Wow, I just realized that the last time I updated was nearly a month ago… time flies just as much here in San Miguel as it does back at home I am quickly finding out! I have been meaning to update now for the past several weeks, but obviously have not sat down long enough and spent enough time to do just that! So, I will try to summarize in less than a book what has been happening her in San Miguel and in my heart over these past few weeks!
I must first start out by saying that we now have the newest addition to our team! Adina showed up I think close to 3 weeks ago! Her arrival has brought a sense of completion to the team for the time being, which has been so great for us! Once she arrived we were finally able to sit down and figure out all those little, yet vital details that go along with living together here in San Miguel. As I mentioned before, things just take longer to get done here, and life for me takes more planning; perhaps that’s a good thing! Anyways, as we live and serve together here in SMA, I begin noticing how important it really is to communicate WELL and FREQUENTLY!
What has also accompanied the past few months is a much more detailed schedule. Each week has been filling up quickly. Although I am thankful to be busy and being used here, I also recognize my tendency for business, which has so often in the past taken a vital part of my energy and time, leaving less and less time with My God! So, God has been teaching me about laying these opportunities here before Him and simply waiting for Him to direct in what He desires me to spend my time doing! ABOVE all else and BEFORE anything else, I am created to LOVE MY GOD with my entire heart; this truth has hit me over the past few weeks as I realize how important my time spent with Him really is! I thrive on time spent with the Lord, and I do not want to compromise that time!
If you were to see snapshots of the past few weeks here, you would find me filling time with some of the following things:
I am still taking my Spanish classes 4 mornings a week; I really have been enjoying my time in class learning this new language. I think as I entered this class in the beginning, I questioned my ability to learn Spanish and learn it well. After being in the class now for what has been around 6wks, it has been getting easier! I am finally reaching a point where I can begin to pick out words and phrases in conversation, speak some sentences, and read and understand things! It’s a slow process, but something that I have desired to accomplish and know that only by the Lord has any progress been possible!
On Wednesday afternoons Adina and I have been volunteering with an organization called SOME (So Others May Eat). With this ministry we help serve lunch to some of the poor elderly Mexicans here in San Miguel as well as handing out a can of beans and carton of milk. Not only has this been a blessing to be among this population, it has also been a great avenue to get connected with some of the other volunteers who are mainly English-speaking people! Soon on Thursdays I will be heading out, along with Jamie (the FINO intern) to a nearby village called La Palma, where we will spend the afternoon playing sports and other activities with them! I am excited to begin volunteering with FINO and start having some fun with the kids! (For more information regarding the organization FINO, check out their website at www.finomex.org. Friday mornings we are continuing to visit the residents at the assisted living, Los Labradores, reading to them and starting yesterday we spent time playing games with them after we finished reading. They really have been enjoying the book and yesterday really seemed to have a great time playing UNO. A few Saturdays a month starting in November Mark, Adina, and I will be spending a couple hours helping with a science club for kids somewhere around the ages of 8-12 years old.
Along with the volunteer opportunities we also have been going through a Bible study at Scott and Tammy’s house with some of the attendees from Antioch on Wednesday evenings, and as of last Sunday, Adina and I have been leading worship for Antioch’s church service on Sunday!
So, that’s a bit of a glimpse into the unfolding of the weekly events. With Adina having lived here for nearly a year last year, she has many contacts and friends here that she has been meeting back up with, and I have the advantage of making new friends in this process! Throughout these busy/full weeks, I have continually been reminded of the primary focus of this time spent here in San Miguel: The ministry of building meaningful relationships with people here with the purpose of sharing the only source of True Hope, Jesus! At times this has been a challenging perspective to keep as weeks are busy! However, one word that summarizes what I hope to see when I look back on this period of time in San Miguel is intentionality. I daily long for the Lord to help me live that day with purpose and see a much bigger picture in my mind than here and now! The definition that I really think summarizes our desire with ministry here was stated by Mark today during a team meeting; he said that we want to be “accessible and intentionally opening the way to connect with another person.” I like the dictionary definition of accessible which defines it as “easy to approach, reach, enter, speak with, or use.” People and relationships are important to me regardless of my physical location and being available and accessible to a person as well as being intentional about my relationships and time spent with them is just as important!
Thank you all so much who have been lifting up prayers on my behalf and on behalf of Antioch Community outreach and our ministry in SMA over the past couple months! I honestly can not tell you how much it has meant to receive encouraging emails. This last week the Lord especially overwhelmed me with the amount of encouragement I received from other people! THANK YOU SO MUCH for your part in serving here in San Miguel, because your prayers are an enormous act of service here!
