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.

More on Japan

Click here for another article from our baptist paper about our team that went to Japan.

A Little Perspective

If you live in the Rio Grande Valley, and care about world missions, then I have some wonderful news to share. The Perspectives course will be offered in Los Fresnos starting in January 2012. (Yes, I know that is a long way away, but I couldn't wait to post information about it). For those who need to know, Perspectives On The World Christian Movement is an in-depth study of Christian missions. Over the course of a semester you will study the Biblical basis for missions, the history of missions, and will learn practical strategies for doing missions well. The study meets once a week. I attended this course while I lived in South Carolina; I give it my highest recommendation. While planning for this course continues, you can get a head start by visiting the Perspectives website here.

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A Nagging Question

Readers of this blog know that we haven't hosted as many groups this year as in years past, but this week we're going gangbusters. 2 teams, both from Texas, are in the area doing apartment ministry, construction projects, and one-on-one evangelism. Last night we gave away school supplies at the apartments where one of our teams is working. It was was also our church's third Summer of Serving event(see photo). During the evening a couple of our ladies were able to have a long conversation with a mom who lives there. She is a believer, but has a lot on her plate, as the saying goes. It was worth every snow cone and every hot dog to see her encouraged by these 2 women. But doesn't this beg a question: how many hundreds (thousands?) just like her are there in Brownsville just waiting for someone to care?