How We Got Started
Tammey made her first trip to Mazumiapan, Mexico in the summer of 2010. She returned every six months since then, and is now there stay. Listen to her share the story:
“The Heavenly Transaction”
by Daphne Alvarado
“Praise ye the Lord, Praise God in his sanctuary, praise him in the firmament of his power. Praise Him for His mighty acts..Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise Ye the Lord. Psalms 150:1-6 Those verses was what I read for my devotion that morning and it was a day that felt not only different, but the air was extra cool that day. It was a beautiful day in Mazumiapan after long hard days of missionary work and the day of the Health Fair was finally here! We were already experiencing hard battles with where we were going to have the health fair because one of the local men informed us that another event was supposed to happen in the place we wanted to have it. We had to think quickly and through much prayer we pleaded with God to help us. Afterwards someone said why not have it in the building you originally wanted to have it in. I didn’t know that God was leading, but I knew that Tammey had been praying for this building since last year and it was not a coincidence that God was about to allow us to have the health fair in that building.
Tammey already had a name for it “ El Pan de Vida” (The Bread of Life translation). God really blessed. A lot of people from a far had come to the health expo the day of the event. At the end of the day we had to close up and clean up. We put everything away and as we were done Tammey comes up to me hurriedly and said, “ I think God wants to give us this building, so can you help me take pictures and measurements of each room?” I was amazed at what was going on, and I could sense that God was about to do something but didn’t know what. I started to visualize everything in my mind about each room and it just seemed to me that God has something big planned. The fire of her excitement spilled over to me and I was already dreaming with her. We left the building to set up for the Cosmic Conflict DVD show at another building close by. As the movie was playing Tammey, Maria, and I were standing outside just talking about land and building matters. Just something to let you know is that I have never translated so much and when it comes to matters as money, land, or even directions, I can’t do it. So God was already trying to get me used to translating because I always asked God “I can speak Spanish, but I live in Hawaii, and no one there speaks it so why should I even try and bother?” That was my thinking, but God was and is still working on my heart about liking to translate.
As I was standing and translating outside with Maria and Tammey, something big was about to happen. Tammey was asking questions about the land, buildings, and the owner of buildings and then Maria spotted the owner of the building we had the health expo at from a distance. Maria asked if she would like to speak to the owner and Tammey was like “ Of course!” At that moment, I was like “oh God, I need you because I know I am going to be translating and Im scared?” Tammey immediately took full advantage of the situation and started to thanking him for allowing the use of the building for the health expo and telling him the way God had been leading this whole mission trip and how we had just had a huge successful health fair and many were blessed by it. She was so excited and I could see her zeal and love for her God and the people to be able to get this building. She was explaining how people were sick and needed help. Then Maria began to speak about something that I don’t quite remember but immediately I recognize that we needed to do something to get his attention back. Then Tammey said to me, “we need to stop Maria from talking because she is going to tell the man that I want to buy the building and I believe God is going to give us the building.” She then told me to show him the pictures of the health fair. Trying to sort through more than 100 pictures that day I finally found the right ones and said “Look, here are some pictures” and showed him the pictures of how God blessed the people through this health fair. He could see Gods leading and began to acknowledge the need of a health awareness.
He described how he couldn’t stand seeing a man being carried by men because he couldn’t walk. He shared how it hurt him to see that people were suffering. He said he was walking by earlier and noticed an event was going on thinking it was just another event. Then Tammey, at that moment, asked him whether or not he thought it would be good idea to have this building be a health and education center for the people. She ended by saying, “What do sense God would have you do?” What would be his part and what would be my part (Tammey) to make this happen? The owner, Raymundo, stated that he thought it would be good to have this building used as a health center and that all he would want is a room for himself so that he could have a place to stay when he would visit. Tammey was shocked at his answer and wanted to confirm what she thought she had heard. So she asked me to let him know this would be a permanent situation not just an event from time to time…that she was in the process of leaving her job and would be moving to Mexico to run this health and education center full time. Tammey was wanting to make sure he was giving a definite “Yes here is this building, its yours”, she wanted to see if God really giving the building as a gift. Somehow this was the hardest part of my translation. I asked God “ How in the world do you translate this, without coming off too strong in that if we could have this building as a gift?”
I had no idea how I said it, but I believe the Holy Spirit mixed it with His grace and when he responded, “Yes, you can have it.” Then he took us into the building itself and started to tell us how he wanted to put new windows, doors, doing a lot of maintenance, yard work and just began to go on and on how he would fix this place up, and I was like “ Wow, Tammey had just talked about how she would like this place to have windows. God was moving! Then we got into the kitchen area and we stopped and he began to share how God has been so gracious to him that he wanted to be gracious towards others. He talked about that God had blessed him more than he can imagine and wanted to share the blessings with others. He began to tell Tammey, “If there were more people like you, this world would be a better place.” At that moment, I realized it wasn’t Raymundo speaking anymore, it was God through Him. His face even glowed with a heavenly aurora. The hairs of my skin immediately stood up all over my body, and as he was speaking he said “ Move Forward”, which spoke to me on a personal level and felt God telling me the past is the past, move forward.” I immediately was blessed and the verse came to me “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and as a cloud, thy sins, return unto me, for I have redeemed thee,” Isaiah 44: 22.
God had saved me from my past that was so struggling me since I arrived to Mexico and I had a personal encounter with Jesus. Raymundo then said, “God is real” and I began to feel the presence of God as if it so near, that I began to experience the holiness of God. As I translated that to Tammey, not only was I blessed to share that with her, but also she began to cry and I could not believe my eyes. I was so humbled by her thankfulness, and I began to realize this wasn’t just for her, but for me as well. We both hugged and cried to together, and it was a “Most Holy Experience” or like I called it, “A heavenly Transaction of soul saving… I realized an important lesson as a translator; I cannot give to others, unless I have received first from our Heavenly Father. I can only share what I know, and felt, and seen with my eyes, and not what other people have felt or seen. I realized that God had put every person, situation, exactly where they needed to be, and it hit me that every person, or situation that happens to you, is not accidently.
There is a divine purpose why we are here, or there, or what we come in contact with. God uses us as instruments in saving others so that we may partake in the Joy of his Holiness as Jesus himself “Jesus did not count heaven a place to be desired while we were lost. He left the heavenly courts for a life of reproach and insult, and a death of shame. He, who was rich in heaven’s priceless treasure, became poor, that through His poverty we might be rich. We are to follow in the path He trod.” {DA 416.3} I realized how much God loves us and we are so unworthy, but he longs to dwell with us. That we may behold His glory. He desires for us to come into close contact with him as our personal savior. He wants to dwell with us as he states in Exodus 25:8. “Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them” After that, Raymundo was quoting scripture as he said “ our bodies are the temple of God” we should take care of it, and so more and more as he is speaking, he sounded like an Adventist. As we left the buildling, we were so thankful and he started to state that he would have everything fixed up before she came and would have it complete. He then stated that his parents were Adventists. I said, “Tammey, did you know his parents were Adventists?” and Tammey replied, “ What! No.” I was like wow. Raymundo began to share how not that long ago he gave his heart to Christ and became an Adventist and had read the whole Bible twice and wanted to do something to help others. To our surprise, we rejoiced and knew that God had sent all this a divine appointment and had given Tammey the desires of her heart. God had a plan much greater than we had known, and we were so thankful and had a wonderful prayer with him and that we would keep in touch.
The reason why God gave Tammey the building is because she wanted to bless others with it. The reason why Jesus came to die for us, is so that we may not die, but have everlasting life. The Pen of Inspiration says, “To give is to live”. (DA 623.5). Let this be our prayer, that we may ask to give. May we be His helping hands in saving humanity is my prayer.
Thank you for sharing your testimony! It was so inspiring. God bless you and your work.