Jesus in the spotlight

When I woke up this morning I wasn’t that excited for what I was doing today. My group and I was assigned to do “door to door” greetings, which is when you walk around and talk to people who are on their porches. Our translator was Eliazar, who is an amazing person and has truly been a inspiration to me. On the way to the Church where we would begin our little expedition, Eliazar told us to prepare our selves for what we were going to say to the people we encounter. As soon as he said that John 3:15 popped into my head, and when I looked it up in my Bible it says, “ that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” That verse hit me hard, and came very useful throughout the day. My group and I finally began our prayer walking, and we came across the two kids that were outside just talking. The introduced themselves and the boys name was Christian. He told us that he had just accepted Christ yesterday, and seemed interested what we had to say to him. However, his mom and brother sat in their little shack that they call home and were laughing and making loud noises at Christian for talking to us, and trying to make him feel uncomfortable, it was a sad site to see. We told Christian about the soccer game that we were having later that day and said that we hope to see him there. The last house that we went to had a little old woman in it, and she welcomed us in with more that open arms. When we entered her house the first thing I noticed was that she actually had a pretty nice house compared to most of the people that lived around her, the second thing I noticed was a little chuawawa that looked like the little dog from the Taco Bell commercials which I found very amusing for some reason. When we started talking to the lady, she told us that she couldn’t sleep at night and that she was so alone. She said she couldn’t even go to church at times because she was too tired to go and didn’t feel like it. We talked for her for a while longer and told her that she can always pray to god about it and that he has the power to heal anything and everything. Before we left her house we asked her if she wanted to rededicate her life to Christ and she said yes. She then prayed the prayer with Eliazar, while we walked around her house praying for her.
My favorite part of the whole day and my whole trip so far was playing soccer with the children after we did door to door. The kids that we played with were just amazing! They were always smiling and having a great time. The kids in Mexico have a lot of time on their hands, so needless to say they are very good at Futbol aka “Soccer”. But, we held our own very well if I say so myself, I think the oldest one was maybe 14 and all of us who were playing were 16 or older. My team lost, but not without a good fight. The ending score was 4-3.
After playing soccer we all sat down on the stands on the side of the field, and Mr. Beckwith started to speak and gave an intro to who Jesus is. Once he finished speaking I walked down and was in the spotlight. I had planned on sharing my testimony to everyone, but I had no clue what I was going to say. When I started to speak in front of 20 or so children, words just started pouring out of my mouth. I wasn’t the one who was saying the words though, God just kept feeding me words to say. It was such an AWESOME feeling to share how the Lord has altered your life, it was by far the highlight of my day. If you were to ask me what I said when I was talking in front of all those children, I would not be able to tell you. Once I was finished talking I had such an amazing feeling inside of me, as if nothing in the world mattered, except that Jesus Christ used me to share how great he is to a bunch of children who some have never even heard who Jesus Christ is! I use to think that my testimony was lame and didn’t matter because it was about me and not that exciting. But I realized after that speech that every testimony is amazing! I mean you accepted Christ into your life and Born Again and new person. God works through us in ways we will never really understand, but the fact is that we MUST trust in him no matter what the issue may be. God works miracles on people when they least expect it and least deserve it.
Once we had finished everything at the soccer fields and we about to leave Ross came up to me and said hey lets go talk to this kid Antonio who was 13. I had a feeling that I should go talk to him before Ross came up to me and asked if I would go with him, but I hesitated. Thankfully because of Ross we walked up to Antonio right as he was about to leave on his bike and told him to wait up. When we got to him, Chris who is a translator for us and is only 17, came up right behind us to translate. We asked Antionio if he knew who Jesus Christ is and he said, “ Ya he’s the one that everyone loves”. Then we asked him if he knew what he did for us and he replied, “No I don’t.” Ross and I then basically gave him Jesus in a nutshell, telling him who he really is and what he did for us and why. After talking with Antonio for a while, we asked him if he owned a Bible and he said no. We told him to come back to the church with us so we could give him one, and he did. Ross and I hurried back to the Church and got a bible for him. We are going to see him again Thursday and I can’t wait till I do.
Today has been an amazing day and one that I will never forget, and always tell stories of. I pray that you all will trust in the Lord with everything you have. He has ways of showing up when you least expect it. I also want to thank everyone who contributed to all of us being here and getting to experience how God is working around the world. I ask that you all continue to keep us in your prayers. I hope to see you all soon. Mom I love you and tell everyone at the house the same ;)

Max Poling