Redemption

 

​ Today was our last day of ministry! I can hardly believe today was our last day! It was so jam packed, it flew right by! This morning we did a breakfast program for the kids at Ejido. It was so fun to hang out with those kids for two days! We had a time of worship, games, and soccer! Our students even made them balloon animals! The kids were absolutely blessed by it! I loved every single moment there as we made memories with our team and these beautiful kids from the community. I love the joy that just fills the room and the contagious laughter and smiles. My heart just melts every time.

And can I just say how cutie this little boy is! This is Grayson Davis. I love, love, love spending time with the Davis family every time we come! Spending time catching up with Angelina is one of my favorite things to do here. She is such a beautiful woman of God and of gentleness, patience, love, and faith. Brennan is such a great leader and man of God. I'm always super encouraged talking to him. 

After Ejido, we came back to the base for lunch and to prepare for the rehab center. I was so ready to go back, after last year that became a place my heart broke for. You saw redemption in the eyes of these boys and girls. You saw hearts that were determined to change. Hearts longing for love. My favorite moment at the rehab today, (well one of my favorite moments) was when Brennan lead the girls in worship. They didn't have a big old projector with the words in larges letters up on the wall, or a huge worship team to encourage them to sing along. They didn't need any of that. They knew every lyric and sang it out from the very tops of their lungs with smiles on their faces. My second favorite moment was sitting down talking to the girls. Now, I always get super nervous during this part because of the language barrier between us, but I realized something. As I sat there hearing the stories of these girls lives, all I heard was abandon, shame, hurt, and brokenness. And I realized, what they want most is for us to just love on them and listen. Spend time with them and encourage them the only way we know how. By the love of Christ. Encouraging them with the promise that they have a heavenly Father who is never going to abandon, or hurt them. Who will redeem them from their past. They have a God who loves them. 

Our students did such an amazing job interacting with them there! I'm so proud of how our kids have stepped out in faith on this trip, and to see how the Lord is molding them to become great leaders! I'm so not ready for this trip to be over. Yes, I will be physically leaving Mexico Monday morning, but my heart won't. The missions field doesn't end when we cross the border. There is no difference between the lost hearts here and the lost home. We all have one thing we need. Jesus. And with him we have redemption and salvation. 

Romans 10:1-13

 Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

5 For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, “The man who does those things shall live by them.” 6 But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?” that is, to bring Christ down from above) 7 or, “‘Who will descend into the abyss?”(that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the Scripture says,“Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. 13 For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Overjoyed.

This morning had to be another favorite. We had the opportunity to do a prayer walk, which is something I have never done before. It was such a humbling experience, hearing of this pastors testimony and where he is now, and his church plant. He is currently meeting under a tree in a small community near the base. He lives in Los Angeles, and drives here about 3 Saturdays of the month to do a church service, along with still having time to invite the locals to service and love on them. I just love that. 

We walked around the property in groups, praying for the pastor, his church, and for God to move mightily. Then, we met around the tree he teaches under, and prayed for his church. 

Next, we helped out with a local kids program near by. We told the story of David and Goliath and shared a skit with the kids giving the gospel message! Our students did so good on their skit! After the skit, we had a variety of games being played. And even though there is a language barrier, there is one language that needs no interpretations. Laughter. The sound of a child’s laugh melts my heart every time I hear it. And that room was filled with smiles and laughter. My heart was overflowing with joy. I was at peace. I was thankful. 

Then, we did some fun stuff with our students. We went and did a scavenger hunt at one of the local markets. The kids had to find a handful of items as a team. It was quite entertaining to watch them try and pronounce everything in Spanish. But, they did surprisingly well! I was such a good time of fellowship with Brennan and the team! 

Finally, it wouldn’t be a proper trip to Mexico if we didn’t have tacos!! We visited our favorite spot Tacos La Gloria to top off our day. It was fun, and quite delicious!

I’m so not ready to leave on Monday. There is something about being here in Mexico that's so captivating. I don’t know if its the people, or the culture. There’s something about this place that I absolutely adore. Being here the week that we have, quite honestly just hasn't been enough! Tomorrow is our last day of ministry! WHAT? Where on earth did the time go? It feels as though we just arrived! I’ve been so blessed to be on this trip and spend time with everyone on our team. My heart is full.

 

Working Hard. In the Dark?

Today we did a ton of work projects around the base such as, pulling weeds, picking fruit trees, and watering plants. It was an absolute beautiful day too. Everyone stayed hydrated and healthy. We also had the privilege to sit under a missions class today taught be Steve McCracken. We learned about different cultures, the great commission, and what God’s word says concerning the missions field. Then we played a fun interactive game, that taught us how to apply everything we learned in class this afternoon. 

Today the kids made juice from the fruit we picked and practiced a skit for an outreach we have scheduled tomorrow. They have worked so hard on it, and finally watching it all come together, I can’t wait to see God use it! 

So this is where I would have ended the blog because after skit practice, we were going to debrief and go to bed. Well we kinda of have a small change in plans. Kids are outside spread wide through the base, leaders here and there and its about 9:15. Power outage. what? Kids are screaming left and right, but some how all make it to one spot on the base. Now, you could imagine the rest of the night consisted of, scary stories and people popping out of no where scaring one another. One thing that I'm sure you don't expect to happen during a power outage is, hair braiding? Yea, I’m just as confused as you are. Isabella and Sara, two new interns here on the base started to braid some of the youths hair. And they may or may not have braided Zack’s hair. It was hilarious to watch!

It was an incredibly fun, chill day! So excited for what tomorrow holds! Thank you for all your prayers!!

New Experiences.

Can I just say, what a day. Today was full of a whole lot of new experiences. If you saw the last blog, you know my feelings towards everything new, I was a little scared at first. But, I swallowed my fear and my pride, and boy did God do a work in my heart. First, the orphanage. 

This morning was probably my favorite, this far. (I know, its only day one, but hey, a good trip is full favorites.) Driving up I was full of anxiousness and excitement. It was a new orphanage that none of the team members had been too. It just opened a little under a year ago, so everything was new. Exciting and new. We park the car. The car wasn't even off yet, and kids were RUNNING to the front gate, waving and smiles all around. This was going to be fun! We get everything unpacked, everyone out of the vans and we head in. As soon as we walked in the gate, kids came rushing in, with hugs all around, some reaching their arms up to be held, others taking your hand and leading the way. I was extremely humbled by this. I felt welcomed and loved, but didn't need words said to feel it. It was pure action. The language barrier wasn’t a major problem, they would try to speak English, we try to speak Spanish, and completely fail. But their was something we all had in common at that moment. It was joy. Joy filled that place. Looking around all you could see was games left and right, a bible study, kids giggling, high fives, piggyback rides, and victory dances. This orphanage was so fun! I loved every second here.

Can I just talk about this cutie!?! His personality was the best! He snatched those sunglasses and and started strutting down his runway. - haha! it was the cutest thing! 

Next we made Raspados by an Elementary school in a small local town.

We brought a cooler full of pre-shaved ice, then two other coolers with two big solid ice cubes and once we ran out we had to shave it ourselves. Well, if you could image it wasn’t the most efficient and fast way of doing things. But we made it work! Now as you see in these two pictures We got a huge line of kids. But you see, we ran out of shaved ice before this large group of kids, so we basically shaved the ice for one cup at a time. Once we saw everyone had one, we thought, oh its break time. how funny. Kids never just want one of something, especially a small cup with ice and liquid sugar in it. Those boys, bless their hearts! They were working so hard to make sure each child walked away with something in their hand. - literally. We ran out of cups at one point so we were shaving the ice and placing it in their bare hands, and pouring the raspados flavors they desired over it. It was hilarious! One little boy screamed because it was so cold on his little hands, but was giggling about it seconds later. Even though, we had some minor glitches, it was a fun, new experience. 

We finished here pretty late in the day. We started to head back to the base. We get into our vans, and joey looks like Casper from Twilight. Now, you would think, in a perfect world after thousands of reminders before we left to grab your water bottles, kids would listen and obey. Not our group. At least 4 kids didn’t have water, which means in the end leaders don’t have water. So Joey, got a little dehydrated after our time outside and felt like he was going to be sick. So we told him, shout “NOW” when you feel like you are going to be sick. Well, he did. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Josh jump out of our van so fast. I don’t think the van was at a complete halt before be got out. He DID NOT want joey sick in that van! The situation set aside, it was quite funny if I do say so myself. Joey is fine now, he was just dehydrated and had a little headache. 

It was an extremely fun day full of new experiences. Tomorrow, we will do work projects here on the base all day, so I’m sure I will have many more funny stories to tell! This trip has been amazing so far. I love seeing God work in the hearts of those who are willing. God is continuing to humble me and show me so much about myself. I love, love this place.

Please continue to pray for us! Pray for hydrated bodies, and healthy kids. Also healthy leaders so we can take care of these kids as best as we possibly can. Pray for God to keep moving in the hearts of everyone here, and that we would be willing to let got place us where He desires.