Right now I don't have time for a long post, but I just want everyone who reads my blog and who can't come to the wedding to know that I'm sorry. I wish we could spend this day with all our families and friends but that was never a possibility. I hope that you will think of us and this Saturday and remember that we wish you were here celebrating with us. If you feel forgotten in Denmark then we promise that you will get to celebrate it with us one day when we're back and if you feel like giving a gift then all we hope for is prayer of a rich and a blessed life together.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Countdown
In 4 days I'll be a husband. It's hard to believe and i'm both scared and relieved. Scared of what the future will bring but relieved that it will be with my best friend, soon to be wife, Lupita.
Right now I don't have time for a long post, but I just want everyone who reads my blog and who can't come to the wedding to know that I'm sorry. I wish we could spend this day with all our families and friends but that was never a possibility. I hope that you will think of us and this Saturday and remember that we wish you were here celebrating with us. If you feel forgotten in Denmark then we promise that you will get to celebrate it with us one day when we're back and if you feel like giving a gift then all we hope for is prayer of a rich and a blessed life together.
Right now I don't have time for a long post, but I just want everyone who reads my blog and who can't come to the wedding to know that I'm sorry. I wish we could spend this day with all our families and friends but that was never a possibility. I hope that you will think of us and this Saturday and remember that we wish you were here celebrating with us. If you feel forgotten in Denmark then we promise that you will get to celebrate it with us one day when we're back and if you feel like giving a gift then all we hope for is prayer of a rich and a blessed life together.
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Life changing moments
Every once in a while days come that opens up the course of our lives.. Those days we make decesions that determines which road in life we will be following. As the days go by those decisions have to be kept, so we commit to our decisions by choosing to continuously follow through on them.
The day that I heard about DTS in Mexico was one that changed the course of my life. There I meet the love of my life and i decided to be with her and she with me :)
Now in less than 3 weeks i'll be making a commitment. This commitment is a choice I've been certain of for a long time now. So now, finally, the day is near when i get to make this commitment in front of friends, family, Lupita and God. A commitment that we will walk together through life no matter on which paths those life changing days will be taking us, to enjoy life to the fullest in the good times and in times of suffering to be thankful that we're walking in it together.
Life here in Mexico is good and the day of the wedding is coming near fast. A few days ago i went with Lupita, Paul and Filip to try and choose the food of the wedding. It was a dinner at with the table and flowers set like it will be the day of our wedding, and beforehand we had selected a few different things from each catogory that we wanted to try, and in the end we settled on some really good things. The food won't be traditional, but still with a touch of Mexico. I can reveal that both tamarindo sauce and jamaica sauce is a part of the menu, both ingredients from the Mexican cuisine
International YWAM evangelism day
YWAM has started this day every year where all bases and schools go out on the streets and talk about God. We were joined by some from local churches and in all we were around 40 people. It was a good day with a lot of conversations with people.
Team from Colorado
Our team from Mazatlan of 9 people left but only to be replaced a day after with a team of 10 from Colorado, USA. The team is taking a 10 days trip here to Mexico to do work with us. We have got to show them the city and the last few days we have been doing a lot of different things with them. Saturday we had a guy we know (Diego) show a documentary he made with some others. The documentary is about human trafficking in north and south america and we had Diego give a short talk about the problem after the movie. Afterwards the team went out to give roses with small notes to prostitutes. I've seen the documentary before but in another "cut" and this newest and final version was really good and felt professional even though it was made on a not that big budget. The documentary is called "Volviendo" (returning) and it is a kind of a research documentary for Diego and his team before they start on making a full featured film.
Family is coming
Also now it's only a little while until the rest of my brothers and parents come. I'm really excited and i hope Lupita and I won't be too stressed before the wedding to show them the city. We still have a lot to do before the wedding, but i feel we're getting closer, and I know that it will be an amazing day, and if everything goes wrong, I'll just see it as a bumpy beginning of something truly amazing.
The day that I heard about DTS in Mexico was one that changed the course of my life. There I meet the love of my life and i decided to be with her and she with me :)
| Lupita and I one day doing ministry, my sign says smile, and I think Lupita is better at it than me :) |
Life here in Mexico is good and the day of the wedding is coming near fast. A few days ago i went with Lupita, Paul and Filip to try and choose the food of the wedding. It was a dinner at with the table and flowers set like it will be the day of our wedding, and beforehand we had selected a few different things from each catogory that we wanted to try, and in the end we settled on some really good things. The food won't be traditional, but still with a touch of Mexico. I can reveal that both tamarindo sauce and jamaica sauce is a part of the menu, both ingredients from the Mexican cuisine
| Our international evangelism day. Here we're talking with some guys from a high school. |
YWAM has started this day every year where all bases and schools go out on the streets and talk about God. We were joined by some from local churches and in all we were around 40 people. It was a good day with a lot of conversations with people.
Team from Colorado
Our team from Mazatlan of 9 people left but only to be replaced a day after with a team of 10 from Colorado, USA. The team is taking a 10 days trip here to Mexico to do work with us. We have got to show them the city and the last few days we have been doing a lot of different things with them. Saturday we had a guy we know (Diego) show a documentary he made with some others. The documentary is about human trafficking in north and south america and we had Diego give a short talk about the problem after the movie. Afterwards the team went out to give roses with small notes to prostitutes. I've seen the documentary before but in another "cut" and this newest and final version was really good and felt professional even though it was made on a not that big budget. The documentary is called "Volviendo" (returning) and it is a kind of a research documentary for Diego and his team before they start on making a full featured film.
Family is coming
Also now it's only a little while until the rest of my brothers and parents come. I'm really excited and i hope Lupita and I won't be too stressed before the wedding to show them the city. We still have a lot to do before the wedding, but i feel we're getting closer, and I know that it will be an amazing day, and if everything goes wrong, I'll just see it as a bumpy beginning of something truly amazing.
| Another game of football with homeless in Hidalgo, I had to go a little early to cook dinner, but i heard that my team lost :( |
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
One month :)
Time is moving fast and it's now only 1 month until i'll get married to Lupita. This is very exciting but we have tons of stuff to do but we're sure we will get ready for the big day. We just hope that Lupita will get better from her sickness soon. Aside from the wedding preparations we have enough to do here at the base.
Otherwise our time is going with preparations for the upcoming DTS, and the last 2 weeks we have been spending a little time making some notebooks by hand. This actually didn't take as long as i expected (a family night with 8 people working as a machine helped a lot). The reason for this is that we will have our students write about what they learn every week in these journals, and really want the students to put personality into these journals. Therefore we thought it would be cool if we put time into it by making them ourselves so that the students would be inspired to really use it and not just be another cheap notebook somewhere. The picture has the 10 notebooks we have made and we expect to put some fabric around them so they will look nice, and we hope that the students will use their own creativity to decorate them on the outside and on the inside so that these notebooks can be a place of reflections, thoughts and ideas from the teachings.
My little brother is coming soon :)
Now that Lupita and I are getting married Filip my little brother will be coming here to Mexico a bit in advance. He will be living here on the base with us, and helping with different things. When he arrives the current team will stil be staying here, and when they leave we have another team shortly. So there will be enough to do, and we can hopefully show him a little of the city. Also i'm sure he will get chances to go be a part of some ministries like playing football or other things.
Lupita's little brother is here :)
This last few weeks we have had Paul living with us most days (he sometimes needs to go home). We think it's really good for him to be here instead of wasting his time at home, and he is really helpful when we need an extra hand. I have had him help me and Alejandro cook a lot and i think that is also good for him since he has never really cooked before. In Mexico it's very uncommon that boys ever cook in their home. This was also true for Alejandro, who i had to teach a few basic things in the beginning like not using the same cutting board for vegetables after cutting raw meat.
But it's good to have him here with us, and surprisingly fast he is starting to pick up on a lot of the English we speak (and i get to practice my Spanish). I think this is really good thing for him since English opens doors so he hopefully in the future can avoid the bad/low paid jobs which there are enough of here in Mexico City.
My finances
The last few weeks I've been sending mails around to some people, and i still have a few i haven't send to yet. This is because I've been asking for support to be able to keep working here in YWAM CMC until Febuary 2013 as Lupita and I plan.
Everyone in this organisation (YWAM) are unpaid. This means that everyone has personal supporters. So far i've been able to live on earlier savings and a my really generous and helpful parents, but now is the time for me to find someone who will support my work here.
Therefore I've been looking for 11 people to support me with 200 a month (the next 8 months, which will cover my living expenses) and I've gotten enough to cover around 4 of the 11 i need. I'm super thankful for this support, and i hope and pray that i'll get the last people so i can keep doing my work here the next months.
If you are interested in supporting me, please write me, and also we're still trying to send Paul to "Verano de Fuego" (summer camp) and we're a little over half way, so help for that is still more than welcome especially now that we see him enjoying being here with us we think it's a very important chance we shouldn't let him pass on, a chance for him to do and become different than the millions of other teenagers here in the city.
Otherwise our time is going with preparations for the upcoming DTS, and the last 2 weeks we have been spending a little time making some notebooks by hand. This actually didn't take as long as i expected (a family night with 8 people working as a machine helped a lot). The reason for this is that we will have our students write about what they learn every week in these journals, and really want the students to put personality into these journals. Therefore we thought it would be cool if we put time into it by making them ourselves so that the students would be inspired to really use it and not just be another cheap notebook somewhere. The picture has the 10 notebooks we have made and we expect to put some fabric around them so they will look nice, and we hope that the students will use their own creativity to decorate them on the outside and on the inside so that these notebooks can be a place of reflections, thoughts and ideas from the teachings.
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| The notebooks waiting to be covered with fabric and decorated, one book probarbly takes around 1½ or 2 hours to make when in training |
My little brother is coming soon :)
Now that Lupita and I are getting married Filip my little brother will be coming here to Mexico a bit in advance. He will be living here on the base with us, and helping with different things. When he arrives the current team will stil be staying here, and when they leave we have another team shortly. So there will be enough to do, and we can hopefully show him a little of the city. Also i'm sure he will get chances to go be a part of some ministries like playing football or other things.
Lupita's little brother is here :)
This last few weeks we have had Paul living with us most days (he sometimes needs to go home). We think it's really good for him to be here instead of wasting his time at home, and he is really helpful when we need an extra hand. I have had him help me and Alejandro cook a lot and i think that is also good for him since he has never really cooked before. In Mexico it's very uncommon that boys ever cook in their home. This was also true for Alejandro, who i had to teach a few basic things in the beginning like not using the same cutting board for vegetables after cutting raw meat.
But it's good to have him here with us, and surprisingly fast he is starting to pick up on a lot of the English we speak (and i get to practice my Spanish). I think this is really good thing for him since English opens doors so he hopefully in the future can avoid the bad/low paid jobs which there are enough of here in Mexico City.
My finances
The last few weeks I've been sending mails around to some people, and i still have a few i haven't send to yet. This is because I've been asking for support to be able to keep working here in YWAM CMC until Febuary 2013 as Lupita and I plan.
Everyone in this organisation (YWAM) are unpaid. This means that everyone has personal supporters. So far i've been able to live on earlier savings and a my really generous and helpful parents, but now is the time for me to find someone who will support my work here.
Therefore I've been looking for 11 people to support me with 200 a month (the next 8 months, which will cover my living expenses) and I've gotten enough to cover around 4 of the 11 i need. I'm super thankful for this support, and i hope and pray that i'll get the last people so i can keep doing my work here the next months.
If you are interested in supporting me, please write me, and also we're still trying to send Paul to "Verano de Fuego" (summer camp) and we're a little over half way, so help for that is still more than welcome especially now that we see him enjoying being here with us we think it's a very important chance we shouldn't let him pass on, a chance for him to do and become different than the millions of other teenagers here in the city.
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Curtains finally!
This week we finally got the last of our curtains put up here on the base. They were donated by a friend of the base 2 weeks ago, so now every room have curtains. This might seem like a small thing, but I feel it's an important step to make the base feel more like a home, like our home :)
| Just relaxing in a park in Tlahuac close to where Lupita's family lives. We went there with them to "celebrate" mothers day. |
This morning I was trying to remember what has happened the last few weeks. I feel like time goes fast, and most of the stuff i recollect is our wedding preparations. Lupita and I have started pre-marriage counseling with an American pastor and his Mexican wife, they are an amazing couple, and they don't waste the time with empty talk. They have 10 years of personal experience with what difficulties that are especially prone to cross cultural marriages. The pastor's name is Josh and he has said yes to marry us which we feel really good about.
Other than that we still have our other things here at the base, and during the last few weeks we have as always had lots of things going on.
More life in the base
| Lupita's niece Adrianna with her dad (Lupita's brother) |
A thing that we didn't expect living here in the center of Mexico City is all the people interested in living with us. These are people who most of them has been in YWAM and now work/study in Mexico City, but would love a place to live in the center with a community of other Christians. Right now we have 3, but in a few weeks we will have one more. In the beginning we weren't sure how to deal with this because we're a school and not just a place for people to live, but we enjoy the extra life on the base, and the people who are living with us always loves to be a part of many of the things we do when they are free to. (worship, ministry, family night)
So we see it as a chance to provide a (hopefully good) Christian community for Christians here in Mexico City who has other things to do than being full time in YWAM.
Getting new contacts
Around 2 weeks ago we visited 2 American girls who works with different ministries here in the city. One of them had 6 years here the other 2 years. They gave us lots of contacts to different projects, and they could tell us a lot of stories, especially about homeless kids on the street since that were one of their focuses.
| In the park i also tried jumping with elastics, and wow, it was fun, but also frightening, especially because the elastics felt really old. |
The 2 girls also told us lots of things about working with street kids, and one story i thought was shocking. It was of how some of the street kids they regularly visited actually weren't sad when they found out they had aids. This was because as they said it would protect them against people wanting to steal their organs. I think it's sad that people have to live in so horrible conditions, and i think all of us as their neighbors (in the Christian sense) ought to help them, or as a absolute minimum use the knowledge of their life and suffering as a catalyst for living a life in thankfulness for the blessings each of us receives every single day. It's hard, but i don't believe it's impossible.
| Lupita and I standing at what used to be a lake in the park. After the first big earthquake we had here in Mexico 2 months (Biggest in 7 years) ago all the water disappeared down in the ground. Now there's no way of getting the water back and the 1 - 2 million people who live in this neighborhood will have to live without their lake. To the left of us a lot of boats was stranded that will probably never be used again. |
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Engagement & Wedding in Mexico
| Isn't she beautiful? |
So Friday morning at the monument of the Mexican revolution i asked her to marry me, and she said yes :)
This is really exciting and we have already set the date which will be 30th of June in Mexico. Everyone we know in Denmark is welcome for our wedding, but we understand that it takes planning, money and time. Therefore we will also be having a celebration of our marriage in Denmark, but it will be some time before that.
We know that 2 months isn't a long time, but with our work here in Mexico we wouldn't be able to get married this year if we do it later, and also we see no reason to wait on this when we know we want spend our lives together in good and in bad.
We're both really excited about the wedding and especially for my family (hopefully all 5) who will be coming all the way from Denmark to Mexico for the first time.
So now we're working to plan the wedding, and we have already been doing a lot. We're set on the place which is a beautiful small place (we don't count on being a lot 50 - 60) in the historical center of the city.
With the upcoming wedding Lupita and I know that we will get in some debt, and though we don't like it we think it's acceptable since we're planning on going to Denmark in February 2013 for a longer period. The thing is that after the wedding we will still be paying staff fees, and by then i'll most likely be completely broke.
The organisation YWAM functions that not a single person (of 60.000 worldwide) recieves a paycheck. Their idea of finances is based on openness, and personal contact. So people who work in YWAM all have personal supporters. Lupita also have supporters who help her so that she can pay the 4.000 pesos we pay here as staff fees each month.
The thing is that i don't have any supporters, and I've always known that i would need it if i wanted to stay here in Mexico City for a full year, but until now I've been able to postpone it with the help of working when i was in Denmark and with my wonderful parents who have blessed me a lot.
So now i'm looking for people to support me financially so that I can stay here until our commitment to the base ends in February. Most of this time is already planned because Lupita and I will have some of the key roles in the upcoming discpleship training school in July (in which we already have 5 applicants with more on the way)
We don't plan on living on the base but in a cheap apartment nearby so the staff fee won't be as high, but we've still calculated that we both will need at least 5.000 pesos (2.200 kr) a month for us to pay staff fees, rent, metro card, phone, etc. to get by this year. (Lupita almost have this amount monthly)
Therefore i'm now looking for people who can help me either with a one time donation, or with a monthly donation, so that i can stay here and keep being a part of what God is doing here in the city and continue establishing the foundation for this new christian school here in Mexico City.
If you are interested i supporting me and us in this I would love to be in contact with you and talk or explain more, even just a little will be a blessing.
My email is Lars.borty@gmail.com
| Lupita with her ring i bought together with her best friend Montse one day that she had to go to a meeting. She asked me to not put this picture in my blog, but i can't help it, she is so cute <3 |
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Stress, challenge, relax, fun, happy!
A few days ago i went to the cinema with Lupita (2 for 1 Tuesday, so it was really cheap, only 17 pesitos each). Before the movie started they showed some different commercials. One of the commercials were from Chedraui (Mexican supermarket) with the singing slogan "Chedraui cuesta menos" and i felt at home.
The last few weeks I've been to Chedraui a lot. I'm the one in charge of planning our food, and it has been really good. I've learned to cook manny delicious things, but it's also challenging at times when you have to plan food for 16 - 20 people for a week, which was what we had last week, and it was during our most busy time because of our event.
But I've made it through and from what i heard people liked the food they had. I feel i'm getting into a good rythm of cooking the food, so now i'm just looking for more inspiration of what to cook. It's best if it's something that is easy to scale to make for more than the 8 - 9 we normally are. So if you have any food ideas you can comment below :)
To do
Before i came to the base here in Mexico City i sometimes wondered what we would be doing, or if we would have enough to do as a base. This fear of having nothing to do today is completely gone.
We keep meeting new people and running into opportunities of things to do, we recently started a new thing where Alejandro from the base is going 2 times a week to teach values to former addicts, so we will be taking turns on going with him to this place. I haven't been with him yet, but from what i hear it's a good opportunity because all of them are there by their own free will, so they are really interested in learning.
Also a few days ago we were invited to a company that print magazines. It's owned by a christian that we came in contact with through the conference last week. The company have 140 employ's that mainly consists of single mothers because the owner has a heart to help them. From talking with the owner we understood that they are going through a hard time economically, with them, as he explained, just being caught in unfortunate circumstances. The business seemed really well driven, but they are now fighting to survive. We didn't really know how we could help them, but we have offered to come to them some times and talk with their employs about values, and we pay that we can in some way have a good influence in things so that the owner can continue with this ministry of helping single mothers through his business.
Lupita's little brother
As i wrote about last week we're still trying to get money so we can send Paul to a christian summer school/camp.. I've put a little counter in the side and i hope that you will consider giving a bit for this good cause. Right now we have arranged that he can stay with us at the base for a few weeks (just the week days) so that he won't have to stay home in the little apartment all day. We are thinking it will be good for him to have a more scheduled day, so that he doesn't sleep to 12 every day. We really hope that we can get him to take his preparation for exam in august more serious so that he will be able to get into high school.
Event - Mas Alla de Tí
Last week we had our event. It was a really good experience and things went well. For the future we were thinking we would like more people there, but i'm still impressed that we had 100+ young Mexicans Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 10 in the morning to 18 in the evening. Lupita and I held a seminar about worldview and it went well, the first day our seminar were filmed by some guys from a Mexican christian TV station, and later i was interviewed too as one of the pictures show.
In the event we had a Mexican politician come, her name was Rosi Orozco. She is a christian and she has a big focus in stopping trafficking of women that is a HUGE industry here in Mexico. The day of her speaking she brought 2 girls (both around 16 - 17 normal looking girls) both who had been trafficked. The one had been kidnapped and the other one had been manipulated by an older guy, and then they both had been sold for sex here in Mexico.There had to be a lot of security around them (no guys they didn't know well close to them) and no photos. This was to secure that the people who they had been rescued from wouldn't find them again. Both their testimonies were shocking and horrible, and no eye was dry after hearing their stories.
I think the thing that moved me most was when one of the girls told about her first day in Merced (maket)(a place i've been several times, and seen the girls by the side of the road) and told about how she was sold for sex form 8 AM in the morning to 10 PM in the night, and sharing how it was the most horrible she had ever experienced in her life.
Now both girls met Christ and it had changed their lives so now they were sharing their stories to help other girls who are still in slavery, and help change the mentality of "prostitution" in Mexico.
Seeing these girls has really made me think about how we sometimes just close our eyes to suffering in the world. How it's easier to distance us to things when they are not happening in our own countries.
The hardest thing of this is that these girls they don't need our empathy, that won't comfort them in their hell.
Our tears, if they are not followed up by action, only becomes testimonies of our western culture's self centered search for emotional stimulation. It's like in television shows where we turn other peoples suffering into entertaining emotional roller-coaster rides. It's about me feeling empathy for the suffering people, not about the suffering people, and don't get me wrong, i'm not trying to blame everyone else, it's a big part of me too. It's a fight of putting yourself in the background and others in front. It's a fight of doing what we as Christians are called to, to die to ourselves. These girls need people to take action, and we as Christians are called to do just that, and then it doesn't matter in whatever form that action looks, as long as it brings us further than just tears.
Those were my serious thoughts for this week, now i almost feel as a hypocrite for the following pictures, but life always goes on, our challenge is not to forget!
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| Lupita and I in front of the monument of the Mexican revolution. They have a fountain with lights there in the night |
The last few weeks I've been to Chedraui a lot. I'm the one in charge of planning our food, and it has been really good. I've learned to cook manny delicious things, but it's also challenging at times when you have to plan food for 16 - 20 people for a week, which was what we had last week, and it was during our most busy time because of our event.
But I've made it through and from what i heard people liked the food they had. I feel i'm getting into a good rythm of cooking the food, so now i'm just looking for more inspiration of what to cook. It's best if it's something that is easy to scale to make for more than the 8 - 9 we normally are. So if you have any food ideas you can comment below :)
To do
Before i came to the base here in Mexico City i sometimes wondered what we would be doing, or if we would have enough to do as a base. This fear of having nothing to do today is completely gone.
We keep meeting new people and running into opportunities of things to do, we recently started a new thing where Alejandro from the base is going 2 times a week to teach values to former addicts, so we will be taking turns on going with him to this place. I haven't been with him yet, but from what i hear it's a good opportunity because all of them are there by their own free will, so they are really interested in learning.
Also a few days ago we were invited to a company that print magazines. It's owned by a christian that we came in contact with through the conference last week. The company have 140 employ's that mainly consists of single mothers because the owner has a heart to help them. From talking with the owner we understood that they are going through a hard time economically, with them, as he explained, just being caught in unfortunate circumstances. The business seemed really well driven, but they are now fighting to survive. We didn't really know how we could help them, but we have offered to come to them some times and talk with their employs about values, and we pay that we can in some way have a good influence in things so that the owner can continue with this ministry of helping single mothers through his business.
Lupita's little brother
| Someone praying for a little boy during our event. I spend a lot of time in another room from where i could control the powerpoint. |
Event - Mas Alla de Tí
Last week we had our event. It was a really good experience and things went well. For the future we were thinking we would like more people there, but i'm still impressed that we had 100+ young Mexicans Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 10 in the morning to 18 in the evening. Lupita and I held a seminar about worldview and it went well, the first day our seminar were filmed by some guys from a Mexican christian TV station, and later i was interviewed too as one of the pictures show.
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| Here the interview with a nice guy called Alfredo, he has his own show on the TV channel. |
I think the thing that moved me most was when one of the girls told about her first day in Merced (maket)(a place i've been several times, and seen the girls by the side of the road) and told about how she was sold for sex form 8 AM in the morning to 10 PM in the night, and sharing how it was the most horrible she had ever experienced in her life.
Now both girls met Christ and it had changed their lives so now they were sharing their stories to help other girls who are still in slavery, and help change the mentality of "prostitution" in Mexico.
Seeing these girls has really made me think about how we sometimes just close our eyes to suffering in the world. How it's easier to distance us to things when they are not happening in our own countries.
The hardest thing of this is that these girls they don't need our empathy, that won't comfort them in their hell.
Our tears, if they are not followed up by action, only becomes testimonies of our western culture's self centered search for emotional stimulation. It's like in television shows where we turn other peoples suffering into entertaining emotional roller-coaster rides. It's about me feeling empathy for the suffering people, not about the suffering people, and don't get me wrong, i'm not trying to blame everyone else, it's a big part of me too. It's a fight of putting yourself in the background and others in front. It's a fight of doing what we as Christians are called to, to die to ourselves. These girls need people to take action, and we as Christians are called to do just that, and then it doesn't matter in whatever form that action looks, as long as it brings us further than just tears.
Those were my serious thoughts for this week, now i almost feel as a hypocrite for the following pictures, but life always goes on, our challenge is not to forget!
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Where your heart is!
In Danish we say: "Ude godt, men hjemme bedst" (being away is good but home is best)
Elvis Presley sang: "Home is where the heart is"
Elvis Presley sang: "Home is where the heart is"
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| Here i'm playing football with Alejandro and some kids from the street, our friend Daniel who wasn't that much into football was sitting and talking with some other street kids. |
I know my heart is right here in Mexico with an amazing Mexican girl, so I know i'm home, although i still miss my other home (Denmark) a bit :) but i'm thankful that i get to stay here in her country and learn more of her culture and language, with amazing people and t-shirt/shorts weather almost every day :)
I have a plane ticket back to Denmark the 17th of April (booked it for return after 3 months because it was a really cheap offer), and I've been thinking if i should take it for a short visit home, but I've decided to not do it. One thing is that i don't want to leave Lupita again, we have had enough time apart. The second is that it is too expensive for me at the moment, and then there is more than enough for me to do here in the new YWAM school. So I've decided to let the plane leave without me.
This means that it will probably be some time before i return to Denmark, (that is if i get my FM3 visa that i need after 6 months here). But it's ok, especially because my parents are trying to plan a visit US here in Mexico.
So all in all I'm still doing great here in Mexico and i really enjoy it. The only thing is that Lupita has been fighting some sickness. We think that maybe it gastritis (as some doctors have said, and something that isn't that uncommon in Mexico) and we hope it's nothing more serious, but it's hard when every doctor gives us a new explanation of what is wrong, and prescribes medicine like it was candy. But we would really appreciate your prayers for her so that she can get better because she has been fighting this for a long time, and it's taking a lot of her energy, especially with our big event coming up (12th - 14th of april) where she is planning a lot.
So aside from that some other things has been happening since my last post, here are a few of them. oh, and we had an earthquake yesterday, the strongest since the really strong one 2 weeks ago.
Weekend with church
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| Here i'm giving my message with Alejandro translating, it's still too hard for me to do teaching in Spanish, but i'm sure it will come one day :) |
Not this weekend, but the one before that we went to a weekend camp by a church we have some connections with. They had invited us to come and spend some time with the youth, and also give some teachings. Lupita was supposed to give a teaching, but when she stayed home because she was sick i had to take over the teaching. I talked about how we as humans are in a battle between the flesh and the spirit as Paul writes, and what we do with that battle.
A lot of Mexicans have this western lifestyle as their dream, so i also addressed that dream which a lot of times lead to the lie that money creates happiness or a better country. In the end what really creates a better country are the things like respect for human life, respect for the law, and love between people. I talked about how that they shouldn't strive to be like the west, they should strive after those things, and they don't automatically come with money.
Pastors breakfast
| Lupita talking about YWAM and thier schools at the pastors breakfast. |
Last Saturday we had a breakfast at a Christian cafe for pastors. This breakfast was to tell them about us as YWAM here in the city and also a chance to spread the word of our conference in the middle of April. We had invited 50 pastors, and around 25 showed up. It was a good morning where we told a little about who we are and encouraged them to work together with each other. We also made clear that we aren't trying to steal their youth and that we're just here to support them in their work as churches.
Lupita's little brother
Lupita's little brother
As i wrote shortly in my last post we're trying to send Lupita's little brother (15 years) to Mazatlan this summer for a "Verano de Fuego" (a 1 month mini DTS). The thing is that he moved with his mom and dad to Mexico City to live with his older brother and his family a few months ago. This meant that he hasn't been to school since because he failed one of his exams to continue to high school, and the next chance he gets is in August. So for the past few months he has been staying at home away from all his friends 12 hours away in Chiapas.
This has been really hard for him, and we're also a bit worried about him because he is the type who makes new friends really easy, and he is in a age where he is really influenced from the people around him (he had some not so good types of friends in Chiapas) so we really want him to find good friends, and not people who are an bad influence on him. He says he believe in God, but it isn't very personal and with the age he is in everything is new and tempting..
| We went visitng some friends from another organisation who did an event called "Invasion" in Mexico City. An event we worked together with them when they did it in Maz |
So we were thinking that it would be great if he could spend a month in Mazatlan and get some good influence. The mini DTS costs 4000 pesos (2000 DKK) and the transportation back and forth to Mazatlan is a little less than 2000 (1000 DKK).
So in all this is 3000 DKK. With moving and everything this is too much for his family, and for me and Lupita it's also a lot, so i hope that someone wants to help him getting to Mazatlan. We see it as a really good investment for his future in this time where he has to choose what path he wants to follow in life..
So please, if you want to help Paul getting to Mazatlan write me, and i can send you my danish bank info or paypal info. Even if it's just 50 DKK, everything counts :) You can reach me at lars.borty@gmail.com
| Lupita's creatively decorated wall by her bed with photos we printed :) |
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Life Goes On
I've now been in Mexico for more than 2 months and i still love the land of the tortilla, even though I've now for the second time experienced an earthquake here.
The Earthquake
Today at 12: something we had an earthquake here in Mexico City. It was pretty strong compared to the ones they normally have. News reports says that the epicenter was in Gurrero which is a few hours driving from here. It was measured at somewhere between 7.6 and 7.9 which is pretty strong. Here we clearly felt it. I was trying out the stability of shelves for food that some from our team bough this morning when my leader said something about an earthquake. First i thought he was talking about the shelves that they could withstand it, but i quickly felt that the whole apartment was moving. so everyone ran down to the street where people quickly gathered out of fear that the buildings would collapse. It lasted for a few minutes and afterwards people started going back in their buildings.
Afterwards we talked with our landlady who told us that our building survived the horrible earthquake in 1985 that destroyed many buildings, so i think that made me feel a little bit safer.
Later we were doing ministry in the city talking with people. When walking around I saw a few places where some cement/bricks had dropped down from the buildings, and one of my friend said he had seen a store being closed with large cracks in the walls, but otherwise life goes on. Although throughout the day we have been hearing more than normal sirens of police cars and fire trucks.
Cooking like never before
The last week we've been assigning different roles to everyone, and i got the responsibility of cooking. I really love it, but it's also a big challenge at times, especially because here in Mexico you normally eat warm food 3 times a day (I stand corrected by Lupita, only 2 because dinner is usually just sweetbread and coffee), but here we decided to have warm breakfast 3 times a week. Luckily I don't have to cook every meal, but i plan all the meals and shop for them, and then i'm also prepararing/cleaning dinner with Alejandro my Mexican friend. I especially like cooking when we have guests (which happends quite often) then i like to make a bigger effort to make it perfect.
So far i think that we've been eating good, tonight we had Swedish sausage dish which people seemed to like a lot, although they had all sorts of suggestions of what to put in to make it perfect, like cheese, fries, small pieces of pizza :)
English practice in University
Last week on Friday we went to a university. We had been invited by some Christian students in an university who wanted to do an event where some people who spoke English could come so the students could practice their English, and that we could have a chance to talk about good values and also what we believe in.
The event was like 2 - 3 hours and we both had some things all together and some in smaller groups where we talked with the students in English. We weren't the only foreign Christians they had invited, they also invited a group from another christian school here in Mexico with people both from Mexico and USA.
It was a good day with a lot of students coming to the event (maybe 100 - 150 people) and we got to meet other Christians who lives in this city.
Reminders of Denmark
Even though i'm thousands of kilometres from Denmark, i still often get glimpses of home. For example i have 2 friends i know from Mazatlan who currently lives here in Mexico City. They have startet a business with solar power. They are working in getting the contracts and outsourcing the work to the right people. Last time i met them they told me that they had been in contact with a company from Aalborg (my rather small city in Denmark) that produced things for solar power installments. Of course i offered my service if they needed any translation but they haven't needed it yet :)
Also I've met several people who as the first thing when i present myself as from Denmark thinks of Kashmir. Apparently Kashmir (danish rock band) is really popular here in Mexico and a lot of people know and like them. It is crazy how small the world is sometimes.
The Earthquake
| A small concert with a christian band. Our friend Daniel is the newest member of this band "Antes Ciego" and this is his first concert with them. |
Afterwards we talked with our landlady who told us that our building survived the horrible earthquake in 1985 that destroyed many buildings, so i think that made me feel a little bit safer.
Later we were doing ministry in the city talking with people. When walking around I saw a few places where some cement/bricks had dropped down from the buildings, and one of my friend said he had seen a store being closed with large cracks in the walls, but otherwise life goes on. Although throughout the day we have been hearing more than normal sirens of police cars and fire trucks.
Cooking like never before
| Lupita with her little brother Paul. We're trying to raise money (5000 pesos) so that he can go to do a "Verano de Fuego" (1 month mini DTS) this summer. |
So far i think that we've been eating good, tonight we had Swedish sausage dish which people seemed to like a lot, although they had all sorts of suggestions of what to put in to make it perfect, like cheese, fries, small pieces of pizza :)
English practice in University
Last week on Friday we went to a university. We had been invited by some Christian students in an university who wanted to do an event where some people who spoke English could come so the students could practice their English, and that we could have a chance to talk about good values and also what we believe in.
The event was like 2 - 3 hours and we both had some things all together and some in smaller groups where we talked with the students in English. We weren't the only foreign Christians they had invited, they also invited a group from another christian school here in Mexico with people both from Mexico and USA.
It was a good day with a lot of students coming to the event (maybe 100 - 150 people) and we got to meet other Christians who lives in this city.
Reminders of Denmark
Even though i'm thousands of kilometres from Denmark, i still often get glimpses of home. For example i have 2 friends i know from Mazatlan who currently lives here in Mexico City. They have startet a business with solar power. They are working in getting the contracts and outsourcing the work to the right people. Last time i met them they told me that they had been in contact with a company from Aalborg (my rather small city in Denmark) that produced things for solar power installments. Of course i offered my service if they needed any translation but they haven't needed it yet :)
Also I've met several people who as the first thing when i present myself as from Denmark thinks of Kashmir. Apparently Kashmir (danish rock band) is really popular here in Mexico and a lot of people know and like them. It is crazy how small the world is sometimes.
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