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restorerjourney · 3 years ago

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First week in Mazatlán

Buenos Dias! Jesús te ama!

The first week had a lot of ups and downs, but we are so thankful that God has been with us every step of the way.

Before departure: It’s been a whirlwind cleaning up, running errands, and saying our goodbyes here. It started off pretty bad as our red-eye flight to Phoenix, Arizona was the worst flight ever. We had to endure 5 hours of freezing cold with no blankets so a lot of us couldn’t fall asleep. Then what was supposed to be an hour layover ended up being a 5 hour layover. Finally we arrived to Mazatlan and we were warmly greeted with a big hug of heat and humidity. For those not familiar with YWAM, they are bases that created all over the world. Each base is different depending on what kind of building God provided. The one in Kona, Hawaii looks like a college campus since we were given acres of land, in Mazatlán, it was a hotel! So we get amazing ocean views and have access to see the skyline at night! Now it is not a 5 star hotel and it is pretty rundown, but I could feel the love poured out to this building to make it a home to any missionary who visits here. An A/C room is like heaven on earth here and although we have one in our own room, we are only able to use it from 9pm-9am, so we would have to find a public room at the base to have a/c. Another adjustments are the stairs since our base is a hotel and the elevator is small. The food here thankfully is so much better than what it was in Kona. Our dining schedule was another huge hurdle we had to adjust. Meal times were at 7am, 1pm, and 6pm. If you don’t make it on time within 30 minutes, all the food would be gone. Another hurdle was rooming situation. All 9 girls had to be in one room with one toilet and 2 showers. There have been many funky smells which are intensified with the humidity and hair balls in our room but we organized a cleaning system so we could keep our sanity. Lastly the water issue. Thankfully we have filtered water provided at the base but when we brush our teeth, we are not recommended to use the sink water. Also if we go out to eat there is a chance we could get diarrhea and many of us have already. So to sum it all, our team felt overall this week being a time of sanctification and discipline as we adjusted here.

Our schedule is super packed so our week has felt so full, but I am so thankful that our leaders prioritized carving out time for us to have alone time with the Lord and debriefing with our team. Before coming here, God really spoke to all of us the importance of unity and the debriefing session really allowed us to not only share but communicate our struggles and interceded for each other.

We had two days to do orientation and get acclimated to our living situation. Wednesday we did our first ministry which was bible distribution. We all carried 5-7 bibles in our backpacks, rode the back of a pickup truck, and walked in the heat to do house visit and distribute bibles. We split into small groups and I was with Sunny, Martin ( our spanish translator), and Grace. We were lost at first but then we found a house with a man staring at us. We gave him a bible and his mother came out with a wrapped wrist. She was 82-years-old who suffered from a multiple chronic fractured wrist, swelling in her legs and feet, and cataract in her right eye. She couldn’t afford medical care so we offered to pray for her. I’m not going to lie, it was not easy to pray for her cataract to be healed as an optometrist. It’s like asking God to reverse an 82-year-old from wrinkles and gray hair but I felt God impress my heart if I was going to dwell in my unbelief or obey. As I prayed for her, I felt the Lord leading me to share how God saw her as his darling little daughter. After prayer she teared up and shared with us how touched she was by our prayers. We asked if she knew Jesus and she said she did. We hugged and said our goodbyes. We then visited another house where we found a woman named Maria as well who was isolating herself since she had COVID. We prayed for her and Grace prayed for her since she had compassion for her situation since she herself had COVID last year. We gave her a bible and encouraged her. It’s always fun when we come home after dinner to hear everyone’s experience as we debrief together.

Thursday’s highlight was when we got to choose which ministry we wanted to be involved in that YWAM Mazatlan was already partnered within their community. There was soccer ministry, hospital ministry, bible distribution, Stone Island ministry, skateboard/surf ministry, children’s ministry,and government ministry. Children’s ministry, hospital ministry, and government ministry were canceled because there were COVID outbreaks so I ended up choosing soccer ministry. What happened to work out was that soccer ministry was actually a type of children’s ministry. We were able to play scrimmage with the local children which was great because there is no language barrier. After the local pastor shared a quick bible story and then we gave ice cream to the children. It was so fun to see the children laugh and have a great time.

Friday’s highlight was when we went to visit Stone Island’s ministry. Stone Island is not an actual island but a peninsula but looks similar to an island. There the population is majority indigenous mexicans and you have to take a 10 minute ferry from Mazatlan. There the people are living in huts with not much to live on but are one of the friendliest and humble people that I’ve met. We split into small groups and I went with Grace, KC, Bethel ( our translator), and YK. We listened to the voice of God and asked Him which way to go. It was crazy how looking at hindsight, the Lord really directed our steps to go to the specific people He has called us to meet. When we approached the hut and made eye contact with them, YK got excited because they had a lot of parrots and she had 2 parrots back at home but one died recently. She asked if she could see them and they immediately invited us. As we sat the grandfather recognized KC who played with the children yesterday so without him we wouldn’t have made a quick connection with the family there. They offered to give us food and we ate chicken and coke with them. One of the ladies there shared about her eyelid condition which she had suffered for over 10 years. She had a congenital tear duct issue and has received multiple surgeries here in Mexico but they just made the condition worse. What was heartbreaking was when she showed us scars on her leg, neck, and forehead where they took pieces of her skin tissue to use for her tear duct surgery but ended up lying to her and selling her skin grafts. We prayed healing for her and after we prayed YK started to tear up and share what God has revealed to her..about how Jesus loved her so much and his heart grieved her situation and that He was with her. She teared up and was so touched. Her father also teared up and they asked how long we would be here and invited us to their home for dinner next time. They were so generous, pure, kind, humble, and beautiful that I felt so privileged to get to meet.

Saturday was our day of rest and it was just so nice to be able to do laundry since it gets so humid here and we can’t rewear some of our clothes. At night we went to the street market and ate mexican corn. While we were there a few children approached us and were so excited to talk to us because we were korean. They were huge fans of a korean band called BTS. They were so excited one girl started to cry and they all wanted to hug and take photos of us. We asked if they knew Jesus and we prayed for them.

Sunday we went to a local church in Stone Island and two of our members shared their testimony. I’m not gonna lie, it was so difficult staying awake during service because it was so humid and hot that day. This past week's outreach experience really has opened my eyes to see how weak I was and depending on my condition and external circumstances...it really affected me and my ability to love others. It was convicting to see how my love was conditional and a humble experience.

Prayer request:

1.Unity: We are already experiencing spiritual attacks from the enemy towards some of our members but praise God that we experienced breakthrough every single time we bring to light our issues during debrief. Please pray that we would continue to remember to love our team members as ourselves and to fight for our unity.

2. Divine appointments and salvation for the people in Mazatlan: We do believe there are many people ready to receive Jesus. Please pray that we would have a greater fear of the Lord more than man.

3. Health: Please pray for protection from COVID, stomach/digestive issues, back, shoulder, neck, and skin issues that we have been facing.That these ailments would not hinder us doing kingdom work her.

4. To focus our eyes on Jesus and have him involved in all that we do.

Praise Reports:

-We are seeing God’s promises already fulfilled in us! We are experiencing unity like never before. We have experienced supernatural healing and it’s amazing to see our team members be transformed by the love of Christ. Jesus is so so good!

Gracias!

Alicia

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