Mucho tiempo en avion, pero llego en mi casa

Hey everyone!

I'm home safe and sound after a long time travelling! I started out on Friday morning in Mexico City, then flew to Houston, then to Los Angeles and spent ages about 8 hours in the airport there, then finally the 15 hour flight home. I managed to sleep for about 6-7 hours on the flight back to Australia which was a blessing.

I've been doing pretty well all day, but I've hit a brick wall and I think it's time for snooze!

So yes, I'm back in Australia - it's a very different experience being back than being in Mexico. I'm still speaking and thinking in Spanish back here a bit because I've become so used to making a big effort to do it over in Mexico. It was funny because when I was tired in Mexico, I found it difficult to speak Spanish. When I left Mexico and was tired, I would start speaking Spanish!!

I have met so many amazing people during this trip both in Queretaro and during my travels. I met some cool people in the airport at LAX while I was waiting for the plane - a guy from Mexico City that lives in Sydney, another surfer from Geelong, an American guy who imports custom wheels, a christian American girl heading over to Europe for a week, a stack of people heading off to go on a cruise... so many cool experiences!

So now I'm trying to settle back in to life in Australia for the moment and seek God's plan for the next part of my life. It has been good to reflect on my experience serving God in Mexico. It has truly been a life-changing experience that has changed my priorities and taught me that I can trust God fully, with everything.

I'm so thankful for all my friends in Mexico and I hope and pray that I can see you guys again soon!

I think I'll keep on updating this blog for a bit whilst I kinda integrate back into Australia and keep in touch with my friends in Mexico so keep checking back!

Phil

¡Adios a Mèxico!

I'm in the airport in Mexico City just about to leave the country - so sad! I am gonna really miss all my friends here and everything about this place! I have had an amazing experience and learnt lots about God and his amazing power!

This week has been a fun week of seeing new places and meeting people. It's so interesting the people you encounter when you're travelling from all over the world!

My time is just about to run out, so I'll write more when I'm in the US or when I get back to Aussie!

Thanks to all for your emails and prayers - I will get around to writing back soon!

Love to all!

¡Nos vemos!

Phil

¡Estoy una surfista!

Hola todo!

I'm in Puerto Escondido and loving it! I surfed for about 6 hours today! I haven't taken on Zicatela (Mexican Pipeline) yet, but I surfed today at La Punta. Now I am a little bit sunburnt, but all good! I've got a 6´11" pintail surfboard (for those that care) and it goes quite well. You need a bit more of a gunnier board for here.

Met new friends here from Netherlands, US and Brazil. Lots of fun.

I have a cool cabaña by the beach which is very comfortable and very cheap. The lifestyle here is really chilled and I like it a lot! Very much a surfer village!

I haven't got any emails from work so I am still coming home this weekend! hehehe All my flight hassles seem to be sorted out - my Continental flight has been fixed.

Thanks for all your prayers and please continue to pray for my safety and walk with God this week.

Phil

P.S. I miss you guys in QRO!!! I wish you were here to enjoy the beach!

En Aeropuerto Mexico

¡Buenas dìas!

I'm back at the same internet cafe that I was at 5 weeks ago, waiting for my flight. hehe this airport feels very familiar now after spending time rushing around it on the way over!

I just caught the bus here from Queretaro, it was sad to leave. I will miss my family, my friends, the team and the church in Queretaro but I trust that I will have the opportunity to return in the future.

Man, buses here are fantastic for intercity travel! The bus from Queretaro with Primera Plus only cost 220 pesos, so about $30, and it is really comfortable. You get given a little snack pack with a drink and sandwiches and galletas (biscuits). You have a nice little leg rest and they show pirated movies on the LCD screens jeje. I actually understood a lot of this movie which was cool.

I'm looking forward to seeing the beach here in Mexico - I've forgotten what sand and waves look like! Hmmm, I should check the surf report for Escondido while I'm on here.

Well, hope everyone is well. Look forward to seeing you, but still don't want to come home!

If anyone from work reads this and wants to give me another couple of weeks off so I can stay here a bit longer - please email me!!! hahaha Seriously! hehehe

¡Saludos!

It's time to pick up everything and put it away...

¡Hola chicos!

I hope everyone is well! Sorry that I haven't had the chance to update much lately, but this is a bit of a sad one because tonight is my last night in Queretaro! I have had the most wonderful, exciting, engaging time here and have experienced God in new and fantastic ways! Jesus Christ is Lord!

I am sad to leave all my friends here and it has been difficult to say goodbye, but for now it is necessary. I have made so many great friends here it is amazing. I will miss all of you lots and I feel so blessed to have spent this time getting to know you!

I head off tomorrow for Puerto Escondido to hopefully catch some waves. I am planning on staying in a cabaña by the beach for 120 pesos a night - bargain!

There is so much more that I could write about - swimming this week, farewells, much much more, but I must go. We are just about to go for dinner...

Nos vamos!

The team at debrief in San Miguel
Mi amigos
Mi amigos
Mi amigos (and PC)

¡Una buena semana!

¡Hola!

I haven't had much access to computadoras this week so I don't have the ability to put up photos right now... anyway, I'll let you know a bit of what I've been up to...

Tuesday was 21 de Marzo here which is a celebration for Benito Juarez's birthday, so it was a public holiday and no classes. (you know what's funny!? I'm thinking in Spanish which makes it hard to write in English - good thing!) I went to Balnerio el Colarado which is a swimming pool near Queretaro with my friends from the cafe. It was super! We hung out at played ball and ate food which was ace. It's so cool that I've got friends here now - if you're reading... you guys rock!
After that I caught up with another friend and we had coffee and I saw a bit more of Queretaro. Man, this place is so interesting! There's much more variety than I ever expected - from rich to poor, beautiful to ugly, cultural to normal it's all here.

Yesterday I had class, then went to the cafe for our Universitarios lunch and hung out with the young people for a bit, then I went to a movie with some of the guys. We saw "Un Mundo Marvelloso" in Spanish which was cool. I understood most of it!

Anyways, I gotta go. My time here is coming to an end and I wish it was longer. I am going on a day trip with Justin and Lluvia on Saturday to debrief, then I leave on Sunday morning for Mexico then Puerto Escondido.

Please continue to pray for me, for safety, for my farewells and that God will continue to teach and guide me.

Adios para ahora!

Phil

Ultimo Domingo en mì iglesia

Today was my last Sunday at Horizonte, unfortunately next Sunday I won't be able to attend because I will be travelling back to Mexico City for the next part of my trip. The service this morning was fantastic - I was able to get into the songs even when they didn't have the words up on the overhead. It is so amazing to praise God in another language, I found it really exciting. It was particularly cool when we sang songs I know in Spanish such as Open The Eyes Of My Heart and Over The Mountains And The Sea! I am so encouraged by the enthusiasm and passion of the church community at Horizonte and have been blessed as they have welcomed me and I have been a part of their church.
Yesterday there was a "working bee" at the church and it was really cool to have a stack of us painting a wall together. Even that was a really cool time of fellowship as we painted alongside each other.

This is Horizonte. The actual room is really big but I was down the front!

Yesterday I also had a great afternoon going around el centro with a friend and seeing some more of the tourist sights. There is so much culture here and so many amazing stories behind all the buildings. The streets are magnificent and there are lots of little markets and little things that make this such a cool place. For example, there was a tango exhibition and a band playing for free as a cultural activity in one of the plazas and all around there are people selling colourful baloons and handicrafts. It´s wonderful and I absolutely love it! Tonight we again visited el centro and there was an a brass ensemble playing in the main bandstand and people dancing all around. It was amazing! So so much fantastic culture, sights and sounds to experience, I can't even begin to explain it!

This is not Horizonte! jeje it's another of the beautiful churches here

This is my last week working at the cafè so I must continue to keep my focus on Jesus and serve enthusiastically. I don't want to leave at the end of the week, but time is limited. I'm sure God has his plans in mind for the future, so I'll leave that up to him for the moment. Please keep praying for the cafe, my Spanish classes and for the relationships I have established. Pray that through my time here and everything that I do, God may be glorified and his name lifted up.

Adios for now.

Phil

¡Hoy es Viernes 17 de Marzo!

¡Hola amigos!

I'm still having a most awesome time here in Queretaro! I'm starting to get a bit sad because I only have one more week here in Queretaro! I love it here and I wish I could stay longer! I had a dream the other night that I was talking to the main partner at work and he was like "Phil, you should stay longer, don't worry about coming back to work for a couple of weeks, stay in Mexico!" Unfortunately in the morning, I woke up!

I have just completed my first full week of Spanish classes and I am much more confident speaking Spanish now! I had a really good conversation with a couple of guys from the uni / prep school this afternoon - Bruno and ?... I was able to understand much more and be understood which was super exciting! Right now I working in the cafè alone (which is also new - usually I have someone else who speaks Spanish!) and a few of the regular guys are in. Mario is in the cafe at the moment. He's a champion. He's one of the local Christian guys who comes in regularly and brings in lots of friends. He goes to a different church but he's really enthusiastic and cool.

I saw the coolest, most random thing today on my way to the cafè. When cars were stopped at the traffic lights, two guys dressed as clowns, got up in front of the cars and started performing. One guy was on the shoulders of the other and the guy on top was juggling!! Then they walked past the cars and asked for donations. I think that's definitely one big step up from our window washers at the lights!

Hmmm, what else has been happening. I had such a cool day on Wednesday! I went with a few of the young people up to the Technical School (escula Technològica) and taught them to play Aussie Rules (well as least to kick the footy). We met Osvaldo and this other guy called Alvaro (never met him before!) there and they joined us. It was sooooo much fun! They picked it up really quickly so I think I might be drafting a few of them before long! Alvaro particularly was really good - he loved it! I've had fun telling people about Aussie Rules - it's very different to any other football!

I've made some really good friends here who I will be sad to leave! It's so cool to have friends around the world now! God has really blessed me with the cool people I have met here in the cafè and I will miss them heaps when I have to go! Will definitely make the most of the time I still have here!!

I'm planning to travel in my last week to Puerto Escondido and Mexico City before I return to Australia. Really, really wish that I had more time here!!

Love to all back home - miss you, but wish you were here to experience the rich culture and life in Mexico!

Phil

Escuela de idiomar (Language School)

Today was my first day of group classes at Ole language school. It was really, really good! I had three classes and two of them were one-on-one which is handy. The other class I have a German guy studying with me which is also cool. I am learning lots and my Spanish is improving rapidly! I now have classes Monday to Friday for 3 hours a day. Please pray that these classes will be effective and also that I will not be too busy with all my activities.

I want to share just a few thoughts and encouragements from the bible - I have been studying Nehemiah along with the Scripture Union Encounter With God aid and I was blown away reading Nehemiah 8-9 so I wanted to share it with you.

So check out Nehemiah 8-9 and follow along!

First of all, the people had just finished rebuilding the walls of the city - a major project. They had just settled in their towns. They then came to the city gate and told Ezra the priest to bring out the Law of Moses. The people went to their leaders and asked for God´s word to be read to them! How often do we have this sort of commitment and thirst for God´s word? How often do we actively seek its blessing and direction, instruction and correction?

Next, the whole assembly of men, women and anyone who could understand listened from daybreak till noon and they all listened attentively! They listened attentively all morning! How often I find myself distracted or my mind wandering during a 30 minute sermon or when I´m reading God´s word. Once again, they had a thirst for God´s word that is a testimony to us.

As Ezra opened the book, all the people stood up. I can picture the 50,000 odd people all standing up at once. Then when Ezra praised God, everyone lifted their hands up and responded "Amen! Amen!" Imagine that for a worship service!! It´s more like the whole of the AFL Grand Final praising God - how awesome would that be!?!

Then the Levites, the spiritual workers appointed by God, who studied the word and worked in the temple, read from the word and explained it to the people. They made it clear so the people could understand. What a blessing it is to have godly spiritual leaders to make God´s word clear to us. We should recognise these people, pray for them and support them.

Then everyone celebrated!!! They had a party to mark this holy time of reading God´s word. They didn´t mourn, they were happy because they had received God´s instruction and understood it. They had this amazing joy - how good is that!! I was reading the other day that "the joy of the Lord will be your strength." It certainly was for these people.

The next day they gathered again around Ezra - the family leaders, priest and Levites - to read God´s word. The next bit is super-cool! They found out something new from reading God´s word and they were like "Oh no! We´re not following God´s word! We need to do this right away!" So they got straight to it! They went out and obeyed what God had said in his word. What a massive lesson for us! How often we hear sermon after sermon of good teaching and we read God´s word only to fail in obeying it. "It´s too hard" we say, or "we´ll start that once we get this other thing fixed up." No - the people get straight to it and we should also have that kind of immediate obedience.

From that obedience, they had massive joy. It says that they hadn´t celebrated the festival like this, with as much vigour, since the days of Joshua son of Nun. That says to me that it was massive! Then every day they continued to read from God´s word. Obedience to God brings us real joy as we follow him. Can you catch a glimpse of the joy that these people experienced as they celebrate God´s goodness and God´s direction.

They go on in chapter 9 to fast and spend a quarter of the day reading God´s word and a quarter of the day confessing their sins and worshipping God. They praise God and recount his hand in the lives of their people, the Israelites, and how he has been gracious, compassionate, loving and patient with them. God is the same yesterday, today and forever and we can remember his goodness to his people and to us constantly.

I was so encouraged by this passage and I hope you are too. There´s many more lessons and applications in this rich part of scripture, but these were just some lessons that jumped out at me.

¡Adios!

Phil

Tecozautla: el parque acuatico

Here are some photos that I didn´t get a chance to put up last night. The first is Mauricio and Mauricio at the water park. It was such a cool place with some great water slides! I went on the water slides with Marco and Cyra who are niece and nephew of Mauricio (jnr).

This is my host family in the pool. Left to right is Mauricio, Susana, Cyra, Adriana, Marco, Mauricio and his friend Estefania.

This is Tequisquiapan - the city centre is so beautiful!

This is us having coffee at a restaurant in Tequisquiapan.

We all had such a good day! I was really privileged to see some more of the countryside and to hang out with my Mexican family - they´re a lot of fun! There really is cactuses (cactai?) all around in countryside here!! I even ate some cactus at lunch (comida) yesterday - it was kinda spicy and tasted a little like chicken (hehehe).

I´m understanding more and more Spanish! I understood much more in church this morning which was cool. I start full-on Spanish classes in the morning tomorrow - looking forward to it, but I´m sure it will be a bit tiring!

Noche de Musicà

¡Hola!

Only got time for a quick update, but I thought I would let everyone know that Thursday and Friday went really well - I´m enjoying and learning lots from my Spanish classes and the music jam night was great!

I had two people again in my English class on Thursday night, but I think at least one more will come next Tuesday so that´s really encouraging and an answer to prayer.

Last night we had a jam night at Global Grounds which turned out to be a lot of fun! We had prepared guitar chords and lyrics for a handful of songs, but we ended up jamming a lot of songs in Spanish. Everyone got into it and a few stars were born! Good times!

Had a great day today also, visited Tecozautla and Tequisquiapan. We went to a water park at Tecozautla then went to Tequisquiapan later in the evening. Tequisquiapan is such a beautiful city (well from the part of el centro that I saw!). They had a festival on with Rondellas playing in the city square which I really enjoyed.

Gotta run, but will keep you updated and might try and tell you a bit more about these events when I get a bit of time!

Phil

Más fotos

Hola amigos!

Sorry I haven´t updated much this week, I´ve been kinda busy and also haven´t had any big events to report on. I start Spanish classes this afternoon, then from next week I will be having group classes for 3 hours every morning - very exciting! I´m getting quite busy with many things to do and see and be involved in - still loving it!

I did my placement test for the Spanish school last night - it was quite funny! I had NO idea of most of the things. They didn´t even have some easy stuff that I could gun! It was good to keep me humble, as I really need to improve my Spanish!














I´ve got a busy afternoon/evening today - I´m off to a 2 hour Spanish tutorial from 4-6, then I teach my English class from 7-8, then I am leading the Universitarios bible study tonight at 8pm! Please pray for me (if you´re out of bed!).

We are having another activity at Global Grounds this Friday night - a jam night for musicians. Please pray for the organisation of this and that we get some young people along to play and to listen.



I´ll leave you with a few photos. Over and out! Phil This is Convento de La Cruz. It´s very ornate and beautiful!

¡Bienvenidos a Australia!

Australian Night was great! Thanks to everyone who was praying!

We had about 15 or 16 people there which was a great turnout. The preparation was a little stressful, but all in all, we got everything done and it was a really fun night! I got the chance to tell people all about the great big brown land that I come from! It was really, really great to build relationships with the young people on the night!

And yes, I did cook up a storm after we eventually got something resembling a barbeque going. I cooked garlic prawns and snags in bread with salad to show everyone what a good Aussie barbie is like. Unfortunately, the flies were a little light on so we didn´t get to swat them.


We also had a handball competition so that I could bring a taste of Aussie Rules to Mexico.
Someone asked me if we play American Football in Australia... I said no!!! hehehe

We also did Vegemite tasting... it was about a 50/50 like/hate ratio. Some of the "oh my goodness, I´ve never tasted something so awful" faces were priceless! Apparently, there´s a medicine here in Mexico which tastes like Vegemite, so to them, Vegemite reminds them of medicine!

I also had my first English class on Thursday night. There were only two students there, but it went really well anyway. I am praying that a few more will join next week so that we have a group of about 5-6 to make the class more lively and interesting for the participants. Please pray for this.

Justin and I also had our first discipleship time on Friday. We are studying the book of Philippians in the bible. It was a really encouraging time where we could share together and pray together.

Also, on Friday I discovered the BIG American chain stores - to buy things for Australia Night, we went to Walmart, OfficeMax and this other big store. My goodness they´re big. They are pretty much like Kmart and Coles joined together inside a Bunnings store (to put it in Australian!!). The store is like a warehouse and it contains everything from fresh food to clothes to electronics goods. Unfortunately, nowhere had the yellow and green streamers I was looking for (although I was still able to tell everyone how good the Aussie cricket team is!).

Saludos! (I found out this means like buenas dìas (good day). The other night a guy said it to us and I didn´t quite hear him, once we got back in the car I asked the others "What did he just say? Did he say Shalom!?" They assured me that he wasn´t Jewish, whilst having a good laugh at my expense. The answer: Saludos!)

Phil the Aussie-Mexican

My baggage is back!

¡Buenas noches todos!

My baggage is back - God has been so good to me in this. It arrived today at about 1:30pm. A few things had leaked in my bag, but it is very good to have it back intact and complete. I now have the AFL footballs and Vegemite for the Australia Night fiesta! Thanks to everyone who has been praying about this - God is faithful and he´s brought it back at just the right time.



Also, I thought I would share a couple of photos of the beautiful historical sites of Queretaro. I visited Cerro de las Campanas (The Hill of the Bells) on Saturday. This is where Maximilian was killed.














I realised that I had not published any photos really showing you Global Grounds, so here it is! Behind the counter is Sergio, one of the local guys who helps out at GG. Sitting in front of the counter is Mauricio. I am staying with Mauricio´s family. He is an absolute champion and we have been having a great time hanging out and discussing everything from Philosophy (which he studies) to why Mexicans say "bueno" ("good") when they answer the phone!

Se encuentra mi maleta (My baggage is found!)

Hi all!

Guess what!? I faxed the baggage people last night with a picture of the bag and also a long list of all the contents and its value in USD (for compensation purposes) and what do you know!? Today they have found it!

I still have not received it, so don´t stop praying, but I´m really excited! God has taught me a valuable lesson - I don´t need my "stuff". But it will be really useful to have my stuff returned, especially the Aussie items - footies, Vegemite and souvenirs that I can use for Australia Night this Friday.

This afternoon, we went to the University of Queretaro and handed out notices about my English classes and the Australia Night. It was cool how interested the uni students were. Back at Melbourne Uni I think we would have just walked on by! I start my first English class on Thursday night, so please pray for that.

After that, I worked at Global Grounds with a couple of the young Mexican guys - Alvaro and Sergio. We were really quiet to start with so we just hung out together and played guitar and read the bible - that was super cool. Later we got really busy so I was making coffee and meeting new people.

I am continuing to learn Spanish, but as always having some funny language faux pas. Today is was quite sunny and we were walking down the road and I said: "Estoy muy caliente" That literally means "I am very hot" EXCEPT in Mexico it means "I am very horny!" hahaha so I learned that I should say "Yo tengo calor" which literally means "I have heat" and that is better.

Signing off for tonight!

Phil (pronounced Phillipe)

Primer día en el Horizonte

¡Hola mi amigos!

Today was my first day at Horizonte for Sunday church. It was really cool to join with this congregation on the other side of the world and worship God! There is more than 300 people who attend Horizonte so it´s a bit bigger than good old Balwyn. The service went for almost 2 hours, with lots of joyful singing at the beginning and then the message from Martin Macedo the pastor. After the message was announcements and then it wrapped up. We had coffee after the service and I got to meet some of the people from the church.

After church I went to Lluvia´s family´s house for lunch. We had molè which is like a mix of chillies and chocolate and some other things (a sauce) over turkey and served with rice and tortillas. Have I mentioned that just about everything is served with tortilla´s here?! Tortillas are very versitile, they can wrap up your food, they can be rolled and used as an eating implement, they can be ripped up and used as a spoon... the list goes on!

Also, I should use this opportunity to explain how meals work here... there´s breakfast, lunch and dinner, but the times are different. Breakfast is BIG! We almost always have eggs, beans, tortillas and sometimes cereal. We eat that usually around maybe 9:30am. Lunch is also BIG - it´s the main meal of the day, so we eat that between 2pm and 4pm in the afternoon. Mostly everyone in the family will come home for lunch if they don´t work in like a food service job, so shops etc. close for at least an hour in the afternoon. Later in the evening, we have supper which is supposed to be smaller, but is usually also quite substantial! We eat supper around 8:30 or 9pm... although when I work en la tarde at Global Grounds I eat supper about 10:30pm.

Tomorrow I have my day with God - so looking forward to spending some quality time studying the bible and praying. I have been reading from John 15 about remaining in Christ and bearing fruit - so that´s what I want to be doing especially as I study.

Love to all at home. Luggage still missing, but I will send them a list of all that is in there along with the associated values, and they should compensate me (or at least seeing the value I think may make them look harder!!!).

Buen dìas!

Phil

Mexican ramblings

¡Buenas tardes todos!

¡Yo tengo un buen tiempo aquì!

Well, I have made it through my first week at Global Grounds and I am absolutely loving it! I have had great opportunities to hang out with university students and speak with them a bit. Luckily, ping pong trancends language and I have played a lot of ping pong with people who have come into the coffee shop.

Last night we had a universitarios grupo bible study. That was really cool! Alvero (one of the young guys who helps at global grounds) led the study (in español). We all read from the bible in Spanish which was really interesting and special to see the power of God´s word in whatever language it is in.

Today we planned out my weekly schedule for my ministry at Global Grounds.

• Monday will be my day with God - reading and studying the bible and praying
• Tuesday I will work at Global Grounds from 4pm to 10pm and run an advanced english class at 7pm
• Wednesday I meet with Justin for discipleship and then go to Global Grounds for the universitarios lunch
• Thursday I run my advanced english class at 7pm then we have the universitarios grupo at 8pm
• Friday I work at Global Grounds from 10am-3pm then we have activities at 7pm. The activities we have planned include an Australia Night and some music nights to enable me to interact with the young people and build relationships

I expect that I will be doing other things on top of this, but this is my current schedule and I would love it if you would pray for me! Also, we are 17 hours behind you here if you were wondering about time - but don´t worry too much about the timing.

Finally, I´ve had some great language faux pas so far...
I was asking a guy how long he had been learning English and I said: "¿Cuanto anos?" which means "How many anuses?" What I really meant was "¿Cuanto años?" which means "How many years?"
Lesson 1: anos = anus, años = years

I was wondering why people were always talking about dogs, like all the time!? Until I found out...
Lesson 2: perro = dog, pero = but

Oh yes, and a finally, finally...
I promised I would let you know how God has been protecting me in amazing ways... well... I was in a car accident on the night of my birthday - I´M OKAY!!! so don´t stress. We were driving home from the guys hangout when a car came from a side street and hit the passenger door, denting it in. It was amazing, but everyone walked away unhurt. I was fine, I just got a tiny little bruise on my arm and I wasn´t really shaken up at all - just thankful to God for his protection. Both cars needed to be towed and it took ages for all the red tape with the police and insurance to be sorted, but it was all good. Cars are replaceable, people are not and thankfully all was okay. So yes, I´m really stoked that I have the God of the universe looking out for me!

Mum - don´t start worrying - I´m really fine! All is going well and I´m safe and sound!!!

I really love it here and I am integrating well with the team. We are having a lot of fun and the ministry is going well. My luggage is still lost, so please continue to pray - it would be handy to have before I return to Australia - but next time I´m just bringing hand luggage, it´s all you need!

Love ya,

Phil

Fotografias

Aqui es mi fotografias :-)

Corregidora´s monumente
Esta es Lluvia, Justin y Jessica
Yo en una fuente
¡Los hombres en Global Grounds para mi cumpleaños!

¡Feliz cumpleaños!

Hola amigos!

Thanks to everyone who has sent emails - it´s really great to hear from you! I will endeavour to send replies as I get a chance, but at present I am not having a lot of time to spend on the internet.

I am however, having a lot of time to spend doing exciting and new things! Global Grounds is fantastic - it´s a really, really great place to be and to work. Yesterday was my first day here at Global Grounds and immediately after having a meeting with Martin Macedo (the pastor of Horizonte), Justin and Lluvia, I started meeting some of the students and playing ping pong with them.

My Spanish is getting better, but it is still frustrating when you can´t say what you want to say. I am learning a lot, but please pray for my memory - it´s information overload and I'm forgetting a lot! However, it is only just my fourth day in Mexico, so I think I'm doing pretty well.

I will update you on a few more exciting adventures soon when I get a chance to write a little more - God has really been taking care of me in BIG ways!

Last night I went to a meeting with some of the guys from Horizonte. We all got together at the church and sang some praise songs in Spanish. It was really special to see the passion and wholeheartedness these guys have for God (Dios). After that, we came back to Global Grounds and had a table tennis tournament and drank coffee. The guys had organised to get pizza's for supper and they all sang me the equivalent of Happy Birthday in Spanish. It was something about mañana feliz?? I was given a Global Grounds tshirt which I will wear with pride!

I will post some photos when I can - I have taken some good ones, but my luggage is still missing so I don´t have the necessary attachment to download them from my camera.

On the topic of luggage, please keep praying! We have been ringing them daily and they have no news. Today we have faxed them all the details of the bag, it´s outside, contents etc. so that they can look through the pile of lost luggage they have to try and find it. I have purchased some new underwear (hehe) so I can relax my routine of washing every day to rotate my clothes with my spare pair in my hand luggage.

So much to tell with so little time, but I must get back out into the cafe. Thanks to all for your prayers and support. I am having a most amazing time!

Love to all,
Phil the Mexican

¡Bienvenidos!

Buenas dias!

I am having an amazing adventure! I am currently in the airport at Mexico City after missing my connection to Queretaro last night.

My original Qantas flight to LA was delayed by 4 hours meaning that I missed my original connections. However, God is at work! At check-in in Melbourne I met a guy who used to go to my school. He added my onward details to my check in and so when I got to LA, Qantas had rebooked my flights even though they were on a separate booking and they told me that they weren´t going to. After waiting in a long queue, I was booked on AeroMexico to Mexico City, then on to QRO. They even gave me a food voucher!

I got a tiny seat right down the back from LA to Mex, but that gave me a good view out the window. I got a great view of the sunset from the air and then coming in to Mexico City after dark was beautiful - so many lights!!

It took ages to get off the plane then through immigration and customs. By the time I got to the check in for my flight to Queretaro, he said I had 5 mins. But then he said I had to go to get a ticket from Aero Mexico. Anyway, after trying my best Spanish, I found I had missed the flight, that my bag didn´t go to Queretaro and I was stuck in Mexico City. The guy made a reservation for Monday (today) but said that I had to go to British Airways (no Qantas in Mex) to get the ticket amended - they couldn´t let me go without a new ticket.
Went to find my luggage - it´s missing somewhere, but at least I had learned from iTeams training to pack a change of clothes and toiletries in my hand luggage, so all good.

I made a call to Mish´s cousin Ale and asked if she could help me out here in Mexico City so she came and picked me up, showed me around the city a little and after having authentic Mexican tacos (including eating tongue!!) I stayed at her house. I was so thankful for her hospitality and it was great to meet her after chatting via the internet. I also met her Mum this morning and was able to introduce myself in Spanish.

Anyway, today God has been at work again because I rocked up to the AeroMar counter and gave them my old ticket. The guy called someone (I think it was supposed to be Qantas, but he couldn´t even say Qantas, so I think it was someone else!) and then after a bit he just asked "Window or aisle?" and gave me a boarding pass. So now I´m catching a flight to Queretaro and all is good. I still haven´t got my luggage, but when they find it they will deliver it to Queretaro - hopefully I´ll get it soon!

Anyway, sorry for the long post, but I wanted to let you know of a few of my adventures so far. I´m absolutely loving being in Mexico and experiencing new things. God has shaken up my plans and forced me to rely on Him, but he´s provided for me every step of the way and done the most amazing things!

I have spoken to Justin and kept him updated - international roaming is fantastic.

Love to all.

Adios amigos.

Phil

I'm off tomorrow!

Wowowowowow! I leave for Mexico tomorrow!

I've had a really great night catching up and farewelling friends and family tonight. We ate Mexican (well I hear it was only sort of Mexican) and had fun hanging out. I have more friends than are in the photo (hehe) but we only snapped a couple of photos!


I just got an sms tonight to let me know that my flight's been delayed and will now depart at approximately 2:00pm tomorrow (rather than 12:20pm). This will make it a bit tighter for time in Los Angeles, but still shouldn't be a problem (all going well!). Please pray for safety and smooth connections in my travel.

I'm really excited now - I'm all packed and ready to go! I think I'll go for a run in the morning to try and tire out my legs before the long flight.

Thanks to everyone for your support, well wishes, smiles and hugs. I look forward to keeping in contact a bit while I'm away and then having a big catch up when I get back!

Lots of love to all.

-Phil

Friends at NCR

It's all getting very exciting as I am in my last few days in Australia! I can't believe how quickly the time has gone - I leave on Sunday! Woah - I've still got so much to do!! God has provided for me abundantly and I have received all the financial support I need to go on this trip - huge thanks to everyone who has contributed!

I was privileged to spend tonight with friends at New Community Ringwood and share a little of what I will be doing in Mexico. It was great to connect with the community there and to receive their support, encouragement and prayers. I am so grateful to God to have so many people around me who are behind me to encourage and pray as I step out.

It was great to recall the night at NCR when God really placed on my heart to engage in a short-term mission. It was also fantastic to share with the people at NCR as we remembered what God has done amongst the community there in 2005 and looked forward to what He will do in 2006.

I have been challenged to think about what God might be doing in my life in a year's time - I know that it's in His hands but it's exciting to see His plan unfold in my life.

Also - a big shout out to any of the KPMG guys who are reading this, I know that I sent out the link tonight so would love you to get on board and check out what I'm doing as I venture over to Mexico. Thanks for being such a great team of people to work with!

Finally, I thought I should just post another photo. This one I found is of a hacienda in Queretaro - I'm pretty sure that I won't be staying in one of these extravagant mansions! They were built by wealthy settlers in the 17th and 18th centuries...

The countdown: 8 days to go!

Hi everyone!

It’s only 8 days to go!!! Wahooooo! I am alternating between being very excited and very busy with little time to be excited at the moment!

I am continuing to see God provide for me in every way as I draw closer to my departure from Australia. I am very close to reaching my target for financial support – I now only need $287 to meet the target and God has proved to me that he will provide just what I need so I’m sure he has it in hand.

In terms of travel itinerary, I leave Australia on the 19th of February at 12:20pm on QF93. After a lot of travelling, I will arrive in Queretaro, Mexico at 8:10pm on the same day (due to the time difference!)! I will return to Australia on the 2nd of April at 8:55am on QF94.
I have been emailing with the team in Mexico to confirm last minute details. Justin and Lluvia Hoste (iTeams missionaries from USA) will be meeting me at the airport on my arrival and showing me around. I’m sure that I will be quite tired after many hours of travel!

Thanks to everyone for their continued support on this journey. It has been amazing for me to see God work in powerful ways already in bringing everything together to allow me to go on this trip. I praise Him for his wonderful love and provision in my life - what a wonderful God we serve!

A couple of reminders: Tomorrow morning (12th of February) I will be commissioned for my short-term at Balwyn Gospel Chapel (2 Leonard St, Balwyn) at 10am. I will also be presenting at the International Teams, Windows on the World program next Friday night 7:30pm also at Balwyn Gospel Chapel.
Finally don't forget I will be having a farewell (and birthday) dinner at Montezuma’s Mexican restaurant next Saturday night at 7pm. If you wish to come along for dinner, you’ll need to let me know by Wednesday – all the details are below.

Please pray for my closeness to God as I embark on this trip, travelling and logistics as I go and that I will quickly pick up some more Spanish (and be perseverant with 99% of people speaking Spanish around me all the time!).
Praise God for the International Teams Summer Teams that have finished in the last week or so. For those that know her, Sarah Hill is back and has some amazing stories and photos of seeing God work over in Bolivia.

God bless,

Phil

Farewell dinner

I've organised my farewell dinner for Saturday the 18th of February @ 7pm. It's at Montezuma's Mexican Restaurant in Bridge Rd Richmond. RSVP is essential so that I can confirm numbers with the restaurant. I would love to catch up before I head off and share some Mexican food!

Great is Thy Faithfulness

It has been really good to be back home for the weekend and I have had the opportunity to catch up with many of my friends which has been a real blessing!

I find it amazing how God knows us so well that he even knows our thoughts and emotions. This morning at church I was feeling a bit distracted with lots of things flying through my mind. At one stage I was thinking about the money that I still needed to get to meet the costs of my mission to Mexico, when someone asked that we sing Great is Thy Faithfulness. After we had finished, a lady sitting in front of me turned around and said "That song is especially for you!" Right then it just made sense to me, I thought of the words to the chorus that I had just been singing:

Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Right then I remembered how faithful God has been to me in the past and that I didn't need to worry because God will provide for me. I felt a great peace and I was able to focus on worshipping God. Praise God for his amazing goodness!

Having said that, I still do need to raise further support to pay for the costs of my trip. I still need approximately $1000 to go towards the cost of airfares and living expenses whilst I am over there. If you are able to assist with this as God enables, please see me or drop me an email.

Thanks to everyone for your continued encouragement and support!

In Him,

Phil

PS - I'm back to Sydney in the morning with work, however, I will be back for all the weekends from now until I go. Only 21 days to go!

PPS - For those that may have missed exact dates, I will be leaving Melbourne on the 19th of February and returning on the 2nd of April.

Humbling support from my church

Today I was really blessed to be able to return to my home church at Balywn Gospel Chapel after being away for three weeks. It was so good to catch up with everyone!

I had an opportunity to update the church on the International Teams training I attended last week and how things are going with getting to Mexico.

Some great praise points already:

• I gained a lot from the training;
• My flights and connections have been booked and paid for (yesterday); and
• I am able to return to Melbourne on weekends whilst working in Sydney over the next several weeks.

I have recruited a prayer team, anyone still wishing to be a part of the prayer team, please let me know via email or phone.

I was really humbled and encouraged today by the support shown by my church family. The interest and support that people gave me this morning blew me away. I have already received some more financial support which is great and to have lots of people sign up for the prayer team is fantastic. I continue to see God provide for me in real, tangible and amazing ways!

Thanks so much to all those at Balwyn who are praying, encouraging and supporting me - I really, really appreciate it and I pray that God will bless you as you contribute to HIS work!

A map of Queretaro's location in Mexico (courtesy of Google Earth - copyright etc.)

The Summer Teams ready to head off!

Answered prayer!

How great is our God!

I was reading this morning from Romans 8:28-32 and was reminded how God is always working for the good of his people. He has come through for me again and has sorted out arrangements for me to return to Melbourne on weekends during the time I am working in Sydney! Praise God for his provision in this way and for making my work so flexible and accomodating, that's a big relief.

Don't forget to pray for the iTeams summer teams that left today - most will be just arriving somewhere now (maybe in transit), or still travelling!

I'm watching a Spanish movie on SBS tonight - trying to brush up on my espanol a bit... ;-)

-Phil

All trained up with nowhere to go!

I have just finished iTeams Summer Teams training - three days of training and equipping for short-term overseas mission. The summer teams are off tomorrow to Honduras, Bolivia, Thailand and Ukraine! All the best guys and God Bless!

For me, I have a several weeks before I leave for Queretaro, Mexico, so I am all trained up, but not yet leaving the country.

We covered so many things at the training and it was a truly engaging and challenging few days. We were challenged by interactive activities, real-life scenarios, cultural learning and new experiences. I think that even over the past few days many of us have grown closer to God and been able to understand a bit more what it is like to put our trust and reliance on Him in a variety of situations.

A particularly good verse that we shared at the training was Ephesians 2:10 - "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

As we go out on this short-term mission experience, it's so good to remember that I'm created by God for a purpose - his workmanship in fact, and that he's planned and prepared the work for me to do.

I think that two particular personal lessons I learnt from the training were:

• To be more observant, both of other people and of the environment I am in; and
• To let others have a go and not always be the first to jump in even when I know I could potential do something better, or I think I know about something.

Please pray for me over the next few weeks as I am in Sydney with my work and seeking to get things for my trip organised remotely. Also pray for consistency in my walk with God over the next few weeks to keep the momentum gained from the great times we have had at training.

Be sure to check out the blogs of the summer teams (links in the links section!)

Shake it like a salsa dancer.

-Phil