We had a great, safe trip. God gave us opportunity to show his love to many people. The night before leaving someone came and told me about all the violence in the area and suggested we postpone the trip. I let them know that we were very aware of the tension, but that we had a very specific purpose in mind and were trusting that God was going before us and He would take care of us. After spending four days in the area, had I not known there had been recent skirmishes, I would have had no idea the area was violent. God´s peace was in our hearts the whole time.
a 6 minute video summarizing the trip...
Our Tenancingo team spent time with kids. The first night it was just 7, but Friday was over 110, then Saturday over 50 and Sunday over 70. I´d figure perhaps close to 150 different children with whom we played, sang, shared the gospel (yellow, black, red, white, green fingered glove), laughed, did some fun dramas and shared a Samaritan´s Purse gift (this last one through the Mexican Baptist convention with whom we are affiliated). We used a multi-colored glove to share God´s gift of salvation as in the wordless book. Yellow - God has a plan for your life and it is good. Black - Sin keeps you from that plan. Red - The blood of Jesus, takes care of your sin. White - Accepting Jesus´ gift makes our hearts clean. Green - We need to grow and learn more about God´s plan for us.
I was encouraged by the believers we met. Adiel Pineda who is a missionary pastor in the state of Morelos (two hours east of Tenancingo) has relatives in many of the small towns in the area. And has been leading many to the Lord Jesus in the last year and a half, some of whom he´s just met within that timeframe.
I was also encouraged and blessed to see Baptists and Pentecostals and others come together with the purpose of worshiping the Lord in a public place and proclaiming the good news. After some division and bickering in the past year, this was a good step in the right direction. There was a lot of talk about unity as Jesus prayed in John 17 so that the world may know. Some of this bickering was between relatives who were in leadership of two different pentecostal churches. Non-believers were aware of the bad testimony and I pray this is something they noticed as different.
Our team was healthy even with abundant mosquito bites and being fed beef all three days for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They killed a cow to honor us as their guests with healthy, good food. Almost reminded me of Forrest Gump and the variety of ways to eat shrimp. I can asure you we didn´t eat the horns, eyes, brains or hoofs, but most everything else.
We definitely felt the love and prayers of so many. It was a blessing to be the goers. While there, we often remembered the senders, our Tenancingo church and so many others from many parts of the globe who covered our time in prayer. We want to continue joining Adiel in future trips - he goes once a month! He requested help for purchasing an overhead projector which he uses to show movies as he shares the gospel and disciples new believers. His home church has one which he has used off and on, but each time he does, it leaves them without their own. If interested in helping Adiel with this specific need, please let me know.
