Our Trip to
MEXICO!!
After an enthusiastic send off at church we hit the open road. Our fist stop: Las Vegas Nevada. Friday night Bobby Prescott’s aunt let us stay at her home while she visited with family for the weekend. She gave us the run of the place (what was she thinking?) After getting dinner we took some time to check out the strip and we went to the observation deck at the top of the stratosphere. The next morning our spirits were high despite the weather?rain the whole day!! It did not make for good driving but God kept us safe all the way to the boarder that night. Rick Barnes (an American Baptist Missionary we worked with in Mexicali) met us in town and escorted us across the boarder and to our home for the week: an American Baptist Seminary. The next morning we woke up and went to church?a Spanish speaking church, and if you have never been to a Mexican church service?lets just say they made Keith’s sermons look short! After that we ate lunch with some families from church. They took us to a Chinese restaurant, apparently Mexicali is known throughout the Baja California as THE place to get great Chinese food. Who knew?
Monday we woke up ready to work. Most work days we got up and started working early before we had breakfast so we could beat some of the desert heat. We thought we would be doing construction work, but we were in for a surprise. We were told that due to some communication problems between the grounds keepers and the foreman, there would be no construction, not even concrete pouring! Instead we were ushered to an enormous pile of sun baked, rock hard manure. It was in very large pieces. Our job was to break it all up using pic axes, sledgehammers and anything else we could think of. After it was ground up we had to mix it up with dirt and spread it to make the landscape ready for planting grass and gardens. Not exactly the heroic, life changing work we were hoping to do! To keep cost down, many people in Mexico recycle construction materials such as wood, metal, cement and so on. When I say recyle I dont mean it in the way we use it here. They dont send it away to be broken down and made new, they simply reuse it. So another one of our jobs was to sort through a large wood pile to find useable wood. We make two new piles of wood. One to be used for other construction projects and the other to BURN! Every night we would burn as much wood as we could and those fires were huge! I honestly am suprised that we did not get the fire department called on us!
After we finished working for the day (usally around 2 because it was so hot) we would have some free time to go shopping, nap or plan for vaction bible school that night. We were helping a local family who was hosting a bible school in their home. We were in charge of games. It was great to see how some things transcend culture and language. Things like laughter, smiles and hugs can speak a million words to another person no matter what language they speak. The bible school was our favorite part of the trip. It was refreshing and exciting to see the zeal this young family had to serve God in their home neighborhood. I am sure we will hear of God doing great things through them as they continue to trust and obey.
Twards the end of the week we went to San Felipe. Its a vacation town about 2 hours south of Mexicali right on the Gulf of California. It was very beautiful and we had a great time swimming and relaxing before heading back for our last day of work. On Friday we headed over to our host familes house to do some work on the interior. Their 2 bedroom house is made up of little more than cinderblocks and cement. So before we left we spackled the walls and painted. It was exciting to see the look on the homowners faces when we asked what colors they wanted each room to be, you can tell that they are not accussomed to having options! When everything was done they were very happy and grateful and invited us to come back soon.
Depite a few let downs we were very blessed. It was truely a cross cultural experience that was a witness to how God is moving through the saints in Mexicali Mexico.
