Thanksgiving in Mexico!

Hello Beautiful people!

I am afraid I have been terrible at keeping you up to date on what is happening these days.

For those who do not know (which, at this point would be most, if not all of you) over the course of the past month or so I applied and was accepted to co-lead a trip of fellow students down into Mexico for the Thanksgiving holidays!

I believe that God does incredible things in the lives of people who are willing to put themselves in a position to be used, perhaps especially when we allow him to take us out of our cultural context. This is something I have been able to experience for myself in the past, with India and South Africa. The reason I signed up for a leadership role, rather than to 'simply' be a team member is for that very reason. God has shown me incredible things, He causes great deals of change and growth, in absolutely beautiful ways, and it is something I trust He has given me the ability to pass along to others. The thought of coming alongside another (or a group of others, as it is) to seek to imitate Christ, to serve the people in another place, and to be able to encourage and facilitate that growth is incredibly exciting...and incredibly frightening at the same time!

This will be the first time I get to help lead a group on a trip like this. Because of that I am nervous. God has provided a wonderful co-leader, Brea Harris, a freshman from Alaska, and wonderful support from leaders of other teams who I have come to know bit-by-bit over the past weeks. Because of that I am encouraged. I have never been to Mexico, nor do I speak much more than a word of Spanish. Nervous. Several of the team members we have been paired with do speak the language, and one of our members has lead teams in the past. Encouraging!

We will be contacting a church near Mexicali, where we will partner with/serve the people. At this point we do not know specifically what we will be doing, as it depends on the church we are grouped with and the needs they would like us to help fill. Right now we are preparing ourselves in less ministry-specific ways. We are praying together, recruiting additional members (we are a team of 6 right now, with max capacity of 14!), we are thinking through ways to fundraise for supplies, and we are getting to know each other.

(OK!)

This is where you come in! Would you please pray with us? Pray for the team to come together with a sense of unity, pray that funds would come in so that we can do the work God has already had planned for us before we even knew we would be going to Mexico. Pray for the people down there, the church and those we meet on the in-betweens. Pray for every interaction we will have, for safety on the drive there and back, for safety in health for the five days we will be there (the 23rd-27th).

Would you also pray that we are able to find consistent times to meet through the weeks leading up to the trip, schedules are busy and varied between even 6 people and finding times that work for all has been trying, to say the least. Please pray also for the people we will talk with between now and the trip who may be in a place where God has opened this door and they need only walk through it. Please pray for the families of those who will be in Mexico during a family-oriented time. Would this small sacrifice be pleasing to God and would it be so much more than a five day trip to another country. Our prayer is that lives are truly forever changed.

(This one is just for fun)...

I will be posting more to keep you up to date in the weeks ahead, and will absolutely let you all know about the journey when it has lead us back to school. Thank you all for your prayers, they are so much appreciated. And trust that God hears when you pray, know that He is listening, pray earnestly with us. Prayer is such a wonderful gift, we can come and SPEAK to the creator of the UNIVERSE on a personal level! Be bold and ask Him for big things, for clear guidance and for protection when obstacles appear.

Until next time!

-MT

Faces from the Past and Traces of a Future

Three years.

At least, nearly that.

Three years since something incredible.

Three years and I still do not know the words to show you.

Three years since a journey that saw 17 people - once strangers but now joined as brothers and sisters - board a plane bound for India...

That journey changed my life. That journey is still changing my life; still forming, shaping, moulding the way I see...the way that I look at prayer.

Three years ago I did not know their faces, I did not know their names. I had never heard their voices, or seen the light within their eyes. Such a blessing it has been, now three years later, to say all that is different.

To those of you who know, and those of you who don't, I am thinking of the children whom we met along the way. Along a path so steep at times it made you question "what's the point?" But then you enter in, into another world. You enter the places where they live, you see a village spread out along the hills. They come running from all directions, smiling, laughing, speaking...

They are the reason we came.

Brothers and sisters, those who were with me - who know the same faces, heard the same voices and learned the same names - and those who were not there. Remember with me now, the things that were once so strong and clear. Remember them. And remember the one who took us to them.

Dream with me now. Revive a dormant passion. Imagine, those same communities so changed, so powerfully and completely transformed. Imagine a generation, different from all the rest. Imagine those who grew up knowing group after group coming into their homes, speaking a brand new language. Not a language conveyed by the mouths of man, but one carried on through faithful hearts. Imagine a generation growing up knowing, somehow, there is a different norm. Imagine visions, dreams, a voice calling through the valley. Young children growing up, taking the place of leaders before them, with a new and altered understanding, backed by the prayers of so many who have been blessed by them throughout the years. Imagine joining together, now, with many, in praying once again.

He said "two or more," but imagine hundreds! Come back with me a moment, and recall the wondrous things. So much accomplished through prayer, through joining together in seeking a Will much greater than our own. Dare to ask for amazing things, and know that it can be!

Dear brothers and sisters, let me paint for you a picture. A vision. Capture again the faces and the places. Hold them tight within your heart. Think of them and wonder, what has happened since we left? Picture all those children, sitting in the village centre, for a time only playing games, but in a far more subtle way, being shaped and challenged to take another look. Another look at how community is done, another look and what it means to love. Those hearts and minds, from the moment they are able to remember, being affected bit by bit through those who followed some call. Imagine now, they are grown, suddenly it's up to them. What a glorious opportunity! Think how different things might be! You know the changes that took place while we were with them there, imagine now how that could be a place with freedom to ask new things, to change somehow. Just picture what could happen there!

See how those faces begin to shine, see it with your heart. There is a picture I recall, the sun was going down beyond the distant mountains. And as it started to disappear, such radiance it left behind...traces of what could await. Traces such radiant joy, matched by those small, smiling faces.

Let us not forget that time, the places or the people. Join with me again in prayer! He said "Two or more," but imagine hundreds!