Waiting on the Lord

Sometimes the most difficult thing we can do is not hard work and activity, but waiting.   We rush to the airport, impatiently get our boarding passes and check our luggage.  We then anxiously make our way through security, only to be bored at the gate for an hour.    When buying and selling a home we rush to all the documents in order to get pre-approved, as we go from open house to open house, scheduling walk-throughs, and completing those last minutes fixes and staging.  And we make offers and counteroffers, etc.  only to sit and wait for a month or two for the closing date.   Because Maria is pregnant, yeah, there is a lot of sitting and waiting.   Enough said.

Our first two weeks of missions is no different.   We are settling in and we are waiting.   We currently don’t have any ministries of our own that we are “doing,” so we wait.   Limited by our language, our time in Mexico before heading back to the US to have the baby, and even an awareness of what the needs and opportunities are available, we wait.   I know it is not from God, but I sometimes feel like we are just tagging along.

Maria with children at Tacubaya

The Schumanns have been very generous with including us in some of their ministries.   This past Tuesday we joined them as they visited their rancho, Tacubaya.   It was an amazing blessing to see the fruits of the two years of ministry they have given to the Lord and to the people.   There is a beautiful eagerness to share in reading Bible passages, reflections, and life as a whole.   We were so blessed to be invited into one of the family’s homes and to share a delicious meal.   It is simultaneously a consolation and humbling to receive a home cooked meal from a family that probably annually lives on an income that I use to make in a month.   And yet they opened their homes, fired up their stoves, and had us sit at their table, as our families’ children played “zombie tag” around our parked vehicles in front of their house.

St. Francis of Assisi Parish

On Friday, Ben Schumann and I visited with Padre Humberto, the pastor at St. Francis of Assisi Parish directly across from the courtyard from our home.   Father wanted to show us some rooms and some spaces that he would like us to help clean and make functional for gathering spaces, prayer, and other forms of future ministry.  We are looking at possible future work projects for our team and maybe short-term mission trips.

Parish courtyard for possible renovations

Could we project movies onto that wall?!?!

Ben on the phone with his boss (AKA Natalia) at a potential work project site.

 

We are continuing to work on our Spanish.  Rosetta Stone has become a part of the daily routine for everyone but Naomi.   The kids ask everyday for more time to work on their Spanish.    

 

We also spent an afternoon with a pen and a roll of masking tape labeling almost everything in the dining room, or what I like to call el comador.   I have also been spending time looking up Spanish versions of some of our favorite praise and worship songs.

Everyone's favorite worship leader

Maria and I have also taken turns navigating the local markets.  It is not a Wegmans or Krogers, but we have always found what we needed.   I suspect Maria will have a future blog with much more detail on grocery shopping and cooking in missions.

So maybe we aren’t just sitting back and waiting as much as I originally thought we were.   Blogging is a cathartic way to change perspectives.

This week the last two missing members of our team, two singles, Jason and Ivette will be joining us.  Please pray for their travels.

Also keep in prayer our upcoming community retreat.   Details are still being worked out, but we hope to spend some time as a team seeking the Lord and His will for the up coming year.