After weeks of setting things up and planning for the M2M team, I am sort of lost this morning. I don't HAVE to be anywhere or DO anything! Well I have a house to clean and need to concentrate on VBS preparations but....I think a cup of coffee sitting in front of the computer and trying to pen a few thoughts about this past week is in order.
First of all, I want to thank Emmanuel Baptist Church for sending a group of flexible and gracious young people to minister with us.
Second, I send a hug to the team and again say thank for your willingness to leave home and your comfort zones and step out on the frontlines of foreign missions. You were rained on more times than I care to count. You crammed into rooms and vans and I did not hear a complaint even once. You ate real Mexican food four of the days you were here! You painted the church inside and out. You drew VBS scenery. You handed out 1500 invitations to Iglesia Bautista de las Trojes. You did mimes and sang. But most of all, you renewed me and my family's vision for ministry in Las Trojes. To stand in front of you and say, "We are tired or frustrated, just could not be done. So I personally just smiled and instead said, "Okay Lord, what will you do this week?"
Here's what He did through you and your testimony this week!
-Adults are saying, "We should have been the ones painting this building!"
-Benito returned to church.
-Sarai had her quinceaños and rededicated her life to God.
-The youth of our church are disappointed and ashamed that their mission trip planned for August was cancelled. None of them had shown interest and had not saved the money to go. Now they are saying can we do it during Christmas break? That will give us time to save money, learn skits and collect Bibles and tracts to take along.
-Two new families brought their kids to Kids Club on Friday due to the info you passed out.
-Sirenia is sharing with her neighbors about Christ and has even told her very Catholic mother she was saved in April and is going to a Baptist church.
-Many of the families in the church are just renewed and excited to continue what you started.
-Ladies meeting was small in number the Saturday you left, but huge in the excitement and plans for evangelizing the women of Las Trojes. Miriam said, "If they can come here, and be rained on for 7 days and still be smiling and ready to go out again, and cry like babies saying Good-bye.....than we can step out our front gate and talk to our neighbors! I am a little bit ashamed that it took a group a kids to show me what I could so easily be doing."
-If you know me at all, you know that I am a mover and a pusher to get things done. This week God made me sit back and be on the edge of things. At times I was a like a race horse biting the bit at the gate but...I got to see some people step up and do the job! So this pusher is pulling back and letting the others go forward. I look forward to seeing all that God will do in the coming days!
God also showed his love for us in a ways not connected to your visit.
-On Saturday morning I got a phone call that Antonio's nephew had been run over by a car! He is doing okay now, but his skull was fractured and it was scary for few days.
-Teammate Bethany Dean moved in the middle of your visit. Things kept falling apart for setting up her moving crew. We were feeling so bad at not being able to be there to help her, but God provided other Mexican friends to do the job and she also saw how God provides the help we need in surprising ways.
-Teammates Ron and Zina Allen are on a summer-long furlough. Ron's brother Donny had emergency heart surgery. They "just happened to be near by" and could be with family through the touch and go of the whole thing. No, I do not think it was a coincidence! I know that God put them there!
I only pray that each of the M2M team members saw God working in and through them. I pray of course for the seeds they planted in the hearts of the Mexican people. Yet I almost pray more for the seeds planted in the M2M team's hearts for missions and for simply living each day to the glory of God!
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