Missions Trip (Matamoras 2005)

My missions trip journal

Day 1
After 7 hours of drive, we finally arrived at the Gateway, where we will stay for the next 7 days, it was not what I had expected, I expected to look better, but hey, we�re in Matamoras, what do you expect, it�s not that rich of an area. The climate of the place was a bit hotter than Houston, but just less humid. The AC there wasn�t turned on when we first got there, so we were really sticky and sweaty, it was nasty. When we first arrived, we noticed that we were the only Asians there, the rest were white people, we felt like outsider at first, it was weird, and I hoped that there will be no racism. At the men�s dorm, we meet a team who drove about 3 days from Ohio, with no AC, that much of been killing, they were ready to face anything that The Lord put in their face. In the evening, we had an orientation, we were sticky and sweaty, the speaker PJ knew what we were feeling, he encouraged us, and told us that we�re not here for out own comfort, but we�re here for God, I love what he said, it�s so true, and at team time, our whole group vowed not to complain about how we disliked this place, cuz we�re here for Jesus. In the men�s dorm, I got the upper bunk above Will, the bed was comfy, and beach mat was really cool to the skin, we went to sleep that night, the AC was really cold, I was surprised.

Day 2
Sunday, we were told that we would be attending a church service in the evening, so we started the day with breakfast, it tasted great, the hot sauce was really spicy, but it tasted great. Then we did devotion after breakfast, we received a work book which we write our journal was in. After devotion, we went to the orientation again, we went over a few things, for instance, not to take too many pictures of things, not to be too loud and open cuz Mexican ppl are more conservative, not to waste water, not to wear skimpy cloth, not to flush the toilet paper because the pipes in Matamoras are weak and etc. Then we spend the rest of the day pretty much chilling and spend time getting to know the rest of the groups. Then at evening, we went to the church, we saw the condition which the ppl there were living under, it wasn�t much, it was very humble, just a brick or concrete house, no bigger than 2 rooms, it was a surprising to me that we came here, I thought we would minister in cities which are wealthier, but I praise God that we�re here, it was a blessing to taste the ppl who are not as fortune as us. So we arrived at the church, it wasn�t big, it only had one room, the service area, yet it ppl came to worship God, I praise God for that. The church was surrounded by neighbor building, it was awesome how the church was in the middle of the whole neighborhood. The pastor of the Church was Pastor Ivan, he is only 20 years old, he was married when he was 14, we don�t know what happened to his family, he has no training in preaching, this is hardcore ministry, we pray that God will guide Him. After the service, we went back to the Gateway, and had the rest of the time with our team and to just chill, once again, the AC was really cold. And the shower lacked pressure, it wasn�t really that great, the water smelled like sulfur, but we�re here for Jesus.

Day 3
The morning started as usual, went woke up at 6:30am, ate breakfast, did devotion and went to the orientation, our group was assigned to do door to door evangelism in the morning, so we set out at around 8:30, after the orientation. We went back to the church, it took about 30min to get there. When we got there, our team was divided into 2 groups, and each group went around the neighborhood, doing evangelism. The group I was in included Will, and Theresa. We went to our first house, I was really nervous, I was scared, I wasn�t trusting God at that moment. Theresa introduced us, Will shared his testimony, and I shared the gospel, I feel that it wasn�t very successful, but we planted a seed, and this was our first sharing, so we didn�t really know what we were doing. And, on top of that, I wasn�t replying on the Lord. The father of the family was the person we talked to, and he didn�t known how to read, so he asked us to give Him our favorite verses in the Bible, I gave him 1 Thessalonians 5:25, which says, �pray continuously, give thanks in all circumstances��� I felt that God was the one who gave me that verse, because that just fit right into their life style, we urged them to grow in Christ, and that verse fit right in. Then we went to another person�s house, we told the mother to tell their kids to go to VBS, and she said she�ll try, and she also told us that, we should go talk to the family with 7 kids in the green house. So that�s what we did, but they said to come back later, then we walked around more, and we saw this one house, a grandmother was there, we were talking to her about 5 min, then her daughter came home, so we talked to her about the gospel and testimonies, she seemed moved, and we were glad. Our translator, Hannah, she was awesome, she studied Spanish for 7 years, and now it paid off, she was awesome, she didn�t feel like a translator, but more like another missionary who spoke Spanish, words cannot describe how awesome she was. Afterwards, we went back to the church for lunch, afterwards, we did prayer walk, our team walked 2 by 2 and prayed for what ever there is, like the housed we saw that was in construction, families we saw walking on the street, and as we were walking, we saw these new unoccupied houses in construction, and I was glad, because compared to all the other housed ppl lived there, these looked pretty nice, and I was glad to see that Matamoras is getting better, and we prayed that the ppl who will occupy those houses will just come and know Christ. We entered one of those houses to beat the heat, and we pray for future occupants of the house, that they will be safe and healthy and come to know Christ. After that we just walked around, we stumbled upon this one family was sitting on the porch, Jason and Will went to talked to them, they said they didn�t want to hear the gospel, the work of the devil was still among the people there. And at 3:30, we went back to gateway to chill. When evening came, we ate dinner and had one more orientation.
What we did or the orientation, I forgot, but I know we had another team meeting, it was great.

Day 4
We started the morning as usual, and then our team left for the rehab, when we got there, we learned that the center was donated and it is running on the support people around the neighborhood gives. The center teaches mentally ill children to live a normal life, the owner�s son was there too, he was 18 years old, yet he looked as if he was 5, his body was so small, it lacked bone structure and body mass, they said that he is getting worse. I got the pleasure of massaging this boy with muscle problems, so that was cool, then we sang songs with the kids, it was fun, afterwards, that was all the time we had, we went back and ate lunch. After lunch we went to do sport evangelism, we went around and recruited kids to join us in a soccer ball game, a lot of kids, even adults came, we had fun, I kept getting scored on, that was sad and then at the end we gave them water and Jeremy shared the gospel with them, this one girl come to know Christ, other boys made fun of her, but that didn�t really matter, she loves God, I should really pray for her. Afterwards, we went back around 3:30. We had time to chill and spend with the team, many of us bought ice cold old schooled coke in bottles, it was good, cuz the climate was hot. When dinner came around, we ate, the food was delicious as always, Jason wanted us to separate, and sit with other groups, so we did, it was ok, and we�re not use to it at first. After dinner we had orientation, it was great, we had worship, Adam was great, he�s a blessed worship leader, so it was good, we loved the song �Holy is the Lord� it was good, then afterwards we had team time, where we shared what happened today, it was great.

Day 5
Like usual, we ate breakfast, did devotion and set out for our ministry area. Today we had construction in the morning, we were help constructing a home for the pastor in the back of the church. We were building the walls, and setting up the roof and ceiling of the church. Vivian filtered the cement, she did that for almost a hour, it was long, she said her arm felt weak afterwards. Jason and I helped mixing the cement, and flattening this gigantic mountain of dirt in front of the church, it was hard work and we gave up after 30 minutes because they had more important work for us. At 12, we had lunch, it was good. When lunch was over, we changed cloth and set ready for the plaza ministry, just when we arrived there, this guy selling popsicle in a bag gave one of those to Theresa and said that the guy who was standing there paid for it, so we went over there to thank Him, it was cool, he looked like a skater, at first I thought he was a trouble maker and was hitting on Theresa, so I was not very friendly to him. We talked to and hang out with him in the plaza, there was high school band playing there, it was fun to watch, and there were a group of girls there which seemed extremely attractive, we think they are pageant contestants, we asked the person, whose name we found out was Jonathan Marcos, and he said that those girls were high school students, it was hard to believe because they didn�t seem like it. Then he invited us to a porch looking thing which was in the middle of the plaza, it was really cool when you sit under it, and there we shared our faith, he was really closed to the message, we urged him to read the Bible, and we gave Him one, we marked a few good books to him, we don�t know if he will read it, but we planted a seed that�s all that it matters. And at the end, he gave me, Will, Theresa, and our translator something that he wore. He gave Will his hat, he gave Theresa his wrist bracelet, he gave Nancy(our beautiful and adorable translator) his seashell necklace, and he gave me his huge pocket chain, we were very grateful and generous of him, we prayed that he would grow in Christ. And by the way, Jonathan was a DJ, a graffiti artist and a skater, he was pretty cool. Then we went back to Gateway and ate dinner, it was another great day.

Day 6
Our last day of ministry here today, our group will be doing VBS and ATL. We have been preparing VBS for quite a while now, so we were pretty much ready for everything. SO we started the morning just as usual, we broke in groups of 2 and ate with other church groups. Afterwards, we had devotion for about 45 min, then we had an orientation, which involved in worship and missions briefing. When it was over, we set out for the church, when we got there, a lot of kids were already there, waiting for VBS. So we set quickly set up the stuff, and got started. We first did the songs, I didn�t know the song due to the fact that it was in Spanish, and I didn�t really study for it because I am a procrastinator. The kids knew the songs by heart, so did the translator, Jeremy played his recorder, that guy is really talented. After the songs, we did the �Lost Coin� skit. It was cool, I don�t know if the kids understood, but we tried out best. After the skit, we asked the kids questions, following by the invitation, that didn�t really go very well, seem to me that they�re more interested in candy. We then did coloring and game, and it ended by having the kids reciting the bible verse which we told them to memorize earlier, if they�re able to do that, they get a piece of candy. We had lunch and had ATL in the afternoon. ATL is the acronym for Ask the Lord, what we do is we sit down and ask God to give us direction to where to go, basically having God to lead us. So we sat down, and ask God to rid any distractions in our hearts, silence ourselves, silence the devil, and have our ears only to God. We prayed for a while, and the director of ATL asks us to share around what we saw, ppl said different things, but I saw a young woman with a ponytail. Since so many things were mentioned, we ask God for confirmation, many of us still saw the same thing, so we walked over to a road intersect in front of the church, and we pray to God that he will reveal to us which directions we should go. After prayer, Vivian, Will and Jeremy said they all saw twister arrow pointing to the left. So took the road to the left, and we pray more, after 20 minutes of walking and praying, Jeremy said he saw a orange sun, Vivian saw the color orange, and I saw a house, with concrete fence and a metal sun shaped gate, our director said that he saw the house that I was describing, so we walk over to take a look. Sure enough, there were orange sun shaped picture on the wall of the house, the gate looked similar to the ones I saw in my vision. So we went to talk to the owner inside, she was in her 40�s, her name was Coco and when she opened the door, we saw her daughter, and you know what?!?! HER DAUGHTER LOOKED EXACTLY LIKE THE GIRL I SAW IN MY VISION, the girl with the pony tail. We knew that God led us here. Coco was very generous, he invited us in, grabbed a few chairs and told us to sit under the tree, cuz there�s shade, she even gave us this ice tea tasting drink, it was good. She was very open, she talked to us and talked to us, and then she opened up her heart, she told us that she was raised catholic, and she believes in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We asked her if she was a relationship with Jesus Christ, and she said yes, but still she wasn�t sure of her salvation, we explained to her that if you have a relationship with Jesus, you�re saved, but she said she was still not sure, she was so closed to what we tried to tell her. Then we found out that she had lots of pain in her life, she didn�t really have a great image of Christianity, because her children are Christian and they hurt her really bad. For example, she said that her daughter was really religious, she foes to church every Sunday, she carries a bible around, but yet, not long ago, she denied Coco as her mother. Another example, for instance, her son-in-law, she married her daughter, and he left her in just a month after they got married, and she was pregnant with his child, he left and went to Houston and became a pastor there. She had many more stories, hurtful ones, it was really sad to hear. So we shared our experience, I told her how my family was broken us as well after my father�s tragic event, Vivian and Jeremy shared with her what they�ve experience in their life, regarding to hers. We encouraged her and we prayed for her, her family, she and her husband. We talked to her for an hour and half, it was long, but it was worth it, this ATL event had a real impact on me, Jeremy and Vivian, it was unbelievable. So we left her house at 4:30, and we went back to Gateway, and we ate dinner, the food was extra nice that night. After dinner we had service, we worshiped in music for about 1 and half hours, it was great, then we had a foot washing service. We washed the feet of each other, for Jesus did that with His disciples, �For the last shall be first, and the greatest shall be the least� �Even the song of man did not come to be served, but to serve� that�s why we had that service. We all prayed, every single one of us, I can just feel that through this missions trip, God had changed every single one of us, and I just give infinite thank to Him for that. I felt that our hearts changed, through the prayers we had. We ended the night with hang our and night at 12am, extra late!!!!

Day 7
We woke up at 6:30, we ate breakfast and packed, we said goodbye to every1 and left at 8:45. On our way home, we stopped by south padre island, the beach was beautiful, it was just stunning. Me, David, Will and Matthew dived into the ocean and had a sand(muddy sand) fight, we only did that for about 30 min and then we had to leave. On the way back, I felt sad, cuz I didn�t want the missions trip to end, I loved being at Mexico, despite its climate and living condition and I enjoyed having the fellowship of so many people who loved God so dearly, I loved them, and I just really miss them, all the friends I�ve made, all the people I got to know better. I felt that our team was an unrepeatable whole, me, David, Jeremy, Matt, Will, Jason, Conrad, James, Myra, Bernice, Vivian and Theresa. But I know that it had to come to and end, I prayed to God for them all, for their spiritual growth and their future. I was sad to get off of that van, it was hard, to take my stuff out and set my foot on the rich and self-centered land of United States, I didn�t want to go home to my family, cuz I know theres nothing bout pain, all we�re going to do is just fight and more fight, nothing but pain. But I known that this life is not meant to be good, Jesus didn�t die for us so we can have a great life here, He died so we can have an eternal life up there. And the thought of that just comforted me bit, knowing that I will be with the people I met in Matamoras (Adam, Adrian, Nancy, Andre, Hannah��. and so many others) when Christ comes for us, that�s just sweet right there. And I felt like God was telling me on the way back, that, the mission trip didn�t have to end in Mataoras, our whole life should be a giant mission trip, considering the fact that we�re in a foreign land a place that�s not our home, we should use the time God has given to us and use it to glorify Him, as Jesus did with His time on earth. May God just be praised, worshiped, and glorified forever.

To Vivian, Myra, David, Jeremy, Bernice, Will, James, Conrad, Stanley, Matthew, Jason, and Theresa, may the God of love give you guidance to live a life that glorifies God. And I would like to just thank you all for this awesome trip.

As Bernice have said: I have seen the awesome power of God.


 

Bernice's Testimony
    What she experienced in Matamoras - You should read it

Alritey, finally i'm done with my extremely long and probably not very well written mexico trip post. So this post is about 4 and a half pages on MS word and it is 2574 words, probably the longest post I've ever written. and i kno some ppl dont like reading long entries but i ask you to please please please read it. I know that this is mostly directed to Christians and if you are christian then i beg you to please read this, but if you aren't christian then i encourage you to read it anyways and just think about what i've said cuz for once in my life I think I'm actually writing something that I feel is worthy to be read by everyone and I'm not just writing about stupid things that happen in my life, and I'm definitely not writing this to say to people how they should live their lives, but I really want ya'll to just think about what I'm saying. I really don't intend on offending anyone, but this is just something that I need to get out and hopefully ya'll will get to understand me a little more through what I say. So once again, I'm not asking for much from ya'll: just to read it. thanks guys

So it all starts and ends with the missions trip. Before the trip I would always wonder exactly how prepared am I to actually be going on a missions trip, like telling other people about my faith and what I believe in. I just wanna thank conrad for pushing me to go on this trip and believing that I CAN step out in faith. During the missions trip, our project leader told us something that made a lot of sense to me and I just want to share it with ya'll, especially to those who wanted to go but were unsure.

It's like you have an umbrella. You'll never know if it works unless you step out into the rain and use it. This is just like your faith. You will never know if you really are prepared or not unless you step out in faith because only God knows how prepared you are and how he wants to use you. You just need to LET him.

Also, while I was in Taiwan, I realized the importance of going to church. Going to church helps you grow in your faith. I didn't get to go to church while I was in Taiwan and I felt myself slowly falling away, even though inside I knew that it was a bad time since I was about to go on a missions trip. I also started to have some MAJOR doubts and questions seemed to challenge my faith. I mean like I've always wondered, if someone asked me WHY I believe in God?what would I say? Maybe I don't have an EXACT answer for that, but I know for sure that I believe in God because I CHOSE to believe in him. Not because of my parents, not because of the christian influence put on me, but because I fully believe that we are not perfect people and that there IS a perfect God and that there IS a heaven and hell.

Later on during my trip in Taiwan, I was challenged by another question. Did I really believe that people who don't believe and receive Christ are really not going to have eternal life? And it's so hard for me to believe that because I look around me at my relatives in Taiwan, and I may not know them at ALL compared to how much I know my friends, but family is family right? And I know that I definitely would want them in heaven with me. If you are non-christian and you're reading this, I know this may sound harsh and I really don't want to offend anyone, but this reality is really something that I can't let go of and I hope everyone is aware of it. I mean like I'm sure even if you don't believe in heaven or hell you might have wondered where you go after you die right? I don't care if you believe it or if you don't at all right now, but I really hope that you will give it some thought. If you think about it, life really IS short. People only live less than 100 years, and you know how life seems to go by faster the older you get? Well it's going by right now. You have less than 100 years here on earth, but where will you spend eternity after you die? I'm sure most of us have wondered when we were going to die and I know that for myself, I was thinking about it a lot in Taiwan. I guess it was because it never hit me how my plane could so easily go crashing into the Pacific Ocean and without any warning my life COULD end. I know that if that DID happen, then I would regret so many things. I would regret not striving to make a change in this world. Being asian and everything I guess most of the focus is on school and getting into college, and of course for me, I value my friends above most of my priorities. But if there's anything I realized or got out of the missions trip, then it's this:

we, as christians, are all messengers of God.

think about it guys. If you died the next day, then would grades matter? Would getting into a college of your choice matter? All of those things that you put so much time and effort into, to make sure that your future would be successful, would it matter? Does being rich and famous matter when you're dead? Dead people don't need money and yes I know there are plenty of famous dead people, but what's the point of being famous? You're DEAD. And unless you are of some historical or literary significance, then you're just forgotten eventually. I'm not saying wanting success in life is wrong because it's not, but I just hope ya'll remember that there's�s other things in life that are more important. If we could all just look past school and our own lives and take a look at the world around us, then maybe we would get the hint that most of the things we desire are not going to last. So once again I just want to remind you guys that we really should focus on heavenly treasures, things that we CAN take with us when we die. The one thing that we can do on earth but not in heaven is to help lead others to christ. Even if you can't change anything, as long as you plant a seed, then there's a possibility of it growing.

So I guess another thing I got from missions is that working so hard to leave an awesome legacy is not worth it. We are all eventually forgotten. I mean like you could have graduated from Harvard and become remembered as a famous lawyer? but then again, can't anyone do that if they really tried??

Life is too precious to be wasted away.

I know I sound a little preachy and I know this is like really hardcore Christian stuff that most of ya'll probably never hear out of me and maybe some of you guys don't care to hear more about it, but in all honesty I'm just really hoping that ya'll will be able to see a little more of who I am. I guess you could say this is my way of reaching out to you guys and I just want ya'll to know, whether or not if I'm extremely close with you, or if we only talk every now, that I DO care about you, and I hope that you care enough about me to read this HUGE entry. Yes, I know, I'm just THAT much of a loser to even feel SLIGHTLY insecure about my friendships, and I admit that I do question sometimes about whether or not if people really do care about me. I know that I'm just another ordinary girl living in this world and that there's nothing extremely special about me and here I am, writing all of this stuff, hoping that everyone reads it from beginning to end, and hoping that people WILL give thought to it or even come talk to me about what they think. But I really do hope that you guys will give this ordinary girl some of your time to just read about what's been on my mind.

Ok so noww mexico highlights and umm I do have pictures and I shall post them or give ya'l the link sumtime soon. (ugh I know I probably left out a lot of other highlights that I had before, but that's ok, less for you to read

-beautiful 6 or 7 hour drive down to mexico
-Conrad's expertise on molding brownies into poop
-me and myra going absolutely NUTS
-bricklaying, cement mixing, and sheetrock hanging
-adam locker and hardcore worship
-david and his whip lol what a dorky kid
-getting freaking scared by the daddy longlegs in the not so bad showers that were pearly white
-reese's pieces hahahahhaaha ohio lingo
-JOYAAAA!!!!!!our everyday afternoon ritual?ahh I miss those things
-stanley splitting his pants -that crazy car ride w/adrianne
-"so this is what an ATL feels like..." -stanley
-shabach hallelujah, barak praise the lord
-TOO MANY PPL WITH BLACK OLD NAVY FLIP FLOPS
-so there was like this grl and she is my new hero. she is truly the queen of all burps. i have never in my entire life heard a better burp than hers and it was NOT at all disgusting
-i miss MAAAYY BERRYY.. and other country songs of jasons and of course singing at the top of our lungs on the car rides
-me and myra's "guy talks"
-me, myra, AND vivian's grl talks -my AWESOME POSSUM riddle that rhymed and TOTALLY confused the guys hehe (its fun messin w/ppl's minds hehehe)
-my new frnd lindsay the loud one hehe thanks james :-p
-wearing the same shirts, skirts, and shorts over and over again THANKS conrad haha i'm NEVER doing that again
-drank soo much water and didnt have to pee cuz i sweated it ALLLL out haha
-star gazing, we saw a dipper, not sure if it was big or small but it was a dipper hehe
-little sally walker...
-door to door, construction, ATL, VBS, plaza, market, prayer walking, serving food and all that good stuff and finally...

the last night. it was truly the HAPPIEST day of my life but unfortunately there was a hint of sadness because we didnt wanna leave mexico so soon. i was sooo happy to have found my new best frnds vivian and myra. i honestly thought that my happiest moments were with my other best frnds, but i was wrong because that night i was truly overflowing with joy. i felt like i was going to burst because of how happy i was and even though there was soo much crying i was SOOO extremely happy to be with my new frnds and i've truly had THE time of my life with them. i couldnt sleep for soo long on the last night because i was crying so much. i kept wishing time would just freeze and i could just stay in that happy moment forever. ugh gosh thinking about it again is making me sooo sad and i'm gonna start crying all over again and I hope I'll never forget that feeling of happiness. it was such a great feeling and here I am at home again�aand I guess the happiness has already been fading because I've listed so many things that I wanna accomplish before school starts again and it just feels like I don't�t have enough time to do everything, and then I'm REALLY wishing that I was back in mexico, back in that happy time again. I would give anything to go back in time and be there again.

But you know what the most amazing thing of all is? Well first of all consider the conditions of being in mexico, constantly in boiling heat and humidity, ALWAYS covered in sweat, and it was the kind of sweat that felt like water running down your body and then got all sticky when it was exposed to heat, not the best shower conditions, bugs everywhere and on your food, Mexican food most of the time, lots of walking at the ministry sites, constantly being dirty and almost losing a sense of good hygiene, and it's just all of this stuff that you really can't imagine until you experience how uncomfortable it is. And then take a look at miss Bernice, extremely spoiled, hating Mexican food and never had so much in her entire life until that week, always valued shower time, hated being sticky and sweaty and so DIRTY, has a slight fear of bugs, hated wearing dirty clothes over and over again, and yea, just basically so used to living life comfortably, but there I was in mexico, fully able to adapt to the environment and not starving myself as I would usually have done if I didn't like the food, and it suddenly didn't matter to me anymore because for once in my life I was TRULY happy. THAT's what was so amazing. That in such bad conditions, I was able to forget about how bad everything was and experience true joy that is so indescribable.

So I would just like to point out to everyone, we are all spoiled because we live in america where drinking tap water won't kill you, where houses all have AC, where everyone has cars and drives everywhere, where you don't�t have to pay for drinking water, and where even living in the crappiest apartment in the states is STILL better than living in mexico. So really guys, we should all try harder to appreciate everything, including all of the little things that we take for granted.

ok so i may not have witnessed or have been able to witness anything amazing like being able to convert people or anything like that like other ppl did, BUT I did witness a change of heart in almost everyone who went, and THAT is good enough for me. I know that I've changed a lot from this trip and a few people who I talked to have changed a LOT too and I'm just SO happy for all of us. Words cannot fully express my joy. Ok ok so I've typed enough for ya'll to read and I thank you SO much for reading this much if you did get to this part. I'm not sure if I explained some parts well enough because I didn't type all of this in one go and I didn't go in order either because I kept on adding or revising each paragraph, but please do think about what I've said and I hope you have gotten to know me a little better through what I've said. I know I left out some things that I wanted to say before, but I guess I'll just have to save it for next time.

To Vivian, myra, david, Jeremy, Kevin, will, james, conrad, Stanley, matthew, Jason, and theresa- thank ya'll sooo much for such an AWESOME trip. I'm so glad to have gotten to know each of ya'll a little or a lot better than I used to.

I have seen the awesome power of God.