Hey Friends and Family,
We've had a little difficulty with internet access the past twenty four hours, so hopefully none of you have worried. Everything is still going great! We just arrived back from our tourist destination at the Zipoltec ruins of Monte Alban. The students had a great time exploring. We are back at the hotel resting before our last dinner here in Oaxaca.
The past two days have been exciting and rewarding. It was difficult to say goodbye to the kids yesterday morning during our last time with the feeding program, so many of our students had connected with kids here at the church. After hard goodbyes, we walked around the area of the church, delivering buckets and sacks with food to some of the poorest families in the neighborhood. It was an eye opener to each of us to visit these homes and a blessing to be able to share food from money God has blessed us with, and be able to pray for and encourage those in the homes that we visited. We visited an old man who, the previous year when Pastor Randy was here, refused to accept Christ. As we returned to his house yesterday to deliver food, Pastor Gilberte told us that the man had received Christ in the past year, and that he never misses a church service, despite the fact that he is always on crutches and is in his nineties. We were able to encourage him in Christ and look forward to the time we will spend in heaven together.
We spent time yesterday afternoon in the Oaxaca downtown area, exploring more shops and some beautiful catholic churches, most built in the 1500's. The students and staff were having a great time exploring the area, the people and the festive activities going on this weekend.
Around nine o'clock pm we were scheduled to start our nightly devotional together in our hotel lobby, but there was a group of about six students not there in the lobby. So Randy and I started looking around the Zocolo area so we could bring them in for our devotional. We were having a hard time finding them and we saw a large crowd of people in suits. In the middle of the group, with papparazzi snapping pictures, was Eddy, Dusty and others in our group taking pictures with the President of the state of Oaxaca! They were shaking his hand and patting his back like they had been pals forever. It was a great moment!
Today we went to an American breakfast in the Zocolo and tried to order eggs, pancakes and bacon. We did okay. It was nice to have a large meal for breakfast. We then embarked to Monte Alban and explored the ruins for a few hours. It is up in the mountains of Oaxaca, so we were able to see the whole valley of Oaxaca, get a little Oaxacan culture, and a workout in from climbing all the stairs.
As our trip winds down, our students our beginning to reflect on the week and the things God has shown them. He has used each of them in such a mighty way, everyone has grown closer together, basically, this trip has been perfect. Now God is challenging us to take what He has shown us this week and use it in our next mission trip: Salem, Oregon. Please pray that God would speak to our students today as they reflect and we discuss how God will change our lives when we return.
Tomorrow we will be leaving early for two church services at a large church in Oaxaca, then heading straight to the airport for the flights home. Pray that we will be at the airport on time, and that we will get home safely. We will return to Portland at approximately 12:00am on Sunday night/Monday morning, but most likely won't be through customs until closer to 1 AM. So...if you are meeting your students at the airport, 1 AM is a good time to shoot for. Our return flight is coming from Mexico City and is scheduled to arrive at 12:10 AM. The flight number is MX 944.
We will see you all soon, thank you for your prayers and support. God has given us joy and peace beyond anything we could have hoped or prayed for. He has been glorified and our students have been changed. God is doing great things.
In Christ,
Oaxaca Mission Team
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Well, it is great to be home to eat grapes, tomatoes, lettuce, etc. but I miss those Oaxacan kids!!!! I'm going to try to pray for Rosario every day for the rest of my life. That woman will have one full crown to throw at Jesus' feet someday!
Do you remember the name of that poor neighborhood by the landfill? Isn't it Guerrara, or something like that? (I want my recent blog post to be accurate.) Also what was the Spanish name of the church? I recall that the English translation was Center of Hope, but I want the local name too.
Thanks, TB
Post a Comment