Dios Te Ama - Mexico Mission 2001
"God Loves You"
For one year now 18 of us have been meeting on a regular basis, in order to learn and grow in preparation for our week long mission trip from April 13th - 21st. And the day has come!
Our team from Central Baptist church in Kitchener (8 people) have been meeting with a team from Mission Baptist church in Hamilton (10 people), going over schedules, duties, and of course languages. But no one can argue that it hasn't been a spiritual battle, dealing with doubts and fears, other areas of life, relationships and conflicts. And I for one, as I write this, still don't feel like the full effect of this commitment has hit me. I think I'll be awe struck once our plane takes off. The point of no return, so to speak.
It's funny how much you learn about your friends, your church, your community, when you undertake something that is controversial in the sense that so many people find it hard to decide whether to commit to it or not, and how supportive of you they are. Our team as a whole has had much support, financially and in prayer, and we've already felt the blessings.
Who needs superstition? Well, if you insist, we're leaving on GOOD Friday the 13th, so that reverses whatever bad luck there may be. There ya go :) At least there aren't 13 of us going. We started out with 13, so it was a hot topic while it lasted. And no, I'm not superstitious :)
Spanish is a big block for us. None of us are fluent, and only 2 or 3 of us have a limited understanding in order to speak it. It will be fun, sitting there with the spanish speaking word by word looked up in the dictionary... a learning experience for all :) But, the biggest learning experience will be in living in the environment, the society, the community of a culture so radically different than what we've grown accustomed to and in most ways take advantage of. We won't be residing in a touristy hotel or any kind of upper class establishment. We'll be in a hotel (which is about equal to a country motel around here, but without the luxuries) for two nights, and in the retreat center for the rest of week. That's where we'll be holding the two youth retreats that week.
As for schedule, in a nutshell, we'll be showing the Jesus video in Spanish on Friday night for the Good Friday service, along with a few testimonies, drama and music. I tell ya, it's a big step for the first day there. We'll be around as councellors for anyone who has questions and during a quiet time after the video. We're just leaping into the mission!
Saturday we'll be having our gear-up day... going to Mexico city to shop around, get acquainted, learn, take photo shoots, and buy buy buy :).
Sunday we're back to the serious. We'll be helping with the easter service, giving testimonies and special music. I'm anxious to know what the guitars are like down there since I'll have to get used to them pretty quick. There are only a couple of guitar players on the team, and I've been taking the lead role as guitarist (but not worship leader <phew>) and that night we'll be showing the Jesus film again, for a different audience.
Monday we begin our pre-teen retreat (10-13 year olds). We've decided our theme for the entire week is to be Friendship. From what we hear, there will be about 2:1 kids to us, so they shouldn't be that hard to *cough* control. But over this 2 day retreat, we'll be putting on games, sports, learning sessions, skits, craft and maybe even puppets, for the children. We'll be forging new relationships, hopefully breaking the language barrier by that time, and help build up young ones for God. Most of the children are Christian, but there will undoubtedly be a few who will come to God for the first time. This will be the most amazing experience, seeing children from another culture come to know Jesus, not through our works, but by God's hand through us, by the spirit moving, regardless of language.
I'll be giving my testimony the first day, and hopefully it'll touch some of the children who may be having difficulty with friends or family. Everyone seems to have main topic to their testimony, and it just goes to show how God can use anyone as a powerful witness to His love and glory. I'll also be helping organize an easter egg hunt... <ahem> that should be fun... what do you do with chocolate in the sun in a place where winter isn't as cold as most summer days at home?! So there are still some things left to figure out... :)
After a quiet night of relaxation, we'll be starting up again Wednesday morning for the older youth (14-17 I believe), and a few more in attendance. For a lot of our team it will be odd as a few are in that age bracket themselves. This retreat will be 3 days, and we'll be doing mostly the same things. Dramas and sessions will be more geared to the older crowd, dealing with things like relationships, school, their future, even some equipping for evangelizing and outreach in their home towns. That Thursday morning we'll all be taking a trip to the pyramids. For us, we'll be tourists, but for all we know half the youth may have been there before. It will be very fun! I'll probably take half my pictures there alone :) The great thing is, Lisa and I will be doing our skit there, hopefully with the pyramids as the backdrop. And of all things, we'll be doing a skit which has a lighter side note on guy / girl stuff, Broken Heart we're calling it, and it's been done a number of times locally by many people.
I'll also be helping in a fun game and (finally) organizing a volleyball game. But the campfire that night will be the best part of their retreat. Who can't say that campfire's are intimate, moving and relaxing? We're praying it'll be a powerful night.
Friday will be our last night in Mexico, and we'll be cleaning up like mad, meeting and relaxing in a big way, so that our return trip on Saturday can be as stress free as possible.
God only knows what we'll be thinking on the plane trip back. We'll be counting the minutes until we set foot back on home terf. Whether it's counting down until we get home, or counting up the time we're back in the mission field - a different one, a more familiar one - only this time with a different vision. Our mission trip won't be over the moment we step on the return flight. Specifically, we'll be meeting for a few more weeks to go over the changes, the things we learned, the culture shock, and keeping up our enthusiasm. Anyone knows that coming back from a summer trip or camp with many other people in 24/7 contact you suffer some amount of withdrawal. We'll undoubtedly get some of that effect going back home. But hopefully, we won't be able to stop talking about our experiences. I can't wait for that to happen!
Moises and Carolyn Ruiz will remain in Mexico, the resident missionaries we'll be helping and staying with, to continue planting their church in Mexico City. The retreat center we'll be staying in has been being built for quite some time, and only recently got a facelift from another mission group recently. Just in time for us :). We're told there will be communal showers, and possibly even the same co-ed... so everyone had better remember their bathing suits!
Here's a picture of our team.
I'm still trying to get a hold of the funny photo we took... rrgh
(no this isn't the funny pic even though we may look it, all smiley faced:)
From top left to bottom right:
Mike, Dan, Geoff (me!), Ryan, Norm, Jay,
Dan, Matt, Allison, Jackie, Jessica, Carl,
Cat, Lukas, Lisa, Sarah and Dallas
In conclusion, for me this is gong to be a major change. My life revolves around technology. I live on the internet, I program, design websites, play games, watch tv... I took this mission so that I can get rid of that shell of reliance on the world and my comfort and wants, to step out, take a BIG step out, and rely only on God and those around me equally, and use my other gifts to help and outreach for Him. This has been a long time in coming, and things have led up to this almost painfully clear. I'll be remembering this trip for a long time.
From now on, stay tuned, because when I come back, this section will be filled with amazing things! Testimonies, photos, and more...
| 
|
