Team Report

First of all I just want to say thank you to everyone who prayed and supported us through this trip!!! You don't know how much I appreciate it!

It was unbelievable how God used each one of us on this trip. Going into Mexico I went with an open heart with faith that God would use me where I needed to be used. Well I was on the children's ministry team and on Monday morning we met Ramon and Veronica, the pastors of the church we would be working with. I have only taken 2 years of Spanish at school, but when I ran into Ramon and we started talking I found that I was speaking more Spanish to him than I even thought I knew. All week long I was able to speak to the pastors of the church and the children in Spanish without a problem. Of course I wasn't fluent but it was clear enough that they could understand. One thing that I had asked people to pray about was that I would be able to communicate to the kids even through the language barrier, and look at how God answered that prayer! He is so good!

During this trip I realized that I would like to do something in missions. Not necessarily going out living in a hut somewhere in the middle of the African jungles, but even if its just spending a year at YUGO. I felt so much joy on this trip because I knew how much joy it was bringing God! I don't know that I ever really realized how much I can be used by God, and now that I know all I want to do is glorify him in all that I do! This trip was truly and eye opener and a wonderful experience! Once again thank you all so much for your support and please continue to pray that though the trip is over we will all continue to minister to those around us and not forget about what we experienced this past week!

While in Mexico half of our team spent the week building a house for a needy family. They were a family of six. Mom, Dad, a 10 month old baby, a 4 year old boy, 7 year old girl, and a 17 year old girl, who is expecting her own child soon. They were an Oaxacan family living in a small two room house with dirt floors and no running water.

The family was a joy to be with over the week. The children especially were a lot of fun. They loved to "help" where ever they could.

The house was a three room house, one large room and two small bedrooms. It wasn't much by our standards but it was much nicer than what they had been living in.

As we worked I was reminded of the words of Isaiah in the first chapter, in which God chides His people for their meaningless worship. They were consumed with all the rituals and traditions of worship but their hearts were far from worshipping Him. God finally says to them in Isaiah 1:15-17,

When you spread out your hands in prayer,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen.
Your hands are full of blood;
wash and make yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds
out of my sight!

Stop doing wrong,
learn to do right!
Seek justice,
encourage the oppressed.
Defend the cause of the fatherless,
plead the case of the widow.

How often we are guilty of the same. I have come to learn that the highest form of worship is not singing nice songs, or being a part of a fancy worship service, rather it is things like building a house for someone in need. It is coming along side the oppressed and being a blessing. We weren't singing much as we built the house, but it was one great time of worship.

The highlight of the whole week was presenting the family with the keys to their new house and sharing with them that it was a gift from the God that loves them deeply. What a privilege it was to be the hand of God as He handed them such a wonderful gift, a gift that they were so thankful for. There are not many times in life as fulfilling as that!

I want to be a better worshipper. I want to be used of God more to be a blessing to others. I am thankful for all that God showed me in the short time that we were there. I was changed.

This was the best trip that I have been on. I could write pages about what I experienced and what God did, but I'll try to just share a few highlights.

I have always helped out with the VBS in some capacity, but this year was my first time leading the VBS team. It was a joy to watch the gals—Katie R., Shannon, Kellie K., Brittnie, Elli and Ali—give their lessons, gospel presentations, crafts, games and memory verses, as well as spending much time loving the Mexican children. Through their hard work and God's hand, a number of children said that they wanted to follow Jesus.

Part of the joy too was working closely with the Mexican church and its pastors Ramon and Veronica. They are amazing people of persistence and faith. The pastors would lead the kids in prayer to follow Christ, and then invite the Americans up. Every day I had the privilege of praying over these new followers of Christ, and the impact they could have on their families.

Our youth group takes a collection for some Compassion children and a breakfast program every week. This week, we got to visit that breakfast program. Out in a beautiful valley was a very poor community in which we played baseball with the kids. Their bat was cracked in two, taped together, and they only had one unrecognizable tennis ball. They didn't even have a soccer ball in the whole community. And soccer was their favorite sport!

At this breakfast program, the kids come together to hear Bible teaching led by a local pastor, and then receive breakfast from YUGO, with whom we partner. On TV you see the kids who are starving and have the flies all over their bodies but do not care or notice. As I watched these kids with many flies on their bodies, I realized that these were the same kids. It broke my heart. But my heart also felt joy, because these kids had hope. They heard the word of God, and their stomachs were fed. It is so amazing to see the gifts from our students each week being used to expand the Kingdom. I'm so glad that our students obey God's command to care for the needy, and to seek justice.

Dios le bendiga.

To start off, I'd like to say that I enjoyed every minute of the trip. Not once was I afraid, bored, angry, or homesick. I had so much fun that sometimes I forgot the reason I was there. Now on to the summary.

On day 1, I arrived at church really early in the morning. We all socialized, prayed, photographed, socialized some more, then chose a van and got in it. I was really excited about the road trip because it was my chance to get to know the team better. Gas prices were the only thing that got me a bit upset during the trip (it made me think again about wanting to learn to drive). Throughout the entire trip I got to become better friends with most everyone. However, I really enjoy chatting with Brian, but didn't do so much of that.

During the road trip a lot of stuff happened that I did not expect. I realized how convenient and how much I enjoy sunglasses. From what I hear from other people and from what I see in pictures, somehow my facial expressions never match what I'm really feeling. For example, I could be staring off into space and somehow it looks like I'm giving someone an evil stare. Aside from the conveniences of sunglasses, I did some crazy stuff during the road trip like drooling in my sleep in front of everyone in the van but the most embarrassing thing that happened was spilling my large soda at Taco Bell.

By the time we crossed the border, Mexico surprised me. It was actually exactly what I expected (less graffiti than expected, though), but what was surprising was these bad conditions were everywhere; as far as I could see. Behind me was the rich country I called home and to see such a big and sudden change of environment was really an eye-opener.

So we reached our destination. The next day we had trouble finding the building site and ran into an extremely tilted part of the dirt road that I believe would have tipped the van if I and Justin weren't on the right side (just kidding). Days passed and finally Wednesday arrived.

On Wednesday night all of us went to the church the VBS team worked at. The family that lived there was one of the friendliest I have ever met and they served delicious food. The drink was excellent even though I and Justin were suspicious of the floating things in it. I'll leave it to someone else to tell what happened with the hot sauce.

The next day we finished and dedicated the house. It felt so, so good when we dedicated the house. I must admit I got really emotional during the dedication but thanks to my sunglasses, nobody found out till now.

The next day, Friday, we took a day off. We went to the beach, ate tacos (REAL tacos), bought useless stuff, et cetera. On Saturday I had to say goodbye to Ricardo (the house-building instructor), which was sad...to me. So we drove out of there, spent a long time waiting to get in the country, ate at In-N-Out (which is not as good as everybody else, but still good), then drove toward the place we call 'The Lads.' Our first time going there, which was on the way to Mexico, I got to have a great conversation with Zach about all sorts of stuff which I enjoyed because I love conversations. The remaining days, during the drives, it seemed that all people wanted to do is sleep, so we did. I didn't have to but since everyone else did, I did too. Fun, fun memories. I definitely want to go next year. I hopefully can keep the record of not getting sick. My favorite thing about the trip was getting to know almost everyone really well. I befriended people who I never expected to be friends with; that's awesome. I would share more fun memories but they're not relevant.

Well, this trip was absolutely incredible. I never thought that God could use us so greatly. It gives you such a great feeling when you hand over the keys of a brand new house to a family who has nothing. It is amazing how happy the people are in Mexico, even though they have close to nothing. Then look at me, I have a TON of stuff compared to them, but yet I always seem to find something to complain about.

I loved being down there and serving the Lord. I was granted the opportunity to do a little bit of the Children's ministry, as well as Construction. I have never before experienced this kind of Joy in my whole life, even though I was tired, dirty, and sore. This trip has really placed a desire in my heart to maybe do long term missions when I am older.

I want to thank you for letting me accompany you to Mexico and take part in this ministry. I was very encouraged, working with teens who are seriously interested in serving God and who are willing to put themselves in uncomfortable situations to minister to the people in Mexico.

I was also encouraged to see how God is working in Ramón and Veronica's lives (they are the pastors of the church where we were doing VBS). God gave them the perseverance to be the pastors of that church for three years without any other people attending, just their family. For the last year there have been three other families attending and hopefully, as a result of the VBS we offered to the children in their neighborhood, other families will start attending. Both Ramón and Veronica truly have a sweet spirit, wanting to share the Lord with the people in their community.

I was also blessed to have the opportunity to visit with Juan Antonio, he is the person who is in charge of maintenance at the YUGO compound where we stayed there in Ensenada. He had been on drugs and alcohol for 27 years, sleeping in a dumpy old car, when the Lord drew him to Himself. He immediately lost the craving for those additive things and started walking with the Lord. He has a family now, a good job and continues to love the Lord. Isn't God good!!!

Please pray for Juan Antonio's family. His mom, who said for 27 years that he would not amount to anything because of his additive behavior, still doesn't see that Juan Antonio is a different person. Please pray that God will open her eyes so she can see what God is doing in Juan Antonio's life and that Juan Antonio will continue to walk well with Jesus in front of her.

Thanks to Brian, Aaron, Alison, John and Jim for allowing me to minister along side them.

¡Qué Dios les bendiga!

Sarah Roberts