Thursday, July 21, 2011

Wednesday, July 20


Hey! This is Abbey writing! I am doing great personally and the team is learning a bunch! Yesterday was a real eye opener for me and I am guessing most of the team. We woke up and headed to the church we are staying at. It is in a warehouse building slightly like our mother church Cascade. We set up camp and headed to the migrant camps. I was getting excited to work with the kids and was slightly disappointed when we delayed our visit to stop and talk with a group who was joining us at the migrant camps. However, the disappointment went unfounded because I got to meet a couple of awesome Christians who have a huge heart for missions.

We finally headed to the camps and when we got there the cutest little kids were playing outside. We got out and ran to set up games and play with the kids. Most of the small kids only spoke Spanish or Mixteca (the native language of the Mexicans) so I got to use some of my very limited Spanish. I found one little girl and I fell in love with her. She wasn’t talking to anyone and she wasn’t smiling or anything. I picked her up and held her. She still had no expression, but at least she didn’t squirm.

As the day went on, I held this little girl as we listened to the worship that the group we’d met up with was leading. It was half Spanish and half English but in the words of Zac Price, “I could still worship to it.” I just held her and whispered a couple words to her in Spanish. Knowing that likely her parents had not told her she was beautiful, I decided to tell her she was. She couldn’t speak English so I told her ‘tu es bonita’. In English that is about the equivalent of ‘you she/he’s pretty.’ So I messed up that but later I fixed it. I don’t know if that helped any or if it was just that I was holding her and praying, but when I asked her how old she was and tried to guess, she nodded when I held up four fingers. I was so excited. She told me her name and then she started playing in the dirt and laughing and giggling. She was so ticklish and I think she loved it!

What really broke my heart and still breaks my heart is that this four-year-old bundle of laughter was growing up in a life where her parents are working all day and don’t have time to love on her. She is growing up in a place where the laundry is hanging on lines to dry, because guess what? They don’t have dryers. She lives in a place where even the seven-year-olds swear. Can you imagine?! I started crying because of the hopelessness and then I remembered a verse that Jordan had found. James 5:4 Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. The part in bold gave me hope. I realized that God had just sent help to the kids! Then I was crying with happiness. By the end I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to turn around and go back. I am sure underneath the joy and desire to go back I was exhausted because I’d been holding and spinning and chasing kids for four hours.

In closing I have to say that I was sad that training camp was over this morning, but by the end of the day, I was grateful that the training camp was over because that was nothing in comparison with what I experienced yesterday! Even the catching up at the end of the day and sharing our highs and lows was amazing because Rhonda Hillabush’s arm was partly healed. It had been hurting and Hannah Roddy felt called to pray for it, so we prayed Korean style (we all pray at once and out loud) and by the end Rhonda’s arm felt much better. So basically God is rocking this place and it was only the first day of the mission’s trip! I am loving life and hope you guys are, too. Love you all!


Hello! This is Aron :P  So on the 20th we made our first contact with the migrants.  Both of these days we’ve been at the camp I’ve spent a considerable amount of time playing soccer.  There aren’t many kids that are above the age of 10 or so, but the kids that are were quite good.  Zac and I really hit it off with a kid named Jesus, and he was teaching us some tricks.  Anyways, moving on from soccer, I was quite impressed with how quick the kids are to trust us to the point of piggybacks, hugs, spins, and other general things that require trust.  Like, once I saw a little boy get hurt then latch onto Sam.  Also on the second day I gained the ability to tell them apart.  I’m sorry! But when I was first there all that popped out to me was that they were all short with black hair! 

General living conditions here are good, especially since us guys get to sleep on the second floor of a coffee shop next to the main church.  Our room has foosball and gutter ball, which is cool!  Also for the people who wanted to know (I know they’re all over the place) I mastered the front flip.  HIYAH! 

So in my opinion this mission trip is quite successful in being fun and in its intended purpose.  I saw lots of kids actually paying attention during the lessons.  Although I noticed that many of parents that were there were blatantly not paying attention.     I think this mission trip so far is awesome!

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