Some photos

Carlos Durán makes beautiful arepas.



Bryon and Pat are very good buddies.



That statue's moving!!



1 strike and you're out in vocab baseball.



"Look-out tower" Greg scans the horizon at the zoo park.

Way too long since last post

And this one isn't too long. Just wanted to let y'all know I'll be leaving Mérida on July 24th, will spend a couple days debreifing with Bryon and Emily in Margaritas, and will be back in Seattle at 9:20 pm on Saturday the 28th.

This last month ministry has mainly involved the summer project team. The past couple weeks I've been the jefe (boss) as Bryon and Emily were at CM2007 in Korea (they'll be back later today). I'll post some photos soon!

The congreso and the eyeball experience

The national congreso (conference), Solo Uno, was held at a location replete with rainy weather and approximately 3 quadrillion flies (I knew we should have opted for the basic package). Despite this, the feedback I have heard from students has all been positive. Many are now ready to trust God with another step of faith and have decided to participate in missions whether on a short term summer project or doing STINT in the future. Pray that God will give them strength and faith to follow through on their commitments!

Today I got some contact lenses. The process was less involved than I thought it would be- even getting them in and out wasn't terrible (though I didn't put them in myself). It remains to be seen whether this will be a permanent eyewear change

Poetry analysis + yes I'm coming back

An update on my decision for next year: after prayer and analysis I'm sticking to the plan of returning to study at UW until graduation (in a year or slightly longer). I'm definitely open to the possibility of coming back for another year of STINT however.

I came across an excerpt from this folk poem/song by Sidney Carter in "The Jesus I Never Knew" by Philip Yancey (recommended reading) and was intrigued enough to find the full text online:

It was on a Friday morning that they took me from the cell,
And I say they had a carpenter to crucify as well.
You can blame it on to Pilate, You can blame it on the Jews,
You can blame it on the devil, It's God I accuse.

CHORUS:
It's God they ought to crucify. instead of you and me.
I said to the carpenter, a-hanging on the tree.

You can blame it on to Adam, You can blame it on to Eve,
You can blame it on the apple, but that I can't believe.
It was God that make the devil, and the woman and the man,
And there wouldn't be an apple if it wasn't in the plan.

Now Barrabas was a killer, and they let Barrabas go.
But you are being crucified for nothing here below.
But God is up in heaven and he doesn't do a thing,
With a million angels watching, and they never move a wing.

To hell with Jehovah, to the Carpenter I said;
I wish that a carpenter had made this world instead.
Goodbye and good luck to you, our way will soon divide.
Remember me in heaven, the man you hung beside.

What sticks out to me is not the poem's accusation so much as the irony therein, especially in reference to the cross. The carpenter the narrator addresses is also, in fact, creator of the world. And it was in fact God who was crucified that day. In Yancey's words, "In an incomprehensible way, God personally experienced the cross."

The fact of "a million angels watching, and they never move a wing" is at that moment actually a miraculous display of mercy and restraint as they waited at the call of the carpenter to wreck havoc on the world and take Him off that cross. By that grace of Jesus' restraint God finished his work of redemption for the world in Christ's death in our place so we can stand justified before the Father.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,3604,1170682,00.html for more info on the author.

5-color cycle!

As some of you may know, I'm very fond of a certain strategy card name. These are the results of profiling each team member as a card from the game.

Travel adventures

Last weekend we had our national catalytic retreat, which I helped plan and run, in Barquisimeto. My first day of the retreat was Friday, and boy was that a day of adventure. This was one of those days where when people ask, "so, did anything crazy happen to you in Venezuela," I can say "yeah, there was this one day." So here it goes:

Friday morning I realized I had forgotten an extension cord from the office that I needed to bring. I didn't have time to catch a bus there and back before the Barquisimeto bus that I was planning on taking left, so I asked Bryon if I could borrow his moto. I got to the office, ran in, grabbed the cable, and couldn’t open the gate trying to leave. I fiddled with the lock for about 5 minutes before waking up Neptali, the student who lives at the office. After another couple minutes he was able to open the gate.

Heading out from the office I realized that Bryon’s moto, which had been having problems, seemed to be particularly bad now in that it was running at full throttle without actually even touching the throttle. Consequently, on the way home I found myself going downhill a little faster than was comfortable and coming up to a stop. I attempted to swerve around a car into the next lane but clipped the corner of the car and went down. Fortunately I suffered only minor scrapes and bruises, the car a busted blinker cover, and the moto required only minor repairs.

I coasted the rest of the way down and recommended to Bryon that he not try riding the moto that day. I got my stuff ready to leave for the retreat, slightly shaken and not really appreciating the day so far. I headed to the bus terminal to catch a 10 o’clock bus and waited patiently under the sign that clearly read “Barquisimeto.” At about 10:20 I started asking around only to find that in actuality the only buses to Barquisimeto left from the other side of the terminal.

I caught the next bus and was finally on my way. During the 9 hour ride I had time to reflect on the events of the day and thank God that He’s in control even when things seem out of control. This was good knowledge to have when I ended up missing the Barquisimeto stop and having to take a taxi back to finally arrive at the retreat.

The retreat itself was excellent. Students came from different cities around the country and they’re very excited about making an impact for Christ on their campuses. I’m excited to see what God does through them. Hopefully we will soon be making an outreach trip to one of the closer catalytic campuses with some students from Mérida. Pray that the visit will be encouraging for the students there and that students will come to know Christ during the outreach.

Looking Ahead

Towards the beginning of July, God willing about 22 people, staff and students, will be heading to CM2007 (Campus Mission), a week-long conference in South Korea. From the website, this is: Campus Crusade for Christ’s first global missions conference. It will be a historic event with three primary themes: Christ Magnified, Connected Movements, and Completing the Mission.

We are excited to have 8 students who have applied and been accepted to go from Mérida, along with Amber, Bryon, and Emily from our team who also desire to go. I declined as I feel God has called me to Venezuela for the year and I want to focus all my time and attention here. However, all those going will need to raise about $3000 to go. Please pray with me for everyone that's going, both for their fund-raising and for God to prepare their hearts. If you would like to donate financially let me know as well. For more info on the conference visit: http://cm2007.net/

Also I will have to make a final decision in the next few months on whether to re-STINT and spend another year here in Venezuela. At this point I'm still planning to stay just this year and then return to the states to finish at UW before continuing with missions abroad. However I want to be open to the Lord's leading and the possibility of staying another year if this is where He wants me. Please pray for me that I could follow God's will in this decision.

Revving up ministry

Break is officially over and we're getting back into ministry. It was a trial towards the end of last year. Student leaders have complained about not including worship, which we have been trying this year in order to make the meeting more of an outreach and less of a church service, or simply that the meetings are boring, though new students have been coming.

One of the things we want to focus on this year is developing in ourselves and our students a desperation for God that results in more of a desire for Him and a heart for the lost. To accomplish that we also want to focus on prayer. We had a prayer meeting this morning and several students, some 'clasicos' (longer time in the movement) and some newer, came and joined us. It was very encouraging to see them there and asking God to be at work in their own lives and in the movement. It was also cool to hear one of the students echo our own thoughts- he talked about how he desired to have more of a heart for calling on the Lord.

I'm looking forward to the rest of this year and I'm trusting God to move on campus. Please pray with me that God will really be transforming our lives and and the lives of those in the movement, motivating us to seek Him and to reach out to others in a big way.