Your students made it to Houston last night safely and will fly into Atlanta tonight. Because of the last minute flight switch, the entire team could not fit on one flight to ATL. They are split between two flights, but a leader is with each group.
Here are the two flights:
Continental 2656, which leaves at 2:45PM (Houston time) and arrives in ATL at 5:49PM EST
and
Continental 755, which leaves at 7:20 PM (Houston time) and arrives in ATL at 10:30PM EST.
We will update you when the final group arrives in Atlanta.
Because of inclement weather at the Mexico/Texas border, the team is leaving the base tonight. They have a flight from Harlingen to Houston, and will arrive at the Houston airport just after midnight central time. They will stay in Houston and fly into Atlanta tomorrow night (June 30), where they will spend the evenings of June 30 and July 1 in the hotel we originally booked for them for debrief. This way they will make all their scheduled flights on July 2.
We will continue to keep you informed as they travel. Please know that your students are healthy and safe. They are just leaving Mexico a bit earlier than planned.
Well, we are starting on our second week in Mexico and hoping for even greater blessings! After some downtime this weekend, team Chosen is ready for ministry these next three days. We visited a childrens. home Saturday, had a great time getting buckets poured on us, and new nicknames (ducks). Our guys got rocked in soccer games, but we rep'd for Jesus.
Sunday we split into groups and visited the marketplace, with all the unique stands in Matamoros. We visited a church service at night. That was definitly an experience, The people were very welcoming and charasmatic, and with a bit of help our team performed our "Drime" presentation "Into the Light."
On a side note; back at the gateway we found a snake climbing a tree. There was a debate as to what kind of snake it was after the freaking out was over. The giant toad outside the boys dorm may meet our new snake friend. The bugs in the shower are becoming a little less bloodthirsty, either that...or we have just adapted to them being there.
All creatures aside we look forward to this coming week!
In a candid interview one team member was asked, "What do you hope for the most this week?" In response she said, "Caffeine! Definitely Caffeine!" With that and prayer we'll have a successful closing week to our mission trip.
Today the word fluid which has been reiterated to us since training camp took on a whole new meaning, yet ended in a blessing. After presenting nearly fifty precious Mexican children with the parable of the lost coin we realized that we were stuck with the middle age group and had nothing prepared. Expectant faces stared at us from wooden church pews but we could not allow ourselves to panic. We quickly searched our brains and rapidly decided upon leading the children in a song time. Those minutes filled with worship turned out to be the highlight of my day. The Lord brought to mind several songs including: "I Have the Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy Down In My Heart" and "Jesus Loves Me". Normally leading songs is an activity I would do anything to avoid; however allowing ourselves to be fluid made the way for our hearts to be blessed. As the name of Jesus Christ was exalted and the high pitch praises of young children reverberated off the walls; I was unsure as to who received the greater blessing. Was it us or the Mexican children? Either way the name of our mighty God was lifted up and that it is what truly matters.
My visit with Martha yesterday was heartbreaking. Martha is a Mexican friend of mine from a few years ago when I used to live in Mexico. She can best be described as a sweet, motherly lady that always has an open door for the kids or families in the community. I first met her about 4 years ago when she stopped me on the street to ask me what I was doing walking past her house all the time. We instantly hit it off and I returned to visit her a few days later with someone who spoke better Spanish. With my friend translating she was able to communicate to me that she always saw me walking past her house so she started praying for me when she saw me. It was amazing to me that a Mexican woman who had no idea who I was would pray for me. After that visit we became friends and I continued to visit her for the next few years that I lived there.
Yesterday I was so excited to get back to her house and see her. I hadn’t seen her in two years. The last few months she had been popping in my head so I really wanted to visit her. My team and I showed up at her door. I yelled and she came out. The look on her face told me something was wrong. I went up to her and she fell into my arms crying. She started weeping so I asked her what was wrong. She said her husband was gone. In my mind I thought she meant he had left her for another woman or something. Then she continued on to tell me he had passed away two months before. I instantly knew that is why God had me thinking about and praying for her for the past two months.
We went inside her house and she began to tell me the story of what had happened. Her husband had taken his own life. The grandchildren were only told he had an accident. After a few minutes some of her grandchildren started coming out to see us. She stopped talking because she didn’t want to upset them. However because the team was there they were able to take the kids outside and start a soccer game. This created a safe place for her to share without her worrying about her grandchildren hearing. She was able to share what was on her heart. My translator and I were left to listen and minister to her as she spoke freely.
She shared every detail with us and we were able to speak life into her as she shared. It was a very emotional and personal experience. I felt we were God’s ambassadors as we listened and loved her. Through our team God was able to reach down and touch her. It was an incredibly humbling experience. I realized God is the one who sent us to Mexico so He could show Martha just how much He loves her. He touched all of our hearts bringing us from an entirely different country and culture to reach her. He must love her a lot. I know us going to visit her was set up by God however that doesn’t make the situation easier. Please pray for her as we continue to visit and minister to her.
Today was our first day of VBS and what a success! We had fun with all kids that came, they were awesome! One of our team-mates got a flesh wound, but he's bandaged, well and back with us tonight. We also had a prayer walk in a local "colonia" where our leader Naomi use to live. We split up into two groups and had "ATL" Ask The Lord time. Our group was praying for God to show us where he wanted us to go. We met six litle boys, and they led us to a VBS that they were having in the "colonia" that day. We met the women in charge, and she instantly invited us in to come in and help out with the kids. We were very grateful they had A/C inside! God really showed up today, and we can't wait to see what he's going to do for the rest of the trip!
Today was our first full day in Mexico. We began our prayer walks a little skeptical. Immediatly we began a new journey of spiritual growth. A major encouragment to us blessing this community. We met an old lady named Mariah at the shopping center. She expressed to us her pride and joy about young people preaching the word of God, and her own strong relationship with God.
Mariah told us how she accepted Jesus as her savior, she was no longer sick when she began her walk with God. It was a blessing to see her strong faith, and we believe it to be a great encouragement and gave us hope, that our work here is influential. She was blessing us.
Another interesting thing; The diversity in the people compared to the people in the United States. When we prayer walked through the 'colonia' we're able to walk right up to the childen and there families. We were welcomed and they were hospitable to us, as opposed to what we've seen in America. American's we know to be constantly suspicous around their children.
We were able to successfully invite many childen to our VBS that will start tomorrow morning. We are all exited to start tomorrow! We can't wait to see how God works in the children and families in this 'colonia'
Louis Olson would like to share one thing before bedtime. "One of our leaders thought a native tree was growing poop." Buenas Noches Amigo's
