Thursday September 29th 2011

Buenos dias por la ultima vez de los montes de Mexico. Wow! I can’t believe that this will be my last post on my missions trip! I leave Mexico in just 2 short days, and it seems like just last week that I was speaking in front of you all telling you about the trip I would be going on. It’s quite amazing how fast the time flies when you are really enjoying something. Saturday is my day of travel. It starts out early in the morning with a ride to Cuernavaca from El Monte, which is about an hour away. Then a 2 hour bus ride with my buddy Elliot who is flying home to New Zealand within an hour of my flight, to see his sister get married. That’s at least a 2 hour bus ride from Cuernavaca to Mexico City. Then all the fun of going through customs and getting everything situated at the airport. My flight then leaves for Sweet Home Chicago at 3:30 and arrives a little before 8 at O’hare. Pray for travelling mercies for me this Saturday as that is what I will be doing the entire day.

Since my last blog, a lot has happened. I mentioned that we would be celebrating the Mexican Independence at the church here in Ticuman, and what an event that was. It started out with a couple hour long service then we all ate dinner together. There was all kinds of great food, Mexican trivia (which I was horrible at, as you can imagine), a costume contest, fun of cracking eggs over peoples’ heads that had been filled with flour, and a contest to see who could belt out Viva Mexico and hold it for the longest. They had about 20 people participate and of course I was one of them because they kept egging me on. So I got up in front of the church and belted Viva Mexicooooooooooooooooooooooooo and held it for 35 seconds! Well, in the end I was the winner and the pastor made a joke that an American beat them at their own tradition and that they needed to find something to beat us in on our Independence Day. It was a lot of fun, even if I was a little light headed at the end from holding that note so long.

Our work team that was here from the Quad Cities left us last Thursday and made great progress in making sidewalks up by the pool and palapa area and painting the bathhouse down by the soccer fields. The bathhouse looks great and really stands out now, and so do all of our clothes to match the bathhouse. The fun of working with others is sometimes you get painted along with everything else. But we all really enjoyed their company and were sad to see them go.

Since we have our weekends off to recuperate from the weeks activities here at El Monte, a friend asked me if I’d like to go with them down to Acapulco last weekend for short little getaway. I, of course, accepted the invitation and got to spend a little time on the beach, for a nice weekend away. The first day was the only bad weather day we had because a hurricane went through just to the north of us, which was cool, because we had some huge waves to hit. Later that night we had a 4.8 magnitude earthquake rock our hotel. So within the first day of me being there, I experienced my first hurricane and my first earthquake. Needless to say, I was really looking forward to what day 2 had in store. I think one of the coolest things that I have ever witnessed happened our last night in Acapulco. We were walking along the beach in the dark when all of a sudden we saw this big rock in the sand that started to move. Curiosity drew us closer to what we discovered was a giant sea turtle digging a hole in the sand to lay its eggs. Wow! As you know sea turtles are endangered and it was such a cool thing to witness. We were the only ones there with her as we laid a few feet away from her in the sand, watching her lay her eggs. It was a good thing we were there because there were guys walking up and down the beach looking for sea turtles and their eggs so they could sell the eggs and kill the sea turtle for money. It’s very illegal to do this, but it doesn’t stop them from doing it, and unfortunately these guys do get a hold of the turtles and the eggs sometimes and by the time the police arrive, they are long gone. So we stayed with the turtle until it was able to safely lay its eggs and return into the big ol’ blue. For some reason I kept thinking of that turtle from Finding Nemo and him saying “The little dudes are just eggs, we leave 'em on a beach to hatch, and then, coo-coo-cachoo, they find their way back to the big ol' blue.”

Sunday evening was the start of the missionary conference we hosted here at El Monte. We hosted missionaries that are serving all over Mexico for this 4 day conference. It was nice to meet a lot of different missionaries serving in a lot of different capacities in Mexico. We had missionaries here that are originally from all over the world. From France, Belize, Korea and the USA to Singapore, Canada, Germany and of course Mexico. It was a very cool experience filled with great messages, worship, fellowship and fun. I was in charge of all the missionary kids while the parents were in meetings. So us short termers entertained a group of about 25 kids with crazy games and fun activities. The conference ended Wednesday evening and El Monte is back to a tranquil, relaxing site. At least for the time being.

Well only a couple more days until I see all of you in church on Sunday morning. This has been such an amazing experience filled with awesome adventures, amazing people, lots of good, hard work and a chance to see God do some amazing things both in El Monte itself and in the people affected by it’s ministry. This is truly a beautiful place and I have been so blessed to be a part of it for the past 3 months. I will miss all that is El Monte, but a return someday is possible, if it’s God’s will. And maybe YOU will accompany me on a week long work team adventure to the mountains of Mexico. Thank you all for your support and prayers over these past 3 months. I am so blessed to have a church family that cares so much and I am very grateful for all of you. Love you guys, miss you all and I will see you Sunday!!

Dios Les Bendiga….God Bless You

Billy

Thursday September 15th 2011

Buenas tardes! Well I have moved places yet again. Last week I finished up my language classes in Cuernavaca with my host family, the Piñóns. It was sad to leave them after spending so much time with them over the past few weeks. But they are an awesome family and we hope to see each other again someday in the near future.

And now, I am back at El Monte for the last leg of the trip. I have been back since the beginning of the week and getting adjusted to waking up and seeing a beautiful, gigantic green mountain out my front balcony. It’s really very different than the city life of Cuernavaca but its a good different because it is very peaceful. We have another work team with us from the Quad Cities that arrived on Tuesday. I have been working with them scraping, finishing and painting the new bathhouse down by the soccer fields. It’s coming along very good and we should have that finished soon. We also will be making sidewalks up by the palapa (the pavilion where camp meeting times are held) to connect it to the pool and other cabins. Pray that my back holds up as I have been having sharp pains in my lower back this whole trip and have gotten worse over these past couple days. I only have a little over 2 weeks left here and I really want to give 100% of myself to these weeks. “I can do all things through, Christ who strengthens me”

Today and tomorrow is the celebration of Mexican independence down here. Many of you probably thought that Cinco de Mayo was the Independence Day but it is actually today/tomorrow. Cinco de Mayo is Mexico’s independence from France, but today, El Grito, is the celebration of Mexico’s independence from Spain. They have a 2 day long celebration that starts today with the actual Independence Day being tomorrow. To give you a little history lesson, in the early hours of September 16th, 1810, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a priest in the small town of Dolores, Guanajuato, rang the church bell to gather the townspeople. He called for the people of Mexico to rise up against the Spanish Crown, thus initiating Mexico's War of Independence. The country did not achieve independence until 1821, but it is this event, known as the Grito de Dolores which is commemorated every year in town squares across Mexico. So we are heading to the church in Ticuman tonight for a 6 hour service/fiesta to celebrate Mexico’s Independence. It will be interesting to see the difference between our 4^th of July and their Grito.

You know you’re in Mexico when…. You stick out like a sore thumb, because not only do you look like a snowman (a mythical creature to them) but you are taller than 99.9% of the people here.

Ok, well that’s all from the mountains of Mexico.

Dios bendiga a Mexico. Viva Mexico!

Billy

Saturday September 3rd 2011

Buenos dias y saludos del corazon de Mexico. I have been on a roller coaster these past couple weeks (both literally and figuratively speaking). A couple Saturdays ago was the wedding of my roommate Gerardo up in Mexico City. I really didn’t know what to expect, being as I have never been to a foreign wedding before. Gerardo told me a little of how the wedding would be, but I was still looking forward to seeing if it would be any different than what I was used to. The wedding was at a normal church like one we have in the States. Everything was very elegant and the ceremony actually wasn’t that different than a normal American wedding. The message of the ceremony was a great one, because not only did they have the normal marriage passages, but also made the Gospel message the main point of the service. Since most of Gerardo and Elsa’s families aren’t saved, it was a perfect way to reach them. One thing that I had never seen before at a wedding was when Gerardo got down on his knees and washed the feet of his bride during the ceremony. This was a very emotional moment and an act of love, servant hood and humility that Christ first demonstrated to us on the last night of His life.

These past couple weeks I have been living with the Mexican family and taking Spanish lessons. I have improved my skills quite a bit and am learning a lot of words they don’t teach you in school such as salvation, faith, mercy, love, sacrifice and many more words found in the Gospel. We also are going through a devotional book that is completely in Spanish and I read passages from the Bible in Spanish to familiarize myself with La Palabra de Dios en espanol.

Those were a few of the highs of the past weeks, but one low that I have grown very familiar to is being sick while here. I had gotten sick the morning of the wedding and this time it was the longest and worst it had ever been. I was having severe pains in my stomach and was taking medicine for it, but it wasn’t going away. So we ended up going to the doctor and he said that I had a bad stomach infection. He gave me a couple different medicines for the infection but said it wasn’t going to be an easy thing to get rid of, and it wasn’t. I was sick for about a week and a half with this problem which made daily chores that much more difficult, but through prayer and medicine, the pain and infection subsided and I am pretty much back to 100% now. I have really been challenged with sickness a lot while I’ve been down here. That last episode was about the 4th time that I have gotten sick while being down here. There are certain things you can do to avoid getting sick, such as not drinking the water, which I of course have not been drinking. But sometimes, it comes in things you eat or even the air you breathe in. I know through these hardships of sickness I am being tested and my faith strengthened. When my strength runs dry and my vision is blinded, will I endure this trial of my faith victoriously or will I turn back in defeat? Faith must be tested, because it can only become your intimate possession through conflict. The test will either prove your faith right, or it will kill it. Jesus said, “Blessed is he who is not offended because of Me” (Matthew 11:6). The ultimate thing is confidence in Jesus. “We have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end . . .” (Hebrews 3:14). Believe steadfastly on Him and everything that challenges you will strengthen your faith. There is continual testing in the life of faith up to the point of our physical death, which is the last great test. Faith is absolute trust in God— trust that could never imagine that He would forsake us (Hebrews 13:5-6).

During the week and a half there was a window of reprievement for my birthday on the 27th. I was so thankful for a temporary break from illness that I had been praying for which allowed my friends down here to take me to 6 Flags Mexico City, the literal part of "roller coaster." Although it wasn’t a completely pain free day, it was still an enjoyable birthday spent with some great friends that I have made in my time down here. I thank the Lord for allowing me to enjoy that day and also for the many many blessings He has given me over this past quarter century. Man, I’m getting old!

The Pinons, the family I’m staying with, have a friend, Raul, that comes for food or money everyday. He is not able to support himself due to something that happened to him when he was a kid. A few men mugged him when he was younger and as a result, it permanently damaged his brain. He now wanders the street, going door to door for money and food. It is very sad because he has nowhere to go and isn’t all there in the head to be able to even hold a job. So the Pinons have been helping him by giving him a little something everyday. He can be quite a character sometimes and has nicknames for everyone. When I come to the door to give him money he calls me “tio” which means ‘uncle”, even though he is probably twice my age. One day I was wearing shirt with a big Teenage Mutant Ninja turtle face on it when I answered the door. He laughed when he saw my shirt and called me Frederico. I don’t know why he called me that, but someone told me it was probably because he had a pet turtle at one time named Frederico. Now to him I am Tio Frederico, or Uncle Frederick. He is a character, but also someone that needs prayer. He needs somebody, like a relative to take him in. He has relatives that are pretty wealthy but won’t help him out. So pray that his situation improves both physically and spiritually and that God would soften the hearts of his relatives.

Well that was a long post but now it’s time for “You know you’re in Mexico when…” You know you’re in Mexico when you go to use a public restroom but realize there are no toilet paper and no toilet seat either because someone stole them, or they were never there in the first place.

Less than one month until I’m back.

Billy

Friday August 19th 2011

Buenas tardes desde Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. There has been a lot of traveling and moving around the past week or so sorry for the lack of updates. At El Monte, we had a work team from North Carolina come and do some work projects with us. We spent a good amount of time mixing and pouring cement for the palapa grande. The palapa grande is a big pavilion that will be used for hosting more events and camps. We already have a smaller one where a lot of the games, worship times and meals took place. But as the camps grow, there will be a need for a bigger area and this palapa will help us in that. Another big aspect that our organization and leaders want us short-term missionaries to experience is the cultural aspect of Mexico. So this past weekend 3 friends and I went up to Mexico City to experience a city with a population close to 115 million. On our first day we visited ruins of a different ancient pyramid city called Teotihuacan. Teotihuacan is an enormous archaeological site that has some of the largest pyramidal structures built in the pre-Columbian Americas. Besides the pyramidal structures, Teotihuacan is also known for its large residential complexes, the Avenue of the Dead, and numerous colorful, well-preserved murals. The sites were beautiful to look at but what the ancient Aztecs practiced there was not. They built massive temples to their gods and made many human sacrifices at this location. We also experienced quite a bit of the city and met up with some of the other counselors that were from Mexico City. We saw sites including the Palacio National, Plaza de la Constitución, El Ángel de la Independencia, Basilica de Guadalupe, Estadio Azteca, Xochimilco, Catedral Metropolitana and Palacio de Bellas Artes. It was quite an eventful, long, but fun trip that I will never forget.

This week began Spanish lessons at a Christian family’s home in Cuernavaca. Part of the trip and program involves furthering my knowledge of the Spanish language. It’s interesting because many of the Spanish words I had learned in high school are not the words they use here in Mexico. So for the next few weeks, I will be learning much more Spanish and experiencing life in a Mexican home. This weekend is the wedding of my roommate Gerardo, the one many of you have been praying for. He has completely healed from his illness and will be getting married tomorrow.

And now for a little game I am starting called “You know you’re in Mexico when…”
You know you’re in Mexico when there is a traffic jam and its not because of traffic. It’s because a herd of donkeys, horses or cows choose to graze on the roads.

Billy

Saturday August 6th 2011

Buenos noches de Ticuman! Our last camp of the summer has just concluded and we are thanking the Lord for how many kids we have had at our camps these past few weeks and how many of those kids made a decision for Christ! This week consisted of great messages and worship along with pool games, a game of “Where’s Billy”, rugby, rock climbing, campfires, water balloon launches and, of course, mud pit games. I chose not to participate in the mud games because I was trying to let the gash on my foot heal and didn’t want it to get dirty. At least that’s what the responsible and smart person in me was saying. So I did very well in that decision, except, I didn’t know that others had already made a different decision about that. After the mud games were over with, all the girls chased me around the soccer field to throw me in the mud pit, but they weren’t successful. However, when the girls were rinsing off at the hose, a connection part in the hose broke free and I ran over to put it back in. With my back turned to them, all the guys gang tackled me and dragged me off to a big chocolaty splash in the mud pit. I just laughed and enjoyed it, because I knew they enjoyed throwing me in. In any case, I had to scrub my wound out really well for fear of going back to that crazy doctor at the clinic in town who seems to enjoy inflicting pain upon others. I think I did a good job cleaning it, because that wound is looking a whole lot better now and is finally healing. Yesterday, almost all of the counselors left the camps and it was really hard to see them all leave, especially because of the friendships I had developed with them over the past 3 weeks. But they are hopefully going to be at my roommate Gerardo’s wedding on August 20th. So I am looking forward to seeing them there. This past week we caught a giant tarantula in our apartments kitchen! He was crawling on the countertops and we took a container and trapped him. Later on we took him out to play with him and that spider is almost as big as my hand when it is spread out. It has to be one of the ugliest things I have ever seen, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to hold it. These next couple days we be times to recuperate from the camps and we already have a work team here with us from North Carolina that will be finishing some work in the apartment complex I stay in along with clearing out a bunch of trees on the mountain and various other projects. Us short termers will start work with them on Monday. I’ve met all of them already and they seem like a great group of people. Some other good news to report is that G, my roommate, is back with us at El Monte. He came back for the last day of camp and will be leaving on Monday. He is feeling quite a bit better, although still not at 100%. Thank you for your prayers for him, and I’m sure it won’t be long before he has fully recovered. So this next week will be a lot of working with the team from North Carolina and then the staff here wants me to better my Spanish, so next week I will be leaving for Cuernavaca to live with the host family and improve my Spanish. Reporting from the mountains of Mexico, this is Billy Beaumont, El Monte News.

Vamos a cantar, con la musica del cielo, vamos a cantar, alegres porque escuchas cuando cantamos para exaltar Tu nombre.

Billy

Monday August 1st 2011

Buenos Dias and Happy Birthday to my wonderful mother!! (I originally wrote this post on Saturday, but haven’t been able to post it because we have been without power for the past 3 days). So we are glad that it is finally back on and happy to get new routers to get the Internet working again, since the lightning fried the old routers. Another week of camp has gone by and it has been the busiest one yet. We had 38 campers here with us this week. We were astounded at how many showed up for the camp and are thanking the Lord for every one of them. About half of the kids we had were “street kids” as they’re called here, which means they pretty much live on the streets with little or no home to go to. All of those kids will have a special place in my heart and it’s again, another tough thing to see these kids go back to what they have, or don’t have for that matter. But that is the reality of the extreme poverty here in Mexico, but you can’t help but want to take them home with you. I know this week has made a tremendous impact on their lives as well as the rest of campers in attendance this week. We played a lot of the same games including pool games where I chased the kids around on a blow up crocodile, mud games, great praise and worship and a new game where the kids and to find us counselors and staff as we hid in the Mexican jungle at night. I do have to admit I was a little cautious about going too deep into the woods because of all the creepy crawlers they have down here. They have black widow spiders, Mexican beaded lizards, scorpions, rattlesnakes, all of which are extremely poisonous. Not to mention all the other animals, tarantulas, snakes, fire ants, spiders, chiggers and other bugs roaming the property down here. So it made for an interesting night hiding out in a tree in the dark. Oh, I forgot to mention that the night before we played a similar game where the kids found every counselor that was hiding except for me which, according to the counselors and staff made me some sort of celebrity somehow. I didn’t get it, but a few kids even asked for my autograph, which I thought was pretty funny. So anyways, the next night we played the game again, only we had to make animal sounds for the kids to find us. I choose to be a gorilla, which is why I hid in a tree. I made sure my noise that I made was the loudest out of all the staff and counselors and the next day everyone on El Monte property told me they could hear my gorilla noises. During the game, it was like it was the campers mission to try and find me. I was loud enough that quite a few of them did find me and they were super excited when they did. That game was probably the most fun of the week. On a not so great note, there have been quite a few robberies over the past few weeks at camps in the area. A camp a ways away from us was robbed while people were at the camp and a couple weeks ago, Paul & Roxanne’s (the couple I had been in contact with prior to coming here) house was robbed in broad daylight. Their house is only about a block away from my apartment here on El Monte property and the robbers took quite a few things. Even though we have a fence around the entire property, it’s not enough to stop anyone from getting in, which is a bit unsettling, but we are taking refuge in the fact that we know God will watch over and protect us and are thanking Him that no one was hurt and that “replaceable things” were the only things taken. Also, please pray for my roommate Gerardo. There has been a virus going around camp the past week or so and he had gotten it the worst. It was a stomach virus, but his spread to a throat and mouth infection. His mouth is swollen with soars and he can’t swallow anything. He has spent the past few nights at a doctor in town’s house and has just recently been transferred up to Mexico City for more treatment. It’s quite a bummer, not only that he is sick, but because he is one of the organizers and camp directors. He was really looking forward to these camps and was only able to participate in one of them. He is also getting married on August 20th and has all of that on his plate as well. I just found out that he is going to be staying up in Mexico City until then, to get better and be close to his fiancée. I probably won’t see him until then, but pray that he is able to fully recover quickly, especially in time for his wedding. And as far as my wounds from the mud pit go, most of them had healed up this week except for a gash on my left foot. I probably should have had stitches but didn’t. This past Monday we went into the medical clinic in Tucumán to have it looked at to see if it was infected. The doctor wanted to clean out the wound and make sure there was no bacteria in it. Let me just tell you right now, how painful that was….OW!!!! She injected a needle 6 different times directly into my gash, which by the way, hurt very bad at even the slightest touch. So she injected something to numb the pain of her scrubbing out the wound, but I think I would have rather just dealt with that pain and skipped the shots all together. I mean she stuck me good and it went down deep. And once the needle was in my foot, she moved it around in there. Talk about painful. I almost passed out from the pain and went white as a ghost after the 4th or 5th shot. But I made it through it and they didn’t have to amputate a foot or anything, so that’s some good news. It is healing now and should be completely sealed over within the next few days. All right, that’s all to report from the mountains of Mexico.

Happy Birthday Mama!!

Billy

Sunday July 24th 2011

We have had quite an exciting first week of camp! We had about 15 campers here with us last week, which is very good considering how new the camp is. The week was full of lots of fun activities that included pool games, shaving cream hairdo contests, slip n slides, praise and worship and games in the mud pit. The mud pit was probably the highlight of all the games because everyone was covered from head to foot in sloppy mud. The kids really enjoyed it as did us big kids. Capture the flag and tug o war is just that much more exciting when you’re slipping and sliding in the slop! But of course, those who play sometimes pay, as is usually my case. We took our socks and shoes off and my legs and feet got really banged up from the rocks and sticks that were stuck in the mud. I have scrapes and gashes all over my legs and on the sides and bottoms of my feet, which have made walking these past few days quite a painful experience. All part of the adventure I guess. It’s not everyday you get to play in a giant mud pit and bond with a bunch of 12 and 13 year old Mexican kids. I have developed some great friendships over this past week with the kids have shared some great memories with them. I am ecstatic to report that 4 of the campers accepted Christ as their Savior this week! We have all been rejoicing over the decisions the campers have made and the work the Lord has done in their lives and will continue to do. One of the highlights of my week was when one of the boys that accepted Christ as his Savior this week put his arm around me and said “Eres mi amigo” which means “you are my friend”. That was such a cool moment for me, and made me realize that I really do have an impact on these kids’ lives. I would like you to pray for one of our other campers that we had this past week. His name is Fernando and he is a bit of a rambunctious kid and comes from a troubled home. The gospel is a brand new thing to him and I’m sure a seed was planted in his heart this past week but today when it was time to leave, he clung to one of the counselors and asked if he could stay here at the camp instead of going home. I guess he lives with his grandma and she routinely practices witchcraft. Pray that God would work in that family and for Fernando and his situation at home. It’s very difficult to see him go back to an evil place like that so please keep him in your prayers. Also being in an extremely poor part of the country, a lot of campers are not able to attend camp because of the cost. Even though this camp would be extremely cheap to us at roughly 400 pesos a camper (40 dollars), families are not able to part with that kind of money. We have been scrounging up money here at El Monte to put it towards as many scholarships and bring as many children here to hear the gospel as possible. There are just so many kids here with such poor economic conditions that make it very difficult to bring as many kids as we’d like. But we are praying that we are able to reach as many kids as possible with the funds we have now. Our camp session is over but the next camp starts on Monday.

Mi corazón se llena de emoción. Cuan grande es Él. Cuan grande es Él. Mi corazón se llena de emoción. Cuan grande es Él. Cuan grande es Él.

Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee. How great Thou Art. How great Thou art.

Billy