Is Mexico not exotic enough?

This July was one of the most hectic months I´ve experienced here in Monterrey! We prepared for and received the DBC high school team for Sports World, the rest of my team (Crawfords and Phuong)as well as the Bedfords (a young couple on a year-long stint here in Mty) packed up their houses and moved back Stateside. Right after the team left, Memo and I took advantage of the "quiet before the storm" and headed to Albuquerque, New Mexico for a few days of our first vacation/second honeymoon, road trip. It was beautiful and very much appreciated.

Returning to Mty, we immediately parked the car and loaded up the truck with camping gear and our two little camp-happy dogs and left the same day for a seven hour drive behind a bus full of our church youth to a great campsite in Tamaulipas, MX. WOW!!

All of us sign a four year term agreement with SERVE. The Foxes re-signed and moved to Xalapa, a state in central Mexico where we have had ongoing contact with a sister church of IBUC. Memo will be starting MTI (Missionary Training Institute) at DBC in the spring (we are praying that God will provide his visa in time), while I will be on "working furlough" at the church. The Crawfords accepted a position with another agency in Kansas City and Phuong is investigating other areas of the world.

Yes, this was a seriously, hectic month! But, it was also one of great definition and hope. Although our team here in Mexico has considerably downsized, we are confident that this is of God's leading for His glory and our best. Right now we are praying for new team members to help in the development of the believers here. There are huge needs for personal discipleship and leaders of group bible studies for the many believers here who want to grow in intimacy with and knowledge of Christ. When Memo and I come to Denton for Memo's training, we will be actively pursuing individuals and families to join us on the field in Monterrey, Mexico.

Recently, Memo and I spoke with six newly graduated college students visiting from America who came to Mexico on a short-term mission trip. During the expanse of our conversations with them, we asked them, "What had drawn them to participate in a short term mission? Why Mexico?" and "Did they think they would return?"

Interestingly, but not surprisingly, all of the responses were negatively associated with one word. Can you guess what it was? If you're a missionary or someone in marketing and advertising, you can probably guess pretty easily. The word that we supposedly are not enough of here in Mexico is exotic. American believers are saying "no" to Mexico and "yes" to other parts of the world based on the supposed exotic element. As Memo and I were reflecting on this, we wondered if those recent college grads even knew what exotic meant. Webster's defines exotic as, "1: introduced from another country, not native to the place where found 2: archaic, outlandish, alien 3: strikingly or excitingly different or unusual ". As we can see, exotic can be defined as a stimulus mentally, emotionally and/or physically or something that excites. There is no doubt about it! God created a very stimulating world with a variety of people and cultures! But, if we base our decisions on serving the Lord on constant stimulus, we will soon be met with disappointment and miss out on valuable opportunities to mature in the Lord as believers.

Memo and I believe that as new creations in Christ, we are the exotic ones. We are in this world, not of it. We are aliens to this world.