Envision Mexico 2014 - Mission Video

Chris compiled a beautiful slide show video of our time in Mexico!  We hope it catches the essence of our ministry, our fun times, our cherished new friendships, and our joy in serving with Envision Mexico!  (If you can't hear the video below, check it out on youtube: Hull Family with Envision Mexico - Summer 2014) Enjoy!

 

To all of our friends with Envision Mexico, Oasis, House of Refuge, and Alliance churches in Tijuana and Ensenada, bendiciones!  

We love you and will keep you close in our hearts and prayers!

Envision Mexico: First week

With the first team from Elma, WA at the end of our week in front of the addition we built

            It’s been quite a week here in Maneadero, Mexico!  Maneadero is just south of Ensenada and the location of Envision Mexico with the Christian & Missionary Alliance Church.  Groups come here for a week for construction, VBS, prayer ministries, and support for a few Alliance churches and a group-home for boys.  The Envision Mexico team also invites interns for one to a few months, and our family has been invited to serve in a similar capacity.

            On most week days, construction and prayer ministries take place in the mornings and VBS kids’ programs occur in the afternoons.  During this first week, we added onto two homes.  The family of the home in the picture above has five kids who were all sharing one room.  When the team arrived at the beginning of the week, the addition had only the foundation.  Now this family can now have some more space.

In our family, we worked less on that home than on the other one, but the kids and I did help with the painting.  The four of us spent more time on the addition on the other home, which also had only the foundation when we began.  The best pictures, of course, would have been when all four of us were working, but then we can’t take pictures!  We also forgot the camera until the last day when we were at different sites, so, unfortunately, we have no "before" pictures, but here are a couple:

            

In the afternoons, the team puts on a kids' program with songs, crafts, a story lesson, a memory verse, snacks, and games:

Envision Mexico also makes sure teams have some fun too.  So Wednesday morning the team takes a break from construction for a trip to “La Bufadora” (the blowhole) to see a great waterspout and do some market shopping:

Then on Thursday, the team ends a little early and enjoys the brilliantly warm water at the beach:

            All in all, we had a beautiful time with the first team we worked with, and we love and admire the staff here, made up not only of the American missionaries, but also the Mexican pastors and staff.

            Chris also began our entry into Mexico with a video-recording, which he’s now edited into two videos at these links.  The first one featuring our kids, ages 10 and 13, is classic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQ6HmieeGwc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taXgbaXmxIU

            We hope we’ll get a chance to post more updates to this blog.  If Mexico keeps up its strength in the World Cup, there may be more opportunities.  Gana Mexico!  

Tribute to Dad

Tomorrow, Mom will be hosting a small reception for Dad immediately after her church service.  Among the items to be displayed is this Tribute I wrote for him:

Tribute to Dad

Glen G. Langdon, Jr.

(June 30, 1936 – March 11, 2014)

by Karen Langdon Hull

Dad was offered his position at UCSC in his 24^th year at IBM.  One need not be the mathematician he was to catch the significance of year 24: one year prior to his company’s generous retirement package.  By accepting his teaching post, Dad found riches far more valuable: the chance to live his dream, impact young minds, and watch them make their own mark on the world.  His move to UCSC complemented a decision earlier in his career when he left a comfortable 2 story home to a small one in Brazil that welcomed his family with cockroaches, but with no clean water, no telephone, no working oven, and showers with electrical zaps – and he was in his element.

His students, both here and abroad, knew how passionate he was about them, and they returned his commitment with their own loyalty and love.  Some called on our home telephone, some came over for dinner, and some even stayed at our house when they were in need of housing.  So Dad’s students were more than just students to him.  Many of them became his friends.

Sometimes his passion carried over into his help with my homework.  Much more adept at working with college students than sixth-graders, he’d look ahead in my math book: “Karen, look in three weeks, you’ll be learning how to divide fractions.  That’s one of my favorite tricks!  Let me show you so you’ll be ahead!”  Can we just do the homework I have due tomorrow?

Dad’s reputation for being a protective father to his only daughter is true.  He expressed it not with a shot-gun, but by taking me out on dates and treating me as he wanted my dates to treat me.   He’d take me out to dinner, open my door, bring a flower, and close the night with a kiss on the cheek.  Not only did these dates give me joy and adoration for Dad, but they served their purpose too.  I noticed when my dates were not treating me like he did, and I looked for one who could!

We all know Dad loved to give – to organizations that served the needs he cared about; to friends, loved ones, Mom; and to me.  But I was a funny child.  When I learned the stereotype that only children are spoiled children, I was determined to prove that  stereotype wrong.  The problem was my dad liked to spoil me.  And, secretly, I liked that he liked it.  So as a child, I’m not sure how well I lived up to my vow.

As a teenager, I was committed.  Poor Dad had to be devious.  When he bought his Celica, he rejected my offer to pay for half of the cost of the Corolla and gave it to me outright.  But I didn’t want him spoiling me any beyond that, so Dad had to get sneaky.  He claimed he really “missed” his Corolla.  Everyone knew how much he loved his Celica.  So I don’t know how I fell for this one, but Dad put on a really good act and asked for a day or two a month to “borrow” my car because he “missed” it so much.  I noticed this pattern: I’d get the car back and it would be full of gas!  “Dad,” I’d say, “you can borrow my car without filling it up!”  Then he’d use the opportunity for a parental lesson: “If you borrow someone’s car, make sure you fill up before you give it back.”  I’ve tried to remember that lesson, but at the time, I’d protest that he need not fill it up, which he still did.  As a naïve 17 year old, I’d think, “How sweet.  Dad misses his car.” As an afterthought, I’d add, “And it’s very sweet of him to fill up my tank.”  Now, I’m a parent, and, now, I get it.  Thank you, Dad.

Dad also made an impact beyond all of us he loved.  The algorithms he developed were one step in that long line of technological advances that have brought us our laptops, pad devices, cell phones, and apps on our tiny little hand-held smartphones.  Not only do we each know the freedom and the connections that we enjoy due to these devices, but we hear about how they are being used throughout the world to connect many in their movements of revolution to topple dictators and forge lives of freedom.  While Dad didn’t develop cell phones or laptops himself, he was a pioneer in a movement that did, and he very likely led the way for students who have. So may he be peacefully and joyfully seeing from his new perspective the mark he made in bringing liberation to the world.

Surprising? Risky? Praying . . . Writing . . . Praying

I just did something unprecedented today: I wrote a letter to POTUS.

In my previous post, you can see my letter to Congress, which began with the answer to my own prayer that President Obama would seek Congressional support for his proposal to send air strikes to Syria.  The response of the media, so surprised by his change of course, prompted me to post a question on Facebook: “Have any of the rest of you been struck by the two most common words the media has been using to describe Obama’s decision to seek Congressional support: ‘surprising’ and ‘risky’?”

My first comment in the comments section read as follows: “From the standpoint of an average American citizen, these two words are 'surprising.' Didn’t he make the common-sense choice? Didn’t he take the right, Constitutional action in a democracy? Then why are all of the reporters in all of the mainstream media outlets beginning their reports with headliners like, ‘Obama is taking a big risk . . .’ or ‘Obama made the surprising move . . .’? Do they know something the average American citizen does not?

 

"The President's decision to seek Congressional support for the strikes on Syria may be his most independent decision of his Presidency.  And, it may put him in danger.  If Congress says 'no,' then either he goes against the will of the people and faces many angry vigilantes, or, perhaps more precarious, he stands with the people and faces even more sinister forces."
In the next comment, I solicited prayer for the president to follow his own convictions.

A good deal of banter followed, particularly with one friend who said our president doesn’t have convictions and, instead, “bows to his masters.”  I added to my first comment as follows: “According to reports, [his decision] has 'stunned many,' including his ‘closest advisors,’ who had ‘strongly urged’ against it. This is why the reporters are so ‘surprised.’ It appears he followed his own convictions.”

He remained cynical, while I remained optimistic:  “So why do I have optimism? Because I prayed for Obama to change his mind and ask for Congressional support, and he did. And now ‘many are stunned’ and it's being reported as a miracle. So I'm praying for more miracles: for the miracle that Congress says ‘no,’ and then the miracle that Obama stands by the people, and then the miracle that his life is spared, and then the miracle that the Syrian people forge a new life in safety and freedom. I'm praying for more miracles!”

To that he replied, “. . . and they all lived happily ever after . . .”  I chuckled, said “smiling with ya’,” added that “realistically, change is a very slow and painful process,” and noted “momentum is building.”  He wasn’t sure, linked to an article with good facts but a sarcastic tone, and I closed with a line from my letter to Congress: “"How tragic it is that in place of debating how much asylum and humanitarian support we can provide, we are instead debating how much violence we should inflict.”  He “liked” it and our discussion was done. 

But my prayers were not.  Today, Syria has expressed a willingness to negotiate, so miracles are possible.  Also today, I was led to send the following letter to our President:

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

September 10, 2013

President Barack Obama

White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC  20500

Dear Pres. Obama,

Thank you for asking for Congressional support for air strikes to Syria.  Trusting in your heart of democracy, I had been praying you would make this decision and rejoiced when you did.

To one who had been praying, the media headliners, at first, were puzzling: “The President has made the surprising decision . . .” or “The president took a risky move . . . .”  They noted that “many were stunned” and that many of your advisors had “urged you not to.”  I realized I had prayed for a miracle, and the miracle had been granted.

Realizing this, I wrote my own letter to Congress and began praying ever more fervently not only for the development with Syria, but also for you personally.  In my prayers, it became clear that your decision was not only “risky,” but also dangerous, including to your own life.  If Congress says “no,” then whether you stand with the people or against the people, your next decision is fraught with danger, for your life personally, for our country, and for our world.  I came to see that, perhaps, you have lived your first 50 years for this moment and this decision.

I am praying for you and am calling my friends to pray for you.  Your heart, your mind, and your soul knows the “nothing” or “weapons” debate is an either/or fallacy and that methods of diplomacy, humanitarianism, and asylum are all at your disposal.   But I’ve come to see the peril for you in following your own convictions of peaceful means over violent means and democratic means over dictatorial ones.  May you have the courage to live by your soul and may the Lord protect you as you do.

Thank you and praying,

Karen J. Hull

** Address **

“For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?”

(Mark 8:36)