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.

In the Secret of His Presence
by Sandra McCracken

In the secret of His presence
How my soul delights to hide
Oh how precious are the lessons
That I learn at Jesus' side

Earthly cares forever vex me
All my trials lay me low
But when Satan comes to tempt me
To that secret place I go -
To that secret place I go.

When my soul is faint and thirsty
'Neath the shadow of Your wings
There is cool and pleasant shelter
And a fresh and crystal spring

And my Savior rests beside me
As we share communion sweet
If I tried I could not utter
What He says when thus we meet;
What He says when thus we meet.

Only this I know; I tell Him
All my doubts, my griefs, my fears
Oh, how patiently He listens
And my sorrowed soul He cheers

Dare you think he ne'er reproves me
What a false friend He would be
If He never, ever told me
Of the sin which He must see -
Of the sin which He must see.

Would you like to know the sweetness
Of the secret of the Lord?
Go and hide beneath His shadow
And this shall then be your reward...

And whene'er you leave the silence
Of that happy meeting place
You will surely bear the image
Of the Master in your face;
Of the Master in your face.

chavos

Here's a foto of us today with the teenagers we'll be hanging out with every Saturday afternoon from now on.  They're all cool guys, but most of them have pretty sad stories.  They all work together on this corner in the zona rosa, washing the windshields of cars that are stopped at this intersection while the stoplight is red.  If they're lucky, they make 50 pesos (5 dollars) a day, which is hardly enough to support themselves, let alone a family.  They were all either drinking, huffing glue, or both, to dull the pain.  Please pray that God would reveal Himself to each of these brothers.

What a heavenly Father we have!

Hey everyone,

Greetings to you on this sunny Saturday morning here in D.F.  I just finished listening to a sermon, the second in a series of three on how to pray like Jesus, from Mars Hill Church in Seattle.  A guy named Mark Driscoll is the senior pastor there and I would highly recommend subscribing to his podcast if you haven't already.  God is definitely using him to do some  awesome things for the kingdom, not only in Seattle, but on a national level as well.  So, yea.  Check his podcast out.

Anyway, one of his points throughout this series has been that God truly is our dad, and that we should pray to him accordingly.  It's so wonderful to be reminded that our father is not distant, he's close.  Not judging, but compassionate.  Not cruel, but loving.  Not foolish, but wise (though most of the time I think I know better).  Desiring not just his own glory, but our joy as well, simultaneously!  

This afternoon, we're going to hang out with a group of kids who call the streets their home.  It's heart-breaking to imagine how most of them probably view their earthly fathers.  In fact, will talking with them about their heavenly Father only conjure up memories of being abused or abandoned?  How can we show them the love of the Father when so many of their earthly fathers did such a poor job of pointing to Him?  All we can do is love them like the Father in the power of Spirit, right?  Jesus came to bind up the broken-hearted, didn't He?  I pray that Jesus would show them that He died to save them, as He did for all people.  Even if they have never known love before, that, by God's grace, they would meet Love Himself today.  I pray that the kingdom of God would grow a little bigger today.  Paz y alegria en Cristo a todos uds.    

Why me?

Hey friends,

I just wanted to put up a really quick first post tonight.  It won't be long, as I've already spent most of the afternoon and evening putting together my first monthly update.  Nevertheless, I've been thinking a lot today about how loved and blessed I am and how little I deserve it.  In fact, I deserve none of it.  God is good.  He is so good!  Why do I get to be here in a city that I love, with new friends I love and who love me, with more than enough money to live comfortably, getting to learn and speak a language I love, getting to serve a people group I love?  And even as I sit here thinking about how blessed I am by God, I begin to miss the point.  It's not about me receiving gifts from Him.  It's not about me at all.  It's about Him!  Jesus, my savior, who died for me, an object of mercy who should have known wrath.  Indeed, He is so good!  Hallelujah!  

One final note for my friend Josiah:  your story about how God sometimes delights to bless us in strange ways, like when you saw lots of yellow butterflies that one day, came into my mind this morning.  Seriously, not ten seconds after it did, some of the biggest and most brilliantly sunshine-yellow butterflies I'd ever seen in my life fluttered by the window.  I really missed you then.  But then I remembered how much God must love us, and I felt better.  Love you bro.