I’m writing this blog post from my Crackberry here in the Cancun airport. I’ve got about an hour before my flight boards, so I have plenty of time to write about our day yesterday. Sorry I didn’t update yesterday…it was a really fun, but really long day! Yesterday was our “fun day.” We spent our fun day at Isla Mujeres. Isla Mujeres is an island off the coast of Cancun. The name means, “Island of the Women.” It was a party island. Several hundred years ago, pirates would take all the women they had captured and place them on this island, and it became their party island. Anyway, we had a really cool ferry ride over to the island. The water is so beautiful. After we got to the island, Patrick, David, and I went on a snorkeling trip. It was incredible. It was in a government-protected area. We couldn’t even put sunscreen on before we got in the water so the oils wouldn’t disturb the wildlife. We saw tons of beautiful aquatic life- interesting plants, beautifully colored fish, etc. The coolest part for me was seeing a statue of the virgin Mary holding Jesus that the Spanish intentionally sunk in the harbor in the 1500-1600’s to bless their ships as they went out. The snorkel boat let us off at Playa Tiburon- “Shark Beach.” They actually even had a whale shark in a pen that you could get in and have your picture made with. No thank you. Probably the funniest moment of the day happened here. We paid a couple of pesos to use a public restroom after we got off the boat. We had all swam in our shirts (since we couldn’t put on sunscreen) and David wanted to rinse his shirt out. The only problem was that he picked the wrong bucket to wash his shirt out in. He picked the bucket that had the tidybowl-blue liquid in it that they used to clean the toilets. Gross! After that, we headed out to check out some ministry sites on the island. Mauricio has just bought a mission house on Isla Mujeres, and it is almost ready for teams. It is strategically located next to the local park on Isla- perfect for VBS, etc. We then went and saw Squatters Row. It was heartbreaking seeing such poverty in such proximity to such luxury. After that, we did a little souvenir shopping for our families back home and then headed back to Cancun. We invited Pastor Javier and his family over for dinner. We wanted to spend some time with him and his family, and hear his vision and dreams for the church in Las Pencas. It was incredible. The first thing that he mentioned was that he wanted to be a church that planted other churches. In a church that still a startup church itself with very little income, they goal is to increase Gods kingdom in Cancun and not just their kingdom. What a lesson for American churches! I asked the main way that our church could partner with him to help his vision for the church. The main things he mentioned were evangelism training, leadership/Biblical training, construction, and outreach. It was also so amazing to hear this poor church’s giving attitude. I asked Pastor Javier about their financial ability to support another church. He said they operate totally on faith. If God asks them to plant a church, they do. People always give, even out of their own poverty. Their tithing system is incredible. Many people don’t make enough money to give the finances the church needs. (The average worker in Cancun makes about $5 American dollars a day, and has to pay $2 per day for public transit to get to work). But they tithe their chickens to feed the needy. They tithe their van to go and get supplies. They tithe themselves. Many of the church members that are in the construction field will leave work and go straight to the church to lend their talents to building the church. Its really similar to the early church in Acts where people gave sacrificially to others in their church. Pastor Javier has a huge heart and I can’t wait to see what God will do through our partnership there. I am so ready to see my beautiful wife and children. I’m missing them bad!