Liderazgo

If you speak Spanish and live in Brownsville (or thereabouts), you may be interested in a good opportunity that is coming our way in November. La Cumbre Global De Liderazgo (The Global Leadership Summit) will be held at the Central Christian Church on Alton Gloor Road. The (video) summit, dubbed into Spanish, features well-known Christian leaders such as Bill Hybels, John Ortberg, and Craig Groeschel talking about (you guessed it) leadership. For more details you can visit the summit website here.

Open Doors

While I was in Chiapas I met a young man named Raul. He is the nephew of the couple I was staying with. He is from northern Mexico, but has recently moved south in hopes of starting a church. At the moment he is scouting out the area to see where he would like to work. Raul is a fine young man; I'm sure he will do well. If you would like to keep up with Raul, you can visit his blog, written in Spanish and English.

It Was Ben

For a few words from missionary Benjamin Loera on my recent trip to Mexico, please visit his blog here.

Coming In 2012

At least 2 important things are going to happen in 2012. Besides the world ending on December 21st, the Perspectives course will be offered right here in the lower Rio Grande Valley, beginning Tuesday, January 10th (see my post from July 26). I dare say that if you will take this course, you will know more about world missions than 95% of all church members in the US. Plus, you'll be ready for the end! Visit the Perspectives website here.

Chiapas

Last evening I returned from 12 days in the Mexican state of Chiapas. If you're a little rusty on your geography, Chiapas is in southern Mexico, sharing a border with Guatemala. One of our missionaries, Benjamin Loera, lives there. He and his wife Magvis run a small children's home in the town of Ocosingo, which is a long way, literally and figuratively, from the border towns near here. There's a lot of cattle, much farm land, and beautiful, green mountains. It even rains there occasionally! More importantly, they've been mercifully spared most of the drug violence that we've grown accustomed to hearing about. I have told several folks over the past couple of years that getting to meet people that I would otherwise never meet is one of the best things about learning Spanish. This trip was no different.

Information Please

This coming Sunday afternoon at 5 p.m. we will hold an information meeting for anyone interested in our mission trip to the Dominican Republic next June. Both medical professionals and laymen will be needed for this trip. The meeting will be held in The Parlor here at FBC.

Coming Together

A big part of my job is arranging the projects for the visiting mission teams each summer. Last week we had 2 teams working here, and another team (about 65 people) is here this week. All of them chose to work on this side of the border this year, which meant that I had a lot of planning to do. It sure is gratifying to see, at long last, everything come together. The teams have been great and, even though the heat has been stifling, everyone has worked tirelessly and without complaint. And, a lot of things have gotten done.

Buck To School

This past Sunday was our second attempt at a back-to-school party/event. This time it was the Rockwell Manor apartments here in Brownsville. We served hot dogs, played with the kids, and served lots of snow cones. We even offered free hair cuts at this one. The school supplies that we gave away were paid for, in large part, by the members of FBC. The previous Sunday was "buck to school" Sunday. Everyone was asked to bring $1 to help pay for said school supplies. The fact that we had already been working in those apartments all summer was a big help to us. We feel like we have made some progress with the kids, and are pretty sure that we'll continue to work over there in the Fall.