A Trip in Missions, Pt. 8

Last Saturday I woke up early (6am) and went with Jennifer's husband, Ed, to their church called "La Fuente."  We spent a couple hours making sandwiches and packing them into trucks, then we headed out to different locations to outreach to the community.  I'm a little familiar with San Vicente, which is where one group went; however, my group headed to Punta de Mita.  The town is pretty small; comparable to Mezcales in many ways.  We set up on a basketball court and the kids started to come.  Other Americans that attend the church arrived to help hand out food, so I didn't have much to do except hang out with the kids.  Still, I hung back, feeling the weight of the language barrier and lacking confidence in my Spanish skills...

Enter:  Carmelo.  This guy is amazing!  I'd definitely recommend him as a camp counselor if they had those here!  Lol!  He was coming up with games and races on the spot, and the kids love him!  The guy has a ton of energy!  It was refreshing to see!  I shared a game with him, and all of a sudden, all of the kids wanted to play!  ...and they were soon beating me at it...  Lol!  The rest of the outreach went well:  the kids ate, danced to Hillsong, and then broke up into different age groups to be taught from the Bible (there was a group for the parents, too).

I think one of the more interesting things that happened was my conversation with one of the American women who had come to serve.  She was telling me about her experience with two of the kids that usually come:  Brian and his sister, Wendy.  She said that they first met the two siblings selling food on the street.  Curious why they were working instead of their parents, she went with them back to their home.  That's where she saw it:  The mother of the two children was laying in bed with several knife wounds!  It turns out that the woman's ex-husband had stabbed her multiple times and left her for dead!  Still, knowing that money was tight, the mother skipped the hospital visit and forced herself to cook food each day in hopes that enough money would be made to care for her children!  After hearing about this, the church, La Fuente, helped raise the money for her needed surgery.  Now, she's doing much better!

The story amazed me!  That's when the American storyteller woman said, "And that's not all!  You wanna know what surprised me the most?"  I was shocked to think there was more!  Considering what I'd heard so far, I braced myself.  She continued, "Sometimes Brian goes to sleep early to escape his hunger over missed dinner!"  That situation sounded familiar to me, so I continued to brace myself...

After a moment, I realized that she had already said what she had to say.  My first thoughts were, "You've gotta be kidding me!  A woman lays dying in bed and you're surprised by a situation that sometimes makes her son go to bed hungry?!"

It hit me then.  All of the Americans I've met here in Mexico so far are in the "50+ club."  You see, a few weeks back Jennifer looked at me and said, "I have a hard time relating to the kids; I mean, we're so different."  I thought she meant the age gap, but that didn't make sense to me because I see how she interacts with the kids--they love her!  Now I understand what she meant.  It's not the age gap; it's because the kids are poor.

I realized that the older Americans I've met at La Fuente aren't here on extended missions trips like me.  They retired to Mexico and are living off of their savings.  Even the American storyteller woman is retired.  She joked with me later that her husband hates to fly and driving is dangerous, so they booked a cruise instead to travel to the Mexican West Coast!  "Sure it was a couple hundred dollars more, but what can you do?" she'd said as she laughed.  I didn't really get the joke, so I just smiled...

I don't fault these older Americans for having money.  It's just that the more I spend time with the kids here, and the more I read Revolution in World Missions by K.P. Yohannan, the more I realize how affluent America is.  I'm starting to think that God brought me here because I can understand poverty.  No, I've never gone hungry for days, and yes, I own a car which makes me richer than a large portion of the world;  however, in the context of America, I've experienced some of the things they have:  choosing to go to bed early in hopes of rationing my food, and owning very little.  By their standards I'm well off, but in America I'm a candidate for welfare and in debt for school loans!  Lol!  [sigh]...the affluence of America is astounding...

God has used many of my life's circumstances to help me relate to the poor; for example, my work with Sunshine Gospel Ministries on the southside of Chicago (speaking of which, congrats on the wedding, Dave!).  Hopefully, I'll be able to use that for His glory in the furtherance of the Gospel!  I'll get opportunities for sure, like this coming Saturday!  La Fuente is playing Soul Surfer outside in the main plaza of Bucerias, and I'm organizing a trip with my kids from the English classes.  Please pray for open doors!  (hmm, something about this feels strangely familiar to my days working in youth ministry...)

After the outreach ended, Ed dropped me off back at the entrance to my community.  As I walked back to where I stay, I saw Neyda on the main dirt road, selling items that she and her daughters had knitted.  I smiled and decided to sit with them for a few hours.

[excerpted from my journal--thanks for telling me to keep one, Patrick Esdelle!]