Kami Burns’ Blog

a guilty pleasure of mine is reading travel guides. i have a whole section of my bookshelf dedicated to them…most of which are about mexico! once i make my first million being a campus minister, i’m going to retire and travel the world and write about my adventures, but in the meantime, i’ll practice on yall, my loyal readers.

this upcoming weekend, el pozo is taking a trip to beautiful ixmiquilpan, hidalgo! we’re excited to get out of puebla for a couple of days, soak up the hidalgo sun, build deeper relationships with our students (and hopefully meet some new ones!) and learn from our good friend juanita del angel (of girls’ night fame). please keep us in your prayers as we make last minute preparations and create all sorts of hype over the next few days. our trip last semester was HUGE for el pozo, and we’re praying once again for an amazing group of students, for late-night talks about faith and life, for lots of fun, and for people to realize that there’s something awesome happening here at el pozo, and that something is jesus’ love.

where you'll find me saturday afternoon!

and at age 25, 4 years after graduating college, i am pleased to announce that i STILL am a faithful observer of spring break. this spring break, the first week of april, i’m heading up a cross-country road trip to ciudad acuña, where el pozo will be building a house with casas por cristo. this will be el pozo’s 5th house with casas and this trip has become THE event of the spring for this community. almost everything we do during the spring is building up to this trip…we’ve had poker tournaments that do double duty as community fun events and fundraisers, people all over puebla are wearing blue bracelets promoting the cause, and we pray each week at en vivo for this trip. it’s a daunting task…each year we have to raise about $10,000 united states dollars to make this house and trip happen, but it is DEFINITELY worth every penny and peso raised. no one who’s been on the trip can deny that it really does change your life, and i’m always up for people’s lives getting changed. experiencing the joy of providing a home for a needy family sandwiched by long days in a van with people you may or may not have known before results in an unforgettable experience. for the next month, pray for us as we are raising this money, making trip plans, and most importantly, pray for each of the students who are considering going.

my (and el pozo's) first casas trip in 2008!

so as you can see, i may have quite possibly missed the point of travel writing, because my travels have yet to happen. sorry! but i write now to ask for your prayer for both of these trips. i believe from my own experiences and what i see in scripture that God so often works in our lives when we’re traveling.

donald miller says it like this, and i hope the same for each student on these upcoming trips:

“And so my prayer is that your story will have involved some leaving and some coming home, some summer and some winter, some roses blooming out like children in a play. My hope is your story will be about changing, about getting something beautiful born inside of you, about learning to love a woman or a man, about learning to love a child, about moving yourself around water, around mountains, around friends, about learning to love others more than we love ourselves, about learning oneness as a way of understanding God. We get one story, you and I, and one story alone. God has established the elements, the setting and the climax and the resolution. It would be a crime not to venture out, wouldn’t it?

Roll the word around on your tongue for a bit. It is a beautiful word, isn’t it? So strong and forceful, the way you have always wanted to be. And you will not be alone. You have never been alone. Don’t worry. Everything will still be here when you get back. It is you who will have changed.”

and today i pray the same for you too! much love – kami

at el pozo, one of the things we love most is watching students move closer to God. we have a fairly nerdy system in place called “the assimilation plan” which helps us track students’ spiritual progress, as much as something like that can be measured. we celebrate when strangers become friends of el pozo, when our friends become known by this community and our staff, when those who are known let their guards down and become comfortable here, when the comfortable begin to grow in their faiths, when growing believers take ownership of el pozo, and seeing those who have led here move on to lead in the local church once their college years are through. here are some stories of el pozo students who are growing in different ways, but in one direction…

israel is a guy who’s FAMOUS at el pozo for bringing tons of friends here. he has more talent with people than just about anyone i know. multiple times he has brought people here that he’s met earlier that day. as far as i know, he’s not paying, bribing, or tricking them, and last week his friend jeff showed up for the first time! israel had introduced me to jeff once before, and when we first met, jeff couldn’t wrap his mind around what it was that we did here. he asked me question after question – free food? why? people live in this house? WHAT IS THIS PLACE? …and now he knows, because jeff came to pozomida last thursday and ate a warm meal, made some new friends, and heard a short talk about God’s love (our theme during the month of february). today i’m praying that jeff’s just as excited about being our friend as we are about being his, and that we’ll see him back here soon.

laura and jeff, both first timers at pozomida last week!

courtney and i got to be friends with a girl named pamela last semester. she was dating a friend of ours and we’d end up traveling with her to UDLAP football games or hanging out with her on the weekends. pamela’s fun, outgoing, and knows EVERYONE on campus, and she started coming occasionally to some events at el pozo last semester. i have loved watching her become an el pozo regular this semester. she’s here on tuesdays and thursdays with tons of friends, and we’re seeing her slowly but surely make el pozo hers instead of just being “courtney and kami’s friend”. today i’m praying that pam will be here tuesday night and that during our talks about love, that something will click and that she’ll know the love God has for her.

pamela and i meeting a famous mexican soccer player at mcdonald's!

jp is a hilarious guy who studies actuarial science. he started coming to pozomida 2 years ago, and has since brought dozens and dozens of friends to el pozo. every thursday he rounds up everyone he can find and brings them over here…or at least he did, until this semester. now he has class during pozomida and can’t come…but luckily, erick and victor, 2 of his best friends, have taken over his role of inviting and herding the actuaries over here on thursdays. on thursday afternoons after lunch, it’s fun to sit down with them and talk about movies, music, books, and life. they haven’t professed any huge leaps of faith during their time at el pozo, but i’m at least glad to know that they are comfortable here and invite their friends to come share in what we have here and hear the message that we teach. today i’m praying that erick and victor will be changed by what they’ve found here, even if i never personally get to see the fruit.

erick and victor about to win our game at pozomida 2 weeks ago!

two very tangible steps of growth were seen this past sunday afternoon, when we celebrated 2 baptisms together with mosaico, the new CMF church plant here in cholula! carlos is a paramedic on campus who got connected with mosaico through el pozo, and tania is a student who came to el pozo with friends, got more involved by playing flag football with our teams, started reading the bible with courtney, and decided to give her life to Jesus (despite opposition from her family) this weekend. today i’m praying for tania to grow more and more in her faith after taking this awesome step!

tania brought her friend tiny to en vivo last week, and he wants to learn more about what it means to follow jesus! (ps - it

tania’s baptism was extra special because she asked her friend beto to baptize her alongside of courtney because of the role he’s played in her walk with jesus. beto became a christian here at el pozo, was baptized last year, and he’s now a key player in el pozo’s student leadership group, so to see that he’s got a ministry of his own already is every pastor’s dream! today i’m praying for beto as he tries to figure out the next step in his life…he finished school in december and i hope and pray that no matter where he ends up next, that he finds a church and continues to minister like he has here at el pozo as a leader.

beto's in the middle and tania's on the right, with our good friend hector on the far left...beto's a great friend to both of them!

and so many el pozo alumni have been crucial in starting mosaico, a new christian community here in cholula. CMF missionaries todd and tonja hancock moved here in august and alongside el pozo alumni have planted a church. to see a church grow out of this campus ministry is beyond rewarding, and to see mosaico reaching people that el pozo ordinarily wouldn’t or couldn’t is such a blessing. we believe in the power of the local church to change our world, and seeing mosaico grow from idea to conception to birth to a baby church has been a learning experience for me, and i’m just sitting in the audience! today i’m praying for mosaico to continue growing deeper and wider and to keep impacting lives here in cholula.

a sunday morning of worship at mosaico christian community (meeting in the el pozo pole barn)!

God’s creation is growing here, with spring aaaalmost upon us, and his people are too. thanks for constantly feeding el pozo with your prayers and support, and stay tuned to see even more growing as college students in mexico keep taking steps closer to God.

much love – kami