Our most INSANE day in Mexico!
After weeks of great outreaches our missionary team had our most insane number of incidents yet.
In the beginning of our 17-hour day, our outreach team headed out to the village of Kantunikin. When we arrived there we met Pastor Gabi and his family who started this new church by sacrificially leaving their thriving business in Cancun. They were wonderful leaders who truly loved the people of this village.
Was it hot? YES!
Inviting families to the special event
Although it was blazing hot, our team went out to the community door-to-door to invite people to the special event we were throwing that night. We received many smiles as we invited them. It was so hot, that two of our team almost passed out from heat stroke and we had to ice them down! One of them is our friend Barb who is 70-years-old. Barb said, “I was so weak that I literally could have died that day. I almost collapsed.”
As we were about to head over to Sebastian’s house to take a break, a terrible event happened. Our youngest team member, Victor, who is 6-years-old ran into the road and was hit by a car! I happened to be the first one to reach him and pick up his little body. I was hoping he hadn’t been critically injured or had broken any bones. Victor was scraped up, but thankfully he was okay. Before he started crying he was in shock and said, “That was the first time I have ever been hit by a car!” We were all shaken by this incident and giving thanks to God for preserving Victor’s life. Victor is Norwegian and his family have been missionaries in North Africa for 20 years.
Our team took a break at Sebastian’s house and he proudly gave me a tour of the home while our team collapsed exhausted into hammocks. The home he had lived in for 40 years was like all of the other local homes, made of concrete and featured many hooks for hammocks. Everyone in this region sleeps exclusively in hammocks. Behind the house was a garden with many edible plants, some pigs and chickens bred for meat. His family cooked all of their food over a fire in the backyard.
The skies opened up on us and poured rain so heavy we feared that our special event would be cancelled. As soon as it let up, we headed back out to the church. The heavy rain had kept people away so we headed back out to invite people again and they came!
The service was filled with joy as families and children sang songs, watched our gospel drama presentation, made crafts and cried as they received prayer. Almost everyone raised their hand to give their lives to Jesus! It was a special night that we will never forget.
We drove four hours back to our base and arrived around midnight. When our host pastors, Gamaliel and Favy, from Quintana Roo arrived at home, some masked men with guns took them by surprise and robbed them. The men put a gun to the pastor’s wife’s head and told her to lay down in the street. She told them that she would not because she feared that the men would enter her home to attack her two daughters inside. She rebuked them in the name of Jesus and they jumped in the pastor’s truck and sped off. Had she laid down where they instructed, she would have been run over. Although their truck, laptop, cell phones were stolen, the police informed them that in these kinds of robberies, the victims are often murdered. There is much violence in this city and it was by the grace of God that their lives were saved.
The next day, the pastors and their daughters came to our base. They wept as we prayed over them and the Holy Spirit began to bring his comfort and healing. That night, the pastors shared their harrowing story with their congregation and the next day we headed out to yet another village to share the gospel. These leaders were undaunted and unstoppable as they were determined to not let the enemy stop them from God’s mission. I am meeting many heroes on this trip and their devotion and perseverance has taught me lessons that I will always remember.
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