In Mexico City

So we are here, yuppie! It was a long flight, and I didn't sleep much but that kind of normal. The flight went well thought, and there were not too much turbulence. =)

During the 9 hours layover we had in Los Angeles I was able to met up with two good friends from SBS, Brian and Jason. Brian came and picked me up at the airport, and we went to Jason's house. So nice to have a break from being in the plane or at an airport. We had a good time catching up, have been 7 years since I've seen Brian and 11 since I've seen Jason.

Then we came here to Mexico City, it went very well through customs no problems for any of us - so that was good. Now we just need to pray for the rest of the team that don't have the visas yet that they will receive theirs so that they can come and join us.

On our way to the church we are staying at, we got lost. So it took us a while to get here, but we got here and it's awesome. The area isn't as rural as I thought it would be, which is a pleasant surprise. The church is involved in quite a bit in the area, so we could be working with them the whole time - but Megacities wants the churches in the area to connect with each other and the team is going to be a bridge for that. There is a seminar that we are going to attend Friday, and there will be a lot of pastors there so that will be good.

Our schedule for now is to read the Bible out loud in a public place from Genesis to Revelation. It is round the clock, so we sleep in between our readings. We have read a good chunk but still have some hours to go.

It's quite interesting to c how bad things were in the Old Testament how silly people behaved when they knew what the penalty would be, yet ...... wow we do the same today. Not much have changed....... I guess we are sinful people, but Praise be to God - He is our Savior and has taken all our sins away. And that is our privilege to go and tell the people of Ecatepec!!

Leaving for Mexico City!

So the day is finally here, we're leaving for Mexico City tomorrow evening. The team leaving for India will leave tomorrow morning, and then they will join us in about 1 months time. It has been quite the preparation, and it's not done yet. There are still people that need their visas to be able to travel, so there are 3 of our team that will join us in about 3 weeks time. Lots of warfare, and we know it's not over yet.

We've had a full day today with lots of information about the history of Mexico City and lots of info we need to know before we go there. And it's for sure that we are in for a quite the adventure. The area we're going to be in is right next to the largest garbage dump in the world. We'll be doing some ministry with World Vision at their clinic....amazing stuff. The first 72 hours we'll read the Bible out loud in a public place, then the next 3 days we'll do some prayer walking in the area. Then a days rest....... Exciting!

Last year there was a guy ( I think an Australian) had been meeting with 8 different churches in the area he lives every week to pray for things to happen there. God told him that next year 2010 Megacities (Megacites is a ministry coming out of YWAM Perth - which we are a part of) would come to Mexico City and a revival would come. They didn't know anything about Megacities, and didn't know what to do to find out about it. Then early this year, a guy from a region not far from theirs had heard about them and gave them a call. He invited them to come to a gathering where Megacities people would be present.... how would you feel if you had heard God say Megacities....... Well they came, and are super excited that there is a team coming to their region this week.

We've heard that people are ready and excited about Megacities teams coming into town, and they are so willing to host and get the city for God. An awesome time is ahead of us......

I do want to ask for your prayers, cuz there is a lot of witchcraft and occult stuff going on in Mexico City. We know that God is on our side, and HE is the one that has called us there. He is our protector!!

Just to let you all know, we've been told that we always have to be in groups of 3 + our local friends and translators at anytime. Just in case you were wondering =)

The storm!

We've been praying for breakthrough, in many was here at the base: finances, rain, visas.... Yesterday it rained a lot, and we were not quite prepared for that. The rain came gushing in, and as you can see the sealing fell down. We do thank God that nobody got hurt in this time. Some had to check the sealing in the classrooms, so that we wouldn't have it fall down on our heads. As far as they could tell, only one of the classroom were in danger - so that sealing was pushed down. The others seems to be ok. There has been some damage, the biggest one is the electicity. So there are people running around fixing that, so that we can get everything (hopefully) up and running again before comissioning night tomorrow the 24th.

There are times when we pray that God will come through, and then when He comes we are not quite prepared for that. My prayer are that we'll be prepared for what we pray for =)

Ecatepec, North Eastern corner of Mexico City

The area that our team is going to work in during outreach in Mexico is Ecatepec, situated in the North East corner of Mexico City. The name "Ecatepec" is derived from Nahuatl (native Aztec language) and means "windy hill".

A little history of the area: Ecatepec was the site of an Aztec kingdom established in the 12th century. The Mexican revolutionary hero Morelos y Pavon was executed by the Spanish at Ecatepec in 1815. Pavon was executed for treason and was buried in the courtyard of the parish. A monument to him stands in the region. In the past century, there has been a great deal of political turmoil.

Ecatepec is one of the poorer regions in Mexico City. The region is crossed by major national and international highways. It can be divided, geographically, into 2 distinct areas. The western area is full of steep winding roads that climb the side of the volcanoes, which form the north western border of Ecatepec. These suburbs have a spectacular view across valleys and out over the plain. The eastern side is a vast plane, bordered by water reservoirs and desert.

Our outreach is not quite finalized yet, but that will be worked on during this last week. Our team will be leaving a week from today, Saturday the 28th of March.