Passion Follow-Up

This past Saturday, we had our follow-up meeting for students who attended Passion, learned about Enfoque Mexico, and were interested in starting spiritual movements on their campuses. And as we had printed 18,000 fliers about the meeting and ended up handing out a good number of them the second afternoon of Passion, we honestly had no clue how many people would show up. It was cool because there was no way that we could have any expectations. We could only pray and wait. Thanks to God's provision, we now have 55 new student leaders who are ready to take the Gospel to their universities!

Enfoque's job is now just to support and encourage them to do it! We want them to capture Enfoque's vision of reaching every university in the city with the Gospel for themselves. We want them to trust the Holy Spirit to work through them to do it. What we don't want is for them to rely too heavily on us. That's been a problem in the past. Students leaning too much on the visiting missional teams for the growth of their ministries. There have been instances where stinters continued to lead Bible studies week after week, when it would have been far better to let the Mexican students step up and take ownership of their own ministry. For, when the year is over and the stinters head back home, the Gospel goes with them.

We don't want that, and God certainly doesn't either. Please pray that the Spirit would give us wisdom to know how to help our students best take ownership where and when necessary, so that their ministries would be sustainable, that authentic disciples of Jesus would be made and that God would be glorified in the highest.

Thanks again to all of you who have kept our ministry and this city in your prayers. Please continue to pray that the light of the Gospel would shine out in the darkness and that the many beautiful, but lost people here would be liberated from their chains and would come to know Him who is their Creator and Redeemer. And please pray for us, that we would proclaim the Gospel clearly and boldly, as we ought to, but so often don't. He must increase and we must decrease!

And lastly, thank you for your patience in reading my well-intentioned, but often rambling thoughts. You are so kind.

Virginia on my mind,

Tim

Why can't I rest in Christ's sufficiency?

I listened to a great sermon this morning, the second in series that Shawn Slate, the UVa ruf pastor, is doing on Colossians this Fall. I must confess that, though I've really enjoyed and gotten a lot out of many talks that Shawn has given in the past, I only began listening to this latest series after a great recommendation from my friend Josiah. To be honest, I had been really hesitant to begin this series, and I couldn't tell you why, exactly. But I'm grateful to God for using to Josiah to pique my interest, for the message is something that I've needed to hear for quite some time. And not just hear. Meditate on. Rest in.

The funny part is that my team has even been doing a study on this book and Paul's timeless appeal to the church in Colosse to trust in Christ's sufficiency instead of their own had all but been lost on me during my previous studies. And, you know, I think it was lost on me because I wanted it to be. What, you say? How could that be? I know. I'm beginning to see more and more how reluctant my heart is to let go of its autonomy. Everyday, I have a myriad of choices, some little, some big. But regardless of size, each decision I make points beyond itself to a deeper reality of where my trust really lies. And sadly, most all of my decisions reflect an overt refusal to accept Christ as my King. I hate that about myself. But it is so true. I am so fake, so false, so full of sin. So unable to do anything on my own, except sin. But, you know what? The fact that I hate my sinful nature is something to rejoice in, for it's an unmistakable sign that God is working in me! Praise be to Him who is faithful to the unfaithful!

Wait, so maybe I am beginning to trust in His sufficiency, after all! Sure, the process is slow, ever so slow, and no doubt, God will be patiently teaching my heart this lesson for the rest of my life, but a quote from Slate's sermon gives me hope like I've never had before. Eugene Peterson once said,

"We like to think that spirituality is all about us, that it's about us trying to figure out how we can become more spiritual, that it's about us trying to figure out how we can read our Bibles better, that it's about us trying to figure out how we can pray better, that it's about us trying to figure out how we can be better, that it's about us trying to figure out how we can help people better and solve their problems better, that it's all about us. And the problem is that, as we think about spirituality, what we really want is to be the main character of our spiritual biography. We want to be the main character in our own spiritual story. That's what we want. And that is a detriment to true spirituality. Because true spirituality is found when you start thinking about yourself less and you start thinking about God more...Spirituality begins when you get so tired and fed up with yourself that you go on to something better. You go on to Jesus."

May God grant each of us this. And He will if we ask for it!

Love,

Tim

p.s. my longer update coming soon, les lo prometo...

¡Viva Passion!

Greetings everyone!

It has been such an exciting time of anticipation and preparation over the past several weeks as we've all been getting ready for Passion Mexico City '08! We've been pretty busy trying to get the word out about Passion to as many students as possible, and it was so encouraging to see the actual turn-out of students, the vast majority of whom we hadn't talked to about the event! In case you don't know, the Passion Conference (www.268generation.com) has been on a world tour this whole year, and Mexico City was stop 12 of 17. The event itself was this past weekend and over 8,000 people, most of whom were college students, attended! It was amazing to see so many young Mexicans gathered together, praising their Creator and praying for their city.

Also, on Saturday afternoon, all of us in Enfoque Mexico (Campus Crusade in Mexico City) had the oppurtunity to hand out fliers about the follow-up meeting that we're going to have for all those interested in starting Christ-centered movements on their campuses. As of yet, about 12 students have registered online for the meeting, and we're hoping for as many more as God wants! But, I have to keep reminding myself that He can use two students or two-hundred. After all, it's authentic faith in Him that can move mountains, not numbers. Please be praying for the meeting that we're going to have (it's this next Saturday the 11th), that God would be working and moving in all the hearts of those students He wants to have lead on their campuses.

Oh, and I didn't take these pictures. They were taken by a photographer named Jeremy Cowart, who Passion hired to help document the World Tour. He's a Christian, a talented photog and a really cool dude, to boot. You should check out his website: www.jeremycowart.com.

Grace and peace from God our Father through the Lord Jesus Christ. Estamos en contacto.