JANUARY 1999

At 2:00 A.M. on New Year's Day, the AIM class of 58 students of the Adventures In Missions class of 1998 departed from Lubbock, TX. Their destination was the largest city on the face of planet earth - a city of 27 million people, where there currently exists a small, young body of Christians. The AIMers, along with some faculty and AIM assistants, were going to encourage the church, to share Jesus with the people of Mexico City (despite the language barrier), and to allow God to impact their lives and hearts through the things they saw, the people they met, and the experiences they gained.

I am one of those students. My name is Rob Hindman, and I came to the AIM program from Northern California. (at left in Image 1) I will be straightforward about this: I had an incredible experience in Mexico City. I had the kind of experience that I can't help but want to share (too bad our Christian faith isn't like that more of the time, huh?) I kept a journal/sketchbook while down there, in which I recorded many of my experiences, thoughts and ideas along with sketches of various people, objects and places within the city.

I am creating this series of web pages about the trip for several purposes: to simply inform family and friends of what happened on the trip (like my dear parents); to allow my classmates to pass the address of this page on to anyone who they think might like to read about the trip and see pictures from it; and to give any young people interested in the AIM program a way to get a closer look at one of the core parts of the AIM experience, the Mexico City trip.

Granted, the text of these pages is written from my perspective, and the pictures were taken by me. Maybe you are reading this and have no idea who I am... That's fine. Just know that this is the experience of just one of about 80 people on the trip. You will be seeing some things I saw, and you will see a whole lot of the AIM team to Samoa, since they are my teammates and were my companions the whole trip. Hopefully just about everyone on the trip is in one picture or another.

As you view these pages, I want to strongly recommend that you do so in a screen resolution of 800x600 on your computer. I am very interested in graphic design, and for these pages I am experimenting with a new layout which, unfortunately, will not look very good in anything below 800x600 (you can probably get by with 640x480, but it won't be too pretty). 1024x768 is okay too, but 800x600 is ideal. Also, be sure that your web browser is "maximized" to fit the whole screen. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, don't worry. Just enjoy.

We had an incredible time in Mexico City. Not only was it a time of stretching outside of our comfort zones and seeing (and tasting) new and marvelous things, but it was also a time of growth and bonding between the members of this AIM class as we continue to become the best of friends (see Image 2).

Enjoy the pages to follow, and feel free to email me at robh@knowtruth.com.

UPDATE, APRIL 2002: It's been over three years now since I went on the trip described in these pages and put together these files. I've since been on the Mexico City trip twice more as an AIM assistant (staff member). I continue to see God blessing both me and the many others with whom I have experienced the trip. I have updated these pages with a new email address and want to include this link to the AIM website for those interested: www.aimsunset.org. God bless, and enjoy!