A Goodbye of Sorts

Well friends, I write this post from the luxury (compared to where I've been) of my parents house. I flew into Philly a few hours ago and will spend a couple days in DE with my family before heading to Narberth to unpack and start a Pediatric rotation at Jeff. I wanted to take this time to thank all of you for your prayers and words of encouragement these last 4 weeks. SMI was an incredible time of growth and hardship for me, both of which I hope to share with you in the near future. While this intends to be my last official SMI blog entry, I am entertaining the idea of starting another blog for my life in general. If, in the near future, I decide to try my hand at such prose, I will surely post the new url here, so check back in wanton anticipation. Gracias amigos, Adios!

A Quick Blog While Nobody's Looking

I have failed to keep you all up-to-date on this weeks events in a timely manner; for that I am sorry. It has been an incredibly busy week for myself and our project management group. I think last I left off, we were heading across the line on Monday. That day went very well and then on Tuesday we did door-to-door screenings. At the moment I'm blanking on specific details, but I'm sure they'll come back to me at some point. Wednesday was our last clinic day; bitter sweet in a way. Glad to be done, but also sureal that SMI is really over.

Looking back, the week is a blur. Every year there is a Thanksgiving Ceremony to honor the five groups that partner with us each year: local churches, translators, Valley Baptist residency, Friends of Jesus Inc (guides), and housing staff. Our project management group was responsible for coordinating the entire evening for around 120 people. Not an easy task, especially when we have one day off and two hours of designated project management time a week. I'll also mention the fact that we were in South Padre for the weekend before. So we all were feeling a little stressed this week. In years past the night was split into two sections more or less. The actual thank you ceremony was in the chapel - very boring from what I've been told - and then people were asked to migrate to the cafeteria where a pinata and t-shirts waited. Our group decided to buck whatever convention there was and combine the two ceremonies in the cafeteria and make it more like a banquet. The initial reaction of a lot of people was reluctance, but they said we were in charge and could do what we liked. One of the biggest obstacles to our plan was decorations, because the cafeteria looks like... well.... a cafeteria. All the credit goes to my group for coming up with great ideas and executing them.

Fast forward to last night; the place looked great. Linens for table cloths, center pieces, candles, white lights, ballons, window coverings... the works. We had cheese, crackers, and fruit on the tables with two different kinds of party punches. We also had a dessert table with cake and a sundae bar. A huge complaint from years past was the length of the ceremony... lasting up to 2hrs. From start to finish we came in at 70 mins. Needless to say, everyone was pleased. After the ceremony we had 2 pinatas and salsa dancing lessons to go along with our theme of Lets Dance! The credit for the evening goes to all the guys and girls in our project management group, they all worked really hard. Everyone had a really great time. I will say, I unfortunately missed the ceremony because I had to make a last minute Wal-Mart run to get ingredients for punch - it was so good, we ran out before the ceremony even started.

This morning, all the guys dressed up and made breakfast for the women. Not really sure the reason why - obviously God calls us to serve each other - but my theory has something to do with the nickname for SMI... Summer Marriage Institute. We sang "For the Longest Time" as entertainment while they were eating... great fun. Some of the more gifted singers were going on and on about our key and octave during rehearsal this morning, but I have no idea what that is so I didnt pay attention. I only know how to sing two ways... hight and low... and I don't do either very well. We have it all on video, so I looked forward to seeing how it looked. The girls appreciated our efforts. Today is mostly for cleaning... the dorms, office, etc and tonight is the 'coffee house' where we all do skits, say thank, byes and what not.

Gotta run cus I gots stuff to do. I'm flying into philly tomorrow night, but will be heading to DE till mid-week to spent time with the fam. Excited to see you all again!

The Last Week

I realized that it must be time to update the 'ole blog since I have been receiving emails wondering where I've been. Goodness folks, I take 3 days off and you'd think the world was going to end or something. However, it is very much appreciated to know that people are actually reading this given the time I take writing. Before I catch you up to date on the SMI happenings, let me first say that the previous picture was a joke. It is by no means intended for match.com; you should know I'm an eharmony kinda guy (again with the joking).

Myself and the SMI crew spent the weekend at South Padre Island or otherwise known as "the beach." Its a nice, medium-sized resort town, with warm water and blazing hot sand. We arrived Friday evening, got settled in and had dinner as a D-group. Later that night, Heath introduced the purpose of the weekend, which was titled "Return Training." The idea was for us to spend time focusing on our return home, how SMI has impacted us, and how God is leading us to impact our community on return. I spent the rest of the night in the adjoining pool and hot tub.

We were up bright and early the next morning for breakfast and then some breakout sessions geared towards the topics above. Quickly I'll share with you some of the things God has revealed to me through SMI:

1. The need for community. This was laid on my heart last year and God provided me with 2 awesome roomates in which we could erect a supportive, encouraging, and exhortative community. I see, though, how much more Christian community can be. God has re-enforced to me how the Christian walk is intended to be heavily relational. We are immersed in a society saturated with the ideology of individualism, yet it is nearly - nay I should say entirely - impossible to walk with Christ with this mindset. I see the benefits of living in a community of like-minded individuals with a single focus. Sin is exposed, fatigue combated with encouragement, foolishness exhorted with scripture, and uncertainty erased with prayer. That being said, an intentional Christian community is hard to establish and maintain. Every person involved must buy into the purpose. If that is not so, the other members are left shouldering the burden; thus, instead of joy being the natural by-product, discouragement can result. I realize that I have not labored as hard, as intense, or as long as I should have this past year in the brothers I live with and those I fellowship with on Sunday evenings. This is not to say, or imply, that Christian community is something anyone can erect given the right about of effort. Nay, it is God who gives us the vision and the strength, as well as the continued grace to do so. However, we must labor for the Lord as it says in Galatians 5:25, "Since you are in the Spirit, let us keep in the step with the Spirit." This is something I hope God will continue to lay upon my heart and the hearts of my brothers at Jefferson.

2. I need the Gospel. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is, simply stated; Jesus, fully God, taking the form of man - in all aspects -, sinless in his time on earth, crucified and risen again to be our justification (remember, forgiveness andrighteousness). The gospel changes lives. It has changed my life and I venture to say it has changed yours. But does it continually change your life? I often, and would contend I am not alone, think of the gospel as the for non-believers. Why wouldn't I? I mean, I've read it, I believe it... been there, done that. WRONG! We need to be reminded of Jesus' atoning sacrifice and our undeserved righteousness as much as non-believers need to hear it. It is quite interesting to note that in every the letter Paul wrote to the seven CHURCHES - meaning Christians - he made sure to remind them of the gospel message. If Paul, whom we all would extol as an undeniable man of God, thought it important enough to remind those churches of who and what Jesus did, I believe it important enough for us - I - to remind myself of it with greater frequence. The church at Corinth and Galatia had nothing on the debauchery and idolatry in our society today. This fundamental idea has been the core of the SMI teaching this year; and the core of the theme, Lets Dance: Repent, Fight, Believe. The gospel is not meant only for conversion, it is also vital for renewal and refreshment in the spirit. Something I need to recognize and work out in my own life.

3. I am a sinner. Nothing like 4 weeks of the same people, living in 'rustic' conditions, spending entire days in the hot Texas weather to expose some sins. God has certainly has done that in my life, and while I would love to share them with you (maybe not all of you), this is not the forum to do so.

We had free time in the afternoon on Saturday, the majority of which was spent on the beach. I can happily report that my diligence in applying and re-applying sunscreen was successful. Saturday night was set aside for 'bonding time' for guys and girls - separately that is (although co-mingling wouldn't have been a bad idea in my mind... you know, strictly for unity purposes). Use manly men played some stupid game, which I can explain to anyone interested at a later date, then built a bonfire on the beach. One of our colleagues (well done Ezra!) was astute enough to ask a beach cop the regulations on beach fires, allowing us to skirt them ever so slightly. The rules are that the fire can't actually be on the sand, but in some type of container. So we purchased a $10 grill from Wal-Mart and got a wooden palate from a neighboring store. It worked spectatularly and we have pictures to prove it.

Sunday morning we were scheduled to depart at 7:30am, but some of use decided to get up around 6am to watch the sunrise... and take pictures of course. It was awesome! I've kinda always been interested in photography, but the new camera has me hooked. I took some 60 pictures that morning, in the hopes of getting a few good ones. Its so much fun to play around with stuff looking for that perfect shot. I'm excited to share the photos with you all.

Today was another clinic day across the line. It was rather slow at my site... only about 45 patients. Some of you might find this interesting. I worked with Mike Fitzpatrick, who is a Family Med doc and just finished a fellowship in rural medicine. Some of you might recognize the name, as I found out that he is Christiana's - the missions coordinator at Tenth Pres - younger brother. Who is also the roomate of Miss Sarah Landis.... this is the part where we all hum 'its a small world after all...' in our heads.

Tomorrow is door-to-door in Texas and then Wednesday we have our last clinic. Please pray for me and the team as we are all tired and worn down. I find it more and more difficult to be energize and excited during our outreaches and yerning to see all of you. God is good, though, and I know he will provide the strength. Also, please pray for the Thanksgiving/Closing Ceremony on Thursday night. My group (continuity) is in charge of it and there is a ton to do with VERY little time. Those who know me best know I like to be in control and this time is no different. I also struggle with the pride of my reputation and wanting this to be a great evening. Pray for me in both of these aspects friends. Only a few more days!

My new match.com picture!

Where's the comments?

We are falling into bad habits friends and family. I may have lost my satirical wit in recent writing, but you shouldn't take it out on my blog... what did it ever do to you? - besides waste your time with ranting and raving. It's kinda like asking someone how their day was; everyone wants to be asked. Only your not really asking about my day, but commenting on how cool my blog is and my sweet man-beard.

To catch you up to date... this past Wednesday was another clinic day across the line. We saw 80 patients in the span of 5 hours! It was the usual setup where the patient gets registered, then triaged, seen by a doc, sit with the pastor, and then finally to the pharmacy. At the end of the day, the pastor of the church where we were working said 24 people received Christ! Its not a numbers game, but God is working in their hearts. I've been trying to not focus on how many actually receive Christ, but looking at it from the perspective that 80 people we prayed with and will be followed up with by that Church.


Yesterday was another door-t0-door session in Tx. Everyone on the team was so tired all morning and honestly didn't really feel like going out. I guess I can't speak for everyone (even though others told me that), but that is certainly how I felt. God is so good though, because as we gathered our materials, got in our groups, and prayed for our time going door-to-door we all felt renewed and refreshed. God gave us the energy. It is a great reminder that it is God's work and we are only the means by which he works. I had the opportunity to speak with one gentleman at the first house Jess, Sunna, and I stopped. First, we did his BP and BS. So far at SMI, he had the highest BS reading at 562. For those who aren't sure if that is high or not... thats REALLY high. We are doing random BS testing - as opposed to fasting BS testing - so we want the number to be below 200. He said he really wasn't feeling that poorly, but noted some blurry vision, frequent urination, and unsatiable thirst (all symptoms of high BS). When someone's BS is this high and they are unable to rehydrate themselves appropriately, the concern is that they may go into Diabetic Ketoacidosis or Hyperosmolar Non-Ketoacidosis, either of which can be fatal. After we addressed the medical needs - told him to follow-up with a doctor in 24hrs and if he feels worse to go to the ER - we started talking about his faith. I had the opportunity to share the gospel with him and he understood some of it, but didn't really understand the big picture of our needing Jesus' death on the cross. I didn't really know where else to take the conversation and by God's awesome grace, the translator working with us - Jorge - started his own conversation with the man and left me out of it. I was happy to sit back and let him handle it. As a quick aside, I am so thankful for the translators. They are so gracious in giving up their time (they are all volunteers) and helping us. I might know a little big about medicine, but it is all for not because I can't communicate that with anyone who speaks spanish. They are definitely a huge asset. Anyway, after about 10 minutes of listening to a conversation between Jorge and the guy, not understanding anything other than 'Se' (yes), Jorge turns to me and says, "He wants to be sure he goes to heaven today and accept Christ." So we prayed together and set up a time a pastor from the church we were working with could come back to visit.

Despite being physically worn down, God is giving us the strength to carry on. He is doing a great work down here. Please continue to pray for both of these things. This weekend we head to South Padre Island for 'return training.' Pretty much we have workshops and conferences on how to take what we have experienced and learned back to our campuses. Please also pray for continued unity on the team. Thank the Lord there haven't been any large dissensions or fights - as far as I know - but this is only by God's grace. We are all seeing the sin in each of our lives as more days pass and we grow more weary.

Friends, I just found out that on the SMI website (http://www.thesmi.org) are some pictures as well as updates and prayer requests for the entire team. Hope you enjoy! Things are well. I'm heading into a meeting now, so hopefully I can write more later.

Ok, so I just re-read my last two posts and they sound like a rather harsh rant against the church. It is not meant to be so. I have nothing against doctrine, it is vitally important to our Christian faith. I, myself, like reading theology and enjoy trying to understand some of the deeper truths to our faith. But does it take the place of me loving others (1 John 3:18, Col 3:14)? Honestly, it certainly does sometimes. That is the point I am trying to make. What, in my life and in yours, are we emphasizing more than seeking to truly love (which encompasses serving) others? We want to walk before we can crawl or eat food before we can swallow milk as Paul exhorts. As a body of Christ we are so terrible at caring for those who need us. We have become so incredibly introverted and individualistic in our walks. Ok, ok, i'll stop now.

Hernandez shared a link to an article in Christianity Today: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/009/16.38.html. It is an interesting read and thought provoking. If anything it is a springboard for discussion. I have, in my short time in Philly, met some people involved in communities like those in the article. I can't say that I agree with them on every doctrinal point (here we go again!) or their worldview, but I respect them for their committment to their communities. It's a falicy to think God has called all of us to live in this way (something the individuals I've met do believe), but we are all called to love and serve.

Three posts in one day... you guys are luucckkyyyy! I finished my day in the clinic and am waiting for Mosie to finish up so we can grab some dinner. The staff (physician and others) are so nice and friendly. I dont know if they are all Christians - the physicians are. We prayed consistantly with every patient we encountered. The patients respond so favorably, even when they are new to the clinic. I think the patients would actually be offended if the physician DIDN'T pray with them because it has become the standard of care here.

I also have some terrifying news. Out of curiousity, while waiting in between patients, I weighed myself. My baseline is between 155-160lbs. I step on, knowing I'll probably be a little over that... and it what does it read.... 173.5!!!!!!!!!!!! I frantically ripped off my white coat and shoes, wishing I could go all the way to my skivies. But realizing I was standing in the middle of the clinic I restrained myself and reweighed. 170. Are you kidding me!? 10lbs in 3wks! FATTY! I thought maybe 3-5lbs at the most, but never thought it would have been more than that. I told you the tex-mex 3x a day, 7 days a week was killing me. A big factor I'm sure is breakfast. I'm used to a big bowl of Cheerios every morning and here they are giving me eggs with bacon and sausage, biscuts, hash browns, etc. Thats an extral 500-600 calories at least... probably like 10 bowls of cereal. Of course I dont HAVE to eat it, but until this past week I couldn't find any Cheerios. I was trying to run in the mornings before prayer (7:30am), but I haven't been able to be consitant. Running at night is equally hard because I'm so tired. Regardless, I need to do something. I think I am going to start skipping breakfast in the cafeteria and go back to eating my Cheerios, but of course SMI doesn't buy milk until Sunday mornings.

So that was Sunday. The rest of the afternoon I spent sleeping and then with my D-group guys. The group time has been great and we have definitely been seeing our sin coming out. Thank you for your prayers, God has been answering them. We went to this awesome BBQ place for dinner in Brownsville (30 min south of Harlingen) called Rudy's. Its a sweet little place with its adjoining gas station. I'll get pictures up when I get back to the compound. The food was incredibly delicious. The best BBQ I've had. We ate 2lbs of beef brisket and a couple sausages between the 4 of us. This, incidentally, leads great into my wonderful news in the next post.

Monday was our day off. I intended to spend the day relaxing, reading, and being refreshed for the upcoming week, but I got convinced to go to the beach. Ezra, Dana, Michelle, and myself headed for South Padre for a day of fun in the sun. Its a beautiful area and set up much like a resort town - probably because it is a resort town. It wasn't too crowded on the beach which was great and the weather couldn't have been better (90's and sunny with a great breeze). The water was so warm too. Because of the sandbars, Ezra and Dana were able to walk out about 100 feet and still touch bottom. I didn't go out that far mainly because I didn't want to get eaten by a shark, so I stayed with the kiddies and pick seashells by the seashore. We stayed on the beach for about 3-4hours and then headed back to the compound for Sunday dinner. I used 30spf sunblock on my body and 45spf on my face, but somehow still managed to get a nice healthy shade of bright red. I know what your thinking, I didn't re-apply, but your so wrong, I totally did and even waited the 3omins for it to dry. But oh well, I've already resolved that I'll have skin cancer when I'm old.

Hope you all are well. Glad I got some time to update. Keep praying for the clinic days and time in Tx.

Sorry for the poor updating friends. I have been busy these last few days and when I have had time to write, I haven't been in the mood. At the moment I am at the Valley Baptist Family Medicine Clinic doing my 1 day of required rotation through here. No I am not skipping out on work. For your information, the physician with whom I was working had to leave early and thus I have a little break before lunch... so relax and enjoy what you are about to read.

So to catch ya'll up, Sunday I was again at los Vecinos church for worship. I think it was the last Sunday we'll be there, since this weekend we do return training at South Padre Island, and then leave on the 29th. The message was centered around drawing near to the Lord and clinging to him. There were a number of scripture references used, but I will not repeat them here. It's interesting to me to see the difference between the churches within the US that I have visited and what they empasize. It almost seems to me - from growing up in a middle-class moderately-sized suburban church and my time at Tenth Pres - that the more affluent churches focus more heavily on doctrine and "living a Christian life." While the smaller, poorer churches I have visited - Spirit and Truth in Philly and los Vecinos here - emphasize mostly loving your neighbor and resting in God. I must acknowledge that this is but a tiny sampling of the churches in the US and I, being only 24, have spent a relatively short time at each. However, as you all should know by now, this will not hinder me in expressing my overly-generalized opinion.

So what is the reason for this difference? Who is right (besides me)? One could argue the difference is due to education. Those who have attained more education tend to have more money, thus congregate at more affluent churches, which then leads the preaching of more doctrine - I don't mean to imply the churchgoers dictate what a pastor preaches, because thats just wrong. So is this a correct assertion of the origins of difference? Is knowing/preaching doctrine bad? Absolutely not! But I think our brothers and sisters at the smaller, more community-driven churches are having a greater impact on their communities than those in churches that focus on doctrine. Why is that? I believe it is due to their focus on how they can serve others, how they can trust more, and how to love in a Christ-like manner. They also have the blessing of being able to regularly exercise these things, although it may not seem a blessing at the time.

Do not walk away from this entry thinking I am trying to rag on bigger, more affluent churches. I am far to young and have far to much to learn to have the capacity to say what is more correct on such a grand scale. But we must ask the question. What is the purpose of the church? Are we not to go out, to preach the Gospel message - not only to others, but also to ourselves - and be witnesses to the world. Then why aren't we? Why are we so self focused, as individuals and a corporate body? And don't use the excuse that you are witnessing at work/school by being a 'good person.' Frank thinks your a good guy, but he doesn't know your a Christian. It is true, actions speak louder than words, but far too many (myself included) for far too long have used this as a crutch for not witnessing outright. Actions are not a replacement of words, but rather should be used alongside them. I have not mastered this in my own life friends and this is only the inner ramblings of a poor sinner who sees the reflection of this in his own life.

For those of you who like fiction, Ezra has a story on his blog about Friday night's scavenger hunt that's quite interesting. Here's the link blog.myspace.com/ezramell. Those who enjoy it would probably also enjoy: http://ivyjoy.com/fables/

So Friday night after the awesome day in Tx, we had a scavenger hunt around Harlingen. The teams were broken into the project managment groups, thus my team was the Continuity group. We also got Heath and Jen Hale, which we thought would work to our advantage since they know the area. As it turned out, we were 3rd out of 3 teams.... thus I dont want to say anymore.

Today was another clinic day as I alluded to in my earlier post. I was at Iglesia Filadelphia (no i didnt spell it wrong) with Dr. Matthew Moslener! I pulled some strings in the morning to get Matt and I on the same team; then pulled more strings so that we could see patients together. It was great spending time hanging out with him. Unfortunately, given my schedule and his we haven't been able to get together much. OOOOOOOO!!! I did get to ride the scooter again and I got it up to 35mph!!! Sweet! Ok back to today. I started out with Matt and then got switched out to the pharmacy after lunch. Wish I could have spent more time seeing patients with him, but it was awesome while it lasted. I'll post a pic of us, but I'm on Dan's computer now, so it'll have to wait.

Tonight we had chinese for dinner in the heart of tex-mex country. Chinese food in Texas... speechless. I have doubts the employees were even Chinese. Amazingly, the food was pretty good. Not that it tasted like chinese food, but it was pretty good. It helped that I was starving. We went to see Superman tonight on the big screen. Overall a decent movie. One of the best parts was seeing the teaser trailer for Spiderman 3... VENOM!

I hope to resurrect my previous comments on God's anger and some other stuff I got stored up in the noggin, but its 1am and I need to get some sleep. Thus, I will restrict myself to some lighter fare. One of the most annoying things about being down in Tx in the summer is sweating. Its not the normal, run-of-the-mill, beads of sweat that pour over one's face in summer, rather, I have a constant layer of slime covering my entire body. The only time I am free from the grasp of this most aggressive enemy is in the shower. But once I emerge, the slime layer reconstitutes itself.

JACKPOT!! No more crappy "Scooters," I found the Cheerios stash!

heading across the line today... pray for us!

WOW! What a day it was yesterday. We went out door-to-door in the afternoon to an area around First Baptist Church (I realize you have no idea where that is). I was in a group with Jess, 2nd year at Jeff, and Elliot, an ER attending in Tyler, Tx. We were a little hesitant at first because we weren't given a translator in our group and the communities we visit tend to be very heavily spanish speaking. Jess speaks a little, but didn't really feel comfortable doing it on her own. Regardless, we set out and arrived at our assigned street. The first house we stopped at, a mother and child were outside talking with a neighbor. We approached and introduced ourselves, however, neither were interested in any medical screenings or about Jesus. So much for that. Across the street was an apartment complex, so we decided to head in there. No one home at the first door we knocked on... so far not so good. The next door a man and woman opened the door. They both were not interested in BP or DM screenings, but once we mentioned Developmental screenings for kids, she got very excited and welcomed us in readily. Turns out, they had a 8 month old girl, that they were trying to have see a doctor but hadn't been able to make it. I asked the developmental screening questions and the baby was normal. The man (boyfriend) decided he wanted his blood sugar and BP checked; we happily abliged. I noticed a framed picture on the wall with the words, "LORD." I dont think there could have been a better 'in.' I asked about the picture to seguay into a more 'spiritual' conversation.

The picture had been a gift from the woman's Aunt who is very catholic. We started asking more probing questions to find out what she believed, and found that both the man and woman believed in God, but not much more than that. I started presenting the gospel message using tracts we have with great illustrations and pictures. They both understood what I and Jess and Elliot were saying, but there was still something holding them back from taking a step of faith. They admitted to not having a bible, thus we left them one of ours with the verses we went over marked out. We ended our conversation with prayer and thanked them for their gracious hospitality.

We exited the home and proceeded through a common area of the apartments to the next house. As we were doing so, a mother, daughter and the daughter's boyfriend were all standing and talking. We introduced ourselves and told them what we were doing. The mother said she had hypertension and would like her BP checked. Jess and I went with the mother inside the home, while Elliot and Sophie (by this time another translator showed up and they dropped her off with our team) talked with the daughter and boyfriend. The time Jess and I spent with the mother was great, very hospitable and friendly. Her BP was well-controlled on Diavan (combo diuretic and ACE-inhibitor) and blood sugar in the normal range. I started asking about what she know of Jesus - which wasn't much - saying he was there to help us. She denied knowing him personally or his death on a cross for our sins. Jess and I walked through the gospel message with her outlining Romans 3:23; 6:23; 5:8 and Ephessians 2:5-8. She believed! Right then and there she confessed her sins before God and asked Jesus to be her savior. Awesome!

Unbeknownst to Jess and I, the daughter and boyfriend, while speaking with Elliot and Sophie outside the home, also made a profession of faith. 3 people in one household came to know Christ yesterday (the boyfriend doesn't actually live there however). They all desired for the pastor of 1st baptist to visit and thus we gave the church their information and setup a time when we all could return next week. When we came back and debriefed our day with the entire group, there were several stories such as this one. At last count, 10 people - just from yesterday! - wanted follow-up from the church. I cannot assume all of those accepted Jesus that day, but God is definitely at work in their hearts. The Holy Spirit was moving in people's hearts and we could physically see it. The previous times out in Tx have been a little discouraging because of rain and being set away from so many homes. Keep praying, God is working!

I have 30mins before training begins, so I am going to try and get down as much as possible from yesterday. It was a clinic day (Wed and Sat), so we left around 1pm from 'the compound' to head across the line. A quick digression. We have a "lead guy," Lawrence and his wife, who lead us to the clinics and arrange for the meds to get in there as well. He has been working with SMI since it has been down in Harlingen, about 6-7years. On clinic days 2 groups (2 vans each) go to 2 different sites, one following Lawrence, the other his wife. Back to the story. Yours truly was selected to be one of the drivers for the green team and we would be following Lawrence (i've driven the van down here a lot, but not to the clinic). So me and the other 14 people in the van start out following Lawrence. So apparently, we were 20 minutes behind schedule and Lawrence didn't like that. So to insure we would arrive on time, he upped the MPH. The picture above was taken after across the line on a 2 lane "highway". Honestly, that wasn't even the top speed that day. After we crossed the "bridge," the roads became suicide lanes. For those of you not familar with suicide lanes, they are a road with a single lane of traffic going either way, with about 5 feet of "shoulder" separated by a dotted line. The reason for the moniker, "suicide lanes" is because in order to pass, one moves into the middle of the road (literally the middle of the road) to pass and you hope (and pray!) the cars coming the other direction move over into their "shoulder" area. Over there, practically speaking, there really are no driving rules. One pretty much does what he wants to do and what rules do exist really only apply once your in an accident. So here we are 15 people in a van - did I mention its from '90 and has 100,000 miles - traveling 75 mph (120 kph) down a 2-lane road passing people like crazy. I think the marked speed limit was 60 kph (about 40mph). It was absurd! Completely needless to risk the lives of 15 people (not to mention the other 20 in the other vans) to make sure we weren't 20mins late. Now if your really astute, you'll notice that it was even more absurd for me to take a picture while driving 70mph on a 2-lane road while passing people. I pulled Heath aside when we got to the clinic and made my concerns known. But what an experience!!!

Once we got there, about 20 people were waiting for us. We unloaded quickly and set up as fast as we could. I was assigned to pharmacy to start with, so we had to find all the drugs, then sort and separate them. After that was done, things were slow initially for us until the docs started finishing up with the first wave of patients. We have 8 docs at our site yesterday, which is a ton. Its usually like 4. It made for a very busy afternoon in the pharmacy. I think it was divine retribution for all the times I've written Rx in the hospital and write "QS" (quantity sufficient) on the # line, saying to myself "let those pharmacy guys figure it out." We say around 80-85 patients on the day, which made it our busiest clinic to date. The others previous had been kinda slow, so its great that we could see as many patients as we did, especially since we had the manpower (doctors). So that was pretty much my day. I stayed in the pharmacy the whole time. They asked if I wanted to switch out to work with a doc, but let Ezra instead, since he hasn't had the chance yet and I have both previous clinics.

This morning we have training as I already mentioned. The afternoon we are going door-to-door in Tx to do screenings and proclaim Jesus!

PS - I'm sure ya'll (remember Tx) would love to see pictures of me actually working - honestly, I do work! - but they are all on other people's camera... I'll try to get some on here in due time.

we got back pretty late tonight and i'm not in the frame of mind to write it all down... thus you'll have to wait. in other news, came across this article below. did I call it or what! CONSPIRACY THEORISTS UNITE!
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=373809&cc=5901

Carnival Pictures!

top to bottom:
1. Andrew and Megan with kids from the community.
2. Katrina doing Diabetes screening
3. Nzingha doing the same
4. Life before the moon bounce: Dan and I were downtrodden; life was hard and we were feeling the weight of our burdens.
5. Life after the moon bounce: We have found refreshment! Our burdens are lifted! (I know my writing is deep and reaches to the very core of your person, but dont read into this too much - I am in no way insinuating the moon bounce is an allegory for Christ)

oh man, do I have some great stuff for you guys. we had the day 'off' yesterday until about 3:30pm when we left to do some health screenings at a neighboring church. Of course, by 'off' i really mean that everyone except the leaders. I spent some time after breakfast in the word reading Psalm 105. As a response to what I wrote in the last lengthy blog - that I focus more on my shortcomings than on Christ's redemption - I am going to read a Psalm a day. The psalms are great in showing God's attributes and thus I believe it will be a fruitful journey. Here is verses 1-5 and 11-12:
"Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits - who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.... For as high as the heavens are above the earth so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us."

So lets live like it! One of the things I would like to delve into sooner or later (probably not today because I have some other stuff) is the lack of joy in the majority - heck lets just say all - of my life and other Christians. It has to do with what I spoke on recently. But, before I do, I will tell you about my day. So the morning was 'off', but busy nonetheless for me getting all the forms prepared for going into the community. We left for Iglesia Baptista los Vecinos to be a part of a carnival they were having for the community. If you are an attentive reader of this blog, which I hope you all are, you would notice that this is the same church I attend on Sundays. Our role at the carnival was to set up 4 tables to do health screenings and share the Gospel, as well as assist the church members in games and what not. It was a great time of fun, fellowship, medicine, and sharing Jesus. I started off at one of the screening tables and interacted with a very pleseant gentleman from the area. He was in good health (no HTN or DM) and a professed catholic that attended a nearby church. We talked about the Gospel and what it meant to him and how I (we) could pray for him. It was awesome that God allowed me to be a part of his life - however short a time it was - and pray with him for strength in his faith and walk.

I was relieved after a while by another student, which allowed me to wander the grounds and play with the kids. At one point, I was having a jump rope contest with a little girl - I think she was 5 - who I totally demolished, but I dont think there's any pictures to share. It was great to be able to teach her biblical humility at such a young age. She ran away crying, but I'm sure she understands and is thankful for that valuable lesson I taught her.

At the end of the day, we debrief for a short amount of time to share stories, experiences, etc. Overall, I believe 3 people accepted Christ that day and will be followed up with by the pastor of los Vecinos. Very exciting to see God's spirit moving in the community and the opportunity to be a part of it.

I'll add some pictures from the carnival in another post. With the website I use for this blog, it only puts pictures at the top and not necessarily with the text describing it, thus inconvenient at times.

We got back around 9:30pm (long day!) and got together with the D-group guys. God's spirit was moving here too, but He brought out some conflict and sin that was brewing between some of the guys. No need for details, but be praying for us. What a great time to learn how to be a peacemaker rather than a peacekeeper. Also a great opportunity to learn to let God heal wounds and not myself. We had a great discussion on idolitry and spent time in pray. Continue to pray for servant leadership in my heart and our time together as a group.

Today we head across the line to another clinic; pray for safety and smooth passage. Hopefully I can tell you guys about it tonight.

three quick things before bed:
1. i'm chronically dehydrated. i've mentioned this before, but it needs to be said again. i cannot keep up on my fluids. its not enough dehydration to be dangerous, it's just enough to make me feel crappy all the time.

2. i'm TexMex'd out. breakfast, lunch, and dinner every flippin day. The meat down here is amazing, the best I've ever had, but enough is enough. i can now appropriately understand why Tx has 5 of the fattiest cities in the US. i can't get away from it and folks its starting to show on the waistline (i know you all think i'm crazy, but i'm not just being obsessive this time).

3. i haven't shaved in 2wks and I look gloriously unprofessional.

i'm out... more tomorrow.

on a much lighter note, here is Ezra and my bowling couples picture.

A day of rest... finally. Mondays, for the most part, we have off. It is a welcomed day, since we are are busy the rest of the week (except when I'm watching the world cup, taking pictures, bowling, playing halo, as it seems some people think thats all I do). Today, a few people organized a trip to Progresso, which is a small touristy town across the line. Its a place to buy souvenirs, experience exaggerated culture, - isn't that what tourists crave? - and ride a mechanical bull. I was interested in going, mostly just for the mechanical bull, but decided that I needed a 'Mark Day.' Those who know me well, understand that I am truly introverted. Meaning, most psychologically, that being in groups drains my energy; in contrast to an extrovert being one who gains energy from groups. It is hard to get alone time here, when there are 40 people housed in one building and only two other building on the 'campus' with a/c. There is quite the shortage of quiet places with a/c to enjoy time alone. I value time to get away, and there hasn't been much of it thus far at SMI. So this was a perfect time to spend all day in the library by myself. I wasn't completely alone. About 15 people also opted not to go on the day trip. The other downside to going was that they planned to be gone for 6hrs! I can't handle that much sun. Pasty white and 98 degrees don't mix well (but, just for the record, I have nothing against their heartfelt, I'm sure there'll be more.

So I am writing this after having quite a relaxing day to myself. I intend for this entry to be a tad more personal than I have written recently and share with you all what God has shown me about myself this day. First, however, I would like take time to answer two questions Shaji posed. Also, this will probably be quite a long diatribe... so if you have a weak stomach, you might want to skip this.

There might have been some confusion regarding my previous entry incorporating justification and sanctification. My words in reference to those two topics was really an aside and this poorly explained (I do realize, though, that most things I write about are poorly explained. It has something to do with forming coherent thoughts). Throughout church history, there have been heresies which have sought to emphasize justification over sanctification, or vice versa. They are nomianism and its reflexive counterpart, anti-nomianism. What I tried to express was that my belief is that the church today struggles less with those heresies and moreso with preaching full justification, including the forgiveness of sins AND Christ's imputed righteousness (Romans 3). I am no biblical scholar or by any means an authority on the Christian church, but I come to these conclusions based on people I have spoken to in my short life and what I see in the way of Church doctrine. Of course I must also acknowledge that I am biased. I have been raised in such a way and have had certain experiences in the past which shape the way I view the world. This bias is inherent and I contend unable to be rectified, only identified.

The other question posed was about what I do as leader of a D-group. A great question. As I have mentioned before, myself and 3 other guys (Mike, Paul, and Dan) are one discipleship group, of which I am the leader. We have a workbook that we are going through called Gospel Transformation. Basically, I have been called (by God and subsequently SMI) to be a spiritual leader to these guys. We meet for specific D-group time every Sunday night. Last night, we went to Applebee's for dinner and ended up talking for 90minutes about SMI and our struggles. Did I intend for that to happen? No, I planned on coming back to campus and going through the weeks lesson in our workbook. But God had other plans and I was happy to go along with them. My goal for these 4 weeks is not to get through the entire workbook. I desire to get to know these guys (not in the biblical sense.... inside joke), to know their struggles and hangups, in order that I - and the other 3 - may come along side them to support, encourage, exhort, and pray for them while down here. Thats how I see my role. God, will I'm certain, refine that vision into his own. Hopefully that answers the question.

Now on to today. God revealed some good stuff to me today that I would like to share. A weakness I see in myself and Christians in general is the unwillingness to be transparent. Thus, I seek to do so with you. Transparency is not meant to be with everyone, as seen with Jesus, who was intimately invested with only a few disciples. However, if you are reading this, it means you are undoubtedly someone to whom I have a close relationship. Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 2:8, "We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you have become so dear to us." And so with you.

God has shown me in the last few years that I am a very prideful and judgmental person. These are things I have sought repentance for numerous times, but continue to struggle. I want to write a few excerpts of an article I read by Stanley Voke. It struck me quite powerfully.
"If we see only the plumbline putting us in the sinner's place so that we remain in the state of feeling sinful, we shall be like snails - struggling. Seeing sin does not set us free - we need to see Jesus. For every one look at sin, said Murray McCheyne, take ten looks at Christ. Then indeed we are like birds that fly."
"The tragedy of all this is the idea that we find favor with God by reaching standards."
"The Christian does not go around all the time feeling guilty. For him sin is a burden he can lay down for he can admit it, repent, and be forgiven."

I see now that I am so intent on revealing sin in my life, that I don't focus on the righteousness that is in Christ. That is why I was trying to make the point before that justification contains both forgiveness and righteousness. To detect counterfeit money, people are trained by studying the real thing, not by staring at the counterfeit. In a analogous way, I have not been doing this. The Holy Spirit reveals sin in my life, I repent and then re-focus my life on Christ. But in this I don't appropriately marvel at the pure righteousness and holiness of God. Thus, though I have confessed my sins, I feel as though I still carry them, because I continually focus on my depravity, but not on God's 'holy otherness.' If I first meditate on the characteristics of God, I will see my falleness so much clearer and with such greater depth than by looking first to my own sins. How can I look to my own sinfulness and then expect to have a proper view of God? Not possibly in my opinion. A subtle change in process, I will admit, but one that I think is vital.

The workbook asks the question, "Is God angry with me when I sin?" I think they gave a poor explanation, but will not digress into such a discussion now, as I believe this entry is of sufficient length. I will close with 1 Thessalonians 2:22-12, "For you know that we dealt with you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting, and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory." I have not seen this enough in my life and desire for others to come along side me as I come along side them.

I'm writing this in a very emotional state, so I apologize if I seem a little harsh. I was able to watch the France vs Italy game this afternoon at Dr. Johnson's house. AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!! How disappointing!! First of all, what the heck was Zidane thinking?! Headbutting someone in 2OT... hello, did he think no one would see him? Its just the most watched sporting event in the world, with him being at the very least in the top 3 players in the world. My theory, the Italian guy said something about either his mom or his wife. I mean what possess a man to do such a thing in such a critical game. If they win, he is remembered as the hero that carried France through the world cup. But now, he's going to be remembered as (or at least I'll remember him as) the 1st dude in the history of the world cup to head butt another player. I lost a lot of respect for Zidane at that point... it shows no professionalism (unless it really was about his mom, then you gotta beat the dude down). Now to move on to Trezuget. Crossbar!? PKs are all about finesse and placement and not about power and might. Example of finesse: every Italian PK. Example of power and no goal: David Trezuget. I do have to give Italy credit, though, because every game they played hard and fought through. No one expected them to win it all, but they played as a team and thats what the world cup is about. Brazil may be the most talented, but they played like the favorite daughter and not like champions (word associations and analogues are not my strong suits).

On to something more trivial. For the fellas out there... one of the other leaders, who is a 2nd yr resident, brought not only his xbox, but also his HD projector and screen. I thought Halo on a plasma was beautiful, its nothing compared to HD picture on a screen that is 6ft x 6ft... breathtaking. For those that don't know what Halo is, it is a video game that I play too much and, except for Andrew Archual, my sensi, I cannot be beaten.

gotta run to dinner with my D-group guys. hopefully, I can write some actually meaningful stuff tonight.

Some artistic pictures I've taken while down here... tell me what you think.

so to catch ya'll up to date (i get to say "ya'll" cus i'm in Tx now)... yesterday (Friday) was spent in the classroom with a couple lectures on medical missions. The pastor of Parkwood church - one of our partners this summer - gave a talk on the biblical basis of missions. This was followed by Dr. Erin Meier, 3rd year resident and the other project director with Heath, speaking on her time in Ghana. Since I wont be able to go to Tenwek or Kijaibe in Kenya next spring, I am going to email the hospital Erin went to and see what spots they have available. I think it was the same hospital Drew went to last summer as well.

We had the afternoon off, which I promptly used to catch up on much needed sleep. Last night we went bowling in Brownsville, which is 30mins southwest of Harlingen. But just not bowling... COSMIC BOWLING! apparently, when one turns off all lights and flicks on multiple black lights, bowling no longer becomes incredibly boring, but a midnight adventure! Man I haven't bowled in probably 7years. Mom and I would go with some frequence when I was homeschooled, but not any time recently. Needless to say, I wasn't that good, but it was lots of fun. Ezra and I took a cute couples picture I'll have to post on here. Its on his camera, so it might a little longer. At the end of the evening Mike wanted to arm wrestle me to prove his manhood. After a short-lived battle, I lost... uh... i mean... conceded victory.

Today was our 2nd trip across the line to set up a clinic. I worked with Heath in the morning. He's a great teacher. The more I interact with him, the more I respect him. We saw a pretty classic case of tinea corpus (ringworm) which I diagnosed and treated correctly. Other than that, nothing too interesting. One patient did profess faith in Jesus after being treated and prayed with; although I was not involved with her care. Everyone was quite encouraged by that. Overall we saw about 60 people, still not that much compared to what I've been told is 'average.'

On to other business... I just remembered that I did not answer my previous clinical scenario. The boy Brian and I saw on Wednesday most likely had Enterobus vermiculus (pinworm) and we treated with Mebendazole. We couldn't be entirely sure, but it was something we decided to error on the side of treating.

We were told numerous times last week that it never rains in Harlingen. In fact, last weekend it rained 2 out of 3 days and locals said, "dont get used to it, you wont see rain again while your down here." so then why the heck has it rained at least once every single day since then?! Its been cloudy and damp everyday. I dont want to complain too much, because it has kept it much cooler.

Tomorrow is the world cup final, France vs Italy... any guesses? I'm going with France, because I'd like to see Zidane win another before he retires and frankly, I dont really like the Italian team. If France plays they way they did against Brazil, they'll be able to shut down Italy. Hopefully, I'll get to watch the game over one of the attending's houses.

Keep praying for me. My attitude towards certain members of our team is not very good at times, as I get frustrated with their antics. Pray for my heart and especially for Christ's love in me. It has been great encouragement to be around like-minded (in the sense of Christ-focused) individuals constantly. It helps in those times of temptation when I wander off the narrow path, or think of wandering off the path. I've also been trying to meditate on the distinction between being a peacemaker and a peacekeeper. To Stacey's credit, she cut to the heart of a sin in my life in challenging me to be the former and not the latter.

PICTURES!!!


from bottom to top. the two on the bottom are from wednesday at the clinic... it shows you a little of the disparity. the next is from yesterday before we went door to door. that was the team i was with... it changes every time. and at the top we have our D-group. L to R mike, me, paul, and dan. the picture is a little darker than on my camera.

hello folks! or should i say Jodi and Mom, cus it seems they're the only ones who read this thing! gotta give a shout-out to my sweetheart of a niece Maya Marie (shes 3). She is darling and oh so pretty. She called me yesterday to ask how I was doing, tell me she loves me, and that she prays for me everyday. It was a great encouragement to hear from her.

So about yesterday. In the morning we had what they call 'institute,' which basically means we were in the classroom all morning going through our Gospel Transformation book (its based on Galations, the theme of SMI this year). Bryan Stoudt, who is the new MCO director taking over for Scott Moreau, went through a few chapters with us. We started out talking about Justification (Galations 2). I had read other authors previously discuss justification, its components, and that Jesus' death wasn't enough, so I understood the ideas of expiation, propitiation, and imputation that we went over - hopefully, you caught the glaring error last sentence... just testing to see if your paying attention... i can guarantee Tom and Stacey almost had a heart attack after reading that - but, after dicussing it with the guys in my group, they really had some good things to say regarding its implications. Its true, anything less than a wholly and true understanding and view of justification leads us in to living erroneous lives. Its becoming more and more obvious to me that the more we seek Jesus the more subtle our sin patterns become, but never really disappear... pretty much the definition of sanctification. Bryan made the point, and I agree with him, that many churchs in today's era preach the forgiveness that is in the justification through Christ, but, to their detriment, leave out the righteousness that is also given us through Jesus' death and resurrection. Rather than the lie of justification vs sanctification the church struggled against with nominaism and anti-nominaism, today we are erroding the fundamental components of justification: forgiveness and imputed righteousness, one not being tantamount to the other. There is such freedom and humility in these two things.

One of the things that has been great about SMI, is that it has really helped to flush out truths of scripture. The theological points I digress herein these blogs, I have read and known previously, but SMI has been helping me understand them more fully.

After the morning institute session, we prepared to go into the surrounding community to do blood pressure and blood sugar checks, developmental screens on children, and preach the name of Jesus Christ. We were split up into groups of 4, with a translator. On this partcular day we were working with New Wine church and their community. As we were driving in the van about to get dropped off at our first house, the heavens opened and down came torrentual rain. It was a tremendous amout of rain. SMI guidelines are that we proceed in rain, but call off the cold-calling (for lack of a better word) if lightning is present. As of yet, there was no lightning, but there was a bunch of rain. We waited for a few minutes, then decided to head back to the church, which was our base of operations for the day. One team had been dropped off prior to the rain, so we spent time in prayer collectively for them and the people they were ministring to. We also grab the instriments on the stage and had a short worship time which was great fun. After about 3hrs, the rain let up and we headed back out. My team had a few houses where no one was home. One Father let us in, but said he and his family were on the way out to dinner. They said they were Jehovah's Witness', but invited us back next Tuesday to talk and to the health screenings. Most of the other people either worked at Valley Baptist or were related to people who worked there. Some of the other groups had more success getting to speak with the people.

Thats all I can write now, time for a morning session. Today is more of a laid back day with some sessions on medical missions and free time. i'll try and get some more pictures up in due time.

HOLLYWOOD COWBOY!!

on a side note. the digital camera is excellent. i've taken around 250 pictures thus far, its insane. i shoot first and decide later. Ezra has been letting me copy them all to his laptop harddrive since I already filled a 1gb memory stick... didn't think that was gonna happen.

so here's the second post of the day. this one will deal with today, thus I decided to separate it. i also wanted to add some pictures. As I said before, we went across the line today to one of our clinics. the pictures are pretty much in reverse order. the building (actually a church) with the two cars shows is where we set up shop. you can also see us piling out of the van and applying the sunscreen and bug repellent. we had a triage area, 4 doctor areas, and a pharmacy area. today was rather slow (so I'm told) with only 35-40 people seen in 4hours. the norm is somewhere between 100-200. we switched around jobs throughout the day so no one person got stuck in a certain job all day. I started out with Brian Rha, who is a 2nd year peds resident. We saw about 3-4 pts together, most run of the mill stuff... cold, aches & pains, chest pain. As an aside, I'm a little dissapointed with the meager # of comments this blog is getting. I appreciate the time some of you take writing comments, but lets go people, I know more than 4 people read this thing (or at least I hope!). That scooters blog was some of my best stuff too! So to that end, here is a little clinical scenario you can ponder and respond with the answer. We saw a 5 year old boy who presented with abdominal pain x 2 months, + nausea, no vomiting or diarrhea, no fevers/chills/sweaths, loss of appetite, and 5lb weight loss in same time period. i'll let you know what we were thinking and subsquently course of action taken tomorrow. You'll also see Mike, who is a guy in my D-group, demonstrating the blood pressure technique perfectly. And my buddy David is also up there. We played some soccer in the street while everyone else was working :). Overall the day was lots of fun. The language barrier is a definite impedment and the translators are invaluable. We got back around 9ish tonight. Tomorrow we head out door to door in a nearby community to do evangelism and health screening (blood pressures, blood sugar, developmental screens).

Where to start. I feel as though I have so much to write since the internet has been down and precluded me from the daily blog. So to fill in the details, I last told you about Sunday morning at Los Vecinos. Thank you for your prayers regarding that whole day, as I told you all my group was pretty much in charge of two large events. The first, the translator social, went great. Everyone had a great time and we were able to interact and have fun with the people we'll be in the trenches with daily. I have some great photos and video clips from the games we played. The other event was our group Monday night meeting with some of the residents and doctors from Valley Baptist. We have been in charge of getting a worship team together, which we have, but were only able to procure the necessary equipment until 5pm that night (the meeting was at 7pm). Graciously enough, God got everything together and worship was great. The leaders also did a skit that night, which was haphazardly thrown together and badly showed. Heath Hale, the project director for SMI, also introduced the theme of this year. Let's Dance! No I wasn't asking, thats the theme. The idea is that there are 3 core steps in the Christian's life which we must repeat over and over again, much like dance steps. They are taken from Galatians and specifically are: Repent, Believe, and Fight (fight as in, fighting to live a life worthy of Christ).

Happy 4th of July! I would have actually written that on 4th of July, but as said previously, the internet was down. Our morning was spent in the classroom learning evangelism tools for our time in Tx and across the line. It was valuable to get some practical teaching on the subject. My afternoon was spent furiously getting all the forms ready for today and tomorrow. Last night, we were invited over to Dr. Liebert's (Family Med residency director) house for a party. We were among residents and faculty of the program. I don't know how many of you are aware of the housing market in Tx, but my golly, houses are dirt cheap. Dr. Liebert's place would easily grab $1.5-2mil on another market, but there's no way he paid upwards of $350,000-$400,000 for it in Harlingen. I'll try to post some pictures of the party once I get them off Ezra's computer. You've got to see the BBQ grill they had as well. Talk about 'everything is bigger in Tx,' the thing was massive. Pretty much take two oil drums, cut out the bottoms, and then weld them together. Thrown in two pipes for exhaust (?) and you've got the grill. They cooked 50lbs of beef.... 50lbs!!!! Honestly, it was the best meat I've ever had. Simply delectable. Pack with flavor and so tender. I ate till I felt sick, then I had dessert. Fatty.

Sorry i\I haven't written anything in a while, the internet has been down for some reason. I was also panicking because I made some changes to the blog and somehow managed to delete everything before the internet went down. Apparently, though everything seems to be fine. We are going to the 'clinic' today which is across the line. Will write more later when I have time. Lots to share!

On Sundays all our meals are on us because the cafeteria is closed. So the hospitality committee went out and bought a whole bunch of breakfast food at Wal-Mart. Low and behold, as I walk into the lounge, I see what seems to be Cheerios, but strangely with much different packaging. I look closer and I find that these suspicious rounded O's are 'Scooters.' I inspected the packaging further and found the preposterous comment shown above. Better than Cheerios?! I kid you not, half at me was enraged by such an inflammatory comment and the other half strangely intrigued. So like any other self-respecting scientist (the debate whether medicine is a science can be made later) I tried some of these ridiculously named O's. Before I tell you how delicious or truly unappetizing they were, lets review my credentials. I have, for the past 7-8 years, eaten Honey Nut Cheerios for breakfast every morning and occasionally for dinner as well. I finish a single box in approximately 3 days and have created such a furry that my father now says, "I only have 12 boxes downstairs, I'll get some more tomorrow when I go out." Futhermore, in the little research I've done, I've found that 4 out of 5 Biblical scholars agree that the manna provided by God each morning to the Isrealites was most probably Honey Nut Cheerios. If its good enough for God, its good enough for me. That all being said, I feel distinguished enough to determine the authenticity of the brand named Scooters. The short of it, they were horrible. I don't think I've actually tasted anything quite as bad and I used to not only make mud pies as a child, I ate mud pies as a child. Wait, hold on... excuse me... sorry, I threw up a little in my mouth writing about Scooters.

On to more serious, but equally important things. There at 5 churches in the area that members of our group attend. I was assigned to Iglies Baptista Los Vecinos. By the title I'm sure you can see that this is a Spanish speaking church and mark knows, well, zero Spanish (funny aside, I actually asked one of the guys how to say thank you in Spanish... haha, I love my idiocracy... yes, I just made that up, but in medicine we hold dearly to that priviledge). It was a great church, everyone came up to us (there were 7 of us) to say hi and welcome us. They seemed so very appreciative of what SMI has done in the past. Attending Spirit and Truth the last year or so was definitely a blessing because there were numerous similarities in size, service, and to a degree language. The church provided a translator for us, which I thought to be extremely generous of them. The pastor preached on many different passages, centering mostly on love and empathy for others. A timely sermon given our purpose for being down here.

the previous blog was written last night during a leaders meeting. it needs no explaination. I believe Ezra did a fantastic job in capturing my frustration with spending 60 minutes (11pm-12am) in a meeting and accomplishing very little.

i need to make a quick comment on the game called Mafia. has anyone heard of it? I never had until a few nights ago. It is a huge favorite of the SMIers down here. Basically, there is a group of at least 5 'townspeople.' One is a mafia who is killing of the townspeople one by one, another is a cop who is trying to discern who the mafia is, and the other people are just townspeople. That is the theory of the game mafia. In practice, its a bunch of people in a circle arguing over who is the mafia. I dont think i've seen anything so ridiculous. Oh wait, yes I have... see above picture. I think its just my personality, but I mean really, why would I spend my time sitting around and arguing with you over something so trivial. Not to mention that someone cant even get out a full sentence without someone else blurting in... that would iritate me. So i happily sit on the sidelines and giggle at how silly I think they're being.

Continue to pray brothers and sisters. My group (continuity) has a lot to do today and tomorrow. We have the translator social tonight as well as the first monday night meeting with everyone. Keep us in your prayers as we get the last details figured out. Read Psalm 139 this morning. Keep praying for my group of guys and myself. talk to you soon.

I awoke this morning, thinking it would be ..... actually I think I'll go about this from a different route. I am writing this vicariously through Ezra via body language as I sit in a leader's meeting about what we are going to do for a skit at tomorrow's group meeting. I am shaking my head holding it with one arm and my legs are extended. I am so tired that my shoe seems to be coming off and on on my right foot.... occasionally I show some interest because Dana makes a dan akyroid joke so I'll make a pshg! sound and chuckle a little.... OH WAIT somebody said adjourned. I am now sitting up with both feet on the ground.... my eyes are open wide with one hand gripping the side of my face and my face is stone cold. That's right, just like chuck norris.... no emotion. Oh its not adjourned yet. My eyes are somehow getting rubbed by my hand. Okay I amd twisting my hat from side to side... The 'P" on my phillies hat is really funny feeling.. YAY, the meetings over I have picked up my bag and walked out slowly without any goodbyes. AHHH.... to bed.

Today was our first day of orientation, where we finally got our schedule for the next 4wks. Things are a little clearer now as to what we are doing and when. The next few days will be busy for my and Estelle's group. We have two events we are planning for Monday and another for Tuesday. Today was great because we finally had some time to meet with the other members of our group, which means Estelle and I could delegate. I love delegating. It obviously helps to relieve the tasks I need to get done.

The project directer this year is a Valley Baptist alum, Heath Hale. I've only know this guy for 3 days know, but I have the upmost respect for him. He has one of those personalities that is fun and certainly infectious. He old enough (34?) to be wise, but young enough that I can relate. I find a great deal of encouragement in what he has to say and excited to work with him while down here.

On to more grim news. Brazil lost to France. I'm completely bummed. I was certain Germany and Brazil would play in the final, with Brazil remaining champions. It was not to be. The game was on at 2pm here, but ESPN re-broadcasted it at 7pm, so I organized a vanful of guys and we went to one of the Valley Baptist resident's house, with a 52' plasma, to watch the game. Brazil played awful. What I have grown to love in watching Brazil, their exuberance, excitement, flair, and love for the game, wasn't present in even a small amount. Abismal kinda describes it for me. Ronaldinho did nothing the entire world cup... i'm not even sure he had a shot, and this is the best player in the world. Somewhat happy that Zidane could win and have another shot at a title.

It's been great hanging out with Ezra and getting to know him more. At more than one point we've had to separate ourselves due to laughter. The decision has also been made that I am to serve as the regulator between his thoughts and actions.... whats that called? ah, yes, the brain.

thanks for the comments all! holla back, i'm out.

ps - real excited about my group of guys. they all seem real genuine and i look forward to getting to know them more. keep up the prayers. love you guys, except for those of you i dont... you can decide amongst yourselves about whom I speak.