So very much to tell about our trip to Mexico! God truly showed up every minute of the trip! We are going to give you several perspectives about the trip over the next few days.
I see the trip as a series of gifts given to us by the Father. Everywhere we went, every turn we made, we saw His mighty hand at work. Some gifts were large, others were small - but they were gifts given to us as we gave our time and lives to Him this week. I will share some of those gifts with you now.
The gifts began in the assembly of the team. When we first met, we didn't know each other at all. We didn't know who had what gifts, how we would fit together, or even what we would be specifically doing. We only knew that God put this team together and that He had a plan for our time in Tieta, the village in which we spent time. Over the next few months, as we got to know one another, He gave us more information about what we would be doing, and we divided preparation and tasks among the group. Still, we were open to His leading about what would happen once we arrived.
On Saturday morning, as we arrived at the airport, God gave us the gift of several people to pray with us and see us off. It was exciting to us, because we didn't expect ANYONE to show up at 5:15 on a Saturday morning. Thanks to those of you who came, and also to those who prayed from home. Our trip was uneventful, for the most part. We were excited and ready to arrive. After three flights, we got on a bus for a 3.5 hour ride. It was so hot on the bus, so we had no idea that it was beautifully cool outside. When we arrived in Tlaxiaco (pronounced Tla - he - a - co), it was between 55 & 60 degrees. Many of us had no jackets, but we enjoyed the weather anyway!
Sunday morning, we went to church, which was another gift. Worshiping with others who have the same heart for Jesus is so amazing. We didn't know the language, but we knew the same God, so we were able to fully participate in the worship. As an added gift, they did two songs we were able to sing in English to as our friends sang in Spanish. What a beautiful blessing and time of lifting up our voices to our King.
After a day of cultural training, we headed off to the village. It was a 2.5 hour ride through rutted dirt roads while passing livestock being moved. Sometimes it seemed that the road would never end! Arriving in Tieta, we were amazed by the gift of the generous and kind people who were taking care of feeding us. The women were precious. They wanted to serve us and make us happy while we were in their care. Wait - I thought we were there to help them.... The food was good, which we all were concerned about. Another gift. And we certainly didn't go hungry! Additionally, God placed three children in the dining area for us to play with - John was excited - 3 boys. We learned that little boys are the same everywhere!
While in the village, we conducted health fairs and gave some health education classes. On day 1, we started with what we thought would work, and fine-tuned it to make it efficient for both the villagers and for us. God gave us over 150 people with whom to interact. This number would probably be increased by about 25 or more if we count the children who came to play but didn't go through the stations at the health fair. The gifts here were amazing. We were able to pray with people, give them some them some health advice, and even saw one woman turn her life over to Christ. Please pray for Viviana as you think of her. She is a woman whose son had been murdered in Tlaxiaco, and her husband had died several years earlier. Her only other child, a daughter, lives in the village, but has her own life. She was very lonely and hopeless, but we told her about the hope we have in Jesus. It was an amazing time, and we welcomed her as a sister in Christ with tears and hugs.
We gave out over 100 pairs of reading glasses. This was very exciting for us. Another gift was people who said they would now be able to read their Bibles because of the glasses. What a blessing! Personally, I didn't think the reading glasses would be something that were needed, but I was obviously wrong. God knew. We also found out that there had been a doctor/dentist team there a couple of weeks earlier, and the people requested reading glasses. God provided those through our team. Another gift.
The gifts continued. We were sleeping (sort of) at 4:45 AM on Tuesday, and an earthquake shook the area. I understand it was a 6.1 on the Richter scale at the point of origin, but it did little more that shake us and scare us. The villagers didn't seem to even be fazed by it. God woke us up with it, but showed us that we were in His care and under His protection. What a gift.
The educational materials we took involved sex education for girls and boys, and we were able to present to a group of girls who were about 13 or 14 years old, and a large group of boys, ages 13 or so to about 20. The gift there was that they listened respectfully and were given the message about God's plan for marriage. No questions from the girls (surprise!), but Jason and Turner spent some time with Omar discussing God, the Church, hypocrisy, and much more after the presentation to the boys. We are in prayer for Omar and for the seeds planted. Additionally, we did a presentation on maternity and child care to the women and handed out about ten sets of cycle beads, a natural family planning tool.
The people of Tieta were precious. They were kind, open, and loving. That in itself was a gift. The children were a true blessing. Playing with them was fun and crazy and awesome. We gave them each a gift bag on the last day, and they came and hugged us with genuine smiles and appreciation. What a gift.
Finally, we had the passport situation. One of our team members lost a passport before arriving in Tlaxiaco the first day. We were all concerned, but turned it over to the Lord. This was an opportunity for our leader, Turner, to show his stuff. God blessed us with Turner's calm leadership skills, and we realized that this in itself was a great gift. After turning it over to the Lord, we went ahead into the village, knowing we would return with only one day to solve this issue. Upon returning late Thursday night to Tlaxiaco, we found that Turner and the team member had to take a bus to Mexico City to take care of it. They had about an hour or so to get their first shower in days and get on the bus. Thankfully, God worked all that out so that they made the bus. After traveling all night, they arrived in Mexico City and were able to get into the Embassy first thing. Our team member had an emergency passport at 3PM. This was an amazing gift - it all went smoothly. Unfortunately, they could not board the plane in Mexico City because their tickets were for an origination in Oaxaca, so they had to take the bus back to Oaxaco (7 hours) to meet up with the rest of the team for travel. They arrived around 2:30 AM, and our taxis to the plane left the hotel at 5:20. I know they were exhausted, and their marathon was not over yet. Once we arrived at the airport in Mexico City, they had to chase down immigration, because there was an immigration form in the passport that was required to be kept until leaving the country. We prayed right there in the airport, because they had to take a taxi, leave the airport to get to another terminal, pay a fine, and taxi back to the terminal before getting a boarding pass for our trip to Atlanta. We had about 1.5 - 2 hours for all this to happen - and first, we had to figure out where to go. After being sent in several directions, those team members took off and said they would try to make it to the gate for takeoff. The rest of the team prayed. Only about 15 minutes before the door closed for boarding the plane, they arrived, safely and with the proper paperwork. We would return as a team - a great big gift! God showed Himself mightily in this whole situation. We didn't want this to overshadow all the work and blessings of the trip, and He worked it out so that it didn't. We know it could have been so much worse, and He made it all work out. Thanks be to God.
There are so many more gifts I could tell you about. You will hear about some of them from other team members in the next few days. We are blessed to have been part of this trip, and we know that seeds were planted in Tieta. Jesus is alive and well and loves the Mixteco people. His banner was lifted high during our time there. To God be all glory and honor and power forever.
I see the trip as a series of gifts given to us by the Father. Everywhere we went, every turn we made, we saw His mighty hand at work. Some gifts were large, others were small - but they were gifts given to us as we gave our time and lives to Him this week. I will share some of those gifts with you now.
The gifts began in the assembly of the team. When we first met, we didn't know each other at all. We didn't know who had what gifts, how we would fit together, or even what we would be specifically doing. We only knew that God put this team together and that He had a plan for our time in Tieta, the village in which we spent time. Over the next few months, as we got to know one another, He gave us more information about what we would be doing, and we divided preparation and tasks among the group. Still, we were open to His leading about what would happen once we arrived.
On Saturday morning, as we arrived at the airport, God gave us the gift of several people to pray with us and see us off. It was exciting to us, because we didn't expect ANYONE to show up at 5:15 on a Saturday morning. Thanks to those of you who came, and also to those who prayed from home. Our trip was uneventful, for the most part. We were excited and ready to arrive. After three flights, we got on a bus for a 3.5 hour ride. It was so hot on the bus, so we had no idea that it was beautifully cool outside. When we arrived in Tlaxiaco (pronounced Tla - he - a - co), it was between 55 & 60 degrees. Many of us had no jackets, but we enjoyed the weather anyway!
Sunday morning, we went to church, which was another gift. Worshiping with others who have the same heart for Jesus is so amazing. We didn't know the language, but we knew the same God, so we were able to fully participate in the worship. As an added gift, they did two songs we were able to sing in English to as our friends sang in Spanish. What a beautiful blessing and time of lifting up our voices to our King.
After a day of cultural training, we headed off to the village. It was a 2.5 hour ride through rutted dirt roads while passing livestock being moved. Sometimes it seemed that the road would never end! Arriving in Tieta, we were amazed by the gift of the generous and kind people who were taking care of feeding us. The women were precious. They wanted to serve us and make us happy while we were in their care. Wait - I thought we were there to help them.... The food was good, which we all were concerned about. Another gift. And we certainly didn't go hungry! Additionally, God placed three children in the dining area for us to play with - John was excited - 3 boys. We learned that little boys are the same everywhere!
While in the village, we conducted health fairs and gave some health education classes. On day 1, we started with what we thought would work, and fine-tuned it to make it efficient for both the villagers and for us. God gave us over 150 people with whom to interact. This number would probably be increased by about 25 or more if we count the children who came to play but didn't go through the stations at the health fair. The gifts here were amazing. We were able to pray with people, give them some them some health advice, and even saw one woman turn her life over to Christ. Please pray for Viviana as you think of her. She is a woman whose son had been murdered in Tlaxiaco, and her husband had died several years earlier. Her only other child, a daughter, lives in the village, but has her own life. She was very lonely and hopeless, but we told her about the hope we have in Jesus. It was an amazing time, and we welcomed her as a sister in Christ with tears and hugs.
We gave out over 100 pairs of reading glasses. This was very exciting for us. Another gift was people who said they would now be able to read their Bibles because of the glasses. What a blessing! Personally, I didn't think the reading glasses would be something that were needed, but I was obviously wrong. God knew. We also found out that there had been a doctor/dentist team there a couple of weeks earlier, and the people requested reading glasses. God provided those through our team. Another gift.
The gifts continued. We were sleeping (sort of) at 4:45 AM on Tuesday, and an earthquake shook the area. I understand it was a 6.1 on the Richter scale at the point of origin, but it did little more that shake us and scare us. The villagers didn't seem to even be fazed by it. God woke us up with it, but showed us that we were in His care and under His protection. What a gift.
The educational materials we took involved sex education for girls and boys, and we were able to present to a group of girls who were about 13 or 14 years old, and a large group of boys, ages 13 or so to about 20. The gift there was that they listened respectfully and were given the message about God's plan for marriage. No questions from the girls (surprise!), but Jason and Turner spent some time with Omar discussing God, the Church, hypocrisy, and much more after the presentation to the boys. We are in prayer for Omar and for the seeds planted. Additionally, we did a presentation on maternity and child care to the women and handed out about ten sets of cycle beads, a natural family planning tool.
The people of Tieta were precious. They were kind, open, and loving. That in itself was a gift. The children were a true blessing. Playing with them was fun and crazy and awesome. We gave them each a gift bag on the last day, and they came and hugged us with genuine smiles and appreciation. What a gift.
Finally, we had the passport situation. One of our team members lost a passport before arriving in Tlaxiaco the first day. We were all concerned, but turned it over to the Lord. This was an opportunity for our leader, Turner, to show his stuff. God blessed us with Turner's calm leadership skills, and we realized that this in itself was a great gift. After turning it over to the Lord, we went ahead into the village, knowing we would return with only one day to solve this issue. Upon returning late Thursday night to Tlaxiaco, we found that Turner and the team member had to take a bus to Mexico City to take care of it. They had about an hour or so to get their first shower in days and get on the bus. Thankfully, God worked all that out so that they made the bus. After traveling all night, they arrived in Mexico City and were able to get into the Embassy first thing. Our team member had an emergency passport at 3PM. This was an amazing gift - it all went smoothly. Unfortunately, they could not board the plane in Mexico City because their tickets were for an origination in Oaxaca, so they had to take the bus back to Oaxaco (7 hours) to meet up with the rest of the team for travel. They arrived around 2:30 AM, and our taxis to the plane left the hotel at 5:20. I know they were exhausted, and their marathon was not over yet. Once we arrived at the airport in Mexico City, they had to chase down immigration, because there was an immigration form in the passport that was required to be kept until leaving the country. We prayed right there in the airport, because they had to take a taxi, leave the airport to get to another terminal, pay a fine, and taxi back to the terminal before getting a boarding pass for our trip to Atlanta. We had about 1.5 - 2 hours for all this to happen - and first, we had to figure out where to go. After being sent in several directions, those team members took off and said they would try to make it to the gate for takeoff. The rest of the team prayed. Only about 15 minutes before the door closed for boarding the plane, they arrived, safely and with the proper paperwork. We would return as a team - a great big gift! God showed Himself mightily in this whole situation. We didn't want this to overshadow all the work and blessings of the trip, and He worked it out so that it didn't. We know it could have been so much worse, and He made it all work out. Thanks be to God.
There are so many more gifts I could tell you about. You will hear about some of them from other team members in the next few days. We are blessed to have been part of this trip, and we know that seeds were planted in Tieta. Jesus is alive and well and loves the Mixteco people. His banner was lifted high during our time there. To God be all glory and honor and power forever.
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