Mexican summer in the spring of our lives

It's summer in Mexico, but i don't really feel the difference. Here the weather is just at nice as it was 6 months ago. I think that living here has changed me somehow. I find it difficult to truly appreciate the sun in the same way as i used to. We have sunshine almost every day, so the thankfulness of clear skies slowly faded away. It's easy in denmark when you come from the cold dark winter, but here it's just summer everyday.

Walking in the center of the city after
taking photos at the national palace

I don't buy into the idea that there is no happiness without suffering, but i believe there is still some truth hidden in the idea. A fulfilled life doesn't come without sacrifices. Growth does not come from times of peace and contempt but from times of challenge and suffering. By this I don't mean suffering as that what happens out of our control, you often can turn that to growth though, but what i mean is the growth that comes from intentionally steering towards suffering by giving up our own desires. This isn't a popular message today since we have spend hundreds of years developing our soceity to avoid suffering but we made the mistake of not seperating what is nessicary and what is unnesseacary suffering.

We as Christians have a huge challenge. The world is getting better and better at fulfilling our short term desires, but worse and worse at giving us a fulfilled life. We need to change this stating with us. We need to be lights for others, not that everyone can se how good and holy we are, but that they can see that it makes sense, the bible makes sense.This means going against our culture of giving in to our desires, and it will be hard, really hard, but more than worth it.

So we have to embrace suffering, not because suffering is something good, it's horrible, but we have to embrace it because it leads to a richer life. The more we give the richer we get, and if we remember to start with thinking that everything is already given, it helps..

In the national palace looking at my
amazing bride

Well, a bit about suffering, but don't worry, my life is better and harder than ever, and I love it. I'm in a painful and exciting process of growing up and not just carry the responsibility of my life, but also Lupita's life. We're making big decesions about the future, and it's scary, but i've been told that if making big decesions about the future isn't scary, you're doing it wrong.

But God is good, and here is a bit about what has been going on here in mexico..


Team from the states
One of the things that has been big lately was a team we had from the states. It was in coroporation with "Vereda" the church of Josh (the pastor who married us). The team was 30 people with 8 - 12 of them staying with us for 9 days. We had 12 the last few days because they wanted to sit in on our DTS classes. which was a good week since we had a speaker called Troy Sherman who is an amazing guy.

With the team we did different things, althoug Lupita and I stayed home a lot to do different small errands, like shopping for 100 sandwiches that we ate along with street kids. It only took 30min to assemble them all, but we also had the help of 40 people working like an assembly line, it was fun and chaotic. A fun thing was that on the team they had ex-Amish people who spoke Pennsylvanian Dutch which is very similar to German, so i could communicate a bit with them on their native language, even though they spoke English fine.

Right now we're having another team from a YWAM school in Chile, they are only staying for a few days, but it's always interesting to meet new people.


Troy Sherman
Has been our speaker this last week on the subject of relationships. The time Lupita and i have had to sit in on the classes has been amazing. He is an inspiring teacher and i could use pages to describe why. He has an amazing testemony and an the things he says in his teachings are so radical and attacking on our ways of being "sleeping" Christians that most people would cry hypocrite if it wasn't because you're not a second in doubt that he practice what he preach.

Lupita's vow, written the night before

Lupita and I took him out for a cup of coffee Thursday afternoon and had a really good talk with him about the challenges of being married, and he wasn't late in giving us tips and advise on life. He lives in the states and travels all over the world teaching although he never leaves his family for more than a week at a time.

We heard that he and his family (2 kids) is having a hard time financially since they both live only on people's support, and since recently loosing some long time supporters they were looking for new. So if anyone feel's interested in helping I know that the money will be doing a real difference.

He and his family is really active in fighting against human trafficking as you can see from their website, where you will also find his paypal if you are interested in supporting him and his family in their ministry.

Troyandalisa.org


Our wedding
We finally got the photos from the wedding on 2 DVD's from the states. It was 915 photos after the photographer, our friend Angela had sorted the bad ones out. We have uploaded our favorite to Lupita's Facebook in 3 different folders if you are interested, here are some that I liked..

Lupita at the hairdresser close to the base getting ready early in the morning the day of the wedding. It's a nice place and I've cut my hair there before, and it's only around 40 dkk, her's was a bit more expensive :)

Me getting ready in my parrents hotel room. Nikolaj helped me with tying the tie since he knew a more advanced tie tie, and if there's one day my tie deserves an advanced tie tie, it was this day.

Here I still haven't seen Lupita yet, Montse found this horrible cat blindfold for me and my brothers were mocking my lack of vision, my brothers are evil...

We got into the National Palace, a famous place in Mexico City that has been home to presidents and dates all the way back to the 15th century when the Spaniards defeated the Aztec and build the place on and with the stones from the ruins of Montezuma's home (last ruler of the Aztecs)

Me and my brothers, how proud our mom must be :) The guards after begging them to let us in the National Palace told us we only had 15 minutes, we probably spend a good hour in there, I guess the guards couldn't bear to spoil the fun and ask us to leave.

The first hug for my parents after starting my own family. It's hard to imagine that i most likely one day will be doing the same with my son

First kiss, never gets borring :)

and another kiss on our way to the evening reception. The flower in Lupita's hair was put together by her bridesmaids. The total cost of Lupita's bouquet and 4 for the bridesmaids along with button hole flowers for me and my brothers was around 150 kr

It started raining during the ceremony, thank God that we took photoes in the morning sunshine, and even though the rain changed plans a bit t was fun going to a cafe for a cop of coffee with the bridesmaids and my brothers.

My speech! The reception place was amazing, the 3 story atrium was amazing when the light of the sun through the ceiling windows lowered you could see the 200 candles we had all around on the walls, and on the railing of the little fountain.

After an amazing night salsa music was put on and every single of our guests got our dancing, even Lupita's 2 year old niece. We hadn't planned on any dancing, but we went with it and it was fun :)

As a last thing we had the cake that my mom had baked for us here in Mexico, and as tradition Lupita and I took the first bites. Bonus info, the building called "Casa de Don Manuel"  is 400 years old and Don Manuel was rumored to be a cruel murderer, which we found out after signing the contract...

They forgot the rice, but who needs that when you have rose leaves and ice cubes. I even had a bouquet (not lupita's who was caught by a girl who got engaged 2 weeks ago) stuffed in my pants, not that it was that big of a deal since they already cut my socks and underwear as danish tradition goes.