So… I went to Mexico…
I haven't gone on a mission trip where I was strictly a participant in over 4 years. Initially, when I heard about the trip, I thought that it was out of the question. Originally, it was going to be a longer trip and I knew I didn't have the vacation time to go… even though I wanted to…
Then things started changing and I know that God was working on my heart. The trip was shortened to just a few days and the cost was just about manageable. I decided that it was dumb for me not to consider it and almost as quickly as I was considering, I knew I was going to be on the trip…
Then the price was reduced by an amazing amount and everything worked out brilliantly… I love it when that happens…
So we left for mexico early on the morning of dec. 27… we drove, which is pretty amazing (to and from mexico and 2 days there in 4 days’ time)… there were 8 of us all together… mostly people I knew pretty well and a few others who I got to know a lot more over the course of 4 days…
We drove to Laredo on Thursday night, and then drove into mexico on Friday morning… our plan was to go and deliver Christmas gifts (clothes, shoes, and toys) to children and teenagers who live at an orphanage in Sabinas Hidalgo, Mexico… we didn't know how we would be received. Besides the fact that there is a language barrier, there could be emotional barriers with the kids. Sometimes kids who have had rough upbringings could be distant with thick walls around them… since we didn't know where these kids were coming from emotionally, we didn't know how it would go that first day…
There was a huge part of me that felt the way I did when I lived in East Asia… in fact, when I would take a picture, I would actually start to count in Chinese the way we would when we took pictures there… and I think I said, "thank you" in Chinese about 20 times an hour… I didn't know why… I guess it was the result of having those words so engrained into my brain when I was out of my own language and culture…
When we drove up, the kids came running up… we were immediately met with smiles and hugs and love and friendship… instantly, it became a time of play and laughter and all-around good times…
We played for the rest of the day and that night… and we gave them their Christmas gifts that night… it was great to see their faces light up, not only at the thought of getting gifts, but just of having new friends and a bunch of crazy Americans to play with…
It felt like we had been there for about 5 days by the next day. We spent some time sightseeing and then came back for lunch and to play some more. During the afternoon, the director brought us inito the office and told us the back stories on most of the kids… some of the stories were pretty basic, but some of the kids have had it really rough their entire lives… it was amazing to think of how open and welcoming some of them were based on their past experiences… we were thankful not to have known the backstories initially so our first encounters could be pure with no tainted opinions based on their pasts.
We played the rest of the day and then went to church with them that night… during church, I sat next to kimara… one of the girls that had won my heart… she was a teenager (14, I think…) and during church, she wrote on my hand, “robyn is my best friend.” Before church, we sat by the fountain and she showed me some of her favorite bible passages and I showed her some of mine… it was pretty incredible to watch her turn to passages that had such depth and talked so much about fear and loneliness… two things that I struggle with a lot… and to see our favorite verses line up so well… at one point, we were reading the same passage… Isaiah 43 together… kimara in spanish and I was reading in english… what a beautiful sound…
After church, we knew that it was almost time for the kids to go to bed, which meant the end of seeing them… we left early the next morning before anyone was awake… so, it meant for a lot of hugs and tears…
We left before any of the kids had gotten up… All in all it was a good trip… I walked away learning a few things and remembering a few more…
1) I learned and remembered the simple joys of “play” – how fun it is just to play and laugh and how that literally knocks down language barriers. It makes me think of the song “It’s a small world” – a smile means friendship to everyone. Cheesy, yes, but it’s easy enough and it’s true…
2) I felt the presence of God when I heard Norma’s laugh… there was something so pure and incredible about her giggle…
3) Sometimes ministry is pushing a swing… it doesn’t have to be hard or complex… just meeting a need… which is sometimes allowing others to feel at ease and just to have fun and experience joy…
4) Simple grace… accepting someone by giving them a hug, or letting a child sit in your laugh or having a child grab your belly by surprise as he says in his best santa claus deep voice, “HO! HO! HO! SOY SANTA CLAUS” is sometimes just as powerful as saying something deep about theological ideas…
5) One of the things that I said (jokingly) while I was there a few times was, “how do you say ‘self-esteem’ in Spanish?” – sometimes doing ministry and being real means looking really dumb… and that’s okay.
I don’t know that I can put any more into words… that’s all I’ve got for today… but I’m glad I got to go and experience it… I was really grateful to get out of my world for a few days and remember the joy that I used to feel about world missions… not that it’s gone… it’s just been a long time…
Posts
