Mexico!

 So, in July, I spent a few weeks in Mexico!

I was working with the Service Adventure program through ACE global ministries to minister to Christian schools in need around the world.

The first week, we were all together in a big group learning building skills, and working on our ministry presentations, and then the second week, we split up as teams, and went to six different areas of Mexico!

Some of the teams worked with orphans, or the elderly, but my school had a focus on helping single moms.

So, here are a ton of photos, and a whole bunch of random facts from my trip.

The second week, my team got to help out with a couple of different church services, and we did a special program for the kids with songs, a group Bible speaking event, and a puppet show. 

Our home base, was more desert like, but the mountains were so beautiful!

As we drove on the ten hour bus drive to our second base, we began to see a lot more green, and were told that the hurricanes had caused a lot of rain in the region, so we were going into a nearly tropical like area!

I have owned a ukulele for a little while, but hadn't really learned to play, so when the team sent out the songs, I ignored them at first, I mean I don't really play! But then, I decided to give it a try, and I spent a few weeks learning the songs we'd be using on the missions trip. It ended up being one of my highlights! Especially when I got to play in the Spanish Rondalla. 

I didn't recognize the fresh figs, since I'd never had one, but they were amazing!

Fresh figs, are nothing like the dried ones! There's nothing like being on a farm in Mexico, watching them prepare a lamb for supper, and eating fresh figs that you picked.

And when I say I watched them prepare the lamb, we did the whole process, right down to cleaning the intestines. Yes, I did try some of them, and how they were cooked, the flavor was great! But the texture was a bit strange . . . 

The farm had all kinds of cool stuff to see!

We built twenty-one desks, and a scoring station for a Christian school that second week. It was a lot of work, but also a TON of fun!

By the time we were done, we had it down to a science and worked like a well oiled machine.

Before we left, we got to design and decorate a few bulletin boards, and put up the charts the students will use, so it looked all ready to go when we were done. 

I wasn't expecting the second week to be in such a beautiful place, but I fell in love with that area of Mexico!

So, that sheep we ate? They cooked it in a hole in the ground over hot rocks wrapped in cactus leaves. When it came time to eat it, we didn't put it on a table, we all just gathered around with tortillas and grabbed a chunk. The pastor and his family were so amazing, and let us be a part of the whole process.

We did find time to hit a street market late one evening after a full day of work, and grabbed some supper.

When we joined back up at the home base at the end of the mission trip, we got to do a final mission event in the host family's town. They invited the whole town, and every team got to do something from wordless book, to singing, to puppet shows.

And of course, if you're going to Mexico, you need the real Mexican music experience too!

This was my team at our school the second week when we'd just finished the project. We took a few minutes, and each went around to pray over the desks we'd built, and it was really neat thinking down the road at all the students who could be changed forever sitting at those desks. We even had a girl on our team who'd gotten saved while sitting at her desk in an ACE school!

Marking, cutting, sanding, varnishing, assembling . . . we got it down!

Our host family did take us to some hot spring caves at one point, and that was incredible!

It was hard working with the kids, because all of it is in Spanish, and my Spanish is almost non-existent. Since most of my team was bilingual, they were great about translating for me, but when it came to working with the kids, I got to stand back, and hold backdrops, and do the behind the scenes serving. It was great in the moment, but at the end, when all the kids want to talk to you, it was hard not being able to communicate better.

 

The hot spring caves fed all the mountain pools as well, and it was one of the most beautiful places I've ever been.

The emphasis of the trip, was on being a willing servant for God. The servant talked about in Luke who did everything asked of him, and at the end, didn't expect thanks, because they were unprofitable, just doing what was expected. It's a great attitude, as a servant of God, when you can sit back, do your job, and not be seeking praise.

It was also neat, because I got to hear the testimony of a young man who is living for God today, who got saved because of a Service Adventure team ten years ago. It was encouraging seeing the fruit, and knowing that I got to be a part of this incredible ministry!

All in all, it was a great experience, I learned a lot, I tried dozens of different foods I'd never had before, and I made lots of friends from around the world. But I was very thankful to come home to our shower and tap water! :)