Trinity CRC Mexico Mission 2019

Falling behind on the blog posts, but we will catch you up to speed! The day after the house build we participated in more local outreach in the community. Wednesday was a particularly heavy day for everyone. We started early in the morning and drove to downtown Tijuana to serve at a food shelter called Padre Chava. When we first arrived we sat in on a catholic mass for the volunteers, shortly after that we were given roles and put to work. On average they serve  700-1000 people from 8-10:30. The system they had was incredible and, everything was fast paced and well run. We had place setting placers, table cleaners, coffee pourers, food runners, scoopers, cup dryers, plate counters, etc! So many people involved; including our group. It was fun, but also kind of stressful. The joy of the volunteers was contagious; it was so cool to see how many people (young and old) were serving and having a great time doing it. After that we had lunch at Taco Nazo. Per usual the tacos in Mexico ar

The last two days have been CRAZY! I would have love to put up a blog last night about our day but we were all super exhausted.  So we will rewind to yesterday morning... Today was the first day of our house build. Our typical schedule is breakfast at 7, devos at 8:15 and off to the build site/ministry site by 9am, back to base by 5:00 pm, dinner at 5:30, worship at 7:15, team time, then lights out at 10:30pm.  Just to give you an idea of what our days are looking like generally. We had an amazing first day at the build site, everyone was contributing and working well with one another. Each of us were learning some new skills, whether with a hammer, a saw, or with a paint brush! By the end of the build day we were actually pretty close to being done the house. A few of our girls had the privileged of bonding with the kids Daniel and Nicole and played with them for most of the day. Always love seeing a team of people come together to accomplish something and share a purpose. In one

on the way to church at church                  Leading Sunday school                                         At the orphanage                                                                                             getting face painted

Today was our first ministry day here in Tijuana. We began our morning at the base with breakfast and morning devotions with our team, then off  to church! We spent the morning at a local church 15 minutes away from where we are staying and had the opportunity to participate and experience their service. It was evident to most that this is nothing like we've experienced in Canada. It is much more loose and go-with-the-flow-y. It was a real privileged to be able to worship with them and we were also expected to share a testimony with the congregation, which was unexpected; regardless one of our youth got up there and shared what God put on her heart in front of total strangers (we had a translator with us). Also, myself and the youth, alongside one of the YWAM leaders got thrown into Sunday school and were expected to lead it! We had almost nothing prepared, besides a little skit that goes along with the parable of the lost sheep. We did that, and began to brainstorm how else we c

This morning we reached the YWAM base at 4am, which was 2 hours later than we originally had planned due to some train problems. We had a looonnnggg day on the train yesterday. By the time we got to the base we had been traveling for a total of 48 hours and  the ugly realities of traveling for that long started to show. We began our day by waking up in Sacramento around 7am; the last known location before sleep was somewhere around Eugene, Oregon. Some slept good-ish and some not so much, but regardless we were all struggling together which made it a bit more bearable. Throughout the day on the train we sat down in the observation car, watched the scenery change every couple hours, played some card games, napped (or at least tried to) and kept ourselves enternained with some form of media. Our travel day started in Sacremento at 7am yesterday and ended in Tijuana at 4am. Our train from LA to San Diego was delayed a bit and our train had some brake problems along the way which had u

We have  made it through the first half of the train ride and tonight at 9 PM we will be in LA to switch trains for the rest of the way to San Diego. This is my (Steven) first on a train, along with most of our team, which makes it a pretty unique experience. It is nice as there is lots of room to move about, sit in our seats, walk around, head down the train to the obvservation car where there are tables to sit and play games at.  Also we have been able to get out and stretch our legs at a couple stops and breathe some fresh air for a little bit. Our teams have been mingling and getting to know each other well, which is blessing! We only have 15 hours left before we reach San Diego! Things to report: Coffee on train is not too bad Leg room is ample, except when your are Pastor Andrew sized The views are nice for the most part Dinner was mediocre, but did the job Breakfast was good Most of us slept a few hours last night at least. Having fun! Or as much as you can on a speed