Juarez has been labeled the deadliest city in the world right now with an average of 10 murders a day, most of which are related to drug trafficking and cartels. The record in 2009 was 3 days without any homicides. While we were there, I saw a headline on a local paper that read (roughly translated): “A major incident: 93 murders in 9 days”. Many children are left on the street, whether orphaned or left to fend for themselves as their parents leave their homes at 5 AM to cross the boarder for work in factories in El Paso, Texas. So if there was anywhere that needed to hear the hope and good news of Jesus Christ, it is Juarez.
So Thursday morning, Tim and I left for the Sacramento airport to meet about 25 other people from our church to head down to Juarez. Our mission was to assist in an Operation Christmas Child shoe box distribution. This is an outreach of Samaritan's Purse. Around November of each year shoe boxes are filled with toys, candy, hygiene items and small clothing items (mittens, scarves, etc.) and shipped around the world to children in poor villages. Once the shoe boxes arrive, volunteers help to distribute the shoe boxes as well as hand out booklets to the children, written in their own language, telling them about the Good News of Jesus Christ. That's where we step in.
At the airport, Tim got to pass out several tracts to people at both ends of the terminals. One lady's son ran up to him asking for more, and another lady said no to an offer of a tract, but after watching people take one, she asked for one later. Tim even got to hand a tract to a TSA person walking by who said thanks. He extended one to a cashier near our gate and he was so excited about it. After traveling all day Thursday and crossing the boarder into Mexico, we finally arrived at the missions base in Juarez to a nice warm meal of tortilla soup (fantastic!). After our bellies were full (you can't leave any left overs. It's rude to the cooks!) we got back on the bus to go to the gym where the distributions would be held on both Friday and Saturday. Once there, we divided up. Ladies set up roughly 1,000 folding chairs while the guys unloaded the shipping boxes of shoe boxes by age and gender. By the time we were through, we were very tired but excited for the next days activities.
When we woke in the morning it was still quite very cold but no snow. We got to the gym and waited for the kids to arrive. We were scheduled to start at 9AM and by 9:30 no kids had arrived yet. But we weren't ready to give up. Surely enough around 10AM school buses with smiling kids of all ages began to arrive. Due to school being canceled, the buses had waited at the schools as long as possible, waiting for any straggling kids to show up who might be running late. This event had been planned for several months. Slowly the gym started to fill until it was about half full. We were so excited to see how the Lord had answered our prayers. It was such a joy to see so many kids and parents overwhelmed with joy and thankfulness.
Several weeks prior to leaving, we had a group meeting where one of the group organizers had a helpful suggestion. He said that as you help the kids open their box, if you find a letter with an address in the box, take a picture of the address and then of the child that received that box and when you get home you can mail the picture of the child to the address in the letter to let them know exactly who received their box. This really stuck with me, so I prayed that over the 2 days we were doing the distributions that the Lord would give me one address to be able to send a picture to. So, that first day as we began to hand out the boxes, I had my camera in hand. And then I found one! I was so excited. Now, its amazing how even if you think you only know a little of a language, how much you actually remember when you need it. So I asked the little girl what her name was and if I could take her picture to send to the people that has packed her box. She was so excited too. I thanked her and thanked the Lord for answering my prayer. I have to tell you, if you really pray something and really mean it, the Lord will answer your prayer in abundance. After finding that first address I had to start a list of names of all the kids because I found address after address. By the time the two day where over I had found ten addresses to send pictures to of children who had received shoe boxes!
It was amazing to see how God orchestrates things. The children made it to the gym, our team was working together amazingly well despite the bitter cold, the children were excited to hear about Jesus and to get their gifts and prayers were being answered all over the place. We did two separate distributions on Friday and by the end of the day, our team was tired but quite fulfilled. Before we headed back to the base, we made a quick stop at a local strip mall.
It was amazing to see how God orchestrates things. The children made it to the gym, our team was working together amazingly well despite the bitter cold, the children were excited to hear about Jesus and to get their gifts and prayers were being answered all over the place. We did two separate distributions on Friday and by the end of the day, our team was tired but quite fulfilled. Before we headed back to the base, we made a quick stop at a local strip mall.
Before we left for our trip, we had been told that there would be opportunities for ministry out in the community. So Tim and I came prepared with Gospel tracts in Spanish. So while at the mall we walked around in big groups handing out the tracts that read “Eres una persona buena?” (Are you a good person?) The response was great and we had a blast.
That night at devotions we praised God for bringing as many children as He did and asked for a packed house for Saturday. And that is exactly what we got. Saturday was a little warmer day. And because there was no school scheduled for a Saturday anyway, we knew that all the children that had originally planned to come, would be there. And it was full. We only did one distribution in the morning and it was much the same as Friday had been. After the children left, we packed up the chairs and cleaned the floor. Our afternoon stop was going to be a little different. We traveled about 30 minutes out of the main town to an area called a “colonia”. This is a village of poor squatters. It was so sad to see such extreme poverty. We talked to one little girl standing by a large garbage bin and she told us that once a week a water truck came to the village and filled the bin with drinking water for her family. Houses in this village were made of scrap metal, cinder blocks, cardboard, etc. Again, this was certainly a place that desperately needed the hope of Jesus Christ and the love of a simple gift. So we set up a small stage and began our distribution. It was a lot of fun and the families were so grateful. Once again, we all went back to the base that night feeling very blessed and very fulfilled.
Sunday brought us another fun filled day. Over the weekend we had partnered with a local church, Amigo Fiel (Faithful Friend) for the OCC distributions and on Sunday we got to attend church services there. They have two services due to how rapidly their congregation outgrew the small sanctuary they had. So we divided our team and half of us attended the first service while the others helped in children's ministry and then we rotated. I assisted with the preschool and kindergarten class while Tim was in with the elementary school kids. It was just the perfect place for me to be. With my limited Spanish skills, not much was required of me at that age level. But I knew enough to ask them all their names, the types of stuffed animals they were playing with (dog, frog, etc.), the colors of the crayons we were using and the fruits that had the same colors. It was so much fun!
The kids in the classroom Tim was in the teacher had them memorize 1 Corinthians 15:21-22. The teacher wrote the scripture on the dry erase board and then erased one word from the verse on the white board at a time until they had memorized the whole verse. Once the kids knew the verse, one by one they recited it by heart. Wow, we were amazed at their ability and participation. Afterward, when it was our turn to go in for church, our Pastor Sam gave a message in English while Carlos translated into Spanish. During worship I was amazed that I recognized the songs they were singing in Spanish. I can read Spanish better that I can speak or understand spoken Spanish, so I was very excited to see the words to the worship songs on the overhead and then sing along. I was singing Spanish worship songs and I knew what I was singing! It was truly incredible and brought me to tears (I am a little teary now remembering it and writing about it.) After church we went back to the mission base with our team where we had some free time to catch up on rest. I was glad I did because we were certainly going to need it for our outreach event later that afternoon.
The kids in the classroom Tim was in the teacher had them memorize 1 Corinthians 15:21-22. The teacher wrote the scripture on the dry erase board and then erased one word from the verse on the white board at a time until they had memorized the whole verse. Once the kids knew the verse, one by one they recited it by heart. Wow, we were amazed at their ability and participation. Afterward, when it was our turn to go in for church, our Pastor Sam gave a message in English while Carlos translated into Spanish. During worship I was amazed that I recognized the songs they were singing in Spanish. I can read Spanish better that I can speak or understand spoken Spanish, so I was very excited to see the words to the worship songs on the overhead and then sing along. I was singing Spanish worship songs and I knew what I was singing! It was truly incredible and brought me to tears (I am a little teary now remembering it and writing about it.) After church we went back to the mission base with our team where we had some free time to catch up on rest. I was glad I did because we were certainly going to need it for our outreach event later that afternoon.
Sunday afternoon our team piled back in our bus and headed for the city plaza in downtown Juarez for a community outreach.. We had been given some Spanish gospel tracts, invitations to the Amigo Fiel church and New Testament bibles in Spanish. Of course, Tim and I had some of our own Spanish gospel tracts as well. We even found a bag of gospel tracts from livingwaters.com left on a bench there. Tim felt it was the Lord affirming that we were certainly supposed to be there to reach the people. Our plan was to spend forty-five minutes to and hour down there witnessing and anyone who showed any interest could talk to the two pastors from the church we were with. But of course God had other plans. When we arrived at the plaza a large group was already gathered watching a mime make balloon animals (whatever it takes to draw a crowd!). So, one of the pastors we were with approached them to let them know what we had wanted to do and could we share the plaza. They asked for a few minutes to wrap up and then let us have center stage. The clown/mime guys actually ended up staying to listen! So when Carlos, the pastor, let us loose, that's when the amazing ministry work really began. One woman came up and grabbed gospel tracts out of the pocket of someone in our group. A man sat listening to the Gospel message in tears, Tonye, a friend we were with had a shoe shine come up to him and practically forced him to let the man shine his shoes. So Tonye, being a pastor himself, didn't pass up the opportunity and had someone fluent in Spanish assist him in giving the shoeshine the entire Gospel message while he was getting his shoes cleaned! I saw Tommy, a young man in our group, talking with a local gentleman for about 30 minutes. I asked him later if he was fluent in Spanish (one would have to be in order to carry on a conversation that long!) but he said he only knew limited Spanish and that somehow, through the workings of the Holy Spirit, they had been able to understand each other. A man who was fairly fluent in English came up to talk with Tim. He had a catholic background but didn't know if he was saved. Tim went through the court room, and air-plane illustrations with him, and told him he needed to repent and trust in Jesus. While they were talking, another woman from our team and I were praying for the Lord to speak through Tim and for the man's heart to be open to the words Tim had to say. After praying for the man, Tim left him with a tract. We could tell by the look in his eyes that it was a divine appointment. At one point a few people from our group, Tim and I included, found ourselves surrounded by a group of young men (late teens to early twenties) asking to be prayed for. They said they were Christians and by the worn-out bibles each of them clung to, I believed them. They wanted to be stronger in their faith and to reach out to those around them that they loved. We agreed to pray for them and soon they were praying, two or three of them at a time. I think we were all in shock of the strength and conviction of their faith because it wasn't for several minutes later of just listening to these young men open their hearts to the Lord in Spanish did we join in and start praying in English as well. By the time we had finished all of them and many of us were in tears, again by the amazing work of the Holy Spirit. It was an amazing day. And after nearly an hour and a half (originally just supposed to be 45 minutes) we went back to the base fulfilled.
The next morning seemed to come too quickly as we all dreaded having to leave such close fellowship and return to the "real world" of jobs and bills and commitments. We left with a piece of Juarez and a compassion for the lost like never before. But we had a challenge set before us. All the things we felt and all the ways God worked in and through us in Juarez could be just as real in Chico and anywhere we went. Tim was able to talk to a serviceman named "Woods" at the airport and thanked him for his service to our country. He stood up and immediately gave Tim a one handed man hug thanking him for being thankful for what he had been doing. Tim gave him a gift of a book called "One Heartbeat Away" by Mark Cahill. As we turned around to leave for the flight, he was reading the book. There was no reason that the missions trip had to end. We just moved to a new location as we came back home to family, friends and co-workers who don't yet know the Lord. And after you have read this I hope you feel encouraged and challenged as well. Please prayerfully consider the platform Jesus has given you in your life where you can let your light shine brightly for Him. Thank you to everyone who prayed for us while we were in Juarez. Now I pray that next time you will join us and watch God grow your faith too. God bless you.
