Dreaming (the translation)

As some of you already know, I was at the Mexican youth retreat (North western conference) last weekend. When I was there, I had an idea, which I shared with the Mexican Bishop Vasquez; then when I got home, I had another idea. I’m writing this to see what others think of it. The first idea was that when our youth groups go to Mexico for summer mission projects we should try and hook them up with Mexican youth groups so that they can work together on the mission project. I know that MH is planning some youth trips for the end of July and beginning of August, they’re headed to San Quintin, and I wondered if the Mexican youth (who were focusing on service and mission for their retreat weekend) would want to participate.

The other idea was to bring groups from Mexico here to the US to do mission projects. I know it would be more difficult with having to find visas etc, but I thought we might find religious visas. I know that on this side (for my church anyway) there are jobs they could do (some of my youth have already started doing projects at the church). They could work together with our youth here and then we could do a dance one night, a big worship event the next (maybe with some of the groups that performed from San Diego and Tijuana at the youth retreat), we could go to Knott’s Soak City, etc, in other words combine mission with relationships and fellowship. Also, it could work as an evangelism and revitalization for our church here (by inviting those from our community to the dance/concert/worship event) and help us get to know those here who do not have a church community. We could even do scholarships for the Mexican youth so that they would only have to pay for their trip from there to here by doing fundraisers and what not.

I don’t know what we’d have to do to get the visas (I do know an immigration lawyer here in Hemet) and this could all be for this summer (if the arrangements are easy) or even plan for next summer. For now, I pose it to you to think about and let me know your thoughts.