Tickets to Nairobi are Booked!

We leave for Nairobi on July 12th!!! Wooooo-hoooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!! This just happens to be the Day of the Apostle's Feast.....how cool is that??? Apostles? Helloooo? We absolutely can't wait to get there. We made a new friend (Mina) who has spent a few months in Kenya and he LOVES it and everything he said and all the pictures he showed us pumped us up even more. Please pray for us that we arrive safely and that our mission is fruitful.

How many 'heaven miles' does it take?

Hi all, this is Juan. I have recently learned a HUGE spiritual lesson. My friend Marc has learned this truth during his time in Egypt so far, and it had to be explained to him a few times before he understood it, and he had to explain it to me a few times before I could understand it. It is so simple, yet it reveals that most of us may be living our spiritual lives backwards. I hope I get this message across...

Christine and I were asked to talk to the youth here in Egypt. I gave a short talk about bikya, which is a new fun word I learned that means junk. You see, every morning, a man walks around our neighborhood yelling bikyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. He's buying and selling people's junk, like a walking garage sale. The morning of the day we were giving the talk, I was listening to the book "The Irresistible Revolution" by Shane Claiborne - AN AWESOME AWESOME BOOK. I've only read the first 3 chapters and I've been blown away. Seriously, go buy this book. Chapters might have it, iTunes definitely does. BTW the intro is lame, so skip it. Anyways, my homie Shane was talking about the miracles that Jesus did. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, yet some years later, Lazarus died again of old age. Jesus healed the sick, but most likely, those people got sick again sometime later. Jesus fed 5000 with 5 fish and 2 loaves of bread, but all those people were hungry the next day. Shane's point is that the beauty of Jesus is NOT that He performed miracles...the beauty of Jesus is that HE SHOWED PEOPLE LOVE. St Paul says that even if you have the power to move mountains, yet have not love, you have bikya.

SO, WHATEVER GOOD WORKS YOU DO, THEY MUST BE DONE OUT OF LOVE, AND NOT IN ORDER TO EARN GOD'S LOVE NOR TO GET INTO HEAVEN, FOR THESE THINGS HAVE ALREADY BEEN GIVEN TO YOU.

Again, no works that you do can get you into Heaven. How can we possibly earn enough 'heaven miles' to make it to Heaven? We can't, but Jesus died so that we could inherit The Kingdom of Heaven. His death GAVE us The Kingdom as a gift. It is like my marriage to Christine: Christine has given me her heart. Nothing I can do can help me earn her love - I already have it - it is a gift. Without this understanding, I would spend my days trying to do good things for her in order to earn her love....but we are already married, so it doesn't make sense, or even seem possible. Instead, I am free to love her and everything I do for her is purely out of love for her. Likewise, God's love and The Kingdom have been given to us as a gift. We are now free to love Him and do everything out of love for Him.

You might have to read that a few times before it clicks, but when it does, MAN, what a relief!!! No longer do I feel the pressure of having to do countless deeds in order to get to Heaven. The love I have for my Father is all that is needed. That love will produce the spiritual fruit that was always discussed in our youth meetings at Church. Marc always used to tell me to 'seek The Father, not His house'. I never understood that until now.

We're in Egypt!

We landed in Cairo this morning! The flight was awesome, thanks to sweeeet British Airways! We're hanging out with Christine's family. Irene (Christine's sister) arrives in a couple of days, at which point it's straight to the beach at the Red Sea!!!! I can't wait. Retirement RULES!

Visiting Juan's Mom and Dad on the Island

My mom and dad retired last year, spent a few months touring Asia, and are now settling in their new home on Vancouver Island. We went to visit them for 12 wonderful days. I can only describe their home as a little piece of heaven. They are both so happy and are already making friends, which we all knew wouldn't take long :)

The island is so lush. Green everywhere. Exotic plants abound. The mountain range defines the skyline. The ocean surrounds you. If you are an outdoorsy person, it's paradise. When we were kids, mom and dad took us camping every summer, so we all love the outdoors, and it's no mystery why mom and dad are in love with their new home. Mom has started 3 vegetable gardens and has kiwi plants, blueberry bushes and some marijuana.

To no suprise, mom and dad are as funny as ever. I can only imagine that dad must have been saving up all of his jokes, because he was ON FIRE! Joke after joke, and all of it was GOLD! All I could do was honor the master. Ironically, mom seems to laugh at EVERYTHING EXCEPT dad's jokes. Mom finds everything funny and laughs like a little kid. And it's pure entertainment when they argue.

They asked me to set up their wireless internet and wireless printing, which I did, but not without crashing their computer and having to rebuild it from scratch!!! There is no proof that it was my fault. It was pure luck that I had my portable harddrive with me. I was able to fire up a command prompt and backup all of their pictures and documents. We all learned a valuable lesson from that fiasco - make sure you backup your computer! For technical assistance, call my dad -he is a pro now.

We skyped often with Carmen, Jeju and Mikaela. Mikaela is crawling all over the place and is cuter than ever. What a sweet little girl she is. Yup, that's my God-daughter. Skype is a great way to keep in touch. My skype alias is igjuana.

It makes me happy to see my parents happy. There is a peace of mind that comes with knowing that your parents are ok. To see them so relaxed after many years of hard work - I am glad for them and proud of them and love them and I can't wait to see them again.

Tonight, my best friends are having a bbq for us. Tomorrow night, we fly to Egypt to visit Christine's family. My family is coming to see us off at the airport - it will be emotional.

This is it...in three days we'll be in Africa! Stay tuned...

I posted the Nanaimo photos:

• Nanaimo Pictures I


• Nanaimo Pictures II

Goodbye Home Sweet Home

This past Tuesday was our last day in the condo :( It was an emotional moment to leave our home. Even though we had only lived there for a year, we loved living there and have many memories there. It was the first home I ever bought, and it was the first place I lived in by myself. I proposed to Christine in the condo. It was the first place we lived in together and it was a riot getting to know each other's quirks. We had so much fun decorating it together. Christine loved cleaning it and I loved getting it dirty.

Our last day there was hectic. There was so much packing to do. We packed until the wee morning hours. When we were finished, the condo looked so empty. We danced one last slow dance to Shania Twain's 'When You Kiss Me' and just hugged for a long time, knowing that this was the first big step of the great adventure.

We got up about 3 hours later to get ready to go the airport. After we had packed the remaining items in the car, we went back upstairs for one last goodbye. That was the toughtest moment. It was full of tears and comforting. We closed the door and locked it and left.

We will miss our home, but we know that God has a way better home in store for us and we can't wait for it.

Thanks to all who helped us pack and took us the the airport. We love you guys. See you in a week.