There Go the Little Things

Sorry, it has been awhile since I last wrote. It is because I have not had a day off since the last time a wrote a blog, almost two weeks, and I have been supper busy. I was even having trouble fitting in a quite time. It seamed that every time I tried to sit down with God to read, write, or pray, something would always come up and stand in the way. Satan was definitely trying to attack my schedule. He even broke to alarm clocks to prevent me to wake up early and do it like normal :). All that is fixed now. I found a new way to get myself up early and have time to get in the word. Please continue to pray that my time with God continues to stay very intentional while I am here cause without that so much falters.

The other reason I have not written in awhile is God has been pretty much teaching me the same thing for the past week, and it has taken me the past week to process it and actually figure out what He is trying to say. So it starts here with the little things. For the past week I God has been reviling to me 'the little things' and the importance of these. What does this mean? Well I will get to that or at least try to, but even I am not completely sure.

It all started with just short little voices or intentional understandings from the Holy Spirit.

The grander of Breath and Life.....

We are sitting in one of the Hope program houses (the homes where teens who grew up in the children's homes have a chance to pursue a high school and college education) celebrating one of the staff kids birthdays (Kinsey Couch). We gathered together, Mexicans and Americans alike, as one family celebrating the life God gave one individual. I have never been one to take a birthday as a big deal. However, this time the Spirit gave me a new meaning for birthdays. They are no longer chances to eat cake and play games. A birthday is a celebration of life and breath. Standing in the house I came to the realization that I to often over look the importance and the heaviness of the simple fact that I have both breath and life. It is often viewed by me and I know many others as a LITTLE THING. The Spirit spoke to me and said this is a little thing to you, take notice to the little things, meditate on the little things, understand the blessings of the little things.

The importance of shoes... zapatos.....

I was standing worshiping God last Monday night during a beautiful Monterrey summer sunset. I was perfectly comfortable in my lovely leather flip flops standing on sharp, hard rocks. I was completely unaware of the protection which my shoes gave me and the comfort they instilled on my feet. As the Spirit continued to lead me further and further into worship, He asked me or commanded me to take off my shoes. I, being a intellectual being immediately said, 'Why would I do that God? These Rocks are sharp which would cause some slight discomfort in my fleshy feet'. He quickly and directly responded, 'Just take of your shoes'. So reluctantly I took my shoes off and immediately God spoke. These shoes are a blessing. Millions of people in this world live their life without this blessing. The Spirit spoke to me and said this is a little thing to you, take notice to the little things, meditate on the little things, understand the blessings of the little things.

The fresh smell of a new clean shirt.....

So it was Wednesday and I was serving in Rio 1 again. It was the end of the day and we had some donations to give out. So we set a system for which the donations would be handed out in both an affective and fare method. Everyone would receive a brand new shirt which had been printed and brought down by one of the groups. Almost every time someone would come through the line to receive their new shirt, they would smother their senses with the scent of fresh vibrant linen as they held their face against the new shirt. God spoke to me and told me that I better like the smell of my clean shirts because they are a blessing. The Spirit spoke to me and said this is a little thing to you, take notice to the little things, meditate on the little things, understand the blessings of the little things.

As you can tell God continued to pound into my head the importance of the little things. He wants me to pay attention to them, ponder them, understand them, and know that they are blessings. It is so easy to get caught up in life and forget how blessed we are in so many different ways. My application for this was to walk through my day and find one common or little thing in my life and thank God for it and be aware of its existence as a blessing. It is unbelievable the things God has showed me that are blessings. I had never spent time to thank him for most of these things.

However, the most important thing that God was trying to teach about the little things was involving the works that he does in me. To often have I diminished the importance of God's early works in my life because I feel like He has so much greater things in store ahead. I think 'oh well the things that happened in high school were okay, but God is really going to move when I am in college' or 'college will be a good time to serve Him, but when I am graduated and have a job I can really make a difference in the world'. You get the point. To often I ignore or diminish the little works or the beginings that God does in my life.

Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin.... Zechariah 4:10

I often daily take God's daily works in my life and diminish them to minuscule things. As we can tell by the this verse in Zechariah it is these small things which bloom into grand God glorifying stories.

I challenge you to rejoice in the small works God does in you for it is from these small works that God brings about grand stories.

Thanks for your continued prayers.....

Andrew

Hunger.... What do you hunger for? --- Jesus Christ

Hello all!!!

I have not really had the most exciting and adventurous past few days. I worked on the campus here at B2B on Wednesday and Thursday. Friday was staff development day and intern day out which was fun. Saturday was more work on campus and a pool party on campus for two of the children's homes we serve where I diligently stood above a grill and cooked 432 hamburgers with my intern friend Reed. It was just the routine. Did not really get a chance to hang out with a whole lot of kids. These past few days it was extremely challenging for me to keep a good attitude on my shoulders. However, with all that to say, I still experienced God this week.

The theme this year for Back2Back is hunger. I definitely came here hungry. I was hungry for a great summer. I was hungry for lots of Taco Fedeys. I was hungry for Vita's cooking. I was hungry for a good time with some cool kids. I was hungry for relationships. I was hungry for Mexico. I was hungry for the next fall. However, while some of these are righteous things, none of them where what I am supposed to be hungering after. The theme for Back2Back this summer does not have to do with hungering after our finite desires and wishes. What then shall we hunger after?

Hunger for.....

³² Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, Moses didn’t give you bread from heaven. My Father did. And now he offers you the true bread from heaven. ³³ The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

³⁴ “Sir,” they said, “give us that bread every day.”
³⁵ Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. ³⁶ But you haven’t believed in me even though you have seen me. ³⁷ However, those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them. ³⁸ For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will. ³⁹ And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day. ⁴⁰ For it is my Father’s will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day.”John 6:32-40 (NLT)

So as I came here this past week, I experienced a not so immediate wake up call. I slowly realized that I am not hungering after the right things in life. I continued to hunger after other things more then Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus should be the very center of my every will and desire, but He was not. One's hunger for Christ should a exponentially increasing desire, but mine was not. Well its another part of the journey of my faith.

On top of all that, one of the devotionals this week talked about the importance of focusing on and hungering after Christ in our struggle against sin. So often we put more attention onto stopping the sin instead of focusing on Christ which remains pointless because we are powerless to have victory over it. We must focus on Christ. In order to have true victory over our sins we must have Christ. I have experienced this true victory. Through prayer my chains have been broken, and by faith I focus on Christ with a exponentially increasing desire as I follow the path He has for me walking away from my sinful past. By the grace of God, this is the life I have chosen. This is what I hunger for, never looking back.

Do you HUNGER FOR THE ONE WHO GIVE LIFE!?

As the weeks go by, I will need more prayers then ever.

Please pray for the following...

--energy

--growth in my Spanish... for God's supernatural power to come through and help me with my Spanish

--Peace among all interns and staff

--Growth together for the interns

--Opportunities to show the love of Christ to the children.

--the abandoned children of Monterrey, Mexico

Dios Te Bandiga!

Andrew Ryan Dixon

A Time to Renew and Revamp

It has been five days since I arrived in Monterrey, Mexico. However, it feels so much longer then that. I believe this is due to the simple fact that in many ways this place feels like home. I spent last summer here and several random weeks here. Therefore when I arrived this summer, it just felt like a continuation of all the time I have spent here in the past. I believe I have spent enough time here to call this place my home away from home. When I returned to Monterrey, I knew that in this moment this is where I am supposed to be.

Lets reflect on the past few days...

Sunday I went with to an area we call Rio 1 or Meme's Rio. Rio areas are places which individuals who are in extreme poverty can come and live on free land owned by the government. They are also refereed to as squatter's villages. They set up their homes out of any materials they can find laying around, other man's trash becomes another man's home.

We at Back2Back believe that this is the root of the orphan's conflict in Monterrey. A good 70% of the orphans here come from families who live in these devastating conditions. This is why serve in the Rio areas, to help hold these families together in their darkest of times.

The individual who leads our cause in Rio 1 is named Meme. Meme lives in the Rio by choice in order to serve her people, in order to be where God wants her. I have never met someone with a greater faith then Meme. I have never met someone who gives more glory to God then Meme does. I have never met someone who lives out more humility then Meme. From watching her live out her faith over the past two years, I have come to this conclusion about faith and humility, with great faith comes great humility. Clichéd, I know but powerful. I know that if I ever come to a point in my walk with Christ where I go 'man I am a person of great faith'. I know it is time to take a step back and reexamine this faith of mine. I have always felt that Paul is also a great example of great faith and humility. He seamed to have it down. I think I am going to be taking a look at what he had to say about humility over the next couple of days.

While we were at the Rio, we helped Meme with her soup kitchen, put on a little vbs, and played with the kids.

I talked to three little boys named Estaban, Angel, and Carlos. They definitely had a spirit of joy within them.

It was a easy and very relational day.

Monday, I helped with the low and high ropes course at one of the orphanages. Back2Back tries to find ways in which each orphanage can sustain itself. So with one of the homes they built a low and high ropes course for people to use. They use this for a fee which in return goes directly to help support the home. I was the rope man/ encourager in the tree for a good 2 and a half hours. Standing in a tree can be very tiring. Especially if you are trying to not fall out.\

Well I smell dinner. I hoping Vita made her amazing tostadas.

Untill Next Time

God Bless

Andres

Evidently I Have a Literacy Problem

So as many of you know, I am going to be or am in Monterrey, Mexico this summer. I am serving as an intern for Back2Back Ministries. I will be here until July 31st. I will use this blog to communicate the experiences of the summer and the stories that God brings to me.



So to start my blog, I will tell you the reason behind my title. It is Thursday afternoon, I am packing for my flight which i believe is to leave Friday morning. I get a call from Mexico, the lovely Steve Ross is on the line. He ask me if I am coming to Mexico. I insistently reply 'yes tomorrow'. Steve dictates, 'Well we have you down to arrive today'. OOOPS!!!! I realized that I somehow managed to completely miss read my flight itinerary for the past 6 months. Sure enough my flight was Thursday morning not Friday. In a frantic rush I began to call Orbitz and Continental in a attempt to redeem my colossal mistakes. After sitting on hold for a hour, Continental was able to help me and for a simple fee of fifty dollars that put me on a flight to leave Friday morning. When I arrived in Mexico, the joke surfacing was that they requited a illiterate intern.

I arrived in Monterrey Friday and began my summer in Mexico. I soon realized that I needed to take a step back and take this summer for what it is, a amazing opportunity. I realized I had been way to distracted with my recent confusion and last minute changes with my college decision. I had been thinking about what I was doing the next fall instead of what God was doing in my life right then. So right now my prayer is that I focus on Gods working in my life at this moment and not the fall or years to follow. To often I absorb myself with the future instead of this moment.

Therefor, to start the prayers off....

That God would reveal himself to me the way he desires to this summer...
That God would penetrate into the ministry here and make himself more present then ever before...

I appreciate your prayers and support.
Until next time...