Monterrey Mexico!

I{m at a Comfort Suites sitting on the floor in the lobby in Monterrey Mexico. As you can probably tell from the last sentance I typed, the keyboard is set up as a spanich keyboard. lol. All the symbols are in the wrong spots, and I don{t feel like correcting myself. lol. Anyway, we´re here on a mission trip to the poor children that live next to a dump. We are doing VBS in the morning, and street evangalism in the afternoon. So far it has been fun, even though we´ve only been here 1 day. If you ever feel like going to Mexico, Monterrey is a pretty cool city to visit and I would reccommend it.

Dude that's awesome!  Our first post from Mexico (May-HEE-co).  You're doin' a great work, man   Human service is always the best way to reconnect to what really matters in life!

That´s so true, I guess since I started this little thread I might as well go ahead and give updates for those that are interisted... so here is the first:

There was a lot of crazy stuff that happened today, there were problems with the rental vechicles that we had to get because customs wouldn´t let us take our mini bus across the border, then there were unexpected delays that kept us from getting to the VBS at the dump as early as we had planned, and it took us like an hour out of our way to get to lunch because we had to eat by the airport because of the rental issues. We ended up with exactly the vehicle we needed though, and are really happy about the way God worked things out.

We also went to this huge park and did some evangalism stuff, it was pretty awesome, and this was just the first day. We split up into three groups. One group actually talked to someone that got saved tonight, my group ended up talking to a 16 year old kid that attends the Church of Satan. That was really cool to be able to minister to him. We also got in a girls quiencenierro (I really don´t know if I came anywhere close to spelliong that right.. haha) video that her family was making to show at her quiencenierro. They wanted us to dance... but I can´t... sooo hahah. Hopefully tomorrow is a bit less crazy then today, but just as awesome.

Way to go Chris... hope you have a successful trip 

thankyou more to come later today.

Yesterday was rather eventful. We had a good morning with the VBS for the kids near/in the dump, and a good lunch. Then during our evangalism time in a different location there were 3 different people that got saved! One encouraging thing was that my group ended up talking to three or four local Christians. This was surprising because the vast majority of Monterrey is catholic (about 90%) so it was nice to meet and encourage the ones that we talked to. Among other things we played cards with the local church teens last night and I ended up losing one game and had to eat a habanero... those things will kill you. haha. More to come later!

Please say the meal WASN'T from the dump!

You pre-empted me Mr B. I guess it tests one's faith... mine just to think about it (? ) I suppose the first missionaries drank all those microbes without knowing what their potential converts had in their guts.

  Perfect joke for a microbiologist! 

lol to both of you hahaha. And no the meal was at some local restraunt... don´t remember which one. We have had 2 rather productive daays again, and the trip really seems to be going well despite all the trouble that we have been through like not being able to bring our bus, last minute changes, and so on. One minor side note, out of nowhere last night I was asked to go see an Emery concert that just happened to be going on in Monterrey. Unfortunately, my mother decided that she didn´t want me going (funny that I needed my mother´s permission since I´m an adult... but anyway.) I just thought that it was pretty random that my favorite band happened to be playing a show in the city in Mexico that I was in, and I had tickets avaliable. lol. Strange how things like that happen.

Well it's none of my business dude, and I do admire the fact that you are prepared to acquiesce with your Mums wishes... but maybe it's time that she realised that her little boy has all growed up and can think for himself!

Shoot if they are still playing tonight, or tomorrow, go and see them because like you said "it was pretty random that my favorite band happened to be playing a show in the city in Mexico". Sometimes these things happen for a reason. 

ya, unfortunately I thought of that a bit later, cause I don't think it was random at all. Unfortunately though they played one night and I missed it. I know what you mean about releasing me. haha. It is weird, I came on this trip as an adult, however, I was treated like the youth that came with us even though I made sure that they were staying in line, whenever something went wrong, it was assumed that I was part of it. But whatever, I'm only 20, so people don't realize that I am more grown up than they would like to think, and I couldn't let something like that ruin this trip for me or anyone else that God wanted me to have a good attitude around.

Anyway, this is the last update from Mexico. We are leaving at 6:00 this morning. The week was very powerful and productive. I met a lot of really cool people, and wish that (despite the heat) I could stay here with these people. The total number of people that made descisions to follow Christ this week was over 30, and fortunately there is a very very good church to follow up with all of those people. One of the coolest things that took place was with a pregnant lady that we met at the dump. One of our group (an 85 year old woman that acts like she's 45) knitted a pair of booties for the coming child. The mother was so greatful that when she had the baby earlier this week, she named the child after the lady. Even the troubles that we had turnned out to be perfect. On the trip down, we spent 3 hours in Mexican Customs because they wouldn't let us take our bus through, so we ended up having to rent a second van. While this seemed to be a MAJOR hassle, not only did we get the PERFECT vehicle, but we also shortly realized that the bus would have been impossible to navigate through many of the areas that we needed to go. It was really amazing to see how God worked things out for us. Thanks for keeping us in mind and prayers, and the same would be appreciated for our 13+ hour drive back home.

Reading this posting has been really heartening... good on you mate for doing this, and thanks for sharing it 

Hope the trip home is a peaceful one.

You are welcome. I am gonna put pics of the trip up on my myspace soon, and I'll link here so you guys can see the areas we were at. The trip home was good, no breakdowns or anything, that was nice. A few people were sick (the runs) which made for some funny stories, but they are all ok now. That was the only real drama of the ride home though. One side note though, I met a guy that went to the church we were working with that is a professional programmer interested in animation (wants to work at pixar) so I think we are going to collaborate on a cinematic in the Unreal 3 Engine. Possible one that we submit to the Make Something Unreal contest.

This has been probably the neatest thread here at Skinyourscreen.com

Helps re-realize that it's the people in our lives that matter, not the things we accumulate or all the things we can do.  Relationships count