Back in Cairo

We are half way on this trip, the feelings of missing friends, family and home are becoming stronger as we move on to the Mid-Terms week. What a blessing is to have you all reading my updates and always writing to give me strength and encouragement.

Israel was incredible and unforgettable, there were so many places to go and explore. I was a little bit disappointed though, because I was expecting to see Israel as a small old fashioned city with donkeys and camels. Well, surprise! There was no donkeys nor camels. The cars where driving all around the city, moving from Jaffa Gate to the Golden Gate, going in and out as fast as they can. The "Via Dolorosa " was now filled of buildings, small shops selling "belly dance" outfits, a bunch of little bracelets and holly water. The whole thing threw me off and distracted me from the main purpose of the visit of the place were Jesus carried the cross. I tried to focused, but it was hard.

At the end of the day I was exhausted and disappointed. My mind started reviewing my day and the picture on my mind reproduced what Israel could it be two thousand years ago. I tried to see Jesus walking and doing miracles. I couldn't get ride of the idea of seeing all this people selling stuff and fighting for religion. Some of them crying and lifting prayers to an empty tomb. I was judging them with anger and hatred. I realized later that I was one of them, pointing with my finger, fighting for which was the true religion. I was one more focusing my eyes on the exterior and not in the heart.

What a blessing He has giving me. I saw the same things He saw and now I feel the same love for this people. So no disappointment at all and happy about my stayed in there. Jesus is the same everywhere we go so feel bless and don't faint in your faith, STRENGTH AND HONOR fellows.

Finally, many of you have been asking me for prayer requests. I haven't ask for anything the last months but today my only two petitions are this. Please pray for safety as we move from Middle East to Africa and the second one for some financial support. God is faithful and I know He knows my needs before I even talk.

I love you all and I hope everything is fine back home.

Blessings

Macho

A Short Side Story

John Norton

I met John in Costa Rica five years ago. We walked around San Jose downtown and his kindness and love caught my heart. The way he was with his kids and the look of his eyes when I was talking to him struck my heart. My broken English was making the conversation more difficult, but He never stopped listening. He kept asking for my goals and dreams, I'll tried to reply the questions over and over, sometimes with the right words and sometimes explaining the word I was trying to say. It took us twice the time of a single conversation. He always listened.

Always a teacher and encourager, he spoke about my studies and quoted a few authors to support what he was trying to say. I felt the gaze of his eyes digging deeper into my heart. “What do you want to be?” “What do you think about studying in the U.S.?” he said And here is where the story began.

Everything started in my new home in California. After living for twenty one years in Costa Rica I moved in to John's house with the other Norton's family members to finish my studies in the United States. The Norton's family decided to pay for my studies and let me live with them during that time. As the months passed by they became my family and so I did. John became my friend and pastor, his soft words and wisdom pushed my life to a whole new level. I wanted to be like him, I wanted to follow his steps and motions. We started reading books together, cleaning the garage, bike riding and playing soccer. A bond grew but a change in our story turned our lives upside down. Never again would we be the same after our Around The World Semester, our journey within the journey.

This new adventure begins in Orange County when two professors from Concordia decided to take twenty five students in a semester abroad, around the world. With a PHD on Shakespeare, his love for literature can make students love poetry, novels, textbooks and history books. During the last month and three weeks I have been following closely the steps of professor Norton, his motions and his words have an inspiring secret that goes beyond understanding.

As a professor his example of daily life reflects what he say's in class. He is a lamp that guides me through the secrets of life and literature. If there is a moment I can bring back from this trip to fully show his passion for literature it was when in one of our World Religions class, he was faced by twenty three students discouraged by the lecture of the Qur'an. He stopped the class and brought out a profound teaching about loving people by understanding their beliefs and forcing ourselves to find the meaning of a book that had brought millions of people to believe in Islam as the only true religion. Just as this passion for literature is one of his gifts, humility is also one of the characteristics of John Norton.

In the present, as I travel the world with John, it has amazed me the humility and simplicity of his actions, which by the way makes traveling fascinating. In one of our stops in Jordan while all our group was waiting for the ferry that was going to takes us from Egypt to Jordan, John started talking to some of the locals about the Arabic language. “He is my language professor. How come he is asking to a random man about the right way to say and write the numbers?” I thought. I realized later that he was a student too just like the twenty five students on the trip. He knows that he does not know all. He asks his students for information and allows them to teach about what they know. The humility of his heart and his desire for knowledge has become a virus that goes through my bloodstream and invades my soul. It has been turning my trip into a unique lifetime experience.

During my trip around the world with my school I have learned how to see my professor as more than only a statue holding a book, like I used to do in High School. In one of our World Literature discussions about “Snow,” the book written by Orhan Pamuk, we were commenting about the cliche’s of the Islam culture according to our American perspective when the comment was made, “It is different when you put someone's face in the story, someone like our new Middle Eastern friends” John said. Once again he was right. I replaced my professor's face and he became my friend, my travel buddy and my mentor. A whole new level of teaching and learning had begun since that day.

I was never ready for this adventure, my heart was afraid of failing. As a kid I gave up my dreams of traveling, but “God first”as we say in Costa Rica, John gave me the opportunity to believe in myself, to trust and face all my fears. It all started on August 16^th when I was packing and getting ready for this trip when John came to my room and asked me if I had enough space to fit some of his stuff. “ I do,” I said. Even though I did not have any. My response was a result of his influence in my life already.

Finally how do you describe the scenery around you? How to capture the essence of the moment? In a public blog John writes about his experience on his way to Israel “My eyes just filled with tears as our bus made the last turn, revealing the most amazing canyon I have ever seen. Surrounded by Father's power and beauty, in a strange land of unknown tongues,where the Lord met with our forefathers in the faith” The journey continues as we move to our next destination. No matter were we will be in the next months, the words of love, kindness, wisdom, encouragement and knowledge will travel with us, in John until the the end of our lives.

Islamic Community in the Mosques

The mosques are beautiful structures made by the Muslims to go and pray together. Istanbul is one of the most important places to go to find the most beautiful mosques in the world. During my visit to this city, I saw many of these buildings raised up high above the town.

There is something very special about worshiping in a mosque. Many times, it seems hard for nonbelievers of Islam to understand the culture and to fully live the spiritual and practical life of this special culture. As a Christian, it was very difficult for me to understand what was happening during a prayer service at the mosque. The call of prayer was something that looked and sounded very silly to me, but it was because my lack of knowledge and interest. During my time in Istanbul, I had three experiences that completely changed the way I was looking at the community and worship at the mosques in Islamic countries.

The first of the experiences started when me and my group went to visit The Kocatepe Mosque. During our visit we met Ismail Cosar the head Iman of the mosque. After he showed us the main chamber of the mosque he opened a time for questions and that is where the story starts. He started answering everybody's questions with patience and love, his eyes where filled with excitement and passion. Cosar wasn't only answering questions, he was showing us the way he was living and sharing his love and kindness to us. Not satisfied with that, he even took a few of our group members to the top of a minaret. The group came back from this short adventure in the minaret and Cosar overwhelmed by his passion and love for us started hugging us and holding our hands. Not soon after that he started crying and couldn't stop saying “I love this group, I love all of you.”

The second experience started when after a long night in Istanbul our group decided to go and observe the five am prayer service at the Blue Mosque. After my experience in Kocatepe, I visited a few other mosques but without any particular experience. “This new adventure to the Blue Mosque is my chance to get a good paper” I thought. So finally at five in the morning as we walked around the city, the call to prayer sounded in every single corner of the city. We hurried and walked into the Blue Mosque. Nothing amazing happened, my friend Ben and I prayed in a special area for visitors where there is a fence that divided the main chamber.

We prayed and we left, but as we walked out to where all our friends were waiting, one man in a white robe took my hand and hugged me. He asked, “Do you want to pray with me? Do you love Allah?” “I love Allah.” I responded. He put his arms around my shoulders and started walking me back to the mosque. This time he took me to a separate room that had about fifty fountains. He showed me how to washed my hands, arms, feet and face. He grabbed my hand again more intimately and dragged me closer to him and asked me if I still wanted to pray, “Yes, I do,” I said. His face was filled with joy and excitement. He stopped, looked at me and said, “I love Allah and I love you.” We hurried inside the mosque through the wooden door where the women prayed, through the visitors fence, and finally to the front row where all the men were lined up and ready to pray. At this point I forgot about my paper and started experiencing the community and the hospitality of the Muslim men around me. We prayed, and as soon as we finish praying all together, he took me outside and thanked me for praying with him. I asked him what his name was, “Hashir,” he replied. By this time, my feelings of what I thought of the Islamic culture, their community, and relationships had completely changed. There was still one more mosque to visit.

My third visit was to a mosque located in a small town in the middle of Istanbul. I was walking around with some of my friends when the call to prayer was made for all the Muslims. My friends and I started looking for a place to go and and pray but also to participate in one of the services. We turned a corner and found a small mosque that was on the second floor of one of the buildings. Just as always, we took our shoes off and walked in to the mosque. The experience in this particular mosque was very different than the ones before. There was only about ten people there praying. After the service we stood there exploring when all of a sudden the Iman came to us and asked what was the purpose of our visit. We told him that we were students and that we were studying the Qur'an. With a big smile he told us to wait for a few minutes. A few minutes later The Iman came back with one of the guys that was praying during the service and he introduced himself, “My name is Surish,” he said.

Surish told us that the Iman wanted to know if we had questions about the Qur'an, and we did have questions so the conversation started with a prayer from the Qur'an. Both men where kind and patient to us. I was surprised by their desire to explain to us and make us understand the words from The Qur'an and their own experiences. Surish took us to his jacket store and offered us some apple tea, just like back at home when people from church invited you for lunch or a coffee.

The community between believers and non-believers in the mosques goes beyond five prayers per day. The mosques were created with the purpose of having a place to get together and worship and pray to God, and that is exactly what they do. The experiences I had were natural and unintentional,but these men gave me the chance to experience their religion further than that. They did not know that they showed me the reality of the community inside the mosques. The mosques create opportunities for new and old followers to establish a relationship to prayer and worshiping, and this is exactly what they do. If you go during prayer time in the mornings you will find a very few believers praying, they line up very close from each other and in that way the enjoy the time of prayer.

The most important of the prayer times is at noon, when I went to that service there was about two hundred Muslims lining up praying and worshiping as the woman in the back of the building take care of the kids and also pray to Allah. When I asked Hashir how was his experience as a Muslim he smile at me and said, “I love Allah, I love talking to Allah. I am a happy man.” I saw the peace in his eyes and the smile on his face really back up what he was saying.

The mosques are vital in Islam culture, for people like me the mosques were only beautiful buildings with paintings and lights. There is something profound about the community in the mosques and what happens there while they are praying and worshiping. These beautiful places inspire union and devotion. It is so much easier to understand when you live it, when you walk in, when you talk to someone and put a face on the story. Inside the mosques are secrets that haven't been revealed to us, and in them the believers find rest and comfort raising their voices to Allah, and pouring their hearts to the Most Merciful.

On my way to Turkey

Que bueno cuando hay algo que escribir, cuando las palabras solo salen del corazon y cuando lo unico que queda en la mente es un rayo de luz de lo ultimo que pensaste. Recuerdo poco la ultima vez que escribi en esta manera, aveces lo que pasa es que las personas han dado tanto el corazon que la verdad te encuentras en un mar de dudas.

No quiero ir al espacio si ni siquiera se como caminar en la tierra. Hoy abro mi corazon para escribir cosas nuevas, para atreverme a sonar y a levantar mis pensamientos al aire y dejar que el viento los lleve en la direccion que quiera. He viajado por dos paises y lo mejor que e visto es que el amor de Dios no cambia. Mi vida y todo lo que se, no pueden cambiar nada. Todo lo que se es nada en comparacion con la gradeza de lo que me rodea, definitivamente nunca voy a poder llegar a alcanar todas las cosas que quiero porque no voy a tener el tiempo suficiente para hacerlo. Ahora bien con todo esto no puedo ni siquiera imaginar el tamano de la grandeza de Dios y de como su amor y su gracia me rescato de un mundo de obscuridad al que estaba designado a llevar.

Hay cosas que jamas voy a llegar a comprender y por mas sentido que les busque nunca voy a poder enternder la razon de todas ellas. Se que que quiza no tenga ni la mitad de lo que se necesita para ser lo que quiero llegar a ser. Pero se que Dios tiene un plan y aunque aveces este caminando sin sentido se que hay alguien esperando por mi en algun lugar listo para darme la direccion que necesito. Asi que ahorita no me preocupo por una direccion ni si quiera me interesa a donde voy porque lo que quiero es seguir el camino que tu has marcado para mi. Eres un Dios grande tan lleno de sorpresas y bondades. Si fuera al lugar mas largo de la tierra jamas podria esconderme de ti y si aun dentro de la tierra subiera en una nave y tratara de ir a lo mas lejos del universo ahi estaria corriendo mas cerca de ti, porque cuando voy sin un a direccion tu me abres un camino y cuando no estoy en control de las situaciones tu me tomas de la mano y me das direccioin. Dios eres lo mejor que me ha pasasddo y aveces me cuesta abrir mi corazon para abrir mi boca y decirte lo que pienso y siento por eso te escribo esta carta que sale de mi corazon. Toma todo lo que hay en ella que te honra y hace sentir orgulloso de mi, mira a Jesus en mi corazon el cual me hace tu hijo y me da la razon de vivir y me muestra cosas que nunca antes habia visto.

Hay personas que cambian tu vida y te dan una direccion diferente, hay personas que sin necesidad de decir una palabra te abren el corazon a un millon de ilusiones y bendiciones que quiza habias dejado en el pasado, por miedo a revivirlaso por solo el deseo de olvidarlas. La verdad yo quisiera olvidar muchas cosas que pasaron, pero no puedo el pasado es parte de mi futuro y ahora tengo que recojer todo lo que he sembrado. Dios ten misericordia de mi porque en mi adolecencia muchas veces sembre mal y aun ahora de adulto mis fallas son montones. No puedo seguir sin ti no puedo seguir si no me perdonas, no puedo levantarme si no me tomas. Eres todo lo que necesito para alcanzar mi meta; y mi meta eres tu. Asi que ayudame a no desviarme de tu camino,de tu amor, de tu proposito. Si alguien viene a mi vida por un lado que sea por tu proposito y que mi corazon siempre este enfocado a ti y para ti. No dejes que lo que sea lindo y atractivo para mi me haga alejar todo lo que estuyo de ti. Yo solo soy un cuerpo con un monton de cosas adentro que ni siquiera son mias. Todo me lo has dado y todo me lo has prestado Jesus. No se que es lo que va pasar mas adelante pero se que tu no me vas a abandonar y que pase lo que pase me das a dar lo mejor. Gracias gracias Dios por todo esto y y no deberia estar confundido si no confiado en ti y en el poder de tu amor.

Se que ella en algun lugar del mundo sea aqui ahora o meses depues de hoy o quiza anos estara esperando por mi pero sera la persona adecuada no importa lo que pase ni lo que digan ni lo que no digan, tu la has escojido para mi y para mi no hay nada mas hermoso y beello que poder escuchar tu voz y confiar en lo que tu haras.

Gracias, gracias, gracias, gracias, gracias, por amarme tanto Jesus y por morir en la cruz por mi. Se que no lo merezco ni nunca lo merecere porque tu me amaste primero y nunca me has abandonado. Hoy te escribo esta carta en Vladimir Rusia solo para decirte que tu eres lo mejor que me ha pasado y que aunque viaje por diez paises lejos de casa con las mejores personas y las mejores experiencias nada se compara a lo que tu significas para mi. Dios te amo con todo mi corazon mi alma y cuerpo. No hay nadie mas grande que tu, y mi corazon te pertenece a ti y lo que te pido es que lo compartas con la persona que tu quieras y te sientas a gusto porque esa sera la persona que y voy a amar por el resto de mi vida y a honrar y a respetar y a seguir y a acuidar y a ensenar. Tu me has dado algo que nadie mas me ha dado en una forma muy especial. Tu amor que sobrepasa todo entendimiento me ha rescato dela obscuridad y me ha dado una vida nueva eso es todo lo que importa lo demas es solo parte del cuento pero la verdadera historia y acto es el de aquel quien dio a su hijo unico para marcar mi vida y limpiarme de todo pecado, Ese eres tu y no quiero camiar lejos de ti. Te amo.

Vladimir, Russia 2010.

5: 10 pm

ATW Trip Concordia University Irvine