After months of preparation, I have finally entered Mexico! I met up with my team a couple weeks ago in LA and crossed the Mexican border at Nogales on September 14th. It's been a wild journey since then. My team arrived at our first stop in Mexico, the village of Pesqueira, and stayed for a few days in this beautiful little town. We partnered with a local pastor who asked us to go house to house and invite the community to a church service in the evening. We did this two days in a row. The first day I prayed for several people during the house visits. One of the women said she was having horrible Satanic nightmares and didn't know why she couldn't sleep in peace. We prayed for her to be delivered from the attack, and the next day she showed up at the church to let us know she had a wonderful peaceful sleep at last.
During the first evening church service, I helped run a children's program while other team members ran the church service. They informed me that about fifty people gave their lives to Christ during the service. One member of my team had a word of knowledge that there were people who were thinking about committing suicide and struggling with depression. Two people came forward, admitted that this word was for them, and got prayer and healing.
Meanwhile, I was outside trying to keep a village of children entertained while using my limited Spanish. The people who were helping me didn't speak any, so I did the best I could. Things were a bit crazy, but we had a lot of laughs and a night I certainly won't forget.
The next night, we did the same thing. The team again saw healings in the church, and I helped with the children again. We had a great time.
From Pesqueira, we drove to Culiacan, a city where you could feel the darkness and oppression. We saw lots of police patrolling the area, a region plagued by drug wars. We attended a church service in Culiacan, but our stay was brief. The next day, we drove to another village.
We rested for a couple days in a gorgeous area right by the Pacific Ocean and got re-energized before the next leg of our journey. After resting, we drove to Confradia and partnered with a man named Jay who has been living in the area for 16 years. His heart is for an unreached people group called the Cora who live in a remote area in the mountains. We slept at Jay's mission base and drove up to the mountain the next morning. It took about 7 hours along crazy winding, bumpy roads. We spent the next couple days with the Cora people and had opportunities to pray and minister to them. Some others and I prayed for a man who had had an eye problem for a year--pain and blurred vision. After we prayed, all the pain left, and his vision was fully restored. Praise God!
We headed back down the mountain and moved on to Guadalajara, where I am right now. We are partnering with another local church and will be heading into the slums to do ministry for the next few days. From there, we will head to Mexico City, then Oaxoca, then cross in Guatemala.
So far, the trip has been challenging but good. We never know exactly what "the plan" is or where we will be. We never know when we will next eat or whether we will be sleeping in a bed or on a concrete floor or outside in a place full of scorpions and tarantulas. Some days feel kind of normal; others feel like a weird movie.
But God has been faithful and has been showing up everywhere we've gone. I wondered how long it would take to see fruit, to see miracles, to feel like something was really happening...and it only took one day. God is showing up. God is doing things in Mexico that are suprising the people and surprising me too! It's a blessing to be a part of the adventure and to wait to see what God does next. :)
