Hola from Matamoros! After all our preparation, we are so excited to finally be here in Mexico, coming together as a team to serve the Lord together.
You may be wondering why we have dubbed ourselves “Team Doulos”. Doulos is a Greek word that means “bond-servant.” In the New Testament, it is most-often translated as slave or servant and it carries the idea of one who gives himself up wholly to another’s will. Paul, Peter, and James refer to themselves as bond-servants of Christ. Doulos is also used to describe those whose service is used by Christ in extending and advancing His cause among men. These are the “douloi Theou,” the “servants of God.”
It is our desire to always remember that we are bond-servants, humble slaves to the will of our Master. We have been bought with a price, and we are His. Please pray that we would serve Him well.
We’ve arrived safely in Matamoros, Mexico. We are thankful that none of our luggage was lost, and that we had the easiest, cheapest border-crossing we’ll probably see all year. These next several days will be spent at a place called Castillo del Rey, where we will train and prepare for the exciting things this year has in store for us. Very soon, we’ll be posting details about where in Mexico we’re going to travel next week and what we’ll be doing there.
We gathered together today as a team to share our expectations for the year and our experiences thus far, and it became very apparent how much God has called us to leave behind. Not only friends and family, churches and communities, pets and comforts, but also our fears, our plans, our desires to be in control. We are trading these things for an opportunity to radically depend on God and impact the nations for His Glory.
Later today, we had our first “competition”: a trivia game based upon a Road Rules handout we were given. There were prizes for answering each question correctly, and a grand prize for the team with the most correct answers. The grand prize is a private consultation about our travel plans with Bob Waag, AIM’s First-Year Missionary program director in Matamoros. Bob is a fountain of information, so this was a prize worthy of our best efforts. It came down to a final tie-breaker question between us and the Brown Team. The question was, what are AIM’s five guiding principles for debrief. We worked as a team and came up with the answer: Listening Prayer, Meeting Felt Needs, Building Relationships, Sharing Your Faith, and Debrief and Evaluation. We won! We now have a map of Guatemala, some Guatemalan money, and most importantly, we’ll be enjoying Bob’s advice on how best to get through the interior.
And we’ll also be enjoying galletas. Lots of galletas.
Here’s a picture of us and all our winnings.
Team Doulos Prayer Requests:
Ashley is short of funds, and may not be able to complete the whole trip. Please pray that the rest of her support would come in, and that she would continue to trust in God’s provision.
Pray that we, as a team, would clearly hear God’s voice, and that we would grow in our relationships with each other and with Him.
Pray also that God would give us wisdom in choosing our method of transportation and route for the first race leg to Palenque that begins next week.
