re 1 (1)" title="Picture 1 (1)" width="75" height="100" class="alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-2891" />Hola, there is a young boy living with us who’s name is Luis Batez. He is 14 years old and has been given an amazing opportunity to go to school. The government has offered him a scholarship in which they will pay for half of the cost of his school. The only problem is his family cannot afford the other half. His little brother was in and out of the hospital and his family was already struggling to feed themselves, that is why he moved in with us. To get a job in Mexico that can provide for your family, having an education is crucial. The factories will not hire anybody unless they have the equivalent of a high school diploma. The total cost that is left after the scholarship is 100$ for the whole year plus school supplies. Because I know Luis personally and have seen his desire to learn in school but also his passion to learn more about God and continually read the bible, I would love for us as a community to be able to give him the opportunity to go to school. I hope that you will prayerfully consider what the Lord would have you do with your tithes and donations and consider helping sending him to school.

re 2 (1)" title="Picture 2 (1)" width="75" height="100" class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-2892" />There are many more kids like Luis here in our community and any amount donated will be a huge blessing. We as the Tapias family living here in Mexico have already sent one boy to school and he started his first day of school. However we have only paid for his school. He still needs a uniform by the end of the week or he will be sent home. If there is one that you would specifically like to help you can let me know. These are pictures of both boys. I hope that you prayerfully consider helping these kids go to school. Please contact me at tsennema@hotmail.com.

God Bless, Tim

The Lord is provoking my spirit through this passage [Judges 19] with the horrors of the sex trade.
What happens to the women in the passage has been going on for centuries.
Its no wonder that when someone does a documentary on the child sex trade, they end up calling it, “The Day My God Died”.
The title is actually the words of the sex trade girls themselves, “the day that I was sold was the day that my god died”.
2500 girls a day, 1,000,000 girls a year!
How can He allow this horror to continue?
Its enough to shake your confidence in a good God.

No, I am not losing my faith, though I do struggle with this question.
But I am also struggling with the people – mostly men!!! – who perpetrate these horrors.
The ‘customers’ who ‘consume’ these girls and boys for pleasure!?!?
This passage should disturb us, and so should this documentary.
Sure, we can refuse to think about it, but it won’t go away.
And I believe that the Lord Jesus is calling us to think about it, to hate it, and to join Him in standing up for justice, truth, love, freedom.

Watch this trailer for the PBS documentary “The Day My God Died” (its 4 minutes) below.
You can see the whole 54 minute documentary here.

You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life. [John 5:39-40]
As I go through the book of Judges, it becomes more evident to me that I can’t understand its message without Jesus.
I read to the end of the book this morning, and these last chapters are going to be tough – in fact I feel the need to add a CONTENT ADVISORY on my reflections.
I can appreciate that people just reading these chapters alone would be turned off by the bible.
This is why I keep trying to draw our attention to Jesus, I figure that He is the only way we can make sense of the rest of the bible.

Today we (the Lord and I) are wrestling through Judges 18 together.
Its obvious from the first line [In those days Israel had no king, Judges 18:1] that this chapter continues what was talked about in the previous chapter [In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit, Judges 17:6].
The thought that keeps coming back to me is that I am not free to live as I see fit.
If I am to be a Jesus-follower, if I am to surrender to Jesus as my Lord, then I must submit my will to Him and do as He sees fit.
This is not a negative thing!
This is the best thing, the good news, the life that results in joy and blessing.
My way leads to misery and death, His way leads to life and peace [Romans 8:6].

What else is the Lord saying to me in this passage?

Today the Lord and I are talking through the story of Samson and Delilah, and the sad ending of his life.
So much potential, wasted because of a wayward heart.
Makes me think of Solomon, another example of someone who should have known better.
He even wrote about it in his book of wisdom [Proverbs 5:1-23].

The evil deeds of a wicked man ensnare him; the cords of his sin hold him fast. He will die for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly. [Proverbs 5:22-23]

Lord, I sense where this is going…

Today is Judges 15 day!!!
What I mean by this is that for me, as I read through the bible-reading program, today is the day that God is speaking to me through Judges 15.
I’ve read through the passage, I’ve reflected on what it means, and made some personal applications.
Now as I go through the day I am paying attention to ways that my experiences today tie in with what I read, and how God is speaking to me through my day and through my reading.

I think this is something we all need to do.
Using whatever bible-reading method you choose, we need to do more than just read it and forget it.
But we also need to do more than read it like a book – we need to talk to the Lord about what we read, and we need to listen for His guidance or conviction in regards to our daily lives.

This is how I imagine it was for the first Jesus-followers.
As Jesus spoke to them through the day, the disciples thought about, talked about, and applied what they heard to their lives and experiences.
It was a day by day apprenticeship, rooted in a personal, conversational relationship.
We do not have the physical person of Jesus with us, but we do have His Spirit in us, and we have His truth and testimony in writing in the bible.
Reading the bible with the Lord, by His Spirit, allows us to have a day by day apprenticeship, rooted in a personal, conversational relationship.

Today the Lord is speaking to me through Judges 15.
Today I am going to look for ways that what I read there helps me, directs me, as I go through my day.
Feel free to add your thoughts about what the Lord might be saying through Judges 15!

We got word yesterday, Tim is coming home! Next week Saturday, August 29th. We are so looking forward to seeing him again! Lots of things to pray about still, work and school and transportation and adjusting to life back in Canada and… but he’s coming home!

Hola
Hello from Juarez. This week we had the opportunity to go down to the Sierra Mountains. It is in the southern part of the state. It is pretty much unsettled except by the Tarahumara Indians which is exactly who we were going to visit. God was incredibly evident throughout the whole trip even leaving Juarez. Because of all the drug violence they have been very picky about who they let past the 30 kilometer border, especially Americans. We were pulled over and searched but let through, then we also got pulled over at the military checkpoint and they let us pass no questions asked.

After about 7 hours of driving we pulled of the highway and onto a dirt road. It had rained heavily before we got there and about 30 minutes down the road we had to cross a flooded river. Some people passed by and said there was no way we could cross ahead or even the river without 4 wheel drive. But we braved the river anyways at one point the river was above our lights on the van but praise the Lord we made it across. We only blew one tire before we reached the valley where they lived.

When we got there they were overjoyed to see us, mostly because we brought 15 Tarahumaras with us. We got there and had a service with them, it was amazing to hear the persecution they go through for the Lord. Being dragged out of there homes in the middle of the night, having their land stolen, and their stuff broken and vandalized by there own people. It made me understand more how little we actually sacrifice for God and how blessed we are to live in the countries we live in. They still don’t have a bible translated in their language so we all shared verses the touched us somehow and then had it translated from English to Spanish to Tarahumara. It took a long time but they have no concept of time and were just overjoyed to hear more of what the bible says. The service lasted almost 5 hours but nobody noticed. I also noticed how blessed we are and how sad it is that we take the bible for granted and listening to its powerful and God inspired words has become a chore for some people.

We also helped with work. We helped them pull weeds in there corn fields and transport things from one side of the valley to the other which was so much easier with the vans. God also made himself evident on the way out because we couldnt leave the valley if it rained because the roads would have been way to muddy and impossible for anybody to drive on. That night the darkest clouds I’ve seen in a long time came and we prayed hard that they wouldnt rain and it rained everywhere around us but not where we were. On the way back we only got stuck once and had one more flat tire but we made it home alive. Our vans took a beating but God allowed us to get home.

In the end we were all touched and in awe of Gods amazing power. We also learned so much about where our relationships with God were lacking. We were humbled and amazed. Thank you for your prayer support we couldnt have done anything without prayer and your support
God Bless, Tim

Our son Tim is working with Life Challenge in Juarez, Mexico

Hola, just a quick update on how things are going down here in Juarez, Mexico.

These past 2 weeks have been interesting in dealing with a specific situation. I’ve had the opportunity to work with a married couple who are 18 and 19 years old, the girl Carolina already has 3 kids with 3 different men. They come here looking for food because neither can get work because their parents wont give them their papers. Right now we are dealing with how we can help them get on their feet but also not only give them the food that will make them hungry again but the spiritual food that will fill them for life.

We also just finished building a house for a family who’s mother has cancer and daughter has special needs. We took them out of a pallet house and built them a 24 by 24 house which for Mexico is a BIG house. Continue reading ‘update from Tim’ »

Reading the opening words of 1 Corinthians 11:1-16 can cause confusion or concern.
Once again I have found The Message to be a helpful reading on a difficult passage, showing how Paul is speaking about cultural symbols in his time, and the meaning behind them:

^1-2It pleases me that you continue to remember and honor me by keeping up the traditions of the faith I taught you. All actual authority stems from Christ. ^3-9In a marriage relationship, there is authority from Christ to husband, and from husband to wife. The authority of Christ is the authority of God. Any man who speaks with God or about God in a way that shows a lack of respect for the authority of Christ, dishonors Christ. In the same way, a wife who speaks with God in a way that shows a lack of respect for the authority of her husband, dishonors her husband. Worse, she dishonors herself—an ugly sight, like a woman with her head shaved. This is basically the origin of these customs we have of women wearing head coverings in worship, while men take their hats off. By these symbolic acts, men and women, who far too often butt heads with each other, submit their “heads” to the Head: God.^10-12Don’t, by the way, read too much into the differences here between men and women. Neither man nor woman can go it alone or claim priority. Man was created first, as a beautiful shining reflection of God—that is true. But the head on a woman’s body clearly outshines in beauty the head of her “head,” her husband. The first woman came from man, true—but ever since then, every man comes from a woman! And since virtually everything comes from God anyway, let’s quit going through these “who’s first” routines.

^13-16Don’t you agree there is something naturally powerful in the symbolism—a woman, her beautiful hair reminiscent of angels, praying in adoration; a man, his head bared in reverence, praying in submission? I hope you’re not going to be argumentative about this. All God’s churches see it this way; I don’t want you standing out as an exception.

Its amazing how a song that I learned while in Mexico can still touch me deeply as I hear it.
I do remember what some of the lines mean – its a great song!
But the impact comes more from the memories associated with it, as we spent a week in Juarez, Mexico, and saw God at work in, around and through us.
Maybe part of it is because our son Tim is still living and serving there – one of the ways God moved that week when we were there in April 08.
Won’t mean as much to you, but enjoy!
I’ve added the English translation below the video.