Ten years ago today, we were in the midst of a kids’ club – and a baking class – in the community of Jesús María. Special Canadian guests came from Innisfail Baptist Church and Mirror Alliance Church.
After the baking class, Shari posed with the ladies from the team with their creations!
Hey friends – we told you to “come back soon” – but we’re still waiting! 🙂
Most summers here our team has had the pleasure of hosting interns for 4, 6, or 8 weeks. And more time and less time, but those are the official time frames for those coming for the internship program.
It has generally been a very good experience for everyone. Interns and teams allow us to do things in the community that we couldn’t otherwise. Short termers with different experiences with the Lord, and of different ages (from kids to white-haired adventurers), can reach different people that we might never reach.
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Actually, at our recent anniversary service I was reminded of the impact of short term missionaries. Though many (almost all?) have been impacted by short term teams, one lady shared that she had become connected to the church almost exactly a year ago. She started coming to the events we had when the team was here from Mirror Alliance and Innisfail Baptist (Alberta, Canada).
Anyway, last year we had teams and interns from all three North American countries – Canada, the United States, and Mexico. As a matter of fact, this year FAMex (a Mexican mission agency) has teamed up with Camino Global to invite Spanish speaking interns to join us again. There’s urban ministry in Guadalajara, music, art and sports around here, and outreach to indigenous (generally non-Spanish speaking, or groups that don’t speak Spanish as a first language) peoples in other parts of Mexico.
It’s exciting the opportunities that are available!
Incidentally, I would love to see a team of native believers from Canada come down and do a two-part trip – an outreach to the community in Ixtapaluca and an outreach to a native village. Any takers? (Actually, I’ve already talked over the idea with a couple of people from FAMex, so it’s not idle talk…)
Anyway, if you’d like to know more, here’s the brochure for English speakers, and here’s some information for Spanish speakers. (Remember, this is just information for the internship programs. If you’d like to come as an individual, family, or team at another time or for a different period of time – let’s talk!)
At the end of March/beginning of April we hosted a team from two churches in Alberta Canada – Mirror Alliance Church and Innisfail Baptist Church. Below are some clips from their time here.
The time with the team was filled with a lot of new friendships, a lot of fun activities, and always the unexpected. But every person on the team adapted well to the changes and showed themselves willing to learn.
Among other things they were involved in a kids’ club, they did some work for the community centre (including building shelves, painting, and building a swing set), and they were involved in services and studies (where they shared testimonies, and more). But they were also willing to simply spend time interacting with people, and that’s what it all has to come down to.
At the farewell party for the team, some people from the church here shared that they were inspired and motivated by the work of the team to do more for the Lord here. We also had some new confessions of faith, and there are brand new people attending Bible studies and services now that we had never met before the team came!
So although only God knows the impact that the team made, He has allowed us to see some little glimpses of what He’s doing.
We would love to see some – all – of the people from the team come back! And maybe more from these churches. And what about your church? Do you think you might like to come and help out?
The video below has a few clips from the team’s visit. As usual, the clips are somewhat random, but they should show a little of what the team did. You can also check out the video from their first four days here. That video shows more of the activities from those days – this video includes those days but is a little more MI Team-centric. 🙂
[If you’re reading this in an RSS feed, you may need to jump to the blog to see the video here]
By the way, I also posted almost every day the team was here. Here are the posts, in case you’re interested:
This video is from the MI Team from their time in Mexico. Yes, I’m still working on my video, so you haven’t seen the last of them! But here’s their version of events. 😉
PS – not sure who made the video – I hear rumours that Dave Trenholm was involved…
This video by Cameron Fenske shows a glimpse of a typical Sunday morning in Jesús María. The footage is from a few months ago, but things haven’t changed too much. We do have chairs now, thanks to a gift from the MI Team. Harder to carry up the stairs, but much more comfortable to sit in.
As you might imagine, moving all these things constantly does take its toll. It was my turn this past Sunday to move things, and we discovered that the keyboard has kicked the bucket. Someday we may have the time and money to see if we can repair it. Allan was mentioning that the drum set is in pretty bad shape as well.
But right now we have other priorities – as a church, we’re praying for a building – which will mean a lot less moving!
If you’d like to help, you can donate toward this project (Project #63604) in Canadian currency here and in US currency here.
video via Plastic Stool Video
I just checked the flight for the first six team members to leave, and apparently it has "departed". And as far as I know, they’re on it!
This morning we met at the house that the church rents in Jesús María. It was another despedida for the team – gifts, hugs, and prayers!
Then I took some and a taxi driver took the others (a taxi driver named Jesus, no less). The traffic was a little heavier than I expected but we got everybody to the airport, checked in, and through security.
Traffic was very light on the way home, so we rolled in just about when the first group (maybe) took off. The other two leave in about an hour.
From our perspective it was a very good trip. The team did a great job overall. I’ll likely have more comments later – and I hope to post some pictures and video … in the future … when I can!
Thanks again, MI Team! Safe travels, and may God continue to use you and work in you!