In honor of my first day in Mexico I must say “Hola, me llamo Bryce. Yo soy pastor de jovenes en Rancho Cordova, CA. Hablo muy pequito espanol. Mi novia es Bethany ella es mi amor por los todos dias de mi via. Jesus Christ es en mi corazon y trabajo por el Senor todos los dias.” I’ll run that through Google translate to see how much I fail and post it at the end.
Sometimes I’m a little childish. This was the case when I heard the phrase above I chose to use as my blog title. Rocky was trying to take a photo and I kept trying to block it through various shenanigans. I don’t know why I do the things I do and and I hope to outgrow those various urges. But apparently not today.
Today started early with a winners breakfast a tiny sugar covered bun & a plain croissant. A hop skip and jump down the highway we were into Mexico. It’s nice to be here and there is an amazing breeze near the hotel we are staying at. Let’s just say… we aren’t roughing it. Pool by the beach? Check. Hot tub? Check. WiFi? Check. So don’t feel to bad for us.
We had an opportunity to go to the church we will partner with this week and I have to say, I’m incredibly excited to be a part of this ministry. The church we joined with is a four square church (Jehova Jirah Church) just outside of Ensenada in Los Flores surrounded by dirt streets, mangy dogs & the cutest little kids you can imagine. I’ve always had a soft spot for little hispanic children. Granted I’m a sucker for kids in general but I would adopt if the Lord brought it together with no hesitation. Anyways….
For a short time we were able to mingle with the folks at the church and then we got to have a bi-cultural service with translator and all. This is always my favorite aspect of cross-cultural ministry. What a blessing it was to see God’s family united. The barrier of language melted away for a short moment as their worship team sung “Lord I Life Your Name on High” in Spanish. We sung along in English and I’d imagine the angels sung in their Heavenly tongue as a snapshot of the church universal, the Body of Christ, was seen. We also had the pleasure to hear testimonies from the locals and share our testimonies with them as a prelude to pastor Jared’s message about standing for God against intense adversity. How often we fail at this. I’m going to be thinking tonight about how I can be more bold.
Here is my prayer for this week. Please pray this for me.
“Lord let me be bold in language. Let me attempt to speak Spanish, use the few words that I know to share your message of salvation and joy. Use my action to show the truth of your salvation in my life. Let me absorb your Holy Word this week and let the truths that I learn be the words that those I encounter need to hear. I am your willing servant this week, use me.”
<3
Bryce
p.s. I don’t want anyone who reads this to pat me on the back for a nice prayer. I pray this because I suck at this and I desire to not suck at it. So save your “Amen brotha!” and pray that God would change me.
p.p.s. My translation “Hello, my name is Bryce. I am a youth pastor in Rancho Cordova, CA. I speak Spanish Pequito. My girlfriend is Bethany she is my love for all days of my route. Jesus Christ is in my heart and work for the Lord every day.” Close….
p.p.p.s. I found a Mexican bracelet with my name on it. I still believe my name is more obscure than Bethany’s but I couldn’t find hers. You win this round honey.
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