The Reconciliation of All Things

When we think of Mexico, we often think of the desert, cacti, rattlesnakes... Though much of those are true, the Baja Peninsula, especially near La Paz, has much more life than we think. We went on a hike into the mountains and saw much of this amazing life God created! This was at a high point between the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific Ocean. This is looking toward the Sea of Cortez. This is the fruit we sometimes call dragonfruit--there are at least two varieties, one that is red on the inside and one that is white, but they grow on this specific cactus variety in the mountains near La Paz. You have to take the spines off the fruit before eating, of course, but this one was delicious! We walked along a dry riverbed ("Arroyo" is the Spanish word for these riverbeds) until it widened much more than this picture. Dry most of the year except for the few rains that come in the spring. Because it's so sandy, the water doesn't percolate down into the grou...

Last week I was with another TEAM missionary in Mexico and a short-term couple. This couple was checking out the many creation care activities that we do in La Paz. So we joined a group of people and another organization for a clean-up of one of the the mangrove beach areas. People leave so much trash behind them at the beaches after spending the day there, and it accumulates quickly when no one is picking up after them! There likely weren’t any other Jesus followers there with us, and the main organizer is very antagonistic toward Christianity. However, because we also care for God’s creation and about the people living there, we continue working with these people to share the love of Christ with them, and we work to bring God’s creation to a point of flourishing. But that takes work! So we spent the morning cleaning up tiny pieces of plastic, bottle caps, toilet paper, broken glass from beer bottles, and other items. When we were done, we had over 10 bags of trash! One of t...