Tepic, Mexico ~ A Mission Trip

This article has finally come! Today's article is about my mission trip to Tepic, Mexico. But before I get to that I wanted to announce another article written by Anna at Intertwining Melodies. About three hours before I left for my mission trip, Anna left for her mission trip to Northern Ireland. Also for those of you who noticed her blogging break, I will notify you that Anna is posting again and one of her newest articles is about her mission trip, so go check that article out.

Now about my trip. My team left on Saturday, June 23rd, which was also the day of my 16th birthday. Before we left the church, the leader of my church's short-term missions program, gave us a short message on Joshua 1:1-9:

5 There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

6 Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them. 

7 Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper withersoever thou goest.

8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

9 Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

When I was considering whether I should go on the trip or not, a good friend reminded me of Verse 9 in particular. She reminded me that being afraid of taking the next step to serve God was something that a lot of people in the Bible struggled with as well. That's why in this passage, God told Joshua to not be afraid. He told Joshua to be courageous because He would be with Him wherever he went. And God gives the same promise to us.

To hear this lesson repeated before I left on the trip was very encouraging. We left the church at 11 pm and arrived at CBX (Cross Border Xpress) at 1 am the next day. This building is at the border and contains the necessary forms to cross into the Tijuana Airport. We filled out forms for temporary stay and then crossed the border through a hallway.

After we went through customs, we took a flight from the Tijuana Airport to the Tepic Airport. The flight was about three hours. Everyone slept on the plane and/or the bus we took to CBX. I got a little sleep on the plane as well. Tepic is in Central Mexico and is the capital of the state of Nayarit.

We arrived in Tepic at 9 am. The time zone of the area is Mountain if we were talking about the United States. We met the four translators from Texas there. The airport is incredibly small and has one luggage claim and terminal. It is also one-story, so we had to use stairs to get off the plane. My friend said that she went to a one room airport in Barbados once. That's hard to imagine.

We went to the Hotel Fray Junipero Serra to put our luggage down and then we immediately went to lunch. I ate at the hotel the whole time besides for lunch when the missionaries provided it. Throughout the days, I had enchiladas, chicken soup, beef tacos, and quesadillas. My favorite was the beef tacos and guacamole for sure.

 

I am going to summarize each day and add additional details if I need to. We traveled by bus each day, except for when we went evangelizing outside the hotel. Each day, we woke up at seven for breakfast. Then we met for some worship and a short message from one of the high school guys. At eight, we would get back to the hotel for dinner and showers. At nine, we would have a recap with more worship, and bedtime was whenever people wanted.

• Sunday: At night, we went to the church to hang out with the youth there. Some of the team played volleyball, soccer, and basketball together. Some others decided to do some worship in the sanctuary. It was a very long day since none of us actually slept during the previous night.
• Monday: We did evangelism in the morning by passing out tracts and talking to the residents through the translators. After, we did Skit 1 (I was in that one) and someone preached with a microphone and speaker.
• We also went to two villages at night, Las Bendiciones and Loma Alta. We had to hike up a steep cobblestone road to these villages that had a lot of red dirt. There we did VBS: face painting, jump-rope, and chalk at first and after, two skits (one of the translators and Skit 1) and a gospel presentation.
• Tuesday: We did evangelism in the morning and went to a sports park at night. Whenever we go to neighborhoods or villages, we walk around to invite the residents to come. That day it was raining, but the sports ministry still played soccer and volleyball with the locals. After we did Skit 1 and someone preached the gospel.
• Wednesday: We went to a park in the morning for VBS. There were so many bugs that dropped down from the sky, it felt like a Super Mario Bros. Level. At night, we went to the sports park again, but it started raining really hard, so we had to cancel the rest of the day's activities. Many of the people were drenched.
• Thursday: I was sick with a traveler's illness that day, so I did not accompany the team to Picachos. This village takes a 40 minute bus ride, a 30 minute boat ride (the team used speedboats, I think), and a 15 minute hike to reach it. The team did VBS and skits as usual.
• Friday: We did evangelism and skits in the morning and went to a village for VBS at night.
• Saturday: We went to Ixtal, Guadalajara and met with one of the missionaries there. We did evangelism and skits, ate grilled chicken for lunch, and proceeded on to a village near Jala for VBS. This village is heavily influenced by witchcraft and we were kind of disappointed when only one family came. When we went to invite families we only saw one or two people walking on the streets. It was a blessing to meet the missionaries and I was able to talk with their thirteen-year old daughter. It was very interesting to find out how much she and another friend had in common when it came to Disney, Marvel, and Star Wars.
• Sunday: We went to church in the morning and our team leader gave a sermon that another team member translated into Spanish. After I had a strawberry-flavored shaved ice that the church called "ice-cream." We went shopping for souvenirs in the afternoon. At night, the church threw a surprise fiesta for us. There was a photo booth with props, tamales for dinner, and three piñatas filled with Mexican candy.
• Monday: We went to swim at a lake for the day and ate at one of the local restaurants. At night, we had a recap service with some of the youth and also said goodbye to them. Many people were crying.

On Tuesday, we left and our bus happened to break down on the way to the church (it was a school bus, so that explains everything). Fortunately, it happened while we were eating at either Chick-Fil-A or In-N-Out (I ate at the former), so we were stranded at that food court area. We got water from Starbucks and sat in a parking lot for four hours. We finally got to the church at 8 pm.

It was a great trip, and we were able to encourage the church there as well as do a lot of evangelism in different places. It was definitely a very tiring trip since there were many places we could not drive to. I'm glad we were able to go and do the Lord's service there.

You might have noticed that there are no pictures in this article. In the special article on Thursday, I will make a compilation of all the pictures that I would have put in this article had it been shorter. So make sure you come back this Thursday for that article!