Youth Alive

Missions Trip 2009

Bearing Precious Seed, Mexico

Day #1

A group of sleep deprived teens and parents met this morning shortly after 2am, to send missions trip 2009 out to catch their first flight out of Toronto .  The drive was surprisingly smooth with next to no traffic.  I got to the airport with the bus just after 4 am unloaded the missions team and took the bus to paid parking.  The first park & fly I drove into was the valet parking and after a few sideways looks from the valets realized that he needed to park somewhere else.  Anyway…found the park & fly and then the shuttle and by 4:30 I was inside the packed American airlines luggage check-in lineups.  The flight to Dallas was absolutely packed from what we could see and the baggage check-in showed it.  By the time I got there, most of the teens has already made it through the baggage check-in and were making there way through customs.   Customs ran basically perfectly except Pastor Walsh slipped  a terrible word as he went through customs and as I caught up to the group he was trying like crazy trying to explain that no it wasn’t “work”, but that he was volunteering, but he happened to get a lady customs agent that was none to pleased to allow him to go through.

We all made it on the flight…even though we had one that got questioned about “duct tape” in her luggage.  “And what is this for” asked the customs agent.  “It’s my lint brush” the teen replied.  A couple sideways glances and questions with the supervisor, but the duct tape made it on flight AA603.

The first flight was “turbulent”… I mean really turbulent.  I was exhausted and don’t really mind flying so I slept through most of it, but when I woke up it was because of some massive shaking going on.  The teens (and adults) all handled it quite well and no one cried “mommy” or started crying out to God in tears… but it was rough.

Our connection was made in Dallas with little time to spare.  By the time we made it to our next flight they were already boarding, so we quickly  slipped onto our flight.  The landscape is definitely changing now.  The temperature is rising and grass is being replaced with – dirt…lots of dirt and desert barren looking areas.  This flight was smooth as silk and within 1 hour and 15 minutes we were back on the ground and picking up our luggage.  Well most of us were picking up our luggage.  Both Grace and Paul are presently short a bag.  The airline assures us that we will have it by tonight and at the latest tomorrow.  I hope that is right.

We stopped for lunch and arrived here at BPS at about 1:30 local time (3:30pm in Simcoe) and some of the teens and sponsors took the opportunity to get a good rest before supper at 6:00pm.  Some of the teens now are enjoying the games room with ping pong and foosball.  After supper they will be taking us up into the mountains that surround the dessert area here for a time of prayer to ask God to put his hand on our week.  Please continue to pray for us as we seek to see lives changed as we see God work here in this area.

All because of Him,

Pastor Eagles

Day #2

Today was a fantastic “prep day” for getting ready and situated for our ministry tomorrow in Mexico.  We got up this morning to a lovely breakfast and headed to a American church about 5-10 minutes from here.  The church people gave us a good dose of “Southern hospitality” and we had a fantastic time with them here this morning.  The church was kind, laid back, and it was interesting to see the whole service being translated from English to Spanish so that the Spanish folks were able to understand the message.  Hector, the translator for the church, as well as our bus driver is kind and extremely efficient in his work.  He is almost operating as our guide getting us in and out of Mexico.

After the morning service, we came back here to a roast turkey dinner.  I know… suffering for Jesus on the missions field.  It was excellent.   We took a short rest and at 3:30 brother Jack Jarvis sat down with us and gave us some orientation about different things to expect as we traveled in Mexico.  You can definitely  tell he has done this a few times before and explained to us very well some things to and not to across the border in Mexico.

BPS is about 30-40 minutes from the border and we boarded the bus after orientation and headed for our first across the border trip into Mexico for the evening service.  About 5 minutes before we crossed, Hector challenged us all to pray that the border crossing would be smooth.  It has been a constant challenge to our teens so far to make prayer a consistent part of their missions trip.  God gave us an extremely smooth border crossing which was a blessing!

As soon as you cross the border there is a definite difference.  Homes immediately are smaller, less cared for, and as you go father away from the border our teens stared dumbfounded out of the windows in silence at the poverty of the people that live in Mexico.  It is impossible to explain, but I am challenged once again to appreciate with sincere gratitude what God has given us in our country.  I know I can easily speak for the rest of the group when I say they feel the same.

The people at the Mexican church were extremely friendly and all made a point to shake each one of our hands.  I know it was a small church, but I am sure in the course of the evening I shook each Mexican hand twice because they were so polite and appreciative of the fact that we were there.

After the service we loaded up and headed back across the border.  Things went well again and we came back here for supper.  Supper ended up being a little late.  We were all plenty hungry and ready for supper.  I am so thankful the bus always has good drinking water available and we all are constantly drinking water to try and cope with the intense heat.  I was told it was over  37 degrees Celsius today… and may get hotter this week.  Monday – Wednesday are all calling for a high of 39 degrees so it looks like this trip is going to be a scorcher.  Thanks for your support and comment on the page.  I will share them with the teens tomorrow morning.

God is working, Pastor Eagles

Day #3

What a fantastic day.  God really blessed and lives (including ours) were eternally changed.  In the morning we woke up, prepared for the day and met together in small groups to ask the Lord to bless our day.  We had a wonderful breakfast and then had a short service in which Pastor Cole from the church we visited on Sunday challenged us to be people who succeed for God.  After the message we headed out to the print shop to put together the John & Romans that we would be passing out in Mexico that afternoon.  I was seriously impressed with the operation they have here.  It is extremely efficient and is able to produce a great number of printed material to send into Mexico every year.  Mr. Jarvis told us the average piece of Christian literature is read by 7 people.  We worked away on those John and Romans and New Testaments until lunch at 1pm.  After lunch we took the traditional Mexican siesta (praise the Lord!).  I think all the teens needed it.  Our first day of traveling was beginning to catch up with them.  At 3pm we met and we challenged by a missionary here to Mexico to realize that God has a purpose and plan for each one of us being here and to make sure that we learn what God has for us during this trip.

Off to Mexico and boy is it hot!  The teens are all taking it in stride although we need to constantly remind them to drink a lot of water and wear their sunscreen.  We met with the Mexican church that we are assisting and were separated into groups to canvass the neighborhood around the park where we would be having the meeting.

We began inviting people at about 5:30 for the meeting at 7:30 and people started coming.  Hector and brother Jarvis strapped loudspeakers to the roof of their van and paraded down the streets in the neighborhoods with puppets getting the children in the area excited about what was happening.

By about 7:15 the park was really starting to fill up and people were coming from everywhere.  I think we were all in a little bit of disbelief.  I mean you invite people and they really come.  I mean people doors we had knocked on just 30 minutes ago showed up and we eager to listen to the message.  It was fantastic!

I was so proud of our teens.  Although basically none of them are really comfortable with the Spanish language they threw in everything they could to be a blessing to the people that were there.  They played with kids on the play ground, played soccer and just made themselves useful in the ministry that was before them.  I know you would have been proud of them.

In short by about 7:45 between 230-250 had packed into that park and were listening to the puppet show.  Brother Hector really got the children and parents involved and it was exciting to see God working in the hearts of those people.  At the end of the presentation, Hector preached a simple gospel message while a young man by the name of Sam did a chalk drawing to illustrate the choice between heaven and hell.  After the message around 20-25 adults accepted Christ as Saviour during the meeting.  Some of the teens were crying and it was really a blessing to me personally to see the impact it had on them.

We have now just arrived back at BPS and are all extremely excited and tired all at the same time.  Many of the teens fell asleep on the way home and the rest are quickly drifting off know.  We praise the Lord for a fruitful day and look forward to what He is going to do in hearts tomorrow.

Pastor Eagles

Day #4

Our hearts are encouraged once again as we consider what God has done with today!  We got up about about 7am this morning and met for prayer together as our group to pray together that God would bless our efforts in the ministry that He had for us.  After breakfast we had a morning service together.  Pastor Lamb from the church in San Antonio, Texas that is with us this week challenged us to be involved in Battling and Building in new territory for Christ.  After the service, we headed out again to the print shop to put together New Testaments to hand out during the afternoon.  We spent the morning in there and accomplished quite a bit.  In the two days we have been in the print shop we have had the opportunity to put together over 3,000 John & Romans and over 6,000 New Testaments.  It is a blessing and many of the teens are continually asking, “I wonder how many people will be saved from reading what we put together?”.  After lunch and our wonderful Mexican Siesta (some things about fitting into the culture ain’t quite so bad),  we met again for a service and were challenged to full surrender by Pastor Cole.

At about 4pm, we boarded the bus with prayerful hearts curious as to what would happen for another evening.  To explain how our ministry is working, we met with the church we were helping in Juarez on the first Sunday night we were here.  Each of these evenings afterwards, we have been setting up evangelistic meetings in parks that are in close proximity to the church.  Each evening we are in slightly a different area, but each close to that local church ministry.  That way the church is able to follow up with contacts that have made a decision to accept Christ.

By 5pm we were out passing out John & Romans and inviting people to the evening meeting at 7:30pm.  This was a different neighborhood than we had been in the night before, but we had a much similar reception.  The teens boys were just plain thrilled about how people would take the literature.  They would stand on the sides of the street and lift up the Bible for people to take it they would like.  9 out of 10 cars (and buses) actually stopped and would take the scripture and thank your for it.

People piled in from all over at 7:30-7:45 and we had a great meeting.  I think we had more people than last night and many people trusted Christ.  I think somewhere in the neighborhood of 30-35.   I know it is a good problem, but there are so many it is very difficult to count.  What a blessing!  It is just absolute amazing to be standing there in the “mob” of people as so many bow their heads and verbally accept Christ as Saviour and then are willing to raise their hands in front of everyone else that they have made that decision.  What a thrill as a Christian to receive such a reception.

During the pictures you will see some shots of the girls giving out candy to the kids after the service.  They were swarmed!  I mean a few of them look pretty scared when all the kids came running and I can understand.  Brother Hector announced that there was candy and a sea of kids came running at them.  It was like a cattle stampede 🙂

Our trip home was beautifully calm and basically uneventful.  It was actually probably the smoothest boarding crossing we have had so far, so we thank the Lord for that.

Tomorrow morning we are spending all day in Mexico and having both a noon meeting and an evening meeting.  Please continue to pray that God will work in many hearts and that we will see many more trust Christ as Saviour.

Day #5

It is an exciting thing to watch how Christians respond to answered prayer.  Some honestly and dumbfounded, while others show the thrill explicitly on their faces, and others…well at times just cry.

I wish I could explain to all those reading this entry what has happened in hearts today.  Thank you in an unbelievable way for all of your prayers.  I know that what has happened has been because of many of you keeping us continually before God’s mighty throne.

Today was different in that we are having our last full day of ministry.  Today instead of just doing one service, we left BPS right after breakfast headed to Mexico and had a service at 12noon.  Because we did a service at noon, it was extremely hot.  Brother Jarvis said that if we didn’t provide some shade, many people would not be willing to sit out in the sun for a service.  In order to have a service BPS provided a 35×35 foot tarp.  The teens grabbed the edges and others held poles in the middle to create a tent for people to get under to get shelter from the sun.  We started inviting people after 11am, but believe it or not we still had for that first service over 150 in attendance.  It was a thrill to see many adults and children once again trust Christ.  Somewhere between 15-20 made this life altering decision.

After the service, we headed to the church that we are helping here in Mexico for lunch.  The people from BPS had brought lunch over that morning and we sat down by about 1:30 for a great meal.  Afterwards we took some time to celebrate Paul’s birthday in “Mexican style” (which you will see from the pictures).   It was a great time and the Mexican children waited on the sidelines like birds of prey waiting for their chance at the candy once the piñata fell.

The service in the evening was a night to remember… unbelievable.  What an answer to prayer.  We had been inviting people since about 5:30 for the evening service at 7:30.  At about 7:00pm we notice a huge dust storm starting in the distance.  I have to be honest… I started getting kind of nervous.  Would we be able to have the meeting?  Brother Jarvis came to me and to Pastor Lamb from the other church and asked us to get our groups together to pray.  It was an amazing experience.  The wind came through with the dust just howling with the dust…until 7:25 and then the storm just settled.  I am serious.  I don’t think I have ever seen anything like it.  The storm throughout the evening was on both sides of us.  In one of the later pictures you will be able to see the storm raging with thunder and lightning and obvious rain behind the bus… but the area that we were it was clear and calm without reason.  We had out best service yet.  Almost 300 people were out for the ministry and more people than I could possibly count raised their hands that they had accepted Christ as Saviour.

We left from the meeting absolutely encouraged.  We had seen God work in supernatural way where the only explanation was, “God did that”…”Did you see what happed…Did you see what God did”.  I saw many teens in tears…I had a few myself with just the awesomeness of the moment seeing God work!  Thank you for your prayers.  God has touched many lives on this trip.  We are excited about how God will use this in our hearts in the future.

Pastor Eagles

Day #6

We had an enjoyable day today as we wrapped up our ministry and saw some of the sights of Juarez.  Shortly after breakfast, we met together for testimonies about what God had done during our trip to Mexico.  It was an extremely encouraging time.  Basically all of the teens gave testimony as to what God had challenged their hearts with throughout the week.  It was such a challenge to hear about how their lives had been challenged through what they had seen and through the Word of God.  It is my prayer that when we return, that we will be able to do some testimonies on Sunday night so you can hear for yourself what God did in the hearts of our teens.  I know it would be an extreme encouragement to your hearts.  In all honesty, I wish all of you could be here to experience a trip like this.  If you are ever given the opportunity…I would encourage you to jump at the chance.

After the testimony time, we had lunch and headed to the Mexican market.  Before we went into the market, we took the time to pass out a ton of John & Romans through the busy part of town and park.  It was definitely a busy time and we enjoyed being able to put the Word of God into people’s hand.

The Mexican market was well…interesting.  If you are a haggler you would have loved it.  Brother Jarvis warned us beforehand, “The quoted price is never the actual price.  If you can get them to 40%-50% off then you are doing ok.”  It was enjoyable…if you like that kind of thing.  I really enjoyed seeing the teens playing hardnosed trying to get a good bargain.  It was interesting.

We headed back to the US and had our most “interesting” boarding crossing as of yet.  One of the teens from the other group decided to buy a couple of knives which the American government was not too happy with.  The funny thing was, the crossing guard thought he was with me… which I tried fervently to deny.  The crossing guard would have none of it and he pulled me up through the line and proceeded give me a good dressing down about allowing my group to bring in contraband knives and fake Rolex watches.

We came back for the evening and had supper at about 7pm (we were delayed because of the border).  After the meal we had one last service together with Brother Jarvis.  It has been such a blessing to get a perception of his heart this week.  He has really impressed me as a man of faith and perseverance in the work of the Lord.  He loves to “brag on God” and I have loved hearing the many stories he has experienced simply trusting God to meet every need and conquer each challenge in his ministry and in his life.

We were all challenged and look forward to being with you again.  We leave tomorrow afternoon and will be excited to see you all  again soon.

Pastor Eagles