Coming to Mexico was a dream come true and an answer to prayer!

It seemed like the funds were not coming at all and time kept passing. It had been two years since I had come with Tammey and the AFCOE group in 2011. I was so thankful in returning and it was a really great time! The first night we got there was a Youth Revival for the church. Valerie, Carsten, and I shared our personal testimonies. So many of the youth came up to me personally and told me how they were so blessed by my personal testimony and how it helped them in their walk with God. One girl said, “This is the best youth event I ever been to” I was so thrilled to hear good responses from the youth and adults as well.

The following day was Sabbath and we had planned for outreah that day. We were praying for the church members to receive a blessing as they came to help us. I saw a young girl named Caren, and asked her to join Tammey and I as we went out into the community. Before leaving the church for outreach we prayed God would give us divine appointments and that people from the community would come to the showing of Cosmic Conflict that night in the church. We went in faith visiting the people and made friends along the way. One family we met up with had two little ones  playing outside and I asked the mother where she was from and she told me that she had lived in   the United States for awhile in Indiana.  I was thrilled because I lived in Indiana for 8 years and it was such a crazy coincidence, or should I say divine appointment.  We also met another family whose father-in-law was excited about the invitation to the free movie night.  At the end of the showing of Cosmic Conflict, we asked those who were visitors to stand up and they would receive a free copy of the DVD.  As we looked around at who was standing we saw the father-in-law of the one family  and we saw the woman who had lived in Indiana and her two children!!! Caren, Tammey, and I were so happy, but especially Caren, because she realized that God had used her to reach someone for Him and how faithful God is to answer our prayers. God really blessed and we were thankful. Because of that outreach, Caren is doing Bible studies with the lady who lived in Indiana and others from the church are doing Bible studies with those from the community who had come to see Cosmic Conflict.

The next day Caren asked us to give her lessons on how to do Bible studies so we decided to teach her and it was amazing. Caren is only 13 years old and has a desire to serve God by doing Bible Studies. I was so humbled and honored to teach her how to give Bible studies and to put into practice what I had learned in AFCOE and SOULS -West training. Caren was so excited to learn and I know that God sent us to Mazumiapan to help her to get more training so that she can more effectively reach out to her community.

It was a blessing staying in Mazumiapan.  I didn’t know that I had a cousin that lived only 60 miles from Mazumiapan.  I was able to meet her and her family. I got to share my testimony with them on Christmas Day.  My cousin used to be Seventh-day Adventist, but had a bitter experience with her mom and her religious practices.  Fortunately, God opened an opportunity to share with her my own testimony which prompted her to ask me to share my testimony to her children and her husband.  She couldn’t understand why I traveled from place to place doing missionary work with hardly any clothes and money. I explained to her that the things of the world aren’t a priority for me and she could tell that I was happy even though I had very little. She comes from a very wealthy background and so I was thankful that I got to share where my true Peace came from. I was thankful that even though I couldn’t give them a physical gift on Christmas, I was able to share the peace and contentedness that only Jesus can give.

On New Years eve, we visited a lady to check her blood pressure and someone came to the house to tell her about an accident that had taken place on the main road.  Someone had driven off the bridged and two people had died. She then asked who it was and they told her it was her nephew. She was in shock. We prayed with her and then went to see if the other family had found out about the news of their son dying in this accident.  When we arrived we experienced first hand the emotions of a family receiving the news of their son dying on New Years Eve. It was an experience I will never forget. I have never experienced that before and we were so sad for the family. The next day we went to visit the family and sang songs for them. We gave them a book called, “God’s Answers” in Spanish. This was a blessing because we know that they will know the truth through this hard time as they search the Bible and find comfort in the truth of the state of the dead.  I found out that God has so many methods of reaching people.  Singing, health, literature, Bible studies and I am so thankful for these tools. I know that God will lead this family to the truth because of that book and the truth shall set them free to live in peace after this tragic experience in their life.

It was sobering attending the funeral on New Years Day and I experienced the reality of life and death.

” It is better to go to the house of morning, than to go to the house of feasting, for that is the end of all men, and the living will lay it to his heart” Ecclesiastes 7:2

“Take ye heed, watch and pray, for ye know not when the time is” Mark 13:33

Jesus is coming so soon and it was awesome for me to see this through my time in Mazumiapan because He is showing His people more and more that we can’t continue to sit on the pews and warm them.  We need to be right with God and seek and save the lost with the help of Jesus.  I was really thankful for my time in Mexico. God showed me a lot about my character and how He wants to finish the work in me as I let Him and how He has great plans for me. I am so thankful for this experience and I pray that God will continue to work through His people in Mazumiapan and that He will water the seeds that have been planted.

“And my souls shall be joyful in the Lord, It shall rejoice in his salvation” Psalms 35:9