January 31, 2024 • 55 mins
Embark with us on a transformative expedition to the heart of Chiapas, Mexico, where the road less traveled led us through a tapestry of spiritual encounters and cultural awakenings. Our recent mission trip found us weaving through bustling cityscapes and serene villages, embracing the warmth of newfound friendships and the resilience that comes from unwavering faith. Alongside friends from i6Eight Ministries and immersed in the richness of local life, we witnessed first-hand the stark societal dichotomies and the enduring spirit of communities navigating the complexities of modernity and the Zapatista movement.
Our narrative takes a heartfelt turn as we recount the profound connections made within remote villages, where the simplicity of life echoes with the purity of joy found in faith. The unique opportunity to share laughter with local children, preach in humble chapels, and witness the eagerness for biblical understanding left an indelible mark on our souls. Accompanied by Wesley Baker and Pastor Jaime, we traversed language barriers and cultural nuances, celebrating the triumphs of local churches and the significance of equipping local leaders for a future flourishing with spiritual guidance.
Concluding with a poignant reflection, we share a powerful sermon on leadership from Second Timothy that resonated deeply with the local pastors, emphasizing the necessity of nurturing the seeds of faith. Join us , and let the stories of Chiapas stir you to engage in the mission of the Gospel.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Welcome to the Be Disciples podcast with your
hosts Kyle Morris and DakotaSmith.
Today we have a special episode, and the special episode one is
because we went on a missiontrip to Mexico, you and I, and
also we're recording with avideo this time around.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
It's our first time, first time in a really long time
.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
We did it over Zoom before back when we first
started.
But this is our first time withvideo and so we're just kind of
testing it out with thisepisode, but we really want to
share a testimony of a recenttrip that we went on.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah, from January 18th to the 24th.
We just recently went on a tripto the state of Chiapas, mexico
, and really we went to theborder of Mexico and Guatemala
and it was a pretty grueling,pretty physically, spiritually
demanding trip, and so we justwant to talk about those things
(01:04):
with you and kind of let you bea visitor on our trip, so to
speak, just by way of listeningto some things that we want to
share with you.
So let's start with thechronology of the trip.
How did the trip start?
How did the trip go?
How did the trip finish?
We started out.
We flew from Kansas City toDallas, then Dallas to Mexico
(01:27):
City, then Mexico City to TuxedoGutierrez.
Do you remember anything inparticular, just about travel
there?
What was special to you in thattime?
Speaker 1 (01:37):
I don't know about special.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Hanging out with me, right, just hanging out.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
I'm not a big, I don't really like to travel, so
it's a lot of plane rides, it'sa lot of waiting for your next
flight, going through security,customs, kind of just the grind
of trying to get to where youwant to be.
Right, you're excited to bethere, but it's the process of
getting there.
I'd say the most exciting partwas when we met up with the
(02:01):
other guys in Mexico City.
We got to see the guys fromI-68 ministries who were meeting
us down there to go with us andwho actually invited us to go.
So seeing them, seeing facesthat you knew, giving them hugs,
excited to be together for aweek, that was probably the most
exciting about on the way there.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yeah, I don't know when we first arrived in Mexico
City.
Do you remember how hard it wasjust to look for our basic
checkpoint of where to go?
I mean, the Mexico City airportis not very organized.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
They use letters when they should use numbers
Literally and they use all kindsof weird, different You're
supposed to go to Gate J andthen it's really number like 34
or something Right.
There is no Gate.
J yeah, there's no Gate.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
J.
The screens say J, but theactual printed material has a
number.
So that was really difficult,I'd say.
When we were in Mexico City, doyou remember?
There was this random girl thatwas walking down like the food
court area in tears.
This is a common theme onmission trips, a common theme
(03:05):
for me.
We were on a mission trip in2008 to Vienna, austria, and it
was like, for whatever reason,all of these crying girls just
kept being wherever we were andgot a chance to pray for them
and talk to them.
So that happened.
We also had a greatconversation with an individual
who she was attending a Catholiccollege I think it's been
(03:27):
addicting university up inKansas City.
We got to speak to her andchallenge her about the nature
of salvation Is it Faith aloneor is it Faith Plus Works?
That was a great time, so Godwas already working, just
ministry wise, before we met upwith our own team.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Yeah, we also met some people from.
Glorietta in Mexico City.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Camp Glorietta, Camp Glorietta in New Mexico.
So it was kind of.
We met people along the way.
Plain rides were plain rides.
None of them were too long, butmostly the waiting in between
that was the hardest.
But we finally get into TuxaGutierrez.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Real quick.
And the point on Camp Gloriettais that we're doing a mission
trip to Mexico in the Baja areain Manasco in March, but on our
way there we're stamping at CampGlorietta, which is near Santa
Fe, new Mexico.
We've never been there yet, sowe met, like some of the top
counselors and administratorsfrom this camp.
That was just really cool.
Yeah, they're there to recruitinternational students right
(04:28):
there, right, yeah, so just kindof a cool little piece of the
trip.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Yeah, so we get to Tuxa.
It's late, it's like 11 o'clockor something we're staying in a
hotel that night, yeah, beforewe have to make a lot of driving
now to Ocosingo and thendriving from Ocosingo to the
actual churches and villagesthat we're planning on meeting.
(04:52):
And so these drives were crazy,like everyone.
It's like three hours, it waslike five.
Yeah, you know every time theysaid how many hours, you just
add two more.
That's the rule of thumb, yeah,and the roads were windy,
elevation change, speed bumps inthe highways, potholes.
There's no real rules, peoplejust drive around each other.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
The risk of roads being closed because of rebels
or different groups.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Different groups.
You want to control and getsome money or whatever they want
.
They just kind of close theroads down and you just got to
wait or you got to go around,which thankfully that didn't
really happen to us too much,Right.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
It did a couple of times.
We'll get to that in a minute.
The two guys with machetes yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
So if you added the travel of plane rides, layovers,
car rides, I mean, you'retalking over 24 hours of travel,
almost a day and a half oftravel just to get to where we
needed to be.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yeah, Well, and then we stayed in Tuxla that first
night.
Yeah, and it was beautiful.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
It was a beautiful hotel.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
We went into this.
I mean it's a hotel, but it wasa former house with two stories
, very should I say Spanishlooking, circular, railway, a
pool in the front, beautifulgreenery on the property.
I mean it really looked like acompound, but just done in a
(06:20):
very nice hotel like way.
So we were blessed to have areally nice bed, just because
the rest of the trip after thatwas going to be super rough.
So before we went to the hotel,though, we stopped and got some
street tacos.
Yeah, did you enjoy thosestreet tacos?
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Kyle.
I did not enjoy those streettacos.
I mean, they didn't even wantto go.
I was so tired.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
I was so tired.
I was surprised we werestopping to eat because I was
like I just want to go to bed.
It's like 1230.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Yeah, and we stopped for tacos street.
Tacos at a random place in arandom street and we ate those
street tacos.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
I thought I was going to get shot.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
You didn't laugh.
Maybe you thought they wereserious.
It was definitely dangerous,but not in that sort of way.
Yeah, so that night we atestreet tacos and those street
tacos came back to hurt me witha vengeance, to the point where
I'm still figuring out andrecovering from.
So yeah, I got sick day one.
That night, slept very poorly,got real nauseous, ended up very
(07:26):
sick to the point where Ididn't know if I was going to
move forward, like I don't evenget that sick at home.
So I was like, what am I goingto do?
I just kind of got to a placewhere it came down to either I'm
staying in this hotel for thenext week by myself, or I'm
pushing forward.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
You were ghostly white too, sweating ghostly
white, I mean.
Yeah, you'd been on the toileta number of times, thrown up
once, yeah.
We were trying to figure out ifwe were going to have to stay
at the hotel one additionalnight before moving forward.
You know our team didn't knowwhat it would do with Kyle, as
he couldn't be able to go.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
We prayed for you multiple times so yeah, and I
just spent time in prayer inthat room, and this was probably
the moment of the trip for me.
That was like, not just becauseit was physically demanding,
but there was a moment of faithin this process of figuring out
what I'm going to do next,because I didn't come to Mexico
to sit in a room.
You know, we came to Mexico toshare the gospel, and so I just
(08:30):
spent time in prayer, going,lord, why?
Why is this happening?
Or how am I going to getthrough this?
Strengthen me, just heal meright now, in this moment.
Whatever, I just want to go sowe can complete what we came to
do.
I want to be a part of it andso, yeah, during that moment, I
finally just got to a place, youknow, where the Lord spoke to
me and he just said you need toput your shoes on, you need to
(08:53):
pack up your bags, you need towalk out that door, it's time to
go, and I'm still sick, likeI'm like.
Well, how am I going to do that?
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Because I paralyzed on the bed.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Yeah, I'm just like laying on the bed, like I don't
even want to move, and so I putmy shoes on, I packed my bags,
still feeling sick, and I'm like, lord, I don't think this is a
good idea.
You know, you're like talkingback to the Lord as if you know
better.
And he just said no, you needto walk out that door and trust
me.
And so I was like well, there'ssomething about walking out
(09:23):
that door that I need to do, andso I'm just going to go do it.
So, grab my things, walked outthe door, came down and said
let's go, and I did not knowwhat the drive was going to be
like, and I did.
I felt so bad, I knew it wasgoing to be long, but I didn't
know it was going to be rough, Ididn't know it was going to be
windy, I didn't know it wasgoing to be a trip that even if
I wasn't sick, I would probablyfeel sick on this drive, and so
(09:46):
stop go, stop go traffic,unexpected windy roads, windy
turns.
It was.
It was.
It was definitely rough, butthe Lord provided it was that
moment of stepping out in faithand just trusting God that he's
going to take care of me therest of the trip and move
forward, even if it's hard andit's not fun and it's going to
(10:07):
be a struggle the whole time.
The mission is more importantand I know that if I just
continue to do what the Lordwants, which is to share the
gospel, then he'll pave the way,and so that's what he did.
Now was I completely healed anddidn't, and felt great the rest
of the trip?
No, but it was definitely notas bad as it was and it got
better gradually throughout thetrip.
Once I got some more sleep thenext night after driving there,
(10:30):
I was able to sleep a lot in thenext morning at least had a
little bit of energy, tried tostay hydrated and yeah, just
from there on, just push through.
It was, it was again.
It was difficult, but the Lordmoved, the Lord spoke to me and
it was just one of those momentswhere you learn that through
prayer.
So learn that through prayer.
(10:51):
It's important to understand.
There's an element of faith,there's a part that you have to
participate in.
It's not just like I got healedme, I'll just stand here and
tell you do it.
No, god's like no.
You need to step forward infaith and I will take care of
you.
But there's a there's an actionthat needs to take place, and
so that action took place.
And it was hard and I'm not Idon't take credit, I just know
(11:15):
that the Lord gave me thestrength and the Lord provided
what I needed and I did not want.
There was a part of me that Ijust didn't want to go, because
I was like there's just no way Ican do this.
But the Lord said no, you camefor a reason and you need to go,
whether you like it or not.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
There there's a theme of the trip where we were both
confronted with intentionallyhaving to do hard things, like
when, given an option of doingwhat was difficult versus
leaning into what wascomfortable, we'd have to choose
hard things and the thing aboutchoosing comfortable things is
you never, ever reach a pointwhere it's enough comfort, like
(11:54):
whatever.
Whenever you choose comfort,that's good enough.
But then what do you want next?
You want more of it, and moreof it, and more of it, and I
think choosing hard thingsBuilds your character, you know,
builds you as a man.
And so doing difficult, doingthe difficult, it was really key
on this trip and something thatI came away with.
There's another part of thetrip I didn't get sick like you
(12:18):
did, but where I could sharesomething similar.
But I was really proud of youbecause we put you in the front
seat of the vehicle.
Wesley, our missionary, whoI've known for 17 years.
Love him to death, but it's.
He wasn't how would I say, evendriving.
Love Wesley, but it's not likehe was cognizant of Start, go,
(12:41):
start, stop, that sort of thing.
So even even the driving was alittle rough and, yeah, I was
just watching you hold thathandle there on the door like
Put your head out the window toget some air.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
There are moments, like if we're driving and
there's hitting me and feelingokay, but there are moments we
had to stop for a little bitbecause, like a bridge
construction, yeah, it startedto get hot and I start sweating
and I was like this is not gonnago well in Mexico.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
I don't know how they decide this, but there's
literally a speed bump likeevery length of a football field
and the most random placeswhere speed bumps aren't needed.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
There's just a speed bump there, for no reason right,
and they're not like big speedbumps to where you just kind of
roll over them.
Yeah, they're like tiny, tallones, so you really like hit
them hard.
Yeah, and it was.
It was not fun.
I think the the part for me,looking into the trip that made
it difficult to move forward wasI knew the comfort of a Hotel
room was over Until the very endof the trip.
(13:41):
Yeah, I knew we were going tovillages without electricity and
running water.
Yes, I wasn't gonna go toanother location, to where I
could rest in a nice bed and Icould have a nice bathroom to go
to if I needed to.
Yeah, I knew I was gonna go tothe roughest, yeah, possible
situation Beansick and so thatwas, that was hard, like I had
to buy faith.
I had to buy faith.
(14:02):
Go God, you're gonna take careof me and I'm not gonna need
those things, mm-hmm, and you'regonna, you're gonna help me get
through this.
And so by the time we got, youknow, to the first village Not
that I was good, yeah, but Iwasn't I definitely wasn't in
rough shape anymore and you knowthe sleeping quarters was just
(14:22):
sleeping on the ground.
I think I slept on a couplebenches pushed together some
wooden benches, a couple pews, acouple pews that they had in
their church, and, and that waskind of the situation the rest
of you know for a few nights was, you know, sleeping on rough
ground where those the concrete?
In the next village, we justhad sleeping bags in our pad, a
little pad that we, you know,blew up with air that barely
(14:44):
kept you off the ground and, youknow, luckily the weather was
pretty good, yeah, I think.
And and so there were somepositives, but the amenities
were not what I'm used to or theluxuries in which I'm used to
having each and every day, yeah,to be able to just go get water
whenever I want or go get foodwhenever I need it.
You know, we were eating whatthey provided in the villages,
(15:05):
which may have been a savinggrace, because it was just basic
Beans, rice and chicken soupand various things, things that
wouldn't hurt my stomach, thingsthat were pretty Pretty tame,
yeah, for the stomach, and sothat may have been a good thing,
eating those type of type offoods, and so, yeah, I was just
(15:27):
thinking of all those thingsmoving forward, I had to block
it out and just say, lord,you're gonna take care of me and
I'm just gonna keep movingforward with the team.
Yeah, and I know the team willtake care of me, my best friends
with me and I'm just gonna moveforward, mm-hmm, and I don't
want to disrupt our plans, Idon't want to.
I don't want to lag behind, andso the Lord provided in all of
(15:47):
that.
And I think the Lord providedin all that because the purpose
of the trip was to spread thegood news.
That's right.
It wasn't for any other selfishreason.
I wanted to move forwardbecause I wanted people to hear
the gospel, and whenever thegospel is the focus and the
foundation of a trip, I thinkGod's gonna provide a way to
make it happen, and so that'shis will, that's what we see in
(16:08):
scripture, and so that's what hedid.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Yeah, it's amazing when you look in scripture.
Just as a side note, miraclesdon't happen arbitrarily.
Miracles always take place whenscripture is being written and
developed, when God's Plan ofsalvation is being moved forward
, when the gospel is beingpreached in the New Testament,
like these things accompany,they ornament the gospel, and so
I Actually do believe it wasquite incredible.
(16:32):
You went from ghostly, whitesick, barely Able to get off the
bed, all the way to sing I'mjust gonna go and we'll see and
to see your improvement fromthat moment Was.
I mean, it was like bang, bangand it was really cool to see, I
think, god's hand On you forthe trip.
So let's let's move and let'sbriefly talk about Wesley Baker
(16:56):
for a brief minute and thenlet's talk about the travel up
through the villages and whatthat was like, and Then some of
the ministry we did in thevillages.
So I've known Wesley Baker, asupported missionary, through I
six, eight, since I wassophomore in college.
Wesley was a worship leader atmy previous church that I went
(17:17):
to in college.
Wesley just married Four yearsago a woman named Nelly.
They have two children, so itwas really good to see West.
I hadn't seen him in about sixyears, but after our college
days we stayed in touch and thatsort of thing.
They own a little, I guess,three-story apartment in Oco
(17:41):
single and they've done a reallygreat job at the place.
They live really simply butthey also have some of the
Basics that we have, like TV andRoku and that kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
But yeah, yeah but they?
Speaker 2 (17:55):
he's currently Doing Bible studies there in Oco
single, working with a localpastor trying to reach Other
individuals in the area eitherby way of evangelism or
equipping.
He's doing a fantastic job.
It's really hard work.
You know it's hard being amissionary because you often
feel alone in what you're doing,and so the work is really
(18:19):
difficult, really arduous.
They're also doing a ton ofministry in the villages,
because the villages largely gounreached, and, yeah, he's doing
a great job.
One thing that was a componentto this trip that we didn't know
of until we had alreadycommitted Was the the villages
that we were going to.
Voice of the martyrs had donelike a whole segment on Chiapas,
(18:42):
mexico.
You know, on YouTube you canlook it up.
I think it was done in 2010,2012, and there are Christians
in these villages that had facedpersecution.
You know their buildings arebeing burned down.
There were a couple of deathsbecause of a rebel group called
the Zapatistas, and theZapatistas are like this
anti-government, marxist,socialist group that Takes it
(19:08):
upon themselves to see to itthat these Jungle villages are
kept preserved in their cultureand all of those things.
So, even though these guys,ironically, are anti-religion,
anti-capitalism, anti-government, they live the high life.
They visit all these people inEurope and they do their thing,
while the people in the villagesin the jungle are still utterly
(19:29):
poor.
Nothing has improved, and so itwas crazy.
What I'm trying to say is isit's crazy, as we drove to this
location it was probably sixhours total to get to our first
destination, jungle driving andand you'd go through one village
and they'd have electricity.
So it's a pro-governmentvillage and the help the homes
(19:51):
would be at least in bettercondition made out of block made
out of block rather than woodPlanks.
Then you'd go five miles downthe road, you get to another
village and there'd be the signthat says Zapatista Village in
Spanish, and no capitalistas, nocapitalists here.
No religio, no religion, no,nothing like and it.
You know it's black and redcolors.
(20:12):
It looks like that's black super, star, yeah, super terrius
looking and stuff, and so,anyway, you know, the people in
those villages look a littlemore downtrodden they're the
expression their countenance ontheir face looks a little more
worn.
I think for the most part,they're just farmers that want
to live, but Ironically, itseems like they're oppressed by
(20:32):
the people who are advocatingfor them, which seems to always
be how it goes, doesn't it?
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (20:38):
it was very interesting to drive through and
you know you're driving throughtheir villages.
I mean you're not stopping cuzyeah, I want you to, but yeah,
you're driving through and thepeople are kind of looking at
you and some people would waveand say hello.
Yeah, and but you just kind ofhad to go through all this like
rebel territory Just to get tothe villages that aren't a part
(20:58):
of that, yeah and so, yeah, itwas kind of.
I don't know if it was scary ornot, you know, they just look
like regular people doing theirthing.
You just don't know who's behindthe villages or who's yeah, you
just who has ulterior motivesor right, and you, you're kind
of going in and you know you'regoing in and they're seeing you,
so you're kind of like, well,on the way out, are they waiting
?
Yeah, are they looking for usafter this?
Speaker 2 (21:21):
That was at least our thought, yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
I mean, and you've had that experience before in
the Philippines, so yeah, wherethey do start tracking you and
they're trying to figure outwhere you are because they don't
want you there, and so there'sa little bit of that in your
back of your mind.
But we did have, you know,wesley with us, and then we had
a local traveling pastor, yeah,named Jaime Jaime, and Awesome,
he knew Spanish and the locallanguage of the villages.
(21:44):
Because so tell, yeah, and theydid not speak Spanish, so we
needed him and he travels tothese villages on a regular
basis.
So he kind of had the end.
He was the friendly face.
When people saw him they knew,hey, everything's safe, we trust
him and he's built thoserelationships.
So, yeah, it was a, it was ahard drive, it was.
It was muddy, as big, old, likeholes in the ground.
(22:07):
We had a drive there's likefour by four and you know, and
you're in the jungle, you know,and we went through so many
different elevation changes anddifferent things that it was.
It was really cool to see God'screation in that way.
I'd never been in a jungle likeother than Jamaica, a little
bit as a rainforest, but thatwas a big jungle, lots of
(22:28):
mountains and so very very fun,two things that happened on the
way there.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
So so tau is the original Mayan language.
So we were straight up in oldschool, like Mayan territory,
and we passed what they believeis the Highest elevated
Structure, mayan ruins it'scalled to Nia, and we
unfortunately we didn't get tovisit it, but we drove past it
(22:54):
and it seemed like it was maybemile off in the distance and we
had this, this great open areato see the whole thing as we
were driving out.
That was beautiful.
We also stopped at a Wasn't agas station, but more of a
because they didn't have gas,but it's like a roadside
convenience store, a roadsideconvenience store when, before
you break off the paved road andyou go on to the dirt road,
(23:17):
people stop for soda and chipsand that sort of thing.
And it was really cool becausewe had the opportunity to share
the gospel there, like wepurchased our drinks and our
chips.
Wesley and Jaime weretranslating and I thought this
is the coolest thing that whenthe gospel is being communicated
you know there's may seem like15 people there and it ended up
being maybe 30 35 and To seepeople not walk away and dismiss
(23:41):
it like they would in America,but to see people congregate and
to be like magnetized towardsthe message was really, really
cool.
And and I Think that wasimportant for Wesley to see,
because Wesley wrestles withevangelism and he told me.
He said, you know, that was myfavorite part on the trip,
because I wrestled with justjumping in and sharing the
(24:01):
gospel.
And he said, after whathappened it makes me think, oh,
it's not that difficult, like Ishould do that more often.
And he said, he told meafterwards, the reason why they
were congregating is because thegospel is, like, basically
prohibited in many of thosevillages, and so they were
listening to something they'dnever heard of before the gospel
of grace, not of works, but ofgrace, and so that was a really
(24:25):
big encouragement to just seethe movement of the Lord.
And in that aspect of the tripit unplanned a ministry
opportunity, and so that wasbefore we broke off into some of
the the most thrilling jungletravels, I guess you'd say yeah,
yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
So then we, we went to.
The first village we went towas the furthest one away, I
don't know what it was called.
I don't know what the villageis called.
I know there was 90 people inthis village was the number, and
really the church we visitedthere was really just a family.
That was the church.
You know, I think you know momsand dads and some some children
(25:05):
, yeah, and there wasn't verymany, maybe what eight, ten.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Yeah, something like that church of ten people.
The one, the man he lookedabout my age, I I think he's a
pastor because he can read.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
He has a.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Bible and he can read .
And this village is located atthe end of the road.
So, in a very literal sense,where the dirt road ended and
the jungle started, that's wherethe village was.
So we took this road as far aswe could go.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Yeah, and this is there's no law enforcement,
there's no anything Like.
This is a people group that youknow they govern themselves.
You know things that happen inthat village that they consider
against the law they handlethemselves.
So it's just, you're in a wholenew kind of like I kind of wild
west, you know who's justhandled by the town.
(25:59):
You know they just handled bythe people.
That's exactly what it feltlike and that's how they lived.
You know they're farmers.
They build everythingthemselves.
The food is something that theygathered themselves.
They do a little bit of sellingthings in the city to make some
money for maybe some supplies,where they'll make that trip
every now and again.
But really this village didn'thave electricity, didn't have
(26:20):
running water.
Yeah, it was pretty much asbare minimum as it gets wooden
structures, the churches madeout of wood, their houses were
just made out of wooden planks,I believe, like they slept in,
like hammocks, which probablywould have been a better idea.
I should have brought a hammock, I know it.
Next time that'll be the case.
And then, yeah, but it was whenwe arrived to this first one,
(26:43):
the first thing we saw was thiswoman who was the?
mother of the church who waspreparing food and getting ready
for us to be there.
But once we arrived she justburst out in tears because she
was so happy that we would comeall that way to visit them that
they had guests.
You could tell she had a.
(27:04):
It was more of a weeping.
Yeah like a spirit ofhospitality she had, but that is
not a thing she does very oftenand so it was just, yeah, a
weeping of thankfulness.
You could just say she wasexcited that we were there and
she was grateful.
And so when you get thatreception, maybe those things
(27:26):
you've been thinking in yourhead and building up about the
dangers or the different stuff,or how are these people gonna be
?
all that kind of just drops andyou go oh, we are welcomed here
and they want us to be here andthey're excited about it, and so
I'm excited about it.
So that kind of changed atleast my attitude a little bit.
It actually softened me up alittle and I didn't feel like I
(27:47):
had to look out for anything.
I could just be there and bewith them and try to get to know
them the best we could.
We didn't know their language,but it kind of got an idea of a
little bit of who they are andhow they live and what they're
doing.
So it was a cool moment.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Yeah, and they gave us their best to fresh, handmade
corn tortillas.
Whatever these black beans werethat they literally dug out of
the soil up the mountain behindthem.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Yeah, they grow them in some sort of sandy soil up in
the mountains and it's like theonly place you can grow them.
But these beans were good.
They were good.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
It tasted very different than the beans.
I've had Power.
Everybody was tooting yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
That's like putting in the church that night.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Man, that was like jet fuel or something.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Yeah.
So, you know they made.
They even went to town, I think, and bought eggs for us.
Yes, so we could have eggs.
You know we had chicken.
Most of these villages havechicken but there was plenty of
food.
Yeah, too much, I couldn't eatat all.
Yeah, but it was very.
They had a.
(28:51):
They call it a coffee, but it'skind of like it's some sort of
like a seed or some sort of beanin the jungle that they soak in
this tea and it's very sweet.
They had some sugar and ittasted fine and they'd serve it
hot.
So that was good.
It doesn't have any caffeine oranything, but it was a good
drink and that was pretty muchin all the villages same drink,
(29:13):
same food.
But very hospitable, wanted usto make sure we had everything
we needed.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
And that night we preached.
Three of us preached and keepin mind, preaching there is a
little different than here, soour sermons are more like 10
minutes long because of so manyjumps and translations.
So I preached out of theencouragement of Jesus to the
disciples on the road to Emmausin Luke 24.
You preached on John 3.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
John 3, yeah, nicodemus being born again and
what that means.
Yeah, so sharing the gospelfrom Jesus provides it.
It's not something we earn.
It's something that Nicodemushad to make the change to be
born again in Jesus Christ andnot in of his works and his
knowledge, cause Nicodemus was aPharisee.
He knew a lot.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
And so the next morning we also did a.
So that first service was atnight, outside by the fire, with
our headlamps on, holding ourBibles, preaching to them in the
dark.
It was a little different fun,you know, it's like camping.
But and then the next morning,what was what this have been?
Sunday morning woke up, did achurch service there.
(30:22):
We had Danny Valenzuela with usfrom I-68.
He played in, led worship andthen we actually did a Q and A
with them where they had sometheological questions and we got
to speak to them, bring someclarity to some things.
This, this church, I would say,was and I don't mean this to
(30:44):
degrade them maybe one of themost unreached and unhealthiest.
Just, it didn't seem like thatstrong leadership.
There was only one man, youknow it was.
This is really tough, so weneed to pray for God's church
right there in that village.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
That you know, I know it's not an unwillingness.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
No, it's not Of the people, yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
It's mostly just an education kind of level.
Got one guy who can read.
They can't like they can't likeread the Bible on their own and
so they it goes throughsomebody else and so they can
only really get those teachingsat those times.
So I do think they could youknow, and I don't know what
their day to day is always like.
That's right, but definitelyprioritizing sometime in the
(31:26):
word each day, if they could,would be probably very helpful.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
I just mean it was a little more difficult to do any
sort of training there becauseyou're starting from such a
different base, and so I thoughtthe Q and A was really helpful
for them, just to at least seeyou know you answer the
questions you have with theBible itself in context itself.
And that was that was a goodstart.
So from there we traveled tothe second village called San
(31:50):
Francisco, which was about anhour away, an hour away through
the jungle still.
But this is a community of acouple hundred families, not a
hundred families, but a couplehundred people, which is it's
council led, you know.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Yep elders.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Elder led community from the tribe.
You had to go through someextreme mountain passes to get
there super steep.
We picked up some guys walkingto the village on the way, put
them in the back of the truckand rode up with them.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
And we had some in our vehicle too, some in the
vehicle too.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
And then we spent about a day and a half there,
got there and there were kidseverywhere that was really
encouraging to see.
And then, of course, we werethere to encourage a church.
So what do you remember aboutthat second location?
Yeah, I'll finish with thepastoral training side and the
preaching, but what do youremember about that village?
Speaker 1 (32:46):
Pulling up and seeing all the kids.
That was my first likeimpression was we pulled up and
there was a group of probably 20to 30 children, it seemed like
half the town was children.
All these children, and theywere.
They were lively.
I mean, you saw life in thisvillage.
It wasn't like, oh, poorvillage back in the jungle that
has nothing.
These kids were like playingsoccer, running around, having a
(33:09):
good time, and you could seethat it was a little bit
different than the first village.
Yeah, there was a lot ofelectricity electricity you know
, much, but they'd been theresince, I think he said, 1995 and
they built out of this villageand this village kind of sits in
this basin where the junglewalls surround it.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
Yeah, it's beautiful.
Pictures don't justice yeahit's.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
It's an amazing setting for a place to live.
They definitely seem to be alittle bit more, you know,
aggressive in their way of life,like in the sense of building
buildings at brick buildings,concrete floors and some of the
buildings.
A lot more horses and animalsAgain.
Like Tristie, they even hadWi-Fi that you could purchase.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
So government has three hours at a time.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Three hours at a time For like a dollar or something
like that, and the governmenthas grants where they put them
in.
So they seem to be a little bitmore advanced In the direction
that they're going, and so thatwas.
That was a lot of fun.
I played soccer with some ofthe kids.
I know you were chasing some ofthe little kids around as a
blast.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
I felt like I was hanging out with my own kids.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
I mean, I got a picture of you in the back of
the truck Preaching, sharingBible stories to the kids and
they were all around listeningand I taught them on the subject
of marriage, why marriage isimportant to God.
Yeah, yeah, we had a.
There's a couple little kids.
They definitely had I Didn'tknow the exact words they were
(34:37):
saying both some potty mouths,yeah, but they would wrestle
with you.
You would, you know, justwrestle and tickle them and have
fun, and just they just lovedhave been there and hanging out
with you.
Yeah, they took us back totheir source of water, which is
this big cave where they're.
They have pipes that go intothis cave, where this running
water, where they get the waterfor their town, and so they like
(35:00):
let's go back there.
So we kind of hiked a littlehike back there, but it just
seemed there was like there wasa lot of life in this town.
It seemed like it didn't seemdepressing or dreary.
It seemed like people wereexcited to live there, excited
for their life there, and thechurch building was full that
night, yeah, of people.
(35:22):
So yeah, I just think, from afirst impression it seemed like
they cared, not that the firstvillage didn't, but there seemed
to be more advancement.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
Yes, village than the first.
Yeah, they had more opportunity.
I did some reading on thevillage of San Francisco when I
got, when I arrived home and andapparently a number of them
migrated from like it was eitherColumbia or Guatemala, from the
drug cartels.
They escaped like Basicallyslavery, came and settled there
(35:52):
so that they could practicetheir faith more openly and
whatnot.
So that was a blessing to readafter the trip.
And then I would say you know,you walk into the church service
at night and man, the music wasso loud culturally I was not
used to that too loud.
I mean the bass.
We're not talking like you know, just a little bit loud.
(36:13):
We're talking like, yeah, Imean I'm like it hurts you a
little bit.
But the church, the women andChildren sat on one side and the
fathers and their little boyssat on the other side of the
aisle.
That was really unique to see.
We both had an opportunity topreach from a book of Acts,
(36:34):
chapter 4.
Yes and I Preached on revelation1 how the Bible says when Jesus
returns, every eye will see him.
And the basic point was itdoesn't matter whether you're
here or an Oko single or inAmerica or China or Africa, when
he returns you will see him.
And Then we got a chance toencourage the, the men, and to
(36:57):
be good husbands and goodfathers.
We got to pray for the man.
It was a I thought it was areally moving service, mm-hmm,
and they're very veryappreciative.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
I could just you know their body language.
Yeah, the way they responded,and I think the the next morning
after that they were, before weleft all those men Were outside
lined up, lined up to saygoodbye to us.
Yeah, and so you coulddefinitely tell there was a
sense of encouragement thatwe're able to bring and for
(37:28):
their families or marriages.
But ultimately you know, tohear the gospel, to be reminded
that the gospel isn'tworks-based.
Salvation isn't works-based,but it's the grace of God, and
so that's a message we weredriving in each, each place we
were at was we want to make sureyou know the real gospel with
with heavy Catholic influence.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
They're Sometimes can be an unhealthy relationship
between faith and works there,and so you kind of just want to
make sure that you hammer athome like a healthy, righteous
life is lived as a form ofsaying Thank you to Jesus, not
as a means to earning salvationwith Jesus.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
Plus, they had a very interesting.
I think they struggle withhandling conflict well, because
some of these villages had Idon't know how many
denominations.
Yeah, there's like eightchurches there, so it seemed
like oh, we disagree on this, sowe'll just go start our own
church.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
And I don't think that's the way to handle
disagreement.
So there was definitely thischurch was probably one of the
largest.
Yes, I mean, they have a lot ofpeople.
The other churches were smallerbut they were like four Church
of Christ's in one village.
Because they all had adisagreement on something, so
they started their own church.
So very just kind ofinteresting, where they weren't
(38:41):
able to handle their, theirdifferences.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Yeah, this is technically a Presbyterian
church that we went to, but youknow, you got to understand
Presbyterian in America orwhatever it might be like,
denominationally speaking it's.
They may not even know thegreat distinctions themselves,
but it was more evangelical thanthan the rest.
Yeah, and we did do a littlebit of pastoral training with
the leadership, you know I'd saywhat five to seven guys and
(39:07):
taught them how to interpretnarrative genre as they're
working through the Bible.
So that was really good.
The food was fantastic but,yeah, this was a very lively
village.
So then we come back, we headback to Oco Shingo, which was.
We went Maybe a four-hour drive.
All the way back the Lordactually just told me get into
(39:30):
the back of the truck, don'tride inside, get in the back,
ride down the mountain.
Because I wanted to choose todo something difficult, like I
really respected what you didcoming up, and I just, scott and
I, got in the back of the truck.
We picked up a couple of UmTravelers down the mountain on
the way.
I got totally sunburnt.
(39:51):
Yeah, it was actually reallyrough, really hard on my back.
I I sat on a cooler in between,like underneath me in the bed
of the truck for the whole ridedown but got to see God's
creation and I was so sore andexhausted I smelled like exhaust
after.
But on the way down we gotstopped maybe five times for A
(40:11):
toll, toll.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
Yeah, we had there these guys that the government
doesn't clean the sides of theroads or doesn't clear the
jungle, the overgrowth, yeah,and so people take it upon
themselves to get their machetesand to chop down the grass and
the trees along the roads andset up their own tolls, which is
putting branches in the road,some of them with their children
, manning the branches, stoppingtraffic and asking for money To
(40:35):
get by, and so that's prettymuch an unofficial toll for
clearing the roads.
Uh, a little bit of a shakedown, I would say.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
basically a toll, but well, and there are pros,
appetista or zapatistathemselves, yeah, and so they.
I think they recognize this isan opportunity to practice
capitalism, although we say wedon't believe in that.
I thought that was reallyinteresting.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
We don't believe in capitalism, but we're going to
take advantage of thisentrepreneurial opportunity.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
Yeah, it's okay if you buy soda and chips from us,
but yeah, yeah.
So just some irony.
Speaker 1 (41:05):
It was at least four times we got stopped at least,
because I remember Wes gettingupset, like he told the guy on
like the fourth one.
I already gave you guys moneyback there, that's right, I'm
not giving you more money.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
I'm just gonna keep driving yeah so it was.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
It was definitely An interesting experience to,
because you're sitting theregoing.
It's just a stick.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
And if you just keep going, they have contacts in the
next village.
They'd probably stop you alittle more heavily in the next
village and and threaten you.
So, um, that was interesting.
We got back to Ocosingo, whichis a little I'd say it's like a
city of 50,000 or so where westlives.
We stopped at pastor Hi Macehouse, yeah, and they served us
(41:47):
from fresh pescato, some freshFish.
Oh yeah, it was so good andthat was one of the most
refreshing meals I've had mywhole life.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
Because it was like it was.
The fish was really good, butit was like cucumber and like
just fresh vegetables and onionsand tomatoes salsa and it was
very fresh, very you know itjust kind of caught the day
before.
Yeah, it's caught the daybefore and you know it
rejuvenated me a little bit.
Yeah, some some different food,especially some meat, some some
(42:17):
fish.
It was light but it was fillingat the same time.
So very grateful for his, forhis hospitality as well.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
And then that night, after we rested at west's house
for like a half hour, we went toone last church In a village
about an hour away not too faraway, but really it was a two
and a half hour drive.
Speaker 1 (42:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:39):
This church was massive, at least the building.
The building was yeah.
I mean brand new tile, walls,pillars, paint, everything, yeah
, and uh, new pews.
This was maybe one of myfavorite moments.
I preached out of SecondTimothy, chapter four, paul's
final words to Timothy to preachthe word, be ready in season
(43:00):
and out of season to train upleaders, stuff like that.
There's gonna come a time wherepeople have itching ears and
you know what like, uh,basically, this opportunity it
wasn't the church but we, it wastheir whole leadership team and
then their women's leadershipteam and we just had an
opportunity to say like, if youdon't prioritize training up
(43:24):
leaders, you will have abeautiful building with nobody
in it.
And there was like thisboldness that just came over me.
One of the leaders was cryingas he was hearing this, like
realizing we could have abeautiful building but if we
don't pass on the faith you, youdon't have an ongoing faith
here in this location yeah and I.
You know they served us dinnerafterwards, but that was maybe
(43:46):
where I felt the Lord with methe strongest in that sermon and
my prayer is that they wouldPrioritize.
We gave examples of what itlooks like to invest in new
leaders, to not hold it toyourself but to keep passing it
on, and that was a really justtouching moment for me.
So To conclude the trip withthat, I was Pretty excited.
(44:09):
You know like that topped itoff for me.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
Yeah, and really after that it was, it was pretty
much just Stage by stage travelall the way back.
Yes, but one of the things wedid throughout the whole trip
Was we study God's word.
Speaker 2 (44:23):
Oh yeah, that's true With all as a team, as a team.
Speaker 1 (44:26):
Yeah, we as, so we we took different passages
Throughout scripture, differentreally.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
We kind of stuck with one genre narrative, narrative
we did the Red Sea crossing,david and Goliath, yep, and then
Sinakarib in Assyria comingagainst Hezekiah.
Speaker 1 (44:44):
It's in Isaiah 36 and 37 and so we, we were able to
study God's word together, helpequip Thy six, eight guys, yes
and just have good conversation,be in the word together.
And so there was the element ofprayer being in the word
together, preaching the word,building relationships, reaching
these people.
And so it was, you know, amultifaceted Trip.
(45:09):
It wasn't just focused on onething.
We tried to ensure that itwasn't just travel and Ignore
the word and just preach it whenwe, when it's convenient.
All of our free time was in theword, but we were in the word
the whole time.
Every time we stopped, either,had a meal, we're at Wessa's
house in the villages in themorning, whatever that was, we
spent time in the word, and sowe try to use our time To the
(45:32):
best of our abilities, to togrow in our walk.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
Well, and what came out of that Was now the hope and
the expectation for next year.
And so we already do ourpastoral training for pastors in
September.
We've done that two years in arow in Panasco, in Panasco.
This, this coming Septemberwill be our third year where we
do that.
But the idea that's now comeout of this trip is, hey, next
(45:57):
year, rather than spending allthis time on the travel, we're
gonna then stay in Oco Shingo,we're not gonna go back to the
villages, where it's a littlemore risky, but we're gonna
invite, we're gonna bring down,we're gonna pay for the pastors
to.
This is I68 talking Mm-hmm.
I68 now wants to bring thepastors from the villages, put
(46:18):
them in a hotel state, get aconference room and do a
pastoral training for theseUnreached pastors and the
village areas.
And so if we go back next year,we won't travel back to see
them, but they'll come to us andwe'll spend all this time just
training and equipping them.
I68 as an organization, theyhave their specialty with the
(46:40):
house builds, but they'restarting to transition to
equipping more of like aseminary, like ministry Mm-hmm,
where they're.
They're starting to train, youknow, pastors in the area so
that you don't just have thephysical Necessities met, you
have the spiritual and I reallyappreciate that about them.
So the Lord will bring it topass.
(47:01):
But there's really talkingabout it.
I'm tired.
I'm reminded of how tiring allof that was yeah we came back.
Speaker 1 (47:09):
There's a massive fog storm you know and can, even
could barely barely see drivingback?
Yeah, I mean, we traveledanother 20 hours to get back, do
you?
Remember coming in from MexicoCity to Dallas with the pilot
said yeah, the pilot was likehey, we're about to hit some
really bad turbulence, like whenthe pilot uses those words, I'm
(47:30):
like really bad.
Not just we're gonna hit alittle rough patch.
Speaker 2 (47:33):
No, we know what really bad turbulence is.
Yeah, we were coming fromVienna to Chicago one time and
it was like free falling in theair.
Speaker 1 (47:41):
Yeah, turbulence, it was terrible, your stomach was
in your throat.
Speaker 2 (47:45):
So when this, when the pilot said that, I was like
oh man, do you mean liketurbulence, like I've known it
once before?
Or do you mean like just alittle bump, little bumpy?
We both prayed.
Yep, never had any turbulencelanding.
Thank you Jesus.
Speaker 1 (48:04):
Yeah, so it was.
There was definitely blessingsand reminders of of God being
right there with us the wholetime, yeah, you know, and having
faith that those things wouldhappen, and not doubting.
You know, I think times when wedoubt is when we're unsure of
our own belief, not what God cando, but I think when you're in
(48:26):
a moment of Truly understandingwhat you believe and being put
in that moment of a toughsituation but saying I'm gonna
do it anyways, you, you reallystart to learn who God is and
what he can do and how he canprovide, and sometimes it's not
easy.
I mean, we see all throughoutscripture, you know, people came
(48:46):
to Jesus.
In Whatever circumstance theywere in, they put their faith
out there.
And I said, you know, kind ofreminds me of the woman who who
had been Bleeding for years, ifI could just touch his, his
cloak, if I could just touch hiscloak, I could just get through
this crowd and I could justtouch his cloak, I would be
(49:07):
healed.
Yeah, and it's like that.
She took the steps forward, sheput faith in Jesus Christ.
She did, she, she knew, shebelieved God always had the
power, but she took that, thatstep in her suffering To, to
come to the Lord, and so I thinkthose moments in our life are,
(49:27):
you know, obviously you don'twant those every day, because
they're hard and tough and theywouldn't be, as if it was there
every day too.
But but I think they areimportant to be in those
situations as a believer, to notstay comfortable, to test your
faith, to to have those testingsand and to go out there and do
it.
You know, when I first heard ofthe trip, I was all about it
(49:48):
let's go.
You know, I think if I knewwhat was gonna happen, I would
have been like nope.
Speaker 2 (49:53):
You had a lean in the comfort lean in the comfort now
staying home.
Speaker 1 (49:56):
Yeah, my wife's pregnant, it's probably just
better.
I could come up with a thousandexcuses.
Speaker 2 (50:00):
Right, I've got a bunch of kids.
Speaker 1 (50:02):
We're leading a church right, there's plenty to
do here, there's a lot ofministry, yeah, but there was a
moment for us to get out of that, to go do something
uncomfortable and To just putour faith At the forefront and
to really live sent as we talkabout in our church.
You know, I know church familyYou're the ones that are gonna
(50:25):
listen to this podcast, that'sright More than anybody else.
So really, you know, we went onthis trip because we want to
encourage the church that there.
We need to go on these tripsmore as a church not just you
and I, but as a church, continueto go into the mission field,
continue to go reach the ends ofthe earth.
I remember multiple times onthis trip you said, man, this is
(50:47):
the ends of the earth, it is,this is the last village in the
jungle, yeah, and so we need tostretch our faith and get out of
our comfort zone.
And Because it really does growyou, it really does stretch you
, it sanctifies you, and Fasterthan maybe just the day-to-day
grind of what's going on now.
You know, not everybody's lifecircumstances in a place.
(51:09):
Maybe right now you arestruggling in something and you
are being sanctified right nowhere in Ottawa, kansas, and that
is totally fine, but I do thinkthere's times where we have to
step out of what is normal andwe have to do things that we're
uncomfortable with, and when wedo that, we grow and we
understand God more, I think ifI were to conclude, but just a
(51:33):
couple of thoughts.
Speaker 2 (51:33):
Here's some things that I would say.
Number one we have an upcomingtrip to Mexico and the Baja area
, march 8th to the 16th.
We still have room for five toseven people to go.
So church family, I'm prayingthat the Holy Spirit would keep
knocking on your heart and youwould say I'm gonna go on that
trip, no matter what.
I'm gonna get out of my comfortzone, I'm gonna sacrifice
something.
I'm going.
(51:54):
Please let that be you.
We need five to seven morepeople, so that's a practical
thing.
Second, it was really good topray for the Lord to protect us
while we were there underpressure, and to pray for my
wife and to pray for my childrenso that when I came home I tell
you what I first saw mychildren at co-op.
(52:14):
We hold a co-op here onThursday mornings.
I came home and individuallywent to each of their classrooms
and Pulled them out of classand just hug them and held them
and cried because my prayer wasLord, I don't really think this
is like super, super risky, butNevertheless I pray that you'd
give my family back to me.
They are yours More than theybelong to me.
(52:36):
They belong to you first, butlet me return and be reunited
with them so that they gave me agreat appreciation for life and
for my family.
Coming back here, and it's likewhen you're taken out of your
comfort zone you're reminded ofwhat you have.
And In coming back and beingreminded of what I have, it
makes me want to be that much.
Better of a husband, better ofa parent and a daddy, yeah,
(52:58):
better of a pastor, better of afriend.
It's almost like when you putit all on the line because of
Jesus, you remember who belongsfirst.
To begin with, jesus belongsfirst, you know.
You don't even count your lifeat all as anything, but put him
(53:19):
at the forefront.
And so I think these tripsRemind you that Jesus must be at
the forefront.
And when you're forced to dothat and you have to do that you
come back different.
So do that.
You know, to our church family.
Last is this is our churchvision to live.
Sent John 20, 21.
Jesus said just as the fatherhas sent me, so I now send you
(53:43):
my disciples the vision of thechurch.
What does vision mean?
It's who you want to become.
Who do we want to become as achurch?
We want to become a church thatvalues Jesus so much that we go
in the same manner that Jesuswent Incarnationally going,
loving people, giving them God'sword being a blessing to them
for salvation.
(54:04):
In some facet, our, our peopleneed to get out there and to go,
whether it's in Ottawa, aroundKansas, around the country and
other countries.
We need to be people who getequipped in the pew To leave the
pew, yep.
Speaker 1 (54:20):
Yeah, thank you all for listening to the be
disciples podcast.
We hope that you enjoyed thisepisode on our trip to Mexico
and next week we'll startgetting back into the book of
acts and Pastor David will joinus as well.
He's actually sitting behindthe camera today listening to us
Making a weird face, so he'llbe back on.
(54:41):
We're excited to get back inthe rhythm of doing our podcasts
and ministry.
Have a blessed week you.
Welcome to the Be Disciples podcast with your
hosts Kyle Morris and DakotaSmith.
Today we have a special episode, and the special episode one is
because we went on a missiontrip to Mexico, you and I, and
also we're recording with avideo this time around.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
It's our first time, first time in a really long time
.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
We did it over Zoom before back when we first
started.
But this is our first time withvideo and so we're just kind of
testing it out with thisepisode, but we really want to
share a testimony of a recenttrip that we went on.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah, from January 18th to the 24th.
We just recently went on a tripto the state of Chiapas, mexico
, and really we went to theborder of Mexico and Guatemala
and it was a pretty grueling,pretty physically, spiritually
demanding trip, and so we justwant to talk about those things
(01:04):
with you and kind of let you bea visitor on our trip, so to
speak, just by way of listeningto some things that we want to
share with you.
So let's start with thechronology of the trip.
How did the trip start?
How did the trip go?
How did the trip finish?
We started out.
We flew from Kansas City toDallas, then Dallas to Mexico
(01:27):
City, then Mexico City to TuxedoGutierrez.
Do you remember anything inparticular, just about travel
there?
What was special to you in thattime?
Speaker 1 (01:37):
I don't know about special.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Hanging out with me, right, just hanging out.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
I'm not a big, I don't really like to travel, so
it's a lot of plane rides, it'sa lot of waiting for your next
flight, going through security,customs, kind of just the grind
of trying to get to where youwant to be.
Right, you're excited to bethere, but it's the process of
getting there.
I'd say the most exciting partwas when we met up with the
(02:01):
other guys in Mexico City.
We got to see the guys fromI-68 ministries who were meeting
us down there to go with us andwho actually invited us to go.
So seeing them, seeing facesthat you knew, giving them hugs,
excited to be together for aweek, that was probably the most
exciting about on the way there.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yeah, I don't know when we first arrived in Mexico
City.
Do you remember how hard it wasjust to look for our basic
checkpoint of where to go?
I mean, the Mexico City airportis not very organized.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
They use letters when they should use numbers
Literally and they use all kindsof weird, different You're
supposed to go to Gate J andthen it's really number like 34
or something Right.
There is no Gate.
J yeah, there's no Gate.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
J.
The screens say J, but theactual printed material has a
number.
So that was really difficult,I'd say.
When we were in Mexico City, doyou remember?
There was this random girl thatwas walking down like the food
court area in tears.
This is a common theme onmission trips, a common theme
(03:05):
for me.
We were on a mission trip in2008 to Vienna, austria, and it
was like, for whatever reason,all of these crying girls just
kept being wherever we were andgot a chance to pray for them
and talk to them.
So that happened.
We also had a greatconversation with an individual
who she was attending a Catholiccollege I think it's been
(03:27):
addicting university up inKansas City.
We got to speak to her andchallenge her about the nature
of salvation Is it Faith aloneor is it Faith Plus Works?
That was a great time, so Godwas already working, just
ministry wise, before we met upwith our own team.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Yeah, we also met some people from.
Glorietta in Mexico City.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Camp Glorietta, Camp Glorietta in New Mexico.
So it was kind of.
We met people along the way.
Plain rides were plain rides.
None of them were too long, butmostly the waiting in between
that was the hardest.
But we finally get into TuxaGutierrez.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Real quick.
And the point on Camp Gloriettais that we're doing a mission
trip to Mexico in the Baja areain Manasco in March, but on our
way there we're stamping at CampGlorietta, which is near Santa
Fe, new Mexico.
We've never been there yet, sowe met, like some of the top
counselors and administratorsfrom this camp.
That was just really cool.
Yeah, they're there to recruitinternational students right
(04:28):
there, right, yeah, so just kindof a cool little piece of the
trip.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Yeah, so we get to Tuxa.
It's late, it's like 11 o'clockor something we're staying in a
hotel that night, yeah, beforewe have to make a lot of driving
now to Ocosingo and thendriving from Ocosingo to the
actual churches and villagesthat we're planning on meeting.
(04:52):
And so these drives were crazy,like everyone.
It's like three hours, it waslike five.
Yeah, you know every time theysaid how many hours, you just
add two more.
That's the rule of thumb, yeah,and the roads were windy,
elevation change, speed bumps inthe highways, potholes.
There's no real rules, peoplejust drive around each other.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
The risk of roads being closed because of rebels
or different groups.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Different groups.
You want to control and getsome money or whatever they want
.
They just kind of close theroads down and you just got to
wait or you got to go around,which thankfully that didn't
really happen to us too much,Right.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
It did a couple of times.
We'll get to that in a minute.
The two guys with machetes yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
So if you added the travel of plane rides, layovers,
car rides, I mean, you'retalking over 24 hours of travel,
almost a day and a half oftravel just to get to where we
needed to be.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yeah, Well, and then we stayed in Tuxla that first
night.
Yeah, and it was beautiful.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
It was a beautiful hotel.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
We went into this.
I mean it's a hotel, but it wasa former house with two stories
, very should I say Spanishlooking, circular, railway, a
pool in the front, beautifulgreenery on the property.
I mean it really looked like acompound, but just done in a
(06:20):
very nice hotel like way.
So we were blessed to have areally nice bed, just because
the rest of the trip after thatwas going to be super rough.
So before we went to the hotel,though, we stopped and got some
street tacos.
Yeah, did you enjoy thosestreet tacos?
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Kyle.
I did not enjoy those streettacos.
I mean, they didn't even wantto go.
I was so tired.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
I was so tired.
I was surprised we werestopping to eat because I was
like I just want to go to bed.
It's like 1230.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Yeah, and we stopped for tacos street.
Tacos at a random place in arandom street and we ate those
street tacos.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
I thought I was going to get shot.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
You didn't laugh.
Maybe you thought they wereserious.
It was definitely dangerous,but not in that sort of way.
Yeah, so that night we atestreet tacos and those street
tacos came back to hurt me witha vengeance, to the point where
I'm still figuring out andrecovering from.
So yeah, I got sick day one.
That night, slept very poorly,got real nauseous, ended up very
(07:26):
sick to the point where Ididn't know if I was going to
move forward, like I don't evenget that sick at home.
So I was like, what am I goingto do?
I just kind of got to a placewhere it came down to either I'm
staying in this hotel for thenext week by myself, or I'm
pushing forward.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
You were ghostly white too, sweating ghostly
white, I mean.
Yeah, you'd been on the toileta number of times, thrown up
once, yeah.
We were trying to figure out ifwe were going to have to stay
at the hotel one additionalnight before moving forward.
You know our team didn't knowwhat it would do with Kyle, as
he couldn't be able to go.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
We prayed for you multiple times so yeah, and I
just spent time in prayer inthat room, and this was probably
the moment of the trip for me.
That was like, not just becauseit was physically demanding,
but there was a moment of faithin this process of figuring out
what I'm going to do next,because I didn't come to Mexico
to sit in a room.
You know, we came to Mexico toshare the gospel, and so I just
(08:30):
spent time in prayer, going,lord, why?
Why is this happening?
Or how am I going to getthrough this?
Strengthen me, just heal meright now, in this moment.
Whatever, I just want to go sowe can complete what we came to
do.
I want to be a part of it andso, yeah, during that moment, I
finally just got to a place, youknow, where the Lord spoke to
me and he just said you need toput your shoes on, you need to
(08:53):
pack up your bags, you need towalk out that door, it's time to
go, and I'm still sick, likeI'm like.
Well, how am I going to do that?
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Because I paralyzed on the bed.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Yeah, I'm just like laying on the bed, like I don't
even want to move, and so I putmy shoes on, I packed my bags,
still feeling sick, and I'm like, lord, I don't think this is a
good idea.
You know, you're like talkingback to the Lord as if you know
better.
And he just said no, you needto walk out that door and trust
me.
And so I was like well, there'ssomething about walking out
(09:23):
that door that I need to do, andso I'm just going to go do it.
So, grab my things, walked outthe door, came down and said
let's go, and I did not knowwhat the drive was going to be
like, and I did.
I felt so bad, I knew it wasgoing to be long, but I didn't
know it was going to be rough, Ididn't know it was going to be
windy, I didn't know it wasgoing to be a trip that even if
I wasn't sick, I would probablyfeel sick on this drive, and so
(09:46):
stop go, stop go traffic,unexpected windy roads, windy
turns.
It was.
It was.
It was definitely rough, butthe Lord provided it was that
moment of stepping out in faithand just trusting God that he's
going to take care of me therest of the trip and move
forward, even if it's hard andit's not fun and it's going to
(10:07):
be a struggle the whole time.
The mission is more importantand I know that if I just
continue to do what the Lordwants, which is to share the
gospel, then he'll pave the way,and so that's what he did.
Now was I completely healed anddidn't, and felt great the rest
of the trip?
No, but it was definitely notas bad as it was and it got
better gradually throughout thetrip.
Once I got some more sleep thenext night after driving there,
(10:30):
I was able to sleep a lot in thenext morning at least had a
little bit of energy, tried tostay hydrated and yeah, just
from there on, just push through.
It was, it was again.
It was difficult, but the Lordmoved, the Lord spoke to me and
it was just one of those momentswhere you learn that through
prayer.
So learn that through prayer.
(10:51):
It's important to understand.
There's an element of faith,there's a part that you have to
participate in.
It's not just like I got healedme, I'll just stand here and
tell you do it.
No, god's like no.
You need to step forward infaith and I will take care of
you.
But there's a there's an actionthat needs to take place, and
so that action took place.
And it was hard and I'm not Idon't take credit, I just know
(11:15):
that the Lord gave me thestrength and the Lord provided
what I needed and I did not want.
There was a part of me that Ijust didn't want to go, because
I was like there's just no way Ican do this.
But the Lord said no, you camefor a reason and you need to go,
whether you like it or not.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
There there's a theme of the trip where we were both
confronted with intentionallyhaving to do hard things, like
when, given an option of doingwhat was difficult versus
leaning into what wascomfortable, we'd have to choose
hard things and the thing aboutchoosing comfortable things is
you never, ever reach a pointwhere it's enough comfort, like
(11:54):
whatever.
Whenever you choose comfort,that's good enough.
But then what do you want next?
You want more of it, and moreof it, and more of it, and I
think choosing hard thingsBuilds your character, you know,
builds you as a man.
And so doing difficult, doingthe difficult, it was really key
on this trip and something thatI came away with.
There's another part of thetrip I didn't get sick like you
(12:18):
did, but where I could sharesomething similar.
But I was really proud of youbecause we put you in the front
seat of the vehicle.
Wesley, our missionary, whoI've known for 17 years.
Love him to death, but it's.
He wasn't how would I say, evendriving.
Love Wesley, but it's not likehe was cognizant of Start, go,
(12:41):
start, stop, that sort of thing.
So even even the driving was alittle rough and, yeah, I was
just watching you hold thathandle there on the door like
Put your head out the window toget some air.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
There are moments, like if we're driving and
there's hitting me and feelingokay, but there are moments we
had to stop for a little bitbecause, like a bridge
construction, yeah, it startedto get hot and I start sweating
and I was like this is not gonnago well in Mexico.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
I don't know how they decide this, but there's
literally a speed bump likeevery length of a football field
and the most random placeswhere speed bumps aren't needed.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
There's just a speed bump there, for no reason right,
and they're not like big speedbumps to where you just kind of
roll over them.
Yeah, they're like tiny, tallones, so you really like hit
them hard.
Yeah, and it was.
It was not fun.
I think the the part for me,looking into the trip that made
it difficult to move forward wasI knew the comfort of a Hotel
room was over Until the very endof the trip.
(13:41):
Yeah, I knew we were going tovillages without electricity and
running water.
Yes, I wasn't gonna go toanother location, to where I
could rest in a nice bed and Icould have a nice bathroom to go
to if I needed to.
Yeah, I knew I was gonna go tothe roughest, yeah, possible
situation Beansick and so thatwas, that was hard, like I had
to buy faith.
I had to buy faith.
(14:02):
Go God, you're gonna take careof me and I'm not gonna need
those things, mm-hmm, and you'regonna, you're gonna help me get
through this.
And so by the time we got, youknow, to the first village Not
that I was good, yeah, but Iwasn't I definitely wasn't in
rough shape anymore and you knowthe sleeping quarters was just
(14:22):
sleeping on the ground.
I think I slept on a couplebenches pushed together some
wooden benches, a couple pews, acouple pews that they had in
their church, and, and that waskind of the situation the rest
of you know for a few nights was, you know, sleeping on rough
ground where those the concrete?
In the next village, we justhad sleeping bags in our pad, a
little pad that we, you know,blew up with air that barely
(14:44):
kept you off the ground and, youknow, luckily the weather was
pretty good, yeah, I think.
And and so there were somepositives, but the amenities
were not what I'm used to or theluxuries in which I'm used to
having each and every day, yeah,to be able to just go get water
whenever I want or go get foodwhenever I need it.
You know, we were eating whatthey provided in the villages,
(15:05):
which may have been a savinggrace, because it was just basic
Beans, rice and chicken soupand various things, things that
wouldn't hurt my stomach, thingsthat were pretty Pretty tame,
yeah, for the stomach, and sothat may have been a good thing,
eating those type of type offoods, and so, yeah, I was just
(15:27):
thinking of all those thingsmoving forward, I had to block
it out and just say, lord,you're gonna take care of me and
I'm just gonna keep movingforward with the team.
Yeah, and I know the team willtake care of me, my best friends
with me and I'm just gonna moveforward, mm-hmm, and I don't
want to disrupt our plans, Idon't want to.
I don't want to lag behind, andso the Lord provided in all of
(15:47):
that.
And I think the Lord providedin all that because the purpose
of the trip was to spread thegood news.
That's right.
It wasn't for any other selfishreason.
I wanted to move forwardbecause I wanted people to hear
the gospel, and whenever thegospel is the focus and the
foundation of a trip, I thinkGod's gonna provide a way to
make it happen, and so that'shis will, that's what we see in
(16:08):
scripture, and so that's what hedid.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Yeah, it's amazing when you look in scripture.
Just as a side note, miraclesdon't happen arbitrarily.
Miracles always take place whenscripture is being written and
developed, when God's Plan ofsalvation is being moved forward
, when the gospel is beingpreached in the New Testament,
like these things accompany,they ornament the gospel, and so
I Actually do believe it wasquite incredible.
(16:32):
You went from ghostly, whitesick, barely Able to get off the
bed, all the way to sing I'mjust gonna go and we'll see and
to see your improvement fromthat moment Was.
I mean, it was like bang, bangand it was really cool to see, I
think, god's hand On you forthe trip.
So let's let's move and let'sbriefly talk about Wesley Baker
(16:56):
for a brief minute and thenlet's talk about the travel up
through the villages and whatthat was like, and Then some of
the ministry we did in thevillages.
So I've known Wesley Baker, asupported missionary, through I
six, eight, since I wassophomore in college.
Wesley was a worship leader atmy previous church that I went
(17:17):
to in college.
Wesley just married Four yearsago a woman named Nelly.
They have two children, so itwas really good to see West.
I hadn't seen him in about sixyears, but after our college
days we stayed in touch and thatsort of thing.
They own a little, I guess,three-story apartment in Oco
(17:41):
single and they've done a reallygreat job at the place.
They live really simply butthey also have some of the
Basics that we have, like TV andRoku and that kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
But yeah, yeah but they?
Speaker 2 (17:55):
he's currently Doing Bible studies there in Oco
single, working with a localpastor trying to reach Other
individuals in the area eitherby way of evangelism or
equipping.
He's doing a fantastic job.
It's really hard work.
You know it's hard being amissionary because you often
feel alone in what you're doing,and so the work is really
(18:19):
difficult, really arduous.
They're also doing a ton ofministry in the villages,
because the villages largely gounreached, and, yeah, he's doing
a great job.
One thing that was a componentto this trip that we didn't know
of until we had alreadycommitted Was the the villages
that we were going to.
Voice of the martyrs had donelike a whole segment on Chiapas,
(18:42):
mexico.
You know, on YouTube you canlook it up.
I think it was done in 2010,2012, and there are Christians
in these villages that had facedpersecution.
You know their buildings arebeing burned down.
There were a couple of deathsbecause of a rebel group called
the Zapatistas, and theZapatistas are like this
anti-government, marxist,socialist group that Takes it
(19:08):
upon themselves to see to itthat these Jungle villages are
kept preserved in their cultureand all of those things.
So, even though these guys,ironically, are anti-religion,
anti-capitalism, anti-government, they live the high life.
They visit all these people inEurope and they do their thing,
while the people in the villagesin the jungle are still utterly
(19:29):
poor.
Nothing has improved, and so itwas crazy.
What I'm trying to say is isit's crazy, as we drove to this
location it was probably sixhours total to get to our first
destination, jungle driving andand you'd go through one village
and they'd have electricity.
So it's a pro-governmentvillage and the help the homes
(19:51):
would be at least in bettercondition made out of block made
out of block rather than woodPlanks.
Then you'd go five miles downthe road, you get to another
village and there'd be the signthat says Zapatista Village in
Spanish, and no capitalistas, nocapitalists here.
No religio, no religion, no,nothing like and it.
You know it's black and redcolors.
(20:12):
It looks like that's black super, star, yeah, super terrius
looking and stuff, and so,anyway, you know, the people in
those villages look a littlemore downtrodden they're the
expression their countenance ontheir face looks a little more
worn.
I think for the most part,they're just farmers that want
to live, but Ironically, itseems like they're oppressed by
(20:32):
the people who are advocatingfor them, which seems to always
be how it goes, doesn't it?
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (20:38):
it was very interesting to drive through and
you know you're driving throughtheir villages.
I mean you're not stopping cuzyeah, I want you to, but yeah,
you're driving through and thepeople are kind of looking at
you and some people would waveand say hello.
Yeah, and but you just kind ofhad to go through all this like
rebel territory Just to get tothe villages that aren't a part
(20:58):
of that, yeah and so, yeah, itwas kind of.
I don't know if it was scary ornot, you know, they just look
like regular people doing theirthing.
You just don't know who's behindthe villages or who's yeah, you
just who has ulterior motivesor right, and you, you're kind
of going in and you know you'regoing in and they're seeing you,
so you're kind of like, well,on the way out, are they waiting
?
Yeah, are they looking for usafter this?
Speaker 2 (21:21):
That was at least our thought, yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
I mean, and you've had that experience before in
the Philippines, so yeah, wherethey do start tracking you and
they're trying to figure outwhere you are because they don't
want you there, and so there'sa little bit of that in your
back of your mind.
But we did have, you know,wesley with us, and then we had
a local traveling pastor, yeah,named Jaime Jaime, and Awesome,
he knew Spanish and the locallanguage of the villages.
(21:44):
Because so tell, yeah, and theydid not speak Spanish, so we
needed him and he travels tothese villages on a regular
basis.
So he kind of had the end.
He was the friendly face.
When people saw him they knew,hey, everything's safe, we trust
him and he's built thoserelationships.
So, yeah, it was a, it was ahard drive, it was.
It was muddy, as big, old, likeholes in the ground.
(22:07):
We had a drive there's likefour by four and you know, and
you're in the jungle, you know,and we went through so many
different elevation changes anddifferent things that it was.
It was really cool to see God'screation in that way.
I'd never been in a jungle likeother than Jamaica, a little
bit as a rainforest, but thatwas a big jungle, lots of
(22:28):
mountains and so very very fun,two things that happened on the
way there.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
So so tau is the original Mayan language.
So we were straight up in oldschool, like Mayan territory,
and we passed what they believeis the Highest elevated
Structure, mayan ruins it'scalled to Nia, and we
unfortunately we didn't get tovisit it, but we drove past it
(22:54):
and it seemed like it was maybemile off in the distance and we
had this, this great open areato see the whole thing as we
were driving out.
That was beautiful.
We also stopped at a Wasn't agas station, but more of a
because they didn't have gas,but it's like a roadside
convenience store, a roadsideconvenience store when, before
you break off the paved road andyou go on to the dirt road,
(23:17):
people stop for soda and chipsand that sort of thing.
And it was really cool becausewe had the opportunity to share
the gospel there, like wepurchased our drinks and our
chips.
Wesley and Jaime weretranslating and I thought this
is the coolest thing that whenthe gospel is being communicated
you know there's may seem like15 people there and it ended up
being maybe 30 35 and To seepeople not walk away and dismiss
(23:41):
it like they would in America,but to see people congregate and
to be like magnetized towardsthe message was really, really
cool.
And and I Think that wasimportant for Wesley to see,
because Wesley wrestles withevangelism and he told me.
He said, you know, that was myfavorite part on the trip,
because I wrestled with justjumping in and sharing the
(24:01):
gospel.
And he said, after whathappened it makes me think, oh,
it's not that difficult, like Ishould do that more often.
And he said, he told meafterwards, the reason why they
were congregating is because thegospel is, like, basically
prohibited in many of thosevillages, and so they were
listening to something they'dnever heard of before the gospel
of grace, not of works, but ofgrace, and so that was a really
(24:25):
big encouragement to just seethe movement of the Lord.
And in that aspect of the tripit unplanned a ministry
opportunity, and so that wasbefore we broke off into some of
the the most thrilling jungletravels, I guess you'd say yeah,
yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
So then we, we went to.
The first village we went towas the furthest one away, I
don't know what it was called.
I don't know what the villageis called.
I know there was 90 people inthis village was the number, and
really the church we visitedthere was really just a family.
That was the church.
You know, I think you know momsand dads and some some children
(25:05):
, yeah, and there wasn't verymany, maybe what eight, ten.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Yeah, something like that church of ten people.
The one, the man he lookedabout my age, I I think he's a
pastor because he can read.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
He has a.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Bible and he can read .
And this village is located atthe end of the road.
So, in a very literal sense,where the dirt road ended and
the jungle started, that's wherethe village was.
So we took this road as far aswe could go.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Yeah, and this is there's no law enforcement,
there's no anything Like.
This is a people group that youknow they govern themselves.
You know things that happen inthat village that they consider
against the law they handlethemselves.
So it's just, you're in a wholenew kind of like I kind of wild
west, you know who's justhandled by the town.
(25:59):
You know they just handled bythe people.
That's exactly what it feltlike and that's how they lived.
You know they're farmers.
They build everythingthemselves.
The food is something that theygathered themselves.
They do a little bit of sellingthings in the city to make some
money for maybe some supplies,where they'll make that trip
every now and again.
But really this village didn'thave electricity, didn't have
(26:20):
running water.
Yeah, it was pretty much asbare minimum as it gets wooden
structures, the churches madeout of wood, their houses were
just made out of wooden planks,I believe, like they slept in,
like hammocks, which probablywould have been a better idea.
I should have brought a hammock, I know it.
Next time that'll be the case.
And then, yeah, but it was whenwe arrived to this first one,
(26:43):
the first thing we saw was thiswoman who was the?
mother of the church who waspreparing food and getting ready
for us to be there.
But once we arrived she justburst out in tears because she
was so happy that we would comeall that way to visit them that
they had guests.
You could tell she had a.
(27:04):
It was more of a weeping.
Yeah like a spirit ofhospitality she had, but that is
not a thing she does very oftenand so it was just, yeah, a
weeping of thankfulness.
You could just say she wasexcited that we were there and
she was grateful.
And so when you get thatreception, maybe those things
(27:26):
you've been thinking in yourhead and building up about the
dangers or the different stuff,or how are these people gonna be
?
all that kind of just drops andyou go oh, we are welcomed here
and they want us to be here andthey're excited about it, and so
I'm excited about it.
So that kind of changed atleast my attitude a little bit.
It actually softened me up alittle and I didn't feel like I
(27:47):
had to look out for anything.
I could just be there and bewith them and try to get to know
them the best we could.
We didn't know their language,but it kind of got an idea of a
little bit of who they are andhow they live and what they're
doing.
So it was a cool moment.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Yeah, and they gave us their best to fresh, handmade
corn tortillas.
Whatever these black beans werethat they literally dug out of
the soil up the mountain behindthem.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Yeah, they grow them in some sort of sandy soil up in
the mountains and it's like theonly place you can grow them.
But these beans were good.
They were good.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
It tasted very different than the beans.
I've had Power.
Everybody was tooting yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
That's like putting in the church that night.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Man, that was like jet fuel or something.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Yeah.
So, you know they made.
They even went to town, I think, and bought eggs for us.
Yes, so we could have eggs.
You know we had chicken.
Most of these villages havechicken but there was plenty of
food.
Yeah, too much, I couldn't eatat all.
Yeah, but it was very.
They had a.
(28:51):
They call it a coffee, but it'skind of like it's some sort of
like a seed or some sort of beanin the jungle that they soak in
this tea and it's very sweet.
They had some sugar and ittasted fine and they'd serve it
hot.
So that was good.
It doesn't have any caffeine oranything, but it was a good
drink and that was pretty muchin all the villages same drink,
(29:13):
same food.
But very hospitable, wanted usto make sure we had everything
we needed.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
And that night we preached.
Three of us preached and keepin mind, preaching there is a
little different than here, soour sermons are more like 10
minutes long because of so manyjumps and translations.
So I preached out of theencouragement of Jesus to the
disciples on the road to Emmausin Luke 24.
You preached on John 3.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
John 3, yeah, nicodemus being born again and
what that means.
Yeah, so sharing the gospelfrom Jesus provides it.
It's not something we earn.
It's something that Nicodemushad to make the change to be
born again in Jesus Christ andnot in of his works and his
knowledge, cause Nicodemus was aPharisee.
He knew a lot.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
And so the next morning we also did a.
So that first service was atnight, outside by the fire, with
our headlamps on, holding ourBibles, preaching to them in the
dark.
It was a little different fun,you know, it's like camping.
But and then the next morning,what was what this have been?
Sunday morning woke up, did achurch service there.
(30:22):
We had Danny Valenzuela with usfrom I-68.
He played in, led worship andthen we actually did a Q and A
with them where they had sometheological questions and we got
to speak to them, bring someclarity to some things.
This, this church, I would say,was and I don't mean this to
(30:44):
degrade them maybe one of themost unreached and unhealthiest.
Just, it didn't seem like thatstrong leadership.
There was only one man, youknow it was.
This is really tough, so weneed to pray for God's church
right there in that village.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
That you know, I know it's not an unwillingness.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
No, it's not Of the people, yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
It's mostly just an education kind of level.
Got one guy who can read.
They can't like they can't likeread the Bible on their own and
so they it goes throughsomebody else and so they can
only really get those teachingsat those times.
So I do think they could youknow, and I don't know what
their day to day is always like.
That's right, but definitelyprioritizing sometime in the
(31:26):
word each day, if they could,would be probably very helpful.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
I just mean it was a little more difficult to do any
sort of training there becauseyou're starting from such a
different base, and so I thoughtthe Q and A was really helpful
for them, just to at least seeyou know you answer the
questions you have with theBible itself in context itself.
And that was that was a goodstart.
So from there we traveled tothe second village called San
(31:50):
Francisco, which was about anhour away, an hour away through
the jungle still.
But this is a community of acouple hundred families, not a
hundred families, but a couplehundred people, which is it's
council led, you know.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Yep elders.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Elder led community from the tribe.
You had to go through someextreme mountain passes to get
there super steep.
We picked up some guys walkingto the village on the way, put
them in the back of the truckand rode up with them.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
And we had some in our vehicle too, some in the
vehicle too.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
And then we spent about a day and a half there,
got there and there were kidseverywhere that was really
encouraging to see.
And then, of course, we werethere to encourage a church.
So what do you remember aboutthat second location?
Yeah, I'll finish with thepastoral training side and the
preaching, but what do youremember about that village?
Speaker 1 (32:46):
Pulling up and seeing all the kids.
That was my first likeimpression was we pulled up and
there was a group of probably 20to 30 children, it seemed like
half the town was children.
All these children, and theywere.
They were lively.
I mean, you saw life in thisvillage.
It wasn't like, oh, poorvillage back in the jungle that
has nothing.
These kids were like playingsoccer, running around, having a
(33:09):
good time, and you could seethat it was a little bit
different than the first village.
Yeah, there was a lot ofelectricity electricity you know
, much, but they'd been theresince, I think he said, 1995 and
they built out of this villageand this village kind of sits in
this basin where the junglewalls surround it.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
Yeah, it's beautiful.
Pictures don't justice yeahit's.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
It's an amazing setting for a place to live.
They definitely seem to be alittle bit more, you know,
aggressive in their way of life,like in the sense of building
buildings at brick buildings,concrete floors and some of the
buildings.
A lot more horses and animalsAgain.
Like Tristie, they even hadWi-Fi that you could purchase.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
So government has three hours at a time.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Three hours at a time For like a dollar or something
like that, and the governmenthas grants where they put them
in.
So they seem to be a little bitmore advanced In the direction
that they're going, and so thatwas.
That was a lot of fun.
I played soccer with some ofthe kids.
I know you were chasing some ofthe little kids around as a
blast.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
I felt like I was hanging out with my own kids.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
I mean, I got a picture of you in the back of
the truck Preaching, sharingBible stories to the kids and
they were all around listeningand I taught them on the subject
of marriage, why marriage isimportant to God.
Yeah, yeah, we had a.
There's a couple little kids.
They definitely had I Didn'tknow the exact words they were
(34:37):
saying both some potty mouths,yeah, but they would wrestle
with you.
You would, you know, justwrestle and tickle them and have
fun, and just they just lovedhave been there and hanging out
with you.
Yeah, they took us back totheir source of water, which is
this big cave where they're.
They have pipes that go intothis cave, where this running
water, where they get the waterfor their town, and so they like
(35:00):
let's go back there.
So we kind of hiked a littlehike back there, but it just
seemed there was like there wasa lot of life in this town.
It seemed like it didn't seemdepressing or dreary.
It seemed like people wereexcited to live there, excited
for their life there, and thechurch building was full that
night, yeah, of people.
(35:22):
So yeah, I just think, from afirst impression it seemed like
they cared, not that the firstvillage didn't, but there seemed
to be more advancement.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
Yes, village than the first.
Yeah, they had more opportunity.
I did some reading on thevillage of San Francisco when I
got, when I arrived home and andapparently a number of them
migrated from like it was eitherColumbia or Guatemala, from the
drug cartels.
They escaped like Basicallyslavery, came and settled there
(35:52):
so that they could practicetheir faith more openly and
whatnot.
So that was a blessing to readafter the trip.
And then I would say you know,you walk into the church service
at night and man, the music wasso loud culturally I was not
used to that too loud.
I mean the bass.
We're not talking like you know, just a little bit loud.
(36:13):
We're talking like, yeah, Imean I'm like it hurts you a
little bit.
But the church, the women andChildren sat on one side and the
fathers and their little boyssat on the other side of the
aisle.
That was really unique to see.
We both had an opportunity topreach from a book of Acts,
(36:34):
chapter 4.
Yes and I Preached on revelation1 how the Bible says when Jesus
returns, every eye will see him.
And the basic point was itdoesn't matter whether you're
here or an Oko single or inAmerica or China or Africa, when
he returns you will see him.
And Then we got a chance toencourage the, the men, and to
(36:57):
be good husbands and goodfathers.
We got to pray for the man.
It was a I thought it was areally moving service, mm-hmm,
and they're very veryappreciative.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
I could just you know their body language.
Yeah, the way they responded,and I think the the next morning
after that they were, before weleft all those men Were outside
lined up, lined up to saygoodbye to us.
Yeah, and so you coulddefinitely tell there was a
sense of encouragement thatwe're able to bring and for
(37:28):
their families or marriages.
But ultimately you know, tohear the gospel, to be reminded
that the gospel isn'tworks-based.
Salvation isn't works-based,but it's the grace of God, and
so that's a message we weredriving in each, each place we
were at was we want to make sureyou know the real gospel with
with heavy Catholic influence.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
They're Sometimes can be an unhealthy relationship
between faith and works there,and so you kind of just want to
make sure that you hammer athome like a healthy, righteous
life is lived as a form ofsaying Thank you to Jesus, not
as a means to earning salvationwith Jesus.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
Plus, they had a very interesting.
I think they struggle withhandling conflict well, because
some of these villages had Idon't know how many
denominations.
Yeah, there's like eightchurches there, so it seemed
like oh, we disagree on this, sowe'll just go start our own
church.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
And I don't think that's the way to handle
disagreement.
So there was definitely thischurch was probably one of the
largest.
Yes, I mean, they have a lot ofpeople.
The other churches were smallerbut they were like four Church
of Christ's in one village.
Because they all had adisagreement on something, so
they started their own church.
So very just kind ofinteresting, where they weren't
(38:41):
able to handle their, theirdifferences.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Yeah, this is technically a Presbyterian
church that we went to, but youknow, you got to understand
Presbyterian in America orwhatever it might be like,
denominationally speaking it's.
They may not even know thegreat distinctions themselves,
but it was more evangelical thanthan the rest.
Yeah, and we did do a littlebit of pastoral training with
the leadership, you know I'd saywhat five to seven guys and
(39:07):
taught them how to interpretnarrative genre as they're
working through the Bible.
So that was really good.
The food was fantastic but,yeah, this was a very lively
village.
So then we come back, we headback to Oco Shingo, which was.
We went Maybe a four-hour drive.
All the way back the Lordactually just told me get into
(39:30):
the back of the truck, don'tride inside, get in the back,
ride down the mountain.
Because I wanted to choose todo something difficult, like I
really respected what you didcoming up, and I just, scott and
I, got in the back of the truck.
We picked up a couple of UmTravelers down the mountain on
the way.
I got totally sunburnt.
(39:51):
Yeah, it was actually reallyrough, really hard on my back.
I I sat on a cooler in between,like underneath me in the bed
of the truck for the whole ridedown but got to see God's
creation and I was so sore andexhausted I smelled like exhaust
after.
But on the way down we gotstopped maybe five times for A
(40:11):
toll, toll.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
Yeah, we had there these guys that the government
doesn't clean the sides of theroads or doesn't clear the
jungle, the overgrowth, yeah,and so people take it upon
themselves to get their machetesand to chop down the grass and
the trees along the roads andset up their own tolls, which is
putting branches in the road,some of them with their children
, manning the branches, stoppingtraffic and asking for money To
(40:35):
get by, and so that's prettymuch an unofficial toll for
clearing the roads.
Uh, a little bit of a shakedown, I would say.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
basically a toll, but well, and there are pros,
appetista or zapatistathemselves, yeah, and so they.
I think they recognize this isan opportunity to practice
capitalism, although we say wedon't believe in that.
I thought that was reallyinteresting.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
We don't believe in capitalism, but we're going to
take advantage of thisentrepreneurial opportunity.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
Yeah, it's okay if you buy soda and chips from us,
but yeah, yeah.
So just some irony.
Speaker 1 (41:05):
It was at least four times we got stopped at least,
because I remember Wes gettingupset, like he told the guy on
like the fourth one.
I already gave you guys moneyback there, that's right, I'm
not giving you more money.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
I'm just gonna keep driving yeah so it was.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
It was definitely An interesting experience to,
because you're sitting theregoing.
It's just a stick.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
And if you just keep going, they have contacts in the
next village.
They'd probably stop you alittle more heavily in the next
village and and threaten you.
So, um, that was interesting.
We got back to Ocosingo, whichis a little I'd say it's like a
city of 50,000 or so where westlives.
We stopped at pastor Hi Macehouse, yeah, and they served us
(41:47):
from fresh pescato, some freshFish.
Oh yeah, it was so good andthat was one of the most
refreshing meals I've had mywhole life.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
Because it was like it was.
The fish was really good, butit was like cucumber and like
just fresh vegetables and onionsand tomatoes salsa and it was
very fresh, very you know itjust kind of caught the day
before.
Yeah, it's caught the daybefore and you know it
rejuvenated me a little bit.
Yeah, some some different food,especially some meat, some some
(42:17):
fish.
It was light but it was fillingat the same time.
So very grateful for his, forhis hospitality as well.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
And then that night, after we rested at west's house
for like a half hour, we went toone last church In a village
about an hour away not too faraway, but really it was a two
and a half hour drive.
Speaker 1 (42:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:39):
This church was massive, at least the building.
The building was yeah.
I mean brand new tile, walls,pillars, paint, everything, yeah
, and uh, new pews.
This was maybe one of myfavorite moments.
I preached out of SecondTimothy, chapter four, paul's
final words to Timothy to preachthe word, be ready in season
(43:00):
and out of season to train upleaders, stuff like that.
There's gonna come a time wherepeople have itching ears and
you know what like, uh,basically, this opportunity it
wasn't the church but we, it wastheir whole leadership team and
then their women's leadershipteam and we just had an
opportunity to say like, if youdon't prioritize training up
(43:24):
leaders, you will have abeautiful building with nobody
in it.
And there was like thisboldness that just came over me.
One of the leaders was cryingas he was hearing this, like
realizing we could have abeautiful building but if we
don't pass on the faith you, youdon't have an ongoing faith
here in this location yeah and I.
You know they served us dinnerafterwards, but that was maybe
(43:46):
where I felt the Lord with methe strongest in that sermon and
my prayer is that they wouldPrioritize.
We gave examples of what itlooks like to invest in new
leaders, to not hold it toyourself but to keep passing it
on, and that was a really justtouching moment for me.
So To conclude the trip withthat, I was Pretty excited.
(44:09):
You know like that topped itoff for me.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
Yeah, and really after that it was, it was pretty
much just Stage by stage travelall the way back.
Yes, but one of the things wedid throughout the whole trip
Was we study God's word.
Speaker 2 (44:23):
Oh yeah, that's true With all as a team, as a team.
Speaker 1 (44:26):
Yeah, we as, so we we took different passages
Throughout scripture, differentreally.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
We kind of stuck with one genre narrative, narrative
we did the Red Sea crossing,david and Goliath, yep, and then
Sinakarib in Assyria comingagainst Hezekiah.
Speaker 1 (44:44):
It's in Isaiah 36 and 37 and so we, we were able to
study God's word together, helpequip Thy six, eight guys, yes
and just have good conversation,be in the word together.
And so there was the element ofprayer being in the word
together, preaching the word,building relationships, reaching
these people.
And so it was, you know, amultifaceted Trip.
(45:09):
It wasn't just focused on onething.
We tried to ensure that itwasn't just travel and Ignore
the word and just preach it whenwe, when it's convenient.
All of our free time was in theword, but we were in the word
the whole time.
Every time we stopped, either,had a meal, we're at Wessa's
house in the villages in themorning, whatever that was, we
spent time in the word, and sowe try to use our time To the
(45:32):
best of our abilities, to togrow in our walk.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
Well, and what came out of that Was now the hope and
the expectation for next year.
And so we already do ourpastoral training for pastors in
September.
We've done that two years in arow in Panasco, in Panasco.
This, this coming Septemberwill be our third year where we
do that.
But the idea that's now comeout of this trip is, hey, next
(45:57):
year, rather than spending allthis time on the travel, we're
gonna then stay in Oco Shingo,we're not gonna go back to the
villages, where it's a littlemore risky, but we're gonna
invite, we're gonna bring down,we're gonna pay for the pastors
to.
This is I68 talking Mm-hmm.
I68 now wants to bring thepastors from the villages, put
(46:18):
them in a hotel state, get aconference room and do a
pastoral training for theseUnreached pastors and the
village areas.
And so if we go back next year,we won't travel back to see
them, but they'll come to us andwe'll spend all this time just
training and equipping them.
I68 as an organization, theyhave their specialty with the
(46:40):
house builds, but they'restarting to transition to
equipping more of like aseminary, like ministry Mm-hmm,
where they're.
They're starting to train, youknow, pastors in the area so
that you don't just have thephysical Necessities met, you
have the spiritual and I reallyappreciate that about them.
So the Lord will bring it topass.
(47:01):
But there's really talkingabout it.
I'm tired.
I'm reminded of how tiring allof that was yeah we came back.
Speaker 1 (47:09):
There's a massive fog storm you know and can, even
could barely barely see drivingback?
Yeah, I mean, we traveledanother 20 hours to get back, do
you?
Remember coming in from MexicoCity to Dallas with the pilot
said yeah, the pilot was likehey, we're about to hit some
really bad turbulence, like whenthe pilot uses those words, I'm
(47:30):
like really bad.
Not just we're gonna hit alittle rough patch.
Speaker 2 (47:33):
No, we know what really bad turbulence is.
Yeah, we were coming fromVienna to Chicago one time and
it was like free falling in theair.
Speaker 1 (47:41):
Yeah, turbulence, it was terrible, your stomach was
in your throat.
Speaker 2 (47:45):
So when this, when the pilot said that, I was like
oh man, do you mean liketurbulence, like I've known it
once before?
Or do you mean like just alittle bump, little bumpy?
We both prayed.
Yep, never had any turbulencelanding.
Thank you Jesus.
Speaker 1 (48:04):
Yeah, so it was.
There was definitely blessingsand reminders of of God being
right there with us the wholetime, yeah, you know, and having
faith that those things wouldhappen, and not doubting.
You know, I think times when wedoubt is when we're unsure of
our own belief, not what God cando, but I think when you're in
(48:26):
a moment of Truly understandingwhat you believe and being put
in that moment of a toughsituation but saying I'm gonna
do it anyways, you, you reallystart to learn who God is and
what he can do and how he canprovide, and sometimes it's not
easy.
I mean, we see all throughoutscripture, you know, people came
(48:46):
to Jesus.
In Whatever circumstance theywere in, they put their faith
out there.
And I said, you know, kind ofreminds me of the woman who who
had been Bleeding for years, ifI could just touch his, his
cloak, if I could just touch hiscloak, I could just get through
this crowd and I could justtouch his cloak, I would be
(49:07):
healed.
Yeah, and it's like that.
She took the steps forward, sheput faith in Jesus Christ.
She did, she, she knew, shebelieved God always had the
power, but she took that, thatstep in her suffering To, to
come to the Lord, and so I thinkthose moments in our life are,
(49:27):
you know, obviously you don'twant those every day, because
they're hard and tough and theywouldn't be, as if it was there
every day too.
But but I think they areimportant to be in those
situations as a believer, to notstay comfortable, to test your
faith, to to have those testingsand and to go out there and do
it.
You know, when I first heard ofthe trip, I was all about it
(49:48):
let's go.
You know, I think if I knewwhat was gonna happen, I would
have been like nope.
Speaker 2 (49:53):
You had a lean in the comfort lean in the comfort now
staying home.
Speaker 1 (49:56):
Yeah, my wife's pregnant, it's probably just
better.
I could come up with a thousandexcuses.
Speaker 2 (50:00):
Right, I've got a bunch of kids.
Speaker 1 (50:02):
We're leading a church right, there's plenty to
do here, there's a lot ofministry, yeah, but there was a
moment for us to get out of that, to go do something
uncomfortable and To just putour faith At the forefront and
to really live sent as we talkabout in our church.
You know, I know church familyYou're the ones that are gonna
(50:25):
listen to this podcast, that'sright More than anybody else.
So really, you know, we went onthis trip because we want to
encourage the church that there.
We need to go on these tripsmore as a church not just you
and I, but as a church, continueto go into the mission field,
continue to go reach the ends ofthe earth.
I remember multiple times onthis trip you said, man, this is
(50:47):
the ends of the earth, it is,this is the last village in the
jungle, yeah, and so we need tostretch our faith and get out of
our comfort zone.
And Because it really does growyou, it really does stretch you
, it sanctifies you, and Fasterthan maybe just the day-to-day
grind of what's going on now.
You know, not everybody's lifecircumstances in a place.
(51:09):
Maybe right now you arestruggling in something and you
are being sanctified right nowhere in Ottawa, kansas, and that
is totally fine, but I do thinkthere's times where we have to
step out of what is normal andwe have to do things that we're
uncomfortable with, and when wedo that, we grow and we
understand God more, I think ifI were to conclude, but just a
(51:33):
couple of thoughts.
Speaker 2 (51:33):
Here's some things that I would say.
Number one we have an upcomingtrip to Mexico and the Baja area
, march 8th to the 16th.
We still have room for five toseven people to go.
So church family, I'm prayingthat the Holy Spirit would keep
knocking on your heart and youwould say I'm gonna go on that
trip, no matter what.
I'm gonna get out of my comfortzone, I'm gonna sacrifice
something.
I'm going.
(51:54):
Please let that be you.
We need five to seven morepeople, so that's a practical
thing.
Second, it was really good topray for the Lord to protect us
while we were there underpressure, and to pray for my
wife and to pray for my childrenso that when I came home I tell
you what I first saw mychildren at co-op.
(52:14):
We hold a co-op here onThursday mornings.
I came home and individuallywent to each of their classrooms
and Pulled them out of classand just hug them and held them
and cried because my prayer wasLord, I don't really think this
is like super, super risky, butNevertheless I pray that you'd
give my family back to me.
They are yours More than theybelong to me.
(52:36):
They belong to you first, butlet me return and be reunited
with them so that they gave me agreat appreciation for life and
for my family.
Coming back here, and it's likewhen you're taken out of your
comfort zone you're reminded ofwhat you have.
And In coming back and beingreminded of what I have, it
makes me want to be that much.
Better of a husband, better ofa parent and a daddy, yeah,
(52:58):
better of a pastor, better of afriend.
It's almost like when you putit all on the line because of
Jesus, you remember who belongsfirst.
To begin with, jesus belongsfirst, you know.
You don't even count your lifeat all as anything, but put him
(53:19):
at the forefront.
And so I think these tripsRemind you that Jesus must be at
the forefront.
And when you're forced to dothat and you have to do that you
come back different.
So do that.
You know, to our church family.
Last is this is our churchvision to live.
Sent John 20, 21.
Jesus said just as the fatherhas sent me, so I now send you
(53:43):
my disciples the vision of thechurch.
What does vision mean?
It's who you want to become.
Who do we want to become as achurch?
We want to become a church thatvalues Jesus so much that we go
in the same manner that Jesuswent Incarnationally going,
loving people, giving them God'sword being a blessing to them
for salvation.
(54:04):
In some facet, our, our peopleneed to get out there and to go,
whether it's in Ottawa, aroundKansas, around the country and
other countries.
We need to be people who getequipped in the pew To leave the
pew, yep.
Speaker 1 (54:20):
Yeah, thank you all for listening to the be
disciples podcast.
We hope that you enjoyed thisepisode on our trip to Mexico
and next week we'll startgetting back into the book of
acts and Pastor David will joinus as well.
He's actually sitting behindthe camera today listening to us
Making a weird face, so he'llbe back on.
(54:41):
We're excited to get back inthe rhythm of doing our podcasts
and ministry.
Have a blessed week you.
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