Mexico Mission Trip Part 3

On Monday and Tuesday, I shared with you what we did on our mission trip. If you haven't already read my previous 2 posts, here is Part 1 and Part 2.

There were a few things that I think had the biggest impact on people. 

 

Of course, it was a culture shock to be in a place that is very different from your home. We couldn't understand what people were saying. We couldn't read the signs. The food was different. The way people live and entertain themselves is different.

Road rules were scarce and they definitely were not enforced. A lot of people rode these scooter things. You would see adults riding with two or three kids hanging on.

This is one of the streets. Houses and stores our side by side.

Signs everywhere

We had to have a translator to communicate with the people.

Supermarket

Another street

Most people who lived outside of the town in the villages lived in houses like this.

I believe, though, that Wednesday night had the biggest impact on our team. 

We were told we were going to attend a church service. We were also told it was a church plant in one of the villages by the pastor of the church we'd been painting. It was pouring down rain. We pulled up to an area where the houses looked like the one pictured above. In between two houses was a slab of concrete and a tarp strung up. They had a small table near the front and had set out some small, wooden, fold out chairs. This was their church.

Here we sat in this makeshift church with people who more than likely lived in these tiny houses where electricity and running water were their luxuries. Yet, we experienced God's presence like never before. These people truly understand what it means to worship God. They sang with their whole heart. They prayed aloud right along with the pastor. They listened intently to what some people in our group had to say when they shared their testimony. This experience broke the heart of every person in our group. You don't need to have a fancy, beautiful building to worship God. You don't need to have all the latest technology to worship God. You don't need to have a piano, keyboard, guitar, bass, drum set, microphones, etc. to worship God. All of those things are nice, but they're not necessary. Surrounded by all of our wealth, we often get distracted and forget that it's all about glorifying God. Worshiping with these people, everything else was stripped away and all we had was God. 

I hope that we will remember this experience and let it impact how we worship God here at home.

Thank you for reading about my mission trip. I had to condense it because so much happened and I could write about it for weeks. We did have one morning off when we went to a site of Mayan ruins. I will post pictures about that on Monday. Tomorrow I will be writing about my favorite things about June.