 20 miles an hour on the highway. It drove me nuts, but once you get to a certain point, all you can do is laugh. And laugh. And laugh.

Great day... great concert, great drive, great people, great cultural experiences, great cold weather... just great.

Then, on Sunday, I was baptized in the Pacific Ocean. They dunked me. I will have a whole separate blog on that complete with pictures and video once I get them from Casey's camera. I promise. For now, this blog post is TOO LONG, so I will leave you itching for the story of my baptism in the next post. :o)

Hurricane Norbert

For all those of you who are concerned for our safety because you have heard that Hurricane Norbert is hitting Baja California this weekend, fear not... see below


Norbert will hit Baja California SUR... we are miles and miles and miles from where it is hitting our peninsula... so fear not.

I just thought I'd put your minds at ease.

Los anhelos de mi corazon

It is very easy to get to a place, see what's going on, and become overwhelmed with what the people are doing, what the people want you to do, and lose focus of the passions God has laid on your very unique heart (because He has made all our hearts unique). It is very easy to desire so much to be a help that you will bend and twist what God has laid on your heart to make it fit the mold of what you are being pushed into.

There is definitely something to be said for flexibility and meeting the needs as they are presented before you, but at the same time, there is also merit in remembering who God has created you to be and what He has made you passionate about. Recently, I have been focusing so hard on understanding where my gifts can fit into the ministries that are already running here, that I have been trying to squeeze myself into a mold into which I do not fit.

God did not call me here to "be a Mexican". To all of you reading, that may seem quite obvious. You might even say to me, "Kourtney, that is quite silly! How can you be just like the Mexicans? You are American." But for some reason, I had this silly idea in my head that in order to be an effective servant and missionary, I had to meld into the culture and blend in perfectly. My unconscious goal was to "fit in" and work with the people by "becoming one of them".

I see now, that is pretty much an impossible goal. No matter how comfortable I become or how comfortable the people here become with me, I will never BE an inherent part of their community--"one of them", for lack of a better term. And, this is not a bad thing.

::Sorry if this all seems so very obvious to the rest of you::

I am currently enjoying the freedom God has given me to be myself among people who are inherently different from me and within a culture that is not my own. Up until now, I have been holding back on a lot of opinions, shying away from conversations on controversial topics, and trying to appease many of the very conservative beliefs surrounding me.

Now, instead of walking on eggshells, constantly being afraid of offending someone, I am enjoying the beauty of our differences. Neither one of us is better than the other, just different. And God did not create me just like the people here. In our differences, we are going to learn from one another.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not going around picking fights with everyone or praying the Rosary (which would be a heresy to the Protestant Church here), but I am feeling free to express my opinions when the opportunity arises to discuss them. The key is not to blend in and pretend I'm just like them, but to grow together in mutual respect to come to a better understanding and better place, in closer connection with God.

"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden." Matthew 5:14

I understand that this verse was not written to encourage our individuality and rights to self-expression, but as God is calling us to be the salt and light of the earth, He is calling us all to do it according to who He created us to be. Here, Jesus is getting at the fact that it is illogical to cover up the light He has put inside you, but this verse comes to mind because, in being salt and light, God is not calling us to be something we are not, but to rather be exactly who He has called us to be--His faithful followers. And as a faithful follower of Christ, I am obligated to bear witness to the ways in which He has worked in my life and how He has shaped me.

All this to say that not only am I praying that God would show me where He wants to plug me into the ministry here, but also praying that He would show me (and remind me) more clearly how my passions and who I am as a person fit into my calling of being a servant and a light among those in my community.

But in tandem with this, I also ask that He would continue to change and shape me. It does no good to settle into who I am at this very instant and refuse the Potter's hand as He works in me. Rather, I desire to stay true to the work He has done up to this point and still willingly receive the works that are yet to come, asking for wisdom to know the difference between the two.

Mission-minded

This has very little to do with Mexico, other than the fact that people in Africa are suffering, just like the people I'm serving here... but for all of you who are mission-minded and have hearts to serve and give, I thought you might appreciate this. Please watch it. :o) Please consider giving.


The September Campaign Trailer from charity: water on Vimeo.

A small digression

so because i love spain so much, and i've been looking for this video online since i got back two and a half years ago... my finding it now merits my putting it up as a remembrance of the previous time i spent in a spanish-speaking country