Singing . . . One of my favorite parts of the trip

I love worshiping with music.  I am not great at it, but God does not care.  I really enjoyed our music team at the camp in Mexico.  With having only a very short time to get to know each other and work out what they were going to do, they did a fantastic job.

Prayer Time

What a great day yesterday!  We made to El Paso last night.  We enjoyed a great time of worship together around the pool before getting some rest for our next day of travel.

Roman spoke from the Bible on unity.  This was such a huge part of what was developing yesterday.  However, this is our greatest need as we move forward.  Please pray that the love of Jesus will continue to unify the hearts of his people, and that there would be no Mexican, American, young or old.  Pray we would work as one body in advancing the kingdom.

Pray also for passage over the boarder this morning (approximately 2 hours from the time of this post).

Once across the boarder, the liklihood of more posts is very low.  So just know we are thankful for your ongoing prayers.

What Do We Do?

What does this team do when one of the vans decides it needs a break in the middle of nowhere New Mexico?

We worship the God who created this beautiful place.

Lunch in Las Vegas

On The Road

We are on our way!  We just reached New Mexico.  We will spend the night in El Paso before crossing the boarder tomorrow.

Will you join us?

10 days until Gabe and I leave for Mexico.  Thank you to all who contributed to make this happen.  The trip is 100% funded.

God is already moving in the lives of our team.  We are already seeing his hand at work.  I asked for prayer that God bring the right people on the team and He finished that job on Friday morning.  A father and his daughter were given the opportunity to join and I watched as the support came in literally one minute.  I wish I could describe it.  It was crazy to watch a miracle happen.

My question for you is "will you join us?"  Not on the trip unless God performs another miracle.  Next Monday evening, the 30th, Gabe and I will begin a time of prayer and fasting from dinner until the next evening at dinner when our family eats our final meal together before we head out.  This will be a time of surrender to God and his will on this trip.  Please let us know if you would like to join us in this time.

Specific prayer requests for the trip:

1. Good team building time as we get to know each other on a road trip (this is the kind of stuff reality shows are made of and we don't want that)

2. Boarder crossing Thursday morning

3. Reliable vehicles

4. Our team will hear God's voice and obey.

5. Opportunities for ministry outside of our schedule.

I will do some posts on the road but Mexico will be tough.  If you do not hear from us before we get back across the border do not be surprised.

Thank you for your prayer support.

Brandon and Gabe

Gabe on "The Missions Dilemma"

​For the past seven weeks, our team of missionaries has been working our way through a series called Missions Dilemma. It is lead by a missionary named Steve Saint. This series was filmed with the idea that we are doing missions the wrong way.

​Steve Saint has been in missions for most of his life. When he was only about seven years old, his father, Nate Saint, was trying to reach out to a tribe in Ecuador. Nate and four other men would fly over the tribe and drop gifts. They seemed to be friendly enough.

​So Nate and his friends tried to land their plane by the river to make an attempt on communicating with the tribe. But instead of that warm welcome that they were expecting, the men of the tribe speared Nate and his friends.

​When Steve heard that his father was dead, it changed his life. But he did not stop reaching out to this Ecuadorian tribe. He has made friends with them and spoke the word of God into their hearts.

​Throughout his years of missions, Steve hasanalyzed many problems with missions today. Here are some points that stood out to me:

 

​-“Shepherding is for the benefit of the sheep, not the shepherd.”

​This applies to short-term missions like the trip I am taking. Yes, I could come back changed. Yes, I may have grown stronger in my relationship with God. But what about the people that I went down there to change. Were they changed or are they going to keep on doing what they were doing before?

 

​-“The Bible says that god is calling us to be servants, not to be servant-leaders.”

​When we go down to Mexico, or on any missions trip, we need to make sure that we do not look down on them or try to take control of their situation. Instead, we need to view the situation from their perspective.

 

​-“We as Americans carry an authority with us.”

​First of all, we are not “Americans.” We are people of the United States, and we only think that we are Americans. The people of Mexico are also “Americans.” When we travel on these trips to help the poor or the hungry, they view us as “superior” because we have plenty of food and fancy clothes and little books that let us go to other countries. If they are going to look up to me, I feel that I need to honor that authority and show them how to honor God.

 

​-“Do missions with them, not for them.”

​If we are going to do missions, we need to make it last. For example, if a missionary goes down to a place in need of water, she will want to build them a well. However, if she builds a well with fresh water and then leaves, the people will drink from the well. But what happens if the well breaks? They don’t know how to fix it. So the people go back to drinking from the dirty lake. That well has done NOTHING. This missionary should have built the well with them, showing them what each part does and how to fix it. Then, when the well breaks, the people can fix it and can be drinking pure water. I want to invite the Mexican youth to build and serve with me, instead of me building and serving for them.

 

Thanks again to those who have donated and please keep us in your prayers.

 

God bless,

Gabe Alverson