This week was the week of biggest project that Matamoros sees every year. With over 200 high school students, and up to a hundred extras (workers, translators, leaders, and chaperones), the place was a zoo. But it was awesome.
I decided to journal the four days I was a ministry coach, so this blog is rather long. Whenever you get a chance, take the time to read it. Some pretty awesome stuff happened.
God brought people to us that needed his love this week — I’ll just set it up with that.
Day 1:
Today I was originally assigned to lead a group of folks through a neighborhood around the house-building sites in an activity we call Random Acts of Kindness. This activity is basically one where the group takes yard tools around the colonia and looks around to see if they can help out with a manual task (such as cleaning a field or someone’s yard for them) or a social need, such as playing with children whose parents are busy with chores. Due to a little bit of confusion and misplacement of translators, I ended up playing taxi for some groups and leaders in one of the vans for the first hour, but I was able to help out a group at site 2 on the last leg of their activity. We started cleanup on a neighborhood soccer field before they had to break for lunch and Vacation Bible School preparation. From there, as lack of organization mandated, I became a translator for the medical clinic at site two and translated doctor consults (with my very limited vocabulary of the human body) for more than two hours. The nurses and doctor that worked on this team were incredibly dedicated and made sure that, through me, everyone knew their medicine instructions and that they were getting treated correctly. This was such a blessing since so many people have gone without the proper treatment in that area. One mother who had symptoms of bronchitis brought her son who was developing pneumonia. This child, still breast feeding, was given allergy medicine and a weak antibiotic a week ago, which only made it worse. They had no idea his bronchitis was so bad. Imagine what a proper exam can do. It gave me a chance to see how greatly people can be impacted through the body of Christ simply by meeting a greatly felt need.
The first day was nothing like what I expected. Yes, I expected the unexpected, but I never expected I would start driving like a Mexican, become the community driver, and translate for a medical clinic and write prescription notes in Spanish. Since I didn’t have any particular assigned role in the leadership of this project, I am mainly designated a translator and a ministry coach. This basically means that, since I don’t have an “official” role like “site leader” or “ministry leader,” I am given more opportunities to jump around. You could label me a “gopher,” but I prefer to think of it as starting with a blank slate every day and having God write on it what he wants me to do. I’m excited for the following days and will continue to pray for more surprises and blessings for the team that is here.
Day 2:
Today I drove a van like a semi-Mexican woman to site 2, where I then prayed with my ministry group for a water and snack handout activity called Living Water. From there, one girl in the group suggested we backtrack to a park on the way to the site. From site 2, I managed to figure out a short cut and navigate through the city to the park in less than 20 minutes (it took a little longer to get back since I had to find the site again from scratch, with the help of my group, of course). At the park we had some amazing conversations that were definitely an answer to prayer. One construction worker among a group that we saw there, René, was so hungry for God that I think he was on the verge of accepting Christ as his savior. He told me how he came up to Matamoros from El Salvador, leaving family and everything, so he could work and visit his brother in Houston. Unfortunately, because of legal papers and money, he cannot visit his brother, so he is very lonely and thirsty for a little hope in his life right now. We gave him a Bible to read, and I let him know that I would be praying for him. I hope to talk more about God’s love with him in the weeks to come. Please pray for him when you get the chance.
The rest of the afternoon I basically helped translate at a construction site at site 2. The group left early so that the students could get a chance to explore the Juarez Market downtown.
Today was very much a God-led day, full of answered prayers, protection (Matamoros driving!) and great team rapport. Despite the craziness, I’m starting to enjoy this project a lot more than I thought I would ;).
Day 3:
Today I led two ATL (ask the Lord) prayer exercises where both teams that I led sat silent and let the Lord just speak into their hearts. The concept of not talking to God, but rather with him in a Q and A session was a little foreign to them, so it was not surprising that a few of the individuals in both groups struggled with what to expect and the awkwardness of sitting and waiting. As a facilitator I made sure to stress that they shouldn’t discard anything they feel, see, hear, etc., and that the goal of this exercise was to be still before God and open our hearts to him. Although a few weren’t very confident about the process, what I saw in both groups was that many of their thoughts and what they felt in that time coincided and were confirmed. In the first group, actually, I myself saw a random image of a nail being attached to a wall. I thought it probably meant that we should help out the rest of the teams that were lagging behind in house construction, and when I got back with the group, they confirmed that as part of what they felt was being said to them. We spent the majority of the time helping out House 11 with their walls. A couple girls in that group and I visited some neighborhood children at a house nearby so that the students in this group could see what it’s like to just chill with Mexican kids and provide them with the attention and love they crave. The second group and I felt a very similar calling that afternoon. During their visit to a street they had frequented that week, they interacted with a few children that were left home alone while their mother was at work. On our way back, we prayed for God’s provision for a house for a woman that lived on that street (we weren’t able to build her a house since they had already planned out the houses and there were only two more days of building left).
Today I had felt both stripped of dignity and in need of that same dignity so that I could lead others in ministry. There were several moments where I had to appear like I had it together where I was absolutely clueless. And that’s where God came in and blessed our footsteps and the words we spoke. He is always faithful and so amazing.
Day 4:
The last day of the project consisted of another “living water” activity and another ATL exercise. The first group went very well. Upon my suggestion, we returned to the park that I went to with another group a couple days earlier. A few of the students were able to witness to the locals there and meet them where they were at that day – one girl who was taking Spanish in high school led a soul to Jesus in Spanish all by herself (and the great thing about it was that same person had wanted to talk to us as we were leaving the other day)! I talked again to René with another girl who shared a really touching testimony with him. He is reading the Bible and is so hungry for God’s love that you can see it on his face. I know he wants to feel this joy so badly, but something is holding him back. Please pray for healing on his heart – my heart goes out to him, because for a long while my own hurt was holding me back from God. I was depressed and I can sympathize with this guy. I really am glad God has led me to talk to him, because the greatest thrill I get out of this trip is meeting people where they’re at. I feel that God has continued to pour out his love on me so that I could show people like René that there is hope.
Upon returning to the site, we went to a dedication of one of the houses, where the group leader I was with, with my translation, led four people to Christ in that family. When they received the groups gifts (some hygiene products, food, and linens) and the shelter we provided (granted that it is only a wooden house with a cement floor, so it is very temporary), we prayed for them. As we were all standing in the circle, I noticed Jose (one of the men in the family who very graciously offered a hand here and there) looked like he was wiping back tears. What a powerful moment.
The afternoon continued with another ATL exercise that started out a little awry since I was delayed by the dedication and lunch in my arrival to the other site. The adult leader for that group had felt led to buy a table and a bassinet for two different families, so she had to run an errand to the store while we were on our trip. When she met up with us later, we had decided to regroup and pray again since they had to start without me, but we instead decided to visit her two houses first. The women that received her table was very grateful for our help, since she and her daughter and mother were abandoned by the man of the house (the husband of the daughter). The other family had an 11-day-old baby that they were worried would be bitten by the rats in her sleep, so the bassinet we brought to them was a safer setup than her earlier sleeping arrangements. We prayed for the husband of that family to find work as well, since the two times he had to take his wife to the hospital made him late for work and he was fired as a result of too many late slips.
Today was a trying but rewarding day, and around every corner you could see God’s amazing work. I would like to say that I’m never surprised by how great he is, but that would be lying.
I was utterly amazed by God this week and how much he empowered us all to walk in obedience.
I am as of right now hoping to work on a similar project in New Orleans for 6 weeks. Give me more of this stuff!
