Escapades of Mexico

Missions has always been  very real to me, ever since my family and I moved to Russia for four years to do missions work. It has been almost ten years since we came back, and I still remember it like it was yesterday. The years, however, have faded those realities into the back of my memory and have only been recently extracted. The recent trip to MissionsFest Vancouver and our Perspectives in Mission class has really sharpened these memories and made me miss what it was like living in a different land, sharing the gospel with the people we lived amongst. Our class has ended now, and am I excitedly anticipating our missions trip to the Baja in Mexico. Our missions team of 14 people have been having frequent meetings over the past few days and I am getting more excited and also nervous for the trip.
Some of you have probably heard, but for those who have not, I am going on a missions trip with half the Kaléo group to Él Papalote, Mexico for 16 days from Feb 12-28. We will be partnering with an existing Christian ministry called Northern Light Ministries who are reaching out to the many indigenous peoples who live on the Baja. Over the time we are there, we will be doing outreach doing repair projects such as building a stone walkway for the church, filling in potholes on the highway and renovating the community park by painting and landscaping. I am one of the four students on our team who is organizing and leading an event for the youth there, a night filled with games, music, a message and food. Our team will be sharing our testimonies of God's grace in the church and helping at a child care center at a farm for the workers there which we have heard is going to be very hard to see. We will also be giving out lunches at some of the schools, and distributing blankets to local homes, giving us a chance to see the real need in the community. Our team has also been asked to take a prayer walk in one of the more resistant towns to the gospel and go door-to-door collecting information about the languages they speak, enabling the missionaries to print more Bibles in their languages.
I've never been on a missions trip before except for when I was in Russia, and I am so excited to reach out in justice and for the work of God! I think this trip will really stretch me to see others' needs, especially being able to communicate with them with the little Spanish I know and building meaningful relationships. It's so exciting for me to see believers who love the Lord in other countries and be a part of God's work in Mexico.
Some things to pray for for this trip would be protection and safety especially as we are traveling through US and Mexico. Pray for God's hand to be over us, protecting us from injuries and sickness which would prevent us from doing his work there. Ask God to give us as students wisdom as we plan these events for the community and we would be able to make meaningful connections with the people there, even though there is the language barrier.  Pray that our team would be able to stay humble as we work alongside the missionaries and Northern Light Ministries, and know that the work we are doing there is not our own, it is a part of God's bigger plan for Mexico. Ask God to open our eyes and hearts to the brokenness and poverty in Él Papalote, and we would be moved to be more involved with God's work around the world. Pray that our team would really be conscious of the culture and the barriers that separate "us westerners" from them in Mexico. Ask God to give us wisdom on how to handle difficult situations, especially since most men's perception of North American women is what they see in Hollywood movies. Pray that God would keep our focus on him and his ministry, and that through our struggles, we would be able to grow and give him praise and glory through it all.
Thank you so much for all your prayers and support for funds to come in for this trip - they did! All the extra money we are now receiving is going to the people of Él Papalote, which we are very excited about! God is good, and his ministry in the world is far from over.
"And the King will say, 'I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me." - Matthew 25:40