Tag: Mexic09

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One thing every person can do

'SERVE'

"Everybody can be great... because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. you only need a heart full of grace. a soul generated by love." - Martin Luther King

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THE Coopers!

You just say the name "The Coopers" around our high school students and you can see the glow of their witness written all over the face of our students.  The Coopers have made such a HUGE impact on our ministry that I'm forever grateful to God for sending them our way. Matt and Julie Cooper are part of the GCC family that God has called to do ministry full-time down here at Back2Back Monterrey and to put it bluntly, they are incredible!  Together they are associate Directors here at Monterrey Back2Back. (You can read their bio HERE.) I've never met a more loving couple than Matt and Julie.  In addition to being Associate Directors they are "house parents" and house not only their 6 children but also 8 teenage boys 15-20 years in age who are pursuing high school or college diplomas. Our group looks forward to this week every year because of all that we get to do but also because we get to see "Matt and Julie" again!  Every year it's like a family reunion when we get down here with them!  Lots of hugs, lots of smiling, and so much love being spread around. I'm grateful for their witness for the kingdom and the fact that we get to have our students close to them, even if it's just for a week in Mexico and when they come home.

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The heartbeat of Back2Back

Back2Back is the mission organization we partner with every summer for one of our High School mission trips.  They're based out of cincinnati and we come to their Monterrey Mexico site every year. Below you get a glimpse of the heartbeat of this ministry.  This is written by Beth Guckenberger who is, along with her husband Todd, Directors of Latin American Ministries. (Read their bio HERE) In one of our morning devotionals, Beth wrote: "...I think that's what I am attracted to  in this study.  I agreed with myself last year to a deeper walk.  I had gotten good at saying the two-inch answer to the questions that deserved more.  I had learned to right songs, knew verses to quote at will, and tried to pray eloquently, but the temptation had become great to skim along life's spiritual surface. I want more.  I want a mile deep faith.  I want a concept to chew on, to not understand, to beg for clarity and I have found one in shelter.  It is a challenge to work out this part of my salvation, but that's what is keeping me in the game.  I want the challenge that this passage asks of me. (Isaiah 58) I understand why God asks if we think he wants "this kind of fasting?"  It would be far easier to go without food for a day then to die to myself regularly.  It would be easier to excuse myself from all the needs around me, meanwhile assuring myself (and God) about the person I helped last month, or the 10% I offered up last week in Sunday School.  He doesn't want the symbolic sacrifice.  He wants all of us, all the time, as His conduit for a broken world." I think from this you can tell that they are practicing what they preaching and smoking what they are selling down here at Back2Back. We love this ministry and are grateful for their partnership.  This week is so formative for all of us.

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Taco's Fede feeding frenzy

(Taco's Fede' Gringa (Pork) Tacos.  Don't be fooled by the color of the seasoning. These will change your life...& bathroom decency! Yeah I said it.  Totally worth it though!)

Taco's Fede' is one of those places you go to challenge yourself.  Not like you may think.  As soon as you grab a chair at Fede' you begin to prepare your mind for how many taco's you will try to put down...ok scratch that. As soon as we hear we're going to Fede' the chatter begins, "last year I ate this many, this year i'm taking it up a notch to this many..." I actually had a conversation with two of the nicest girls you could ever meet and they both looked at me with the most serious faces i've ever seen them make and they said, "DC, this year, I WILL EAT FIVE!"  I laughed and backed away slowly because there was fury in their eyes. A couple of the guys gave me the old cool-high-school-guy-size-em-up-question, "So, uuh, DC....uhhhh...how many u gonna eat!"  I thought to myself, "you can't hang with me" and said, "i'm not sure man, but you might have me beat this year" and inwardly I thought, "It's ON brotha, you goin doooown! You try to hang with me and you gonna puke!" Then I smiled and walked away. Also when we were sitting at the table one of the girls said, (in your best high school girl "oh-my-gosh voice") "Like, uum, This is, like, the only place where eating a lot is, like, acceptable, like, um yeah!" haha I smiled on the inside and looked her in the eyes and said, "Yeah you're probably right." hahahaha (I crack myself and I LOVE MY JOB!!!) So, with that said, we love Fede' and tonight (Monday Night) we flat out got after it.  There was much coaching and encouraging and, well, if anyone didn't make it to at least 5, they probably got made fun of.  Just sayin.... It's the only time in our ministry where we might look down on people, hahaha. Just kidding, but not really.  It was a great time, lots of photo's, lots of memories, and lots of BIG BELLYS!

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Great friends are...

(Katie Liv's group for the week)

“Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget."

I'm praying for deepening of friendships on this trip.  We are a very close knit group and I'm asking God to make our bonds even stronger. So thankful for all who chose to come on this trip.  It's been such a blessing for me to be a part of so far.  AND IT'S ONLY TUESDAY!

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THE MAN behind the camera

Most of the amazing photo's you see wouldn't be possible if someone wasn't behind the camera capturing all the moments. Ffej or Jeff is the master behind the camera and I'm thankful he uses his skills to help us all remember the memories we're building. I know some of you already have done this but if you get a second, drop him a little 'thank you' note on the Mexic09 blog or here and i'll make sure he gets it. One of the tradeoffs to taking all the photo's and doing the video capture is that you miss out on some of the work that the rest of the group gets to do. That might sound appealing to some of you lazy people but for how we do mission trips and who Jeff is, it's a big deal! Jeff loves building things, being outdoors, getting dirty, helping see projects through, and he sacrifices that often so that he can make sure the students get to see their work and service from a different vantage point. The photo's that he captures during our work projects or while we're playing with students are photo's that will go up in homes all across Michiana marking the moments of "I did that in 2009 when we were in Mexico with GSM"....and for that I am very thankful. This week and every week with GSM, he is sacrificing face time for lifetime of memories for others. He is sacrificing his own personal wants, for the good of the whole ministry. He is helping us all remember what we did for the Kingdom.

Thank you Jeff Myers, I love you man and I'm so glad you're on our GSM team!  You make what we get to do SO MUCH better!

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Not sure what you think about when you hear "shelter"

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Jeff's photo's from Day 1 - Mexic09

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This captures our team spirit!

Jeff took this great photo of Katie and Megan yesterday.  I think this gives you a little glimpse of the joy our of team.  Mexic09 is off and running!

(Katie & Megan playing birdie on a perch)

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Made it to Mexico

I wasn't in the photo because I was still in Japan when they left but Jeff got this great photo of the team before they left Granger on Saturday.

I'm still brain-dead and jet-lag to the 10th power but I'm loving it so far.  I pulled in tonight (with John and Kara) just in time for debrief time where they were going around the group telling their favorite part of the day.