Pastors Conference Day 2 - Introductions & Class begins

Presentation of our American team

This is the first time we've split the teaching into two groups to teach two levels concurrently.  If you study the picture for a minute, you'll notice that we've improvised for a screen :)

Pastors Conference Day 1 - Starts coming together

Evening "Koinonia"

Out of all of the opportunities we have to see God change the lives of pastors here is during the evening when we gather for a time of singing, sharing, laughing and praying for one another.  It's in the evening when we get to hear people's stories, their burdens and their vision for what God is doing in Mexico.  On Monday, the first night of the conference we ask people who are here for the first time to share their names, where they are from and what they are expecting to receive.  Sometimes pastors share what you would expect them to share - difficult times, church needs, etc, but sometimes you hear words that aren't so typical.  Pastor Juan started by sharing his name, and church and then he said, 

"This is something different.  We have heard about these conferences for some time, but in October we couldn't come because of the hurricane.  This is a great blessing for us to be here with you because we feel here the family of God coming together.  It's special to see people who have on their faces a care for you.  We can see now why God has blessed this ministry to lift us up.  We are looking forward to hearing what God has for us this week."


Isn't that fun?  One of our goals with GCP is to unite pastors together so that Jesus' prayer in John 17 would become a reality.  When we hear pastors talk about working together, we can start to see some of the fruit of what we invested here.  Exciting stuff!

Pastor Juan and his wife introducing themselves.

Pastors Conference Day 1 - Starting Off

When we first starting doing conferences we liked to program the first day to start at a certain time.  We've learned however that the pastors arrive anywhere from 10am to 10pm on Monday so we have lunch in the afternoon and a worship service to start things off around 3 or 4pm.  Pickup trucks are ubiquitous in Mexico, but the privilege of riding shotgun is for the few.  Drawing the short straw and riding in the back, yes open in the back, is for the many.  Even after 5 or 6 hours every one of the pastors are happy to be here.  May God bless them and their time with us!

Lindsay Palomo registering the pastors (John Palomo is barely visible behind Lindsay working on name tags).

Lunch

Worship

This little boy from the beach was so curious as to what we were doing he climbed an 8 foot wall and peered in between the wall and the palapa to watch the worship time.

Alistair following along in worship.

Pastors Conference Day 1 - the place

It's 6:00am.  In only a few hours this palapa will hold pastors and spouses from all along the west coast of Mexico.  A group of 40 pastors have rented a bus in Acapulco and started out this morning at 3am.  For them it will take some 18 hours on the curves of Mexico Highway 200 to get here. Others are coming from the north an even further distance away- some 24 hours driving time.  We've been praying that God will protect them as they travel so that they can arrive here safely.  May God prepare us, and bless this place to receive them!

Why we go

Of all the things we get to do here, visiting pastors gives us the best appreciation for what each pastor's life is like.  Most pastors we work with live in humble circumstances, especially coming from our American perspective.  Driving in to most towns I'm always catching myself thinking, "How do they make it here?"  Fact is the people we see driving through small pueblos have been living, maybe the better way to put it is surviving, for all of their lives.  Makes you stop and ask if all those things that we think we have to have we really need after all.  Thus, after driving an hour south of Mazatlan we come to a small town close to Escuinapa, Sinaloa to visit with Pastor David and his family.

Pastor David's house

Since we're close to the ocean, and it's lunch time, it's oyster time!  You really can't stop at anyone's house here in Mexico and not stay for a meal.

Chuck sharing with Pastor David about the Pastors Conference

No real business in Mexico can take place until each new visitor has an opportunity to explain where they live, how long they will be around, how they like Mexico and so forth.  A formal "get-to-know-you" if you will.  Ethan and Sydney have become more accustomed to the idea that upon arriving at someone's house, especially someone who we know, we'll have to visit for around a hour or more before getting down to business.  So while Pastor David shucked oysters, we talked about his life (he grew up here), his family and his church.

Alistair exploring the property.

Shucked oysters

Oyster ready-to-eat!

Delicious!

On left: Pedro Rosales and family
Centerish: Edmunds
Right: Pastor David and family

Retreo Juvenil - Goodbye new friends!

Alistair enjoying watermelon

 No camp is complete without watermelon!  After a week of hanging out with the youth from a few churches from Nayarit it's now time for us to move on to preparations for the pastors conference in Chacala.  What a lot of memories can be packed into just a few days!

Last dinner at camp

Girl's Bible study

Retreo Juvenil . . . fitting in

Ethan in his silent role in a a youth skit

I doubt many of you will remember Jr. High as a pleasant memory.  Insecurity amplified by changes, unfamiliar people and more changes.  Imagine however that you don't speak the language of this culture.  This was Ethan's (and Sydney's) plight as they participated in the youth retreat here in Guadalajara.  In this picture Ethan (knowingly) is playing a famous musician as the girls shower him with attention.  Let's just say he's a trooper for this!

Off to get clean!

I can remember some highlights of youth camps from my [wow- really distant!] past: snow at Hume Lake, prime rib at Forrest Home . . . but have any of you had a hot spring at camp?  I didn't think so.  After a long day of skits, Bible studies, school studies, phone calls and meetings we hike each evening to a small river which is fed by a volcanic hot spring.  At the mouth of the spring the water is 180 degrees, but by the time it trickles down a 1/2 mile or so it's a refreshing 100 degrees.

Nice!