A Very Busy (But Amazing) Last Week of Ministry

Last week we kept pushing forward with our last full week of regular ministry during the DTS Outreach. We did quite a few different types of ministry throughout the week. One day we made arroz con leche (a rice-pudding type of dish) and brought it to a small community of homeless people who live right down the street from us. That gave us the opportunity to really just take some time and talk to them about what they were doing on the street, what their lives were like, and talk to them about the Gospel.
Another day during the week Uriel (also known as Figuritz) came to the base to go out and do some ministry with us. Uriel was staff at the last base that was planted in Mexico City before ours and has since closed. Now Uriel devotes himself to bringing joy to peoples' hearts through his clown ministry. So he came to our base and taught us quite a bit about his work and then helped us get on our makeup and outfits so we could go out to an orphanage and talk to the kids about Christ and just play and spend time with them as clowns ourselves. That was some of the most fun I have had in a while!
Finally on Friday the other Outreach team that went to Haiti met back up with us here in Mexico City. It is amazing to have them back! So they joined us as we joined an Outreach team from YWAM Guadalajara who were working with YWAM Pachuca ministering to the homeless and to prostitutes out on the streets here in Mexico City. It was a great time for us to feel united as a YWAM family as people from YWAM CMC, YWAM Guadalajara, YWAM Pachuca, and even people from YWAM Costa Rica who were working with them all joined together. That was an amazing day to feel the unity we all have in Christ!
To top off the week on Saturday we went a little outside the city to do a youth event for a church which a friend of ours from YWAM Chile who is in the city for now set up for us. When we got there we found out that the event was in a party hall. When I sat down and talked with the youth I found out it had to be in the party hall because there wasn't allowed to be parties, food, or really very much fellowship inside their church because they come from a very conservative church. But we had an amazing time with those youth as we shared dramas, testimonies, a message, and worship with them. I believe we made an impact on them and that they made an impact on us as well.

Happy Signs of Love

Last week was more or less a normal week here. We have developed a sort of rhythm to how the weeks go here at YWAM CMC. During a normal week we will take two days out of the week to simply work on things for the base such as buying things we need for the apartments, fund-raising, general upkeep and maintenance, and general set up as we are still relatively new here. Then we spend the rest of the working days of the week doing some sort of ministry outside of the base. Last week we did a ministry we like to call, "happy signs of love" where we make signs with messages such as, "smile," "be free," and "I love you." I had the sign that said, "smile." So we got our signs and took to the streets. As we walked along at first I got some bad looks and comments, but as we went oin it seemed like people took really well to it! Each time someone would walk by I would give them a big smile and they would almost inevitably smile back. Giving and receiving so many smiles you cannot help but to be happy! It was actually a very relaxing and uplifting time and a good break from the hard work we have been doing to establish this base. Also, although we didn't share the gospel outright the people I think we really did some good. Some people did get asked questions and were able to share a more in depth message with people, but I believe that all of us accomplished a purpose. Living in a city like this people can get very wary of people and actually depressed, just walking around, not talking to people and not seeing much hope. So sharing a message of hope and happiness can really change peoples' attitudes and make them much happier. I also felt like going out and doing this ministry was a way of us coming out as a base and saying to the city that we are here. And we are not here to condemn or shove religion down peoples' throats, but we are here simply to love people.

Making a home

The last couple weeks have been full of blessings and challenges. The first week after my last blog post our base director, Chris, got a call from the director of the Mazatlan base asking him if he could go on a pastoral care visit for the team that is on Outreach in Haiti. So that week the rest of the staff team were able to practice our leadership skills as we were in charge of leading the team in all the normal things we do as a base and as a school. That week was good in a lot of ways and also challenging at the same time. It was a bit difficult to take on the weight of what Chris has been carrying as our leader and this put some stress on us as staff, but we also grew as a team during that week. Needless to say, we were grateful when he came back. The next week we continued with the work we have been doing to set up the new base here in the city. We have been pushing to try and get donations of what we need for the base and it has been coming in, at times slowly and at other times all at once. We still need a few more things, like a living room set with couches and a table, a few more storage units such as shelves and dressers, and some other things to make our new base more comfortable. Though we still need a lot, we have really come a long way in furnishing our new home in only a couple short weeks. Thank you so much for your financial and prayer support!