Hello everyone!
We are feeling pretty excited for this coming new year. Last night we talked with everyone about our goals and purposes for the new year, and it reminded me of why we came down here in the first place. I thought it would be good time to share and remind you guy’s as well.
The movement consists of these three main values, Community, Social Help and Expression. For us those three things make up the basis of the Christian faith, and when those three things are operating at the same time, it is the most beautiful thing.
We build community through a couple of ways, the most intimate form is our Friday night gatherings. This is where we share in depth our lives, pray, study the bible and experience the Spirit of God together. Also we want to build community online, where we can read and study more in depth the bible together during the week by using, www.vineage.com. The other way we build community is by having parties and inviting people into our home, by being hospitable. As we do these things it opens up the opportunity to invite people to our Friday night gatherings, where we are more focused on intimacy with each other and God. The Last part of how we build community is outside of our house when we play concerts and meet people, and through our social help projects. We saw all those things come together and happen last year, and we feel that this year we will continue to grow.
The social help part of the movement is the basic commands of God, love God and each other. This year we want to continue to have a bigger impact in our community/culture by showing the love of Christ: in hospitals, orphanages, juvenile halls, pueblos, at concerts and the people who are living on the streets. I think one of the most exciting things for me is when I see people we barely know, come over to our house and make Tortas so we can give them to people on the street (the photo on the left).
The last part of the movement is expression. The expression part of the movement is where the movement can have influence in every part of culture. We want to see movement groups form that consist of surfers, soccer players, skaters, musicians, business people and just all the different types of people and culture that is out there. For us our personal expression part is, into the Sea, we want to use our passion for Music to bring the love of Christ to our world, we have a vision that a band can bring all the three values of the movement to the world, and really any gift that God has given us can. God has created us all differently and when we are expressing the love of Christ while doing the things we love the most, that is where we will have the most impact on others.
Some other things that we are working on this year is having some short term teams come down and work with us in the movement. It will be a challenge, but we know that it will be a huge blessing as well, and we really look forward to people experiencing the movement from the states.
We hope everyone had a good new year, and we thank all of you who support us with your friendship and also financially. We look forward to sharing with you guys this year the reports of what is happening down here in Tepic. Last year was the year of preparation and learning, this year is the year of action and growth.
We love you guys.
Josh and Stephanie
