"The Planters"

The First thing that came into my mind as i was trying to think what I was going to write is that this author (the one speaking) is full of wisdom. God has blessed him with wisdom to administrate, plan to the furture. Not only that, but the passion he uses is a great combination.

The part the really stuck out for me for this group, is the "Learning esperiences" section, where we tend to want to take over in a short term mission's trip. This kind of goes with my preview post "experiencin Life at the margins." Most of the time, we want to go in a short term mission "to serve." The serving part becomes a blindfold, and we fail to see that we're not giving the church the realtionship that we need. Like the pastor said, "They say...'We're going to do A, B, C, D, and we're in charge.'" That should not be our mentality as a team, but to go there as their guest and having a servant's attitude is the real deal: if they ask you to paint with them, paint, and if they ask you to spend a day talking nad chilling, talk and chill with them. With this, another thing we as a team should do is create a Christian short-term mission's model that does not depend of money. Like Paul mentioned, a model should be depending on hospitality, not on materialistic things, such as staying in a 5 star hotel, because that says we're there carrying a litle vanity with us. Making ourselves vulnerable is principle in this. We shouldnt be taking the most expensive clothing there, neither taking 20 pairs of shoes or showing off our devices, but trying to be as low leveled as we can be, humbling ourselves. That's how we can be planters.

Jahango Fair

It was fun for me to be part of the Jahango fair. As i looked at the little village impersonation, it strucked me that these people have fun in dancing and music. They emphasize their inner joy through the music, and for me it is a connection (when praising God) from your soul, to your body, to outside, to God. The differences i saw from the Kenyan country is that most of them who are living there are not Christians. However, there's that need of God all cultures face. Also, their homes are kind of similar; the Kenyans looked less third world, but there was still that economical need.

For the Galvez, their hardest task will be to share the Gospel in French. They need to be sure their phrasing of teaching is correct, to break down that cross-cultural barrier. After that, another thing is waiting and being a servant there, for God is the one who changes people's hearts.

The Body

We (the church) are like this child, Grace. She has an arm missing from the war days in her village, and she tries to do things limited to her. We're just like that. Our church (mostly every church) has many broken pieces in unity. Some people build each other up and some people tear people down because of likings or social statuses. The truth is that we need to drop out all our differences if we want this to work. We need the true unity that binds us together: Jesus Christ. Also, to keep this trip from being a "tourism," we need to leave behind some of the things that entices us to Panama ( dropping everything might cause us to want it, or look for it), so 1) we dont show our social status, 2) we can be with people better. Along with that, just not always being idle in our tasks there, i mean, to rest most of the time will show that you are there to rest only and will not show that you are a servant. We're not just visiting.
"The poor do not need to be integrated into our community, God is calling us, rather, to identify with theirs." - David Chronic.
It is so true. Westeners think that the Christian who is poor is lacking resources. It might be they are lacking resources in today's world's views and mentality, but , in fact, it is mostly the Western Christians who are lacking the resources to know God. Westerns have many things that them from knowing Jesus, to many things in the way that satisfies momentarely. We need to identify with them.

Pastor Gary Edmonds

Here are His 5 points:

1. The world has been turning upside down: The places that are harvested belong to God, and the Gospel is at owrk today to redeem and call His cause. A movement is happening, ad unheard places are meeting Jesus ( notice that it is not just "knowing" Jesus)
2. The Gospel is About the Kingdom! It about stirring up the kingdom, a Jesus who comes to restore.
3. Social Unity is essential for Credibility! This tells us how to look like a body. To be 1 just as God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are one.
4. It's all about not only sending the right people, but sending the right people TO the right people: to identify them and guide these people.
5. You will run into pain and suffering: Asking to participate in his will(plan for missions)

For our trip, i think it will mean the Social Unity. We need it to work this out. One cannot be a blockstone for another person, which then will cause that second person to be a blockstone for other. So we need to be alert to other people's characters and behaviours; and having constant prayer for unification of the team. Also, the fifth one is valuable. We will suffer, that's part of being Christian (unless God doesn't permit u to suffer) but there will be sufferings in our life, and weneed to be ready to tackle them full on, never ceasing to depart from the Gospel so we do not fall. The book of James is full of suffering passages, so Cheer On and Rejoice!

The Trends

Re-instating these statements makes more sense now and cause less controversies.
It's different to serve and to go being a servant because if we say " to serve", then it means we're ONLY serving there and no-where else, which shouldnt be our thoughts. Being a servant means your attitude is already servant-like, and that you're already ready to know a person and in a way serve them like Christ. This ties to the "we cannot truly serve those who we do not know and love" statement because we need to be in contact with people, whether physically or in e-mail day to day sharing.
In the questions, i hope this trip this trip gives me insight on "Who am I." I can learn about myself in trip, whether working in groups, traveling, and if i get something from there to help me teach or share back to Panama. I feel God telling me to prepare this trip the best that i can. It is not certain that im going, but the preparing of this trip is more important than a person not going. He has also strucken me through this group preparing by learning and applying humility, a trait that u need in everything you do. That it is something u need to work on, but at the same time let God transform you in the process.

Experiencing Life at the Margins

Wow! that's one great article! It caught me by surprise the first section. America is at the center, yet the process of missions resides in the peripheral areas, the margins. In a way it makes sense, just like the example they gave in the Article with Jesus and Nathaniel. Jesus was from Nazareth, and in their time it was kind of like Curundú. No one woud expect an important person, or even A Savior to be born there.

I think is important for us as a team to be like the pastor Mark (not our pastor mark) in page 88. He didn't ask what was better for him, he just asked "What should I say" and follow humbly just as he did with the Northern Ugandan people. I dont think our group has a problem with thinking we're At the Center. In a way, our group is has been influenced by the Center, and we get products from there, but we still know the great poverty faced in our cities. We also have with these groups and i think we have a pretty good picture of how to minister in other places similar to here. Still, we do not know it all, and that's why we're learning still from these people. Im exited to learn more from these people.

Commitments

I dont really have any disagreements with the commitments, i think they are all valid. The reason is because it has a diverse way of adressing the Christian purpose, mentioning themes such as Cultural Intlligence and how we can help to edify their view of Christianity.
I agree with the eighth bullet point, focusing on journal writtings on things that make us umcomfortable and insights we gain. I think it is important to record our experiences, that way it will be harder to forget what we've gone through. Also, with writting uncomfortable things, it takes you to flashbacks from the trips where you will sit and think, yes, that ws changing in my life. With journaling, it spends time focusing on what you have learned so far from your team and from the community, and that kind work is what you want report back, along with Spiritual insights on Bible refrences with them and how God is working in these people's hearts.
I also agree with the last bullet point, which is to humble ourselves to God and his servants , and towards those we are serving as their servants. This one is my favorite one, where humility is the bases of serving. If i can do so many things, but people se me as a cocky person, not wanting to talk with anybody, then they wouldn't be any purpose to the short term trip. Humility ties very closely to love, a very strong attribute of God, and, if we do not have the basis for serving (humility), we shouldn't be doing this trip. As a result, we can minister effectively, and please God, and the people we are in contact with.

Our individual and team preparation will be characterized by:

• Our humility
• How unified we are
• How we are an example role to this church
• our effectiveness/ how we perform
• How ready we are

My hopes

I chose the second bullet point from the third section, and the last two bullet points from the fourth section. My hopes for this trip is to learn and apply.
I hope to be interdependant in the parts of countries i will go to in my future, for it is important to learn how to be discliplined in your Christian walk and at the same time being influenced to grow in it. I will also hope for a strong Christian character, for me to go out and make time to efficiently study my Bible, along with teaching and edifying people in their walk. Lastly, i want to see my life be directed in a Christian form. I want my life to not be wavy and cultured-like, to stand out even if world views tell me not to, and my attitude to be strong, never departing from God's word.

Short term experience

For me, it is important to learn and apply. There's no point in going somewhere and not learn something. You can even learn if you're going to vacation. Also, there's no point to not apply if you're learning. That is one of my strong reasons for going to this trip. I want to learn new cultures and keep learning them (a week is really not that much to learn) personally. Also it will get me ready to know how to deal with different kinds of people, anywhere in the world.
In this trip, it'll be different, where we're actually planning a concert night; learning how to help and edify a praise team with a desire to change their little town. This is changing me to be more disciplined in what i'm doing, whether in music or sports, to be able to be an example. To commit to things, and being careful those things do not intercede. It is changing my view of the world; just that everyone can so different, but at the same time they can be the same. This trip is also edifying my beliefs as a Christian, it got me to think about my gifts : being more confident in them and to be desiring ones i haven't been thinking about (ones Paul tells us to desire more). The trip also got me to think about how i am getting influenced in my walk; to stay with people that edify me and be different to people that most likely won't (if i can't do that here, should i spect to do that somewhere else? I've learned you can't and it would be irresponsible to attempt.). All in all, i am learning.

Outcomes

I feel strongly about the second outcome, where God gives all of us individual outcomes and gifts to be used on His service and His glory. I think it is important for us to nail this through our head because we take for granted evrything we're given. Every Christian is given gifts and talents, however, we fail to use them. We either get scared to step up and use the things we have, or we're too proud in them that we use them on wrong selfish purposes. For me, it means that, whether in serving, healing, or in the gift to bless, and lead, we need to get out of our own way to effetively use them. My own problem is self confidence, which impedes me from using the gifts God gave me, and i know to many it is a problem too. However, it is important to not fall into that trap everytime and ask God for help, for it is for His glory we're doing this.

Assumptions

Weirdly, I do not strongly disagree on the assumptions from CBC Philosophy. Anyhow there is one i do not clearly understand. It is about the "Ya gotta dance a'yad before ya dance abroad" assumption. In my opinion a person can do different things on a trip than what they are dong in their community. Of course, if they haven't had practice on it the likelyhood of one failing is high, but one can still do it. I don't teach the kids on my neighborhood, but because i've had practice with my church i can still do it, just like last trip on 2008. Besides that, i get the main point on not going overseas and doing something we arent doing normally.
I strongly support the 7th assumption, dealing that we sometimes feel we need to offer soethings to the church and communities we visit. We think we are the supperior church (in some cases) and think we gotta shape the receivers church, but we forget to visualize we're only helping the church shape itself, they might have positive things we need to do in our church. For this one, we must just need to chill out and help on what you came for, and be ready to receive and learn the new church culture's way with an open mind.
Another assumption i support is the 15th assumption, dealing with us thinking about church is church wherever we go. It is different everywhere, and jumping into a place you don't know can be fatal in the impression you put into the receiver's minds about us. We need to be careful in our actions towards the churches or cummunities we go. If they're are not used to seeing casual clothing in church, then wearing casual clothing might seem offensive.
A last assumption i strongly agree on is the last one. We cannot go to a missions trip effectively if we're lacking in communication, misunderstandind, having personal conflicts, having poor leadership, and having bad teamwork. It's simply impossible to do a short mission's trip like that. Therefore, we simply need to be like "Gumby"; just as flexible as him. Taking the time to actually care about our teammates, not making false accusations -or even if you have accusations making it public, and not having weak leaders who can't control their given team is something we must be doing as we're preparing to go into this trip. Outside bonding group activities might be a great help to prevent things like these. One of my ideas i shared with Jeff on a wednesday meeting was to go on a saturday night to the Hard Rock Café and listen to some good quality music. This will help us know what things to want in our concert, along with having some good food and talking to each other.

Prayer Requests

Personal Prayer requests. I do not want to be specific, for anyone can view this, so :

- God's hand providing for the team, either financially, and physically. Driving out any problems we might face as a team or individually.
- College and life plans
- Talents to be developed to its fullest
- For us to bless greatly the community from Perú, and bring back that same blessing here in Panama.
- To put in us a desire to serve
- For me to be more confident in what i am doing.
- My spiritual gift desires.

A lot of Thanks to the prayer team, which is, in my opinion, one of the hardest and important groups in our team. Blessings.