Missions to Mexico

Last April, I was encouraged to go on a missions trip to Mexico. I will never regret my decision to go!

One day, I was working the desk at Tutwiler, the biggest all girls' dorm on campus where I'm an RA, and my conversation partner from Venezuela came by and we started speaking in Spanish. One of my fellow RAs overheard our conversation and she told me that her Campus Ministries group was going on a missions trip to Mexico and that they needed interpreters really badly. A few weeks later, I was the link of communication between my group members and the Mexican people at the church we were helping out in a little border town called Nuevo Laredo. It was quite an experience! At first, I was a little apprehensive because I had never been an interpreter before in my life. And frankly, I didn't really feel qualified for the job. After all, I'm not completely fluent, and I didn't know how I'd hold up with such a huge responsibility on my shoulders. "What if I can't understand a word, and I sound to them like an unintelligible gringo?" I thought. However, my fears soon proved false as I found the people wonderful, loving, hospitable and willing to overlook my not-quite-fluent speech. In retrospect, I think I was a little too hard on myself because I'm such a perfectionist, especially when it comes to speaking Spanish. But I had to realize that I couldn't obssess over every little nuance, but rather just focus on making myself understood and on helping the leaders and members of my group do the same. My experience in Mexico was very humbling, and it showed me the possibilites of what I can do with my ability in Spanish for the greater good.

Top row from left: Pastor Jesús Bernardino, Angie (Pedro's oldest daughter), Jennifer, Will, Frances, Matt, Stephen, Jessica, and Pedro. Bottow row from left: Yours truly, Natalie, Edna (Pedro's youngest daughter), Kyle, and Martha. It was our last day in Mexico, and we were spending some free time at the market.

The first day we were there, we had a bit of free time after church and I decided to take a walk around. I saw these beautiful children and asked their parents if I could take a picture of them. They were more than happy to oblige.

Downtown Nuevo Laredo

I was taking a walk around the plaza (not "platha" here!) and wanted to try to capture the city. Other Mexicans that I have talked to about visiting Nuevo Laredo didn't seem too thrilled by it. But I found a beauty about it that has more to do with the way of life--there's a simplicity about it, and to me, that's more moving than the newness and glitter of other more well-known places.

Here we are, painting the fence of the Iglesia Bautista Eben-Ezer or the Ebeneezer Baptist Church. I learned a lot about painting and construction and stuff. It's not really that hard, and actually kind of fun.

Arrrrr . . . we're rough, tough, church-building machines! All of that construction work helps build a bit of muscle.

Just taking a break from hanging sheet rock, painting and sanding and other stuff. Pretty cool picture, huh? The possibilites are endless if we'd just take time to look at things from a different perspective.

Eating watermelon on the roof

Mmmm . . . watermelon on a warm afternoon. And what better place to eat it than on the roof of a church?

Meet Chantell Smith, lowly-college-student-turned-professional-spackler. I didn't even know what spackle was until I went on this trip--but I know now. I'll betcha I could spackle over the nails in your sheet rock better than anyone you know!

Little Jorge was the cutest little guy. He lived next door to the church and would come over in the morning and help us out until he had to go to school in the afternoon. We made sure his efforts were rewarded with snacks and candy that we had on hand.

Me and two adorable cuties!

In addition to doing construction work, we also hosted a vacation Bible school for the children called Kids Club. Each afternoon before we started we had a bit of recreation time outside. We had all kind of balls, hula hoops, jump rope, sidewalk chalk, play-doh, face paint, and bubbles. They LOVED the bubbles. The two darlings that I'm with in this picture are Ramón and his little sister, Maricrúz. They never wanted to leave when it was over.

These little girls were so sweet! The ones whose names I remember are Alejandra, directly to my left, and Abisag, the little one to my right. Alejandra told me that her favorite food was "espagueti" (spaghetti), and 4-year-old Abisag could speak English almost fluently.

Can I take you home with me?

This cutie that I'm holding is the pastor's grandson. His name is Nahum (pronounced in Spanish na-OOM). Though cute as all get out, he was a little troublemaker--he was always getting into things and throwing little temper tantrums. But one thing that really got his attention was the flash of my camera.

I think that I will go back to Mexico one day . . . I want to go everywhere one day! One country at a time. Click on me to find out more about my enchanting persona.