To Witness a Kingdom

“I would have never imagined this.” These were the words that echoed through our group of mission drifters as we witnessed community after community being, and growing the Kingdom of GOD.

It was the “never imagined” that caused two first year Steinbach Bible College students to dream of a caravan of 12 young SBC male students out on an GOD initiated adventure. God refined the vision to be a vision that didn’t just spread the banner of one particular school, organization or denomination, but to simply love and live the missional faiths we had just completed studying about. The targets were set: Texas (Seminole) and Belize (Blue Creek, Shipyard and San Antonio) with the goal being to encourage the church as well as help and learn from any and everyone along the way. So with the words of the graduation address (Arlie Loewen) still ringing in our ears “Live for the success of others”, we set out to help build and witness a kingdom.

Personally being the Grandson of Peter and Anne Giesbrecht (EMMC pastors/missionaries/teachers and such), I have grown up under the folklore of the great Mennonite kingdom to the south of us. Whether through stories of the super society of Blue Creek, the wonder of pioneered farm land in the Mexican desert or the stories of the ‘lost boys’ of Belize finding their home in the deepest jungles; my mind was still a mess with the fantasy of these far off places. Also, the rest of the group in one way or another, had some connection to our faith neighbors in the south, whether through fellow students, friends or family. We had all heard plenty about these far off places to be intrigued enough to go and share in what GOD was doing there.

The first stop on our cross continent missions trip was Seminole, Texas, or ‘GOD’s country’ (as implied with a little bit of humor and sincerity by the only Texan on our team). When we arrived, I and the rest of the team were eager and overzealous to start doing ministry. We quickly lined up an afternoon church program, helped build a garage and finish a barb wire corral under the blazing Texan sun. Within those first few days that we stayed in Seminole, I and the others started to see some culture shifts, not only in the perplexing Mennonite accent mixed with a southern drawl, but in the astounding sense of community and brotherhood that we witnessed. This sense of community revealed itself in 6 HOUR volleyball games or by the smooth transition between a Sunday morning service and an afternoon lunch, into singing at the elderly home, into an evening youth event followed by a young adult hang out late into the night. Church community and brotherhood is life for these believers. But Brotherhood however wasn’t the only thing that was noticed in Seminole. It was interesting to notice that within opposite sex interactions, cultural Mennonites seem to have an ever-present consciousness of familial and affectionate ties. So when 12 striking young men (as I would put it) from out of town (and hopefully out of immediate family), stroll through an unsuspecting town, undoubtedly some interests might spark on both sides of the equation. We knew that our time in Seminole was up when both guilty parties were dropping classily cliché lines such as “She’s the prettiest girl I’ve seen south of the boarder” or “flowers are best stolen”. So with a heart or two broken (although not admitted) we steered our wagons south. We held our chins high as we reflected at how GOD had used us over the past few days. Then, with our hats across our hearts, humbled by the brotherhood and generosity of GOD’s people in Seminole, we sauntered out of that west Texas town changed forever.

As soon as we crossed over the Mexican border we could feel a Spanish sensation sweep over us all as we started throwing out as many Spanish lines as we could conger. Also we found that suddenly our ‘supposed’ Mennonite dancing inhibitions broke down under the persuasive Latin rhythm (although truthfully the only individuals in our group that that last statement would apply to would be myself and the Paraguayan sensation). However, even with our new found Spanish curiosity we all felt a lot more confident speaking Spanish once we had crossed over into Belize (where most locals can speak English).

As soon as we got into Belize, our local friend and fellow SBC student wisked us away to show off his home town, where the local kids promptly stole our hearts and wise old gents were quick to spout wisdom. In this community’s church yard I found myself engaged in a conversation with a boy over what kind of Coconut tree would grow in Canada. The boy’s name is Jordano and is no older than 9, and so when the church opened and the congregation came together, I was a little shocked to find that Jordano was one of the few males present. There were a few wise old elders, 2 or 3 passionate middle-aged men and an unending supply of children; but the youth and male figures were just not present on a comparable level.

So if you’re the praying type, you could pray for the local youth population and the men of Belize that they may begin (and continue) involvement in the Belizean church. Also please pray for the Mennonite’s involvement with coworkers, neighbors and friends. Pray that the relationships that are developed there may build the Belizean church. One ministry that is directed at youth is Kings College, which is a Christian school that has been working for the youth of Belize over the past 40 years. When our group arrived at Kings, I personally could feel something spiritual in this place; there was something almost sacred about traveling deep into the jungle and finding a group of GODly men and women working to build up GODly men and women.

Once we had ascended some more jungle hills we found ourselves in the mountain top kingdom of Blue Creek. As we drove through the town, flashbacks from pictures and slides I had seen of my mother’s youth came flooding into my mind. It was in Blue Creek that my Grandparents had spent many years founding and teaching in the school there. They had often spoken beautifully about their family in Blue Creek and so it was this family that welcomed me and the rest of us all, just as if we were indeed family.

Once we came to Shipyard, it seemed to me that the Shipyard EMM Mennonites were anything but “the quiet on the land” that had characterized their past Old Colony and Mennonite generations. Whether through their overpowering chorus singing, their individual testimonies of the joy of Jesus’ grace or even in their ridicules hoots and hollers throughout the night volleyball games; these people (to my eyes) were living loud jubilant lives led by their new found or reinstated love of Jesus. The joy that I saw in these individual’s faiths was not just in being set free from a sectarian religion, their joy was in knowing and following a relational GOD. It was more than a blessing to be with this congregation and have almost every conversation spill into ‘the topic’ of GOD’s grace and the radical life Jesus has called us to. It was in these new and old believers that I could see the Kingdom work in and through their community.

For myself, community was the absolute in how I saw GOD working and moving on this journey. I’m not sure exactly why there seemed to be such a difference in the way these churches and our home Canadian churches did community. I figure it may have something to do with the cultures that our different churches have come out of. It may be that in our broader consumer societies, (in some ways) we’ve taken that consumer mentality and applied it to our understanding of faith and in so we’ve started blocking time and hours on building community and not simply living in a community. This could be where these Mennonite’s communities countered our ideas of community. It seemed to me that their communities seemed to be somewhat organic or natural. These communities, although still distinct, are not in any way reclusive, but now are doing community in the way they know how to; in a non-intentional, now inclusive way.

As we drove home I realized that it had taken this trip for me to finally understand that whether at home or abroad, Mennonite or Spanish, we need to collectively learn to do community. As God’s glory rings throughout the nations, we begin to experience and know that the kingdom is being built by each other and by the GOD that unites us together.

By Scott Penner, May 17, 2008

Back at home safe and sound!

We've all made it!  Each to his own home, safe and sound.  We are so very thankful for this blessing.  It is so good to be home reconnecting with family and friends.  It seems life didn't stop while we were away so many of us have had to hit the ground running.  Our final prayer together was that this trip would not leave us unchanged.  If you are the praying type, we ask that you would pray with us that God will continue to change us by the things, situations and people that we encountered over the past two weeks.  The plan now over the next few weeks is that we hope to turn this online journal into more of a reflective essay, as we process the things we have experienced and learned.  We are also hoping to post the majority of the pictures we took, since the speed of the Internet connection during the trip hindered this action.  So keep checking back to see more pictures and reflective posts on what God has taught us through these experiences. 

Thank you so much for being with us through this trip!! We are so thankful to God for the safety and lessons He has brought us through.  This trip was the road trip of a life time, we had an absolutely amazing experience!!  All glory, praise and kudos to God!!

"Welcome to the United States"

Those five words welcomed us through the border as we reached the United States concluding a marathon trek through Mexico. Thank-you for praying for us. The roads were a little wild, but God provided safety for us. We reached the San Antonio, Texas airport at 7 in the morning after the second night of driving. Our convoy has now split up after saying farewell to Aaron who is flying to Detroit to reach his home in Leamington. One van is heading over to Seminole to drop Herman off while the other Van is heading straight back to Canada. We, in the van heading straight to Canada, hope to be home by Wednesday afternoon. We feel the last leg of our journey has begun and so we covet your prayers for the last remaining hours.
This post is being cut short...there's a story behind why it's being cut short, let's just say we need to get some distance between this location and us. Ask Scott what happened.

Saying goodbye...

It's an emotional moment (the male version of an emotional moment) as we begin the drive through the bumpy gravel roads out of San Antonio, Belize.  The last glimpse of Armando's hometown is a small Belizean boy diving off the dock into the blue green river emerging just in time to give a small wave to the pair of passing vans.  As the air conditioning begins to cool our burning skin the parting words of Pastor Josuè (Armando's pastor and our sidekick through our whole time in Belize) continues to ring in our ears.  His parting words to us were: "continue to search the scriptures it will be the washing machine or your life, thank you so much for coming and encouraging us, we will be praying for your safety as you return to Canada".

The last 24 hours has been a blessing filled time.  It  started with a meaningful farewell to the church in Blue Creek and then 20 minutes down the road we had an absolute blast meeting the church in Shipyard.  We had a chance to tour their school and store and we felt that we were able to understand more fully the ministry that EMMC is having in that community.  The ministry workers in Shipyard (Dietrich and Nettie, along with Percilla and Abe) encouraged our group by spending time with us (giving us the opportunity to plant some trees, do some fence building and bringing us to one of the best Belizian Taco places around).  Our program was well received along with Herman's testimony of leaving the old colony religion which was a powerful faith story to the Shipyard church.  The young people invited our group to a midnight volleyball match (well, it wasn't really midnight, but it was still really dark at 10pm).  The street lamps lit up the volleyball court as we played amongst a community united by faith.  We then traveled late into the night to reach Armando's home town in order to get a few hours of sleep before our program in Armando's church Sunday morning.  The highlight in San Antonio was seeing Armando's face as we stood before his church while we blessed them with our program.  The community swimming down at the river capped off a perfect day as we loaded into the vans to begin the journey home. 

The time is 3:36 pm Sunday, May 11, 2008.  We have approximately 44 ½ hours to navigate the Mexican maze of roads and two international boarder crossing in order to get Aaron to Texas in order to catch his flight back to Detroit (the rest of us will continue by vehicle to Canada).  Please pray for us as we travel.  Please pray that we will stay awake and make wise decisions as we drive.  Please pray that the vehicles will not break down and that we will see every speed bump on the road.  Pray that we will be protected from the other drivers on the road.  Pray that the border crossings will go smooth and fast. It´s going to be a marathon to the American border but it´s a marathon we feel we are able to do with God´s help.  Thank you for praying, we will try and keep you up to date as best as we can.

 

(update: as we post this entry we are sitting in the mall parking lot of the first city into Mexico.  Praise God that the border crossing into Mexico went without a hitch.  We are now saying goodbye to Armando.  It´ll be about 7pm before we begin our first real leg of the journey.)

Entering the Sub-Culture

It's been a wild couple days as we run on a hectic ministry schedule driven by Armando.  Our time at Kings College came to a close faster than everyone wanted.  The staff and students at that school impacted us.  As we stood in a circle to pray our final blessing on each other, I couldn't help but wonder what kind of things God was planting in our hearts.  A few of the members of the team expressed that they could see themselves coming back to work at a place like Kings College, Lord willing.  But before we knew it we were on our way to Blue Creek.

Entering this colony was like entering a different country.  The bumpy gravel road turned into a beautifully paved road as we rolled up to a (what we thought) was an Americanized gas station. We stopped for a few minutes before heading up to Valerie's house and immediately began meeting people we knew or friends of people we knew.  This was just the first round of a 24 hour Mennonite Game finding people who knew people who were related to people we were and on and on and on.  Wow, it actually get's pretty fun and it made us feel at home.

The program in the evening went very well with the highlight being Lyndon, Tony and Scotty P sharing some very powerful faith stories.  Our non-musical voices blended together for one of the first times, making us pretty excited about how everything went.  But the most exciting part of the night was still yet to come.

A couple of young people offered our group the opportunity to go croc hunting.  I felt that I didn't have the necessary skills to do this since I didn't have an Australian accent.  But my excuses feel on deaf ears as I was dragged to the truck to search for these menacing creatures.  With spot light and shot gun in hand we followed our guides into the rice fields to look for these "pests".  In the end we didn't end up shooting any crocodiles but we did have the opportunity to catch a release a few.  Herman had the "privilege" to wrestle a 4-5 ft croc which didn't want to cooperate.  We caught a small (~1 ft) croc and Herman said that he wanted to feel what it was like to get bitten by one.  He placed his hand in front of it's mouth and it lunged for him.  You can ask him what it feels like, but I can tell you he jumped and yelped from the pain as the teeth marks began to bleed on either sides of his hand.  We ended the day falling asleep under the beautiful Belizian stars knowing that the day was used wisely.

Tomorrow we begin the trip back to Canada, but don't ask us about it because it's a taboo topic that no one wants to come to terms with.  Please pray that the next few hours in Blue Creek will continue to be an encouragement to the church.  Tonight we head to Shipyard to do a program there and then we're of to Armando's home church in San Antonio for Sunday Morning.  Thank you for how you are a big part of this ministry by your prayers.  You have blessed us.  We are having a great time!!

Into Belize

I feel that I should complete yesterday’s story (scroll down to get context). After waiting for the mechanic shops to open we bought another car battery. Andrew and Tony installed the new battery in a couple of minutes and we were on our way (Total setback: 4 Hours). We made it to the Belize border and started the lengthy process with many different steps. The biggest concern was that Armando was supposed to meet us in a certain building on the Mexican side and he was nowhere to be found. So we continued through the process without our Belizean guide fairly smooth (except for Steve mistakenly claiming there was Beer in our cooler). With Armando’s name written into the dust on our van’s back window we ventured into the beautiful country of Belize. The first thing we noticed about this country were the friendly people and warm blue water in the body of water we quickly jumped into (about a mile past the boarder crossing we found a body of water (river? Lake? Ocean? We don’t know)). Along the way we found people who directed us towards Orange Walk the town we thought that we could find Armando in. Then it happened. Sitting on the edge of the highway in the middle of nowhere Armando jumped out at us. He said that he recognized it was us by our driving and had been waiting for us for about 30 minutes. We are all pretty grateful to have him along with us. He swiftly took us to eat some authentic Belizean food and then we were off to his home community San Antonio about 30 minutes outside of Orange Walk. It’s like we are living in paradise. Armando showed us the best swimming hole, and introduced his father to us along with his local pastor. We have a soccer game already scheduled with the locals for Sunday afternoon. Should be a good time! We absolutely love the people in this country, the fresh fruit, the Mayan ruins and the snakes (we met a crazy snake charmer who had a ton of snakes crawling all over him)!! We’ve just spent last night and will spend tonight at Kings College (Christian boarding high school). Tomorrow we are excited to head out to Blue Creek where Valerie (student from SBC) is waiting for us. We have been shown such a great time here and feel blessed to be taken care of so well by these brothers and sisters. We are loving every minute of our time here and wish so much that the internet connection would allow us to post a ton of photo’s!

No news is good news!!

We’re presently spending a lovely few hours with the Mexican Military at a routine check point. No, we didn’t get nailed on anything but after a quick drug search, the newer van of our convey refused to start. Turns out the battery was shot and needed to be repaired at 4 am. Good luck finding a place that sells batteries for a Chevy Venture deep in the heart of Mexico at that hour. One of the interesting things about this situation was seeing members of the team jump into action that haven’t had an opportunity to serve the group in this way before. Andrew and Tony started “rebuilding the engine” while other members of the group stood at a distance making wild speculations at the cause of our delay. We toiled over the battery as the soldiers with the AK-47’s looked on. Although we don’t really know what type of guns they actually were the group standing off at a distance speculated that they must be AK-47’s or sawed off shot guns or something else big, menacing and black. Whatever the case, the soldiers were very understanding and patient while Andrew and Tony did their thing…I’d love to end this journal entry right after that last sentence, it would leave you thinking that we were still stuck in the middle of nowhere with gun yielding soldiers. Phone bills would sky rocket as parents scramble to make international phone bills to whoever they could dream up to rescue this bunch of wild adventurers. At this point I would like to quote a wise man who once wrote “no news is good news.” Some readers of this journal had issues with that quote when it was used a few days ago. We’ll send you more information when we get out of this “jam” which we feel is just another opportunity…

HOT HOT HOT

Here we are in Heroica Cardenas, Mexico.  This is the part where we are starting to drive east on the south of the gulf coast.  We had a beautiful night last night on the beach of one of the towns called Palma Sola, Mexico.  We got there 1:30 am and the guys went for a swim yet.  Then this morning we had an awesome mexican breakfast at one of the beach restaurants where they also provided showers.  Let me tell you, a shower sure feels good after 48 hours of not having one.  Today we have been blessed on the drive with amazing scenery and tropical trees.  Banana, mango, coconut, orange, Pineapple trees are not sparse here.  We also had our taste of raw sugarcane, which is way more sweeter and better than sugar in a store.  We drove through a long stretch of 101 F (38 C) with extremely high humidity.  The guys have been having an awesome time and the vans have been really nice to us thus far.  Pray for continuing safety for the vehicles and ourselves and please also pray for our mission to ever shine though where ever we go.  Thank you for all your support.  The number of views that we see on our blog site surely shows us how many people care.  It's a really big blessing!!!!!  Thank you!! 

Border Crossing Successful!

Hi Everyone, we´ve just found a small Internet cafe in Alamo, Mexico.  The border crossing went very smooth, for which we are very thankful.  The Rio Grande which I´ve heard about all my life was a big disappointment, it only consists of a small creek winding through the trees with chain link fences on each side.  We were very excited to try out the Mexican driving and the Mexican delicacy which we had heard about.   So after a harrowing 2 hour drive we stopped at a little shop where we were able to purchase some taco´s.  Some of us are still a little leery about the sanitation of the place and what the taco´s would do to our systems, but so far so good.  Two highlights topped our day:

1. Getting stopped by the Mexican police after making an illegal turn.  There were some tense moments as the cop wanted $280 dollars per van to rectify the violation.  I´m pretty proud of our bargaining, because after a few minutes of non-communication he walked away.  We thank God that we didn´t have to pay.

2. Just a few minutes ago we finished some street evangelism.  It consisted of us singing some Spanish songs while one of us juggled.  We don´t have much fruit to show for it except a bag of oranges that someone dropped off for us.  We think we saw about dozen people listening and watching, and so we don´t know what could come from the songs and the conversations we were able to have. It was a really great time and I´m glad we did it, because it forced us our of our bubbles and into the middle of the round about in Alamo.

 

Please continue to pray for us as we drive through Mexico. 

Almost in Mexico

It’s 4:08 in the morning as I type while we drive south through Texas on the next leg of the trip to Belize. We have been so encouraged by the amount of people checking this online journal. It’s crazy but I think we have been averaging about 150 hits per day and so we thank you coming back to check it. We have been trying hard to find time to post more consistently, but it’s been a busy couple of days of ministry. I have a hunch that once we cross the line into Mexico in a few hours unsecured wireless networks may be few and far between. The wisdom I’ve tried to teach my parents over the past few years applies to this situation: “no news is good news”. With that being said here is a quick summary of our last two days:

- We finished the fence that we started in the last post. Surrounding 8 acres of land, the 5 string barb wire fence stands proud and almost straight.

- We cleaned the vans. This is quite the accomplishment, you should have seen how full the vans were of garbage. It was at the point where our feet didn’t rest on the ground anymore when we drove because of all the partly full pop bottles.

- We were able to attend Herman’s baptism. This was super special as we were able to witness and encourage Herman in this important step. The church was packed for the celebration which gave us a great opportunity to talk to many people. We had become good friends with 3 of the baptism candidates (Herman and two others we met and spent time with over the past couple of days)

- We were able to spend more time with the youth, playing some more volleyball and being together in the park. The further blisters on the sunburn were worth it.

- We experienced a real Sonic drive in restaurant. Classic, fun and good tasting, we feel everyone should take in this truly American phenomena.

I have been blessed so much by the group of guys that I travel with. We have grown very tight and I already know that saying goodbye is going to be really hard. This rest of this entry is devoted to describing the blessing these men have been to me. I wish everyone would have the privilege to experience the community we are experiencing.

Matt: He’s driving right now, he’s usually the first one to volunteer to do the driving shifts that others don’t want to do. He’s also the one that is in the most pain with his ankle (He sprained it really bad just before we left on this trip), but nobody has heard him ever complain. He’s also an artist when it comes to working with kids.
Scott Penner: He’s sitting shotgun right now, keeping Matt awake. Scott cares very deeply about life. He thinks things through before he speaks, and so when he does speak, wisdom flows from him. We all have been learning a ton from him and his thoughtful explorations in the discussions we have as we drive.
Herman: He’s sleeping in the bucket seat next to me. Herman has been one of the masterminds behind this trip, his thoughtful and wise direction through the states have kept us on track. Herman’s natural ability to make people feel valued has blessed each vehicle he rides in. His passion for Texas has rubbed off on all of us along with his southern drawl!
Aaron: Aaron’s mad volleyball skills and witty humor have made him a pro at getting into the youth group. It’s great to see an 18 year old man, deciding to give up everything to do missions. The world is at his finger tips and he decides to go on a missions road trip to Belize and back.
Lyndon: Although he may be the oldest on the trip he has done a great job at empowering us young folk to lead and make decisions. His humble and honest discussions challenge us all to explore God and life to a deeper level. He always seems to have a life story pertaining to every question we ask him.
Scott D: His servant leadership gives him a great skill with which he humbly leads the group on our travels. I have been blessed by his genuine passion and concern to see God’s name glorified through the parts of the trip for which he is responsible. Scott is great at being one step ahead of the game. He is known for his rigid sleeping schedule in order to keep the vans driving 24 hours a day safely.
Henry: Henry loves people. It’s been a privilege to see him interact and come alive as we interact with a group from the church or other random people. He is a joy to have on the volleyball court and really fun to watch as he interacts with kids.
Tony: He’s the one with the best trucker voice over the radio. Tony also is our resident mechanic who keeps our vans running smooth with his wisdom. He’s also the only one to get pulled over by the cops but his genuine character helped him get off with only a warning.
David: David is the “national” who helps us get into the culture. In Seminole he fit in like a hand to a glove by speaking low German and knowing the culture inside and out. His philosophy-thinking mind keeps us discussing theology.
Johannes: By far the most versatile part of our trip, Johannes can speak the native language of every country we are in. His unique gifting at soccer and his love for a good time constantly draws people into his presence wherever he is.
Andrew: He is the resident specialist at any type of muscle car or truck. This passion is great for keeping conversations going with any random person as they look under the hood of a vehicle. With that being said I’ve also been blessed by the way he loves people more than vehicles. The stories at the end of the day don’t just consist of the great vehicles we saw in our travels but of the people who he has been impacted by.

Some other people we feel are a part of our trip that don’t often get recognized (interestingly they come from the same family in Seminole):
Isaac Wall: Isaac is always ready to give. He gives great hospitality to those who stayed at his home in Seminole while also giving patience to those who had trouble waking up in the morning. Our group described him as genuine, always welcoming and ready to accept people.
Susie Wall: Susie always seemed to be in a friendly mood ready to give a happy “how y’all doing!” any part of the day. She did a great job at keeping us busy by planning events and making us all feel valued. We believe that she put just as much effort into getting things ready for us as we did fulfilling them. The Wall family will continue to be in a special place in all of our hearts.

I know that this is a long post and so for those who check this blog at work, I apologize for getting you fired. But I feel so privileged to have the opportunity to learn from these people and to be blessed by each one. We’re not even half done our trip yet and so many adventures are yet to come…God Bless!

Sandy and Sun Burnt

We became one with the blowing sand today. Sun burnt and tired we’re presently sitting in Isaac Wall’s house preparing for supper and visiting with Jonathan Klassen who moved from Altona 10 years ago. The two activities that I’ve seen help people get into a host culture are: dishes and fence building. Yesterday I wrote about getting to do dishes at the church but never in my wildest dreams would I imagine myself sitting a mere 24 hours later recapping a day of fence building. We woke up this morning thinking that we were going to spend the day building a shed for a widow, but as what usually happens on these trips, plans changed. Four of us where sent to build a garage for someone in a different town and the rest of us were sent out to the barren fields of blowing dust to attach barb wire to the stakes that we pounded into the ground. We had an absolute blast getting dirty, tired and sun burnt. Our soft computer typing fingers are being replaced with calloused Texan mitts. It’s actually something we’ve seen in the people here. Although many of the people we’ve met are solid and hard working, most have very soft hearts always looking for ways to bless others. Yesterday we went out for Chinese after the Ascension Day service and when we tried to pay, the Chinese cashier informed us “somebody already paid for you” (insert Chinese accent with a southern drawl). Turns out someone from the church saw us in the restaurant and paid for us all. Then today we were handed a check for several hundred dollars, it was from the church, the whole offering from yesterday’s service! We’re not totally sure what we’ll do with the gift but we have been desiring to bless the ministries in Belize for a while now, and so this may what it will be used for. The first two days in Seminole have been a great time and so we can’t wait to see what the next two days will hold!

Seminole, Texas!!

We rolled into this windy community late last night (~9pm) ready for some food and a good night's sleep. Over the past few days Herman had built Seminole up in our minds to be a beautiful and hospitable community, and we were not disappointed. We were warmly welcomed out of the dust and into a great meal of Pizza and Dr. Pepper. The church family here has truly extended love and care to us and blessed us in some really big ways. We have been all split up into different homes (groups of 3) where we are getting the chance to see Texan culture up close. Some of the highlights of our time so far:
1. Getting the chance to attend an Ascension day service at Herman's church (MEC) - pretty much totally in German.
2. Doing our presentation (drama's, testimonies, songs) for the church earlier this afternoon. It went fairly smooth and the church seemed really blessed but it - they fed us food afterward with a rousing game of volleyball.
3. Getting to know the youth in the church here. They are thirsting for God and are excited about studying the word and serving Him. They have blessed us over and over again, but it still was fun to weasel our way into the dishes line to help wash, I think they thought it was pretty novel.
4. The presence of guns everywhere. It's actually true, everyone has guns here, muscles and real guns. As I drove to church this morning, one of the host's let me hold his hand gun. In his words: "watch out it's loaded!" Then after the service we were talking to a different guy who had his hand wrapped up in gauze. Turns out he accidentally shot himself through the hand as he was cleaning his own 9mm hand gun.

Please continue to pray for us as we spend time in Seminole. We'll be spending more time with youth and we desire to continue to be a blessing to them. We also pray that we can get people passionate about a sacrificial of following God.