It’s been a while since I updated. I’ve been pretty busy. Let me tell you about some of it. First, I’ve been spending as much time as possible with my two friends (Chris and Maria) as the leave within the next few days. I will miss them a lot; they both played a big role in helping me transition to Monterrey. I also have been busy with the not-so-fun-but-necessary side of my job = meetings. I am not a meeting kind of a guy; I am more of a hands-on action kind of a guy. I know they are very important and necessary; but for the most part I tried to avoid them. This past two weeks I have had a whole mess of meetings. But again, they were necessary, and now I will be free of them for the next couple weeks. The meetings definitely resulted in some good things, for example: I met with the pastor last week and discussed a variety of things. I asked him to meet because I was doing some reflecting after my 6 month marker and had some observations, suggestions, etc that I wanted to talk with him about. A friend of mine would call it a “come to Jesus meeting” (it’s a southern phrase). Basically it means we hashed out a lot of stuff and came away with really positive results. I will give you an overall summary, but some of it was too personal to share here. I had felt a small distance beginning to grow between myself and the church. Not a difference of great proportions, but I could sense it could become a large rift in the near future. So I told the pastor what I was feeling, where I was coming from, and a couple options of where we could go from here. Basically what I said was, I had been doing a lot of sitting back, assisting, observing, etc, in the church so far; and I wasn’t feeling content with just doing that. Part of it is some cultural differences, so I was sensitive to that in my explanation, but I just didn’t feel like I had enough to do. And on the other hand, I have made a lot of contacts outside of the church that have plenty of work for me to do. I know the church is very young (8 months old) so there is not lot of extra ministry stuff going on yet. There is a lot that is in the general planning stages, but won’t be started for a while. I am used to being super busy and always on the go. So I felt there were basically two options, I intentionally go seek out more for me to do within the church; or just go with the flow and drift away from the church – but still be helping/volunteering/serving within the city. Pastor Sergio (he is very wise – that’s why I went to him) was grateful that I came to him right away and was trying to avoid an awkward situation several months from now. He had some ideas he had been thinking about for me already, but hadn’t got around to talking with me about them yet. So, the end result is basically a new job description for me – and its going to keep me super busy within the church, but I will still get my one day a week in at my orphanage with all the kids that I love so much. I will now be stepping up and am the leader of the youth group. This is great, because I already have some good relationships going with some of the high school kids, and I see a lot of potential in this group – but it’s going to be a lot of work. The only thing I was concerned about is that I will most likely be leaving in November. I don’t want to come in restructure, and internally organize the group (which are the biggest problems they have right now) and then leave and watch it all fall back apart. So a major prayer request is for God to provide a disciple that I can train to take over when I leave. Another part of the job description is that I am going to step up and be the point man for the next couple mission trips. I am really excited about this too; because I have had a lot of fun with the groups in the past. I also see a lot of room for improvement, and have the advantage of knowing how an American thinks; and can plan accordingly. And, I feel that very soon I will also be taking over the supervision of the set-up and tear-down of the sound equipment every Sunday. I say this because we Americans are very efficient, planning kind of people; and that is definitely a huge cultural difference. So I never thought I would be the most organized person in the room; but it happens all the time. So I think I can greatly help them by helping them set up some more organized ways to run things. I also will continue teaching my English class twice a week in the mornings, and will soon be starting a second class once a week in the evenings. I am really glad this is how it went down. I feel refreshed, my vision renewed, and fired up about the next six months. The next six months are going to be a little bit busier, and a lot of fun. I am really excited about what God is going to do during the rest of my time here!