Mexico gave me a gift that I can never return, nor would I ever want to return.
Mexico took a struggling, prideful, and terrified woman and changed her heart of stone to a heart of flesh. Rather, God used Mexico to do so in my life.
Each time someone asks how was Mexico, I am not sure how to respond. Sometimes I would just give a simple statement of “It was great!” But within that statement hides many emotions, tears, and a love for los ninos.
To help me condense all these random thoughts of the trip down I made a list… with pretty fonts. Because that’s what I do.
Experiencing Fear
Going back to the beginning… I did not want to go to Mexico. Ever. The very idea of it terrified me. My palms would start sweating, like when I see someone use the font Comic Sans. And for this reason, I went. I purposely stepped outside my comfort zone to allow God to change my life. I gave everything up and over to God to allow Him to give me back a new life, a life whose purpose is to live for God. As I gathered with our initial group of thirty two in the Starbucks parking lot with our friends and family surrounding us in prayer, this verse came to my mind again,
If God is for us, who can be against us?
Romans 8:31
I was not facing this challenge alone. I not only had 31 other people to stand with me, I had the strength of our Lord and Savior. We could do this. Easy.
Experiencing Giving
There were many verses that I had to keep focusing on and one of those is found in Matthew,
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
No matter the fears that I had, and without God I would still have them, I have a gift and this gift needs to be shared. Our group went down to Mexico to share the gift of salvation with the people of this country. These people have little hope, but they have been given the gift of a small Christian church in their community. We were able to give our time to help this church not only expand their physical church building but also their church fellowship. Each day we went out amongst the people of the community and shared with them the love of Christ. We were invited into their homes to pray with them and comfort them with the words of the Scripture so they might have hope (Romans 15:4). Our gift was small but our group saw the over fifty people accept the gift of salvation during our week in the San Quintin valley. And that gift is eternal.
The light of our Lord overflowed through us and that light will not be extinguished.
Experiencing Love
Love is what I was able to experience the most though, for it is the result of my first two points. Through my fear, God showed me His love. Through my giving, I received love. Everywhere I looked I saw love… the love of the people running the mission camp, Mike and Angela; the love of my fellow missionaries who served each other; the love of Room 5, where our friendships were forever strengthened;the love of the people of the church when they welcomed us into their homes; the love of the children who welcomed us into their arms for a hug and then wouldn’t let go.
When Andy and I were married we asked Pastor Bob to speak on this verse, for it is the verse I wanted to base our marriage upon,
My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
1 John 3:18
We were able to demonstrate this verse all week, demonstrating the love that Christ has shown us since the beginning of time. We weren’t just praying for these people in the comfort of our homes but we were working side by side with them in love.
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8
Dios le bendiga… God bless you.
