The trip may be over but the mission never ends….

I don’t even know where to begin. Sometimes some things and feelings you can’t put into words, it’s a “you had to be there” kind of thing.

So lets just start from the beginning. Preparing for this week long, mission trip to Mexico took two months. Getting a skit organized for the rehabilitation centers, learning Spanish songs, weekly meetings, working on kids activities for the orphanages, and getting ready spiritually with prayer and fasting took a lot of effort considering I still had college full time, work, and working on my volunteer hours. The last week before we left was filled with so much homework, finals, packing, sleep deprivation, buying last minute stuff, and making sure we had everything that we might need. Surprisingly with everything going on, I wasn’t stressing out because I knew in my heart that God would work everything out.

Our group meet up at Maranatha Church in Spokane Valley at 7pm Friday March 18th. We had the church pray for us before we all loaded up into 2 vans. The drive was very long but beautiful, we drove through Idaho, Montana, Utah, Nevada, and Arizona. After 26 hours we were at our destination, San Louis Rio Colorado, Mexico.

 

Passing through Utah

Utah

We had all of Sunday to meet the other group from Everett and to practice our skits, singing, and stories for the kids. We went out for tacos because it was our first official day in Mexico. Because of our group being so big and having close to 50 people we decided to split up for some of the days.

Instead of talking about every single day, I’ll just summarize the whole trip because I’m sure you don’t want to be sitting here reading this into the next day.

Our wake up calls were at 7am but I would get up at 6am so I would have time to shower (the girls had only 3 showers so if we wanted to shower we either waited till very late at night or very early) and read the bible. We had breakfast at 7:30 each day and prayer would start at 8am. Usually by 10am we would be on our way to our first service. By 1pm we would be headed to our second service of the day. After our second service we would head back to the house and have lunch at at about 3pm. Close to 5 or 6pm we would be off to our third and last service of the day. We would usually get home around 8 or 9pm and have dinner. After dinner every night we would all get in a circle and each of u took a turn talking about what we experienced that day. Our bed time usually ended up being around 2am almost every night.

Singing with the kids at the orphanage

Coloring at the orpahnage

5 months old

On one of our days half of the group including me went to Mexicali to visit orphanages. The pictures above are from a Christian orphanage in Mexicali. The married couple that run this orphanage adopted a lot of the kids and run it as a family. I was here last May and seen a lot of the same kids that were here this time in March. This orphanage is pretty small and has about 15 kids. We colored, did crafts (made duct tape tulips around pens), sang songs, and prayed  with them.

The pictures above are from another orphanage in Mexicali. This one is a little bit bigger they have about 50 kids. I’ve also been at this orphanage once or twice before in the past years but I don’t think I seen any of the same kids here as before.

There were so many blessings and miracles on this trip. We felt God’s presence every minute and every day. At one of the men’s rehabilitation center there was a young man, he was probably 21-25, he got set free when we were there. He kept on raising his hands and saying, “I am free, I am free.” He knew a little bit of English and one of our guys talked to him. He accepted Jesus before in his life but fell back into sin so when we got there God worked on his heart and set him free. His face was literally shining!! I’ve never seen anyone so happy. He couldn’t stop smiling and crying from happiness. I can still see his face right now, it was something else! The kids there are so simple and precious, all they want is love and someone to play with. They don’t have wifi or computers but you can see they are content with digging in the sand or playing soccer.

God did so much in me, but I will share that in a next post. I will say this though, that little voice in your head that tells you to get up early and read your bible or to go downstairs and help with peeling carrots, go and do it! You shall receive blessings! I thank God for giving me opportunities to go and serve His people. I am also very thankful for the people in my life that were praying for us while we were in Mexico. Let us recognize God’s voice and be obedient to Him.