Thoughts from the Summer - Mexico

PCPC YOUTH: I Know What You Did Last Summer Part 1 – Mexico
The group sat in darkness looking over the community. It was 11pm and the only light striking the night was the little lights from the shack houses clinging to the mountains before us. The question to our mixed group of 25 was "What is your impression of what you have witnessed today?" Being our first day in Mexico I was unsure of what their response would be, but was reminded of God’s hand in it all when they opened up to group.

I am taken by the poverty
I am overwhelmed
I see God here
I understand how blessed I am
I do not feel worthy of such an experience
I am scared
I am tired
I didn’t think it could really be this bad
I am hopeful
I am excited

As we hiked down the hill in the dark, with the dogs barking and the Spanish music creating a contagious beat, I knew that this was going to be a good week.
We did many things in Mexico – worked with children in the community and the orphanage, ran a weeklong VBS, learned about Mexican poverty, and helped construct homes for needy families in the community. These experiences impacted the students and the leaders on great levels. We saw the progression of labor as we hauled buckets of sand and gravel up very long, steep, and unsafe hills to create cement for what would be the foundation of a home. Students laid bricks for walls, constructing a roof to keep a family safe and secure, and were willing to work with a shaky retaining wall that fell anyway….all these things were works for the Kingdom and I was so incredibly proud for the physical labor that the students putt into it all. Now families will get a new start at life with homes that will last them for generations. Who knows the moments that the Mexican children will remember the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and apply that story – which we acted out on a make-shift VBS stage- to their lives. It was surely a blessing to be apart of that great work.

My personal hope, as a Christian on her faith journey, is that we were many things in Mexico- that perhaps, even for one or two moments we were Christ to these people. That within our constructing and soccer playing with the children we listened, we learned, we challenged, we reached out of our comfort zones and were present in the need that was right in front of us even if it wasn’t what we expected it to be. That perhaps in it all we stood silent for a moment and allowed God to touch us and speak to us about Mexico and the world and His children – all of them old and young. That is the core of a Experience Trip- that is why we choose to spend the summer away with students who are eager to experience something more then the ordinary.
The truth is that each student and leader on the Mexico 2005 trip had one of those moments; some I personally witnessed and others I only heard about – but hopefully those moments will be the ones that impact them forever; when they came into contact with the Living God. They are an incredible bunch and you should be extremely proud of them. They all have stories of their own – please ask them, as I know they will do their best to share the experience with youth. We all know that stories of witness, service, life, and God are too good to be kept to ourselves – it’s the Gospel.