MEXICO 1988 - Christian's First Missions Trip

Mexicali, Mexico
April 1988
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Christian's First Missions Trip

At 14 years old, as a freshman in high school, I went on my first missions trip. My family was attending Village Church in Hayward, California. I went to the high school youth group every week at Village Church. Going to Mexicali, Mexico was a yearly occurence for our youth group. Every year, our youth leaders Sandy Bras and Eric, along with Patrick Serna who had a connection with a certain village in Mexicali, would take a number young people from the youth group to Mexico for one week during Spring Break. We worked in cooperation with Azusa Pacific University and many other churches. The theme that year was "Our God Reigns." So, in April of 1988, we rented a big bus and drove from Northern California to Mexicali. I think there were about 15 young people from our youth group who went. We camped in tents with all the other churches and went from this "tent city" out to the various villages each day. I don't remember the name of the village or the pastor of the village in which we ministered. 

Village Life And Ministry In Mexicali 

At 14 years old, I had skateboarding and girls on my mind more than God. I had prayed to receive Christ when I was 5 years old, but had drifted a bit off course over the years. Nevertheless I still loved playing with the children of the village and teaching Vacation Bible School. Being very poor, the children had previously amused themselves with old tin cans they would kick around and play with. Our team had brought some footballs and other sports equipment for them to play with. They were so happy and thankful to receive these gifts. We played for hours with the children. This brought much joy to them and to me. I connected with one kid in particular. His name was Tachi but his nickname was Nacho. We hung out all day long. He would try to speak his broken English and I would try to speak my broken Spanish. I would ask him how to say certain words in Spanish. He was amused as I would try to recite those words back to him. One word I was really interested in learning was the word for the giant black bees that lived in a rotting tree in front of the church. I wasn't able to learn the word he had told me well enough, so I renamed it "the big fly." I would make him laugh by kicking the tree and running away scared as "the big fly" became irritated and flew out of the tree. Every day that week, Nacho and the other children would see me and yell, "the big fly." Maybe that was my new nickname, "the big fly" (No offense Jeff Goldblum). Just outside of the village is where my team mates and I "took showers." This consisted of getting into some sort of canal, wading in knee-deep water, and standing under a waterfall that came from a large tube sticking out of the ground. They told us not to drink any of the water as it was contaminated. 

Vacation Bible School 

We had received training on how to teach Vacation Bible School while we were still in Northern California. We had also learned some songs in Spanish like, "Yo tengo gozo, gozo, gozo, gozo en mi corazon" (I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart) and "Padre te adoro" (Father, I adore You). We would lead the children in these songs and then have a craft and teaching time, which we used translators for. I was reponsible for sharing the gospel with a group of the children from the village. One of the days, I had the opportunity to lead 7 children to Christ, including Nacho. Using a translator, they all prayed to receive Christ that day. This was my first taste of God using me to lead people to Christ. And I truly believe that this is where I received God's call to become a missionary in foreign lands.

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Christian Young