The Tangible

Well... as I have said in the past, its been hard for me to see physical fruit of my work here (for the most part)... so Im going to start of with a blog concerning what little I can see.

For about a month or a month and a half we have (the church youth) had the idea to put on a graffiti competition for the youth here in Mazatlan. Something to attract them and possibly show them a little of what we are all about. We got the idea for this outreach from the YWAM base during the week of Carnaval. They had one and we saw how extremely well it went. Tons of youth showed up and this opened the door for a whole lot of ministry. Seeing this we took the idea and ran with it.

For the next two week or so there was really only a lot of brainstorming and idea throwing. However, the following week Toni, David and me began to put the thoughts into action. Pablo, an "employee" of the church, who is very good at computer design (oddly enough), came up with a design for some posters and and fliers. With the help of one of the church members we were able to print off thousands of each of them. Also Pablo came up with a design for some outreach tshirts.

We collectively come up with the money for the tshirts and purchased one for everyone. Although what the shirts said was a little clicheish in english... I think that it worked here. They read "By faith alone I was saved," as much as the statement may be a cliche... Its Truth. They had it printed in english so that when the Spanish speaking youth saw it they would be enticed to ask about it. (im not sure if this tactic worked, but I thought it was a good idea).

For two weeks we (the youth) walked through the streets passing out the fliers to ever person we saw. Taping posters to telephone poles and store walls and doors. Going house to house through countless neighborhoods giving each and every house a flier. Going from business to business asking for gift donations for the winner of the competition. Asking for spray paint donations, going to the city hall to get permission to hold the event, and countless other things. We did this for something like 4 hours in the morning and 4 more in the evening (sometimes...). Through the grace of God we were able to come up with more than enough spray paint and canvas for the competition... we got the prize for the THREE winners... and we passed out all of the fliers and posters with out dying from physical exhaustion!!!!!

The day of the competition was another one of the days for me where I was just amazed at the youth here. We showed up at 9 in the morning to clean. We spent hours picking up garbage (and there is a lot, no liter laws here)... sweeping the dirt to get all the garbage out of the park. Cutting brush away from paths, picking vines out of the fences and getting everything as nice as possible. The 30 canvas we hung up on this very large fence.

The event started with christian and non christian rap blaring out of the rented sound system attracting all sorts of youth. Im not sure of the number but I would say about 200-350 people came and went throughout the night. The competitors ranged from harmless 12 year olds to seasoned gangsters. It was incredible to see the artistic abilities that these kids on the street had. Some of them were actually really impressive. I wish I had pictures to show, but unfortunately my camera broke a few weeks ago. There was a small rap show where some of the youth were able to get on the mic and rap for a bit. This brought all the youth around and close together. Then one of the youth from the church who used to be involved with the gangs here gave his testimony and their was an "alter call." Unfortunately the church didnt do any follow up stuff for those who accepted Christ, so I don't even have any idea how many if any did. But I feel sure that what we did reached some of them... and I leave it in God´s hands to do the rest.

Being involved in this did a number of things for me. Some are impossible to explain but here's what I can... It broke down fear that I have had to approach people. I was able to go house to house and store to store, in a country where I don't even speak the language well, and give out fliers and say what little I could in Spanish. I gave me a heart for outreaches. And through this God provided me with vision.... This is the biggest thing for me, Vision, and so you'll have to wait to here about it in a different blog.