July 22, 2008

Our second day of service in Saltillo is almost done and again God has shown that he works in different ways. It was another hot day and all three teams spent a good share of the day out in the sun. More testimonies of how the teams are watching out for each other both physically and spiritually continue to be shared.

Being relational in our serving is a real hurdle for teams coming here, often caused by the language barrier. Many of our students and adults have found that a smile and a willingness to work make that barrier minimal at most. What is beautiful to see is that just as in Muskegon, the children here want to build relationships with our kids. That often occurs through play (throwing water balloons is a great icebreaker), song, skit, and word. Laughter is the same message in all languages, how often I forget that. Watching a group of students/adults wander the streets around their churches and see the children flock to them is moving, no matter how many times I have seen it.

Brian and I have had the honor of praying with each of the teams as they begin their day. To hear the teams’ requests for prayer for individuals and team needs is not only humbling but also allows us a glimpse of God’s handiwork at each site. Transporting teams, materials, and water around a city of a million people is time consuming but our goal is to spend a VBS with each team. Having Brian sing and play the songs we’ve been practicing will be an encouragement to our students and more fun for the children than singing along with a cd of his voice.

Tonight we had the privilege of worshipping at one of our worksites, Espinoza Morales. We were asked to share some testimonies and to sing for their congregation, so we spent some time thinking through which songs we could sing that they might know in Spanish. Our hope was that we could be unified by worshipping together with the same songs in different languages. God’s plan was even better, as the church worship leaders had also chosen songs that they thought we might know. In fact both of the songs that we had chosen had also been chosen by the leadership from Espinoza Morales! Three of our students, Adam Stefoniak, Alyssa Marsh and Abby Mead shared their testimonies before the whole church. They all said prior to agreeing that they felt like their testimonies were boring, but they were far from that. We were all moved by the story of their faith journeys, filled with highs and lows, but eventually a solid trust in the God of the universe. The pastor shared from his heart about his vision for the church to be unified in its efforts to reach the lost and was excited that our presence in their church represented that unity that he had been praying for. Over all it was a wonderful experience and a great way to end our second day of work in Mexico.

After church we headed back to the seminary and spent some time sharing the high points of our day. Once again the adults and students had nothing but praise for their teammates. God has truly blessed us with a fantastic group and protected us thus far from interpersonal difficulties.

More pictures coming soon!