¡Vamos!

One of the perks of not getting the job I interviewed for in September and being in full time ministry has been the flexibility I have to travel and visit friends and family.

Keith and I on one of our many hikes up the Enderby Cliffs.

I spent an amazing 10 days driving down the Oregon Coast to California in September with an awesome new friend.  I spent Thanksgiving with (most of) my family on their farm and I have had many visits with old and new friends throughout the Okanagan valley over the past three months.

I honestly can't think of many things I enjoy more than the company of my friends and family, good food, beautiful scenery, and great conversation.

And that leads me to my next adventure: I'm jumping on a plane once again this Saturday to head down to northwestern Mexico for 8 days.  It's not an all-inclusive vacation, and that makes me even more excited as some of my most memorable trips have involved serving rather than being served.  I'm going with a church from Fort St. John, BC who are
doing a mission trip to build a church.

Craziness runs in the family...

As much as I'm looking forward to being back on a foreign mission field, I'm (selfishly?) most excited to be going with my two brothers on this trip.  They are a couple of my favourite people in the world and I can never spend enough time with them.  As I get closer to the age of dirt (my brothers kindly remind me of this often...did I mention they are both younger than me?) I realize more and more there is something very special about family and I am pretty darn lucky to have the one I've got.

Gordon building a house with the team in Mexico, 2011.

The church we are going with have been in this area of Mexico before and have done house-building projects (one of which my youngest brother went on a couple years ago).  This is the first time that they've built a church and so that's exciting.  It won't be extravagant by any means, but it will be a place to gather together and build their community.  The other cool thing is that it's a YWAM group that we will be working with.  I am always interested to see and hear what being a part of YWAM means in different parts of the world.  Here are some links to the pastor from Fort St. John's blog if you want more information:

• This one talks about our trip: http://evangelfsj.com/evangel-ventures/item/252-ev-news-mexico-church-build-november-11-17-2012
• This one is the first of 8 blogs he wrote from their last trip to Mexico.  It gives information about what we will be expecting. http://www.evangelfsj.com/blog/item/181-following-jesus-means-we-go
• This one gives some information about the pastor of the church we will be building (Margharito) and the YWAM missionary we will be working with (Asher). http://www.evangelfsj.com/blog/item/189-two-great-men

With that in mind please keep us in your prayers over the next 10 days.  Some requests to keep in mind as you are praying:
- safe travels (flying to San Diego and driving down to Mexico)
- health and rest
- relationships and unity within our team (I don't know anyone except my brothers)
- cultural sensitivity and language barriers (clear communication)
- opportunities to share God's love and to experience it ourselves in  new ways
- that the church we are building would not lose focus that they are first and foremost a church as a group of people, not a building and that the building we leave them with will be a venue to build up these and even more people to become who they truly are, and to experience who God is through this community