Mexico Missions 2012

"In the last days, God says I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams" (Acts 2:17).

"Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God." - William Carey

If I had to compare last year's mission trip and this year's mission trip, everything went perfectly and smoothly last year and everything that could have gone wrong went wrong this year.  I am not saying last year's mission trip was better than this year because we did not encounter great difficulties. So many things deviated from the original plan that every time something went wrong, it ended up being really funny. The difficulties we faced throughout the trip reminded me how God is more concerned about building our faith rather than allowing us to live suffering-free lives (this is an important lesson for life in general).

So the first difficulties we encountered was actually getting to Mexico. Due to the huge storm in the Washington area the night before, our first plane got delayed. There was actually three different groups - Aug. Mary & Adriana, and Hannah. I'm sure almost each person had a different flight schedule at least in some part of the trip due to so many delays and craziness. We decided to take a leap of faith and took flight at a time. After about two hours of standing in line and talking to the lady, we finally got a ticket to Houston, Texas (well, Aug spoke, and we stood and waited). Due to our first plane getting delayed, we missed our second flight to Mexico City. I think we were trying to get our tickets sorted our in Baltimore. However we could only get tickets to Houston. After arriving in Houston, we had to wait even more to get our next tickets to Mexico City. In our original plan, we were supposed to travel all day and arrive at Icthus around 7 PM on Sunday night. I can assure you, that did not happen for any of us. During certain points of the trip, some of the airplane ladies told us - "I'm sure not if this trip will happen for you guys. You might have to fly back to Baltimore." That could have been discouraging, but we didn't let that discourage us. After a long time, we got a flight to Mexico City, but that's as far as we got Sunday night. In Mexico City, we could not get any plane tickets until the next day at 9 PM. So the group of eight of us picked a bench and made our home in terminal two in front of Krispy Kreme for the next twenty-four hours. This is really random, but there are janitors everywhere in the airport in Mexico City. Seriously. Every time I went to the bathroom in Mexico City, there was a lady waiting for me to finish using the toilet so she could clean it again. As we were sleeping, janitors were sweeping around us.

Excerpt from my journal from July 1, 2012:
"We're still at the airport. Looks like we're going to have to spend the night here. God, it's kind of confusing why we have been delayed. I just really want to be at Icthus right now. But I trust you God that your ways are better than my ways. I know you have promised protection over us. So I pray that we may be safe as we sleep." 

July 2, 2012:
"So at the moment, Adriana, Matthew, James, and Deborah are at the Icthus Education Center. Sam & Andrew will be going to Tuxla at five while the rest of us go at nine."

By July 2nd, the third group was in Icthus, eight of us were stranded at the airport in Mexico City, and Hannah B, Susan, and Mary Anna were traveling all day. By the end of the day, everyone but Aug, Susan, and Mary Anna arrived at Tuxtla and went to Icthus. Aug, Sussan, and Mary Anna spent the night at Mexico City and arrived the next day to village, Jerusalem where the rest of us were.

In hindsight, the delays and everything really helped missions team bond. "Jesus, I am so thankful for the delayed flights even though I would not want to do it again. I think it really helped our team get closer to each other as brothers and sisters."


My group arrived in Icthus at three or four in the morning. We woke up at seven for devotionals, ate breakfast at eight, and left for the village at nine. On the first day we did not do any VBS since our whole team had not arrived yet. We rested and played with the kids. It was amazing seeing the same people as last year and knowing that they remembered us!

Verses God spoke through to me during the trip:
"For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Ephesians 2:10).


"The Lord will keep you from all harm- he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore" (Psalm 121: 7-8).

"Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the field be jubilant, and everything in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy; they will sing before the Lord, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth" (Psalm 96:11-13).


 "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrifeid, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go" (Joshua 1:9).

"Then Rachel said, 'I have had a great struggle with my sister, and i have won.' So she named him Naphtali" (Genesis 30:8).

"Finally be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers. against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms...And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayer and requests. With this is mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints" (Ephesians 6).

"Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths growth tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint" (Isaiah 40:28-31).

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8).


What did we do there?

"The team held VBS for the village children everyday
delivering messages / performing skits / making crafts and playing many games.
In the evening time they were able to reach out to the teenagers and spent time praying for individuals who needed physical healing and encouragement. One of the days they travelled to another nearby village, consisting of mostly Catholics, and shared the gospel through VBS and a skit. They witnessed God's powerful love for people through their trip."

source: http://ichthusworld.org/node/4193

 What did I learn?

• God is concerned about faith-building rather than letting our lives run perfectly because when things go wrong, we need him. I need to depend on him all the time. I need Him more each day "I need you more, more than yesterday..." Although things seem to go wrong, "we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28). It seemed like we were breaking everything at the village. While we were practicing for the VBS, a vase fell and the water spilled. We didn't know but the water reached to all the cords that controlled the sound system. As a result, one of the mixer or whatever it was burst into flame/smoke. In addition, we broke their water-heater. The water-heater is supposed to stay in the water at all times when it is connected to the outlet, but it was left on the shelf and it ended up making a fire. We saw it as a sign that God was going to bring fire to the village. As we prayed and as the village people worked on the sound system, everything was fine with the sound system! We believe that God resurrected the machine because it was clearly smoking and it smelled terrible. For the heater thing, we ended up buying them new ones. (:
• I need to love with everything I have. Love is choice. Love is selfless. At times it flows naturally from my heart, but other times it is extremely hard; however love is beautiful. The way the village people loved was a beautiful example of how Christ loves us (we ended up going to the same village as last year). They had no idea who we were, yet they gave us a home and fed us lunch and dinner everyday. They selflessly gave us rides when there was an emergency. One of our translators because very sick at night and our host drove her to the hospital in the middle of the night. Furthermore, when we were about to leave the village, we found out that we had the wrong keys to the van. We could have waited for someone to pick us up, but in three vehicles, they drove us all the way back to the Icthus center late at night! That's three hours of driving for them (back and forth). So generous!
• Nature glorifies God. The wind, the trees, the moon, the clouds all reflect God's glory. I was left awestruck looking at the moon at night. It was really cool when we were praying for this woman. All of a sudden, the wind started to become stronger and louder. I believe that was the Holy Spirit coming into the church and into the woman. (Read Psalm 96:11-13 above).
• I have a mission to pray. Jesus wants us to pray for our families, schools, states, nations, and for the world. We need to cry out for our nation because God listens when we do. "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective" (James 5:16b). God is going to do big things when people begin to start praying because our God is able to do things.
• It feels good and right to do the will of God. There is a satisfaction is doing God's work. (Read Ephesians 2:10 from above).
• Five loaves and two fish - what we offered was our own version of five loaves and two fish. We could only offer our best and our best wasn't great, but God multiplied it and blessed others. All the glory and honor belongs to our God. God is good all the time!
• It is sooo important to daily read the Bible. Well this was emphasized at Grace Retreat, but it was repeated throughout the mission trip as well. Time to start my Bible Reading Plan...

I am so thankful for the opportunity God has given me to serve the people in Mexico. I am also thankful for our missions team that grew closer as the trip continued. God opened my eyes to begin to see each of their beautiful hearts as they served Him. God truly has a great future for them if they continue to seek Him with all their hearts. I have to continue to really cultivate what I learned from this trip into my life. I want to love no matter the circumstances just as Christ did. (:

After coming back from the trip, all I've really been doing is sleeping. Yesterday I fell asleep around eight and woke up at ten. The longest I have slept in forever! Now I need to start using my time wisely by not procrastinating on things I need to do. Yay! The conference is in two weeks and Jonathan's birthday party is this Saturday.