Ministry in Mexico

our team weeding at an orphanage in the mountains

So, here I am in Mexico surrounded by amazing food and culture, and God has blessed me with the opportunity to love on all these great people. Our first stop was Tijuana and we stayed there for two weeks. The YWAM base was pretty large and so beautiful, there were flowers and succulents everywhere! Throughout the weeks we were there we participated in lots of kids ministry and had a wild water balloon fight with some orphans. We also went around to local communities to play with kids too. And actually the few of us that did our BCC (Bible Core Course) had a great opportunity to lead in depth Bible studies for the parents while the kids were busy playing with the rest of the team. Honestly, that was a stretching point for me because I am so much younger than a lot of those parents and it can be intimidating. But the Lord works in curious ways, I have had such fun just relaying to these moms and dads exactly what I have just learned in my Bible school. They seemed to appreciate it and I love talking about Jesus and how insane the Bible is, so it ended up working out great!

Our next stop and final stop is Ensenada. And as some of you know I have been here before. It is a cute little city just south of Tijuana. At this base we have focused our ministry time more with rehab centers, the red light district, downtown evangelism, and orphanages. It has been a good working together as a team and working together with the Holy Spirit and relying on him for what to say and do. Each place that we go and all the people that we meet are so welcoming and we have justed loved getting to hear their stories and sharing our own testimonies too. Also, I have been trying to work on my Spanish a little but it is always tempting to fall back to the help of the translators. It still amazes me though how much you can communicate without speaking the language.

One thing that I have been feeling a little convicted of is not having enough compassion. What I mean is when we drive through villages and I am not very moved by the state of things. I have been on missions trips before so seeing poverty and pieced together houses is not new for me, but it should still move me with compassion. I am here for a reason and I want to show love. I don't want to assume I am better then them or look down on them with pity. Jesus calls us to love like he loved. We are all children of God and deserve to be treated kindly and with love. But I appreciate how God gently pulls those things from our hearts to the surface. There are always things to work on in our hearts and our character. That is something I've realized recently, that I don't have much to give or to bring to the table but God can use me and show his love for others through me.

Some things that you could pray for are obviously for me to have a good attitude when God calls me out on heart issues. We have also had some sickness going around that effected a lot of our team (including me), so if you would pray for health and healing that would be great. We are actually finishing up with only three weeks left and some of us are getting tired and worn out, so continue to pray for strength and energy too. Thank you all so much for continued support and encouragement!