In one of those little ironies of life, I recently found myself on two back-to-back trips to Mexico. The first was a quick get-away vacation for my husband and me to spend a few days relaxing on the beach, snorkeling in the crystal clear waters, and shopping and dining in the quaint little village stores and restaurants. And then eighty hours after stepping off the plane from the return trip, I was boarding another airplane headed south of the border again. On this trip I was serving as the faculty leader for a team of ten Charis Bible College students who were headed to the central Mexico town of Querétaro for a mission trip. Now, don’t take me wrong – it’s not that I don’t enjoy vacations, but I think that serving the Lord and seeing lives changed is much more rewarding. In addition to the opportunity to minster to the people of Mexico, I was thrilled at the opportunity to invest in the lives of all these students who had spent countless hours in practices perfecting their dramas, children’s activities, and teachings for the mission. In all the trips I have led over the past ten years that I have assisted with the mission trips at the Bible college, I have never heard a student say that the trip didn’t change his or her life. Most people don’t realize the biblical knowledge, faith, and anointing that the Lord has deposited in them – and it takes a ministry opportunity like they get on these trips to bring it all to the surface. So, now you can see why I was so excited about this second visit with our Latin American neighbors.
Our trip began as we left in the wee hours of the morning to drive to Denver for the early morning flight to Mexico – and when we arrived at our destination, we “hit the deck running.” Our first assignment was a work day at a large orphanage. We spent the first half of the day doing repairs around the compound – including building a stone wall along one side of the property. The rest of the day was game and ministry time with the children. One of the students had a novel idea of a way to bless the children with a memento from our visit – a mounted photograph of each child. Using a camera that printed out the pictures on the spot, she was able to make instant copies of the photos of all one hundred children – a treasured keepsake like they had never received before. At the same time that the photo session was going on, the rest of the team presented skits and dances and played games with the other children. As we closed out our time with them, we gave the children an opportunity to receive Jesus into their hearts, and many of them came forward — their first time to accept Jesus as their savior.
The next day, we had an outreach in the center of the town. Our lively skits and games drew the people “out of the woodwork” until we eventually had a crowd of close to five hundred people gathered around us. We had one of the students share his testimony of how he had been delivered from a life of addiction and how his life had been changed through a personal relationship with Jesus – not a religion. He then offered an invitation for this same life-changing experience to the people who had gathered. We were so excited to see the response – nearly two hundred adults plus too many children to count immediately stepped forward. Pastors and volunteers from the local churches took down the names and phone numbers of everyone who came forward for prayer so that they could follow up on them and invite them for a visit and to attend the local churches.
Charis Bible College has an extension school in Querétaro that meets on Saturdays since most of the students work on the weekdays; so, we dedicated our Saturday to teaching and ministering to the students there. On Sunday we were invited to lead the morning service at a large church in a nearby town. Even though he had at first felt reluctant to preach in large meeting, the student that I had selected delivered a powerful message and then called people forward for healing. Nearly two hundred people crowded the front of the auditorium seeking prayer for salvation as well as healing. Even though we couldn’t make an exact count because of the language barrier, there were many recorded healings that morning in addition to a number of salvations and rededications.
When I saw the students from Charis Bible College on the stage as we gave our presentation and results after our return, I was in awe of what the Lord had done not only to all of us but through us! It was so obvious how God had changed them from nervous and fearful students into ministers of the Word with His anointing flowing through them. So many said they were forever changed and wanted to go on another mission trip. We worked from dawn till dusk in a land where the harvest was ready to be picked. Nothing compares to the joy and fulfilment we all felt on the plane back home!
Even though I would have to sum up the trip by saying that we worked from dawn to dusk in a land where the harvest was ready to be picked, I’d still say that that’s better than a vacation!
