Mexico Missions Trip...Beauty

I don't like posting about trips on the internet before they happen so many of you may not have known that Hallie, Ryan and I were headed to Mexico with a team of 50 from our church to build a home for a family. Well, we were gone five days and all had a life-changing, powerful experience. Thanks to those of you who knew and covered us in prayer.

The theme of the trip for me was beauty. The Lord was gracious enough to reveal beauty to me through His eyes and let me tell you it was breathtaking!

As we crossed the border into Mexico I was immediately aware that we were in a desolate country with ridiculous poverty. The terrain even looked like it was thirsty and starving.



I was thinking, "ugh, these people have to live in this forsaken place every day?" Before my mind could go any further contemplating how awful things were I saw this:


Oh yeah, Jesus is here too. Outward beauty in things is not evidence of the presence of God or the absence of Him. It was from that point on that my eyes were opened to the beauty that God sees in Mexico.

When we arrived in Mexico many of us, though we have attended the same church for years, were strangers. We did not really know each other's hearts. By the end of the trip God had unified our hearts and lives and we were a family. Beautiful!



"Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart." 1 Peter 1:22

The family that we built a home for was composed of seven people. Two twin girls that are 4 months old, two twin girls that are 2 years old, a 9 year old boy and the parents, Gorge and Alba. At the beginning of the year Alba started praying diligently for a house. She indicated to me that her knees were worn out from praying. Her faith combined with her husband's brought about answered prayer and provision. They have to be out of their home today because they can not afford the rent and this last week they were able to move into their new home. Our mission team was part of God's perfect plan to provide them what they needed at just the right time. Beautiful!


"You gave abundant showers, O God; you refreshed your weary inheritance. Your people settled in it, and from your bounty, O God, you provided for the poor." Psalm 68:9-10

Before we left, Gorge, a faithful man of God, prayed for us. He was pretty good with his English but could not pray in English. Therefore, he offered up a prayer to God for us! I stood there nodding in agreement with his Spanish words knowing that the Lord sees no difference in culture or skin color. Beautiful!

"Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all." Colossians 3:11

One of Hallie's comments toward the end of our trip let me know that true beauty was growing in her heart. She told her dad, "God had the perfect plan for me to be on this trip." Her job was playing with the little girls and she did this out in the desert sun for 3 days without complaint. In fact, at the end of the trip she did not want to leave her new friends that had become like "little sisters." Beautiful!




"O LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago." Isaiah 25:1

One of my favorite parts of the trip was adding aesthetic beauty to the home and seeing Alba's tears of joy as she put up curtains in her new home. They were not fancy or expensive but they added beauty and that blessed Alba. As a woman I understand her tears of joy. Beautiful!



"She makes coverings for her bed; she is clothed in fine linen and purple. . . She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come." Proverbs 31:22, 25


I can not say enough how beautiful my trip was. With no make-up, rinse off showers for three days, camping at night, mixing cement and sweating during the day. . .and I got to glimpse true beauty.

"One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple." Psalm 27:4