Caleb's Venture to Culiacan, Mexico
A Virtual diary...

(Caleb is an individual student who had participated with International World Changers in the summer of 2000, and had the desire to return and assist the local pastor with follow up!)

6/19/01

Hello everyone. I am rather tired as I am typing to you. We drove roughly two hours out into the area, and we had an awesome night of Vacation Bible School. It is quite different here. In a great way. Their VBS goes around and we sang in the little village to advertise, and then the kids and teenagers came. We are doing this for a solid week. Next week we will rest and then we will do the same thing in the local church here. Also I get the opportunity each day to present the salvation message with the Evanicube. It works great and each teenager I work with answers all the questions Manry [the pastor] asks. Also I am teaching them Spanish music with the CD I bought. It is very hot here. Saturday I worked the day at the Church that Fort Caroline Baptist Church and others started. I sent a picture. It is a blessing to see the work that was done. 15 people will come for a week in August and help add to it.

We are teaching them [the teenagers] what right and wrong is according to God. In that we are teaching them the walk of Christ, salvation, etc. They are very interested. It is awesome!

6/20/01

Hello all of you Truth Trackers. :). I am doing great here. I am simply in awe in how the people flock to VBS and how the Lord is giving me words. I mean today I had the privilege of giving the complete message to the teenagers. It was rather difficult but it was a blessing. They understand so much, and have such a great interest in the Word. Their hearts are soil. Very fertile. Tomorrow we are going to teach them about who Jesus is and his walk. That enables them to know who Christ is, and when they make the decision to follow Him they will know him. I am ecstatic!

6/21/01

Hello all. Today is a great day. Man it is a blessing to be able to be miles away and to know that our God is the same here. I wish I had the words to describe the feeling I hold now in my heart to portray to you all the family and the love that we have here for one another. That's right a family. We can go miles away and know who our brother is. For instance last night a person in the middle of nowhere helped us change a popped tire, but also made dinner for every single one of us.

I believe the Lord is residing here in this seemingly poor country. I believe there is great hope for all here to know Christ. God has blessed. Each day we ride two hours out and two hours back, we sit in a van with lawn chairs. I broke two by the way (smile) but it is for a precious two and a half hours to share Christ and to play games, and to sing praises to our Lord. All of this is taught and the people catch on so quickly, the young teenagers answer question that took me years to learn after listening with their hearts for only minutes. It is great. I am in a loss for words, but aren't we all when our sovereign Lord allows us to take part in his great mission. I believe so.

6/23/01

Hello everyone, coming to you live from Culiacan, MX. Everything is going well here. We just completed a week's worth of missions in a far away (2hours) place. Today we had a record high of 23 in a full sized van, only three seats and several lawn chairs. It was quite hot. One little girl had a little too much to eat before the ride back and decided to get rid of some, actually it was very hot today. It was sad to have to say goodbye to all the young people and the adults as well. We are going to follow up in two weeks there. It is just too hard for us to get back and forth. It isn't a Sunday drive. We're talking off-road for at least an hour. Well I was asked to preach in about two weeks. Pray that the Lord would give me guidance and wisdom, and that I would be able to find the words enough to get across the message on my heart, and the message of Jesus our Lord. I have had the pleasure of preparing wonderful photo presentations for the church and we are going to be watching them this Sunday accompanied by music. Well I have just been thinking a lot, the Lord has been dealing with my heart about missions, and he has shown me some possibilities to pray to further my missions here in the future. There is always an open door, and opportunities here to serve. The churches are very serious and adamant about evangelizing. It is wonderful to be among such dedication. Today I drank a gallon of water in one afternoon. It is quite warm. And tomorrow I am going for my second round of parasite medicine. Yeah my stomach hurt from it, but the devil won't stop the Lord's work. Thank you for all of your prayers, and just continue to be blessed. God be with you all. Until next time, this is Caleb signing off from Culiacan, MX.

6/27/01

Good morning/afternoon/ or evening. Yesterday I spent two and a half hours in the morning washing a week's worth of clothing. Here it is the "woman's job" But I figured it would be kinda rude to make her do that much work. So I really enjoyed it. We wash it with a bar of soap and a brickboard. Next time I will taker a picture, sorry I was a bit wet from this time. :) Well this afternoon we had an opportunity to bring clothes that the church here had collected to a place very close to the church we had started last year. Basically me and Manry (the pastor) divided the land into two sides. We told the people that we had clothes and Bibles too and to meet us in like ten minutes at the van. It was seriously like Christmas for them. They grabbed at all the stuff they could get, whether it was tattered or not they launched at it. All Manry had to do was dump the clothes and they divided it themselves. Afterwards the people listened to the message of Christ and why we were there. I had the opportunity to present the salvation message. (in Spanish) with my evangecube. Then Manry spoke a little more and we asked them to bow their heads. We prayed with them the prayer of salvation. Afterwards we invited them to the church and then they left with a Bible in hand. God is great. He has plans. It is satisfying to know that John16:33 says that Christ has overcome the world and that we are here solely as ambassadors for Christ to make know the news of Christ and to reveal the seed already placed for each person. I have never thought about food as much as this month. It is hard. I usually get a chance to eat one meal a day. It is a good meal. The transportation is not just get up and go here so I don't go down the street to McDonalds or Burger King. Actually I really miss my subs from Subway. They feed me good here. It is really good. I just would rather be less of a burden and so I do my best to arrange meals outside of the home so that they can have their much-needed family time. I am seeing God work here through me. Since I have arrived here I have spent much time with the teenagers. We played tennis and basketball Monday. And they are practicing for a huge concert on Saturday at the park here. I am practicing with them to sing on Sunday. It is very hot, and you just have to realize you aren't going to be comfy all the time and that you have to sweat a lot. My clothes get very dirty very quickly. That bothers me because it is hard to wash them, BUT you learn to realize that you are not here for you but you are here for the one that sent you. That is Christ. So I will just bear with it and follow the Lord's direction. I am anxious to know how the Lord is gonna use me in the following week during VBS in the local church here, and also in my sermon. To God be the glory. Well I just noticed I have written enough for one day, God bless. Caleb

7/3/01

Hello everyone. It is Monday night...actually about to be Tuesday morning. Well I thought I would drop a few lines and let you all know how tired...I mean how I am doing. Today was the start of a week of VBS. It turns out that I am teaching 10-11yo. By myself. Today we acted out the life of Jesus and learned the significance of God exalting his son and ways we can exalt Jesus in our lives as Savior. Tomorrow I am teaching on the significance of being pardoned or forgiven. I sleep whenever I get a chance. Tonight Manry and I had dinner at an elder's home. I enjoyed the fellowship. She showed us pictures of past years and her past missionary friends. She talked about living in America and then not using English for forty years and when missionaries started coming to Mexico she used her English as a testimony because not a single person knew she spoke English. Well to make a short story long I sensed by looking at the photos and then looking at her very thinned body now, and noticing a bag on her stomach that she was sick. I was listening to her and I heard her say to Manry how thankful she is to God to have been able to see Manry from a vbs trooper as a child to now a pastor to be able to see his walk in Christ. I almost broke out in tears knowing that this woman would soon be gone, in about 4 months or less Manry suspect she'll be passed away. She has cancer and her body is beginning to shut down. She has so much to offer, she works so hard and faithfully with us on the mission field and I trust that God is going to bless her with a great reward. I had tears writing this. But you know I guess you can be that way when you know God is awesome and is going to truly give her just crown. I am excited for her. Her witness is impacting. I am really experiencing a lot here, being tired is my number battle right now. The heat is very draining. But the joy of the Lord is my strength.