The Hunt for the Purple-Head 2/24/10

It has taken me several days and hard persuasive skills to acquire the permission of the participants to post these photos.  So I hope you are able to enjoy my hard work.  The hunt began while we were watching the Olympics as a family.  Suddenly, a purple blur flashed by me.  I asked myself, "Was that one of those endangered purple-headed girls?"  I quickly grabbed my camera and the chase ensued.

Here are some pics of other purple-heads:

Disclaimer:    This participant would like you to know that she does not normally look like this.

Mexican Missiology I: A Historical Glimpse 2/22/10

Missiology: the study of the church's mission to spread the kingdom of God.  At the risk that many reading this would consider it yawn material, a short report on what I've learned concerning Mexican Missiology would be very relevant for me as a potential future missionary to Mexico and may be beneficial to anyone interested in God's work in other places.  My observations are probably naive and incomplete for the time being but I might as well do it now that I have a reliable source at my disposal:  my dad, Samuel P. Hornbrook who grew up in Mexico as a missionary kid and has now spent almost 20 years of his career as a missionary to Mexico.  Don't let any of this technical jargon scare you away; this post should be fascinating and brief and full of pictures!

Mexico.  America's next door neighbor.  A heavily diverse landscape that includes cactus deserts, tropical rain forests, alpine mountains, undeveloped wildernesses, and concrete metropolises.  Rich indigenous culture and colorfully corrupt in its modern government.  And although the country is rampant with fatal misunderstandings of the Bible, it has been mysteriously overlooked when it comes to missionary work.

The Spanish conquistadors came supposedly in the name of missionary work for the Roman Catholic church in the 1500's.  To this day, ninety percent of the population claims to be Roman Catholic.  It wasn't until the late 1800's and early 1900's when Mormon and Southern Baptist missionaries began to trickle into Mexico.  However, independent Baptist missionaries didn't reach Mexico until my grandparents' generation.  In fact, the first generation of independent Baptist missionaries are mostly still alive today and many of them are still on the mission field including my dad's parents.  My dad says that Mexico's evangelical ministry is surprisingly undeveloped.  He's been to other Latin countries such as Peru, Dominican Republic, and Venezuela and says that in those countries (especially Peru) the church seems more developed.

The northern parts of Mexico have become significantly affected by the Good News and even have a Baptist college in Monterey.  I guess those areas are close enough for theologically sound churches from the States to take countless missions trips there and make an impact.  That being said, the rest of Mexico is fairly well evangelized in comparison to beast known as Mexico City.  My dad says that the early missionaries didn't even want to learn Spanish in Mexico City even though the best language schools are there. Missionaries didn't want to live in the belly of the beast until the 1980's when Otis and Beulah Pinkston moved there to plant a church.  In Beulah's autobiographical book In Spite of Ourselves she describes how they had at first resolved to never minister to Mexico City for several reasons including the daunting size and traffic and pollution and crime.  However, they were eventually convinced to brave the metropolis and planted Iglesia Bautista Maranata where my parents served for several years and where I grew up.  It has been difficult for me to find any info or history on missions to Mexico City which leads me to think that the Pinkstons were some of the first evangelical missionaries to Mexico City after the conquistadors.

Perhaps Mexico isn't far away enough to be considered by the great missionaries who left great impacts in Asia and Africa.  Perhaps Mexico City seems like too big of a mountain to move.  Whatever the case, God's hand seems to be changing the mission's landscape in Mexico as we speak.  My parent's generation of missionaries seem to be more interested because my parents have bumped into a bunch of them and even worked with many of them as a team.  However, my parent's generation of missionaries also seems plagued with many leaving the mission field permanently and dividing national pastors and crumbling churches abandoned by the missionaries.  I hope to write on those second generational problems in my next missiological post.

Ixta and Popo 2/9/10

(If you are viewing this on Facebook, know that the versions on some internet browsers are messed up.  Please check out the original post at http://americanchilango.blogspot.com/2010/02/blog-post.html.)

The sheer volume of houses covering these hills should give you an idea as to how unbelievably crowded this city is.  It's unreal.  Click on the pictures to get a closer look.

All the rain has caused flooding and power outages in parts of the city.  But it also washed the pollution away.  As you can see, Mexico City is surrounded by mountains and snow covered volcanoes.  Majestic.  My dad and I grabbed our cameras (my family got me one for Christmas) and headed a couple of blocks up the hill where we live.  We've never seen the volcanoes so clearly.  It helps that several boat loads of snow have been dumped on them recently.  I bet the ancient Aztecs got to see the mountains every day.  I'm jealous.  The bigger one is Ixtaccihuatl and the other one is the most active volcano in the world, Popocatepetl.

The size of the city is impressive, but the Mastermind behind that mountain range impresses me more.  That's who I want to worship.

Sunday Seems So Far Away 2/4/10

I spoke too soon. The clouds have rolled back in, pouring rain for the past several days, trapping us inside. I love reading through my dad's bookshelves and I love spending time with my sisters. But we've been stuck inside for so long that I can't concentrate when I read and my heart isn't in it when we play. We need to get out. We are trapped.

I think this is not far from the modern teenager's daily experience. Trapped in an idle house. The Hornbrook house in Mexico City has a history of magnifying this experience and therefore I'm able to explore it deeper than many people can. Plus my sisters are really struggling with it right now (especially my sixteen-year-old sister, Natalie), so it would be very valuable for me to explore possible solutions. At the end of this post I'm going to ask for your suggestions. First let me give you an idea of what the problem is.

This is indeed a problem because when I went through my high school years, I filled my idle time with video games. I lived for video games. I slept away my blood-shot eyes and I woke up in the morning for video games. My god was video games. Even today, my lack of social skills often distracts me from focusing on other things. The same thing is happening to my sisters. Natalie seems dangerously close to living for Facebook.

There are a few factors that contribute to the magnitude of this problem. First, my sisters and I have all been home schooled as long as we've been in Mexico. Most kids fill their social needs with their circle of school friends. My sisters don't have that privilege.

In addition to that, we live in Mexico City, possibly the biggest city in the world, and often the loneliest city in the world. It is characterized by traffic jams, heavily armed policemen, homes fortified by barred windows and enclosed by walls and gates. Even though a third of the Mexican population is under fourteen-years-old, it is not a friendly place for teenagers to hang out. With kidnappings at an all-time high, we don't want to be wandering the streets. With transportation being such an obstacle, we rarely go anywhere.

But thank God for His church! Iglesia Nueva Vida is the church my dad has been growing for the past six years. Sunday is indeed a breath of fresh, life-giving air. Since we only see each other once a week, most of us hang out for two or three hours after the service! How many American churches do that? They are an exceptional group to hang out with. Every Sunday I thank God for giving my family such good friends.

But that's one day. It's over in the blink of an eye. Suddenly, it's Monday again with a long road of lonely days before us. Today is Thursday, and still Sunday seems so far away. Can you imagine the frustration? I'm not so concerned about myself since I have plenty of books to read, I accompany my dad in all his ministry outings, and I have plenty of blogs to write. I'm so proud of Natalie for lasting this long. Most kids in this situation would try to entertain themselves by rebelling against the rules of the house. My sisters aren't like that.

Maybe some biblical help would be good for us. Like an exploration of how to glorify God with our idle time and despite trapped circumstances. If you have any ideas please comment. I know we encounter more "trapped" people than it seems and it would be good to know how to help them in addition to ourselves. I hope to update on what I've learned later. Thank you so much for reading!