Blog Update

It has been a really long time since I have written on my blog and a lot has happened. I have completed a year volunteering at an orphanage in Mexico, taken classes at the local community college, worked several jobs and much more. I will save most of the “what has happened” stuff for latter. I just want to focus on my blog in this post.

I originally started this blog as a way to quickly and easily put out updates during my adventures at Rivers of Mercy Children’s Home. Needless to say that plan didn’t go very well. I only posted twice while living in Juarez. Anyway, I have completed that time of service there and moved back to my childhood home with my family. I still go back to Mexico every so often, but not enough to have a separate blog just for my visits. But, I still have a blog, and the desire to write on it. So, I wanted to change it purpose. I want to use this space for several things. I want my posts to have a consistent theme. I want this blog to be a narration of a journey, my journey with God. This will be my place to tell of what is going on in my life as I endeavor to be a living sacrifice unto God. I still intend to use this as a space to update… but a different kind of update. But it will be used for much more. I want to update as far as my current mission endeavors, life happenings, and walk (with God) excitements. But more so I want this blog to be a place where God is glorified, magnified and exalted. I want to tell of His wondrous works. The main purpose of this blog, now, as it always should have been, is to tell of what God is doing, in my life and in the lives of others. God is amazing and has been very active in my life. I look forward to sharing all the exciting things God has done, is doing and will do. I have a lot of post planned that I look forward to sharing soon. I have a lot to say after keep silent for over a year. Some of the posts I am most excited about include a new Bible study, physical struggles, what’s next for me, and some quick updates about a lot of stuff (mostly past happenings). I have a lot of posts coming up, so, don’t go too far. I hope you enjoy and are encouraged by what you read.

Hi Everyone

I have been given the opportunity to go to Cameroon, West Africa on a mission and survey trip with my uncle and pastor, Mark Waite. We will be making this eighteen day trip in early August. We will visit and minister in several remote villages which represent three distinct people groups, two of which have not been reached with the gospel. Besides sharing the gospel with unbelievers, usually around campfires at night, we will be teaching, encouraging and helping local pastors. We will be working with an indigenous Cameroonian ministry known as Bread for Life. They are a non-denominational Christian ministry that takes on humanitarian and relief projects, engaging the unreached peoples with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They want to see disciples made and indigenous New Testament churches established that can further the work of the great commission in Cameroon.

We will also be putting on a pastors’ conference in a location that allows many pastors serving in remote areas to attend. The conference will focus on teaching expository Bible preaching, theology, and spiritual leadership development. Finally we will travel to an orphanage about twenty-five miles west of Bamenda. My uncle and his family will be moving there in 2011 to minister. This orphanage was started several years ago by a sixty-seven year old retired school teacher from the United States. She is now in her mid-eighties and suffers from glaucoma and other physical problems. My uncle and his family are planning on assuming the responsibility of this ministry. They are also planning on using this ministry as a natural bridge to engage the Fulbe people that live nearby with the gospel.

God’s timing seems perfect; I will be soon finishing my year of internship at an orphanage in Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. I will be able to use my experience to help my uncle with his assessment. I too will be seeking God’s will for my involvement in missions.

I covet your prayers for myself and the team going to Cameroon.

Please pray that we will effectively communicate Christ in all of our contacts.

Please pray for journey details to be worked out, especially with the necessary visas.

Please pray for that we will each raise the needed funds for the trip. I need to raise $2500.00.

Please pray that we will honor and glorify God by this trip.

Please jot me a note if you are going to be on my prayer support team. My email address is vivoconchristo@yahoo.com

If you are led to financially support me please put “Aaron Waite/Cameroon Mission Trip” on the memo line of your check and mail it to Covenant of Grace Bible Church, Po Box 2099, Edgewood, NM 87015.

I am grateful for your consideration of joining me in this venture. Please remember the monetary gifts are tax deductable. Thank you for taking the time to read this letter.

Running the race,

Aaron J. Waite

I am having a lot of fun in Mexico!!

I am having a great time with the kids here. Playing and being with the kids is part of what I do here and I have a lot of fun with them. There are a couple of kids that really stand out to me and are around me a lot. The first is a five year old little boy named Said. He is very clingy and likes me to help him with many things throughout the day such as getting ready in the morning and washing his hands for meal time. He and his brother Alejandro were neglected and were living on the streets on and off before coming here. The next kid is another five year old little boy named Raul. My parents tell me that I was a lot like him when I was his age. He has bound less energy and it is hard to get him to sit still. Also he is very curious, inquisitive and persistent. Then there is his six and seven year old sisters Maria and Yari who are always very joyful and laughing. Whenever we sit down to watch a movie she is one of the kids who is sitting with me most times.

God has been helping me a lot with learning Spanish here. A big thing I needed a lot of help with is listening well to what someone is saying. Often times someone will tell me something and I will misunderstand or completely not recognize what they are telling me even though I know what someone is saying. Now I am getting lots of practice with that. I am also getting lots of practice with things like sentence structure, proper phrasing of words and vocabulary, just to list a few. Also being able to speak Spanish has become a lot easier and a lot more proficient than before. God has been very good to me and been helping me a lot in this.

I am really glad to be back in Mexico; God is teaching me a lot through this time here. This part one of my overview of my first seven weeks in Mexico

This has been a very good first few weeks in Mexico. I have seen God through this time in ways I never imagined. God has always used Mexico to bring me closer to Himself and that was one of the things I was looking forward to the most about this trip. But this time God is really working in me more than I had expected by this time.

It was good to see the kid’s excitement at the arrival of my family and I, especially considering we hadn’t been to the orphanage for more than five months. But when we stepped out of the car about five kids ran and greeted us. It was really good to see everyone again and to be back in Mexico. At the beginning of my first week I had mixed feelings about being here and whether God really wanted me here. But as that week went on God gave me peace, comfort and joy about being here. On Wednesday of my first week I wasn’t feeling well and that evening I threw up. Right after that though I felt better again and I have felt well ever since. Kristina told me that it was probably just my stomach getting used to Mexico again because everyone she knows who has stayed in Mexico from other countries for a while has gotten sick the same way their first week. One thing I have really enjoy is that Kristina and Emmis have put me in charge of the kids while doing an activity with them a couple times. Another highlight has been that Emmis and Kristina are giving me more work to do and more responsibility and I am very glad for that. My job here consists of keeping the outside of the orphanage clean and supervising and helping the kids as they do different activities during the day.

My First Day in Mexico; God Does What Honors Him Most in His Timing

Today was my first day back in Mexico and I am very glad to be back. God delayed me for two days, but He allowed me to be here for four days. God is very wonderful and he has showed that in the delay and by the trip so far. Today I arrived at about eleven this morning after leaving home at four thirty. When I got here we started helping the kids with their homework so that they would be ready for school tomorrow. That was interesting trying to help Spanish kids with their grammar when I probably understand less than they do. Then we ate a very good lunch of Mexican meatball soup with pineapple juice. After lunch we did a couple of puzzles with the kids, which was rather interesting because the kids have very short attention spans. Then they took a nap for an hour and thirty minutes during which time we got ready for school tomorrow and finished putting the Christmas decorations away. At about four the kids got up and played random games until diner; about an hour before me and my Canadian friend went on top of the roof of the orphanage and took pictures of the sunset. It was a lot of fun. For diner we had gorditas with beans, it was very good. After dinner we played a few different games with the kids and got purified water for cooking and drinking and just did random things. The kids went to bed around nine but the helpers stayed up for a while playing hearts, drinking coffee and laughing a lot!!

My Mission in Life and Mexico

My mission in life is to honor, glorify and magnify Christ in everything I do. Jesus has redeemed me from a life of sin and death to being alive with Him so I want to make much of him and glorify Him the best of my ability in all I do. I believe the way that God has ordained for me to honor Him is by being a missionary teacher in Mexico. God has given me a desire to proclaim His gospel through my life and teaching to orphans in Anapra, Cuidad Juarez, Mexico. I believe that God uses missions to break our ties to our native country and thus to this world. When we give up our country for Christ to live in another we break our ties to this world and prepares our minds and hearts for our real home in heaven. I think this is especially true being Americans because our country is very rich and for the most part everything need or want is provided for us. When we give up our promise to wealth I think that it makes it much easier to give up the so called ‘pleasures’ of this world and thus brings us closer to God. I think that God also uses missions to count every gain in this life as loss compared to the suppressing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.