Reflections, Plane Ride and Pure Awesomeness – Final Day update – Scott

Hola!

I am writing this post while sitting on our plane headed to Portland! We are headed home with many memories and great stories to share of God’s work in both the lives of our team and the lives of the children and staff at the Children’s Home in Oaxaca. The people of Oaxaca, especially those at the children home, have blessed us more than we can put into words. We went into this trip with the goal to be a blessing to everyone we met in Oaxaca. The truth is that as we sought to be a blessing, but God blessed us in tremendous ways. During the last ten days, God has worked very specifically in each person’s life through revealing himself to each person in different ways. Each person on our team has come away from this experience with very different perspectives. You have had a chance to read about their stories and experiences on this blog. They have left with a far bigger vision of God. They have experienced close fellowship with believers from other cultures. They have shared in the joy of partnering with the children’s home in the expansion of God’s worldwide kingdom. We have left Oaxaca transformed.

It almost always seems that great transformation is accompanied with the moving out of the comfort zone and into an area of risk and fear. It takes courage to let God move in your life. Letting God transform you always requires faith and courage; the faith that God knows what He is doing and the courage to follow God into the unknown. Our team took the leap of faith and courageously stepped out of their comfort zone into whatever God put in our path. They walked into a Mexican prison and shared their stories of faith with drug addicts, murderers and thieves. (I write this after hearing from the inmates; the team did go into the prison knowing the past wrongs that these men committed)

On the first day entering the prison, being nervous and fearful they stepped into a room with almost fifty inmates and shared the gospel to many non-believers. On the second day, they shared verses and worshipped with believers during a chapel service. Both experiences were life changing. What was life-changing was not necessarily the act of getting up in front of many people and sharing, but the life change came from the responses from the inmates. Numerous inmates prayed for team members and opened up to us through sharing their encouraging stories of how they have found hope through Jesus in a very hopeless place. A few inmates were strengthened in their faith because of our presence with them. They were blown away that these ‘Americanos’ would travel from the United States to visit them in the prison. Our initial perspectives prior to entering the prison were shattered because Jesus was in the prison with the murderers, drug addicts and thieves. Jesus is always found with the broken and downtrodden. The team left the prison joyfully giving thanks to God for the experience. We found Jesus in the Mexican prison.

Throughout the ten days, we had opportunities to spend time with the kids at the Children’s Home. As one of our team members said to me, “Each one, each face, every single kid has a story”. These kids each have a story, many full of heart ache and pain. Abandonment, abuse, and neglect characterize the past lives of these kids. Jesus has brought them out of that lifestyle and into a home full of joy, peace and love. On the inside, the kids still hurt for the loss of a family, so please join us in praying for these young kids. The staff is amazing at loving these kids where they are at in life. The staff is ALL about the children and their growth, which was great to participate in this vision.

Overall, the best trip that I have ever had the privilege of going on. God moved mightily in the lives of our team and showed Himself to be faithful in every step of the way. Six months ago this was a dream and now we can say that it was more than we could have expected. God provided the team, provided the support of others and provided the funds for this trip. It was an incredible experience from the start. Thank you for your support and prayer. God provides goers and senders on trips like these and both are vital to God’s global mission. Thank you to the team. It has been a privilege to journey alongside you.

We are hoping to post on the blog reflections from team members, a sort of post-Oaxaca experience post.

Blessings,

Scott

The entrance of the Children’s Home

The sign in the entrance of the children’s home

Charleston the goat for dinner… Update for day 8

Hola!

Today was a great day! This entire trip has been an amazing opportunity, and I am so thankful for everyone who has been praying for our time here. I have seen God work in so many incredible ways while we have been here. Like we have done almost every day we have been here, we went to sala (devotions) this morning, and the lesson was from Psalm 133 about unity in the body of Christ. As I got to thinking about it throughout the day, this experience has been an example of what unity truly looks like. Two very different cultures coming together for a single purpose, which is to bring glory to God.

Another way I have seen God work is in the way he provides. A couple days ago, the children’s home received a goat as a very special donation. Although I had an idea of what the goat would be for, I didn’t expect it to happen so quickly. I won’t go into any gruesome details, but to make a long story short, we did have goat meat for lunch today. It doesn’t seem to be a real popular meal to the foreigners here, but the native people absolutely love it. What I noticed most was how incredibly thankful the people here are for the blessing they received.

Blessings, Brooke

BELOW: Warning graphic picture of Charleston before we ate him.

Charleston had a spot in our heart while he was alive then he had a spot in our stomach…

Fireflies, Church and Soccer – Update for day 7

IT WAS SO COOL!!! The church experience that is. This morning we went to church with the kids and staff from the children’s home. It was such a wonderful experience being able to worship the same God but in a different language. The first song they played in Spanish I knew from back home and sung it in English. People danced around, clapped, sung out in praise and the music was bumpin’. We stayed just for the worship time and then took off for a market. We were told that the sermon can take anywhere from one to three hours and that is a very long time for people like me that are not fluent in Spanish and there wasn’t a translator.

We were treated to chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast before church and it was delicious. We saw many interesting things at this market like people walking around holding live turkeys to sell; we also saw de-feathered chickens that had yellow feet, and a pig head just hanging out on the edge of a table. I had a yummy lunch which was chorizo tacos (chorizo is a spicy sausage) and a noodle broth soup. After lunch a smaller group of us went on to tour Mitla which is one of the top seven ruins in Mexico.

At Mitla there were a lot of shops, a catholic church, and ancient ruins. I spent most of my money here and had a really fun time bargaining. I bought a nice crocheted backpack for 150 pesos which started at 180. Rachel liked my bag so much that she wanted the one just like it but with brown stripes. When we walked by the tent she decided to get it. I helped her bargain the price and somehow got the price down to 109 pesos. Now why couldn’t I do that for myself? This last market was by far my favorite it was more relaxed, clean, and not rushed. For dinner our driver Jill took the small group of us to Jamba Jamba, a nice little smoothie sandwich shop. When we got back to home base we got to play soccer with the kids. The girls that played were quite good for their age and there were mostly younger boys. The children’s home is currently in the process of making two grass soccer fields, but for now they kids play on cement with two holey goals. For those of you that know me I do love soccer.

For those of you that have seen fireflies, they are quite a treat. I was the last one in the whole group to see a firefly but I will tell you what it was the sweetest little spark ever!

Thank you everyone that has been praying for us before and during our trip. The Lord is providing me with some new friends and a great attitude

Kristen

We stopped off at some old ruins in the middle of the Market in Mitla.

Kristen and Brooke battle it out at a game of chess.

Kristen and her good friend Brooke at the ruins.

Top 5 photos from day 6

The girls enjoying the Ruins

The ruins on Monte Albon

Headed to Oaxaca! A sign we saw in Mitla while we were at the market.

The boys being awesome at the ruins.

We climbed the huge steps to the top of a ruin. As you can see, it was more struggling than climbing!

Ruins, Zócalo and Biggest Tree EVER – Day 6 Update – Katie Wright

Update on Day 5: Christian Brown

August 10, 2012

The shadows of the clouds seem to flee before the unveiling sun, running across the landscape streaked by the ever present mountains and hills. Peace hangs in the air low, like the fog here in the high elevation of the area, and even the rain fails to dampen or darken spirits.

I have never spent this long in a foreign country as anything but a tourist. I have traveled to places and only walked on the top soil, but never really got under the marketed tourist attractions to see what the land was really like. Here, I have literally been in the earth consistently.

The language is really coming to me, and I can enjoy having a conversation in Spanish with the staff and children. I’ve found that when you have to strive just to make quick conversation, you choose your words more carefully, and make sure to say something worthwhile. It makes me want to give up English.

 

There is a fourteen year old boy here that I have become friends with named Florencio. After a couple games of soccer while the sun was still shining, we began getting to know each other. He has the quiet kindness that is prevalent in the culture, but yet downplays the pain he must have in life. His father is in prison, and he occasionally visits him, while his mother and little sisters have to try to get by without him because of their circumstances. And so he is here at the home. There are many children here with similar scenarios, but you wouldn’t know for the smiles and eccentricity of the little ones especially.

 

The place is filled with good intentions, and I truly have seen the Lord. When I went to the prison we were crammed into a small 15 by 15 foot room with a ceiling about 25 feet high, and we had a worship service accompanied by the testimonies and teaching of anyone who wanted to. I left for the trip sick, in fact I had been in bed for two days prior to our departure and I had some problem with my left ear, it was plugged because of my sickness mixed with an incredibly painful flight, (the pressure was squeezing my brain). A man named Enrique, who ministers in the prison four days each week, offered a passage out the end of Mark, right after the great commission. He gave us all instructions to lay our own hand on ourselves and pray for healing for anything that might be ailing us, saying that since it is the Lord’s hand which truly heals, it did not have to be another person’s hand. I put my hand on my ear sheepishly at first, then opened I put my hand on my ear sheepishly at first, not being sure of the procedure, but I thought, “Jesus said the Holy Spirit would heal,” and so I finally opened myself up to the Lord and asked Him to heal me. Oh, and He did.

 
I am here having a great time living for each moment. The sense of punctuality and time here is skewed and it forces everyone to be on their toes all the time. I think it’s great, it makes me remember that each moment shouldn’t be taken for granted or downplayed just because I knew it was coming.
See ya’ll soon.

Christian Brown

Top 5 Photos from day 5

We made a wall!

It may have been raining outside, but it was raining cash in monopoly… well for one of them (Brooke).

Marta enjoyed spending time with the La Ninas.

Christian preparing to smash the two pieces of sheet rock with his forehead… The video to come later! Brooke is very brave

Katie hammering and Christian looking like he is working… Good times!