Considering Mexico 2011, Day 8

Technology is a funny thing.  It was a great week without much information technology.  I didn’t bring my laptop.  The Motel Continental did have an (intermittent) WI-FI zone in the restaurant.  But I enjoyed not having the computer.  I did have some DT’s about mid-week, and my fingers didn’t know what to do with themselves.  I only watched about 10 minutes of TV a day.  I only used my cell phone for about 10 minutes a day.  It was really nice, truth be told.  It was probably really good for me.

We Felt Like This

Saturday morning we were going to have breakfast an hour later than we had all week.  I woke up before CavNav’s phone alarm went off.  I worked on packing up a few things.  I didn’t want us to take half the morning getting ready.  The last thing I wanted was to sit in traffic crossing the border.  I was pretty much done when there was a knock on the door.  Apparently we were late for breakfast.  He set the alarm for the proper time, but apparently you have to set the day on his overly-smart phone.  No wake up call for us!

With my limited choices, for which I was endlessly ribbed at lunch today, I picked….. hot cakes.  We had a fairly subdued breakfast and started to disperse to put our bags in the van or car.  Though I was one of the last to eat, I ended up waiting on most of the team to load up. We handed in our keys and took off for the border.

The road to the crossing runs parallel to the road the hotel was on.  We caught up to the traffic and sat.  It is surreal.  You find vendors and beggars walking up and down the line. You can buy water, newspapers, food, porn and more.  Porn?  Really.  I grew up in a different generation where you didn’t sit in your car looking at porn.  We were in line for less than 30 minutes, I think.  Getting through the crossing was actually fairly simple.  All we bought were some t-shirts and stuff for my kids.  We weren’t chosen for a good inspection.

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Considering Mexico 2011, Day 5

Entering Mexico was sort of like entering a worm hole or something.  What a difference a few hundred yards makes.  This is revealed in so many ways. I mentioned the crazy drivers, right?  Since the speed limit was very low, on some roads 35 kmph you could often be passed by someone on the left or right in the invisible lanes.  There are no such things as parking spaces.  You’ll find cars parked at all kinds of angles as not one seems to care about anyone but themselves.  It’s like Lord of the Flies or something.  The main roads are paved, but often with huge ruts in them.  Side streets might be paved, and might not.

I’m not sure why we worried about safety.  It’s a police state.  You have the city police everywhere.  The federal police are also on the streets.  And the state police come through the area.  We saw a few impromptu checkpoints on the way to the church.  They said they were looking for drunk drivers, but at really strange times.  Either way, it is disconcerting to see police with automatic weapons asking you to stop.

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Considering Study Leave

The other day I was talking to a church planter and the topic of study leave came up.  He wasn’t sure how I approached study leave.  Some guys prepare for upcoming sermon series by reading a commentary or two.  I usually don’t approach it that way.  I use study leave, primarily, to do the things I often don’t have time to do in the regular rhythm of pastoral life.

I try to read a book in an area of interest or weakness.  Recently, while preparing a sermon, I noticed my library was lacking books specifically on the Trinity.  So on this study leave I read Fred Sanders’ book on the Trinity, The Deep Things of God.  We all have areas as pastors we have not studied deeply.  There are some issues (the doctrines of grace, spiritual gifts, leadership or eschatology) that pastors spend lots of time reading and thinking.  But there are many we neglect, and are neglected by authors.  The Trinity is just one of those.  I’d also include Christology, the atonement and the Sacraments (though baptism is popular, but not as part of understanding sacraments).

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Considering a Mission Trip to Mexico

Yes, the Cavman is getting ready to leave the country.  Have no fear, it will only be for a week.  We’ll be going about 30 minutes south of Yuma, AZ to San Luis Rio Colorado.  We are working with BEAMM to assist a local congregation.

While we are they, we will be doing:

• Light construction to finish an addition to a local congregation’s facility.
• A backyard Bible Club to evangelize and edify children from the community.
• Assist the host church with an evangelistic outreach.

If you would like to help me leave the country, you can donate to our team through Razoo.  I hope you’ll help us strengthen another congregation as they seek to make Christ and His gospel known along the border.

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