Crossings

This makes two days in a row now for crossing the border back and forth into Mexico for me. It has been quite an experience…much different it seems from my memory of going back and forth into Canada. Razor wire, armed border patrol on both sides of the border, high fences all surround designed to keep lands separate.

It occurs to me that there are always some borders it is easier to cross than others in relationships as well. The language boundary can be difficult to overcome, and is probably necessary for more than a superficial working relationship. Yet, hand signals and pointing can be helpful in working together. A smile or a laugh can do wonders to bridge the gap. Even overcoming difficult obstacles together can go a long way to establishing a friendship.

Working with Claudia this morning to help bathe 5 of the patients at Casa Bugambilia, she gained my profound respect. I watched her be so gentle with those for whom she was caring, pouring water on wounds and sores as she removed bandages very slowly so as not to cause any pain. She went about her work diligently and carefully doing her best to communicate with me what she needed me to do. She spent time in conversation with the patients, often laughing with them in casual conversation, but also taking care to ask them what they need from us.

Then there was ‘Joe’ who happened to know a bit of English. He has a condition that causes his body to be very rigid. When Claudia and I went to take care of him he was smiling and shared some laughs with us. Joe definitely has personality!
I look forward to crossing more borders during my time here. I hope that maybe when I get home I will cross the easier boundaries more often to build relationships.
Shalom,
Pastor Owen

Celebrations that Span the Distance

This morning during worship as Iglesia Christiana Ebenezer celebrated their graduates, I looked at my watch and realized at that very moment the First Christian Church, Stillwater was doing the very same thing. It seems our worship on this day spanned the miles and connected us in a number of very specific ways. In our respective places: we all celebrated the accomplishments of our youth and their hard work and persistence, we all shared together in the Lord’s Supper, we all heard scripture, we all proclaimed the gospel, we all sang songs of praise, and we all prayed. In my mind and heart I was in both places at once.

It strikes me how similar people are even though we may speak different languages, have different customs, live in environmentally different atmospheres (driving to South Texas we went from May weather to August weather in a day!). In particular, we are all very proud of the accomplishments of our children and our youth. We are excited by the possibilities that are open to them. We are concerned for their safety and hope that they make good decisions. And we pray that God will be with them on their journeys of life.
God bless you as we are away from you, though connected in worship and embraced as one body of Christ by the Holy Spirit.
Shalom,
Pastor Owen

Perfection is not required

Practice makes perfect. We made record time today. It usually takes 16 hours to get a mission team to our home base in Los Fresnos, Texas where we stay in a church dorm, but the trip home can be done in 14 hours. 14 hours 10 minutes was our time today. Don’t worry – no speeding was involved. The new bypass around Austin, great directions, a medicine bottle with 24 quarters (thanks Bill), and 2 stops at McDonalds for meals helped us make great time.
But perfection is not a requirement for a successful mission trip. Cara said it well today when she said, “Jesus should have also said, ‘Where two or more are gathered in my name mistakes will be made.’” We have made some over the years. But we have also learned a few things which helped us make good time today.
Tomorrow is a new day. God does not require perfection – two commandments will do: The first is to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, strength, and mind and the second is to love your neighbor as yourself. So we will do our best and then we will be gentle with ourselves and the others in this group.

Juntos Servimos

Juntos Servimos means “together we serve.” Larry Cox, the coordinator for Juntos Servimos, started as one of us, a mission trip volunteer. One mission trip became many. Finally, he left behind his former life and started a new one, serving those in need of compassionate care. Casa Bugambilia provides hospice care, nutritional counseling, nutritious meals, tutoring, and educational support for children in a community that is making progress for its residents. When Winston, Rick, and I came with the youth to serve in 2002 there was no running water or electricity. We have seen progress. Groups like the M:3 Mission to Matamoros, Mexico, from First Christian Church in Stillwater, OK are helping to make a difference.
This week members of our team will transform a former warehouse space into rooms for residents, build furniture to fill those rooms, provide interaction and play therapy for children with developmental delays, and renew old friendships and make some new ones.
Keep us in your thoughts and prayers. It won’t just be buildings that are being transformed.

Our hearts go with you

LeAnn and I didn't go on the trip this year because of Andrew. But, mission trip has gotten into our blood and so all day yesterday we were visualizing where they must be on the journey down to Los Fresnos. I saw the McDonald's near Ardmore where they ate breakfast. I anticipated the traffic in Ft. Worth, saw the lunch exits in Round Rock, and felt the urge to sing rude songs while traveling past the UT campus.
Those familiar sights are all part of transporting our minds and spirits back to Matamoros. Each one we pass takes us deeper into our mission minds so that when they walk into church on Sunday morning it will be almost like they were there just last week.
The rituals that we participate in each Sunday do the same thing. They take us back into a place where our world is filled with songs of praise and the tang of the communion cup, almost as if we had never left and gone back home during the week.
The mission team carries our spirits with them even as they are the Holy Spirit for each other and for those whom they serve.

-Aaron Sapp