Children of Hope

Three weeks in Juarez, now three weeks in Creel. Time is flying by so quickly. Sunday evening we left on a public bus and spent the night traveling to Creel. This city is so beautiful the little I've seen of it so far.

But, to recap last week. Finally having the chance to work with the kids at Rancho Los Amigos, where I thought we were going to work the whole time in Juarez. Those kids melted my heart.

I was on the afternoon and evening shifts at Rancho, so I was with them from 2:30 to 8. Their days are so busy. They have school in the morning till 2:30, then they have a little free time to change out of their school uniforms and play before they have to do homework. From 3-4 they work on their homework, then have free time till dinner at 5. After dinner the kids who aren't on clean up play till 6:45 when they go shower and get ready for bed. They have devotions at 7:30, then lights out is at 8. It was so fun to be able to see the kids throughout their afternoons and evenings and interact with them as they work and play.

My favorite part of the day was devotions and bedtime. There were four girls from my team on the evening shift, so two of us went with the girls, and two with the boys. I was with the little girls, and they were so sweet. I got to teach the devotional two nights during the week, and it was so fun to see how much they love God and see their strong faith in him, especially at such a young age with such hard backgrounds.

At Rancho they really do train up the kids to live successful lives in all aspects. One night last week we had the opportunity to hear from one of the staff members about some of the kids stories and how they came to the home. To see where they came from and the restoration, healing, and hope that they have received was inspirational. The staff really do love the kids and help show them God's love for them.

While it was hard to say goodbye to the kids we started building friendships with, it wasn't as hard as it could have been. Seeing the care and love that the kids receive and knowing that they are being taken care of and are being given incredible opportunities for their future made it easy to go. I knew that every child in that home was in good hands and I had no fear that they were being provided for in every way they needed. Because of this I had a lot of peace in saying goodbye, even if I never see them again.

Throughout this last week, especially, I was often reminded of when I went to Russia four summers ago. Working with the kids there versus here was a very different experience. I remember saying goodbye was the hardest thing ever. In the few weeks we were there we were able to lead so many children to Jesus, but had no way of following up with them. So many times I pray that they were able to find a church, that their parents accepted their beliefs, that they were encouraged to pursue their faith rather than quench it. I still pray that I will have an opportunity to go back to Russia one day, that I will be able to pursue more long term ministry, provide real relationship and discipleship.

Working in Juarez at Rancho showed me that ministries like that are possible. Ministries of restoration and healing for children who had no hope in life. Taking children at risk and turning them into children of hope.

Noisy City

The first night we were in Juarez while everyone was unpacking in our tiny room, I stepped outside to be still amongst all the chaos. Standing alone in the dark, with the moon shining brightly above me, my heart had a chance to be quiet. As I grew still, I noticed the noise around me from the city. Dogs barking, children yelling, voices from the police radio, cars driving by. Such a noisy city.

Now, being here two weeks, with one week left, I am still struck by the noise. In the morning the rooster crows, the water park down the road blasts music, the lion in the zoo grumbles. There isn’t really a moment in our days when the noises stop outside the walls of our base.

Inside the walls there is always plenty of noise as well. Children playing, chickens clucking, music playing, teenagers running after each other with water guns, laughing, singing, talking, noise, noise, noise.

This last week my team was on projects, so we certainly added to the noise, and did a lot of exhausting work while at it. Throughout our five days of work we painted trim on the new kindergarten building, laid concrete, planted lots of trees, watered the trees throughout the rest of the days, and made chicken wire contraptions around the trees to protect them from the bunnies. We also worked on fixing up some apartments for new staff, tore down lots of moldy drywall from the flooding, worked on making the dirt in the garden better for growing, and moved a mound of dirt and rocks to level out a part of the ground.

Such an exhausting week. Every morning I had to wake up and pray for strength to get through each day. My mind and body are not used to hard labor, but if nothing else I got to learn how to rely on God for my strength every day. Despite the poor sleep, hot sun, and hard work, our team accomplished a lot this week which will make a difference for the base in the long run.

On Friday evening we were invited to attend a graduation ceremony of one of the girls at the children’s home that just finished high school. Through seeing the opportunities that she had because of living at Rancho and being able to attend the school here it made our work seem more worth it. Even though we haven’t had as many opportunities to invest in the kids’ lives as I would have liked, we are providing greater opportunities for the staff there to continue pouring into these kids to make a lasting difference in their lives. For even though I might not be making deep friendships with the kids, there are people who are consistently in their lives that we have been able to partner with so that the kids really gain the greatest chances in their lives.

This week I finally have the chance to spend more time at Rancho though, which makes me happy. I will be part of their afternoon and evening routines, helping the kids with their homework, playing with them, eating dinner with them, doing devotionals before bed, and helping the little ones get to bed. It should be a fun week and challenging, I am sure, in different ways.

Here is to another noisy week in Juarez, hanging out and loving on kids.

Amor Por Juarez

After being here in Juarez a week now, a question I keep thinking about is what it really means to be a missionary. Being part of YWAM and doing a short term trip to Mexico, not necessarily what I consider being a missionary. But again and again I will hear my teammates calling themselves missionaries, talking about how we are living like missionaries, or more often how we aren’t living like missionaries. It’s a funny conversation that spins around and around.

Thinking about it more, I suppose we are missionaries in a sense. The way I like to define it is living with people, doing life with them, building relationships, working in their community alongside them, seeing needs and filling them, all to point them to God. In some ways I think it’s fairly natural to be a missionary, by this definition, and often we try too hard or expect that being a missionary is unnatural. Challenging, definitely, but not necessarily unnatural. 

Here in Juarez we are living on the YWAM base in a small neighborhood a little ways outside of the city. We are serving at the children’s home, Rancho Los Amigos, which is on the base, at a soup kitchen a few blocks down the road, and on miscellaneous grounds and maintenance projects around the base.

This last week I was mainly working at the soup kitchen, Commodore. We helped clean the dining area to prepare for lunch, played with the kids as their parents cooked, ate lunch and talked with the people there, and helped do dishes after. Commodore was a community affair. It was fun to see all the different people from around the community come together to prepare the meal and serve it and eat together. We were able to play a small part in that with them, lightening the load for the people who normally cleaned and did dishes, and showing love to the kids who came. We also got to practice our Spanish a lot, as most of the people didn’t speak any English.

Our normal schedule got quite interrupted last Thursday due to rain. There were flash flood warnings all throughout Juarez, and with the roads being sand the whole neighborhood was torn apart. We still went to Commodore, but spent most of the morning putting buckets under leaks in the roof and mopping up rain water, and hardly anyone was able to come. Also that day one of the girls on our team got the flu from the water, another girl stepped on a piece of glass that cut through her foot, and one of our trucks got stuck in the road that turned into a muddy, sewage river. Definitely an eventful day. Later when talking to some of the women at Commodore they said that it hadn’t rained like that in over 40 years. There is now damage all over the city because it is not developed enough to manage heavy rains, it is really awful.

Seeing the community gather together during the flooding though was encouraging to see. They might not have a lot of money, but relationally the people here are rich. Another example of this was today a few of us had the opportunity to help a family move. So many people from the neighborhood were there helping clean, pick up trash, and move furniture. It wasn’t really fun work, but it was fun to be there and help and watch the people interact and be there for each other.

Many times since I’ve been here I have wished we were more integrated into the community, since we are on the base most of the time, but moments when I can be out in the neighborhood I cherish. It is odd that we are only going to be here another two weeks, but I will do my best to make the most of this time.

Road Trip to Mexico

Wisconsin to Mexico, one week, one bus, 21 people, seven states, one break down, and we finally made it.

We spent most of our trip in Oklahoma doing local outreaches, swimming, trying to rest, and doing final prep for Mexico. We were supposed to spend four nights there, but due to some bus trouble we had to spend our first night in Kansas. Thankfully one of our leaders knew a pastor of a church in Kansas City so we spent the night there and drove the rest of the way to Lawton, Oklahoma the next day.

Driving we saw lots of corn fields the first few states, then it steadily got dryer and flatter as we went from Iowa to Missouri to Kansas to Oklahoma. The high 90’s we met in Oklahoma was quite hot compared to the summer we had in Wisconsin. Thankfully one of the host homes we were staying at had a pool, so swimming in our free time made it much more bearable, even though it wasn’t even that hot for Oklahoma.

Then outreach really began, with ministry opportunities each day while there. We were able to serve at a boarding home for boys in Anadarko, Thursday evening. Friday evening we shared at a church worship service, and I actually was the main speaker presenting some of the things we learned in lecture phase as we move on to outreach. Saturday we served at a homeless/low income ministry that meets each Saturday at a park, we did a worship service, message, and helped serve lunch, and spent time talking with everyone there. Then Sunday morning we helped with a Sunday school service at a church back in Anadarko before getting back on the bus to drive to Texas.

What a miserable drive. It was so hot and humid with nothing to see out the windows. But we made it and were treated to some wonderful Western Texas hospitality for one more night before the final stretch to Mexico.

On that last drive we stopped at Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico and spent a few hours walking around the caves. It reminded me of family vacations when I was little. Then a few more hours of driving through the Guadeloupe Mountains to El Paso.

Crossing the border was incredibly easy. Our van crammed full of people and stuff barely had to stop as we drove past the border control with their guns sitting talking watching the cars pass by. Then we were in Mexico! The YWAM base was only another fifteen minute drive after the border. We got settled in, ate some dinner, and went to bed early. Now, morning on the second day, getting ready for orientation. Here is where the fun really begins…

Lecture Phase Over, Mexico Here We Come

Lecture phase is officially over and outreach phase has begun. We headed out this morning for our road trip down to Mexico (I am writing this on the bus, I forgot how bumpy school buses are!). Today we are driving 15 hours to Oklahoma, where we will be for a few days doing local outreaches there. Then we will drive a few more days making stops in Texas and New Mexico before heading down into Juarez, Mexico.

So, the last time I blogged it was right after we got back from backpacking…since then we had the children at risk seminar, a final week of classes and debriefing, and the madness of packing and prepping for outreach.

The children at risk seminar was fantastic. Our speaker was from Colombia and works with street kids there. He gave us so much insight into the building blocks of ministry, how to build the foundations and how to actually go out. It was a very valuable week of teaching.

We started our final week with a question, “How did God surprise you during lecture phase?” The thing that came to mind, in of itself, was a surprise to me. About a month ago when I started thinking about grad school, I started considering getting my doctorate. Somehow when I graduated three months ago I was ready to go straight into missions, maybe get my masters, but I never really considered getting my doctorate. So when I felt that God was calling me to look at those programs honestly I was surprised, then excited, then terrified. But I know that God’s time schedule is different than mine, and even though the idea of going back to school another five years sounds awful at this point, I can trust that it will be completely worth it.

Learning that God sometimes lets us wait for things is a hard lesson to learn, and not one that I thought I would learn by thinking about further education. But it is good I think, for I came into the DTS hoping for direction, this just wasn’t the exact direction I had in mind.

As we went through that last week and the few days leading up to leaving for outreach we did a lot of team communication as well as the logistical preparation. Making sure our hearts and minds were ready for outreach both for ourselves and for team relationships.

These next two months are going to be a challenge for me. Just as these last three months have been as well. My personal struggles of finding balance, figuring out boundaries, restoring my mind and my heart from the hurts of the past years, and many other things, make it even more difficult to then deal with the struggles presented when living in community. I have learned little ways to cope this summer, but I am imagining that outreach will provide new challenges for me in relating graciously with others, no matter how much I love them.

At the same time though there is something exciting and fulfilling in going out to serve others and relying on God in the process, so regardless of the challenges these next two months in Mexico will be worth it, I am sure.