Title: Recap Of My Missions Trip To Mexico
Chadley - August 15, 2006 08:17 PM (GMT)
Mexico Missions Trip 2006
By: Chad Hayes
A few weeks ago, we took a group of teenagers from our church (and a couple other churches as well) on a week-long missions trip to Mexico. Overall, there were 10 teenagers and 6 adults. (The 6 adults consisted of 3 husband/wife couples.) I had been on a foreign missions trip once before, so I thought I had a decent idea of what to expect. I knew that the trip would change our way of looking at things. I knew that we would experience things that we had never even thought of before. I knew that the Lord would use this trip to change our lives and hearts. All of those things happened, and plenty more!
About 5 days before we left, we encountered our first “snafu” in regards to the trip. Another missionary friend of our church was supposed to make the missions trip with us. He knew our host missionary personally, which was important since we had never met him before. Also, he was going to be driving his van down to Mexico and pulling a trailer with some of our supplies in it. His van was going to be one of our main modes of transportation while in Mexico. The supplies he was carrying included: a water pump for us to try to install for the missionary so that we could have running water, a set of puppets for us to use in the Vacation Bible Schools that we’d be doing, some candy to give out to the children at VBS, and the bedding (sheets and pillows) for some of our group who didn’t want to bother packing it in their luggage. Well, unfortunately, our missionary friend’s brother passed away, forcing him to miss the trip. He did send the contents of the trailer to the Texas-Mexican border, though, so we thought that our host missionary in Mexico would somehow be able to make a quick trip to the border to pick the stuff up and bring it down to us. However, transportation was still an issue. Something had to be found to replace our missionary friend’s van.
Wednesday, July 5th finally arrived: our departure date. The teens- and the adults- were all excited. Our church’s mission agency director, Brother Steve, had been in contact numerous times with our host missionary and had tried to make sure that each person on the trip had a good idea of what we’d be doing, what kind of stuff to bring, etc. Everything went smoothly at the Cleveland airport as we checked our luggage and boarded the plane for our flight to Houston, TX. Once in Houston, we discovered that our next flight was going to be delayed for an hour. Other than that, we experienced no problems. When they called our flight number, we all boarded the plane that would take us out of the USA and into Mexico. I could sense the excitement building up in each of the teenagers. We still had no idea of how the transportation issue was going to be resolved in Mexico, but we had been praying and trusted that the Lord was going to work everything out.
Before we left Cleveland, Brother Steve told me and the other adult male, Brother Joe, that our supplies had made it to the Texas-Mexican border, but nobody had been able as of yet to make a trip up there to bring them into Mexico. Thus, we were going to have no running water for at least a couple of days until a trip to the border could be made. We didn’t tell the kids- or the adult ladies- about this because we didn’t want to take the chance of Satan giving any opportunity for people to complain or become discouraged. We would take care of the missing bedding by going to a store in Mexico and purchasing some, or we would borrow some from the missionaries. No problem, we thought.
Our plane landed in Monterrey, Mexico just after lunchtime. Here is where we got our first taste of something different from the United States. Our plane landed and taxied to the appropriate stopping place. I could see the kids looking for the runway to come out and meet the plane. However, we discovered that we had to exit the plane right there on the tarmac and walk into the airport to go through immigration. Boy, was that a hot walk- the temperature was at least 90-100 degrees, and was just radiating off of the asphalt! It reminded me of the 4 years I spent living in Central Florida.
Immigration went smoothly- another answer to prayer. We then proceeded to claim our baggage and go through customs. Customs is a funny thing in Mexico: you walk up to the station and place your baggage on the conveyor belt to be x-rayed. You then walk up to a pole with two lights at the top- red and green- and a button under the lights. You push the button, which activates one of the two lights. It’s random as to which light comes on when you push the button. If you get the green light, you grab your baggage from the other end of the conveyor belt and continue on your way. However, if you get the red light, you grab your baggage from the other end of the conveyor belt and place it on a table for a customs official to search through. Mercifully, only one of our group- one of the adult ladies- got the red light.
Finally, we got to the front of the airport where we met our host missionary for the first time. He said that he had brought his Chevy Suburban and the 15-passenger church van from one of the churches he works with to drive us from Monterrey to Monclova, our destination city. However, he explained, the van had no air conditioning and the Suburban did. We decided to load the luggage into the Suburban and let the missionary carry that and a couple of the adults (of which I was not one) with him. The rest of us got to ride in the van, which was driven by one of the Mexican pastors and his son. Truthfully, once the van got going and there was a breeze coming in all the open windows, it wasn’t as hot as I thought it was going to be.
I must take a moment here to describe this van to you. It was a testament to the fact that, since most Mexican people don’t have the resources that we are blessed with in the United States, they do what they can to keep whatever they have in running order. This van had a few holes in the floor, a decent amount of rust, no air conditioning, no breather on the carburetor- you get the picture. Still, it was the best that they had, and they were proud of it. Here in our country, we would have sent it to a junkyard long ago.
About halfway to Monclova, (which was supposed to be about a 2-3 hour drive) we experienced the first of what would become a common occurrence throughout the week- the van breaking down. However, since this was apparently a common occurance, the Mexican pastor and his son had what we needed in the back of the van to get it running again. It took about 4 hours, but we finally reached Monclova. Here is where reality hit our group full in the face.
We were going to be staying in a 2-story building that used to be a Bible institute. They had set aside one room downstairs for the girls and one room upstairs for the guys. However, the rooms were not what our group was expecting. They were just bare rooms with a toilet, 2 sinks, and 2 shower stalls. There were stacks of 2-inch-thick foam mats for us to use to make our beds. The girls found cockroaches in their room every so often. In addition, we discovered that we probably weren’t going to have running water for the entire week that we were there. Flushing toilets consisted of pouring a bucked of water down the toilet bowl. To take a shower, you took a cup of water and poured it over yourself to get wet. You then washed yourself with soap and poured another cup of water over you to rinse off. You then repeated the same process to shampoo your hair- and, in my case, your beard as well. J Culture shock had hit our group full-force!
But, it was here that we got the first glimpse of how God had prepared each of our teens for this trip and what He was going to do in their lives during the course of it. The culture shock lasted for, at most, an hour. Then, our kids buckled down and fell right into the routine with no complaints whatsoever! Sure, we made good-natured jokes about it all week, but there was no complaining of any sort from anyone.
We went to church that night at our host church, and we were welcomed with open arms and loving hearts. After supper, we settled in for our first night of much-needed sleep.
The next day, Thursday, we discovered that our week’s schedule had changed. (We were learning the true meaning of the phrase, “Be flexible”!) So, we ended up working there at the church all day until suppertime, at which time we would be doing a one-night Bible club for kids in the neighborhoods of Monclova. One part of our group worked on cleaning out 2 of the storage rooms on the church property. The stuff in those rooms had been there for several years, judging form the dirt and dust that was all over everything. Then, we cleaned the walls and floors of the room so they could be painted. One of these rooms was going to remain a storage room, and the other was going to become a Sundsay School room. The other group worked on cleaning out, painting, and reorganizing a third storage room. It was about 105 degrees and humid all day- I felt like I consumed a lake’s worth of water! We got everything done that day except for loading stuff back into one of the storage rooms.
The one-night Bible club in Monclova was where we got the next shock of our trip. We visited in the neighborhoods for a grand total of 30 minutes before the club started. Judging from the short visitation time, we didn’t really expect a great turnout. However, imagine our surprise when a grand total of 75 people- children and adults- showed up! It was a taste of how the Lord can work that our kids had not had in our own country. That was all they could talk about for the rest of the evening!
The next day, Friday, we had a sightseeing/shopping day planned. We got the grand tour of downtown Monclova, the plaza, and the shopping district. We all carried Spanish Gospel tracts with us to give out over the course of the day. They were almost all gone by lunchtime! Everyone to whom we handed a tract happily took it, said “Gracias”, and actually read it! We saw none of them dropped on the ground, thrown into trash cans, etc., which is what we see a lot of here in the United States. The Mexican people are so open to the Gospel, which was a good thing for our teens to see. That evening, after supper,
Saturday – Tuesday, we spent the first half of each day in a town called Hermanas, about an hour outside of Monclova. It was here that we held Vacation Bible School- yes, even on Sunday morning. J We helped with snacks, crafts, song time, prizes & games- anything the missionaries needed. Our teens even got to teach the kids a Spanish song that they had learned. During the times when our teens had nothing to do, they went out into the street and started kicking a ball back and forth. Before we knew it, there were several Mexican teenagers joining them in their fun! This gave our host missionary another audience to whom he could present the Gospel. We saw attendance grow from about 50 kids the first day to about 95 kids the last day.
Saturday evening, our teens had the opportunity to attend the weekly Saturday night youth meeting at our host church. They were surprised to find out that the church songleader was 15 years old, and the youth pastor was 17 years old! It amazed us adults how well our kids got along with the Mexican teens- especially due to the language barrier. However, they had a great time, and many of the teens mentioned it as one of the highlights of their week.
Since the teens had another adult with them who could translate for them, the adults took that opportunity to have some fellowship time in downtown Monclova with our host missionary and his wife. They took us to a little snack shop where we discovered some interesting things. The first was a drink called a “Russian”. They take a little bit of rock salt, put it in the bottom of a big Styrofoam cup, pour Fresca over it, and top it with crushed ice and pineapple. Then, they line the rim of the cup with orange quarters, place an apricot on top, and add a stick of tamarindo to it. Finally, they sprinkle chili powder on top of it! I was brave enough to try it, but once was enough for me! I also learned that they put chili powder on top of snow cones as well! Finally, I just settled for a coconut snow cone- minus the chili powder!
We split our group in two on Sunday evening. One group stayed at our host church to attend their afternoon deaf service and their regular evening church service. The other group, myself included, drove out to a town called Cuatro Cienegas, about an hour and a half away from Monclova. Brother Joe was going to have the opportunity to preach for a pastor who had gotten sick and wasn’t sure if he’d be able to preach that night, and our host missionary was going to translate for him. We arrived a few minutes late to find the pastor leading the church in singing! However, he was still thrilled to have our group there and to hear Brother Joe preach. After the message and the invitation, the pastor shared a little bit of his heart with us. He has a good job working for the Mexican government. He makes very good money. He has been able to use his money to buy a nice house next to the church, fix his church building up nicely, and help his church to do more to reach people. He even gave us a tour of his house and told us that we were welcome to stay there if we ever wanted to come back to Mexico to visit again. However, his heart’s desire is to quit his job and sell his nice house in favor of a smaller one. That way, he can serve the Lord full-time, reach more people, and put the extra money from the sale of the house back into the ministry. Never have I seen a better example of someone whose sole focus is laying up treasure in Heaven. The Lord had opened my eyes in a very clear way to something that I believe is holding us in the United States back from experiencing true revival. We have been so blessed of the Lord in our country that we have come to expect it and take it for granted. We are too focused on laying up treasures on Earth, and we don’t have the Heavenly view of things that the Lord desires for us to have.
Monday afternoon, we finished up the last of the work we had to do around our host church’s property. We hauled off 3 truckloads of garbage that we had cleaned out of the storage rooms, cleaned up around the church property, and put a fresh coat of paint on the outsides of 2 of the 3 buildings on the property besides the church building itself.
Monday evening, we had what I call a “Mexican cookout”. Let me say right here that the food we ate all week was outstanding! One of the ladies in the host church made us homemade meals each day- tamales one day, gorditas one day, etc. She even hand-rolled the tortillas each day for our meals! Well, the Mexican cookout was the icing on the cake. We got to experience carne asada, thin steaks grilled over an open fire and eaten on tortillas with homemade pico de gallo, homemade guacamole, onions, and salsa. I definitely could eat Mexican food like that all the time!
Tuesday afternoon, the missionaries took us to see the poor area of Monclova, something that we hadn’t seen earlier in the week during our sightseeing day. Here we saw houses that were literally made out of cardboard or whatever other materials people could find. These people literally had nothing. And yet, as we drove past, not one of them failed to smile and wave at us. They were just happy to have what they had. Again, I was convicted. Our kids got a chance to see exactly how good they have it here at home.
Tuesday evening, before everyone went to bed, we got our group together and had a time of testimony about what the Lord had done in each of our lives during the week. It was so wonderful to hear our teenagers- and the adults- open their hearts and really share what God had done for them and taught them and how it was going to affect them back home. We had wanted to be a blessing to the missionaries and the Mexican people, but we had received the bigger blessing ourselves!
Wednesday arrived, and with it came mixed emotions. On one hand, we were ready to go back home. On the other hand, we had enjoyed such a wonderful time in Mexico that we hated to leave. We drove to the airport, said goodbye to our host missionary, and proceeded to make our way back to Cleveland.
After hearing of all that we experienced and went through while in Mexico, several of our teens were asked if they would go back and do it again. Without fail, each of them answered, “I sure would!” God had gotten hold of their hearts, just as he had gotten hold of the adults’ hearts as well. We now see things in a different light. We now have a greater appreciation for how blessed we truly are. We now have a greater desire to see God work in our own country as He is working in other countries. I just pray that the fire that has been kindled in our hearts will not die out.
*Pictures from our trip can be found here. Just click on "Pictures" on the menu bar to the left of the page.