January 30

This evening we went to a Youth Church here in Mexico City (it isn’t actually called that, but that’s pretty much what it is).  After the service, we took a bunch of the youth out on evangelism to a market right by their church.  When we were there we split up into groups of 3 and just wandered around the market talking to people.

Me and one of my leaders, with the leader of the church went out together.  Pretty much as soon as we started, a huge crowd of people came walking down the street, so we stood there, and I gave a super short gospel type message about God’s huge love for us.  After, we were able to pray with 3 people, it was really cool.

Then all of us got together again, and did worship – it’s really cool to worship in the middle of the street in 2 different languages.  Most of the worship songs in church are translated from English, so we can sing along with a lot of the stuff that they sing.

Also, on a completely different note, there’s this taco stand in the market we did evangelism with, and we were told that as a sort of initiation into this church/evangelism thing, we have to eat a taco.  So they bought us all tacos, that were the hotest things I have ever tasted (I didn’t actually eat a whole one, just a bite)… it was terrible.  Everyone that ate them were crying from the heat – Dad, someday you need to come down to Mexico so that you can try one of them.

January 29

This morning we went to a little slum that’s a couple blocks from where we live.  It was crazy, seeing how different these people live.  I’ve never seen people that live in such huge poverty before.  Their houses we made of whatever they could find for walls, and then their doors were just made out of curtains.  We got to play soccer with a bunch of the kids for a while, then did a couple dramas for them, and did a testimony, then I told them a kid version of the gospel… it was awesome.  After we just played with the kids some more.

I met a little girl, Fatima, she was probably only 2 or 3.  When we first came, she was super shy, and wouldn’t even come close to us.  But then eventually I found a little ball, and played pass with her for probably almost an hour.  It was so cool to see how happy she got when we started playing, and how simple it was for her to have fun.  It really made me realize how much we have in Canada, how even as little kids, everyone gets new toys so often, and here, these kids only have one ball, and that all that they have to play with… and they’re so happy about it.

January 28–Island Breeze

 

So all day today we were with a ministry from Perth called Island Breeze.  Basically who they are is  Polynesian dancers that travel around sharing God through dance.  In the morning we did a huge open-air even with them in one of the parks by our church.  They danced a bunch, people gave testimonies, and then a pastor from Nigeria presented the gospel.  Through that, about 15 people were saved!!! It was amazing to see, how much people were impacted by the dances. 

Then in the evening we went with Island Breeze again to one of the churches near us.  We put on a night of worship, and again, Island Breeze performed a bunch.  As well, my team did our dance that we have been doing in some of the churches that we go to.  The whole point of the evening was to encourage the church to go out into the world as missionaries.  They talked a bunch about how for years people have been coming to Mexico as missionaries, and how now it was time for the Mexican people to go out into the world.  At the end of the night, we had a time where anyone who felt like they were being called by God could come up to the front, and us and some of the Island Breeze dancers would come and pray for them.  We were able to pray for about 30-40 people during this time.  It was really awesome to see how what we’re doing here is not only affecting the people that we talk to, but how it is also bringing up more missionaries to take over our work when we leave.

January 27

Most of our day was spent advertising for the Island Breeze event tomorrow, but in the evening, we were able to go to a children’s hospital nearby and pray for people, and give out bread to the parents of the kids in the hospital.  We went there, and made a big, general announcement about how we were just there to pray and talk with people as they waited for their kids.  As soon as we made the announcement, people started coming up to us, and we had a pretty steady stream of people asking for prayer for over half an hour.  It was crazy, seeing how much people wanted God there with them and their kids.  We got to pray for people that had newborn babies in the hospital, that weren’t sure if they were going to even survive, and people that had kids that had just come out of surgery and weren’t healing properly and stuff.  It was so good to just share with the parents at the hospital that God is there for them, and is with them through everything.  The times that we go to hospitals are becoming my favourite times here, because it’s so easy to share God with them.  Everyone is willing to try anything so that the people they love will be able to go home, it makes it so easy to just show people that God is there for them.

January 20-26… Because I’m negligent and having been writing my blog often enough (plus just not a lot of stuff has happened)

So on Friday we’re having a huge open-air event with one of the ministries from YWAM Perth called Island Breeze (they’re a Polynesian dance ministry).  They’re travelling around to each region in Mexico City, doing open airs and church services, so all week we’ve pretty much just been handing out fliers and putting up posters everywhere advertising for it.

Also, one really cool story.  On Wednesday night, 3 of us went to the hospital by our church (the one that I’ve wrote about before).  We went into the emergency waiting room, where all the families of the patients were.  We went in to pray, and ended up meeting a couple of nuns pretty much as soon as we got there.  We talked to them about what we were doing there, and they were really excited about it, so they got up and made an announcement to the whole room about how we were there praying for people, and how if they wanted prayer, they should just put up their hand and we would pray for them.  Because of that we ended up praying for about 20 people.  It was so cool to get the chance to pray for that many people, it’s really just another one of those things where you just realize how open the Mexican people are to God.

Also that night, we met with a lady at the hospital that we had met with the previous 2 weeks.  When we met her the first week, she was with her mom, who was in the hospital.  At that time, she knew that her mom was passing away, and that she had no idea how much time she had left.  We prayed for her and her mom that week, and then when we came back a week later, prayed for both of them again.  Then today we saw her again at the hospital.  She said that her mom had just passed away that day.  It was really hard to see how sad she was.  We talked to her though, and she said that she was so  glad to know that God was with her through it.  She isn’t a Christian, but she said that every time that we would pray for her, she would feel God close to her.

January 19th… It’s A Party!!!

This afternoon we went out to a park, and ran an open air.  We did 2 dramas, and then one of the people on my team gave a testimony, and we shared the gospel.  It was awesome to see how many people will stop and listen to what we’re saying.  It’s really encouraging; knowing that even if we don’t se massive amounts of salvations every day, we we still are able to share God with so many people every day, and hopefully then when we leave the Mexican church will pick up where we left, and will be able to talk to these people, and more, even after we have gone.

One of the youth groups in town runs an afternoon thing right by one of the high schools in town after school once a week.  We get to go out with them every week, it’s a lot of fun.  We do stuff in a mostly empty parking lot, so we bring soccer balls, and footballs, and play sports with the kids.  Yesterday there was also face paint, guitars, and one of our guys from PNG sharpied Island tattoos on the kids.   It’s really fun to be able to hang out with the kids, and to build relationships with them.

Tuesday, January 18

So this afternoon we went out to the Salvation Army church in our region.  Our group split into 2 teams.  Half of the team went out and handed out fliers door to door inviting people to church services and to afterschool programs and stuff.  The 3 of us that didn’t go door to door stayed back, and ran English classes for the kids that live around there.  We had 6 kids there that we were teaching.  They’re all super enthusiastic, and are so willing to learn English, it was a ton of fun to teach them.  It was super hard though, because I don’t know any Spanish, I’m trying to teach them American English (it was actually a bit confusing, because I kept spelling words ‘wrong’), they all pretty much spoke no English, and they were all young enough that they were only starting to learn to read and write in Spanish.  But it was still a ton of fun.  We’re doing these classes 3 times a week, I’m really excited to get to keep working with the kids.

Saturday, January 15

The basilica in our region is celebrating its 50th anniversary of their new cathedral this week.  It’s awesome, because there are massive crowds of people everywhere.  So we were able to do a couple open airs outside the cathedral, we did 2 dramas.  And then we shared testimonies, and the gospel.  It was really good, people were really interested in what we had to say, and I think things really stuck with some of them.

Also, since it’s the anniversary, there’s a ton of Aztec worship that went on at the basilica.  They had dancers and drums, and pretty much the whole thing was really just worshipping death (the Mexican culture right now is totally full of death, they even have a day called Sante Morte… the Day of the Dea).  It really reminded all of us on the team of the story of when Jesus goes into the temple, and throws over all the tables, because it’s a holy place, and people aren’t respecting it as that.  The Catholic religion in Mexico is super weird, because the first Europeans that came over wanted to make it appealing to the Aztecs, so they changed the names of saints, and added in a bunch of Aztec beliefs so that the people would accept it, and all that stuff is still believed today. 

Later on, we died in the Metro… it was awesome.  Pretty much we just all at the same time dropped dead on the train, and then one of us would get up and give a testimony and present the gospel to the people on the train.  It’s great, because the people have no where to go, so they are kinda forced to hear the gospel.  It was really cool, I don’t know the exact number, but about 5 people gave their lives to God because of it.

In the evening we went and hung out with a bunch of the skaters that always hang out at the market by our church.  Eventually we ended up going over to a basketball court, and played basketball for a while.  It was a ton of fun, we haven’t really played a ton of basketball since we were here, and it was a lot of fun to be able to again.

Sunday, January 16

One of the churches in our region was celebrating it’s 8th anniversary today, so we were invited to the service to celebrate with them.  The church service ended up going for 6 hours… they had 3 worships sets, 1 concert, 4 offerings, 2 sermons.  It was the weirdest service I’ve ever experienced. 

But afterwards they fed us insane good Mexican food for lunch, or I guess more like dinner.  That made it mostly worth it…

In the evening we met with the pastor of the church that we’re living in, as well as a couple of the youth in the church.  It was awesome, we spent a ton of time praying for Mexico City.  They’re a city that really doesn’t have any faith that God will actually move.  They pray for God to take over the city, and to completely change it; but they don’t actually believe that God will move.  So we prayed about that for a couple of hours, it was awesome.

Day 8

So there’s a ministry that goes on at one of the hospitals in my region once a week, and while we’re here, we get to be a part of it!  We’re going to be going there every week and handing out coffee/tea and bread to the visitors that come there, as well as going into the hospital and praying for people there.

We split into 2 groups, one that went inside to pray, and the other that stayed out and talked with the visitors.  I went with the group that went inside and prayed with the patients.  Its amazing to go in there, because there’s no one that will turn you down.  Everyone in there is in so much need of something more.  We were able to pray with 11 people, some of them being family of patients.  At the end of the time, it was so hard to leave, because there were still so many people that wanted prayer.

The group outside gave out bread and coffee to people, and then did one of our skits for them.  After that, one of the girls on my team shared her testimony, and then presented the gospel.  After this, 61 people decided to give their lives to God!!! It was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever experienced.

Day 7

In our region, is a huge Basilica.  It’s the second most pilgrimaged place in the world.  Hundreds of people visit there every day, some days, it will look like the pictures of the huge intersections in Asia (the ones where there are just people everywhere).  It’s an amazing spot for us, because hundreds of people are coming to us, looking for God.  I went there this morning with a couple of other people on my team, and with our very limited Spanish, we were able to pray for a couple people there.  We were able to explain a bit about how God wants to have a relationship with them, one that doesn’t have to go through a priest or whatever.  It was really cool to be able to explain how much of a personal, two way thing Christianity is.

Day 6

So about once a month we have a day here where all the teams in the city at the time (about 15 right now) get together for a day, and do worship, share testimonies, and then do evangelism together.  We had this today, and it was awesome… it’s easy to forget that we aren’t the only team in the city, so it was really encouraging to be reminded that there are other teams all around us. We met a bunch of teams from all over: Newcastle, New York, Sydney, Los Angeles, and a couple other places, as well as seeing everyone from the Perth base again.

In the afternoon we went out on evangelism.  It really made me appreciate how open the people are to us in the region that I live in.  In the region that we were in today, nobody really wanted to stop and talk to you at all ever, so it was really hard to actually have good conversations with people, also, I didn’t have a translator with me, which was also difficult, but not too bad.

I don’t know the exact numbers, but between all of us that day, we saw about 15 people saved, and 4 people healed, and were able to share the gospel with about 40 people!  It was awesome.

Day 4

So we went to the church this morning kinda like Youth Church… it was awesome.  They’re so friendly, and almost all of the youth speak at least a bit of English, so it was really easy to talk to everyone.  Also, we performed a dance in church… yep, that’s right, I danced, in church, probably illegal, but it was awesome.  There may or may not have been a couple of the guys on our team with ‘dust’ in their eyes.  It was a ton of fun, I’m going to try to get it filmed next time, so I can put it up on here so you can see it, it’s pretty spectacular.

After church we went out on evangelism with a bunch of the youth.  I went out with one of the guys on my team, and a Mexican that translated for us, and we just went and talked with a bunch of people.

The first people we met were high, drunk, and who knows what else.  But we were still able to talk to them and share God with them, it was really cool.  They still understood what we were talking about, and really seemed to be receptive, even though they were completely out of it the rest of the time.  It reminded me a lot of doing stuff on skid row in downtown LA, where they just need someone there to just listen to them, it was amazing to be able to be that person.

For sure the best part of the day though, we found 3 people sitting on a bench, and went up to them and asked if they had anything that we could pray for them about.  The first 2 were a couple, and they said they had 3 children who were all really sick, 2 of them were in the hospital, and the other was just really sick, so we prayed for them.  Then after, we went to the 3rd woman, and she said she needed surgery for something (the translator didn’t know what was wrong in English), she had diabetes, and a bunch of joint pain that caused her to not really be able to walk.  So we prayed for her, and then I asked her to stand and tell me how her legs felt, she said they felt a bit better, so we prayed for her again.  After, she said that she had no pain in her legs at all!!! It was amazing, God’s so good.

Day 3

This afternoon we went to a huge sports complex in our area of Mexico City.  A few of us went and talked with 3 guys for about an hour.  We went and sat there, and talked to them mostly just about life.  It was awesome, they were so interested because we’re foreigners, and they just kept asking us question after question.
Later on in the afternoon, 4 of us found a soccer team practicing, and were able to play a pickup game with them… it was so much fun to use sports in our ministry, it was the first time we really got the chance to.  At the end of it, they invited us back to play on their team, and come out and practice with them every week… Dad, you would love the soccer here, you could just go and play with anyone whenever.

So in the evening we went into the square by our church, and were going to play football there with the kids that hang out there.  The girls on my team were just hanging out by them playing football and a girl came up to us... I"m pretty certain we're the first white people she's ever seen.  She acted like we were celebrities, it was so funny.  She took pictures with us, and just kept on giggling because she was so excited to see us, it was so funny.  But we ended up getting her to agree to come to church with us tomorrow, which is really exciting, even if it was just because she was so excited to see it, it works.

Day 2

So this evening we went to a church bible study… the church seems like pretty much a Spanish version of Youth Church – their focus is on the skater’s of the area of town that we’re in.  I love working with them so much because it is so similar to YC.  The pastor of the church is amazing, he’s been a pastor everywhere – in California, in Bellingham, and like 10 other places.

Outreach, Day 1

We started our outreach today, for real… the evangelism part of it at least.  We went out into the city, found crowded places, and did a couple open airs, doing testimonies, and preaching the gospel.

The first place we went to, a few of us had a chance to talk to a man there.  Shortly into our conversation with him, he decided to make the decision to follow God!!! It was amazing to see his response, and how open he was to God, the people here are so much more hungry for God than at home.  He told us that as soon as he prayed, he felt God come and give him a big hug.  As we continued talking with him, he told us a bit more about where he was coming from.  He had been in jail for the past 5 years, only getting out about 4 months ago.  But being out of jail was really hard for him, and it ended up that yesterday, he tried to commit suicide, but a friend found him and saved him.  At the time, he was angry at his friend, but because of us, he said that he now knew that God didn’t want him to die.  That God had a greater purpose for his life.  It was amazing to see.

We continued looking for crowds to be able to talk to, and ended up finding a huge crowd of families, waiting in a line to get free toys for their kids.  So we decided to do the banana song (if you don’t know what it is, find someone that’s been at pretty much any camp at some point in their life, they’ll know it).  The response was so cool.  We ended up getting asked to do it again at another spot in the line, because people liked it so much.  Because of that, we were able to share testimonies, and pray for people through the line.  I was able to pray for a girl that’s mom has cancer; the doctor’s aren’t sure if she is going to survive or not.  It was awesome to be able to hear this girl’s story, and to pray for her and her mom. 

Everyone that we talk to, no matter where we are is so curious about why we are here, and about who God is.  It’s amazing to see how just because we’re white, and don’t speak their language, we have that opening to be able to share God with everyone we talk to, because it is so clear to everyone that we don’t live here.