Denyce and I have two cars: one is a 2000 Honda Civic which has been awesome, the other is 1987 Honda Accord which has mostly given us nothing but problems for the last four years. Among its problems lately have been that it leaks oil out onto the manifold, causing the engine to smoke when hot, and that it has a slow leak in the power steering fluid.
Last weekend I got some "stop leak"-type stuff to add to each of these, and Wednesday evening I went ahead and put it in. I was surprised upon opening the power steering fluid container in the engine that it wasn't low at all. Nonetheless, I went ahead and topped it off with the power-steering stop leak. As I was putting the cap back on I came to the sad realization that this was not the power steering container at all, but the brake fluid container.
I called my friend Matt Hoffman, who is a stud mechanic, and about an hour later he returned my message and gave me some guidance. Following his wise counsel, I promptly took our turkey baster and extracted everthing out of the brake fluid container, then cleaned and wiped it thoroughly with paper towels, and filled it back up with brake fluid. A close call indeed. Matt said this same thing happened to someone else a few days ago that he heard about, but I guess that person didn't catch it early, and it was going to cost something like $2400 to have the whole braking system replaced.
So this weekend we're in Abilene visiting Denyce's family. Then Sunday afternoon we'll drive to San Angelo and stay a night with Bob and Edith Graham, who are the grandparents of my friend and teammate Caleb Stroud (and by extension, adopted grandparents of my own!). Rene Stroud, Caleb's mom, is in San Angelo visiting, so it's a good opportunity to go over there and see her as well as Bob and Edith.
I got an interesting email from someone who had visited my series of pages about the 1999 AIM Mexico City trip. I ended up spending a good bit of time thinking through my response, and thought I'd post both the email and my response here:
a friend of mine recently visited your web page; and i must say how disapointed i am in the Christian religion. As far as i know Mexico is a Christian Nation. perhaps more conservative than the Americans. If you wish to help christians perhaps you should start in your own country, state, home town. before going to other countries, and making them hate the US like the Chinese. One reason they Hate Foreigners, and the reason the Boxer rebelion even happened was because of Misionaries. I myself have lived in Greece for most my life before comming to america; and honestly i was appaled at what some of the misionaries told me.
Hi,
Hey, thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts. I have no doubt that some of the most terrible things have been done in the name of religion, whether by missionaries, monarchs, or ordinary people. From the dawn of civilization to the crusades to modern terrorism and cultic mass suicides, there have been some really sad things indeed. My observation has been that being religious in and of itself doesn't really guarantee anything about a person's behavior or actions.
Mexico is a very religious nation, and I can totally understand how you would view it as a Christian nation. The dominant religion there is, of course, Roman Catholicism. The teaching that the majority of Mexicans are raised in is one of legalism, in which they are taught that they can be saved if they just do all the right things. Unfortunately, on the surface people look at this and think, "What's not Christian about that?"
The essence of Christianity is a heart and life that is surrendered to Christ. It is the knowledge that I've sinned and in so doing have separated myself from God, that I do not deserve his forgiveness and can't earn it in any way (that is, just doing enough good things won't earn me anything). And yet, God chose to provide a way back into relationship with him by sending his son to take the punishment for our sins (death) so that we would not have to... the result being that, by just accepting that sacrifice and trusting God, we are reunited with him (both now and in the afterlife to come).
I hope you can see how there is no room in there for "merit," for "I deserve this," for "I've earned it." It's like a package being delivered to your door. You don't have to pay for it or do some amazing trick or do everything on some checklist of good deeds before the delivery guy will hand it to you. You just have to accept it. That's the idea of salvation in Christ -- it's a gift. So when people are trying to reunite themselves to God by doing enough good things or going through all the right motions, rather than just trusting God -- no, in short, that's simply not Christianity.
You're absolutely right that the US is in great spiritual need and that in many ways the Mexican people have a lot to teach us -- by writing what I wrote about Mexico, I surely wasn't dismissing any need or responsibility to share the love of Christ with people here. But please understand that there are a lot of people in Mexico and virtually all over the world who are rather appreciative of the foreigners (American or otherwise) who came and shared the good news that has liberated them from sin and death!
I'm deeply sorry that you've come into contact with some unfortunate missionaries and/or messages out there. I can't help that, but I do hope that what I've said here will help you better understand my intentions and those of countless other concerned, caring, and genuine Christians the world over who want their neighbors (both near and across borders) to have a chance to hear the life-changing message. I'd love to share more about that message with you, or about anything we've discussed, and to hear more of your thoughts -- write anytime!
Yesterday was my first day in my new job as the Webmaster for Sunset International Bible Institute (SIBI). The school approached me about this position (which is a new position for them) in late March, and I accepted the job last month. I will be working 40 hours per week (30 while in school) and am on salary. Aside from being a missionary apprentice on support, it is the first full-time job I've had. I'll be responsible for the continued development of at least four websites, three of which I built in past part-time or summer jobs:
www.aimsunset.org I built this site in 2001 and have continued to maintain and develop it since then part-time. Eventually I'd like to rebuild it, but for now I will just be enhancing it and keeping it current. When it comes to the ministries of SIBI, AIM is still my "first love" and I am perhaps most passionate about the potential for this website.
www.extensionschool.com Perhaps the site I'm proudest of, I built this site last summer and fall, utilizing software called Zen Cart as the codebase. It is a full-fledged ecommerce site. This is the most modern of the sites I will be working on, and I will be working on adding more products available for sale and various ways to make the site more informative and useful to visitors.
www.sunsetonline.org I built this site a year and a half ago, with Richard Cravy pitching in on parts of it as well. It is an e-learning site with a student login system and streaming video and audio. Right now the site is basically still in its infancy, having only one course fully online. I will hopefully be making many more courses available, as well designing a more robust student management system and online learning environment.
www.sibi.cc This is SIBI's main site, and has been dutifully developed and maintained by a handful of internet enthusiasts, mostly in their spare time (special kudos to Gene Mathis and Charles Cook). It gets the job done, but I plan to start over and relaunch it as a dynamic, database-driven site based on a content management system (CMS), as extensionschool.com and aimsunset.org are to varying degrees.
One of my first major tasks will be to showcase, on sibi.cc, the content and visual identity of SIBI's new capital fundraising campaign that they just launched last month. Also, part of the transition into this new position is that the June 2005 edition of Beyond Imagination (AIM's bimonthly newsletter) will be the last one that I will be doing. It's yet to be determined what will be happening with Beyond Imagination, though I am hopeful that it will continue in capable new hands.
From May 5th through 10th, Denyce and I were on a really nice trip down to Mexico for the wedding of our friends Tim Myers and Aime Hopper. Tim and Aime went through AIM in the 2001 and 2000 classes, respectively, while Denyce and I were assistants. They have become very close friends of ours and are co-workers on AIM staff. Tim has also been living with us since last July.
Before I give a recap of the trip, I will include a link to the photo album for the trip. Part of my role on the trip was to shoot lots of video in order to make a film for Tim and Aime once we got back. So I was preoccupied with the camcorder most of the time, leaving much of the still photography to Denyce. I think you'll agree she did an outstanding job with it. All of the photos during the ceremony itself are hers.
Well, Denyce and I traveled as a party together with Tim and Aime, as well as Angela Myers, who is Tim's sister and Aime's long-time roommate. The other two attendees who came from Lubbock, Robby and Carla Stephens, were a couple of hours behind us on a different flight. The five of us flew to Houston and, having a long three-hour layover there, we enjoyed exploring the airport's network of terminals and trains. We arrived in Guadalajara around 8 PM. Guadalajara was the field where both Tim and Aime served as AIM students. It is also a place where there are a number of current missionaries that we know, including quite a few AIM grads and former AIM assistants. We stayed with our friends Cory and Toni Burns (Cory was one of Denyce's teammates in Moscow), and the others stayed with Joe and Elaine Pruett and Tim and Kim Rush.
After getting a night's rest, we all met up at Starbucks the next morning and those of us who had traveled from the States, along with Joe and Elaine and their three boys, hit the road for Puerto Vallarta. The 4-hour drive took us through some of the Mexican countryside, where we saw lots of cactus farms (the type of cactus from which Tequila is derived) and wound up and down some rugged mountains that separate Guadalajara from the west coast of Mexico.
The lush seaside oasis that we stayed at was a bit of a contrast to the hot and dry countryside that we drove through. Called Decameron, the resort is located in Bucerias, a few miles north of Puerto Vallarta proper. The resort was quite large and beautiful, and not too crowded at all. Denyce and I stayed on the fourth and uppermost floor of one of the buildings, and had a nice view of the beatiful courtyard below as well as a good peek of the ocean over the tops of all the palm trees.
We arrived Friday in the late afternoon and had our first meal in one of several all all-inclusive restaurants at the resort. The food was pretty good. During our stay, we spent most of our time on the beach, where we partook in much excellent boogie-boarding. There were also three or four swimming pools, and we particularly enjoyed a nice afternoon swim in the quiet, serene "adults-only" pool.
The wedding itself took place Saturday evening. Tim and Aime timed it to occur at sunset, which was beautiful. After taking some pictures in one of the courtyards of the resort, we all walked down the beach a ways to a quieter, less occupied spot that had a backdrop of scrubby sand dunes. We all gathered around (most with cameras in hand) and Joe Pruett performed the ceremony. Although the incoming waves created some competition for Joe's voice, we were able to hear fine and the ceremony was very nice.
We returned to Guadalajara Sunday afternoon, having stopped to share the Lord's supper together at a little roadside rest stop. Sunday evening was spent at the Pruetts house, where a number of the Mexican church members hosted a little fiesta for Tim and Aime. "Las hermanas" ("the sisters"), three sisters who are all Christians there, cooked some delicious, authentic tacos and cebollitas (cooked onions) and behold, it was very good indeed. There was a surprise performance from a Christian mariachi group, whose music was really cool.
We had the whole day Monday to spend there in Guadalajara, and we each kind of did our own thing. Denyce and I just enjoyed spending the day with Cory and Toni. We slept in, went to Wal-Mart and one of the malls in Guadalajara, and later met up with the others for dinner at a restaurant.
There was enough time Tuesday morning for Denyce and I to accompany Toni to hear Cory give a short lesson in Spanish at the language school he is attending. We then visited a bakery and a coffee shop before meeting up with the rest of the group and heading to the airport. The trip home went fine, and we again had a long layover in Houston. Our flight from Houston to Lubbock was overbooked, so Denyce and I ended up getting some travel vouchers and an extended trip home via a short layover in Dallas.
The trip was a very nice blessing for us. The beach and resort were very nice and vacation-like, of course, and we enjoyed that. The wedding was beautiful and I think it was just what Tim and Aime had in mind. Guadalajara is a city we've always heard a lot about but hadn't gotten to visit before. It seems like a great place to live and serve. To me, it felt a lot like some parts of Mexico City, but we didn't actually get out and see too much of the city since we were more interested in just spending time with the missionaries down there. It was a blessing to get to know Joe and Elaine Pruett, and to get to spend time with the other missionaries down there that we already knew.
It's definitely that time of year. Weddings are in season. This year is pretty neat because there are three weddings coming up right away in which three pairs of good friends of ours, all fellow AIM assistants, are getting married to each other.
First on tap are two this Saturday: Brandon Price and Katie Sandor are getting married near Placerville, CA, and Tim Myers and Aime Hopper are getting married on the beach in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Then, in about a month, Chris Wix and Stacey Callaway are getting married near Placerville as well. All three of these weddings are really special and significant, each in their own way. In the case of Tim & Aime and Chris & Stacey, all four of those were AIM students that Denyce and I worked with in our area church group at one point or another. Brandon was in our small group when he was in AIM, and Katie (like Stacey) is a hometown friend from Placerville. It is a blessing and privileges to have had each of these as a friend and co-worker.
If you thought the wedding in Puerto Vallarta sounded exotic when you read it, then you'll understand how blessed we feel that we will get to be there for that one. Tim and Aime really wanted us to be there, and extended some generosity toward us to help make it possible (in return, I am taking care of photography and video and will be producing a video of the occasion after we get back). The two of us, along with Tim, Aime, and Tim's sister Angela (who also worked with us at Hart while she was in AIM) are flying tomorrow to Guadalajara. There we will meet up with a number of missionaries that we know personally. We will stay the night with the missionaries down there (Denyce and I will be with Cory and Toni Burns) and then head to "the beach" (otherwise known as Puerto Vallarta, a 4-hour drive) for two nights. We will then spend another couple of nights back in Guadalajara and will be returning to Lubbock on Tuesday.
So, I'll post some news about the trip after we get back, and hopefully some pictures as well. We'd appreciate your prayers for safe travel and for a great visit down there. Most importantly, I'm sure these three awesome couples would love for you to pray for their upcoming marriages.
