"Full"

DAY ONE…Tired and blessed…. I had no flights cancelled or delayed which is a great thing. No problems in customs even though I was bringing in a big bag of donations, letters, gifts for kids. Things could not have gone any more smoothly. But of course…I was not in control…I was greeted by two of our missionaries, Tim and Kathy Couch. They are from Oklahoma and have been married for over 27 years. Tim joked that as a teenager he approached Kathy in church because he thought she was cute and said that God told him to come and talk to her because he was supposed to date her. She did not fall for it. They are the parents of two grown girls who live back in the states. They are House Parents in our Hope Program which Back2Back started to bring teens that are past the Mexico formal education age of 9th grade on to our campus to give them an opportunity to continue their education while at the same time giving us a platform to share the love of Christ with them. Tim and Cathy have 6 boys in their home which is called the David House. Anyway, they picked me up and we swapped stories on what brought us to Back2Back while driving to an area of Monterrey called Rio.

Rio is a squatter’s village. There is a woman in Rio who just has an amazing love for God and helping others. Her name is Meme. She runs a soup kitchen on Saturday’s in Rio. People that live there come for food and for praise and worship. It was very awesome. Finally, I arrive at our Back2Back Campus. The children of our missionaries held a fundraiser here today washing cars and selling baked goods. The money they raised was being given to the International Justice Mission to help rescue kids from slavery. It was here I got to meet most of the remainder of our Mexico Staff.

This evening, I went to dinner at a local Mexican restaurant where I had acchuro…flank steak covered in cheese and fresh guacamole…yum. I shared my meal tonight with Greg & Cathy Huffer who are originally from Cincinnati. Greg graduated from Anderson and Cathy from Sycamore. They have three adorable boys. There is another family here visiting that I really enjoyed getting to know this evening. Lonnie Clouse is a chaplain for NASCAR and his lovely wife Angela and two of their three children are here as well. It was really wonderful hearing about how they came to hear about our ministry and to hear their stories on how they came to have a relationship with Christ. We ended the evening at the Huffer’s house here on campus listening to the kids laughing and playing. It was really just an amazing day of fellowship. What I witnessed here today in just the very short time I have been here brings to mind a verse from Colossians 3:16 which says Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.

I saw so many people worshipping the Lord in different ways…the kids with their car wash, the children at Meme’s Rio praising God in Spanish while singing and clapping their hands and the stories about how our staff came to know Christ, I can honestly say, I really feel like I am exactly where God wants me at this point in my life!