love transcends language....

Steph and I ran down to Mexico last weekend with a bunch of fantastic younglife people. We went to build a couple houses, but it felt like we were given more than we gave. I have to admit, its incredibly frustrating trying to communicate when you only know 10 words in Spanish. But the one thing that I really learned was how much we communicate with eye contact, expressions, movement and touch. We absolutely fell in love with the families we were serving and the neighborhood kids that loved to both work and play with us. I especially connected with Emelda (the beautiful little girl in pink). She was so loving towards her little brother Lalo (always guiding him and kissing him on the head). And she was also fun-loving (particularily fond of stealing Josh’s hat). On the second day, she gave us necklaces that she made--and after I hugged her tight and told her “te amo”, she pointed to my chest and asked “Jesús”?

sí, me amiga, sí!

It’s a beautiful thing to learn about the love of Christ from a sweet little 8 year old in a different country....

The other thing I realized was how much I love to hear people tell their stories. I only knew a few of the people we went with so it was great to just hear about people’s lives (especially their passions). I met some beautiful people who are rich in compassion (especially for Africa, the elderly, and the people around them). When we were sitting around the camp-fire one night, someone said something that really stuck with me... they said, “I don’t consider myself a religious person, but I love doing stuff like this, and hanging around people like this.” I thought about that for days....

...how the religious are concerned with rituals, rules, and temples. And how ironically enough, the first century Christians were called "atheists" by the Romans because they emphasized the fact that they didn't need these things. In their minds, they didn't have a religion... they had a Person-- who knew them, and loved them. So to them prayer wasn't a ritual--it was a conversation. Worship wasn't a religious ceremony--just love songs. They had no list of rules--they just lived love ("love God, and love each other.") They didn't have a temple--but believed Christ's presence was always with them.

Just spending a couple days loving people in the sand and in simplicity, made me wonder... maybe all the extra stuff is just man's attempt to make Jesus into a religion, when what he really wanted was to dissolve religion--and just show us how to love God, and love each other??

more pics of beautiful people ...