Day 3 Lots of fun, Lots of friends

So, today was our first full day in Mexico. Let's see...we woke up at about 8, had some wonderful breakfast burritos, and went to the worship tent for "Missions 101". Then, we were asked to go off on our own and talk to God. We all gathered back inside the tent and shared what we felt God was saying to us. After that, we were asked to find someone we didn't know and go pray with them. As uncomfortable and awkward as it was, God was truly speaking words to my partner to pray over me.

After all this, we ate some yummy lunch, left the Gateway, and went to the market in Matamoros. The Mexicans really liked us and it was a lot of fun. After a couple of hours, we left for La Casa de Oracion (The House of Prayer). It was a very small church in a local Mexican neighborhood. We got there at 5pm and went around the neighborhood to invite people to church. I was amazed at how interested and happy they were to see us. We had our service and then served everyone dinner. Afterwards, we played with the kids and left around 8pm. We arrived at the Gateway around 9pm, took showers, had a short meeting, and went to bed.

Thank you all for your prayers- it's been awesome

Christine Hermansdorfer

Trip Report

Hi form Matamoros, Mexico! Today was our third day in Matamoros, but our first full day of missions. Already its amazing to see how God is working in all of our lives. Our group has been blessed again while blessing the people of Mexico as well. Today for me, God revealed himself to me by coming to me and strengthening my heart. After breakfast we had worship. We didn't just stand and sing and clap our hands like usual. Today we spread out from each other and were allowed to worship in whatever fashion we wanted to. What a special time it was. I was able to open my heart to the Lord and prepared myself for the powerful message that would follow. The speaker this week, James, addressed in the message something that God has been trying to teach me over and over again for a while now. He began to speak from Mark 12:28-34, in which Christ addresses the greatest commandment. "to love the Lord your God with all your soul (prayer), all your mind (intelligence), all your strength (energy)." The second greatet commandment follows to " Love your neighbor as yourself." How often do we get caught up in DOING for the lord? Trying to accomplish things for him thinking that of we just do this he'll love us. If we complete this task, he'll be happier with us. But none of this matters in the least if we are missing the very first and essential commandment, to love he lord our God, who loves us no matter what, as an excuse to busy our lives, supposedly "doing" things for him. All we need is to love him and everything else will follow. Psalm 145:15 says: " The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth." We don't need to to do to grow closer to God. Not in the least. All we need to do is seek Him with all our hearts, and he will be more real to us than we could have ever imagined.

Natalie Mason

My Heart Belongs to Mexico

Hello home, this is Wilson and I have showered…mom don’t listen to brett’s false claims and worry that im not ready for college. Anyway tonight Ivan asked if someone would volunteer to blog about the day and I was quick to raise my hand because I took a step forward in my spiritual journey a couple hours ago.
My walk with Christ has been a struggle the whole way. I consistently follow two steps forward with one step back. Recently I’ve become aware of the snag that’s keeping me from taking the next step forward. That snag has been my inability to totally lend my heart to the lord. My faith has been weak and I’ve been scared to let God hold all that is me in his hands. This hardness of my heart has affected relationships not only with God but people. I had built a fortress around my heart that neither my parents, nor girlfriends, nor buddies could break. I acted in irrational ways to keep those people out…I even fled from God to a life of sin because he was gaining too much control of my life.
Even while deep in a time of sin I continued to read my bible and go to church because after all I was a saved believer and did love God and need him. I knew I had been called to more than the life of a church go-er, and I knew in my soul that the sin was not for me…So I prayed… and prayed…. I prayed that God would bring back into his arms to be in his will as he had originally desired…this was all before camp…
Today the Lord was faithfull. He knew that my hard heart was keeping me from the relationship we should have been having. I have gone on three mission trips to Cuba and one previous to Mexico and I have seen poverty and I have held sweet little children’s hands but all the while I protected my heart, making sure that I didn’t experience the pain that is so often accompanied lending it. Today, however, we were sent to build an addition to the house of one of the church members. The house we were working on was a two room shack about 15 by 15 and the addition we were adding was about 4 feet by five. At the house I met my angel Daniella. She is a shy 8 year old girl who was used by God to break the most callused of hearts…my own.
The girls in my group and I went for a walk with the children of the house we were adding on to. During the walk we participated in their favorite forms of entertainment, such as : kicking an empty coke bottle, and putting leaves on ants. You know really fun stuff…im sure my brother will put down his x-box controller and run outside to find an empty bottle to kick around. Anyway on the way back as I was finished tickeling Daniella just to hear her pure laugh it happened. She grabbed my hand to lead me down the path, and told me her favorite color, and held razor wire up while I crawled underneath so it wouldn’t scratch me…it was all simple so simple and yet so powerfull. It was then that I decided to give her my all for the time that I had. Knowing that the hurt of separation was immanate I decided to pour the love and mercy that Christ has given me into her heart and let her this little girl hold my heart and see me as vulnerable as I can be…I know that God is where the courage came from and I praise him for being faithfull and delivering me again. If you don’t really understand what im saying the simple explanation is that because God used this little angel to break down the barriers of my heart and believe I can now lend it all to the Lord…I hope that the people who read this that are struggling with giving themselves up are encouraged… I pray that the story of my angel Daniella and Gods faithfulness melts more hearts than just my own…because God wants and deserves it all…and because the blanket of eternal security that it offers is unparalleled.

Lift us up; all the time

Wilson Sims

Day 2- Market, Family, and Churros

Today was a great day we really got a taste of Matamoros. It is so amazing to see the poverty that is so abundant here. One of the students asked me if we were in the slums or the ghetto, and i respondd, "No, this is the equivelant of where you would live. This is middle class." It is so amazing to realize just how blessed we really are. We went to the market and did some obligatory shopping. everyone had a great time. Here is a response form one of the group members:

"Hello Everyone!

Today is sunday, and the first full day of the week! We all woke up for breakfast at 8:30 am, which i must say i smy forst time eating a real Mexican breakfast borrito. We talked through the logistics of the week, ate lunch, and then went to the market place for the afternoon. What a culture shock as we were the minority of the people there. We got to bargain down the prices on hammocks, clothes, jewlwery! It was a great experience. I also had a churro for the first time! Yum Yum!

We then headed over to the church. There we prayer walked around the neighbohoodand talked to people, and invited the children to the VBS that would be taking place. My group was led to the pastors house, his name is Arturo. We visited with his wife and small children. We worshipped at his church and then ate dinner with some mebers of his congregation. I met a young girl mnamed esmerelda who i am very fond of! We tried to talk and find out about each other, but my broken spanish was a bit of a barrier.We managed to get each other's namesand to laugh several times at each other. It was lovely!! it was definately a shock how different the living conditions are here. I am praying that God will prepare me for what's to come because it's only the first day so far. It's going to be a crazy week.

Please continue to lift us up...

Kelly Stewart

Day 1 guns, sweat, and killer mosquitoes

God has been very good to us. We crossed the border without a problem. Only one of our vehicles got stopped and searched. there were soldiers greeting s with massive guns. We arrived at the gateway safe and sound. Great dinner. All is well. Here is a post from one of the students about the day.

"The first day of camp was very eye opening. My first time crossing the border into México was captivating. There is such a visible difference once you cross the border. You could tell the difference between countries even if there weren’t federales with AK47’s. We soon arrived at the Gateway (the place where we are staying). We were the first out of 3 groups to arrive (60 people total) so we got the first choice in beds. We immediately looked for the air conditioner. We didn’t have anything planned until dinner at 7 so we played a pick up soccer game with “Z”. The field was a muddy and a couple people including myself took spills. After soccer we had a couple hours to hang out and take a nap until 7 where we gathered for dinner. Dinner consisted of chicken, some sort of Mexican pasta, and of coarse refried beans. It was very good and most importantly filling. After dinner we met under the tent in the center of the Gateway for a briefing on the rules and worship. At this time I really got a grasp of the bug situation in México. (I just slapped a mosquito on my arm). There are more mosquitoes than I’ve ever seen in my life. Or so it seems. Bug spray will be my best friend this week. Also during worship I was sitting by Ivan when a bug/monster/small dinosaur, the size of my hand was crawling around by our sandaled feet. Needless to say we relocated and one of the aim staff removed the creatures. The worship was excellent and the little of the speaker we heard was very powerful.

Please continue to pray for us.

Brett Fisher

PS Mrs Sims, If you talk to your son please tell him to shower. We are sharing a pillow.

Deep in the Heart of Texas

Well we made it. Almost. As we were taking off from our layover in Atlanta we noticed that two from our group were missing. Chelsea and Kelly went on a food mssion to find some Cinnabon and never returned. I immediately jump up to get off the plane and get them on. I am stopped dead in my tracks by the extremely forceful flight attendant, Manuel. "Sir," he says "This flight is closed, no one gets onand none gets off, now please take your seat." As we taxied down the runway I get a phone call, they had arrived at the gate a minute too late. They would have to catch the next flight at 7pm. Luckily they are big girls and able to take care of themselves. We met up with the Sloop's and the Enoch's at the gte and they were able to get on the same flight to Mc Allen, Tx. We arrive at the Holiday Inn Express and decide to get some lunch. Behold, a beutiful sight across the street form the hotel: THE MALL! We quickly go over to the food court and catch our fancy in cummy fast food. Loading up on Chic-fil-a and chinese food. We are going to have authentic Mexican food for the next week, so we need to have all the American food we can while we can. After that we are just lounging around until our next meal. We are going to tackle a local steakhouse. Some are at the gym downstairs, some at the pool, others lounge in their rooms reading the latest Harry Potter book. Ahhhhhhh, the heart of Texas. We are closer to Mexico than we think.