Hands of Mercy

I was so fortunate to get to travel with a team from Trinity down to Mexico a couple of weeks ago. We partnered with Hands of Mercy to build a home for a family. 

This is my second trip with Trinity and this time the pastor really wanted us to spend one night with a local family to have more culture awareness. Me and Lisa were placed with a single mother of three. Even though I have been traveling to Mexico for mission trips since I was 14, this was by far the poorest most run down area I have ever been. I am used to no running water and out-house bathrooms on these trips but this was a whole new level of poverty. The area was also very unsafe and I think that unsettled me the most. 

I'm not sure why but even as I write this post I am getting emotional.  I love the people down in Mexico and have a heart for their country. It was hard being without my family and trying not to let fear take up space in my heart. The whole time before we got there I was praying that God would help me to see past my own self and love on whoever was hosting me that night. To have eyes for them that God has and not worry about the small details that God already had figured out. 

I love kids and they are such a good reminder of how very little it takes to be joyful and content. I spent some time coloring and just taking it all in that first night. I won't lie, when the sun came up the next morning and we were going to be reunited with our team, I was relieved. Safer in numbers and all that. :) 

This is my second house to build and every time the guys are great about teaching me new skills. I love to learn and the only thing I have said I won't do is get on the roof ha! I am way to accident prone and the hospital is way to far!!!

This was where the family was living before we built the loft house for them. Remember, no running water, no electricity, no plumbing, no roads, no protection from the outside world.

I have mastered the art of painting the house and all the neighborhood kids come out of the woodwork to help which is always an adventure ha! Kids + paint + zero control=fun!!!

We build the loft house in one day...the guys are crazy good at this and this time they taught me to install windows and also how to seal them. New thing I can help with. :) 

This little girl took to me and followed me everywhere.  

These are small little loft houses that I think are like 12 X 12 and they are just a room with a ladder to a loft. No kitchen or furniture but they get them out of the elements and off the ground. The door locks and we have our sewing ministry make curtains for the windows so it feels like a home. 

Lots of people ask me why I go down to Mexico when we have so many needs here in our own country or why I go when it's so unsafe and so unstable. I understand the fear but something I really desire in my own life is to not allow fear to take up residency in my heart and life. To go if God says go and to be where God tells me to be regardless of what the world tells me. I know that poverty exists here as well but the poorest person here in the US is still richer than the people I have met living on the hillsides of Mexico. And besides that, God does not see boundaries. I truly believe He gives us all a heart for different people and different places that maybe others can't understand or relate to and that's what makes serving the Lord so great. We don't chose where we are born and I don't care what color or religion you are; you matter to Christ so I want people to matter to me as well.

Handing the keys over to the family gets me overtime. The second night we were there I was asked to get up and share with the people at the missionary camp where we were staying; I shared how the first night there I looked around the area I was staying and felt discouraged like what does one loft house matter in all this? I was looking at all the trash and kids with no shoes thinking we were already defeated. But then as we were sitting outside the lady hosting us turned on worship music and we sat there looking at the bon fire, watching the kids play and laugh and run around and God gripped my heart. One house does matter because one life matters. I got really choked up thinking that even with the language barrier us sitting there with worship music closed the gap and we were sisters in Christ regardless of where we live.

Lisa was a great partner to have because she is as crazy as I am.  We laughed when we wanted to cry and cried when we were completely freaked out by the hole in the ground called a toilet that almost caved in on us by the way. We ate stuff we didn't want to eat and tried not to freak out when the critters as big as our hand crawled under our beds ha! I am looking forward to going back for another build in December and to see what God has for us on that trip. Please be praying for our safety, for God to move the hearts of people we minister too and for health as I picked up an intestinal parasite this last trip which has been awful and slow to recover from.  Be blessed friends!