JUNE 28, 2012
Submitted by: Kim
One of the greatest things I learned on this mission trip is the ability to accept things I cannot change. When God gave me that word, it made me think of the Serenity prayer: God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage, to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Not going into too much detail, we arrived in Mexico Wednesday after a long day of travel. All was well. Thursday was priceless at the orphanage where I cut the lawn, played with children, and ate lunch with them. Then we took part in an evening at Pastor Jose’s church where we were greeted with love and worshiped together. On this night, I was asked to do my solo worship dance, and I was used by God. It was another wonderful evening.
On Friday, the women headed to the town of San Blas, which was about two hours away. We had a great drive together talking, laughing, and encouraging each other. We arrived with not much work to be done until the men got there. This gave us time to head off to the beach and have time in the sun and waves. The next thing scheduled for our team was to head to one of the bigger town squares to do ministries. As we prepared to go that night, the rains came after a long day of the sun. Did I forget to mention it was the rainy season, lol. The team got together and prayed against this rain, but it did not let up. Thank God for our team leader, Pastor Don – he still moved us ahead with everything that was planned, downpour or not. We set up in the shelter there. I wish I could detail all that happened, but I could not give the justice to the beauty it deserves. Our team had never functioned so well, and it was all in the pouring rain. For everyone – and I mean everyone on that team – it was a life-changing experience. Something changed in us that day as individuals and as a team. It was so easy to accept all that God was doing in us and through us. We were winning this battle against the enemy of God’s people in San Blas. We had an amazing victory.
Then it was Saturday. The men and the women had separate prayer breakfasts, and we met in the afternoon. Pastor Don gave us a beach break before we headed out to our next outreach. This is where the trip took a turn. Codey got sick, then Jacob. Dehydration or possibly sun poisoning. They looked bad. I remember looking at Cody and being afraid. A trip to the hospital for both. The rest of the team headed to our outreach. The team pushed on doing what we were called to do. The heat was harsh. When it was time for me to dance, I remember that I couldn’t think clearly to the next step in my dance. I was hot, my legs were heavy, and I already had been having stomach problems since morning. It wasn’t pretty. I was asked to sit down as the heat and the sun had taken their toll. All I can say is one by one, team member by team member, we fell that day until evening and defeat started to set in. Only part of our team could go and do ministry for the rest of our time there. And for those left behind, well, we didn’t want to accept it. I did all I could to get better. I lasted about 12 hours without using the bathroom and with all my heart wanted to be back on those streets. And then it happened, I was told I couldn’t risk doing the outreach because of the heat for my own sake and for the team’s. I was devastated. After all the work, the preparation, the money, the time…and I wasn’t going to be able to go! I lay there with a roll of toilet paper and cried my pitiful heart out.
The next day I asked God just to make sense of it for me and God did. One word…Acceptance.
God showed me through it all that we want to receive and accept all the things that make sense to us and feel good, but what about those things that don’t?
Romans 8:28:
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
So many words came forth from the day we ministered in the rain and how the people of San Blas were moved by how we glorified God. The people that saw it were spreading the news of what we had done.
Pastor Jose’s church was moved by our courage to be there.
The encouragement the local pastors received from seeing that even in our illnesses we desired not only to finish what we started with what we had left in us but also that we would want to come back.
And our team members. Nothing could explain the love that grew in the struggle that we had to overcome in illness and disappointment together.
Acceptance:
God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change,
The courage, to change the things we can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.
Love you Team Mexico 2012! We will go down in team history!
Kim Mott