La Fea mas Bella

For my gringo friends out there, this means "the prettiest ugly girl." It is one of the most popular Mexican soap operas out right now and it is hilarious! This professional "La Fea" is completely different from everyone around her, yet she has this strange appeal to those in the show as well as those who watch.
Sometimes we feel like "La Fea mas Bella" as we live our lives and share the good news in Celaya. There is a love/hate relationship with the USA/Mexico in which there is a mutual respect, but there is also a jealousy that few admit that tends to cause problems at times. I have always been mindful of the need for those in Christian service to have thick skin, but the mission field has reinforced that beyond my wildest dreams. We have seen attacks from so many directions that we rarely know who our friends are. Jesus said it well when he said that he does not entrust himself to any man because he knows what is in a man. Wow! How do we live without entrusting ourselves or being vulnerable at times? It requires a balance, but life is going to hurt...it hurt Jesus to the point of the cross.
I am reading a good book that is challenging much about what we think of church and churchy things that we do: Organic Church by Neil Cole.
The first Christian church on the history books resulted from 300 years of work. Why can't we wait at least ten before we rush to build buildings?
In the children's book Frog and Toad Together the example is given of how we tend to labor in all of the wrong things when it is actually (the seed)God who does the work in His time. (p.84) Much of the work that we do is chasing after the wind when the true work is waiting for the Lord in prayer and living among the people so that they might see Christ in us and know him.
That is enough for now. Look up "La Fea mas Bella" online if you want to see pictures of what I have been writing about. (I chose not to put them on my blog due to copyright laws.) Keep praying for Celaya!
Ciao!