My spring break mission trip to Mexico with my church youth group was a very good experience.
In order for our group to be able to go down to Mexico there were many things that we had to prepare for.
One of these things was fundraising. It cost each person traveling with our group 600 dollars to cover the traveling costs which include gas, insurance, food and for the places that we stayed at on the way. As well as paying for the traveling costs we had to pay the organization we were going down as apart of.
Our group held a number of different fundraisers to help raise the money. We held an auction, a Mexican style dinner, and a carwash. As well as these fundraisers each tripper had to raise the remaining amounts after the fundraisers by themselves by asking family and friends.
Another thing that we had to do to prepare for the trip was our training and preparation meetings. These were 3 hours long and helped us prepare for everything from learning some basic Spanish, to organizing our VBS and construction team’s supplies and plans.
The final thing that we had to do before our trip was to pack the day before. This is when the excitement really started to build, because you knew that you were leaving the very next day. Packing was somewhat stressful because you’re nervous that you might forget something important that you would really need there.
On our team there were a number of different smaller ministry teams. There were 2 VBS teams (vacation bible school) and 1 construction team. The VBS teams sang songs and did crafts and played games with the Mexican children. The construction team built and addition on to the side of a church as well as pouring concrete for a kitchen.
One of the most time consuming parts of the trip was the travel. We had to drive 52 people in 15 passenger vans all the way from Abbotsford to Mexicali Mexico, which is around a 36 hour drive, and took us 2 and half days of solid driving.
On the drive down we stopped for the night in Redding California, and Redford California, which is just outside of L.A. and we stayed in a church in each city. On the first night of travel we stated in a church in Redding. Our group had no direct relation to them, but we had somehow contacted them and the church allowed us to stay there. On the second night of our travels, we stayed in a church in Redford. Unlike the church in Redding, this church is where the former senior pastor of our church had gone to become their senior pastor, so they gladly accommodated us for the night.
All of this information is really just a lead up to the main reason why our team traveled 36 hours in cramped, stuffy vans, all the way from Abbotsford the Mexicali Mexico.
And that main reason was so that we could show the love of God to the Mexican people in a practical and real way.
We traveled down to a mission site hosted by Azusa Pacific University to join them, and around 2000 other high school and college students to take part in this mission trip. Our 52 person group joined these 2000 people in a large dirt field where we pitched our tents (which were going to be our homes for the next 4 and half days).
In this giant dirt field there were kitchens, a stage, and a small market put on by the local Mexican church for us, but as for bathrooms all we had were porta-potties, that were emptied once every 2 days, no showers, and no sinks. Just pits that our group dug that we called spit pits, for the very reason they were named.
This dirt field is just where we came to sleep and eat. The real part of our ministry was done at individual sites in Mexicali. Our team consisted of 2 VBS teams, and 1 construction team.
The VBS teams split up and went to their own sites, but the construction team went with the one VBS team to a local church to help build and addition on to it.
I was on the construction team, and the work that we I did in Mexico would of have to of been some of the hardest work I have ever done in my life.
Framing and pouring concrete can be hard enough on their own. And when you have a 60x24 foot space to frame and enclose, put windows and siding up and pour concrete for a separate kitchen space, in 4 and half days, and on top of that doing all of this in 36 degree heat, can make a somewhat simple task become that much harder.
And that is exactly what our team did. We were not able to fully enclose a part of the expansion due to the fact that we simply did not have enough time, and resources.
We did how ever leave some extra supplies for that church to use to finish the expansion so that when we come next time we can see our project finished.
This was a somewhat shortened and abbreviated summary of my trip to Mexicali Mexico.
