M E X I C O

These first couple weeks have flown by so quickly and I've already had such amazing experiences. We started outreach with a day layover in London and ended up running into the new years parade. We got to see so many cultural groups dance to music while wearing traditional costumes. It was a quick stop but I really enjoyed our time there. That evening we left for Mexico City, an eleven hour flight through the night. We then took a connecting flight to Monterrey and were welcomed by the pastor and his daughter, Ana, from the Betesta church. We stayed with that church for a week, helping with their young adults group and Sunday church service. For every meal we would stop by a family's house from the church to eat and pray with them. They fed us so much food, I don't think I was ever very hungry. One interesting thing about Mexicans is that they don't eat dinner until late - like 10pm. The cool thing was when we prayed for them in English they still felt God move, we translated some things but others we didn't. Things in their life were confirmed just by our presence and prayers - it was amazing to see what God could do with just a simple prayer. Another really amazing thing was the fact that the people of this church would meet with each other daily - and I mean daily - they didn't have to be reading the Bible or praying the whole time, they would just go to each other's houses, eat great food and just have fellowship and fun with other believers. And I thought this was so encouraging; so often we just go to church on Sunday and forget to surround ourselves with Christ followers always. This doesn't mean we should reject others that aren't in our circle but to have a good balance of people building you up and you building up others and pouring out God's love on them. One night we played soccer with at least thirty people and I actually had a really fun time and even made a goal!

The second week in Mexico we stayed with a family who has a heart for missions. They were so sweet and hospitable and even though they had a one year old and a five year old; they all stayed in one room and opened up the other two for us. That week had more of a schedule but we still didn't really know what we were doing all the time. Every morning we joined the church's prayer time and it was truly inspiring. This church of about two hundred people has a handful or so of people who come together and pray daily for I'm not sure what but they would all pray at once and very loudly; I could definitely feel the holy spirit in that place. We also helped by doing practical work around the church...cleaning out old closets and organizing them and washing windows. Then in the evening during the week we helped at some Bible studies and shared some testimonies and mini sermons. We also ran a young adults group and a helped at their Wednesday service. One of the last days we did some evangelism at a huge hospital. We handed out sandwiches and prayed for the people waiting for family members and loved ones that were inside. A couple days later we went and spread out at a market place, kind of like a square, and we held up a sign that said free hugs, one that said have a nice day, one said take what you need, with sticky notes of things like encouragment or a hug, and then the sign that I was helping with had positive and negative words and we would ask people what do they associate more with. Then we would pull those people aside and just pray for them. Of course I'm not fluent in Spanish but we had lots of local teens and young adults from the church come assist us. We then had a opportunity to walk around and do some touristy things, like stop at a street taco place. Unfortunately, we also lost another one of our team members that week...she had to go home because of some personal reasons. So it's now just me and the boys which is definitely something I'm still getting used to.

Overall, Mexico was an amazing experience, I met so many cool people and I learned some l lessons that might seem little and obvious to some but we actually huge breakthroughs for me. Like how God can use literally whatever I have to give, a short testimony or the few words I know in Spanish. Also, surrounding myself with believers and people that will lift me up is super important; but still having that balance of other people to be able to pour into. It's crazy how much I've already learned and experienced and there's still so much more of outreach left. Off to Brazil next!