A quick update from south of the border...

Hey everyone, so I am now the official GlobablScope Puebla blogger! You can expect to get regular updates keeping you informed on all the great things happening in Puebla, Mexico.


I have included the McDade's last email update which paints a great picture of all that's happened recently... so sit back and enjoy.


This afternoon I’m leaving with a couple of friends for a quick backpacking trip. If all goes well, Sunday at dawn I’ll stand on top of a 17,000-foot mountain and wonder at the power, creativity, and goodness of our God.

But I don’t need the mountain.

Because I also see Him in the continual growth of my teammates.

I see Him in the 90 or 100 faces at our semester kickoff party – many of them the same faces we’ve seen for three years now, many of them brand new to us.

I feel Him in honest and mature conversations with other believers, based in trust.

I watch Him work through my wife as she patiently talks to the outcast kid who would otherwise be sitting off in the corner by himself – or walking out the door.

I see Him smile as He continually pours out inexplicable blessings on Erin and me – from the tiniest, silliest of things, to huge, massive signs of His love and faithfulness. He’s so obviously there in all of it.

I feel His presence at our invitation dinner for 34 student leaders – young people all over the map in terms of their relationships with God, but all fired up about learning, serving, and growing closer to Him. I see the momentum building in each of their lives and I can hardly contain my excitement.

I stand in awe of Him when I hear a girl ask to be put in a different leadership group than her best friends because she knows it will challenge her to grow and reach out more.

I praise Him for giving two of our best student leaders the opportunity to go to Africa this summer with CMF’s REACH internship program and share their love, encouragement, gifts, and beautiful stories of faith in an ever-present God with those affected by or infected with HIV/AIDS.

I hear Him sing in the U2 lyrics playing in the background.

I hear Him whisper when I read Scripture and those “almost Scripture” types of books written by folks like Willard, Foster, Buechner.

I hear Him narrating in the emailed words of some of you, at work in the stories of your lives. I see Him as an artist when I watch “Planet Earth” from the comfort of my couch, without having to hike anywhere.

I even see Him in the way Lucho, our little housecat, somehow always knows when Erin doesn’t feel good and breaks character to snuggle right up to her, soothing her when she needs it most.

And I see Him in this story that just came across the phone lines a few minutes ago: One of our buddies, a student named Samantha, finished up here a couple of months ago and headed off to work at Disney. Now if you know Sammy, this makes perfect sense – constant smile, lots of energy, a joy to be around. In a recent email, she told me she was bringing me some Mickey ears but still hadn’t decided what to get Erin. Well, a little while ago, I learned that Sammy was at GTCCF, in Atlanta, sitting in Rick Harper’s office. She’d gone up from Florida and attended CCF’s weekend retreat (no doubt invited by some former Puebla exchange students), and as a result of her experience, she wants to be baptized. And as an extra treat for those of us down here, she said she wants to wait a short while in order to be baptized here, with the El Pozo community. I’m getting misty-eyed at the thought, knowing that that moment when she comes up out of the water will not only be a seminal moment in her life, but also in the lives of who knows which other young men and women who will be inspired by Sammy’s faithfulness to take another step forward in their own faith journey.

And on and on it goes – light in darkness – truth amid lies – joy alongside pain – Christ at work in this world, here, now. And we get to be a part of it.

Thanks for the part you play, and the ways that that makes it possible for us to play our role here as well.

With love and best wishes for 2008.

Nathan for the McDades

Please continue to pray for the ministry of El Pozo. God is doing amazing things here everyday!!

Karen