Outreach Stories from Mexico
Saturday
12 January 2009
This morning we woke up early to join the pastor from yesterday and continue to help paint the church. We spent our morning painting until we were pleasantly surprised by a delicious lunch break! Several women from the congregation had volunteered to make our team traditional Mexican dishes in gratitude for the work we had done on the building. And it was delicious!!
We had taquitos, gorditas, potato cakes, and quesadillas with Mexican sodas - apple, tamarind, lime, and of course, Coca-Cola.
After lunch we finished painting with enough time to go play with little kids out on the basketball courts!
And sad to say, "We were creamed by those little kids!" And we thought they were only good at soccer!
And after several days of hard work and little rest, we took the afternoon off to enjoy ourselves.
We gathered again for a dinner of authentic Mexican tacos out on the town. Some favorites were the 'tacos al pastor' (seasoned pork tacos) and 'tacos de lengua' (yes, that's right - cow tongue taco!). Only to be followed up by a desert of Magnum ice-cream bars.
When we arrived back at the base, we had a fun night of dance lessons on the roof. We practiced our moves to salsa and cumbia - two very traditional latino music styles.
Tomorrow will be an exciting day because it is Shared's birthday! So tonight I ran to the store and bought her a birthday cake - Pastel de Tres Leches (Three Milk Cake).
So we will celebrate Shared's birthday (Jan. 12th) and Sungkyoung's birthday (Jan. 6th) tomorrow hopefully by traveling up to the city's statue of Cristo Rey (Christ the King) for a picnic and a party.
Friday
11 January 2009
This morning we again joined the Pachuca staff and Denver DTS in worship and prayer. This morning a DTS student shared a lesson from his favorite week from DTS.
After his teaching, the YWAM Pachuca base leader stood up to share that he believed this was a very important and even strategic teaching for us to all hear before we go into Mexico City. A current trend there is a new religion - Santa Muerte - or 'Holy Death'.
People are literally worshiping death to receive miracles. And the crazy thing is that these miracles are coming true. But their healings, money, or power come at a great cost--offerings are known to be as serious as human sacrifice. Even though uncommon, it is still a very serious matter that we need to be prepared to meet and share the one true Gospel with the people who are under such darkness and oppression.
After our meeting we planned and rehearsed to teach in Tec Americano, the English school. We decided to share what came natural to us and what makes our group individual - culture. In our group alone, four cultures are represented: American, Mexican, Korean, and Japanese.
So we decided to include a culture lesson on American, Korean, and Japanese culture and to finish with fun games that helped the school kids practice their English.
When we arrived at the school is was a great time to share...
...our culture teachings and the students really loved and learned a lot.
Afterward, we broke our group into three sections - Sungkyoung taught the older boys Korean tae kwon do, Nicole, Nate, Maria, and Shared played games with a mix of older and younger boys and girls, and Michi, David, Joonwoo, and Heidi talked and let the kids practice their English in conversation.
That afternoon we joined a local pastor with some service projects at his church. Joined by some of the congregation, we began a painting project and cleaned the yard of trash. It was hard labor but we left the church and its yard looking much better than we had found it!
Then later that night we returned to the central plaza with our Te de Canela (Cinnamon Tea) and again passed it out to the people congregated there. But the most exciting part was that our friends from two nights ago were there again! And since an initial relationship had been built with many of them, our group began talking to them about how personal and loving Jesus is.
We even ended the night off with a short message about how God loves each one of them and has a purpose for them. We asked if anyone would like prayer and there were kids that were honestly interested in pursuing Jesus more intimately! Praise God!
So please pray that they would not forget their commitment they made to pursue Jesus and that their friends would not pressure them to do the 'cool thing' and not follow God.
It was a truly a great day!
Thursday
10 January 2009
This morning we also started off with worship and prayer for the city of Pachuca, but today there was a surprise. The Denver DTS had the day off and went to tour the pyramids and the musically-inclined Pachuca staff had left already, so who was going to lead worship and prayer? Practicing our leadership, we stepped up!
Nate quickly picked up a nearby jimbay, Sungkyoung ran for his guitar, Nicole found some songs on her laptop, and we were off! We even closed with a never-before-rehearsed version of 'Te Alabare, Mi Buen Jesus' for the non-English worshipers.
Since YWAM Pachuca is a new base that is still growing and expanding, we had the pleasure this morning of helping with service projects around the facility: painting, priming, washing, picking weeds, and picking up trash.
A couple from the states has lived in Mexico for many years running a youth center - a place for kids to stay out of trouble, play games, and get help with their homework.
Several months ago, they received the news that their church could no longer support them financially so they closed up temporarily and headed North for a month or two to get things worked out. But two months turned into four, four months turned into half a year, and now almost a year has passed with no one in the house.
Rumor reached their friends at YWAM Pachuca that the grounds needed some love and care. It was perfect timing for our group to come to the rescue! We spent the afternoon pulling and burning weeds, sweeping, organizing, and giving their dog a much-needed bath.
The group is learning and loving more about Mexican culture: its people, language, customs, and of course, food!
Just before we called it a night, we learned that we needed to prepare an hour and a half lesson for a local English school. The lesson would be in the morning!
Wednesday
7 January 2009
This morning after breakfast we met with the Denver DTS students, staff, and YWAM Pachuca staff for worship and prayer. It was a great time and ended with a YWAM Denver student, Annalise, sharing a lesson/testimony about how her DTS's teaching 'Father Heart of God' changed her life.
This was a very good topic for our students and afterwards they reflected upon their own relationship with God and how they interact with Him. Do they pray to God selfishly asking Him to make them a better person so they will benefit or just because they want to be more like Jesus?
After our devotional time, Meghan from YWAM Pachuca, introduced us to our neighborhood and its goodies - i.e. market, freshly squeezed juices (see photo), tortillas, etc.
Around three we traveled to one of the city's parks to meet the people and play with kids. We played tag, blew bubbles, and were beaten terribly by little kids in soccer. We also started learning the language with some new friends.
The Denver DTS performed a few dramas and shared testimonies. Afterward, we talked to the people gathered there about their own personal relationships with Jesus.
Shared met a woman who was a Christian and found it very encouraging that we were there running dramas and sharing our hearts to the people. Later, Shared and a few others were able to pray for her because she was going to be joined by her church to run a similar Christian program in the same park this coming Sunday.
Leaving our new friends, we went home for a quick bite and a lesson in how to make traditional Mexican Cinnamon hot tea (Te de canela):
Bring one bit pot of water to boil, drop a handful of whole cinnamon sticks in when boiling, cover and continue to simmer for two or three hours. When done, add two cups of sugar and voila! Or, should I say, "que delicioso!"
That night, in the cool mountain air, we took our freshly made "Te de Canela" to the central plaza. We handed out cups of it to people passing by and the teenagers that hang around and skate.
“Why are you doing this?" some people asked.
"Because God loves you and so do we."
We made some great friends that night and hope to see them soon!
Tuesday
6 January 2009
Both of our flights were late - two hours late out of Chicago because of the snow and ice - and half an hour out of Guadalajara because they just were.
We got in at 10pm and feasted on enchiladas.
Amor from Mexico!
"AIDeS" in Africa: Ntuzuma Report
Short-term outreach to Durban, South Africa
In Durban, South Africa is a township called Ntuzuma, where everyone has been affected by AIDS in a painful and personal way. AIDS has taken children from parents, husbands from wives. It has orphaned children and left the sick and elderly alone without families.
The burden to care for these orphans and widows falls on their surviving family—grandmothers, aunts, and uncles. Even generous neighbors. Many families have already taken in more survivors than they can support. The clinics and hospitals are overwhelmed by patients and have to send many sick people home.
 Greg and Jewel, missionaries with YWAM Madison, co-led a team of ten volunteers to Ntuzuma to bring personal care, education, and love. Comprised of university students, health professionals, and retirees, the team called themselves "AIDeS in Africa."
They worked alongside a local ministry called Ukukhanya Life Care Center. (Ukukhanya means “light in the darkness.”) Ukukhanya’s long-term vision is a daytime care program and hospice. It will provide two meals a day and funds to pay for the orphans’ schooling until their foster families receive government grant money.
One clinic serves 1.2 million people in three townships.
Helping the Helpers
When the team arrived in Durban, they were overwhelmed with the need and possibilities for them to help Ukukhanya. So they asked God what they should do first.
“God told us to focus on the home caregivers,” Jewel said. “They have been working for a year without pay. They are backbone of this AIDS ministry.”
These local church-goers and volunteers from Ntuzuma interact with the patients every day. They provide basic care—washing their sheets, giving them sponge baths, and making sure they don’t develop bed sores.
At the end of the week, the “AIDeS In Africa” team prepared an appreciation dinner for the Home-Caregivers.
Not all the caregivers are Christians. Pray that they would know the Lord, so they can offer true compassion and care as they receive it personally from God.
Real Hope
The “AIDeS in Africa” team met five orphans who lived alone in a worn-down, moldy house. Because of a natural spring, water flowed constantly through their home. The team scoured the walls, floor, beds, and curtains, removing the mold and mildew that had been growin g for years. Then they waterproofed the house so the children would have a cleaner, healthier home to live in.
"The situation is a heart-breaker," says Jewel. "It's a perfect illustration of the reason that orphan care is part of the Ukukhanya ministry plan."
During another home-visit, a 12-year-old boy who was orphaned and living with his aunt gave his heart to the Lord.
"We know the road in front of him will be tough," says Jewel, "but we also know that God's presence and hope are real."
Thank you to everyone who donated so generously to make this trip possible. You touched the lives of many people and your generosity will continue to make a difference in Ntuzuma!
Preaching in an Unreached Village
Two hours away, in a small village in the province Chaochoengsao, a woman has been praying for someone to share the gospel in her village. God told her He would send a team to her church, and that team would come to her village. But when she talked to her pastor, he said no one was coming.
In faith, she cleaned and prepared rooms for the team she knew God would send. Two weeks later, her pastor shared the good news with her -- a team from Madison, Wisconsin in the USA was coming and they would go to her village!
Last night, we hopped into two pickup trucks and drove to this small village. We set up the equipment and met the locals. They showed us their banana trees and gave us mangoes. We invited them to our drama. Just before dark, about 40-50 people came on bicycles and motorbikes.
After we performed our drama, I grabbed the microphone. "We want to tell you about the God who made this world and made each one of us," I said. "There are six billion people in the world, but He thinks about you every second and wants you to know Him."
We all shared from our personal testimonies, prayed for the sick, and split into small groups to chat with them. Afterward, the pastor told me that none of the people there that night had ever heard the gospel before! Only a couple of them had even heard the name of Jesus before that night.
Please pray as this church continues to minister here!
Thailand's Red Light District
by Mike, DTS Leader
Several from our team joined with YWAM-Bangkok's MST (Male Sex Tourist) ministry. This is a ministry to reach the men who come to Bangkok for the prostitutes. Outreaches to prostitutes have existed here for years, but unless the men who come for them are reached, the demand for women will always draw more into the business.
We spent several hours on the sidewalks on the very edge of the "Red Light District" talking with men going in and out of the area. We had significant conversations with men from the U.S., Germany, England, & Reunion (a French-Speaking Island).
I was shocked by the perspective some of these men had. They saw prostitution as good for the emotional wellbeing of men and financial wellbeing of the women.
When we asked them what their religion was, several said they were Christians. But when we questioned them further, we discovered they also believed in a mixture of other religions. The other men we met were either agnostic or atheist. We gave many of them a packet of information, including the personal testimonies of a former prostitute and a former male sex tourist, who are now both Christians. Please pray for this ministry!
Thai English-Language Camp
The morning sun beat down on the students and teachers at a Thai high school. It was the beginning of the daily assembly. Fifteen hundred students had just recited their Buddhist prayers. The head teacher invited their guests on stage, and Mike introduced his team to the assembly.
“We come from the University of the Nations, a university for students from every nation on earth,” Mike said through a translator. He surveyed the crowd of black-haired teenagers who sat cross-legged on the pavement before him.
“We’re from many cultures and languages, but we are all followers of Jesus Christ. Jesus came as a servant. We are here to serve you by teaching you English and befriending you.”
Mike is leading a young team of missionaries-in-training from YWAM Madison’s Discipleship Training School. For three days, they will share the gospel and their own personal testimonies of how Jesus has impacted their lives. For 150 of the students, they will host an English-language training camp. The students will practice pronunciation, learn basic conversation skills, experience American food, play sports, and listen to music. They’ll learn about the meaning of holidays—Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. And they’ll learn about how God designed families.
The students are eager to learn! Those who are interested in learning more about Jesus will be connected with the local church.
What an opportunity in one of the least evangelized regions of Thailand!
Before leaving for Asia, the Field Ministry Team prayed about what their focus should be for those next six weeks. They knew they would do some practical health care (even giving hair cuts!), but they wanted to know more about the spiritual focus they should have.
"We felt like God wanted us to focus on the value of the individual," said Jen. "Then we met Sue*, a new believer."
When Sue was in college, she became pregnant. Her boyfriend immediately pressured her to have an abortion. But it didn't feel right to her. Through her struggles of deciding whether to keep her baby, she met Jesus. She knew in her heart that she should have the baby--but that decision cost her her boyfriend.
 Sue, like many new Christians in her area, was discriminated against by her friends and family after choosing to follow Jesus. The last couple of years were shaky, but she remained faithful to her son and also to her God.
When the FMI team met Sue, they were learning more and more about God's attention and love for individual people. They wanted to show Sue that love.
"We spent time with Sue, praying for her, doing conversational
english, shopping, eating together and loving her son," Jen said. "She was so excited and
amazed that we would spend so much time with her. We soon realized that because she was an unwed mother, she
didn't have many friends and was looked down on. She ate up all of the love we gave her."
God not only taught Sue about his love for her but taught us about how he loves
each person individually, even in a nation with so many.
"It's easy to think that since we spent so much time with just one person, that our outreach was a waste. But that wasn't the case. God loves Sue and she needed to know that. In God's eyes, that wasn't a waste of time."
* named changed for privacy
Although the father still wants nothing to do with his son, and Sue's heart is still healing from the loss of the man she loved, she knows that God is with her and He loves her.
 Kelly and Jewel, two YWAM Madison missionaries, spent two weeks in
Haiti. They are both part of the Mercy Ministries department in
Madison. Mercy Ministries focuses on practical ways to show God's love
to people.
In Jacmel, Haiti, they left for the beach six o'clock to
beat the sun there. For several days, they cleaned a beach near
city hall. This beach had become so polluted that no one would swim
there. Kelly said, "We've gone every morning this week to pick up
garbage and haven't even gotten half-way across the beach yet."
"We've been able to have great conversations just by being willing to
take on the sand flees, trash, sewage and water," said Jewel. 
One morning, a pastor from a nearby church stopped by. He was interested
in getting his congregation involved in the clean-up efforts. Kelly and
Jewel also prayed with the mayor of the city after one of our mornings
working on the beach.
Micheal, the leader of another YWAM-Madison outreach team in the area
also attracted interest when his group joined in cleaning the beach. A
DJ from a local radio station interviewed him and broadcast the
interview nation-wide. Michael talked about true freedom and how a
godly governement system would look. For his story, click here.
"Cleaning the beach is a hot and gruelling thing to do," says Jewel. "But God really used it."
by Michael, DTS Outreach Leader
Our team
has been serving the city of Jacmel, Haiti by cleaning the city beach -
it was covered with loads of garbage. On the third day of work, it
crossed my mind that the Press may show up to ask questions about the
foreigners doing this strange work. I began thinking through what I
would say.
A couple of
hours later I wasn't at all surprised to see a man walk up to me and
present a badge that said "PRESS." He wanted to discuss our work.
We
found a bench in the shade. Through a translater, the reporter asked me
questions about who we are and why we were cleaning the beach. He held
a recorder in his hand to capture the conversation.
I knew
this interview was one of the times Jesus spoke of when He said, "Do
not be anxious how or what you should say, for it is given to you in
that hour what you should say." It went so smoothly with simple,
concrete images to explain difficult concepts. The interview turned
into an amazing opportunity to share about true freedom. To read about
our discussion, check out our team's blog, here.
At
the end of the interview, the journalist seemed very happy about our
conversation. "I'll air this here in Jacmel and then send it to Port au
Prince to air on national radio," he said.
A few days later, we
traveled an hour up a mountain road scouting out future ministry
opportunities. While in a village there, I found a man who spoke
Spanish. We talked for a while. I told him I was with the mission.
His response surprised me.
"Oh, you're with the group cleaning the beach. I heard you on the radio," he said.
He
had already heard the interview and had been thinking hard about the
message. He recounted much of it to me and told me how he sees that
Jacmel can change through Christ. I was blown away!
The team has been encouraged to see how God is using our simple
obedience--even in the simple task of cleaning the filthy beach -- to
bring hope and change to a nation.
Pachuca & Mexico City Winter Break Outreach
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