Day 1

Here is a run down of some of our adventure on our Mission’s Trip to Mexico. 11 of us packed up and headed out on Thursday, July 17^th to go work with Rio Bravo Christian Ministries in San Carlos Mexico. Right out of the box we almost hit out first snag of the trip. We were heading out on the tri-state highway through Chicago on our way to O’Hare Airport when we hit the morning rush. I had planned on hitting some traffic but this was terrible…I thought we were going to be so late. Luckily, when we got to airport I had been through this scene before and was able to quickly get all of us checked in and through security in a relatively short amount of time (thank God for group check in).

This was a fun time for me as I was able to be with my son Kurt for his first plane ride. He loved it…despite the fact that earlier that week he had a terrible ear infection (a whole story in and of itself…including a very painful penicillin shot).

We flew from O’Hare to San Antonio Texas. When we landed Todd Tate (RBCM) picked us up and drove us 3 hours to Del Rio Texas. At Del Rio, we went to Wal-Mart to get our supplies for the week. All I can say is that at the Wal-Mart in Del Rio Texas…don’t be in a hurry…cause they sure aren’t. Anyway we purchased all our food and stuff and made a run for the border. We crossed into Mexico and drove to San Carlos and arrived at the camp around 9:30 PM.

We took some time to unpack and set up camp and then settle in for our nightly team meeting. Donna Taylor, who is doing an internship with us at the church led our nightly meetings and did a great job. Her lesson the first night was on a prayer wrapped around five fingers. Each figure represented a letter B.L.E.S.S.

B= Body, pray for our physical health and nutrition

L= Labor, pray for our work at the camp

E= Emotions, pray for emotional health and well being of the missionaries and the children we serve

S= Social, pray for our families and the Mexican children’s families

S= Spiritual, pray for the hearts of the nationals

This was a good first day…time for rest in our “open air” dorms…what did you say…Black Widow…who is she (I will explain later).

Quick Thought

I just spent a week in Mexico working with a camp for kids…what a great time. While we were there, 70 people shared 2 bathrooms…now that I am home, 2 bathrooms are not big enough for a family of 5.

Back From Mexico

Just got back from a great (8 day) trip to Mexico working with Rio Bravo Ministy.  I will be posting more this week about the trip.  Today, I will spent…very much needed…time with my family.

Roots

Having grown up with a father that is a traveling salesman and the fact that I had been a salesman for nearly 3 years myself, the idea that we must talk with people face to face has been drilled into my head. The job my dad has, pays him a salary to go out and make calls on his customers face to face…because people want that interaction…it may sound like we are a culture moving at the speed of light towards a phone, email, or even website driven society but the fact remains that to see a results the best possible interaction is face to face. And as I have found out so many times…it is much harder for someone to say “No” when you are standing there talking to them.

You see, we (Mike, Dennis and I) have made several attempts to converse with people about a venue for the new Warren Campus. We tried to set up appointments either over the phone or via email and not really having much success, soooooo I went back to my roots. Not that I am have a shred of intelligence at all…I really am just an idiot trying to make my way with the help of God. But I went back to my roots…things that I had been taught…things that I remember from working not only in the sheriff’s dept or as a salesman or even as a pastor. And here is the genius of what we did…now hold on this is incredible insight…and we just went…we went…we went and just showed up and talked face to face. We talked with a secretary at one place and a manager at another and even stopped by to talk with a new friend (Susanne Simpson the Warren Township Supervisor) and what a good day that turned out to be as were even able to make an appointment with the University Center of Lake County.

So here’s to going back to the roots of personal contact…if you are a fan of “The Office”…then I guess Michael was right…personal contact still means something.

Continue to pray as we move forward.

Blast Zones

Blast Zones are here and going full force.  A few years ago NPC decided to go a bit of a different direction with VBS. In doing so we investigated all kinds of ideas from sports camps to teaming up with the local recreation departments to do some type of big community kids week long kids activity. When it was all said an done the decision was made to do something that was actually retro back to years past…let’s do VBS in the backyards of our community. NPC is a church that I believe is doing its absolute best to be an iatrical part of the community…by going out into the community and getting involved with our neighbors the best we can.

There is a Blast Zone (or backyard VBS) happening almost every week this summer in backyards across the NPC area. Here is a crazy statistic….70% of the kids coming to the Blast Zones are not from NPC. NPC kids are coming but they are bringing their friend and neighbors and the outreach with the gospel of Jesus Christ is spreading like a wildfire.

Praise God for this so many people willing to give up a week and their yard to host the Blast Zones…I pray God will continue to bless these efforts all summer long.