Day 5

Day 5 - 6/10/23 (Gigi)

Aloha 🌺

As this trip progressed, we (at least the girls) have been sleeping later and later each night; we also are getting up later and later every morning. Today we set our late record: hearing the bell of breakfast in our beds. Breakfast was awfully quiet but the breakfast sandwiches were pretty good. It was egg, ham, and cheese sandwiched in English muffins. After breakfast, we quickly ran to OXXO (the convenience store) to get rooster hats for uncle Guangli and I. Fun observation: there were local police in the store holding large rifles. Apparently all Mexican police carry rifles with them at all times 🔫

We came back right on time for the session to start at 8:30. As usual, we started with an active game called Captain's Orders. It's a game where the last person to do a certain movement is out. Our whole team played the game well, but we had the disadvantage of having less people. Unsurprisingly, we did not win :D 

We divided into our two devotions groups to read Psalms 23:1-3, Psalms 16:11, 2 Timothy 1:6-7, Exodus 33:14, and James 4:8. All these passages talk about the comfort and the abundance of God. In my group, one of the leaders said how God will see us trying hard to build a relationship with him, even if we only set 10 minutes aside each day. We should take baby steps and believe that God will guide us. 

After the worship session, we split up into two vans for the ride to the Tijuana dump (where the trash from the city of Tijuana goes). Usually we go to mission sites with buses, but since the location is far away and the  mountain where the dump is unpaved and extremely bumpy, we had to take the van. Josh (YWAM Ensenada coordinator) and Annika (YWAM staff) drove the vans from the YWAM base (Ensenada) to Tijuana, which took us 2 hours. A mile before we reached the bottom of the dump mountain, we went to a large grocery called Bodega Aurrera. The store seemed like a mix of Target, Walmart, and Safeway. We bought around 300 USD worth of water, rice, beans, soup base, granola bars, reusable bags, and sanitary items. After spending 30 minutes shopping and 30 minutes waiting in the very long checkout line, we finished our lunch and hit the road. 

When we reached the church in the dump, Pastor Julian shared about his ministry. We learned that he lived in the dump to provide for the community there. His church at the dump is a branch of a larger church in town. The church at the dump is one big space, inside a large plastic tent. Near one corner of the space, there were two cylindrical tanks with water filters at the faucet end and three square tanks with no filters. Everyday, each person who lives on the dump can fill a bucket of unfiltered water for bathing plus filtered water to drink. When someone gets sick, Pastor Julian brings them to the hospital 15 minutes away from the church. If they cannot afford the medical bills, the church will cover the cost as well. 

After learning more about the ministry, we carried all the groceries out from the van. We unpacked them and set up an assembly line to open bags, put in two bottles of water, a granola bar, a pack of dried soup, apples, rice, and beans. Since we worked in an organized manner, we finished packing really fast. 

The 15 of us divided ourselves in two different groups (Jodie, Grace, Clement, Nathan, Brother Chris, Josh (YWAM Ensenada coordinator), Ricky (translator), Annika (YWAM staff) were in one group. Rachel, Paul, Auntie Xia, Uncle Guangli, Brianna (YWAM staff), Silas (YWAM staff), Elena (translator), and I were in a different group) and headed opposite directions to pass out the packed bags.

We were told to not take pictures outside the church out of respect for privacy. But let me try to describe what the community is like. The people who live here mostly make a living out of finding scraps in the trash mountains, burning the plastic away, and selling what’s left of the scap – the remaining metal parts. Since they burn all sorts of items, the whole place is dusty. Around the church are where the people have their homes. These houses are made of material found in the dump as well. The dump where they find the trash is further away from the church and the residents. The dumps, according to Silas, stretch across miles into the mountains. 

We walked around the housing areas passing out the bags we packed and praying for people we met. Each time we walk in front of a home, we would have the person praying go with a translator. Most of the time, they would want us to pray for them and we would ask for their names and prayer requests. We prayed for hope, protection, love, faith, their homes, families, and children. In one of the prayers, someone said something along the lines of “The water and food will run out, but the love of God never does”. I really love that. 

Although some people didn’t want prayers or were in a rush to leave, we still prayed to them amongst ourselves after they left. In my group, we met a guy named Jésus who didn’t want a prayer. I hope he can learn the meaning behind his name one day, through the ministries of pastor Julian. Another guy said how he has children and family in America, and he could not visit them because he was deported. When we were praying for these two ladies, there were 14 dogs, all different breeds and colors surrounding us. Jodie said a family she prayed for owned 10 cats! There sure are a lot of pets near ;D

After passing out all the bags, we circled up and had Chris, Clement, and Jodie pray for Julian’s ministry, him, and the people there. We washed our hands and grabbed some snacks before we drove back to the base. Most people fell asleep during the two hours. We got back on base right on time for dinner. 

During the night session, we played a warm up game, Paper Twisters, and we finally won! YAY!!!1!!1! Our first win!! 🥹 Since we are last place out of the five teams, we had zero chance of winning through points. So we spun the wheel of chaos. Although the “chaos' ' the wheel landed on was bad (doing the chicken dance and 25 jumping jacks), and not what we wanted (get free drinks and swap points), we still had fun. 

The topic for the sermon was Feel. But before that, the MA staff prepared a skit about fully trusting Jesus. Pastor Jud spoke about feeling the presence of God because of his presence, not based on our feelings. Personally, the sermon really touched me. I would consider myself an emotional person who makes choices based on how I feel. But praising and seeking God shouldn’t be something I do only when I feel the presence of God. Because the truth is, we won’t feel like that all the time. Instead, I should pray and read scripture and worship out of my heart, and out of my faith and know know know knowing the Lord. 

Today was praise night, so the worship session went a little differently. We had the opportunity to worship, pray, and go to stations around the rooms. There were 6 stations including a communion station, Bible verse wall, forgiveness cross, growth flower, praise carpet, drawing thanksgivings with chalk. Many of us ended up praying for each other, worshiping with linked arms, and just giving each other support. As the worship time came to an end, we as a church sat in a circle and said a quick prayer and left the worship hall. Some of us decided to stack our Brita water bottles and just chat a little bit before the night closed.

It’s currently 3:16 and I’m very very very tired 😴 Please excuse me for any mistakes in spelling and grammar ：）

~ Gigi