Hello everyone!
Myself (Pastor Ethan) and nine other students and parents were in Mexico from July 6-12 and all of us on the trip have witnessed God do so many amazing things that I wanted to let you all have the opportunity to read about it. The following are updates I sent out while on the trip.
Recap of July 6
We made it safely to Mexico and I am super grateful we are here. The missionary team we are partnering with through the IMB couldn't be better and Guadalajara is so beautiful. We had an amazing dinner last night and today we visit a church, get training from the missionaries and meet our interpreters. We will be working at universities having gospel conversations and inviting students to English clubs and hangouts. There are 3 full time missionaries, 2 journeyman (two year commitment) and about 6 summer sojourners.
Recap of July 7
We had a great day yesterday visiting a local church, eating lots of great food, meeting the whole missionary team, and receiving excellent instruction in our sub teams for the outreach days we will have today, tomorrow and Wednesday. I love our team and am grateful we get to join God in His good work here!
Recap of July 8th
Hola! In short all I can say is I have an overwhelming sense of gratefulness and gratitude to be used by God here in Guadalajara on this trip and I think many on our team feel this way. We came to give but have received so so much. God has poured out his blessings in just about every facet of this trip. Here are some photos with explanations.
We went out in our ministry teams to universities and sports areas to have gospel conversations and invited them to an English club in the afternoon. Unbelievable experience with deep conversations. Ask us about them when we get back!
We went to the cathedral in the evening to learn about the culture and belief in Guadalajara and Dan and Margie graciously took the time to explain a lot to us. In these pictures notice the unfortunate super high elevation of Mary as the “Mother of God”. This causes a lot of incorrect beliefs.
The photo with the mummy girl is young girl that died around 1700s while taking the eucharist so they believe she is a super saint and has healed people. They regularly pray to her.
The photo with the doll is from the 1700s and supposedly had rays of light emanate from it so the people worshiped it. Instead of pointing people to Jesus the monk used it as a way to control the tribes and people were still praying to it loudly while we were there.
Our response to all this is heartbreak and anger at the deception of Satan and prayer that God would remove the darkness.
We ended the night with great food and fellowship.
Recap of July 9
Hola, buenos dias!
We continue to be grateful for God’s blessings towards us to be here and have all the amazing experiences we are having. Not many photos from yesterday but lots and lots of amazing interactions with college students. In this photo is Abe and he was exposed to a lot of new thoughts yesterday. Main message shared was we don’t get to define God for ourselves and we can’t earn God’s approval through our works but only by the grace and forgiveness of Jesus because of his death on the cross for our sins. We had so many great conversations like this. Thank you for praying for us! The students are doing a great job loving each other, the locals, our missionaries, and being flexible!
Recap of July 10-11
Hello everyone! I am writing this on the plane back to DFW airport with a heart full of gratitude to have spent the last days so blessed by God and many on the team are saying the same thing. We have experienced His blessing in how He has enabled us to loved and cared for each other, working out logistical details in ways only He can, and so much more. One of the biggest ways we all have experience God’s blessing is through the many people He led to us to have gospel conversations with them. It is hard to explain the depth of the conversations over email but so many people were willing to seriously open up their lives to us and consider the good news of Jesus. One man walking out of the Library notified me my Spanish sounded like I was saying “Hello, good morning. My Spanish is small. Do you speak Church?.” We then proceeded to talk for the next hour and a half. He shared that he was mad at God because He doesn’t listen to him or answer his prayers. I asked why and he said 2 nieces and a loved one died. I believe God used us to plant some serious gospel seeds in his life.
Another man sat beside our English club before it started and I asked him if he wanted to join. He said no cause he would probably head back to work soon. It turns out he had left his work mid shift and was seriously struggling with what he should do with his life. He was so stressed out that a college student walking by started talking with him and they both decided to join our English club for some reason. The topic for that discussion was how we handle stress and how we attain peace! That is timing only God can arrange.
A girl from Colombia was attending the university in Guadalajara for a semester and her friend told her about the English club. She came thinking it was just that but God met her at the club and at the last club we had she stayed afterwards for and extra hour sharing her burdens and struggles with us through tears. God is calling her to Himself!
Last night we had a game night/bible study for Spanish speakers and one student surrendered her life to Christ.
There are so many stories like these and I have only shared a few of the interactions I had and none of anyone else on the team! Go ahead and ask them about the many things God did in Mexico. I couldn't be more proud of the team God put together and how well they did.
Attendees: Chad Harris, Vicky Alvarado, Asher Owen, Mollie Owen, Logan Kehler, Joshua Maddrey, Jake Harris, Tim Owen (on the team but couldn’t go with us to Mexico because of illness), Two young adults from Richmond.
In coming back to the US all of us have been thinking about what we want to do differently in the US, and for me it is to love, to let every day to be a chance to love God and love others, to be used by God to call others out of darkness into the light of Jesus Christ. Every day and in every situation we can surrender it over to God’s purposes and goodness or we can try to have a death grip on the day to force it to go the way we want. I must admit I think I often used to do the later, but I want that to change. I think that God spoke through us and worked in us so powerfully in Mexico because we went there praying and trusting that God would work in us and through us every day. My hope is to continue that because what could matter more than loving God and loving people?
Login To Leave Comment