Wednesday, 28 May 2008

• WEDNESDAY - SHORT TERM MISSIONS "OPERATION MEXICO"
  
       A team of 10 soldiers got together to take a little mission trip to Tecate, Mexico.  Our goal was simple, build a playground.  But like any mission trip the reward far outweighed the goal.  Many go to missions to help and aid those who need it in some way or another but instead we get rocked by God's work with His people in unfortunate places.  In this case, our location was a trash dump.  I'm not just describing the place, it's an actual trash dump.  There were several hundred families living there in houses made of scrap pieces of wood and metal.  We found out about the place through Elder Shim who knew Pastor Diego.  Pastor Diego is a great man of God.  People with great faith intrigues me.  This man drives to Tecate, Mexico every single Thursday from Orange County to help them out.  He loves God, he loves people, and he loves helping people to love God.
  
       Here in the U.S., we can get a hamburger anytime we want.  A hamburger is about a dollar... dollar fifty?  Well, in Tecate, Mexico, they have to gamble their options to have one hamburger a year.  Pastor Diego knowing this goes every Thursday to cook over 200 hamburgers for those families living at the trash dump.  Pastor Diego had another Pastor with him that serves with him.  I serve at a church called Fullerton Presbyterian Church (FPC).  So the soldiers that went were Pastor Diego, Pastor (I forgot his name), Elder Shim, Mr. Chung, Pastor Chung, Doos Teacher, Gene, Tim, Richard, and myself.  Before going to the trash dump, we stopped by the Mission Center to meet up with Pastor Salvador.  Pastor Salvador oversees the trash dump as well as several other poverty-stricken locations. 
  
       At the trash dump, there's a small space of cement that another church has laid down in order to make a basketball court but for one reason or another it never got completed.  So, we decided to build a playground on top of the cement instead.  Not only that, right next to is a ditch that is in danger of kids falling into so another goal was to build a fence.  When we arrived at the trash dump, some of the men living there worked on the film and we worked on the playground.  We started at 9:30 and we figured we would be done at 12 noon.  Well... by the time 12 noon came about we only had the foundation of the playground done.  This wasn't a playset that had huge plastic pieces that fit together but a whole bunch of pieces of wood.  It was pretty crazy!  Also, we only had one drill O_O.  So how long did it take us to finish the whole playground?  We started at 9:30 a.m.... and finished at 7:30 p.m. 
  
       The kids there were pretty... well, well-behaved.  There were some kids that waited the whole 10 hours for the playground to be finished.  But man, their smiles were a mile wide when we finished it.  They loved it so much that they broke one of them!  It's not a big deal, it was just a metal bar on a teeter-totter set that can be easily fixed. 
  
       One thing that I noticed while reflecting on the trip was how cool it was for God to allow FPC to exercise its identity as a church.  we had members from high school to adulthood working together in one mind and one accord.  It didn't matter on age, culture, social status, or language.  We were all there unwilling to leave at 12 noon.  We were all there looking at the unfinished project with a desire to finish before going back home to our comfortable lives.  It was a really cool experience and I am forever grateful for God to use us in that way.
  
       This was our first time doing this so we asked only for strong men to go but thinking about it, I think females can go as well.  While working, I saw things that didn't require heavy physical labor that could have gone on.  I'm pretty sure that we will be going back.  It's less than 4 hours away driving.  What's stopping us!  I mean, it was fun.  Serving is fun.  And it's just a great reminder of our identity in Christ.  It doesn't cost thousands of dollars, it's not oversea.  Opportunities for mission's all around us!  It's across the street, around the corner, next city over, our neighbors, family members, etc. 

  "In a civilization like ours, I feel that everyone has to come to terms with the claims of Jesus Christ upon his life, or else be guilty of inattention or of evading the question."
  -C.S. Lewis

       God Bless and Gud9ite (Pictures to come soon)
  

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