Kami Burns, the El Pozo team leader and former CCF member in her own college days, set up the project in the village of La Trinidad with Living Water International. This organization helps provide clean water and hygiene education to people all over the world while also sharing the message of the “living water” available through Jesus Christ.

As Kami points out in her blog entry about the project, “In Mexico, we can’t drink tap water, so I’ve learned to always make sure we have bottled water in our house.” The people in small rural towns, however, don’t always have access to bottled water, nor the money to pay for it.

La Trinidad is in an arid climate with such a low water table that drilling another conventional well just isn’t an option. Most people have to use donkeys to haul several gallons of water at a time from a nearby operating well to their homes. So the El Pozo staff and students, the Georgia Tech group, and Living Water staffers worked together with some skilled masons to build a stone well around a natural spring. This will collect and hold clean water for the people of La Trinidad.

The project was a big success, says Kami. “I’m grateful to have been able to help provide water for these humble and grateful people, but my hope and prayer is that they also find living water in Jesus Christ.”

At 5:30 p.m., during that golden hour before sunset, I am still frantically packing (amid a seemingly never-ending stream of visitors) for my trip to the village of Kangoura.

At 6.15 p.m. I finally roll out of Sindou on the motorcycle. The sun sets at 6:40 p.m. and I discover that, thanks to a little accident a friend had on the motorcycle, the headlight is pointing straight up into the trees. This doesn’t illuminate much of the road, but it does attract lots of bugs, that in turn attract several bats who are daring each other to see who can grab the most bugs and careen away just before smashing into the visor of my helmet.

At 7 p.m. I arrive in Kangoura. The plan is to chat with the three guys who work on the farm, especially C., a new believer. We cook spaghetti and omelets and sip tea while watching the stars come out over Africa.

At 10 p.m., the men head inside to go to bed. I pull my cot outside, wrap up in a Maasai blanket and listen to Acts chapter 1 a few times in French and Jula before putting an audio book on the I-pod. I fall asleep gazing at the stars. Each time I wake up (often, thanks to the tea) the moon is dimmer and the stars are brighter.  A sleepless night of worship.

At 4:30 a.m. the roosters and turkeys lift up their rusty voices to call up the dawn and flies start buzzing around my head. The 30 minutes before sunrise are a stunning symphony of color. By 7:30, we have eaten breakfast and prayed for the start of work on the farm, reading Psalm 1 together.  C. and I have also found a little time apart to read through Acts 1 again. We plan to study Acts 2 next week. I take care of a little farm business for CMF teammates and then roll into the town of Kangoura to visit with the Chief.

At 8:30 a.m. I find the Chief all dressed up to go to Sindou. We exchange blessings for the New Year and lament the fact that we were unable to  plan this meeting. I tell him I’d really like to see his orchard of mango and cashew trees today.  Since he’ll be back by 2, I decide to continue directly on to Jeliso and catch the chief and the orchards on the way back.

At 9:30 a.m. I am exchanging New Years’ blessings with B., my Imam/Marabout friend. He says, “You rode your motorcycle in this freezing (70-degree) wind?” He invites me ito his living room, and as I sit down, a wave of emotion hits me as I see that this holy man of Islam has put my Christmas card up on his wall. On a field of green construction paper a large yellow star bearing the words of Luke 2:13-14 beams over the rock formations of Sindou that Tabitha (my wife) traced and cut out of red construction paper. We talk at length about his cashew trees and his agricultural plans for the coming year as part of my informal survey of the needs of these communities.

At 11:30 a.m. I’m at the far edge of B’s field of cashew trees, driving slowly along a six-inch wide track he assures me is a short cut straight back to Kangoura.

At noon my back wheel falls off a little ledge into some sand and we take a little tumble. I am not hurt, as I was only going about 15 miles an hour, but am glad no one was around to see it.

At 1:15 p.m. I’m back in Kangoura resting under a cashew tree listening to another book chapter on the I-pod.

At 2 p.m. I’m in Kangoura eating “To” (congealed corn mush) and okra sauce with the Chief. He also has his Christmas card with Luke 2:13-14 hanging proudly on his wall. S. and A. join us and we ride double on the motorcycles on sandy tracks out to see his orchard. It’s huge. The first trees were planted two years before I was born. So we want to help them do a tree project?  God’s sense of humor is grand. We will do tree projects with their invaluable help and learn a lot in the process.

At 4 p.m. we are back at the Chief’s house and I’m stuffing my face with more corn mush and spicy okra sauce. I step back and watch myself eating away with my hand in a common bowl with my friends, throwing down corn mush and okra sauce like its lasagna! I laugh as I lick my fingers clean. I ask the Chief if he can teach me some proverbs that use trees as illustrations. When we sit down again with S. and A., the Chief looks at us seriously and says, “The elders used to say, ‘He who plants a tree, digs a well, or buys a mortar (for pounding grain), will have great reward in this life and the next.” It’s given me a lot to think about. I pray that our physical and spiritual ministry in these communities will have the same kind of enduring blessing for the community.  

At 4:30 p.m. I can hardly keep my eyes open and I get ready to leave. The Chief asks, “What about our chats? (Bible storytelling) When are we starting that up again?” Next Tuesday, I tell him, we’ll start all over again. As I ride out of town I thank God for their interest and beg Him to sharpen me up for the task.

At 5:30 p.m., during that golden hour before sunset, I ride into Sindou and my front gate listening to Claude Debussy’s Claire de Lune. I wonder what I’ve done to deserve such a blessed life as my wife and kids pour out the doors to welcome me home with their own symphony of sound.

However, as you can see, there is a lot of work left to be done and unfortunately a lot of furniture, decorations and household items will need to be replaced. Probably the most expensive casualty was the soundboard. This past week our team, Michal Ruth Penwell, Beth West, Grace Curtright and Bank Light, worked diligently to clean all of the dirt, mud and mold from the entire campus house. We just received an update that they were almost done cleaning, just a little bit in the kitchen to go. Monday afternoon they were headed to the mall to buy paint, carpets, bookshelves, a kitchen pantry, kitchen utensils and surge protectors. They are also going to be scouting out couches, tables and chairs.

By our best estimates, it looks like about $6000 will cover all of the things that need replacing in the Grapevine. Would you be willing to make a one-time donation to help the Grapevine recover from the floods? The new semester starts January 9 and our goal is to be ready to go by then. Any amount would be greatly appreciated and would help us continue to reach college students in Thailand for Christ and bring His Kingdom here on earth. If you’re interested in giving, you can give on this site at http://cmfi.org/bangkok-thailand (look for the urgent box on the right). Please pass this along and share the news on facebook with anyone else who might be interested in helping us out.

Last year, for example, the ministry had about 200 people at the annual Thanksgiving lunch, including 50 children from a local orphanage. This year, the team decided to separate the two events and focus on Thanksgiving with the students and have a Christmas party for the kids from the orphanage. “We planned for 120-150 people and, as usual, cooked all day on Wednesday and Thursday to make sure the mega Thanksgiving feast was ready,” says Kami Burns, leader of the Globalscope Mexico team in Puebla.

“So the students started to arrive,” reports Kami, “and they didn’t stop. We started serving food at 2:15 p.m. and at 3:15 the line was still 40 people long! The portions had to get smaller, but every single one of the 230 people who showed up to celebrate Thanksgiving with El Pozo ate turkey, dressing, green beans, mixed vegetables and pineapple casserole and washed it down with some sweet tea.”

Kami and her teammates couldn’t help but be amazed as the day unfolded. “As I was carrying casseroles from our kitchen out to the serving line, pushing my way through the crowd, tears came to my eyes as the weight of the miracle that was happening out in the new building would hit me. Not only the fact that it was a huge ministry event and that the food was going much further than it should have (loaves and fishes, anyone?) but I was so blessed by the presence of the individuals represented by each of the 230 plates of food.”

Baruk, a freshman student, spoke for many: “I’m thankful for the staff here. They’ve accepted me just as I am since the beginning.” His friend Luis then thanked Baruk for inviting him to El Pozo and added, “I guess I’m still new here, but I feel like I belong because I’ve been accepted and loved.”

And Kami and the El Pozo staff had a wonderful Thanksgiving to remember. “I’m just thankful for those two and their 228 friends who brought me to tears on Thursday by showing their gratitude for El Pozo,” she said.

Today we are starting The Great Globalscope Give, a Text-to-Give campaign designed to help raise funds for our Globalscope ministries…one $10 donation at a time.  Just text GLOBAL to 85944 and reply YES to make a $10 tax-deductible donation to Globalscope international campus ministries.

The funds will go to help sustain and grow our campus ministries in Chile, Mexico, England, Germany, Spain and Thailand. This campaign started today and will run through Wednesday, November 23. Check out this video and please share it with anyone who has a heart for campus ministry.

Caleb earned a theology degree from Birmingham Christian College and has served as the pastor of Dickens Heath Village Church for the past seven years, while also working with Canvas, the Globalscope team in Birmingham that works with students at the University there. He’s currently moving into a full-time ministry with Canvas because, in his experience, “there are no ministries in the UK that are engaging with non-Christians and atheist students as well as Canvas.”

After living in Birmingham for the past 10 years, Caleb has a real passion for the university students. That, coupled with his experience working in a local church, has convinced him that the British church has to develop “a completely missional mindset,” he says. “That is one of our (the Church’s) greatest challenges. God has put it on my heart to engage with those who are missed by the Church.”

Caleb is always pleasantly surprised at how well the Canvas team members engage with atheist students, and how willing the students are to talk about Jesus. “It just doesn’t happen here in the UK, and without God in it, Canvas wouldn’t be able to operate the way it does,” he says.

Recently, the Canvas team has been able to connect many of it’s non-Christian students into a leadership group that looks for ways to better serve and reach out to people who aren’t part of the community. “These are students who don’t know Jesus yet, but they’re committed to what Canvas is, and that blows my mind!” he says. “God is at work in their lives and they don’t even realize it!”

The property was purchased from Medical Teams International (MTI) and their ministry in Mexico, Manos de Vida. The building was originally built as a school in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Atizapan de Zaragoza in northwest Mexico City. It is an understatement to say it is heavily used in CMF’s ministry in the area. In addition to worship services, Bible studies, Sunday school, weddings and baptisms, the facility is used as a community center and a missionary school. It also serves as a host site for community seminars, cookouts, dinners, marriage seminars, youth sleepovers, soccer teams and tournaments, medical clinics, English and homework clubs, men’s breakfasts and even garage sales.

“This is a much-used, much-appreciated and much-prayed-over piece of property that is really an instrument of God’s grace,” wrote Steve. “His people have used this property in one manner or another for many years. We thank God for making this moment possible and for entrusting us as His stewards of the property and His message in the Eagles neighborhood.”

Beth West, a member of the Grapevine team, sent a quick report this weekend, in between stints with Michael at the sandbag barricade and shelter. She had high praise for the “new kid,” who “not knowing Thai, jumped in and worked all day to protect a country that isn’t his alongside people shouting instructions he can’t understand. After three straight days of work, everyone knows his name, that he will do anything you ask, without a word of complaint.”

Meanwhile, Beth also reports a growing camaraderie among the workers at the flood zone. After the final exams were posted many students at Thammasat University went home, but those who remained are taking care of the 2,400 plus victims at the flood shelter on campus and building a floodwall at the canal near the river.

“We’re building ridiculously awesome and close relationships with the students,” she writes. “Maybe we have seen each other before in passing, but we’re now bonded together with water, sand, sweat and energy drinks. Everything on my body hurts, but that’s about par for the course here. We’re been working around the clock. I just got up from four hours sleep after 20 hours of work, and that schedule will continue for at least a few more days until the real flood surge comes.”

“Right now the team and I are safe and will continue to be all right, but many people have lost their homes and more than 300 people have died,” writes Beth.

Much of north and central Thailand is under one to two meters of water right now. The historic province of Ayutthaya, home to a number of Grapevine students, has been especially hard hit. Students report that their families are safe, but their houses are uninhabitable.

The flooding is expected to move into the Pathum Thani province just north of Bangkok where the team is located by this weekend (Oct. 16).

“Today the roads are wet but passable, though transportation is hard to find and stores are beginning to run out of stock as people make preparations,” she said. “For the past few days we’ve been working side by side with our Thai neighbors to create sand bag walls.”

Thammasat, the university where the team ministers, is hosting flood evacuees in an old gym and may soon open up shelter in the stadium just across the street from the Grapevine facility. “Yesterday I went to the shelter to volunteer with a student. We spent a lot of time looking for extra space and clearing and cleaning rooms to make sleeping space for the estimated 1300 plus people who will come to the shelter,” said Beth. “We plan to take a group from Grapevine to volunteer, and hopefully those students will return to help as they have time.”

At their Wednesday evening Bible study, the group focused its prayers on Thailand and the flooding victims. The staff also cut the cost of the free dinner they serve for the students each week and used the remainder of the budget to purchase canned goods to donate to the relief effort. Students brought donations of clothing, towels and toiletries, and packed bags to take to the donation site.

The team appreciates your prayers and concern. “Please continue to pray for the people who have lost their homes and family members, as well as the organizations, volunteers, and government agencies trying to help the flood victims,” writes Beth. “Please also pray that our community at Grapevine, both Christians and non-Christians alike, would take full hold of the opportunity to spread the love and peace of Christ in a tumultuous situation.”

At the very top of the heap is an outstanding opportunity for the right person on the other side of the world. An Asian manufacturing facility owned by an American corporation in a large East Asian city is looking for an energetic self-starter with a bachelor’s degree in chemical, mechanical or industrial engineering, or a related field. Two or more years of applicable work experience is also required. The primary responsibility would be to evaluate, improve and document plant-manufacturing processes. On the ministry side, the job offers many opportunities for interaction with national plant employees and for participation with the established CMF team in varied community outreach activities.

In addition, the Globalscope teams in both Mexico and Thailand are looking for young, committed, singles or married couples to reach out to college students.

The Mexico team is specifically looking for single males and married couples who will commit to the ministry for two or more years to work with students at the Universidad de Las Americas (UDLA) in Puebla, Mexico.

The Thailand team is specifically looking for self-starters, single or married, who have the initiative to learn the Thai language, create campus events and programs, and add a new dynamic to the Grapevine ministry to college students in Bangkok. The team is also in need of people who have experience in finance and/or administration or multimedia experience (photos and video).

Sound interesting? Shannon would love to hear from you and can share lots more information about these and other opportunities to begin your cross-cultural adventure.