Day 7

Day 7 - 6/12/23 (Rachel)

Today, on our last day of ministry, we finally woke up and made it to breakfast on time. For breakfast we had french toast.

Instead of morning devotions, we walked down to the beach for reflection time. Remaining silent the entire time, we stood on the sand and looked out toward the ocean to spend individual time with God. It was a great way to collect our thoughts on all the ways we have changed over the week and on how we can remain changed when we come home. It was also good to focus on God's handiwork and remember that He is GOOD.

After walking back to base camp, we went back to the Hope Zone for our final ministry. This time, we split into three teams.

Jodie, Grace, Chris, and Uncle Guangli kept working on the house with our leaders Brianna and Elena. They finished putting up the inner walls and moved on to putting drywall on the ceiling. At one point, Oscar, who was leading the Hope Zone project, had Jodie and Grace climb onto ladders and handed them a huge piece of drywall to hold up to the ceiling, then just walked away without any further instruction. Their arms were dying until Oscar finally returned to drill in the drywall.

Paul, Nathan, and Clement dug holes to put fence posts into while Gigi, Auntie Xia, and I continued fixing the barbed wire fence. My team was also joined by Cathy, who was from another church also helping there that is actually from Concord. Silas, our team leader, floated around between our two groups to help out. Gigi had many near death experiences with the barbed wire but was saved by her sunglasses and hood, and Auntie Xia proved her strength while twisting and tying the wire.

By the time we had to pack up and leave, each team had made great progress on their work. We were all proud of what we managed to accomplish with such a small team, and grateful to be the people chosen to help those who would be living in the house. They had been praying for two years for this gift of help, and it was amazing that we were the answer to their prayers.

We returned to base and enjoyed one more Mexican dish for dinner. Many of us also bought milkshakes from the coffee shop on base, which were delicious. After dinner we all bought bracelets again, just like last year.

At our last evening session, the room was set with many round tables that we sat at. We played Rock, Paper, Scissors Splits Snake (or Snake Splits), which Jodie very nearly won due to her ability to do the full splits. The church that we lost to were very kind and ended up congratulating  Jodie on her very impressive skill. Though our team came in last place overall, we had fun and we definitely got the things that really matter from the trip: Christian life lessons and a stronger relationship with God.

Pastor Jud ended the week by talking about not losing or forgetting the things we've gained this week. He used the parable of the wine skins: nobody puts new wine into old wine skins or else the skins will burst and the wine will be lost. We don't want to waste everything we've learned this week by going back to our same old lives, so we need to build a strong foundation of trust in God, which will help us stand through every storm and trial. 

Pastor Jud shared about a big struggle that he went through himself, and about how his relationship with God have him peace because his life was dedicated to Him. It is extremely important to have a solid foundation in God, because the Devil is not trying to distract us from God. The Devil is out to KILL us, and Jesus is the way to life.

After the message we switched tables to sit with new people that were not from our own church. We answered questions about where we had seen Jesus during the week, how Jesus had spoken to us, and what we could do to build our foundations when we return home. It was amazing to hear all the ways that Jesus has moved in our lives.

Then, we all put away the tables and chairs for one last worship session. It was easy to see that our whole team was filled with the Spirit of God as we jumped and danced and raised our arms, shouting about the freedom we have found in Christ.

After our worship, and a fun dance session, we had a late night Oxxo run to buy snacks for our youth to try (and for ourselves). When we came back, we all sat around a table to talk about the trip while trying Mexican candy. We were joined by Tyler from ACF, the Alaskan church, and briefly by Eli from Harvest, the Minnesotan church, as well as Ricky who was one of our translators. We talked about differences among our respective states and about our spiritual growth and experiences. We stayed up past midnight spending our last moments together before we would have to leave the next day.

Our theme this week was "Taste and See." The verse that inspired the theme, Psalms 34:8, says, "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!" This week, we were reminded that when we live with a full and passionate relationship with God, we can have not just life, but LIFE (as Pastor Jud would say: capital L, capital I, capital F, capital E). It's like the difference between eating a pre-packaged, processed taco and an authentic Mexican taco straight from Ensenada: you can immediately taste the difference. We see that God is good through His recorded actions in the Bible, especially, of course, in Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. God has shown His goodness in the past, so we can trust that He will be good to us now and in the future.

So, I hope and pray that everything we've gone through in this trip will stick with us always. And, I hope that others will be inspired to find their fire for Jesus and to find peace by trusting in Him.

¡Hasta luego!

~Rachel