Classroom Training, Village "M" Work, and Prayer

It seems like yesterday I was sitting down to express all that has been going on in the training here at To Every Tribe. Thank you for your partnership in this mission.  You are as much a part of this training and work as we are.  But here it is a month later and my brain is brimming with all the classroom training and continuing church planting work in Mexico that has been done in the last four weeks.  I will separate the blog into CLASSROOM TRAINING, VILLAGE "M" WORK, and PRAYER.

CLASSROOM TRAINING 
(equivalent to 18 classroom credits, plus a week in Mexico every month)

What a blessing to be able to learn from instructors who know the word of God and know that it all points and leads us to worship and adoration of Jesus as King, Lord and Savior.  These men are humble and know that if this doesn't lead to knowing Christ in a deeper more intimate relationship resulting in more love and awe for our God and a love for people, it is worthless.

Classroom time

We had a full week of studying the mission of God in Acts.  What an amazing book.  I never studied it this in depth and when I see God's missional purpose expanding, growing, and widening through the preaching and teaching of the Word of God in Acts,  I was wowed by His mission,  the continuation of "all that Jesus began to do and teach" (Acts 1:1).  Jesus was at work then and He is at work now.  What fuel this is for the fire of missions, disciple making, and church planting right where we are and to the ends of the earth!

We also had a full week of Culture Index with Steve Leston.  Steve is an incredible instructor who taught on individual traits- the ways you engage the world and learning styles- the ways you receive information from the world.  It was incredible to see how different people are with the way they engage the world and learn.  I saw how valuable this information is in team setting, even elder and deacon settings.  For example, some people tend to be more "seeing the world at 10,000 feet, big picture, let's get going," type of people.  They are more of a "Ready, fire, aim" person.  Other people tend to be more "seeing every blade of grass, time to process, calculating,".  They are more of a  "Ready, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, rest, aim, aim" person.  I tend to be a spreadsheet loving aimer.

Team training

The reality is that when you work in teams, it's possible to discount certain people because of their traits.  I noticed that when we are planning strategy for our Mexico village, I am shocked when some in the group want to "get out there and see what happens".  This is utterly foolish in my mind and I can tend to disregard their input because of that.  I feel more comfortable analyzing and strategizing but may never get to the point of pulling the trigger and moving forward.  God has uniquely wired each of us and we can use this to:

1. Know our strengths and weaknesses individually
2. Understand where each person leans and how they learn
3. Use our individual traits to equip the team to work in its strengths and shore up its weaknesses

We realize that this is just observation of learning styles and traits.  This is a great tool but can be a horrible master.  The Word of God is our authority with regard to defining who we are.  So if we take this too far and say "because I am a big picture person, I don't have to worry about details" we are turning observations into interpretations and now the traits are the authority over us.  It was a good caution as we worked through this in our Mexico groups. What a great and exciting thing it is to start working out and thinking about team dynamics before we are out in the mission field full time and have so many other pressures on us!  A true blessing!

The week before we left for Mexico was spent going over the biblical theology of missions.  This helped us see what the Bible says about missions from Genesis to Revelation.  It really blew me away how right from the first chapter in Genesis God is beginning to reveal His plan of redemption.  It isn't something that comes out of left field in Matthew 28:18-20, it's written as a continuous, growing thread throughout the entire Bible.  I won't give you all the class notes but it has been a great time seeing how the Bible isn't 66 independent books put together, or even Old Testament and New Testament.  It is one story, pointing to one Man, who did everything we couldn't do!

Beyond this, we continue to have great prayer times, chapel together, and small groups, along with staff mentoring.

Clara and Easton helping out in Chapel

This brings all of the knowledge into the practical and worshipful reality of walking with Christ in community every day.  I have to remind myself of the gospel every day.  I am not sufficient for anything today.  I need Jesus every day.  Not for what He gives, but for who He is.

Trip to Village "M"

Praying before we leave for Mexico

I just got back from our four day trip to village "M".  Every time I think about the opportunity to go and continue the church planting work in "M" I am amazed.  We get the privilege to learn all about the bible, who Jesus is, and gain a ton of valuable tools that we can use for long term mission work.  But we get to do that work now.  We are learning and doing at the same time.  That makes everything so real and immediately practical.

On our way south!

My heart has been growing for village "M" even since the last trip.  In between trips and classes we are working in our teams to identify the greatest needs of our village, how we can pour out love to them, and disciple the three known Christians in the small fishing village.  

Morning at "M"

We had Gary Weaver, the Field Training Director, with us to interpret.  We are still actively (though not as active as I should be) learning Espanol.  We had dinner with a couple "N" and "E" the first night. (Just a clarification here.  I only use first letters not because there is any danger to the people we go to, but as an extra precaution for us as we travel in difficult areas.  It is not always necessary, but is always good practice).  Gary was able to have a good conversation with "N" and "E" about who Jesus really is.  We were able to visit some of the 75 or so people in the village over our four day trip.  A privilege for me was to lead the bible study for "R" and "A" with their daughter.  We had given some homework on a passage of scripture from Luke 5:1-11.  With the teaching on observations last month, we continued to build on the homework we left for them. 

  I love this picture because it reminds me of "M" and the only way anything can happen in this village, through prayer.

 It was exciting to see the husband "R" get excited about the observations they had made.  They started to see who Jesus was.  It was cool to see that "R" was really learning not so much from us, but from his own observations and talking them through to a logical conclusion. Though I realized that a Bible study with a translator is difficult and can be slow, (which makes me want to learn Spanish so much more) it is the living and active words of God that open peoples eyes and His Spirit that helps them understand.  So cool!  We were able to have another bible study the following night and it was rich again.  It is hard to strain for words you recognize in Spanish while people are talking or you try to speak but I've found that people are so forgiving if you mess up trying some word or phrase and that gestures and body language speak volumes!  "R" and his wife continue to ask us to stay longer and teach more to them.  I would love to do that and at the same time it's great to have them start to see that they don't need us to teach them all the time.  As we learn, we teach them and hopefully they will be able to start sharing with those in the village.    

FAMILY LIFE

Brita will be doing a post on family life soon. So stay tuned!

Friends over for a movie

PRAISE/PRAYER

• We are so thankful to be down here learning so many things!  Please pray my head doesn't explode or get buried in all the homework.
• Praise for another opportunity to go to Village "M" and see the growth and excitement of "R".  Please pray for all the people in the village who have no church close and live on very little.
• Praise that Brita is getting the homeschool routine down and settling into the new normal.
• Praise that the kids are making new friends here. Please pray that we would hold these relationships loosely.  One of Dan's really good friends will be going back to southern Mexico in a week or so.
•  Praise that our monthly support is getting closer to our goal.  We are now at 71%.  
• Prayer for homesickness twinges.  We miss our friends and family a lot. 
• Pray that we would continue to connect at our new church.

We are so thankful for each and every one of you!  This is exciting to share this mission together!  Please email us at joshandbrita@gmail.com with any prayer requests you have or just to say hi.  We would love to hear from you!

Evie, Nutty and Nut say goodbye!

At Home Thursday 10:30 am

Just a normal day at home for the kids and me. 

Clara has been able to finish her school work so fast lately that she is already free to play. 

Dan is reading a biography on C.S. Lewis and Paul is reading The Sword in the Tree by Clyde Robert Bulla.  

Evie is having fun with her duckies.

 

And the "dishwasher" is running ;) and I am hoping to get a shower at some point today!  

 Josh is in class.  At noon we have Ekklesea which is our small group. Then back to class for Josh, more school for the kids, a nap for Evie, and some house work for me. We are also gearing up for Josh's second trip across the border. He is hoping to find a small battery operated fan because he had trouble sleeping in the heat last time. We northerners can be pretty wimpy ;) 

Brita,

 for the McKenzie Clan