October, 2008
Country of the Week: Mexico
After a little bit of a break, the Country of the Week is back, and this time it is a country 
close to home, Mexico. For those of you who were at Club last Tuesday, you’ll know that I had the chance to visit Mexico a few weeks ago, and in addition to giving me the opportunity to taste (and bring back!) some nasty fried grasshoppers, the trip stirred my mind and heart to renew our focus on missions. And so, with that in mind, the Country of the Week is back!
While our team was in Mexico, we were hosted by Mike and Joan Ross, who are missionaries from Parkside. Mike is a pilot who 
works for Missionary Aviation Fellowship, which is an organization that flies airplanes to remote areas (remember that landing video?) to help share the good news about Jesus. They do a lot of different things with their airplanes, like fly injured people to hospitals, fly in supplies to places that have been hit by hurricanes or other natural disasters, or even fly missionary teams like ours to do dental work. The goal in all of their work, though, is to take the message of Jesus to people who need to hear it. It is really cool work, and I think that if I had a second life to live, I’d go do what Mike does!
Here are some ways we can be praying for Mike and Joan and Mexico!
About Mexico: Did you know?
- The way to say grasshoppers in Spanish is “chapulines”. So, when your parents ask you what you want for your birthday dinner, you can say, “I was thinking chapulines…”
How can we pray?
- Pray for safety in the flight operations for Mike and the other MAF pilots.
- Pray for Gavino and Pedro, who are pastors in the Oaxaca area. After one of the dental teams visited the town of Guamuchil, they were invited back by some of the families there to share the good news about Jesus!
Any thoughts for the next Country of the Week?
“You see the depths of my heart…”
Have you ever had one of those days when you feel like it would have been better for the
world if you had just stayed in bed? I had one of those yesterday. I was tired and salty, and said things I probably shouldn’t have said, and thought things that I probably shouldn’t have thought, and at the end of the day, was pretty discouraged at how I hadn’t followed Jesus very well. This morning, I was wrestling through a lot of what had happened yesterday, and was reminded of the lyrics of a song that we sometimes sing at Club JV and U-turn called “Indescribable” by Chris Tomlin. The verse that really hit me was: “You see the depths of my heart…and you love me the same….you are amazing God!”
Think about that line for a second. Imagine someone had a video camera that was focused on you 24/7, and imagine that this camera was able to see into your head and your heart, and record all of your thoughts and motives as well as all of your actions. Every single one. Even the things you did or thought when no one else was around. Would you want anyone to see the tape? I sure wouldn’t…I’d probably do whatever I could to destroy it!
What’s interesting is that the Bible tells us that God can see into our lives the same way that imaginary video camera can…He knows everything we do, even the things we do when we think no one else is looking. He knows all of our thoughts, even those we would never want anyone else to know. And here’s the shocking thing…for those of us who have trusted in Jesus for salvation, He loves us the same. “You see the depths of my heart and you love me the same.”
Really? How can God look at all the nastiness that is within you and me and still love us? Because of Jesus. God the Father punished Jesus on the cross for all of our nastiness, for every bitter thought we have ever had, for every unkind message we have ever sent someone, for every wrong thing we have ever done. Jesus took the punishment we deserved so that we could experience the joys of a right relationship with God…
Crazy, isn’t it? “You see the depths of my heart and you love me the same…You are amazing God!”
