Matamoras Mission Trip 2010
***August 5th @ 11:30pm
By Josh Rogers
So, it’s Josh, and I’m doing an update! Mexico has been a really different experience for me and has really taken me out of my comfort zone. Even from the beginning when I got off the last plane ride I noticed a giant difference in the temperature, which hasn’t been very comfortable, but it’s tolerable! The whole trip has been amazing. One thing that I have felt moved in is the VBS. I’ve never participated in VBS or really interacted with kids much at all, they kind of scare me; however, the Mexican kids that I have been getting to know have changed my opinion. Even though we don’t speak the same language I can still interact with them, from using different hand motions to signal what we want to say to each other, to just randomly making up games and poking each other for fun! The Holy Spirit has really just moved me in this ministry and I can tell I’ve grown in it. Another interesting experience from this trip was today my team had an “Ask the Lord” session, where we just prayed and followed what the Lord was leading us to do. Rickie felt lead to wash people feet and hand out bags of food to the people in the colonia, the area we were working in, so we worked to do that. Rickie, Hannah Fisher and Rebecca Otto went off to get supplies for that while me and Dustin Polley stayed behind and helped with the VBS, because there wasn’t enough room in the jeep. We had fun with the kids, but the party really started when all the supplies started coming. People somehow just knew that the food was around, and a line was being formed. Everyone was hectically packing all the bags as the line was growing massive, but all in all it worked in amazing ways. You could see that the people saw the Lord’s compassion when they got the food, and after they got food they could get a foot wash! I think about 8 people were washing peoples feet with soap and water and lotion, which was symbolic from a story in the Bible where Jesus washed peoples feet. There were lots of different reactions, some people just sat and had their feet washed quietly, and one lady laughed the whole time! People definitely enjoyed it though, and you could see that it was making people think about Christ. Tonight, we also had an amazing Debrief, which is where we just talk about the day. The incredible thing was when Kristen shared her testimony. Hopefully she won’t read this and be embarrassed, but I have really noticed growth in her over this trip! She has been doing an outstanding job on this trip and I definitely saw it when she was talking in front of everyone. After that, we had a massive prayer session. I prayed for friends and friends prayed for me, people cried and people cried for one another, everyone was comforting each other and you could really feel God’s presence. Will, the worship music leader, started playing songs which really fit to me. All through the week I’ve had the song “From the Inside Out” stuck in my head, because I thought it has been applying, watching people transform over this trip. Will hadn’t played it through the whole trip, but tonight he did, and when he did I couldn’t help but get into it. Everyone was singing so loudly and was so into the song, it was a great experience. I’m sad that I have to leave on Saturday and I won’t be going back to the church to see all the people, but at the same time I am home sick and will enjoy being back with my family and my drum set.
See you all soon!
Josh Rogers
By Jonathan
It has been a very full last couple of days. On top of our regular ministry on Wednesday, we led a worship service at the Mexican church. Students led a few worship songs, performed and explained the Redeemer drama, Cassie shared her testimony, and I preached. So it was a super-long day. It took a lot out of the team. A few students are feeling sick. Katie T., Audrey, Colby, and Chris all threw up at some point today. Audrey and Colby actually stayed at the base today to rest. They seemed much better when we got home. We’ve been doing our best to get kids to drink water and take breaks out of the hot sun. We’re not sure if they are suffering from heat issues or if there is some sort of bug they are getting. Either way, everyone is doing okay at this point, but we would appreciate your prayers.
A lot of cool stuff happened today, but it was another long day. Josh was the only student willing to type an update tonight. Marlys and Thor’s team had great ministry at the Youth Detention Center today. The highlight was Kristen sharing her testimony with everyone. The Spirit was really at work through her willingness to share and has been doing a great work on her heart. Praise God! Rickie felt like God was leading us to distribute food for this very poor community. There are so many needy families in this community. It is heartbreaking. No one should have to live in these conditions. We gave away bags (that were about the size of a half-gallon bag) of rice, flour, beans, detergent, and some diapers to families with babies. After people went through the line to get the food, students washed the feet of as many people as would let them. It was beautiful and brought tears to my eyes to see the love and sacrifice your amazing kids were willing to make for the people. They washed feet and rubbed sweet smelling lotion on afterward. One woman was ashamed and didn’t want her feet washed. She said she was not worthy of something like that. Catherine shared about how we have all been made worthy because of Jesus’ sacrifice for us. Catherine explained that this woman was a priceless treasure. You would be so proud of the Mexico team. They served Christ so well this week. The director of the base said that our team was the most prepared team of any this summer and the most willing to jump into any ministry. If I wasn’t so exhausted I would love to share more. Please remember to pray for the health of the team. We are packing and cleaning tomorrow, heading to the local market, then back to base for a home cooked meal prepared by a local family (of which the 4 kids, ages 14-21, all translated for us this week), and then off to the USA. Thanks so much for reading.
Amazed by His love and grace,
Jonathan
ps-Just got to read Josh's report. Sorry for the overlap, but I'm too tired to fix it 
***Tuesday August 3rd @ 11:25pm
By Kyle Clancy
God has a plan. Today I saw that again in a very vivid way, and I also got to experience God using me to lead others to Christ. I woke up this morning thinking I was just doing games for VBS, but God had other plans. When I went to breakfast, Katherine asked me if I would share the gospel message and I agreed. When I prayed about it in my quiet time, God revealed a way to link the gospel message, our main topic, and my testimony. The topic that we had was “Jesus is My Best Friend”, and when I was younger I was very shy and didn’t have many friends, so God used that part of my life and linked it with our main topic. I talked about how God was the perfect friend even when my other friends let me down. I also shared a very straight forward gospel message with the kids. At the end of all of this I asked if anyone would like to accept Christ and about eight kids came up. It was a real blessing to lead them in this prayer, and that I had the privilege of reaping God’s harvest. He knew my story and he knew our topic that we picked months ago, and He put it all together on the day of VBS for His kingdom. All glory to God!
-Kyle Clancy
By Katie Hampton
The Holy Spirit is moving miraculously throughout Mexico! The past few days have been such an experience and a blessing. Today our team broke up and did house visits throughout the colonia. We visited a young girl named Miracle who was about 15. We shared with her the love of Christ and his abundant love for us. Her grandparents are Christians but she doesn’t really know what to believe. Each one of us either shared our testimony or something really impacting in their lives such as a favorite Bible verse. Miracle told us that it was a miracle she was even born because she was 3 months premature. We began to tell her that God had a huge plan for her life. We asked her if she would like to receive Christ as her personal Savior and as soon as we asked, her cell phone rang. She had been praying for work and apparently she got a job offer. She had to leave instantly but she told us that she would love to pray with us and talk more tomorrow at VBS. Please keep her in your prayers so that she can come to know the Lord as her personal Savior. Later, we went on to another house and an older woman greeted us. She said she would love prayer for a fixed roof and we sat down and prayed for her. She began to weep and she began to explain to us that Christ will provide. I could tell by the way she was talking to us that she was in complete surrender to God’s plan for her life. Later, her husband and nephew came in to the house and they both accepted Christ into their hearts! Thank you Lord!
-Katie Hampton
By Jonathan-for prayer:
-Wednesday is a very long day. We have our regular morning and afternoon of ministry (which is already long and difficult) and then we are leading a church service in the evening and serving dinner to the community. Please pray for God’s protection for us physically. It is super hot! Pray that God supplies all of our needs and that we can glorify Him through everything.
***August 2nd 10:30pm (posted 8/3 @ 5:40am)
By Abbie Kruse
The first full day was absolutely amazing! In fact, we could say that it was a God send. He used every single person on the team in ways that I know they could never imagine. My team had the opportunity to do VBS first thing today. I was hesitant to say the least. After last year’s experience I was expecting multitudes of screaming children all vying for our attention. I run to the car to grab a bunch of the supplies and accidently drop one of the jump ropes along the way. A little boy grabbed the jump rope and quickly ran it to me. I turned around to receive it completely surprised. I knew that VBS would be one of the best I have experienced. We started VBS and turned out these kids were the most polite, kind, gentle and excited I have seen. Throughout the day they were helpful, in fact we gave out a snack and each and every one of the children stood PATIENTLY in line! After VBS and lunch we originally had construction and I being the complainer I am was not looking forward to it at all! But turns out the dump trucks didn’t drop off the dirt in time so we had the glorious opportunity of home visits. We began walking and three kids fell into step with us. In fact they lead us to the house we needed to be at. God gave us the blessing of talking with a family whose two oldest children had recently (within the last two months) become Christians. As we talked Rickie primarily lead the conversation. At one point Dustin felt that we should head out because he felt we were pushing them too much. But we continued to love on them and soon we were at the point of asking if the mother, the grandmother and the youngest if they would like to become Christians. At first the grandmother was very hesitant, but after Rickie told a very compelling story from her own life we had also won her heart. We prayed with them to accept Christ. The son had a smile that could light up a room and as his mom and grandmother and sister accepted Christ there was a extreme happiness throughout the soon. We also asked if there was anything we could pray for. Now I am asking you to pray for this women and her alcoholic husband. The rest of the family is on fire for the Lord and we need to continue to lift the family up! Thanks!
-Abbie
By Dustin Polley
Bon Jour. I mean hola! Today was pretty much amazing. First I would like to say that the trip out here was excellent. Instead of taking off and landing twice we got the opportunity to fly to Minneapolis. We finally arrived at the airport and entered easily into Mexico. As far as today went it was really cool to see how God was working in each and every team. For myself I was really nervous about the VBS. I was the Emcee which was a little difficult since I took French instead of Spanish. My nervousness came from the fact that Rickie had asked me to present the Gospel to the kids. I was not sure what to say. So I kept coming up with excuses to pray in front of the kids. Just like God promised he took care of me and gave me the words to say. I would like to talk about the experience I had on house visits but I do not have time now. Thank you so much for your prayers. Grace and peace!
-Dustin
By Jonathan-Prayer Requests:
-That God would help our bodies handle the heat and He would help us drink tons of water.
-That God would help people to sleep.
-That we would learn to better listen to the Holy Spirit and we would boldly follow His direction.
-For the colonia we are working in. It is very poor. A family Rylie, Liz, and I talked with yesterday lives off of less than $10/day.
***August 1st @ 11:30pm reports:
by Rylie Enslin-Mexico Day One…..Accomplished.
After a real long day of stressful yet adventurous travel, we’re here!
Hey mom, do you remember a week ago when I told you I had never ridden on a plane at night? Well that’s still true! Me and Jon were on Stand-By until 7:10 when we snagged the last two seats on the flight. But we all got here eventually. And thankfully, today was loads better. It was so great. We started out just hanging around camp, and I played some much needed soccer with a couple others. At around 2 or 3 we headed off in the bus to the colonia where we will be working at the week. Which just happens to be the poorest in all of Matamoros. To see the “houses” these people lived in was just heartbreaking to me. We broke up into our teams and walked up and down the street going door to door inviting people to a church service later. One little girl named Cynthia handed me a bracelet she had which was actually a little Barbie doll purse. She later ran off and I went to go give it back to her. Using the little Spanish I know I was able to mutter up the words “Here, this is yours”. But she responded with a smile and shook her head saying “no no keep it” and gave me a hug. For some reason that totally made my day! The other absolutely amazing thing was at the end of the sermon, the speaker asked people to come forward who had made a decision for Christ that night. Then he asked all the Americans to come up and pray for them. We all just knelt down next to them and called out to Jesus. We thanked our Father for bringing us their safely and for proving himself to us in many ways already. And for saving these people tonight and allowing us to even have a chance at salvation. Everyone was praying their own prayer out loud and just praising our king. Some in Spanish and some in English. The Holy Spirit was soooo present it was ridiculous! Chills were running up and down my spine and I didn’t want to ever stop calling out to my Father. The LORD is good and he is working in us already. And it was only the first day! I cant wait to see what else happens!
–Rylie Enslin
Love you Mom and Dad
by Elysa Madsen-So today we got to our Colonia, it’s one of the poorest in Matamoros. We walked around and invited people to church. Once the service started lots of people came, the whole church was filled up and this is a tiny sized church. The pastor of the church gave a sermon and shared a verse in Proverbs. The way coolest part of the service was after everything was over, the leader of AIM (Adventures In Missions-Richard is the base director here*parenthesis by Jonathan), Richard, asked if anyone wanted to come up and just show that they wanted to believe in Christ. I could just feel Gods power and Holy Spirit working in that place right then and there when we all got to pray for the people who went up front, it was unbelievable. Also, a few of us girls thought we recognized a little boy from VBS from last year! And sure enough it was him, way out away from where we were last year living with his grandma, it’s just soo cool that we can see a kid again that we met before and helped grow in Christ last summer. God has definitely placed us all here for a reason, and I’m excited to see what other awesome things He has in store for us (:
-Elysa Madsen
***July 31 2010 @ 11:30pm report by Jonathan Isenberg
We finally arrived! The group arrived at Sea-Tac at 10:30pm Friday night, expecting to depart at 12:55am, arriving at the Texas border at 10:30am Saturday morning. Unfortunately, the airlines made a mistake, which, in the end, left 17 of us without a spot on a plane. After much prayer, stress, and hours talking with airline representatives, everyone got to Mexico by 7:45pm tonight. We lost a lot of sleep, but praise God that He made a way for us to get here. We were grateful to be able to worship God together in Mexico tonight. Sadly, Thor’s plane had some technical problems (involving birds on a previous flight), so he will join us tomorrow (Sunday) around noon. We look forward to a worship service at our base tomorrow morning and then an evening worship service with the Mexican church we will be working with this week. Please pray that God will work in our hearts and give us many opportunities to honor and glorify Him! Praise Him for the miracles He did in getting us here! Thanks be to the God who sees us (Gen. 16). I hope to have a few students write a note tomorrow.
***Saturday July 31st @ 3:00am:
Wow! The team could use your prayer! There was a mistake between United and Continental airlines leaving our team in disarray to start the trip off. 6 people made it on the 12:55am flight with no issue. 17 of us had the case of the disappearing tickets. We've been working with the airlines for the last 4 hours trying to get the rest of us to Texas. At this point, everyone but 11 have a seat on a plane. The rest of us are on standby for a 6am flight. We need God's favor! Please intercede on our behalf for a timely arrival.
Colby Holloway would like you all to know that he is doing great! However, this situation is leaving him feeling bamboozled. Rylie really wants to say something…yet…she isn't able to come up with anything. She's pretty excited, but her sunburn from vacationing in Tahoe hurts. Anywho, we can't wait to see what God has in store. If Satan is putting this much effort in our way to stop us, God must have some amazing things planned! Woot-Woot!!!