Here's the insider scoop on the latest fashion trends at the Gateway. Please share these hip tips with your participants as they begin packing for the trip so we don't have anyone out of style and we can keep all the "rage" to a minimum.

GENERAL

Both guys and girls do not bring clothing that is tight, too small, or form-fitting in any way (nothing should hug your body). Do not bring pants that are low-cut (low-riders). You should be able to bend over and touch your toes without showing any skin in the back and raise your hands all the way above your head and not show your stomach. Do not bring clothes with holes, rips, or tears.

You may wear shorts and t-shirts while you are at the base. All shorts must be at least knee-length and all shirts must have sleeves (no cap sleeves, scoop necks, or low v-necks). This dress code applies at any time that you are outside of your room and includes walking to and from the showers and to and from the bathroom at night. Both guys and girls must wear a shirt at all times, this includes walking to and from the shower.

Open-toed shoes or sandals of any kind are not allowed during ministry in the colonias for men or women. You may wear sandals and flip-flops while you are on base at the Gateway, but you may not go barefoot.

Dress Code for Ministry

No flashy clothes or jewelry. Do not bring clothes with American logos and advertisements. Something simple like Old Navy is ok, but remember what you wear is a physical representation of who you are. Do not bring clothes with holes, rips, or tears.

In the categories below, ministry dress includes all evangelism-oriented ministry blocks (home ministry, living water, etc.), church services and prayer walks. For Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, anticipate participating in three ministry blocks where ministry dress is required—plus the church service on Sunday—and three ministry blocks that fall into the second dress code category. Wednesday's activities will be primarily construction, sports, and VBS so plan to follow that dress code on Wednesday also.

LADIES

Ministry Dress - Wear skirts that reach below the bottom of the knee or longer, or khaki slacks. Wear shirts with sleeves that cover the shoulders. You can wear short sleeves, but they must cover the shoulders and upper arms. No cap sleeves or sleeveless shirts of any kind. Shirts should not have scoop necks or low v-necks.

Construction/Sports Dress/VBS - Jeans, capris, or knee length shorts. Work shirt or t-shirt, (no tank tops, cap sleeves or sleeveless tops). Shirts should not have scoop necks or low v-necks. Boots, strong shoes, or tennis shoes.

GUYS

Ministry Dress - Nice pants (slacks, khaki slacks), nice shirt with a collar, nice shoes or tennis shoes.

Construction/Sports Dress/VBS - Jeans, pants or shorts to the knee. Work shirt or t-shirt (no tank tops or sleeveless shirts), boots, strong shoes, or tennis shoes.

Buenos Dias!

     Welcome back to the AIM Matamoros ministry blog. Hopefully today's post will answer a few more of those burning questions that arise for you and your group as you prepare to join us here at the Gateway where we pray that the spiritual climate will be as hot as the Mexican sun!

     This summer we plan to follow the same basic daily schedule that we used in 2007. Last summer we implemented a new schedule with two afternoon ministry sessions in place of the schedule we followed in past summers with one morning session and one afternoon session. Overall, the new schedule enhanced the experience of the groups who came to minister, the ministry we did in Matamoros, and the basic functioning of the Gateway.

     Please be flexible with us as we may fine tune some details in the schedule to adapt to the unique staff, participants, and ministry God has for us in 2008.  Follow the links below to view the current schedule. It is safe to present to your teams for a general idea of what to expect.

Saturday & Sunday schedules

Monday - Friday Schedule

Saturday

1:00 - Teams begin arriving at the Gateway and settling in.

7:00 - Dinner at the Gateway

7:45 - Gateway orientation and worship

8:45 pm - Project Facilitators check in with youth pastors! Let the little chickies run free (but no running in the parking lot!), go to Nena's (for hamburguesas and joya), etc.

10:30 pm - LIGHTS OUT!!! (No Jokes … too many personality types to not take this serious!)

Sunday

8 am - Breakfast

8:45 am - Participants and leaders spend time alone with Jesus (Devotionals)

9:15 am - AIM training, ministry orientation, learn how to use a translator, cultural do's and don'ts, etc.

11:00 am - Break to get ready for the market and evening church services

11:45 - Lunch at the Gateway: sandwich, apple, chips, and cookies

12:30 - Leave for the market

1:00 - Spend all your parents' money on soccer jerseys, hammocks, Mexican blankets, and anything else you can get back on the plane with (but remember you won't get back into the states with tobacco, alcohol, or swords).

3:30 - Leave the market and head to the ministry sites

4:00 - Meet your pastor and prayer walk his colonia. Invite the community to the service. 

5:30 - Worship with the church in your colonia 

7:00 - Share a meal with the congregation. We bring the food. You will serve the church and then eat and fellowship with them. 

7:45 - Depart to head back to the Gateway

8:30 pm - Project Facilitators check in with youth pastors, showers, team time if desired, etc. 

10:30 pm - LIGHTS OUT!!! (No Jokes … too many personality types to not take this serious!)

(After leaving the market, times are approximate based on when the church you are working with holds services.)

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday

8 am - Breakfast

8:45 am - Worship & Prayer for the day's ministry

9:30 am - Participants and leaders spend time alone with Jesus (Devotionals)

10:00 am - Team time to get ready for the day:  practice VBS, gather supplies, fill up water bottles, put on sunscreen, etc.

Project Facilitators check in with Youth Pastors and allow them to exhaust every question and concern!

11:00 - Leave for the colonias in Matamoros

11:30 - Lunch at ministry site: sandwich, apple, chips, and cookies

12:00 - First ministry block

3:00 - Break and snacks

3:15 - Switch to second ministry block

6:15 - Leave the ministry sites

7:00 - Dinner at the Gateway (warm and filling meal)

7:30 - Showers

8:00 - Evening Debrief (Brief corporate worship time and then break off with your team to debrief the day)

9:30 pm - Project Facilitators check in with youth pastors! Let the little chickies run free (but no running in the parking lot!), go to Nena's (for hamburguesas and joya), etc.

10:30 pm - LIGHTS OUT!!! (No Jokes … too many personality types to not take this seriously!)

Wednesday

Look for a future blog on our Wednesday schedule. We are starting something new this year and devoting the day to doing ministry in the local ejido (community) adjacent to the Gateway. We will be doing light construction and clean-up, VBS, sports ministry, etc. and have a community cookout at the end of the day.

Friday

8 am - Breakfast

8:45 am - Chores: Help the work crew tidy up the Gateway so they can have a day off before the next group arrives.

9:30 am - Head back to the mission field where God has you working the other 51 weeks out of your year! 

Times are approximate based on group departure times each week.

     Welcome to the official blog site for 2008 summer missions at the Gateway in Matamoros, Mexico. This site should become your primary point of contact for information on your trip and the ministries you will be participating in this summer. Please visit the site often as you prepare for your trip. Post your questions here—ranging from travel arrangements to ministry opportunities—and check back regularly for the answers. Once the summer begins we will post regular ministry updates so you can see how each week forms a chapter of the story God is writing for us this summer. The ministry your group engages in will be shaped by what happens before you come and after you leave.

     The Gateway is a place of transformation. Summers here are a simmering concoction of challenges, growth, ministry, mosquitoes, brokenness, restoration, and sweat. We build structures, but more importantly we build relationships. We minister to people who speak a language we do not understand and we seek to recognize the language God uses to speak to our hearts and direct our lives. Before I arrived in 2005 to spend my first summer here as the Work Crew leader, I announced to the director that I was so done with week-long mission trips. I thought they were pointless and ineffective and they always left me unsatisfied. Now, as a part of the Gateway's full-time staff, I am posed to enter my fourth summer of ministry here and I marvel at the change in my perspective.

     I have witnessed week after week of transforming ministry here. I have heard the testimonies of college students who still mark a week at the Gateway in middle school as a watershed moment in their spiritual life. I really do see long-term fruit from these short-term trips, and to me that is a miracle. Last summer I facilitated projects for four weeks working alongside local pastor Jesus Blanco Martinez and his small church plant, praying often that God would grant them land on which to build a church. This weekend, I will celebrate with Pastor Jesus, his family, and his church over the recent purchase of the land we prayed for.

     I once posed the question, "What can happen in a week, anyway?" Another staff member's immediate thought was "Creation." When she shared that with me weeks later that summer, I was deeply humbled. I have come to realize that the dissatisfaction I feel after week-long mission experiences may actually be the point. They are supposed to leave me dissatisfied…hungering for something more…looking for purposeful ministry opportunities and relationships to invest in long-term. So we welcome you here for a taste of what God will do with the little we give Him, and we pray that your group will leave here dissatisfied—with a craving that won't let them settle back into life as they know it now.  

     Every summer I have been a part of here at the Gateway has exceeded the one before it. Our prayer is that the summer of 2007 will be the base for the summer of 2008 and that God will continue to build on what He has already started. The next series of blogs you will find here will cover the various ministry opportunities that we are setting up for the summer—both casting vision and covering the practical details. The Kingdom is expanding here, if we but have eyes to see it. In the midst of our brokenness, our lack of understanding and our flawed attempts at ministry, God has chosen to meet with us here. He graces us with His Presence and He fills the voids. We welcome you to join the battle for the hearts of the Mexican people, the hearts in your group, for our hearts, and above all for His glory!

God spoke to me at the dump. I didn't think I was able to get off the bus because I had mixed feelings about it. After a bit of hesitation, I got off and began handing out bread. I heard God saying there is someone specific you need to give this bread to and I found him 15 minutes later! He was on an old bike just staring blankly at the garbage. I walked over to him and said hi, introduced myself, and God Bless and walked off. As I left, God was telling me this man needs a hug. So I grabbed my friend who spoke more Spanish than I did and had her ask him if I could just give him a hug. He said "of course" and I gave him a HUGE hug. After that he asked if I had water so I ran to go get water and I was told that we had 8 minutes until we left. So I ran back to where he was but James told me it was time to go and there was noone else to give water to. I saw him buried in the trash and told James. He took me over and we talked with him and told me I had a huge heart and how great it was to meet me. We said our goodbyes and walked away, but I walked away actually feeling like a disciple of God!

Erin Schroeder, Colorado Community Church

Our first day out in the Colonia, I went on a prayer walk with a team from Morse Street Baptist Church in Denton, TX. We walked around the community and prayed for homes and people that we passed and we even stopped to invite locals to the church service going on that evening. The second house we stopped to invite had a few boys in the yard and as we introduced ourselves, we realized it might be a Christian home because the boys were named Abraham, Ezekiel, and Peter. Eleazar, our translator, asked if this was a Christian home and we heard 2 voices from inside…one called out, "yes", and one called out "no." The mother came out into the yard and we began talking with her. She explained that she is a Christian, she has 10 kids, but some of her boys don't want anything to do with God. One in particular, named Samuel, is very bitter because his bed was broken and he didn't see how God was taking care of him. It was his voice that called out "no". As we visited with her, she told us about some of her physical needs…a new bed for Samuel…some roof repair on her home…and a concrete roof on the church she attends in the neighborhood. We got to visit with her, encourage her as members of the same Body of Christ, and we told her that we would talk to AIM to see what we could do about some of her physical needs. As we left her home, Eleazar told us that a bed was given to him recently that he was not using, so we were free to give it to this family. We also talked with our construction coordinator about coming to survey her home and he told us that he was actually looking for more work projects that needed to be done in the neighborhood. The next day, we all took the bed and delivered it to the woman in need. Her face was beaming as tears welled up and she told us that just a few months ago, she had a vision from the Lord in which he was giving her a large box full of gifts. She felt unworthy to receive any gifts from the Lord, but He told her, "Yes, these are for you because you are my daughter." She knew God sent his people to bless her with a gift of a new bed for her doubtful son, Samuel. Our main desire was to get to share with Samuel himself, and as we waited for him to come out of the house, the Lord reminded me of the story of Samuel in 1 Samuel 3 that I had read just 2 days before. Originally, I thought the Lord had me read this story as a reminder to pray for the youth coming to the Gateway to be able to hear the Lord's voice, but as we stood in this woman's yard, I knew the story was for her son's ears. When Samuel came out, a couple of us were able to share with him and I told him that I believed the Lord wanted me to remind him of his namesake in the Bible, Samuel. Samuel was given by his parents to the Lord at a very young age, so he went to live in the temple with Eli, a priest. One night, when laying on his bed, the voice of the Lord came to him and called his name. Samuel assumed it was Eli calling him, so he got up and went to Eli. Eli had not called him, and sent him back to bed. This happened 3 times, and finally Eli realized it was the Lord calling Samuel, so he told Samuel to go back to bed and when he heard the voice, respond, "speak Lord, for your servant is listening." Samuel did as he was told, and he learned to recognize the Lord's voice and speak with him. I was able to tell Samuel that I believed he had a gift for hearing the Lord's voice. I believed that as he lay on his new bed, he would hear the Lord call to him by name. I believed he had a destiny and an inheritance in the Lord. His parents were very blessed as we ministered to their unbelieving son and we all had a chance to pray for him together. Some prayed in Spanish, some in English, but we all prayed the same thing…that Samuel would hear the Lord's voice and the Holy Spirit would give him the courage to respond. It was a blessing to get to witness God's sovereignty in orchestrating every detail of this encounter. He promised a faithful woman gifts…He directed us to her home…He knew Samuel was in need of a bed…He provided a bed…and He blessed us with just the right words to share with Samuel. We are continuing to pray for Samuel and his family as we minister to them this summer. To God be the Glory!

Lauren Ramirez
AIM Project Facilitator

"Today a young lady, Jessica, was saved.   It's such an awesome feeling to know that if you allow God to lead you, mighty things can happen. God bless you, Jessica."    Vanessa, Morse St. Baptist Church

"My highlight of today was getting to experience a lady expressing how she feels about the Lord.   [Another highlight was] getting to talk to the Lord. I also was interceding with the kids and getting to talk to them in Spanish."    Tasha and Michelle Morse St. Baptist Church