The other day Jessie and I were discussing various aspects of ministry and things we could write about here. There was one thing we talked about, (mostly me as it drives me nuts) that interrupts our time during church the most. What that might be you ask, well could it be people getting up to go to the bathroom? No. How about people falling asleep? No. How about people talking while you are preaching, not so much. What about kids running around and being noise? No. Ok, is the suspense killing you yet? It is a sneeze! A sneeze you ask? Yes that is correct, a sneeze. It is something I have grown to hate in our time together as a church. Not so much the sneeze itself, but what comes afterwards is what really gets me. The fact that other people will say "salud' which translated literally means health. But in this context it is more like saying bless you. While I am preaching someone will sneeze, and multiple people will reply by saying "salud" totally breaking my focus and flow of my sermon. Also imagine if your praying and then someone interrupts your prayer by saying salud very loudly. I am identifying this as being a cultural difference here. But as a missionary, this things are a common to deal with it. I know that this is my American cultural norm to ignore it and not even acknowledge that someone sneezed. The things we find that annoy us just being in a different a culture. Welcome to cultural differences 101.
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A part of the ministry is saying goodbye. It is never easy. After having Christian, in our church for a number of months, we prayed for him as he left yesterday morning, to help with his family busy back in Chapala outside of Guadalajara. He has is struggles but clearly, God had begun to mold him into a new creation. I am personally sadden to see him go as I felt there was so much more that I could walk through with him. But with reflecting on this and what he said with his own words that La Roca church was his home church, we did something right. It is moments like this that I realize as well that I may not have a very long time with certain people so I better, make the most of my time with them. In the past three months, I had numerous conversations with him about his life and his walk with the Lord. I am blessed to be a vessel that God can use. My prayer is that God would protect the word that has been planted in his life. 
Cristian was always ready to laugh.
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