May 24: Jeff's Challenge

1. We are not going to Mancora to serve: we are going to Mancora because we are servants.
The difference is that serving is the action of doing something for someone and it seems more like a choice you have whether to serve or not. While servants are the people specifically chosen to do a job and make things succeed.
If I'm a servant then whatever is told to me to do has to be done in order to let things flow in a easier way and accomplish the purpose of the trip or etc. It requires obedience and cooperation. Being a servant has to do with being submissive to someone, specifically to God. In the other hand, if I were to serve then I'm pretty much on my own deciding on how to do things or not.
We can serve to people in Mancora by being servants of God and to them. Because God is graceful and loving and those are attributes that should be applied whether we know the people or not. That way people might see Christ in us and be moved so tighter bounds or friendships would be built. I think is about being servants to them in an action of love to God, not of obligation.

2. "To get closer to God"
-What is the impact of culture on faith?-->How can I see life and the gospel differently because of what I've experienced?
-What's wrong with the world?-->What can I learn about justice, poverty, and the causes of suffering?

I hope to get more insights in this questions because I'd like to see what great impact people from other country and their lifestyles can make on me. How that would make me see things or realize things that were always there in the scriptures or constantly presenting in my life and maybe I haven't been able to clearly see or understand. Maybe the experience would be eye opening to me in that part. And I have to say pretty much the same for the second question. I just want to truly understand the circumstances in which others live, how things affect them emotionally, physically, and mentally so I can think of good ways of approaching people and helping them go through whatever they may be going through.

As I pray, read the scriptures, and prepare for this trip I feel that God is telling me to be strong and stay focus in this because I've been going back into putting walls and not letting people in anymore. I feel his word is comforting me and letting me know that I'm not alone, that I can trust in Him, that He is with me, and that I need to pass through that mass to work efficiently for this trip. Also, that this isn't about me but about what I can do for others and how I can work in people's lives with God by my side.