pray for Antonio

I arrived early at church yesterday, thinking I would be needed to help with the praise band. Turns out that I didn't, so I began wandering around and greeting folks that had arrived. A young man I had never seen before was sitting by himself in the back, so I went over to introduce myself and talk to him. His name was Antonio, and he had just arrived in the city as a soldier of the Mexican army, and was involved in training in a nearby town. I asked if he was a Christian, and he said no, but several of his friends had given him music and sermons from the pastors of our church to listen to, and since he was in the area, he wanted to visit and find out more.

It turns out that Antonio knew next to nothing about the Christian faith, but felt that all his attempts to be a good person and please others were coming to nothing. So I explained to him that we are all like that. We try to reach a place of rightness, to be good, but we can't. And I told him about Jesus, who makes us right in the eyes of God despite our having offended God through ignoring him and thinking that we can do it all ourselves. 

Tears came into his eyes as he explained to me how he has been wanting to make his life better, but he knows he can't. God had obviously been rubbing this sore spot, drawing Antonio to himself. 

The service began, and the Gospel was preached. After church, we sat there in those blue plastic folding chairs at the back of the auditorium and Antonio gave his heart to Jesus.

Please pray for him, because he doesn't have many friends and knows very little about Jesus, but I think the essentials are becoming readily stuck in his heart. Like a newborn baby is completely dependent on its new environment, so this newborn is going to need a lot of help. So please pray for him to know and believe the truth of the Gospel deep down, and that it would bear good fruit.

ready or not...

Classes started again today for Elementary and Junior High, after two days of cultural adjustment and preparation. I read my 4th graders a story from their reader and am trying out a new discipline system with them, to see if I can maintain a little more order. Wednesday is my double trouble day with my 9th graders, so we kicked right off with some good ol' passive tense. 

Church life has been interesting since our arrival at the Parral bus station 5:30 Monday morning. After sleeping an hour or two, we got to school around 10 am (classes hadn't started yet - it was a prep day in the office). Somebody told me how the youth group had started an entertainment fast and a two-prayer-meetings-a-day routine, wanting to re-connect with God. It caught me a little off my guard, but I'm learning to roll with the punches as they come. 

I sometimes find myself struggling with the spirituality of the body I'm a part of down here. It's intense, to say the least. Not legalistic, not even overly charismatic, just very intense. Everything is urgent, it seems - urgent to know God, to recapture a right spirit, to establish justice, to raise money for a project, to worship rightly. And these things are good, but instead of communicating zeal, it often gives off a sense of unpreparedness, a lack of structure and organization (not uncharacteristic for a latin church). But is that just my North American cultural bias talking? Should Christians seek sanctification in a long-term "process" way, or short-term "we need this now" way? Thoughts are appreciated...