The Reconciliation of All Things

Tuesday we went to San Rafalito Island, a protected island that is part of the Balandra protected area of La Paz. We did what Steve calls Gorilla Diving. More precisely, Steve and Dr. Sluka gorilla dived, I "gorilla snorkeled". This is when you kayak out to the area you want to dive at, drop anchor (carefully, so as not to damage the coral reef, by finding a spot among rocks), and put your scuba gear on all from a kayak. It's much cheaper than paying a charter boat to take you out, in fact, it's free! And the joy of kayaking a little over 3.5 miles round trip from the beach to a 50x50 ft island with a small lighthouse on it in open water that is 60-80 ft. deep is half the fun! Oh, the beauty of enjoying God's creation! Wow! I wish everyone had the privilege of this. The fact it, there is so much of creation that we can enjoy if we will just take the time and praise God for His creation and the glory it brings Him! It was a beautiful time of seeing sea lions up c...

Monday was quite a treat--I got to swim with the largest fish in the world! In fact, the largest shark in the world! The whale shark! It's not a whale, it's a shark--notice the gills. It's called a "whale" shark because it's so large! The largest ones I swam with were about 22 feet long, and they are juveniles...teenagers. They come to feed on the plankton (not humans) in the Fall here in the Sea of Cortez. People didn't know about them coming here to feed in this area until only a few years ago...now it's a tourist hot-spot. Even so, there are regulations for swimming with them, such as keeping your distance and not touching them, and not getting in front of them while feeding. Our guide, Benjamin Duarte , did a great job teaching us about the sharks and finding them in the open blue so that we could swim with them. He charges double what the normal guides charge, but he's up to date on his certification, and he spends twice as much time with us ...

Sunday we went to a church that is called El Faro, or The Lighthouse in Spanish. The service was very similar to church in Brazil, where I grew up, and I could worship along pretty well and understand almost all of the sermon. It helps when the preacher speaks slowly. :-) The church is located on a hill at the center of the city--everyone sees it as they drive by the main drag. Quite significant that the name of the church was El Faro, as they want to be a lighthouse in their relationships with people, but they are also located in a physical location that serves as a lighthouse! The church is not yet completed, but is building as they have the resources. Walking up to church building. Inside the church--missionaries are usually the last to leave! Myself at the church overlooking the city in the background. Dr. Bob Sluka, A Rocha Marine Biologist After church, we had fish tacos (not myself, actually--I took a PB and J), and I hear they were delicious! It's a hots...

Today we headed to Cabo Pulmo National Park, a protected marine area, for scuba diving (Steve and Dr. Sluka), snorkeling (myself), and data collection. Steve, Dr. Sluka and 4 others heading out to scuba in two locations. We wanted to know what the condition of the reef is, the status of aquatic wildlife, and what is being done for conservation here. This month the National Park is opening a simple educational center to explain why conservation is important to this area, underwater as well as on land. You can see some of the videos we are taking  here . Cabo Pulmo is a small protected area declared a National Park for Mexico. If we are to start any type of work/ministry here dealing more specifically with conservation/research within our church-planting movement, we need to better understand what the ocean issues are that affect this part of Mexico on the Baja Peninsula. Plastic trash is a large problem all over the oceans. However, microplastics are the bigger iss...

Yesterday I arrived in Mexico. I flew into Cabo San Lucas, on the southern tip of Baja California Sur penninsula, then took a three hour shuttle ride up to La Paz in classic style...in the back seat sitting next to a big American guy on my left (a bit taller than me, but add an extra 60 lbs or so...), and a short, recently retired Mexican business man on my right coming back to La Paz from the US to visit his mother and family here in Mexico. I say classic style because it was extremely bouncy in the back seat of the shuttle, going an indecent amount over the posted speed limit, and without a working seatbelt. I've lived enough, and been through enough experiences, that I don't stress about the seatbelt not working anymore. No amount of complaining was going to fix it--and even IF I had a working seatbelt, it would do nothing to save my life if we were to get into an accident at the ridiculous speed we were going at. The trip usually takes three solid hours, our driver got us t...