Last Friday we left our temporary base at Jerusalem church in Mexcio City to go with the church on an outreach trip the church takes about every other week to another state called Michoacan. The place where we went in Michoacan was a rather poor, rural area where we worked in some pueblos(villages) called Aguacate, Tuxpan, and Fresnos. These are very small, farming villages in the mountains, and the culture is very different from the much if the rest of Mexico and definitively different from that of Mexcio City! The culture is extremely hospitably and very slow paced, which was a great break from the city life. I got to experience this hospitable culture firsthand because I got the opportunity to go on house visits for most of the day on Saturday. The people there were so kind, accepting us into their houses, feeding us from their meager amounts of food, and really treating us as family. During the house visits we got the opportunity to encourage a lot of people from the local Church, but I really felt encouraged as well. I also got the opportunity during the house visits to lead worship for a man who was housebound with alzheimers. On Sunday morning we split into two groups, with both groups going to different churches in the villages and one person Preqching from each group. My group went to a church that was held on someone's front porch with an amazing view of the mountains, then afterwards we were invited to go to someone's house for a great, traditional Mexican meal. Overall it was a really great weekend and a great ministry opportunity!

Mexico City: Week One (and a half)

Well, I've now officially been on Outreach since last Wednesday and it has really been a blessing so far! We took a 14 hour-long bus ride to get here on Tuesday night and we arrived Wednesday morning. The whole DTS came and stayed with us here in Mexico City for a few days so that people could see the city and maybe catch a heart for it and decide to help launch the YWAM Base that my school leader is planting at the end of this year. The first few days we mainly just took it easy and did what I would call some "missionary sight-seeing" which includes praying over the city wherever we go. At one point we were outside of a castle in the city and the Lord opened up an opportunity for us to somewhat hijack a clown's street performance and do a drama and share the Gospel in front of a huge crowd that was watching him. Since the Central America team left we have been going at a pretty good pace, which has included things like putting on a couple childrens' programs, doing evangelism around the church we are staying at, and doing dramas and evangelism at a celebration of Saint Judas Tadeo where tons of young people go to worship the saint and get high off of inhalants (which by the way was a great success!) It has been so amazing to see how God has been using this Outreach up to this point. He has been moving in some huge ways! I can't wait to see how He is going to move in the rest of this time!