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Over 70 people ventured to Mexico to volunteer their time for the Crossroads Missions trip this Christmas break. Along with their fellowship with one another, the volunteers also participated in medical and construction activities. The 27-hour road trip proved to be more than just a vacation, but actually an “investment.” |
-Photo by Jason Harville |
“Una mas!” they cried, as they kissed our cheeks again and again.
We climbed in the minivan and even after we closed the back door of the minivan, they still stood looking in at us. Five Americans sat inside, exhausted and watching, without a word. As the minivan began to pull away, children clung to the bumper, chasing us and calling out to us in words we couldn’t understand. As we drove out of the poor neighborhood, there was a tug on my heart. Watching those kids run after us, silhouetted in the late afternoon sunlight, is a picture I'll never forget.
One thing that I wanted to do before I graduated was go on a mission trip. So on Rush Day I signed up for information at the CrossRoads Missions table. I went to the meetings and suddenly December was here and it was time to go. It almost didn’t feel real. When I climbed into the coach bus on Dec. 27 headed for Piedras Negras, Mexico, I did not have the slightest clue what I was in for.
Twenty-seven hours after we left Milligan, we arrived at New Creation Christian Church in Piedras Negras. Three separate groups-one from Milligan, one from New Jersey and one from Georgia-came together to form two teams, one medical and one construction. The construction team stayed at Nueva Creacion, a church in Piedras Negras, and the medical team stayed at Vida Nueva, a children's home nearby. Knowing an equal amount about both--which was practically nothing--I joined the construction team.
Much was accomplished during this one week. The construction team spent their week at Piedra Angular, which means Cornerstone in English, a neighborhood owned by CrossRoads where houses are being built for families. We completed one of the houses and progress was made on several others in the neighborhood, including drywall, interior and exterior painting, ceramic tile flooring, and some roofing. The medical team went to a different church everyday, hosting free medical clinics for those in each area, where they were able to minister to over 450 patients that week.
Everyone on the trip also had the opportunity to volunteer at what is called Open Meal, a ministry for children. When it was my turn to go I wasn’t exactly thrilled. I am not good at coming up with things to entertain kids, and I didn’t really know what this program was all about. I felt completely out of my element. After hearing stories from others in my group about kids climbing all over them, I honestly wasn’t really looking forward to that, especially not knowing where these kids had been. The night before, Wes Arblaster challenged us during our evening worship by talking about how the least shall be the greatest in the kingdom of God.
At the Open Meal, the day begins when the kids arrive and receive vitamins, and have their hands washed and dried for them, then they have a Bible story and craft before we served lunch. As I knelt down and I dried hand after hand and looked into their faces, I knew who I was looking at, and I was humbled.
My roommate Tori Watts was part of the medical team, and we had the opportunity to stay with a Mexican family from the church. Excited at having us in their home, even for a night, they cooked for us, showed us their wedding pictures and asked us as many questions as they could. As it turned out, this same family ended up being the family who would receive the house the construction team completed at Piedra Angular.
Then there was Ezekiel, a Mexican man who visited with us regularly at the church. He spoke only broken English, but he told of how he came to the Lord, how he prayed for Stephanie Baldwin to get her voice back, and how God has been working in his life. He would also come and tell us random words in Spanish, like the word for knee socks.
On our last day there, in one of our most moving experiences, the family came to Piedra Angular where they were presented with the keys to their new house. We prayed with them, and they looked at the finished house for the first time.
There are so many things I won’t forget about this trip. Things like not flushing the toilet paper, or cold showers and cold nights under our Mexican blankets, army cots and getting up early. I’ll remember the bus trip, the market, our obsession with the Mexican soft drink Manzana Lift, and the friends I made.
If I only remember these things, however, then my trip was nothing more than a vacation. But there was so much more. I’ll never forget worshiping with the members of New Creation Christian Church, each singing in our own languages, or the night our groups served communion to each other, two at a time, or our extra long worship time.
This trip was about an investment. It was about Ezekiel, and the family who got the house, and the people who came to the clinics, and the families that brought us into their homes. It was about working together, and making new friends. It was about trying new things and being willing to get a little dirty. It was about trust; in God, in the CrossRoads staff, in the people we served, and in each other. At the beginning of the trip it was about the Mexican people. But in a different way, it was about us as well. Maybe we thought God was using us to help the people there, but while we helped them, they helped us.
It took going 27 hours away to an unfamiliar place for me to be able to hear God speak. All the distractions disappeared, and everyone united for one purpose: to know God and to make Him known.