“Trust in the Lord with all you heart, lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he shall direct your path.” Proverbs 3:5-6
The key word for mission trips is “flexibility.” You have to be willing to pivot and adjust on the fly. Sometimes changes are anticipated, and others come out of nowhere. Even the best laid plans can be disrupted and challenge the team. When plans have to change, you are faced with a choice to complain and be frustrated, or you can learn to wait on the Lord and trust he knows what he is doing. Disruptions allowed by God are an opportunity to see him provide, direct, and answer prayers.
Mariska says “hey!”
When we heard that our plans to go to the public school was canceled, I was a little disheartening. A huge transformational moment in my mission trip experience as a teenager was when I shared my faith, and losing the opportunity for our team to go and share felt like we were going to miss out. However, I have learned that nothing happens by accident when God is in our midst. We have prayed over this trip and invite so many to pray, I trusted God knew what was best for our team.
Jocsan, Kayla, and I decided that worrying about it was not going to accomplish anything. We have been very busy all week and Kayla said that maybe God wanted us to slow down and “know that he is God.” So our plan pivoted to doing a prayer walk in the morning, preparing some Gospel bead bracelet packets, and go to the park to see if we could encounter any kids to share with and play games. Maybe conclude the day with a stop at the beach before flying out the next day. It was a good plan, not what we envisioned, but something to do.
At 3:00 in the morning, Gaby woke up and remembered he had a contact in another public school up in the mountains. He texted Jocsan about the possibility. Gaby called the teacher, who was a Christian, and explained that our Lakeside team was looking for a school to bless with a Kid’s Day Event. In God’s providence, the school was doing a graduation practice and wanted us to come afterwards and share the Gospel! Gaby called Jocsan at 6:00am and Kayla asked me at 6:05am if I was okay changing plans after telling the team our other plans the night before. I answered emphatically that our team would love the change and will adapt wonderfully to this news.
When I updated the team about the news, they were all excited. Having heard David share the Wordless Book the day before, the team was excited to participate. We decided to do a team-teaching method, where each team member shared one page of the Wordless Book. We be prayed about it and practiced it over breakfast. We already had activities and prizes ready because we did it at Casa Abba.
Another exciting aspect was this school was 40 minutes away up in the mountains. Do to the long drive, Gaby brought his van so the team could enjoy air-conditioning and would not have stand in the back of the truck up dusty mountain roads! Traveling up into a different rural village really opened our eyes to the culture of Mexico. We have had some good discussions on how our way of life is different than so many cultures around the world. It is such a good thing to broaden our perspective of life and Gospel impact.
We arrived at the school before the graduation practice was over. Jocsan had us stay in the vehicles until it was done. He said a bunch of Americans walking around would be a big distraction to the school practice. It provided a neat opportunity to see the students’ interaction and performances. There were so many kids for the school program but I had no idea how many would stay for the Christian Kid’s Event after.
The school had a wonderful covered multipurpose court that we were able to use for all of our activities. This was a double blessing because it was plenty of space for our activities and it kept us out of the sun allowing our energy and hydration levels to be easily maintained. The children were certainly curious and interacting with us as we unloaded and set up. As I paused and looked around, most of the children stayed for the event. During one of our early games, I had a chance to count. 62 children! Plus, some coming in and out. There were 22 parents and older siblings hanging around watching the event.
After practicing all morning, the kids were loving the fun games we taught them and the team interactions. If we thought teaching the elbow tag game yesterday was hard, trying to get 62 kids to figure it out was hilarious. Once they got the game, they loved it! We extended the play time a little longer because of the school event prior. Once we had them all settled down, they were excited to hear from the team. Jocsan was our translator and the whole team came to the front.
I am so proud of each of our team members and how they took to teaching the children. For some of them, this was the first time they really vocalized their belief. Public speaking is very intimidating on its own. Publicly professing your faith is intimidating for many reasons, especially the first time. One team member expressed a fear of messing up the truth or doing an inadequate job. This gave me an opportunity to tell teach them about how sharing our faith is partnering with God in a divine act. We are not alone. We cannot save anyone, but God can. When we overcome our fears and open our mouths in faith, trusting the truth of God’s Word, the Holy Spirit empowers and even interprets despite our inadequacies. It is the empowering of the Holy Spirit that will embolden and encourage us to keep proclaiming our faith.
Also, I told them that the amazing opportunity they have to proclaim their faith through and interpreter like Jocsan is that he knows the Bible and is well versed in the Gospel. If any of us stumble a little, he will smooth it out. I went over each part with our team and confirmed their roles. Veda was going to do the intro and I thought Jocsan would take over for the invitation in Spanish, however God had other plans.
Veda started us off with a wonderful introduction to the Wordless Book, a story of how much God loves you, and the most amazing thing about this story is that it is true. Most books have words, but this book just has colors. Lela took over with the Gold page. She did a fantastic job covering heaven, God as Creator, God as holy, and God’s desire for us to be with him. She showed a real gift for teaching. Emma took over and did an awesome job with the Dark page and explained what sin is and how it separates us from God. Anna beautifully explained God’s love for us in sending his Son, Jesus, to die on the cross for our sins and take our punishment and that Jesus rose from the grave! Will shared the White page, talking about forgiveness for anyone who believes in Jesus. Mariska wrapped up the Wordless Book with the Green page, which represents growth. You could sense her confidence growing as she began sharing more and more about the importance of growing closer to Jesus. Jocsan asked how many of them wanted to accept Jesus almost a third or even more raised their hands!
When it was time for the invitation, Jocsan called on Veda to share it. As I mentioned above, based on my conversation with her, Veda prepared the introduction. She pivoted marvelously without any notice. She recapped the story, reminded the kids that its not about a prayer but about genuine belief, and led them in a beautiful prayer. It was so precious because all the kids prayed the prayer out loud together.
After the lesson time, we made Gospel Bead bracelets again. Another opportunity to reinforce to Gospel story. We have a Spanish booklet that explains it from CEF, but I was not sure how many we had left. I counted 62 kids and 22 adults. I went over and began counting the tracts and we had 92 left! We walked around and handed a bracelet packets and tracts to all the adults. One grandma was sitting far away waiting and walked over to receive one. It was so exciting to see their excitement for receiving these gifts.
We played some water games with the kids. Had popcorn and juice for them. Then we had some prizes to handout. We had purchased some before coming down, but we did receive some wonderful donations from some of you that we were able to giveaway. Jocsan led the giveaway and rewarded the students who answered his questions. Every child received a handful of prizes. We had pencils with “Jesus loves you” in Spanish, stickers, rubber bracelets with “Jesus loves you” in English, candies, little toys, and every child got the Gospel Bracelet booklet! They were so excited as they walked home.
Our time with them had exceeded our expectations! We couldn’t believe how many children were there and how well it went. We also did a longer event than we anticipated and went well past lunch time. Aside from one of us getting a recharge from protein bar, we didn’t eat again until our ride home when we stopped for a cold coconut!
Skipping lunch wasn’t intended, but it did provide an opportunity to go to a new dinner spot that was a little more expensive than our normal budget: Papi bowls. Poké style bowls, and some cooked bowl, with lots of veggies and healthy stuff. They were really great, the staff was super helpful and fun, and we were their first large group since they just opened. They took a video of us and posted on Instagram. They also were excited to hear about Casa Abba and followed them on Instagram. It was a fun way to get the word out.
Being the last night at the hotel, Kayla, Jocsan, and Simey stayed for a swim and for our team meeting. It was wonderful to hangout having the hotel pool to ourselves. We had a later meeting and hearing everyone share their reactions to the day. One member talked about how nerves affect them while speaking. Having prepared their statement for the presentation and then their mind went blank when it was their turn. They did remember some of it but Jocsan smoothed it out and it was great! It is that first time of speaking can really get to you but already mentioning how they would be willing to try again!
Other said it was a lot easier than they thought it would be once they started talking. Some thought it would be easy because it was talking to children but realized it was still a little scary. All in all, we were thrilled to have this opportunity. The disruption we experienced brought an opportunity for God to provide something even better than we imagined. The conversations continued even after our meeting ended, which is why I did not keep my nightly routine of writing the blog. When I got back to my room, Will and I began having an awesome conversation, as late-night talks can be. Sometimes it is best to just be present and I really enjoyed just being with the team that night.
Friday turned out to be a packing and travel day. Unfortunately, the only option for a flight back left us having to dedicate two days to traveling. It only took us 9 (really 11) hours to get down to Puerto Escondido, but it will end up being taking about 31 hours before we get home. There is a two-hour time change which accounts for some of that time loss. Hopefully Delta will figure out a more efficient return strategy for future trips.
We did a nice breakfast, returned to the hotel to pack and check out. Then we headed to a café where Kayla’s other daughter, Damaris, works. Unfortunately for us, she had to work every day this week and we did not get to spend as much time with her. However, it’s awesome that she has a job and does so good at it. We all got a chance to see Damaris and say hi before heading to the airport.
We had such a wonderful sendoff party at the airport. Gaby and Vero, Gady (Jocsan’s brother), Hadassa (Jocsan’s sister) , Simey, Jocsan, and Kayla. Kayla, Jocsan, and Simey came inside with us through the check-in process. We didn’t want to leave them as they all have become so very dear to us. It was very special to see how our team bonded and to see a glimpse of the impact this trip has had on each one of us. This trip, as every missions trip, is a unique team and experience that can never be duplicated in the same way. Even if the 8 of us travel back together next year, it will be its own unique experience with its own stories. That is one of the reasons I blog, to remember the uniqueness of this event and hold on to the moments.
This current post I have attempted to write at several times and only getting a few paragraphs done along the way. As of this moment we are an hour away from Atlanta and our travels home are only a few hours from being finished. There are still a few ailing stomachs and sickness lingering a bit. Pray for bodies to heal, rehydrate, and rebound quickly. Thanks for reading my thoughts about this journey. This may be my last mission trip post for this trip, unless some reflections hit me later. I just want to thank God for his providential hand and protection. His love is demonstrated from the smallest details to the big wins of the trip. Everyone of the team members considered this an amazing trip, God be praised!
No comments:
Post a Comment