The last night that I was in Monterrey, before communion Matt Massey shared some awesome insight to Jesus’ words at the Lord’s supper. He spoke about how a bridegroom builds a house in order to have His bride to be in marriage. “He is finishing a house to come get His bride,” Matt said. Since… Read more
Last week I was at one of our squatter village sites, walking with an unbelievably gifted professional photographer (check out his pictures), helping him capture some images that could translate their world into ours. I was struck by the poverty, which I have walked among for a decade now, but some days it can still… Read more
Back2Back summer interns gain practical hands-on ministry experience by serving at our sites in Monterrey, Mexico; Jos, Nigeria; or Hyderabad, India. Interns work alongside Back2Back staff members and assist behind-the-scenes to host summer mission trip groups. Interns help to facilitate daily work projects at local orphanages and outreaches to impoverished communities, contributing to our mission… Read more
Last week I traveled with a group from Northstar Vineyard to Monterrey, Mexico for a week-long mission trip with Back2Back. It was my first time there and it was nothing short of incredible. On Sunday, our first day in Monterrey, we served at Casa Hogar Douglas (CHD), a local orphanage. Some of us started working… Read more
It was the first day serving in Monterrey. It was our second trip as a family to Back2Back Mexico, but it was our first time there since we adopted our five-year old daughter, Yanni, from China three years ago. We worked on building projects at a children’s home. The orphanage basically consisted of three large… Read more
This week I have been thinking about shelter in unexpected forms. Take one of my boys, Homero, for example. When Homero was twelve years old, he came to live at Manantial de Amor, one of the children’s homes in Monterrey. He had gotten into a lot of trouble at various schools and even with the… Read more
At the beginning of this year I decided that I wanted to take my running to a new level. I’m still what most would call novice, but I decided that I wanted to run some local 10K races, that I wanted to run a half marathon, and that ultimately I wanted to run a full… Read more
There’s a field on the other side of the street in Rio I. For the most part, it’s been vacant. The only sign of life has been the layer of weeds sprouting up. After the rainy season the ground covering becomes so thick that sexual predators have been known to hide there to prey on… Read more
School is out for summer! As summer vacation begins, some of the orphans we serve leave their children’s home to temporarily stay with any living relative who may be willing to take them in for a few weeks during the break. I hardly know how to wrap my mind around this reality. It’s difficult to… Read more
What a great opportunity we had as a ministry to address the enthusiastic crowd of students gathered at the Vineyard Community Church in Cincinnati for the Summer of Service Conference. Over 900 teenagers from 14 states came for a week of showing God’s tangible love to the city through outreach and service projects like helping build homes with Habitat… Read more